(Minghui.org) On the 25th anniversary since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to suppress Falun Gong in July 1999, practitioners from 44 countries recently submitted a new list of perpetrators to their respective governments, asking them to bar the perpetrators and their family members from entry and to freeze their overseas assets according to the law.
Among the perpetrators listed was Chen Yixin, minister of State Security.
Perpetrator Information
Full Name of Perpetrator: Chen (last name) Yixin (first name)Chinese Name: 陈一新Gender: MaleDate/year of Birth: in September 1959Place of Birth: Taishun County, Zhejiang Province
Title or Position
October 2022 – Present: minister of State SecurityAugust 2018 – Present: deputy director of the Office of the Central Commission for the Comprehensive Law-based Governance of the CountryMarch 2018 – October 2022: member and secretary-general of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC)February 2017 – March 2018: deputy secretary of the Hubei Provincial Party Committee, secretary of the Wuhan Municipal Party Committee, director of the Municipal People’s Congress Standing Committee, and first secretary of the Party Committee of Wuhan Garrison DistrictDecember 2016 – February 2017: deputy secretary of the Hubei Provincial Party Committee, secretary of the Wuhan Municipal Party Committee, and first secretary of the Party Committee of Wuhan Garrison DistrictNovember 2015 – December 2016: deputy director of the Office of the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reforms
Main Crimes
1) Persecution While Serving in Wuhan (December 2016 – March 2018)
Ever since the CCP launched the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners on July 20, 1999, it has been carried out most severely in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei.
In 2017 when Chen Yixin was appointed the secretary of the Wuhan Municipal Party Committee, the authorities used the pretext of “maintaining stability” during preparations for the Military World Games as an excuse to tap into practitioners’ cellphones for months and then arrest them. According to data collected by Minghui.org, a total of 444 practitioners were targeted in Wuhan in 2017, including three who were persecuted to death, 15 sentenced, 30 tried, 126 detained, 191 arrested, and 79 harassed. Most of the arrested and harassed practitioners also had their homes ransacked.
Ms. Zhou Jinmei was arrested on October 6, 2016, for talking to people about Falun Gong. Her family was never informed of her arrest or where she was detained. They checked all the local police stations and detention centers but were told that no one knew where she was. About two months after her arrest, her family received a phone call from the Ziyang Police Station, asking them to identify Ms. Zhou’s body at a local mortuary.
Her family confirmed it was her and noticed there was a mark on her skull consistent with a surgical procedure. The police claimed that she’d had a stroke and that she had been operated on to relieve her symptoms. However, they had no verifying medical records or autopsy report to show the family.
The family tried to insist on finding out the cause of Ms. Zhou’s death, but they gave in after the police threatened them repeatedly. Her body was cremated soon after.
Mr. Feng Jiwu, in his 70s, was arrested on September 27, 2016. When he appeared in court on March 29, 2017, the police tied him up with a rope around his neck, to prevent him from shouting “Falun Dafa is good.” He was sentenced to 4.5 years on April 17, 2017, and admitted to Fanjiatai Prison. He was severely tortured in prison and had his pension suspended.
Ms. Zhu Ya, 54, was stopped by plainclothes officers waiting outside her apartment building when she went out on April 25, 2017. She was arrested and her home was ransacked. She was tried in the Huangpo District Court on June 15, 2018. Her lawyer entered a “not guilty” plea for her and she also testified in her own defense. The judge sentenced her to eight years in prison and fined her 20,000 yuan on July 7.
2) Persecution While Serving as Secretary-General of the Central PLAC (March 2018 – October 2022)
The PLAC is an extra-judiciary agency that oversees the judicial and public security departments in China. Together with the 610 Office, it directs the systematic persecution of Falun Gong. After Chen became the secretary-general of the Central PLAC in March 2018, he actively promoted the genocidal policies against Falun Gong practitioners nationwide.
In his speech on March 29, 2019, to the students at the Central Party School Chen said: “Earnestly study and implement the spirit of general secretary Xi Jinping’s important speech at the special seminar for leading cadres at the provincial and ministerial levels to prevent and resolve major risks affecting national political security.” He claimed it was important to “focus on preventing and cracking down on cult activities” and to “persist in reducing the number and cracking down on the sabotage activities of cult organizations in accordance with the law.”
