Wuhan Woman Dies Six Days after Arrest for Practicing Falun Gong

(Minghui.org)

Name: Hu YongxiuChinese Name: 胡永秀Gender: FemaleAge: 64City: WuhanProvince: HubeiOccupation: N/ADate of Death: April 5, 2023Date of Most Recent Arrest: March 30, 2023Most Recent Place of Detention: N/A

A 64-year-old woman in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, died six days after she was arrested for refusing to give up her faith in Falun Gong.

Ms. Hu Yongxiu was arrested outside of a hospital on March 30, 2023, while talking to people about the Chinese communist regime’s persecution of Falun Gong. Her family confirmed on April 5, 2023, that she died that day. Her wake at home was closely monitored by the police. Due to strict information censorship, details about her death aren’t available.

Ms. Hu was the second Falun Gong practitioner in Wuhan known to have been persecuted to death in 2023. The other practitioner, Ms. Zong Ming, was emaciated and had difficulty talking when she was released on December 26, 2022, after being held at a local brainwashing center for eight months. Her hair had turned gray. Her family took her to a hospital on January 1, 2023. The doctor refused to admit her and she died in the emergency room that day. She was 59.

Past Persecution of Ms. Hu Yongxiu

Ms. Hu took up Falun Gong in October 1998. She credited the ancient spiritual discipline for helping her to recover from a severe neck problem, stomach issues, and back pain.

Ever since the communist regime initiated the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, she and countless other practitioners lived in fear and faced constant arrests and harassment.

Ms. Hu was arrested in November 2001 after being reported for visiting a local practitioner in the hospital. The police beat her, held her in a metal cage for 38 hours, and ransacked her home.

The residential committee staff members often harassed Ms. Hu at home and followed her when she went out between April and September 2004.

The harassment intensified again between April and September 2011. At 7 p.m. on September 21, 2011, Ms. Hu was summoned to the security office in her neighborhood. When she arrived, seven officers swarmed her and carried her to their police car. Her husband was there and tried to stop them from arresting her. Ms. Hu escaped but was forced to live away from home after that to hide from the police.

Unable to find her, the police regularly harassed her son and parents. The police intimidation frightened her mother, who died of a heart attack on December 28, 2012.