(Minghui.org) A Huludao City, Liaoning Province resident, died in custody on August 2, 2021, two weeks after she was arrested for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Wei Mingxia, in her 70s, was arrested on July 19, 2021, while at the home of another practitioner, Mr. Zhu Jun. The police searched her home and confiscated Falun Gong books, informational materials, a photo of Falun Gong’s founder, and a printer. Although Mr. Zhu was released that evening, Ms. Wei and another practitioner, Ms. Xie Kun, were taken to the Huludao City Detention Center. It is reported that Ms. Wei was in a wheelchair when she was taken to the detention center.
Ms. Xie was released on the evening of August 2. According to insiders, Ms. Wei was carried out of the detention center that same evening. The news came the next morning that she had passed away the night before.
Ms. Wei’s family said she was very healthy and could still work in the fields before being arrested. Her body is being kept at a local funeral home and her family is trying to find out more about her death. The police, however, have threatened, harassed, and intimidated her family.
Ms. Wei is the second Falun Gong practitioner who has died at the Huludao City Detention Center this year. Mr. Cheng Weixing, a 54-year-old man arrested on May 12, 2020, also died there. Due to tight information control, the details of his death remain unclear. Some sources said he died in February 2021, while others said he died in May 2021.
Many other Huludao practitioners have also suffered tremendously for upholding their faith in Falun Gong. According to available statistics compiled by Minghui.org, 36 local practitioners were sentenced up to 14 years, 141 practitioners were arrested, and another 75 were harassed between January 2016 and December 2018. The next two years (2019 and 2020) saw 17 practitioners sentenced, 41 arrested, 7 given administrative detentions, and one practitioner sent to a psychiatric hospital.
Past Persecution
Ms. Wei was targeted in the early days of the persecution and suffered brutal torture in custody.
She was arrested on June 26, 2000, while visiting practitioner Ms. Zheng Jiayu. Police officers Ma Enyou, Wang Ying, Wang Zhenjie, and Meng Qingjun ransacked both Ms. Zheng’s and Ms. Wei’s homes and confiscated their Falun Gong books and lecture audiotapes.
At the police station, officer Meng beat Ms. Wei on the back and buttocks with a club. Her body was covered with injuries and she was unable to walk. Another officer, Zang Guoguang, shouted at her, “I will skin you alive if you don’t confess where you got the Falun Gong materials.” When she refused to comply, Zang beat her again the next day and gave her a 30-day detention at a local lockup facility.
After she was released from the lockup, Ms. Wei was taken to a local brainwashing center for further persecution on July 28. A guard named Zhao Jiucai grabbed her by the hair and hit her head against the wall. He also smacked the back of her head and kicked her in the back. Ms. Wei almost fainted from the beating. “They don’t treat us as human beings, as they just beat and swear at us at will,” Ms. Wei once recalled.
When the temperature was over 100 °F, the guards forced Ms. Wei to run under the baking sun. As soon as she finished running, they forced her to stand on one foot. If she couldn’t maintain her balance, the guards beat her. After several practitioners were forced to run laps under the sun, the guards would force them to stand next to each other and bend over, while keeping their arms and legs straight and their heads lifted. Most of the practitioners were in their 50s and often lost their balance. The guards then lifted their shirts up and whipped them with tree branches. Not given enough food and water, Ms. Wei fainted several times from exhaustion.
Ms. Wei was taken to the notorious Masanjia Forced Labor Camp on February 21, 2001, to serve a three-year term. She was held in several different units over the years and suffered relentless torture.
She once recalled, “In addition to the constant torture, another mode of persecution against detained practitioners were the long hours of intensive labor. Most of the work involved toxic materials that other companies wouldn’t take. The pungent odor often left me dizzy-headed and nauseous. I suffered long-term headaches and skin allergies even years after I was released. The torture also caused my feet to swell so much that I couldn’t wear shoes the entire winter. My feet and legs felt numb most of the time, causing me to be unable to walk on my own. I had constant fever as well. But despite my condition, they still forced me to do unpaid labor.
“For the practitioners who refused to renounce Falun Gong, the guards resorted to every torture method they could use to persecute us, including hanging us up, shocking us with electric batons, beatings, or holding us in solitary confinement. Some practitioners developed mental disorders while others were tortured to death. Tragedy was happening there every minute, every day.”
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