The Bloody Debts of Jiang Zemin

(Minghui.org) Jiang Zemin is dead, but his heinous crimes against Falun Gong practitioners will not be forgotten. He mobilized the entire country, including law enforcement, the procuratorates, courts, other government agencies, businesses, and schools, to persecute practitioners. The damage he caused to countless practitioners and their families, as well as society as a whole, was unprecedented. 

When he initiated the persecution in July 1999, Jiang vowed to eradicate Falun Gong in three months and issued an order to “defame their [practitioners’] reputation, bankrupt them financially, and destroy them physically.” To intensify the persecution, he also issued a secret policy of “no consequences if [practitioners] are beaten to death. Torture death is counted as suicide. Send [the body] to be cremated directly—no need to verify [the practitioner’s] identity.”

To force Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their faith, the perpetrators resorted to all kinds of torture, maiming, driving insane, or even killing many innocent lives. Some practitioners were beaten to death, some died after being shocked with electric batons, some died when force-feeding tubes were inserted to their lungs, some were killed by injection of toxic substances, some were frozen to death, and some were injected with unknown drugs and died days after their release. 

Many families lost multiple members to the persecution, including a family of six that had five members killed. Moreover, a large number of practitioners became victims of forced organ harvesting and their bodies were cremated without their families’ knowledge as the authorities attempted to wipe out evidence of crimes against the practitioners. 

Jiang’s persecution of Falun Gong has become a major human rights disaster in the 21st century.

Falun Gong is a peaceful meditation system based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Twenty-three years into the persecution, Falun Gong is still thriving and now well accepted in over 100 nations. But the bloody debts Jiang owes to Falun Gong must be addressed.

Deaths Caused by Torture

Under instructions from Jiang and his extrajudicial 610 Office, law enforcement agencies, the procuratorates, and the courts were mobilized to arrest, indict, and sentence Falun Gong practitioners at will. 

Practitioners in detention were often tortured. “If you don’t give up [practicing Falun Gong], we will burn you up [cremate you]!” some police yelled at the practitioners they were torturing. 

Types of torture used on Falun Gong practitioners in prisons

Numerous torture methods were used to torture practitioners. They include beatings, electric shocks, drugging, mental abuse, forced-feeding, sleep deprivation, hanging, handcuffing, stretching, starvation, denying restroom use, stabbing with needles, restraint garments, forced abortion, tying up, corporal punishment, freezing, mutilating wounds, flogging, steaming, baking, burning, ironing, burning with boiling water or hot oil, dragging on the ground or up/down stairs, forcing the victim to sit or stand still for a long time, waterboarding, sexual abuse, solitary confinement, forced labor, and many more.

Each category of torture consists of multiple tactics. Hanging, for example, could be single-handcuffed hanging, double-handcuffed hanging, door frame hanging, iron wire hanging, iron ring hanging, stretching hanging, upside-down hanging, hanging up high, and so on. Similarly, handcuffing could be cuffing hands and feet together, cuffing both arms around legs, cuffing the arms behind the back, cuffing to a metal ring on the floor, cuffing to a bed frame with the limbs stretched for days (or longer), cuffing both thumbs together (with arms stretched around metal bars), handcuffing several people together, and so on. 

When hung up or handcuffed like this, practitioners were also given very little food and denied access to a toilet. There are about 100 torture methods documented by Minghui.org, and every one of them is capable of causing immeasurable pain and leading to disability or death. 

Examples of Torture

Due to the Chinese regime's information blockade and censorship, the scale and severity of the persecution could be much worse than what Minghui has been able to document. Nonetheless, the examples below will offer a glimpse of the torture that practitioners have endured for their belief. 

Forced administration of toxic substances

Falun Gong practitioners in detention were often subjected to involuntary drug administration. Some had unknown drugs added to their food and water, while others were given forced injections. 

Ms. Zhang Fuzhen, 38, was an employee of Xianhe Park in Pingdu City, Shandong Province. After going to Beijing in November 2000 to appeal for Falun Gong, she was arrested by agents from the Pingdu 610 Office. They removed all her clothes, shaved her hair, and tied her to a bed in a spread-eagle position. They then injected her with toxic drugs that caused her so much pain that she struggled uncontrollably until she died. Officials from the 610 Office watched her die right in front of them.

Burning with boiling water 

Besides detention centers, labor camps, and prisons, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials also set up a large number of brainwashing centers where practitioners were forced to study propaganda smearing Falun Gong and ordered to renounce their belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. These brainwashing centers were usually billed as “legal education centers,” when in fact they were essentially black jails where crimes were committed in secret. 

Mr. Gai Chunlin was a 51-year-old resident of Qingyuan County, Fushun City, Liaoning Province. On April 17, 2005, officers from the Fushun City Police Department, Qingyuan County Police Department, and the Nankouqian Police Station went to his home and arrested him. After holding Mr. Gai in the Nankouqian Police Station for five days, they sent him to the Fushun Police Department and then to Luotaishanzhuang Brainwashing Center. On May 6 that year, his family was notified that he had died of “heart disease.” 

