(Clearwisdom.net) Practitioner Ms. Zhang Fengyun from Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, was tortured to death on August 11, 2001 by the Lanzhou City No. 1 Custodial Center (also known as the Xiguoyuan Custodial Center) for her determination in practicing Falun Dafa. Her son Xing Jun was only 14 years old at that time. He was forced to drop out of school and is now earning only 100 yuan a month, which is barely enough to survive on.

Xing Jun was born on September 30, 1987. He lives in an apartment in the family compound of his father's work unit, the Gansu Province Construction and Engineering Bureau. The family compound is located at Xiliu Gou of Xigu District, Lanzhou City.

Xing Jun's father, Xing Shuzhou , 49 years of age, worked at the Lumber Mill under the Gansu Province Construction and Engineering Bureau until 2001 when he was laid off. He gets only 160 yuan a month for living expenses from the factory. He is now working far away from his son.

After he graduated from the Junior Middle School, Xing Jun studied at the Electric Power and Electric Engineering School in Lanzhou City. However he had to stop school because the family could not afford the school fee. He then stayed at home for more than a year. Recently, Xing Jun started to work in a small private woodworking plant and makes only 100 yuan per month. He and his father have to depend on each other for their survival.

Jun's mother, Zhang Fengyun, was a 42-year-old staff member at the Gansu Province Construction and Engineering Bureau Lumber Mill. She was very ill before she started to practice Falun Dafa in 1996. Soon after, she was in perfect health and was extremely grateful for her practice of Dafa.

After the persecution began on July 20, 1999, Ms. Zhang went to Beijing four times to peacefully appeal for the rights of Falun Dafa practitioners. On July 23, 2001, she went to the Hekou area of Xigu District to distribute truth-clarification materials but was reported to the police. The police officials from the Hekou Police Station abducted her and sent her to Lanzhou City No. 1 Custodial Center.

During her detention, Zhang Fengyun went on a hunger strike with other practitioners to protest their persecution and demanded that they be released unconditionally. The prison wardens and several other vicious convicts were instructed by the local police to brutally beat and force-feed the practitioners.

On the fifteenth day on her hunger strike, the perpetrators threw Zhang Fengyun, who was in an extremely fragile condition because of the torture she had endured, onto a garbage platform. It was a stormy and rainy night with thunder and lightening. She was left to endure the elements outside. The other practitioners demanded that she be picked up and taken to the labor camp hospital in Dashaping. But it was too late. Ms. Zhang passed away at midnight on August 11, 2001.