(Minghui.org)
Name: Wang JunyingChinese Name: 王俊英Gender: FemaleAge: 56City: JiaozuoProvince: HenanOccupation: UnknownDate of Death: early August 2023Date of Most Recent Arrest: mid-January 2022Most Recent Place of Detention: unknown
A 56-year-old woman in Jiaozuo City, Henan Province, died in early August 2023, barely a year after she finished serving eight months for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Wang Junying’s passing capped her decades of suffering for upholding her faith. Prior to her latest sentencing, she served two forced labor terms totaling 2.5 years and two prison terms totaling 10.5 years. She endured horrific torture during her incarceration.
Taking up Falun Gong
Ms. Wang lost her mother while a child so she had always dreamed of marrying someone who would spoil her. Her husband, however, was not her dream man. They quarreled all the time and also struggled to make ends meet. After they had a baby girl, Ms. Wang’s mother-in-law refused to care for the child as many grandparents in China would do. She was very upset and the difficulty in life further worsened her health. She struggled to breathe, and her face and lips turned black. She also suffered from hepatoptosis (displacement of the liver).
Her fate changed after she took up Falun Gong in July 1997. All her symptoms gradually disappeared. She also learned to be kinder and more considerate by following Falun Gong’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. She no longer resented her mother-in-law for not babysitting her child and she stopped quarreling with her husband.
Earliest Persecution
Ms. Wang was arrested in fall 1999 after being reported for distributing Falun Gong informational materials. Officer Zhang Zhiyou from the local Xinhua District Police Station broke into her home at around 9 p.m. to arrest her. Her husband was working out of town at the time and their six-year-old daughter was so terrified by the police that she cried non-stop.
The police held Ms. Wang at a detention center for one month and fined her 2,000 yuan. Zhang threatened her not to cause any more trouble to him as he had connections in both the government and mafia and could easily straighten her out.
Given 1.5 Years of Forced Labor in 2000
Ms. Wang decided to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong in 2000. But as soon as she arrived at the local bus station, officer Zhang seized her and took her to a detention center. She managed to unfurl a Falun Gong banner, and the detention center guards put heavy shackles (weighing around 30 pounds) on her. She had trouble walking and her feet festered.
The guards didn’t remove the shackles until they transferred Ms. Wang to the Shibalihe Labor Camp in Zhengzhou (capital city of Henan Province) to serve a 1.5-year term. Only upon her admission there was she was informed of the labor camp term.
The labor camp guards assigned drug addicts to “work on” Ms. Wang and bombarded her with anti-Falun Gong propaganda. She was forced to write a statement renouncing her faith, but she soon wrote a solemn statement to nullify it. In retaliation, the guards put her in isolation for one month. She held firm to her faith and the guards ordered her to do hard labor without pay in a workshop.
In April 2001, the guards told drug addicts that they could beat Ms. Wang if she “caused trouble.” She heard from other inmates that the central government was sending people to inspect the labor camp and that the guards planned to gather all steadfast Falun Gong practitioners in the education department while having the drug addicts and other inmates welcome the inspectors.
On the day of the inspection, Ms. Wang refused to go to the education department to watch videos smearing Falun Gong. Guard Wang Yan asked her why she did not go and she replied that Falun Gong was being wronged. Several drug addicts dragged her to a room and beat her savagely. A guard surnamed Liu said to her after the beating, “You wanted to seek justice for Falun Gong? Didn’t you realize where you are?!”
Ms. Wang did Falun Gong exercises in the courtyard on July 20, 2001 in protest of the persecution. She was dragged inside by several drug addicts and brutally beaten. A few other practitioners yelled, “The drug addicts are beating people!” The guards turned a deaf ear to it. A guard asked Ms. Wang at the breakfast the next morning, “Were you beaten yesterday?” She said yes and the guard signaled the drug addicts to beat her again.
On October 1, 2001, Ms. Wang and other practitioners staged a group protest against the persecution. The drug addicts dragged them to a room and locked the door before beating them savagely. The practitioners then went on a hunger strike and a labor strike in protest. The guards tortured them with various means, but Ms. Wang never gave in.
After Ms. Wang was released in the second half of 2002, she learned that the Xinhua Police Station had raided her home shortly after arresting her in 2000. While she was in detention, her husband didn’t know how to take care of their daughter. He divorced Ms. Wang not long after she returned home.
