(Minghui.org) Mr. Wang started practicing Falun Gong in 1993. The self-cultivation practice helped him quit bad habits, such as drinking, gambling, and seeking prostitutes. His health improved, and his family life became harmonious.
After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began its persecution of Falun Gong, Mr. Wang Sheng, a 70-year-old man in northeastern China, was tortured several times for his faith.
Mr. Wang's latest arrest was in 2014. Police fractured his femur and tailbone in beatings and did not tell his family his whereabouts. He was sentenced to three and a half years in prison.
Even before the persecution began in July 1999, Mr. Wang was harassed and abused by the authorities. He was among the practitioners arrested in Tianjin in the incident that led to the peaceful protest by 10,000 practitioners on April 25, 1999.
Shortly thereafter, plainclothes officers in Gongzhuling, Jilin Province, where Mr. Wang resided, appeared at Falun Gong exercise sites to gather information. Police officials ordered volunteer coordinators at each site to stop doing the exercises. One of the officials also ordered Mr. Wang to report on Falun Gong.
Mr. Wang and other practitioners went to the Jilin Provincial Appeals Bureau in June 1999. He was taken to the police department for questioning the next day, where the chief accused him of not providing information on Falun Gong as ordered.
When Mr. Wang and other practitioners planned to go to Beijing to appeal to the central government, police stopped them at a train station.
From then on, police frequently harassed Mr. Wang at his home. They also took him to the police department for questioning and demanded again that he become an informant, but Mr. Wang refused.
Two people from the police department arrived at Mr. Wang's home one day, claiming that they were from the Appeals Bureau, trying to collect information about Falun Gong. Mr. Wang told them how he benefited from practicing Falun Gong and did not provide information about other practitioners. In response, the police tried to frame Mr. Wang but were unsuccessful.
Going Into Hiding
The CCP officially announced its ban on Falun Gong on July 20, 1999. Mr. Wang and other practitioners went to Changchun, the capital of Jilin Province, to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. They were beaten by police.
Mr. Wang went to Beijing to appeal in October 2000. Police again beat him on Tiananmen Square.
Upon returning home, he was informed that the police had attempted to arrest him several times. He decided to go into hiding to avoid further persecution.
For the next five years, Mr. Wang was destitute and faced constant danger. Sometimes he was out on the streets late at night in below freezing conditions. He stayed for one night at a relative's home and left the next morning to avoid implicating the relative.
Police went to Mr. Wang's home day and night to look for him. His wife would shake in fear whenever she heard a knock at the door.
Once, over 20 officers stormed into one of his relatives' homes late at night. When his relative went to the police station to complain that they had scared their young child, officers beat the relative and drove him out of the station.
The authorities also forced his and his wife's employer to withhold their salaries.
Arrested and Sentenced in 2004
Mr. Wang was at his niece's home on May 24, 2004, when more than 20 officers surrounded the building and broke in to the residence. They pushed Mr. Wang to the ground, handcuffed him, and removed his belt. They confiscated Mr. Wang's mobile phone, his cash, his niece's money, and all her jewelry.
At a detention center, police cuffed Mr. Wang to an “iron chair” in a solitary cell and denied him food and water for three days.
To protest the abuse, Mr. Wang went on a hunger strike. On the thirteenth day, he had blood in his stool and felt extremely dizzy. Inmates could not feel his pulse and called the guards. He was transferred to a hospital, where he was diagnosed with colon cancer. The doctor said he was on the verge of death.
Prison officials called his family the next day and suggested that they prepare for his death. His family took him to a better-equipped hospital in the provincial capital, where he was diagnosed with liver and kidney problems, diabetes, cholecystitis, and colon cancer. Doctors there also told his family to prepare for his funeral. His weight dropped from over 170 pounds to less than 110.
Mr. Wang was in full health before the arrest.
Despite his condition, the authorities sentenced him to three years of forced labor. When Mr. Wang refused to sign the sentencing document, the authorities forced his family to sign in his place.
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