Ahead of October 1, 2019, the 70th anniversary of the CCP’s seizing power in China, many group arrests and incidents of harassment took place under the pretense of “assuring social stability.” Some practitioners were assaulted during the arrests and their family members beaten when the latter tried to seek the former's release.
On September 10, 2020, Chen chaired a meeting for the theoretical study group of the Central PLAC Committee and required all local branches to “strengthen the fight against cults.”
On September 2, 2021, Chen published an article in Seeking the Truth magazine titled “Striving to Deliver Excellent Answers During the Big Exam of Our Time.” Chen equated religious beliefs with violent terrorist activities, writing in the article:“Fight a good war of annihilation, focusing on combating violent terrorist activities and cult organizations. Maintain a severe and high-pressure environment and resolutely eradicate the soil in which they thrive.”
On March 16, 2022, Chen published an article in the Study Times titled “Promoting the High-Quality Development of Political and Legal Work and Building a Higher Level of Peaceful China.” He wrote: “... cults are a malignant tumor in our current society.” He also promoted the so-called “anti-cult policy” of “reducing their numbers, controlling their increases, cutting their resources, and preventing their changes” to “accelerate attacks on cults, strictly preventing the infiltration of cults from abroad, and resolutely eliminating the real hazards.”
In addition, Chen also chaired the Central PLAC’s anti-cult work meeting and guided local anti-cult work meetings, actively promoting and implementing the genocidal policy against Falun Gong practitioners.
3) Persecution in 2018
After Chen was promoted to the central government, he still directed the persecution in Wuhan. In 2018, he expanded the Yusunshan Brainwashing Center in the Jianghan District. In September, he held a secret meeting in Wuhan with leaders from all over China who were in charge of persecuting Falun Gong. In the meeting, an action plan was created for the suppression of Falun Gong practitioners from 2018 to 2019, including during the World Military Games that took place in Wuhan in October 2019.
At the same time, the Central PLAC also sent their staffers to the brainwashing centers in Wuhan to study how to persecute practitioners more successfully and then implement those tactics nationwide.
4) Persecution in 2019
In 2019, nearly 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners were arrested and harassed. Prior to the CCP’s “70th Anniversary Celebration” (marking 70 years in power) in October 2019, the authorities carried out mass arrests across the country. Large numbers of practitioners in the autonomous cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin, and the provinces of Hebei, Shandong, Sichuan, Jilin, Liaoning, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Anhui, Hunan, and Jiangxi were targeted.
In Siping City, Jilin Province, the Public Security Bureau treated the directive as a “political task” and set up a merit system for officers who participated. Those who arrested practitioners were awarded ten points, while arresting actual criminals only earned one point.
According to statistics from Minghui.org, 6,109 practitioners were arrested, 3,582 were harassed, 383 were taken to brainwashing centers, and 3,124 had their homes ransacked in 2019. At least 789 were sentenced. This took place in 291 cities and 29 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities in China. Another 96 died as a result of the persecution.
Mr. Li Dayao of Jingzhou City, Hubei Province, passed away on November 30, 2019, while serving time for his faith in Falun Gong. He was 67. Mr. Li was arrested on September 20, 2017, and sentenced to four years on April 9, 2018. He was held in the Jianli County Detention Center for a year before being sent to Fanjiatai Prison on September 5, 2018. The detention center guards forced him to take high blood pressure medication, even though he didn’t have the condition. His weight dropped from 200 lbs to 150 lbs. In Fanjiatai Prison, Mr. Li was forced to do unpaid labor, even when his hands became numb.
Mr. Li was hospitalized between December 2018 and January 2019. He was diagnosed with gallstones, but the prison didn’t allow him to have surgery to remove the stones. He was only given some painkillers and antibiotics. Mr. Li’s condition suddenly deteriorated in August 2019. When his family visited him on August 29, he had difficulty talking. When his family returned on September 12, he had already been taken to the Changlin Prison Hospital after having become paralyzed and totally unable to talk. His family wasn’t allowed to see him in the hospital. Their request to have him released on medical parole was denied. His health continued to decline over the subsequent months and he passed away in late November 2019. After his death, his family saw that his mouth was stuffed with rubber tubes and all of his teeth had been knocked out, which explained why he couldn’t talk and just cried in his final days.
