(Clearwisdom.net) To protest his illegal arrest and detention, Falun Gong practitioner Xiong Wenqi from the Putuo District in Shanghai City has been on a hunger strike inside the Tilanqiao Jail for 380 days. At present, he is being kept in isolation, tied to a bed, and allowed no visitors.
Mr. Xiong Wenqi is thirty-three years old. He was an employee at the Industry and Commerce Administration Center in the Putuo District of Shanghai. He started practicing Falun Gong in October 1997. Because he was steadfast and industrious in his work, the evaluation committee at his workplace rated him as an "advanced" performer for three consecutive years. In 1999, when Falun Gong was illegally banned, Xiong Wenqi thought that, as a responsible citizen, he had the obligation to clarify the truth to the government. He started a letter-writing campaign, writing to various government officials and departments to clarify the true facts of Falun Gong based on his personal cultivation experience. The leadership of the Bureau of Industry and Commerce then secretly plotted with the Putuo Public Security Substation to carry out intensive brainwashing on Xiong Wenqi to "re-educate" him.
Mr. Xiong thereupon went to the capital Beijing on December 22, 1999, to appeal for help. When he was illegally sent back to Shanghai, his whole head was swollen and covered with bluish bruises and injuries from beatings. Later, falsely accused of "disrupting social order," he was charged and imprisoned in the Putuo District Detention Center for about a month. At the same time, his place of employment imposed economic sanctions on him. Every month, he was paid only six hundred yuan in wages.
In February 2000, Mr. Xiong Wenqi was sentenced to serve eighteen months of hard labor through re-education. In the face of this vicious persecution, Xiong Wenqi did not cooperate with the authorities. To protest, he initiated a hunger strike for thirty days at the start of his illegal detention. As he was being transferred to the Taopu Public Health Center, the police slackened their surveillance, and Mr. Xiong Wenqi took the opportunity to righteously walk away.
In May 2000, Mr. Xiong was illegally arrested again in Beijing. He was then repatriated to Shanghai for imprisonment. As punishment, his sentencing for re-education through hard labor was extended for an additional two and a half years. Inside Shanghai's Dafeng Labor Camp, Mr. Xiong was brutally tortured physically and mentally by the police. During this torture, his shoulder was seriously injured. He remained on a hunger strike for 122 days to protest the ill treatment, endangering his life. In October 2000, he was released on bail for medical treatment. The authorities did not leave him alone, coming to his home to harass him repeatedly and trying to force him to renounce his belief. Twice he became homeless, moving from place to place to avoid the harassment.
On May 3, 2001, Mr. Xiong Wenqi was illegally arrested for the third time in Shanghai near the Yangpu District. He resolutely refused to comply with the authorities' request to renounce the practice. He continued to protest by going on a hunger strike. Shanghai's Putuo District Detention Center's police inhumanely continued to torture and persecute him almost to the brink of death. Because they were afraid to take responsibility for his death, he was sent to the hospital to receive emergency treatment. The reform police from Yangpu District angrily threatened, "Even if this time you fast for 200 days, don't hope that you will be released!" As soon as Mr. Xiong showed signs of recovery, he was sentenced to four and a half years. He was imprisoned in the Tilanqiao Prison to await further torture and persecution.
Mr. Xiong Wenqi is now in isolation in the Tilanqiao Prison and not allowed visitors. For 24 hours a day, he is handcuffed to a bed, making it impossible for him to take care of his personal hygiene. When the prison bureau chief came for an inspection, he said to Mr. Xiong, "As long as you accept and acknowledge that Falun Gong is (slanderous word omitted), I am prepared to release you unconditionally." Xiong Wenqi did not give in. He refused to renounce his belief and understanding of the truth.
Tilanqiao Prison frequently allows Hong Kong or overseas penal inspection organizations to pay visits to their facility to enhance its public image. However, the closed-door torture and persecution of dissidents has never been revealed to the public. Qu Yanlai, the once acclaimed first prize winner of the national Austrian Chemistry Competition award and the national mathematics award, graduate of Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Energy Engineering Department, and Falun Gong practitioner, is an example of such persecution and torture. Tilanqiao Prison personnel tortured him so severely that he can only lie down or sit in a wheelchair. The torture and persecution turned Qu Yanlai into an invalid.
Persons responsible for the above and their telephone numbers:
Shanghai Jail Administrative Bureau
Bureau Chief Qi Yesheng: 86-21-35104888 ext.
Assistant Commissioner Tai Gou
The Tilanqiao Jail Fifth Department that participated in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners
Main Division Chief Ou Ligang: 86-21-35104888, ext. 7220
Main Division Assistant Chief Xue Chun
Administrative Instructor Fu Kehu
Head of Secondary Division Shen Yanlai: 86-21-35104888, ext. 7204
Secondary Division Administrative Instructor Zhang Jian
Lower Division Heads Ni Yongbin, Dai Wenlong, Xu Guang, and Lu Bin
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