Xinjiang Man Behind Bars for More Than Twelve Years for His Faith

(Minghui.org) Mr. Wang Junqiang was born to a farmer’s family in Manas County of Xinjiang Autonomous Region in April 1973. He graduated from the Department of Geology, Xinjiang University in 1996. After graduation, he worked at the Mining Management Office of Fukang City Economic and Trade Commission. He was praised by his superiors for outstanding performances and has won many awards.

Mr. Wang started practicing Falun Gong in 1996 when he was in college. Also known as Falun Dafa, Falun Gong is an ancient spiritual discipline that teaches Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance. It also has five sets of slow moving exercises with tremendous health benefits. 

Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to persecute Falun Gong in July 1999 due to its overwhelming popularity, Mr. Wang has been arrested and detained multiple times for a total of 12.5 years (including two 2-year labor camp terms and two jail terms of 3.5 and 5 years, respectively). 

He was most recently released on November 7, 2021 after serving his second prison term. Instead of becoming a free man after his release, he was given five years of surveillance, meaning he is under constant monitoring by police. According to the Chinese Criminal Law, such surveillance shall not exceed three years, but he was given a longer term because he is a Falun Gong practitioner. Due to his repeated incarceration, he is currently unemployed.

First Two-year Labor Camp Term for Appealing for Falun Gong

In February 2000, Mr. Wang went to Beijing to speak out for Falun Gong. He was arrested and detained by Fukang City Police Department for 70 days before being given two years of forced labor. On May 8 that year, he was taken to Changji Labor Camp, where he has endured inhuman torture.

Mr. Wang was transferred to a brainwashing session in Urumqi County in 2001. Under the pressure of intense brainwashing, he was forced to renounce Falun Gong. He was commuted and released on September 22, 2001 to finish serving time at home. Although he returned to work, his workplace only paid him 400 yuan [around 62 USD] per month. 

Soon, Mr. Wang regretted his decision to renounce Falun Gong and started practicing it again. After the authorities found out, they arrested him in January 2002 and put him on administrative detention. He was forced to live away from home to avoid further persecution after being released.

Sentenced to Five Years

In April 2002, Mr. Wang was arrested at a relative’s home in Wuwei City, Gansu Province. The police in Fukang travelled nearly 1,000 miles to take him back.

As Mr. Wang shouted “Falun Dafa is good” to protest the arbitrary arrest at Fukang City Detention Center, he was beaten by inmates instigated by the detention center director Zhao Xiaowu. One of his ribs was broken as a result. The soft tissue of his Adam’s apple was also injured, rendering him unable to talk for two weeks. He was transferred to Wusu Detention Center two weeks later (about 180 miles away). The authorities didn’t take him for a physical examination until five months later.

When Mr. Wang’s mother went to the Public Security Bureau to seek justice for him, she was beaten by the police and injured. She thus filed several lawsuits and petitions. The police then relented. They apologized to her and compensated her 1,000 yuan. 

A few months later, the Wusu City Court sentenced Mr. Wang to five years. At Changji Prison, he was held in solitary confinement and hung up on the basketball rack multiple times. He was released on April 20, 2007.

Second Labor Camp Term

Mr. Wang was forced to leave home not long after he was released from the prison. He worked odd jobs for one year in Shanshan County, about 200 miles from his home in Fukang. 

In May 2008, Mr. Wang began to work for the Fukang City Economic and Trade Commission again, but he was assigned to the Land and Resources Office in the farthest Ziniquanzi Area. He was closely monitored by his coworkers.

On September 27, 2010, Mr. Wang was reported by his roommate for keeping Falun Gong materials in his bed at the workplace dorm. He was arrested directly at work by officers of the Fukang City Domestic Security Office and given two years at Changji Labor Camp.

Mr. Wang endured severe tortures multiple times in the labor camp. On one occasion, he was dragged to the restroom by a guard for doing the Falun Gong exercises. He was handcuffed to the heating pipes and shocked by high-voltage batons for more than one hour. Dozens of burns were left on his neck.

Torture reenactment: electrical shock

Mr. Wang used to have a slight cataract in his right eye. After this electrocution, he completely lost the vision in his right eye.

In September 2011, Mr. Wang demanded to do the Falun Gong exercises, only to be handcuffed to the heat pipe in the corridor for eight days. He was tied on a small “tiger chair” for two weeks in a dark confinement room for doing the Falun Gong exercises in April 2012.

Torture Reenactment: sitting in the Tiger Chair

In June 2012, Mr. Wang was locked in a tiger chair for a long time for doing the Falun Gong exercises. He was forced to watch propaganda videos every day that smeared Falun Gong. Four inmates watched him around the clock in two shifts. The persecution continued until he was released on September 26, 2012.

Arrested Again

During the communist regime’s 19th National Congress, Mr. Wang was arrested without a warrant on October 18, 2017 and detained in the “Vocational Skills Training Service Administration,” a Muslim Brainwashing Camp in disguise.

In the middle of December, Mr. Wang was released on medical parole for cataract surgery on his right eye and then put on residential surveillance. 

Sentenced to Three Yeas and Six Months

Two months later, on the second day of Lunar New Year Holidays, Mr. Wang was taken back into the brainwashing camp by the street committee. During the period, he insisted on practicing Falun Gong exercises and protested the arbitrary detention.

The persecution intensified two months later. The guards locked Mr. Wang into a confinement room and starved him for 12 days. When he came out of the confinement, he was taken to a detention center. He was later sentenced to two years in prison and the sentence was extended to three and one-half years after he filed an appeal. 

Mr. Wang served time in the detention center. The guards repeatedly shocked him with electrical batons, every time for three minutes. On October 13, 2018, he was beaten and electrically shocked for about 40 minutes. He was isolated for more than one year and held in solitary confinement at least eight times. During his detention, there were more than two years when he was forced to wear shackles all the time.

He was released on November 7, 2021 and put under surveillance for five years. He is currently unemployed.