5) Persecution in 2020
In 2020, the Central PLAC launched the “zero-out” campaign, in an effort to force all practitioners on the government’s blacklist to renounce their faith. The PLAC and the 610 Office mobilized the judicial system, local police, and street committee to arrest, harass, brainwash, and sentence practitioners on a large scale.
In 2020, at least 84 practitioners were persecuted to death, with 21 in-custody deaths. At least 615 practitioners were sentenced; 6,659 arrested; 8,576 harassed; 537 sent to brainwashing classes; and 3,588 had their homes ransacked. The persecution spread across 304 cities in 29 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities in China. At least 1,188 practitioners over the age of 65 were arrested and harassed, including 17 over the age of 90, with the oldest victim being 94.
Ms. Li Ling of Penglai City, Shandong Province, was seized by a village official and paramilitary soldiers on June 28, 2020, after being reported for possessing Falun Gong literature. She was taken to an empty house in a mountainous area and viciously beaten. Her mouth was severely injured and she lost a number of teeth. There was a contusion on her left rib cage and she had bruises all over her body. According to an elderly villager who was told to watch her, one of the soldiers jabbed Ms. Li in the chest with a stick.
Because Ms. Li refused to give up the practice or answer questions, one of her tormentors took her outside to “fix her up.” He kicked her so hard that she lost her balance and hit her hip on a rock. When it later started to rain, he made her stand in the rain for a long time. She went on a hunger strike to protest the abuse. She was rushed to a private clinic on July 13, 2020, for emergency treatment and was pronounced dead on arrival. She was 55.
Mr. Hu Lin was an aviation engineer. He was arrested on May 23, 2019, and taken to the Faku County Detention Center. While there, he was often beaten. He went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. The guards handcuffed his limbs in a spread-eagle position to a bunk bed. They also force-fed him and left the feeding tube in his stomach.
Mr. Hu was sentenced to two years in prison on June 20, 2019. Even though he was in critical condition, the court gave orders to transfer him to Kangjiashan Prison on October 30, 2019. He became emaciated and did not even have the strength to turn over. The prison authorities refused to release him and did not provide him with any medical treatment. They claimed that they would not release him even if he died since he refused to renounce Falun Gong. Mr. Hu passed away on February 16, 2020.
6) Persecution in 2021
In 2021, 131 practitioners died due to persecution; 1,184 were sentenced; 5,886 arrested; and 10,527 harassed. A total of 2,747 practitioners had their homes ransacked and 142 had their pensions withheld.
Ms. Fu Guihua of Siping City, Jilin Province, was arrested on August 15, 2019, and sentenced to 7.5 years on February 26, 2021. While serving time in Jilin Province Women’s Prison, she was forced to sit on a six-inch-tall stool with an uneven surface every day for more than 12 hours. The inmate put a piece of paper between her legs and verbally abused her if the paper fell. Her buttocks began to bleed and fester. The back of her pants was covered in stains. The inmate also forbade Ms. Fu from drinking water during the hot summer. Ms. Fu was so thirsty that it was difficult for her to eat. Only then would Guo give her a small sip of water. Ms. Fu died in the prison on July 25, 2021. She was 55.
Mr. Li Xianxi of Anyang City, Henan Province, was arrested on May 11, 2021. After one month of detention, he died on June 12 at the age of 52. His body was emaciated. His head was swollen and he had injuries to his waist, back, and knees. When his family members asked about the cause of his death, the detention center guards could not answer.
7) Persecution in the First Half of 2022
In the first half of 2022, 92 practitioners died due to persecution; 366 were sentenced; 1,447 arrested; and 1,260 harassed. A total of 943 practitioners had their homes ransacked and 98 were sent to brainwashing centers.
Ms. Cui Jinshi, 88, of Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, was arrested at home by plainclothes officers on April 13, 2022. Two of them dragged her from her apartment on the second floor to the ground floor. They suddenly let her go and she fell down. At 5:45 p.m., Ms. Cui’s son got a call from the police telling him his mother had been taken to the emergency room. Five minutes after he got to the hospital, a doctor came out and said that Ms. Cui was dead. In the operating room, her son saw that her face was pale, her throat was cut open, and she was only wearing one shoe.
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