When his family arrived to view the body, they saw that he was dressed in new clothes and asked how he had died. “My brother had been healthy with no history of heart disease. How could he die of heart disease?” his younger brother asked. But nobody answered. Seeing burns on Mr. Gai’s face and the right side of his chest, his family insisted on an autopsy. 

The results showed that Mr. Gai’s esophagus and lower gastrointestinal tract had been severely burned. Surface tissue came off at just the slightest touch, and even part of his heart had turned gray. The medical examiner concluded that Mr. Gai died of internal organ failure as a result of being force-fed boiling water. 

Shocking with electric batons

Electric shocks are one of the most commonly used means of torture used on Falun Gong practitioners. 

Since all legal channels to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong were blocked to practitioners in China, a group of practitioners in Changchun City, Jilin Province, intercepted the cable television signal in March 2002 and broadcast programs that debunked the CCP’s hate propaganda. 

Jiang was furious and gave an order to “kill with no mercy,” which led to the arrests of over 5,000 Changchun practitioners. Mr. Liu Haibo, one of those involved in the television signal interception, was tortured in Jingyuetan, Changchun. The police stripped him naked, forced him to kneel down, and inserted an electric baton through his anus to shock his internal organs. Mr. Liu, a 34-year-old physician, died only hours after his arrest.

Confining Clothes

Confining clothes

Another torture method is “confining clothes,” which are made of canvas. Put on from the front and tightened in the back, such clothes can cause fractures of the shoulders, wrists, elbows, and spine, and can even cause death.

Ms. Sun Shimei was a Falun Gong practitioner in her 40s from Xiangcheng City, Henan Province. Guards in Shibalihe Forced Labor Camp put her in the confining clothes on May 22, 2003. When they removed them the next day, she had died hours before and her body was cold. To cover up her death, the guards ordered drug offenders Feng Yanping and Fu Jinyu to carry Ms. Sun to a nearby hospital, where a doctor injected her with drugs as evidence of their “resuscitation” efforts. The labor camp officials then claimed Ms. Sun died of a sudden disease and rushed to have her cremated. 

Beating to death

Many practitioners were injured or died after brutal beatings. Mr. Chen Xiangrui, 29, was a practitioner in Hengyang City, Hunan Province. Because he refused to give up practicing Falun Gong, Lei Zhenzhong and other officers from the Hengyang Police Department beat Mr. Chen in the police department on March 11, 2003, using electric batons, a hammer, and rubber clubs. 

Mr. Chen died at Hengyang Central Hospital the next morning. He had a skull fracture, an intracranial hemorrhage, and damaged internal organs. In addition, his ribs, collarbone, and insteps were fractured. A total of 2,500 milliliters of blood was drawn from his abdominal cavity. 

The day after Mr. Chen’s death, the police took his parents, sister, brother-in-law, and other relatives to Jingyuan Hotel and ordered them to sign a consent form to have his body cremated. When they refused, they were held in the hotel until May 14, 2003. Over their objection, two truckloads of armed police officers escorted the body to the local crematory. 

Injected with unknown drugs

Xinjin Brainwashing Center in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, was notorious for abusing practitioners. Mr. Xie Deqing, 69, retired from the Chengdu Survey and Design Institute in Sichuan Province, was taken to Xinjin Brainwashing Center on April 29, 2009. 

He was injected with unknown drugs, which caused him to suffer severe chest pain and become incontinent. He also had difficulty drinking and swallowing. He soon became emaciated. Four days after Mr. Xie was released, he died on May 27, 2009. 

Mr. Xie once told his family that the brainwashing center sent him to a hospital to have a so-called physical exam. After doctors injected him with unknown drugs, he had difficulty eating and drinking for over 10 days. Before he passed away, he had symptoms of being poisoned – his hands turned black, as did his entire body. 

Force-feeding

Some practitioners went on a hunger strike to protest the illegal detention and torture. In response, however, the guards at various detention facilities brutally force-fed the practitioners as punishment. 

Mr. Qin Yueming, 47, lived in the Jinshantun District in Yichun City, Heilongjiang Province. Because he practiced Falun Gong, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. On February 25, 2011, four inmates in Jiamusi Prison held Mr. Qin’s arms and legs, while a fifth inmate pulled his tongue out with hemostatic forceps. They then inserted a tube into his mouth and force-fed him milk and salt. 

At that time, all the guards in the unit were present, including manager Yu Yifeng and prison doctor Zhao Wei. Yin Hongliang and another inmate inserted the force-feeding tube all the way into Mr. Qin’s lung. He screamed in pain and died the next morning. 

Stretching to death

Stretching is another torture method. Especially in northeast China, many prisons abused practitioners this way. 

