Although international media focuses its attention on the conflict between the Russian Federation and Ukraine and English-language Internet spheres are honed in on cases of serious human rights abuses in the conflict, the ruling Chinese Communist Party still continues to kill practitioners of Falun Gong as its almost-23-year-long persecution has not abated.
According to May 12 reporting by Minghui, 19 additional cases of practitioners who died during or after being persecuted by the CCP were confirmed.
Minghui describes itself as “a website dedicated to reporting on the Falun Gong community worldwide,” having “received scores of first-hand reports from across China each and every day—more than any other organization in the world.”
The website states it provides “the most direct and up-to-date window into the lives of Falun Gong practitioners across China and throughout the world.”
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Minghui, through its own investigations, was able to confirm the deaths, which occurred between 2016 and 2022, this April.
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Falun Gong (法輪功)—also known as Falun Dafa (法輪大法)—is a form of qigong meditation based on the principle of Truth-Benevolence-Tolerance (真善忍) that originally debuted in mainland China in 1992.
The practice enjoyed such immense popularity that by 1999, Falun Gong had gained 70 to 100 million practitioners according to the Chinese Government’s own statistics.
But on July 20, 1999, former CCP Chairman Jiang Zemin used his power to deploy an unprecedented and nationwide campaign of suppression, intending to eliminate the practice.
Jiang’s persecution campaign permeates the workings of the Communist Party through to this day in spite of a change in leadership found in the Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping administrations.
Of the 19 reported deaths, 6 occurred in 2021 and 10 have occurred this year.
In one instance, Minghui reported that Cui Jinshi, an 88-year-old Harbin woman, was arrested in a home invasion raid by a cluster of 7 state security agents at 1:00 p.m. on April 13.
According to the report, by 5:45 p.m., the woman’s son received a phone call from the police advising him that his mother was in the emergency room at the 242 Hospital.
Upon rushing to the 242, the son’s account of events was paraphrased as, “Five minutes later, the doctor came out and announced Ms. Cui was dead. The son saw Ms. Cui’s body. Her face was pale. Her throat was cut open. And she was only wearing one shoe.”
In a second instance, 69-year-old Zhao Lin, a Zhangjiakou man, died while serving a 3.5 year sentence resulting from charges of practicing Falun Gong after being arrested in April of 2020.
The article stated that guards at the Zhangjiakou City Detention Center where the man was held would not allow family members to visit.
On March 25, employees of the facility told the family that Zhao had developed a lung condition and was transported to a nearby hospital and placed on a ventilator, after which, he passed away.
The article revealed peculiar circumstances surrounding Zhao’s sentencing at Qiaoxi Court in late 2020 during peak hysteria surrounding Wuhan Pneumonia (COVID-19), “The bailiffs ordered Mr. Zhao to wear whole-body protective gear during the hearings. Yet the bailiffs escorting him didn’t even wear masks. Because his family couldn’t see an inch of Mr. Zhao, they weren’t sure if it was really him or if the authorities were trying to cover up something.”
In many of the cases listed in the article, practitioners passed away after suffering from serious long-term physical and psychological adverse effects resulting from long term detention and torture at the Party’s hands.
In the case of Li Peixian—a woman from Qiqihar who appeared to be approximately 60—had been arrested, beaten, tortured, and released repeatedly since the persecution began in 1999.
Minghui stated that after a 5 year stint in prison between 2010 and 2015, Li was released, but in an emaciated state with swollen legs.
Early this year, her health conditions relapsed and she passed away in February.
Photographs provided show Li with a severely distended and bloated abdomen.
A second Minghui article dated May 12 chronicled the extensive persecution endured by 52-year-old Shenyang man Wu Daxing, which resulted in his mental breakdown and subsequent death.
Wu, who started to practice Falun Gong in 1996, was first arrested in 1999 after going to Beijing to appeal to the central government to end the persecution.
After being arrested and tortured at the Qinggong Police Station by an officer named Li Zheng in early 2007, Wu was later sentenced to 3 years in prison in July.
Minghui states that Li Zheng and his cohorts “whipped his [Wu’s] head with a leather belt and punched him on the face. They held him down on the ground, stomped on him, and shocked his hands and soles with an electric baton until midnight.”
Wu was repeatedly tortured in custody until being released in 2009 after his wife’s continuous appeals.
After release, CCP enforcers continued to harass Wu and his family, the stress of which led to a severe heart condition that resulted in his untimely death on Feb. 4.