(Minghui.org) A Dazhu County, Sichuan Province resident was taken to the Jiazhou Prison on July 31, 2021, to serve a 7.5-year term for his faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Wang Haiqian, a 59-year-old former teacher, was targeted in a group arrest on July 27, 2019. He was sentenced to 7.5 years with a 50,000-yuan fine by the Dazhu County Court on December 29, 2020. He appealed with the Dazhou City Intermediate Court, which ruled to uphold his original verdict.
Past Persecution
Mr. Wang used to suffer sinusitis, gastritis, neurosis and Hepatitis B. He had very poor sleep and was always exhausted. In August 1996, his wife introduced Falun Gong to him. After he took up the practice, his conditions gradually disappeared.
After the communist regime initiated the persecution in 1999, Mr. Wang was arrested multiple times for upholding his faith. He almost died while serving a two-year labor camp term.
Two Years of Forced Labor
On the evening of July 20, 1999, the day the persecution started, Mr. Wang was arrested at home and detained for two days. After he returned home, the Domestic Security Office ordered him to write a statement to renounce Falun Gong and turn it in to their office. The police also arrested hundreds of local practitioners, held them in the village government, and ordered each of them to write a statement to renounce Falun Gong. If they didn’t write it, they would be detained.
In November 1999, Mr. Wang went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong, only to be arrested and taken back to Dazhu County. While held at the Chuandong Prison, he was placed in solitary confinement and forced to sit on a cold stone stool and “reflect on his mistake” all day long. He was given very little food during the time.
Mr. Wang was transferred to the Dazhu County Detention Center in January 2000. On the second day, the guards tied him and other practitioners up, hung a big poster board on each of their necks, pushed them onto a truck and then took them around town for a humiliation parade.
Reenactment of humiliation parade
Mr. Wang was given a two-year term at the Dayan Forced Labor Camp in Ziyang City in April 2000. He was forced to do a variety of unpaid labor, including picking cotton; making straw ropes, firecrackers, and light bulbs; growing vegetables, and raising fish. Even in the freezing winter, he was forced to stand in the fish tank wearing shorts to remove dead fish. When he was released in September 2001, he had systematic edema and was in a delirious state.
Continued Harassment, Surveillance and Detention in Brainwashing Center
The police continued to monitor Mr. Wang’s daily life and constantly harassed him after he was released. One time, the police broke in at midnight and searched his place.
Mr. Wang was once recorded by a surveillance camera while talking to a Falun Gong practitioner in a park. The next day, the police arrested and interrogated him. A similar incident happened another time when he met a practitioner, who had served time in the same labor camp with him, in a park. As they were talking, the police came, body searched him and interrogated him.
Mr. Wang was visiting a practitioner who had just been released from prison on August 22, 2004, when a group of police officers broke in and arrested them. He was detained for a month and interrogated.
A month later, Mr. Wang was taken to a brainwashing center and held there until January 2005.
He was arrested again around September 2007 and held in a brainwashing center until January 2008.
As he was walking on the street on November 24, 2010, a police officer grabbed his hair, dragged him down some stairs and took him to another brainwashing center. He wasn’t released until the school’s winter break started.
Related reports:
Six Sichuan Residents Sentenced to Prison for Practicing Falun Gong
Six Sichuan Residents Tried for Their Faith
Dazhu County, Sichuan Province: 26 Falun Gong Practitioners Arrested in One Day, 5 Remain in Custody
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Category: Accounts of Persecution