Ms. Zhao Yanxia, 55, was retired from the Lishu County Environmental Protection Agency in Jilin Province. Because she practiced Falun Gong, she was sent to forced labor camps twice, for three years in total. After being arrested again in May 2011, she was sentenced to three and a half years in prison by the Lishu County Court. She was taken to Jilin Women’s Prison in September 2011 and held in the Educational Unit. 

Because Ms. Zhao did not give up her belief, the guards beat her, tied her up, hung her up, gave her no water, and denied her access to the toilet. Seeing that she was still determined in her faith, manager Zhang Shuzhen instructed inmates to stretch her four limbs in different directions as much as possible. As a result, Ms. Zhao became incontinent, but she was tortured the same way the next day.

Stretching torture

On October 5, 2011, the guards instructed inmates to torture Ms. Zhao by stretching her again. She died during the torture. To cover it up, manager Zhang Shuzhen told inmate Yang Hui to borrow a new set of clothes and put them on Ms. Zhao. They then took Ms. Zhao to the prison hospital to be “resuscitated” before announcing that she had died of a heart attack. 

Organ Harvesting Supply Chain

After forced organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners by the CCP was revealed in March 2006, more and more evidence surfaced, indicating that the crime had gone on for years and still continues. 

Jiang Zemin not only initiated the persecution in 1999, but also gave the order to carry out organ harvesting of detained Falun Gong practitioners. When Bo Xilai, then minister of commerce, visited Germany in September 2006, he admitted it was Jiang who issued the order to harvest Falun Gong practitioners’ organs. Bai Shuzhong, former minister of health for the Chinese People's Liberation Army's (PLA) General Logistics Department, also admitted in September 2014 that Jiang himself gave the order to harvest organs from Falun Gong practitioners. 

The CCP’s killing-on-demand was facilitated by a supply chain involving the 610 Office, law enforcement, military hospitals and other government agencies. Human rights experts referred to the systematic forced organ harvesting as “a new form of evil on this planet.” 

Because of censorship and the CCP’s practice of quick cremation, the full picture of organ harvesting has yet to be uncovered. But information obtained so far has confirmed this hideous crime. 

Ms. Hao Runjuan was a practitioner from the Baiyun District of Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province. She went to Beijing four times to appeal for Falun Gong and was arrested each time. After being tortured for 22 days in 2002, she died in Baiyun Detention Center in Guangzhou. 

When her family was notified to claim her body, they could not recognize her. Her internal organs were gone, her skin had been removed, and her eyes had disappeared. They saw only bones and muscle and fresh blood. Her family looked at the body twice and could not tell if it was Ms. Hao. In the end, they took her two-year-old son for a blood test, which confirmed that the pile of bones and flesh were Ms. Hao’s. 

A former police guard also testified in December 2009 to organ harvesting he had witnessed on April 9, 2002. The victim was a teacher in her 30s and the incident occurred in Shenyang Military Region General Hospital, Liaoning Province. When the practitioner was fully conscious, surgeons removed her heart and kidneys without anesthesia. 

“A scalpel, a surgical knife at the chest. When it cut the chest, blood gushed out. It was gushing out, not…” the witness recalled. At that time, the practitioner had been tortured for about a week and she had countless injuries all over her. “They cut her chest with a knife, with their hands not even shaking. If it were me, I would be shaking,” he added. “(Her) heart was carved out first, next were the kidneys. When the scissors cut her cardiac vessels, she started twitching. It was extremely horrible. I can imitate her voice for you, although I couldn’t imitate it well. It sounded like something was being ripped apart, and then she said ‘Ah.’ After that, she always had her mouth wide open, with both her eyes opened wide. Ah… I don’t want to continue..”

Prior to the organ harvesting, the practitioner was also sexually abused. Some police officers used tools to molest her. “I have witnessed all this with my own eyes, but I regret that I didn’t take any photos. She had good looks, was relatively beautiful, (so the policemen) raped her… this was far too common,” he added. 

Debts of Jiang and the CCP

When Jiang started to persecute Falun Gong, he said, “I do not believe the CCP cannot defeat Falun Gong.” He suppressed Falun Gong in the name of the CCP, and did so with the CCP’s resources. Jiang has died, but the persecution continues, including forced organ harvesting.

How many Falun Gong practitioners have suffered in the persecution? Among tens of millions of practitioners as well as their family members, nearly all of them have been discriminated against for their belief. According to verified information obtained by Minghui, over 4,800 practitioners have lost their lives to the persecution. The number of practitioners held in detention centers, labor camps, brainwashing centers, and prisons are too many to count. The same is true for the number of organ harvesting victims. We will more likely have a full picture of the tragedy only after the downfall of the CCP. 

The bloody debts of Jiang are also sins committed by the CCP. Recognizing this and rejecting the CCP is a critical step before the dawn of a better tomorrow.