15 more practitioners of a peaceful and non-political spiritual faith died either during or as a direct result of a persecution campaign by the Chinese Communist Party that has lasted for almost 24 years, according to January reports.
The figure was issued by the Minghui website, which reports on the Falun Dafa meditation practice and collects information on the CCP’s persecution of the faith by collecting direct, on the ground reports of the situation in mainland China.
According to Feb. 10 reporting by Minghui, five of the cases occurred directly in January of 2023, while the other ten deaths happened between July and December of 2022.
MORE ON THE PERSECUTION OF FALUN GONG
- In Secret Show Trial, CCP Sentences 57-Year-Old Man to 11 Years in Prison for Practicing Falun Gong
- The Chinese Government Is Still Killing Falun Gong Practitioners
- Elderly Falun Gong Practitioners Are Being Persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party
Six women and nine men aged between 31 and 81 and residing in Jilin, Heibi, Shandong, and Heilongjiang Provinces, among others, lost their lives at the regime’s hands.
The outlet added that while four of the deaths occurred directly in the custody of CCP enforcers, one woman died six days after being released from a brainwashing center, and one man died ten months after being injected with a toxin during persecution.
Success
You are now signed up for our newsletter
Success
Check your email to complete sign up
One of the most notable cases was of 31-year-old Changchun resident Jiang Yong, a man who died while serving a lengthy 8.5 year sentence for charges levied after an arrest in June of 2021 for supposedly “subverting state power” by practicing Falun Gong and raising awareness about the persecution.
Minghui stated that Jiang Yong had been listed in critical condition since at least October of 2022 by the Jilin Provincial Tuberculosis Hospital after “staging a prolonged hunger strike to protest the persecution.”
“He was later transferred to the Changchun City Police Hospital, where he eventually passed away,” the article states.
Communist Party authorities would not grant Jiang Yong medical parole because he refused to renounce his faith to the persecutors.
An early February report on the death of Jiang Yong states that three officers of the Qianjindajie Police Station, Wang Ming’an (王明安), Wang Xianchao (王显超), and Zhao Wenqi (赵文奇) had participated in the persecution.
Minghui also attributed the death to Feng Gang (冯刚), Head of the Jilin Province Prison Administration Bureau, and a Prosecutor with the surname Liu (刘) of the Chaoyang District Procuratorate.
In a second case, CCP authorities in the Hebei region extorted money from the widow of Lai Zhiqiang, a man in his 50s, who died only two months before his scheduled release after she wished to see her dead husband’s remains.
Minghui stated that Party enforcers from the Jidong No. 2 Prison demanded 1,000 yuan from the woman if she wanted to see his body.
“While it’s not clear whether or not she paid the 1,000 yuan, she wasn’t allowed to see his body until the next day,” Minghui noted.
The article added, “According to Mr. Lai’s wife, his body was curled up and his face had been injured. Five guards held her back to keep her from getting close to or touching him. They refused to return his body to the family and deceived his daughter into signing a consent form to have his body cremated.”
Lai was arrested in March of 2016 for practicing Falun Gong and was sentenced to seven years in prison. In 2019, the man suffered a stroke during torture while in detention, but the family was not allowed to visit.
In 2020, Jidong No. 2 Prison Communist Party officials decided to allow Lai’s wife visitor’s access, but when she arrived, it was clear to her that something was seriously wrong.
“When Mr. Lai’s wife was finally granted a visit in January 2020, she was heartbroken to see that the guards had to carry him out,” Minghui wrote. “He could hardly move. He didn’t appear to recognize her and didn’t respond when she cried.”
An insider to Lai’s case told Minghui that Lai underwent the torture form of being force fed for six straight months at the prison’s clinic. Guards kept the feeding tube in his stomach at all times, and although he could move his mouth, Lai was unable to speak.
The prison charged Lai’s family several thousand yuan to cover the expenses of the medical bills that the Party’s persecution had generated.
Minghui further stated that although Lai developed a lung infection in 2020 while being in a vegetative state and barely able to breathe, the prison nonetheless kept him in heavy shackles.
In a third case, a Shanghai woman nearing 70, Jiang Linying, died on Christmas Eve as a result of persecution at Baoshan District Detention Center during a four year prison sentence for practicing Falun Gong and raising awareness about the persecution handed down by the regime.
Linying’s husband was notified during the afternoon of Dec. 24 that his wife was in critical condition and had been taken to the hospital. However, Communist Party guards would not allow the family to see her.
“The guard still barred the family from visiting her and said it was good enough that they informed the family of her condition,” the article stated.
“At 10: 29 p.m., the same guard called from the same cellphone number and told the family that Ms. Jiang had passed away. It’s not clear whether the family had been allowed to see her after her passing,” Minghui added.
About Falun Dafa
Falun Dafa (法輪大法), also known as Falun Gong (法輪功), is a qigong practice that earned exceptional popularity in mainland China in 1992 during the country’s post-Cultural Revolution qigong trend.
The practice, taught by Master Li Hongzhi, is based on the universal principles of Zhen-Shan-Ren (真善忍) (Truth, Benevolence, Forbearance) and emphasizes valuing virtue, doing good deeds, and improving an individual’s character during everyday living and social and workplace conflicts, alongside the practice of four standing exercises and one sitting meditation.
IMPORTANT READING
By 1999, Falun Dafa was estimated at having 80 million people practicing it, by the Communist Party’s own estimates. At-the-time CCP Chairman Jiang Zemin, regarding the discipline’s popularity as a threat to his own legacy, used his authority to utilize the regime’s total control over China to launch a wholesale, national persecution that has persisted to this day.
According to reports from the CCP, Jiang Zemin died in Shanghai on Nov. 30, 2022 from leukemia and organ failure at the age of 96.
