Li Wenrui, 37, was born on February 10, 1963. His citizen ID number was 230102630210101. He graduated from the Department of Dynamics Engineering of the renowned Harbin Industrial University. He was a marketing manager at the Harbin City Bureau of Foreign Trade, highly respected as a dynamic and capable leader.
Minghui had previously reported on how he was nearly beaten to death by the local police at the Harbin Second Detention Center. The following is an excerpt of that earlier report, which was published on August 31, 2000:
Li Wenrui, a practitioner from Harbin, went to Beijing on July 9, 2000 to appeal to the government on behalf of Falun Dafa. He was arrested on Tiananmen Square. On July 11, he was sent back to Harbin and detained at the Daoli Police Station. There, he held a hunger strike, urging the government to release all detained practitioners unconditionally. He also continued to perform the Falun Gong exercises while under detention. The police put him on the list of people who should receive the harshest "treatment". As a result, he was repeatedly beaten and tortured by the police. He was barely alive when the police finally let his family take him back home. He was skeletally thin, and his face was almost unrecognizable from the beatings that he had endured. When one person asked him what his name was, he was so weak that that person had to put his ear next to Mr. Li's mouth in order to hear anything. That person said that he could only hear a few broken words, and the only thing that he could make out was 'Dafa,' and that maybe Li had meant to say 'Dafa Practitioner.'
He first started practicing Falun Gong in 1996, and used to be a volunteer assistant at the Anjing practice site in Harbin, where he was known as a diligent cultivator. The winter in Harbin is extremely brutal, and the temperature often drops below 22 F (-30 C). He would perform the sitting meditation outside of his home for two hours everyday, regardless of the weather conditions. He also memorized Zhuan Falun from beginning to end.
He was brave and fearless in jail after he was sent back to Harbin from Beijing. The police tried to force him to sign a statement against Falun Gong and put his fingerprints next to the signature. He not only refused to do that, but also refused to answer any questions from the police. He did not eat any food or drink any water for nine days, using his life to declare that Falun Dafa and its practitioners are innocent. As a result, the police ferociously beat him and ended up breaking four of his ribs. He was barely alive when the police released him on medical parole. He did not receive any medical treatment but was able to make a miraculous recovery in less than one week.
On November 6, 2000, he went to Beijing again. A few days later, the police notified his family that he had passed away in Beijing. On November 11, 2000, a few members of his family and a number of his coworkers traveled to Beijing. They arrived in Beijing at 10:30 AM, and met with the Harbin officials on the 8th floor of the Jingbin Hotel where there is a local provincial office to Beijing. During the meeting, the Harbin Bureau of Public Security handed his employer, Harbin Bureau of Foreign Trade, an official document on his case. The following is an excerpt:
"The Beijing Police Bureau arrested a group of Falun Gong practitioners, including Mr. Li Weirui, on November 7, 2000. Li was transported to the Mentougou Police Station. When the police asked him why he came to Beijing, Li replied: I came here to ask the central government to admit that the suppression of Falun Gong was wrong, withdraw the arrest warrant for Teacher Li, release all detained Falun Dafa practitioners, and legalize the Falun Dafa practice! At the end of the session, Mr. Li refused to sign a written record of the interrogation."
He left this world in the early morning hours of November 8. No one knows what kind of torture that Li had endured in the last hours of his life. The police claimed that he had committed suicide by jumping out of the building where he was being held. His family refused to believe that explanation. He phoned home a couple of days before his death, asking what kind of toys that his daughter would like so that he could buy them for her in Beijing. How could a person who loves life so much suddenly commit suicide? In addition, even if he had decided to commit suicide, how could he leap out of the building when there were two guards assigned to watch him at all times? How could he so easily walk from the big room where he was being held to a small room and then smash its window before jumping out? He would not have the time to do all that. He was a highly educated person and a member of the Communist Party. It is a well-known fact that he was a good person, a good employee, and a devoted family man. He was a very rational person, and had never made any extreme statements or committed any extreme deeds in the past. That is why his family finds the suicide claim so hard to believe.
His body was cremated in Beijing's Mentougou Funeral Home at 3:00 PM on November 12, 2000. Wearing his white jacket that was still covered with his bloodstains, he seemed to have used his life to make the statement of "Falun Gong practitioners are willing to sacrifice our lives to protect the Dafa because it is sacred, revered and should not be persecuted."
A few days after his death, while doing the sitting meditation, a practitioner clearly saw him teaching the Fa (Great Law) at a shining podium to many beings...
Hot line for filing a complaint to the Governor of Helongjiang Province (0451) 12345
Hot line for filing a complaint to the Mayor of City of Harbin (0451) 4612345
Falun Dafa Practitioner
November 26, 2000