(Minghui.org) A 50-year-old resident of Yanqing District, Beijing developed high blood pressure and liver disease barely four months into a four-year prison term. Mr. Shi Yingji was admitted to prison for his faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
His family was notified to come visit him, but after they arrived at the Qianjin Prison on August 6, 2024, only his son was allowed to go in and his parents, both nearly 80, were blocked outside. The prison guards claimed that the elderly couple’s proof of relationship (showing they were Mr. Shi’s parents) had expired.
Mr. Shi told his son that his liver hurt with high levels of transaminases, but the prison hospital did not say exactly what liver disease he had. He also struggled with high blood pressure.
The Qianjin Prison is under the administration of the Beijing Prison Administration Bureau, but is located in Ninghe District, Tianjin. The guards there use various means to try to make jailed Falun Gong practitioners renounce their faith. They also incentivize the inmates to torture practitioners, with term reductions.
The current deputy warden, Liu Guanghui, got the job for actively following the persecution policy in his previous position. He invented a torture method that has the practitioners sit motionless on a few-inch-tall plastic stool for long periods of time, often resulting in the development of open sores on their buttocks. Many other prisons across China adopted this torture method, which has now been widely used in the abuse of imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners.
Other torture methods are used as well, including beatings, electric shocks, sleep deprivation, starvation, and denial of restroom use. In addition to corporal punishment, practitioners incarcerated at the Qianjin Prison are also forced to study propaganda that smears Falun Gong and are pressured to renounce their faith.
While it is not clear what kind of abuse Mr. Shi has been subjected to, his sudden health decline is likely an indication of torture.
Mr. Shi and his father, Mr. Shi Genshu, both took up Falun Gong in 1996. Both were targeted after the persecution began in 1999. The younger Mr. Shi lost his job in 2002 due to persecution and was sentenced to six years following an arrest in 2006. His father was so devastated that he had a stroke in October 2007 and became paralyzed on one side of his body.
Mr. Shi Yingji was arrested again in 2018 and was sentenced to two years in 2020. His latest 4-year prison sentence, handed down in December 2023, was after an arrest on May 11, 2023. He was admitted to the Qianjin Prison around April 2024. Only four months later, he fell ill and was hospitalized. But his parents were not allowed to see him on August 6, 2024 when they and their grandson tried to visit.
For details about Mr. Shi’s latest and past persecution, see the related reports below.
Beijing Man Convicted Again for His Faith After Six Years of Imprisonment and Multiple Arrests