Detailed course of Zhao JinHua’s death from brutal beating

The local police substation in the town of ZhangXingZhen arrested five practitioners of Falun Gong. They were:

1) Zhao JinHua from the Zhao village in ZhangXingZhen,

2)Wang FengLan from the Yu village in ShiDuiTou,

3)Ma YuFeng from XiaoJiaJia

4)Zhan KeYun from HeYa village, and

5)Wang HaoHong who worked for a barbershop in the town.

Zhao JinHua, Ma YuFeng and Zhan KeYun were arrested when they were working on their farms. Wang HaoHong was arrested in her barbershop. Wang FengLan was arrested at her home. All five of them after being arrested were detained in a room. A group of public security personnel told them to squat down on the ground and read books that denounced Falun Gong. They would beat them if they refused to read or read not so loudly. They hit practitioners' faces and head with their hands, and kicked them. The torture lasted for an entire afternoon. On the afternoon of September 29, Wang HaoHong was transferred to the detention center in ZhaoYuan city. The rest of them were not allowed to sleep that night. As soon as they fell asleep they would get beaten. It lasted the entire evening. On the night of October 1, a little after 8 oclock, while the four practitioners were practicing the meditation exercise, the deputy directory of the local police substation came with a bunch of other people. The person on duty that night reported their practice. These people grabbed the four practitioners by their hair and punched and kicked them. They also hit the practitioners with rubber clubs. Zhao JinHua and Wang FengLan who were still on the ground took most of the beating. They struck Wang FengLan a few times with the club and then wrapped her up with a telephone cord to torture her with an electric prod until she fell to the ground and lost consciousness. They hit Zhao JinHua with a rubber club, then dragged her to the office and tortured her with an electric prod. They kept asking her if she would stop practicing as she was being tortured, the answer was always No!" So they continued to spin the telephone handle. Three times Zhao JinHua lost consciousness. This was witnessed by Wang FengLan. Then they told the four practitioners to stand on the concrete ground bare foot. Zhao JinHua leaned against the wall and could hardly stand up; her face was wax yellow. She fell down with her eyes closed; the other three helped her up. At that moment the local police substation sent Zhao JinHua to ZhangXing hospital for emergency treatment. After a female doctor on duty gave her an injection, she was taken back to the police substation. Zhao JinHua said she felt pressure in her chest, the right side of her body felt numb with a lot of pain all over. There was blood in her urine, pain in both of her legs, and she was unable to eat. Her whole buttock was black and blue from the waist down. Wang FengLan, Zhan KeYun and Ma YuFeng all saw this, the personnel in the police substation OdaFu, Fu ShaoXing witnessed this too. The police substation did not take any action to help her. At 4 oclock in the afternoon of October 7th when Zhao JinHua tried to go to the rest room she fell right after she got out of the door. The other three practitioners came to help her but failed to get her up. She asked for it. A person in the police substation named Bing HuaChun said. She wet her pants when she was pulled up. The police substation sent her to the emergency room at ZhangXing hospital, the other three practitioners went along. When the doctor attempted to do an electrocardiogram, Zhao JinHua couldnt lie down, she said she had difficulty breathing. She stopped breathing while doing the electrocardiogram. Oxygen was later administered but it was too late.

Zhao JinHua had no illnesses; four years of Falun Gong practice made her very healthy. Her husband worked at a gold mine, and could not spare any time to do housework. Zhao JinHua handled all the work on the farm and at home. This is known in her neighborhood. She was tortured to death because of her firm belief in Falun Gong. 5 oclock in the afternoon, the hospital notified the family, the police substation did not notify them. They just sent the other three people back to the police substation. The public security personnel and the local government prepared a report that described how well they attempted to save Zhao JinHua, and asked the other practitioners to sign it. The practitioners asked why the brutal beatings were not mentioned in the report, they responded that they would consider that later on. The next day, the security department and the judicature came to investigate the situation. The practitioners told them what had happened. Zhao JinHuas body was sent to ZhaoYuan Peoples Hospital on the 7th where the medical examiner did the autopsy. The autopsy report showed that except the head, there were multiple wounds on her body. Within the range of 120 x 60 millimeter there was subcutaneous bleeding. The report concluded that beating with a blunt object caused the death of Zhao JinHua. The authorities were afraid of leaking out the truth about Zhaos death, so they didnt release the other three practitioners. At night they had to share only one bed. In the ten days prior to Zhao JinHuas death they were not allowed to lie down day and night. They were detained in such conditions for 45 days. They suffered from arrest and detention without any legal procedures. A person from the local government named Jia HongJu told them to write a testimony but didnt allow them to tell the truth. If they refused to comply they would have suffered from beatings and electric shocks to their bodies. They were also forced to say that Zhao JinHua died from myocardial infarction. The three practitioners were finally released on November 12th.

The entire city reacted strongly to Zhaos death, but the official propaganda distorted the truth by stating the cause for the death was myocardial infarction. Furthermore, various measures were taken to prevent the news from leaking out such as prohibiting Falun Gong practitioners from traveling, or contacting Zhaos family members. Some Falun Gong practitioners in ZhaoYuan City found out about this news. They felt it was not fair that the personal safety of those who practice to be good people was not guaranteed. So some reported the incident directly to the central government and the municipal government; some wrote jointly signed appeal letters to related government offices; some went to the hospital to say goodbye to a fellow practitioner. On October 7th, the 20 some practitioners who went to see Zhaos body in the evening at the hospital were all blocked from entering by the public security personnel. Those who went the next day were all locked under the pretense of "causing trouble." During their detention, they were asked about how they found out about Zhaos death; who told them. Among the detainees were Chen ShiHuan, Li ChaoXia, Chen ShuHua, Yuan YiGong and Wang CuiYong. Because of this, Chen ShiHuan was accused of organizing, plotting and instigating Falun Gong activities, and was sent to Wang Village town Second Labor Education Center of Zhou Village district in ZiBo, Shandong for 3 years of labor education. Li LanYing, who just told the truth about Zhaos death to Liu JinLing from the city of ShenZhen, was charged with fabricating false examples of government prosecution of Falun Gong; trumping up petition materials; and making connections to spread the news to the outside. She received 3 years of labor education. Liu JinLing from ShenZhen also, because of this incident, was detained as a criminal offender for as long as 37 days by the department of public security of ZhaoYuan city. Later she was transferred to ZhaoYuan city and locked up in LuoFeng local police station in an underground detention room. In October of the Chinese traditional lunar calendar, according to the local tradition, people pay respects to the dead by visiting their graves. Seven fellow practitioners went to Zhao JinHuas cemetery to express their grief, but they were all illegally arrested and detained. Their children bailed out the two old women, Wang and Jiang among the seven. Zhang Ying, Su Yu, Ding JuShan, Yu XiuJuan were detained for 25 days because they refused to write a statement of repentance. Detention for visiting a grave to honor the memory of the dead is something unheard of. Zhang Ying and Zhang Yong were expelled from their jobs because of this.