(Minghui.org) A Lindian County, Heilongjiang Province, resident serving time for his faith in Falun Gong is in critical condition, yet the prison authorities have refused to release him on medical parole. Mr. Wang Fengchen’s wife, Ms. Leng Xiuxia, is also imprisoned for their shared faith.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an ancient spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
The Hulan Prison informed Mr. Wang’s family on May 31, 2020, that he has been coughing for two months and also often felt dizzy very. At his family’s request, the guards sent Mr. Wang to the prison clinic that evening. The doctor said he had pneumonia and prescribed him some antibiotics.
On June 18, the prison clinic proposed to send Mr. Wang to a bigger hospital under the administration of the prison and asked for a 10,000 yuan deposit from his family. Pressed by the family, the clinic doctor revealed that Mr. Wang was having a serious lung infection.
After seeing that Mr. Wang’s condition still didn’t improve after receiving treatments at the prison hospital, his family demanded to send him to an outside hospital for a comprehensive checkup and better treatment.
Before approving his family’s request, the prison authorities forced them to sign a liability waiver on June 26, claiming that the prison wouldn’t be held accountable if Mr. Wang died in prison and that he must be returned to the prison after the checkup.
Mr. Wang’s family sent him to a cancer hospital, but he kept vomiting blood during the checkup, rendering him unable to finish all examinations, including bronchoscopy. Due to the coronavirus epidemic, the hospital couldn’t admit Mr. Wang but asked him to come back to the hospital on July 2 to finish the examinations. Mr. Wang was sent back to the hospital that day.
Mr. Wang's condition became critical on June 30 and he was taken to the cancer hospital for emergency treatment.
Around 8 p.m. on July 1, the prison informed his family that he had difficulty breathing and was being treated in the hospital. The guards demanded that Mr. Wang’s family pay his medical fees. His family rushed to the hospital and saw blood all over Mr. Wang’s nose and mouth. The doctor said he could die at any time.
Mr. Wang’s family applied for medical parole for him on July 2 but their appeal was rejected by the guards. Their excuse was that they didn’t have a firm diagnosis for Mr. Wang and that the cancer hospital wasn’t qualified to issue such a diagnostic report. The prison guards said to Mr. Wang’s family that he had to finish serving the remaining six months of his term, even if he dies in prison before the end of his term.
Four days later, Mr. Wang vomited blood again and couldn’t breathe. The cancer hospital issued a notice of critical condition for him.
His family went to the prison to demand his release again on July 8 but were turned down one more time.
Arrests and Sentencing
Mr. Wang, in his 50s, worked as a geography teacher at Lindian County First Middle School before his arrest. His wife, Ms. Leng Xiuxia, 52, was also a teacher at the same school.
The police suspected the couple and three other practitioners of hanging up banners bearing information after Falun Gong. They followed and monitored the five practitioners for six months before arresting them on the afternoon of January 18, 2017.
Mr. Wang and Ms. Leng appeared in the Lindian County Court on October 11, 2017. Mr. Wang was later sentenced to four years in Hulan Prison and Ms. Leng to an unknown term in Heilongjiang Women's Prison. They were each fined 30,000 yuan.
Past Persecution
Because they refuse to give up their faith, Mr. Wang and Ms. Leng have been arrested and detained several times in the past 21 years.
Ms. Leng was arrested and detained in December 1999 for 12 days for displaying a banner that read “Falun Dafa is good” and writing a letter to the then-prime minister Zhu Rongji to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. The police and staff members from her workplace harassed her constantly after that.
The couple was arrested in June 2000 after being reported for photocopying Falun Gong teachings. At Lindian Detention Center, the guards forced Ms. Leng to walk under the scorching sun between 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day, while wearing heavy handcuffs and shackles. She felt thirsty and dizzy and had blisters on her ankles. The guards would beat her and verbally abuse her if she stopped walking due to fatigue. The authorities extorted 3,000 yuan from her before releasing her three months later.
Ms. Leng was arrested again on October 1, 2000, when she went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. While Mr. Wang was still in custody, Ms. Leng’s mother had to help care for their seven-year-old daughter.
Ms. Leng was detained for 14 months and had 1,000 yuan extorted from her before she was released. The authorities continued to monitor her afterward. The middle school they worked at also suspended their salary and demoted Ms. Leng during their detention.
The couple was arrested one more time two months after their release. Ms. Leng was given three years of forced labor at Harbin Women’s Drug Rehab Center. She was tortured and forced to do unpaid labor.
The couple filed a criminal complaint in 2015 against Jiang Zemin, the former head of the Chinese Communist Party who ordered the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999. They were arrested again, had their home ransacked, and were detained briefly.
Related reports:
Five Teachers Arrested for Putting Up Falun Gong Banners, One in Critical Condition While Imprisoned
49 Falun Gong Practitioners Arrested Before Chinese New Year in Harbin
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