(Minghui.org) After two decades of harassment and living under pressure due to the persecution of his faith in Falun Gong, a Baoding City, Hebei Province resident passed away on February 20, 2019, at the age of 63.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual and meditation discipline that has been targeted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Taking Up Falun Gong
Mr. Wang Bingyi, a small business owner, took up Falun Gong in August 1997. He went to a local park every day at 5 a.m. to do one hour of the Falun Gong exercises and many of his ailments soon disappeared. He also quit smoking, drinking and gambling.
The spiritual teachings of Falun Gong also transformed him into a better person. He found a high end cellphone on the street one day in 1998. He displayed it at his vendor booth and waited for the owner to come. When the owner offered to give him 500 yuan as a reward, he politely declined.
At another time, he found a briefcase, which contained a driver’s license, 600 yuan in cash, a check of 200,000 yuan, and two chemical factory seals. He also waited for the owner to come and returned it. When the owner wanted to give him 600 yuan as a token of appreciation, Mr. Wang said the owner should thank Falun Gong as he wouldn’t have returned the briefcase had he not learned the practice.
Impressed by the changes in him, about thirty people in his town also took up Falun Gong.
Targeted for Upholding His Faith
After the communist regime ordered the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, Mr. Wang was treated as a key figure by the authorities. The township officials harassed him at home every day, ordered him to turn in his Falun Gong books and write statements to renounce Falun Gong. The officials also secretly monitored his daily life, fearing that he would go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.
A group of police officers led by Zhao Hongxiang and Liu Guishuan broke into Mr. Wang’s home at around 10 p.m. on January 13, 2008. Without showing their IDs or a search warrant, they searched his bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and balcony, as well as his comforter, pillow and under his bed.
One officer held Mr. Wang and didn’t allow him to move. He insulted him and blamed him for trying to “overthrow the Party.” After two hours, Mr. Wang’s dozens of Falun Gong books, informational materials, several thousands of yuan in cash, as well as other valuables worth 15,000 yuan, were confiscated.
Without letting him put on his shoes, the officers dragged him downstairs from his apartment on the fifth floor and shoved him into the police car.
Mr. Wang was first taken to the local police department and then transferred to the Lingxixiang Police Station in the middle of the night. The police forced him to squat and lift his arms up, which were still handcuffed.
While interrogating Mr. Wang, officer Liu kicked his legs and ankles. Officer Zhao bragged on the side, “We can be more loose with him,” meaning that they could beat him however they would like without worrying about consequences. Another officer added, “We will beat you to death if you don’t cooperate with us. We can throw your body into the ditch and no one would see it.”
Mr. Wang refused to comply. When he put down his arms due to fatigue, Liu kept pulling his handcuffs. The cuffs cut into his flesh and the pain was excruciating.
After two hours of torture, Mr. Wang was exhausted and his legs were covered with bruises. He tried to persuade the officers to stop torturing him, as good and bad would be rewarded accordingly. One of the officers said to him, “Are we transforming you or are you transforming us?”
The officers continued to torture him until dawn. Mr. Wang was unable to stand after squatting for the entire night. His arms and wrists were also numb and yet painful. He felt his body was collapsing. Unable to get any information from him, the officers were very angry and verbally abused Falun Gong and its founder.
In the morning, Mr. Wang was taken back to the district police department. Liu tied him to a chair and assigned two officers to monitor him. By 10 a.m., his legs were so swollen that he was unable to walk. The officers then brought him to an office and asked him to recognize local Falun Gong practitioners from a series of photos on the computer. As he still refused to comply, the officers sent him to the district detention center.
During the nearly two weeks of detention, the swelling in Mr. Wang’s legs never went away.
The police interrogated him several times during that time and asked him to provide information about other practitioners. They slapped him in the face and verbally abused him when he remained silent. They also ordered him to kneel down. When he refused, they kicked him in the legs and knocked him down. He still refused to say a word.
