Name: Dong Yuehua (董月华)
Gender: Male
Age: 40
Address: Lianghe Village, Longdu Community, Chucheng City, Shandong Province
Occupation: Booth owner on Longcheng Market
Date of Death: July 12, 2010
Date of Most Recent Arrest: March 30, 2009
Most Recent Place of Detention: Zhucheng City Brainwashing Center (诸城市转化班)
City: Zhucheng
Province: Shandong
Persecution Suffered: Brainwashing, beatings, torture, physical restraint, home ransacked, interrogation, detention, denial of restroom use.

(Clearwisdom.net) Mr. Dong Yuehua died at 8:00 p.m. on July 12, 2010. He was survived by his wife and his seven year-old son. Some may wonder why, since Falun Gong is good for healing and fitness and many with incurable illnesses have recovered, did four members of Mr. Dong's family die?

What caused Mr. Dong to die at the age of forty? The story should be traced back to July 20, 1999 when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began persecuting Falun Gong practitioners.

Mr. Dong, along with his parents and brothers, started practicing Falun Gong in 1997. The whole family was very happy and healthy, and were admired by the villagers. Things changed after the CCP's persecution began on July 20, 1999. For the last eleven years since then, Mr. Dong's family has been constantly suffering from being illegally arrested, detained, and harassed. His elder brother Mr. Dong Yuezhong, father Mr. Dong Zhenhe, mother Ms. Lu Peilan subsequently died from persecution. (see http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/9/9/110082.html, and http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2006/12/22/81071.html)

When the persecution first began in 1999, Yu Yansheng, town deputy mayor, and Zhang Xia, management district director, hired several dozen people at a rate of 40 yuan per day to monitor all practitioners in the village, and proclaimed that all costs would be paid by the practitioners. They locked three members of the Dong family in their own homes. The six-year-old daughter of Mr. Dong Yuehua was also locked up.

Mr. Dong then went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Dafa. He was intercepted and secretly detained at a school in Houjiazhuang, and was being watched over by a dozen guards. His sister learned of this and went to visit him. The second day, he was secretly transferred to the Xinnongchun School. The family lost contact with him until he was released after a two-week detention. He was detained for a second time for 20 days in October by officers from the Xinhualu Police Station, and his home was searched.

He and his wife were arrested in October 2001 by the Zhucheng City Police Department after sightseeing in Beijing. Cao Jinhui, deputy director of the Political and Security Division of the police department, said, "Sightseeing? Why are you sightseeing at this time? (The CCP celebrates their ascension to power in China on October 1) They were sent to a detention center and detained. Mr. Dong was forced to work in the detention center. As a result, his fingers had decayed almost to the bone when he was released a month later.

The couple was locked up by the village committee after finishing their detention. They were allowed to go home for meals at the beginning. Later, Yu Yansheng and Zhou Yongxin, director of the management district, ordered them to be locked in two empty rooms with doors and windows sealed with metal bars. They were not allowed to use the bathroom outside. Meals were brought to them by his mother who was over seventy. They were detained there for almost a month. None of the members of the village committee visited them.

During the constant harassment the following years, his father, mother, and elder brother passed away. Under overwhelming sadness of the loss of family members and the constant pressure from the Zhucheng 610 Office, he gave up the practice for some time, although in his heart he knew the teachings of Falun Gong, and the principles of Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance were righteous and that it was good for the body and mind as well as for society. He finally resumed the practice in the beginning of 2004 after seriously thinking about it.

He made a living by selling goods at the Longzheng Market. He was arrested while working on January 23, 2004 of the Chinese Traditional Calendar. The Zhucheng 610 Office ordered his arrest. In the detention center, guard Sun Guoji beat him on his head until it swelled and was deformed. While beating him, Sun scolded, "I cannot leave one side of you so let me beat the other side." The guards pulled off his shoes and trampled his calves and ankles with their leather boots.

In March 30, 2009, Chen Hong led a group of officers to arrest Mr. Dong at his home. They took him to a brainwashing center where they threatened him, deprived him of sleep by pounding on him with rubber clubs and sprayed water on his face whenever he closed his eyes. The guards took three shifts to harass him until his mind became muddled.

His mind and body were shocked again when five local practitioners were sentenced to prison on April 9, 2010. At the same time, officers Chen Hong and Fan Zhuoben kept harassing him at home, and threatened him to make him give up practicing. They made the whole family uneasy. He was pushed to the limit. He was working an odd job in a small factory when he suddenly lost consciousness on the afternoon of July 12, 2010. He was rushed to hospital but was unable to be saved. He was survived by his wife, his daughter in high school, and his seven-year-old son.

Villagers saw how the Dong family benefited in mind and body and were healthy when practicing Falun Gong. The CCP has been torturing practitioners with the goal of forcing them to give up their practice, to have them follow its will and serve its purpose. Many practitioners have died of persecution and had their families broken apart.