During Mr. Wang’s detention, the officers also constantly harassed and intimidated his wife. They asked her whether she practiced Falun Gong, which practitioners she and her husband had contact with, and whether Mr. Wang was doing anything in exposing the persecution. She also refused to answer.
The police later gave Mr. Wang two years of forced labor. While taking him to the Balizhuang Forced Labor Camp, Mr. Wang questioned Liu, “What law have I violated? Have you informed my family of the labor camp term? You are committing a crime by persecuting me.” One officer stopped him from talking.
While in the car, Mr. Wang started feeling waves of dizziness and nausea. When they arrived at the labor camp, he threw up and his face was sallow.
After an examination, the labor camp doctor found that he had extremely high blood pressure and fast heartbeat, and refused to accept him. The doctor said, “He is already like this and yet you are sending him here. You’d better take him away right now.”
Mr. Wang’s condition persisted after the police took him back to the detention center. He remained very dizzy and was unable to eat and sleep. He felt very weak and didn’t have a bowel movement for a week.
Fearing that he might die in the detention center, the guards also blamed the police for keeping him there. Still not wanting to release Mr. Wang, officer Zhao took him to do another physical examination, only to find that his condition was very serious.
At the same time, Mr. Wang’s mother, who is in her 70s, heard about his condition. She went to the police station to seek his release. Officer Liu lied that her son was doing fine and they would release him in a few days.
Instead, the police went to his other relatives and attempted to have them persuade him into submission. Believing the police’s smearing of Mr. Wang, his uncle went to the detention center and asked him to kneel down to admit his wrongdoing and write statements to renounce Falun Gong. When Mr. Wang resisted, his uncle verbally abused him, kicked him, and knocked him down.
Eventually, his family was forced to pay the police 2,000 yuan in exchange for his release.
The police continued to monitor Mr. Wang when he went back to work at his vendor stand. Officer Liu one day showed the photos of three women to Mr. Wang and asked him to identify who they were in exchange for a monetary reward. Mr. Wang refused.
Continued Harassment
The police came to harass Mr. Wang again in March 2008. After Mr. Wang was forced to report to the police station, the police asked him again what practitioners he had contact with. He was kept at the police station for a day before being allowed to go home.
In July 2008, one month before the Beijing Olympics, the police attempted to confiscate Mr. Wang’s ID. He refused to turn it in. The officers initially said they would return it in a few days. They stayed at his place for a long time in an attempt to persuade him, but Mr. Wang refused to give in.
Four staff members of the residential committee came to harass Mr. Wang again the next day. They claimed that they saw Mr. Wang distributing Falun Gong informational materials the night before and threatened to report him to the police.
Seeing that Mr. Wang wasn’t moved by their threats, one female staff member said, “If you are having any difficulty with your life or business, just let me know and I will help you.” Mr. Wang responded, “Thank you for your offer. I would really appreciate it if you could stop harassing me.”
That officer said, “As long as you don’t cause trouble for us and don’t go out of town, we will leave you alone. If you do need to go out, you need to get our permission first. If we can’t find you, we will lose our jobs.”
The same people came to Mr. Wang’s business the next day and they became very nervous not seeing Mr. Wang there. They stayed around and waited until Mr. Wang showed up.
On the third day, another four staff members of the residential committee came to ask for Mr. Wang’s ID, in an attempt to prevent him from going to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. He refused again.
The staffers and officers kept harassing him every day until the end of the Olympics. They also harassed Mr. Wang’s son and asked him to prevent him from going out.
The authorities harassed him again in October 2015 and April 2016 for filing a criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin, the former head of the communist regime who ordered the persecution of Falun Gong. The officers interrogated him, took his photos, and attempted to force him to write a statement promising not to file a lawsuit again.
Mr. Wang was targeted again in the massive harassment of local Falun Gong practitioners in August 2017.
The long-term harassment and mental pressure took a toll on his health. He suffered multiple heart attacks and was hospitalized. Despite his poor health condition, he struggled to continue working at his business to support the family. He passed away on February 20, 2019.
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