Given One Year of Forced Labor in 2002
Ms. Wang was arrested again in September or October 2001 and detained for two months. Not long after she was released, officer Zhang ordered her to go to the Xinhua Police Station to do odd jobs for them. She refused to go as she was not an employee there. Zhang used her refusal as an excuse and gave her one year of forced labor.
While being driven to the Shibalihe Labor Camp, Ms. Wang demanded to know the legal basis for the arbitrary forced labor term. Zhang said that he didn’t need any legal basis or paperwork to send Falun Gong practitioners to the labor camps. He blamed her for causing trouble to them because they failed to make the list of police stations of the year for having a steadfast practitioner (Ms. Wang) in their jurisdiction.
Ms. Wang spent her first month at the labor camp in an isolation cell, before being ordered to do hard labor in the workshop.
The labor camp received an order from higher-ups in April 2003 to “transform” all detained practitioners. Ms. Wang and other practitioners were each held in a separate room. Guard Hu Zhaoxia moved Ms. Wang to another room after she refused to renounce Falun Gong. Male guards awaited her in the new room and they threatened her to never walk out of the room if she did not give in.
They then subjected her to a torture dubbed “roasting a whole lamb,” with her hands tied behind her back and the rope looped around her neck before wrapping it around her arms. A long rod was then inserted underneath her arms with both ends resting on bricks placed on two desks on her two sides. The guards then put earbuds in her ears and played anti-Falun Gong propaganda non-stop.
Torture illustration: roasting whole lamb
The guards kept Ms. Wang “roasted” until she could no longer bear the pain and agreed to renounce her faith against her will. Several days later, she wrote a solemn statement to nullify the statement she was forced to make during the torture.
The night she wrote the solemn statement, guard Cui instructed several drug addicts to drag Ms. Wang to a room, where guard Hu Zhaoxia directed them to put her in a straight jacket (see image below). They again put ear buds in her ears and forced her to listen to anti-Falun Gong propaganda. She screamed in pain and they taped her mouth shut. They also slapped her in the face so hard that she felt nauseated. They did not untie the rope until more than ten hours later. By then she had lost feeling in all her limbs.
Torture illustration: straight jacket
Twice Held at a Brainwashing Center for Two Months in Total
Ms. Wang was released at the end of 2003, only to be arrested at work not long afterwards. The Xinhua Police Station officers took her to a brainwashing center located in a police school. Cui Xiaobai of the Jiaozuo City 610 Office was in charge of the brainwashing programming. He forced Ms. Wang and other practitioners to watch anti-Falun Gong propaganda all day long.
One morning Ms. Wang’s eyes wandered away from the TV and an officer surnamed Feng ordered her to stand up. After other practitioners left, he slapped Ms. Wang in the face hard and did not allow her to take a nap. After the afternoon brainwashing session ended, he did not allow her to return to her room and kept her in the TV room overnight. Two people on night duty were assigned to watch her.
Ms. Wang was released one month later but soon taken to the same brainwashing center again in spring 2004. During her one month detention there, Cui and Feng were still around to abuse her.
Sentenced to 6.5 Years Following Arrest in 2007
A group of officers from the Jiaozuo City Police Department followed Ms. Wang to a materials production site one April day in 2007 and arrested her there. They also confiscated two laptops and three printers. The Jiaozuo City Court sentenced her to 6.5 years at an unknown date.
While held at the Xinxiang City Women’s Prison, Ms. Wang was put in solitary confinement four times totaling one year and two months. The solitary cell was 4 meters tall, 2.5 meters long, and 1.5 meters wide. The walls were covered in sponges. It was extremely cold in the winter and suffocating hot in the summer. She was only given an egg-sized corn bun and a half bowl of soup for every meal. In no time she became emaciated. Tong Guorong, a prison official, ordered the guards to keep a loud speaker on during their 8-hour work day, blasting anti-Falun Gong propaganda non-stop. She refused to listen and did Falun Gong exercises instead. The guard on duty directed an inmate to tie her arms up and kept her restrained like that for twenty straight days.
Ms. Wang was released on October 9, 2013. Around 2015, she filed a criminal complaint against former Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin for launching the persecution of Falun Gong that resulted in her repeated detention and torture.
Sentenced to 4 Years Following Arrest in 2015
Ms. Wang was arrested in 2015 (either on August 23 or October 10) after being reported for talking to people about Falun Gong. She was sentenced to four years and served time at the Xinxiang City Women’s Prison. She was again held in solitary confinement and was released in August 2019.
She retired in 2020 and had a monthly pension benefit of around 1,200 yuan. At the end of 2021, however, the local social security office stopped her pension and ordered her to pay back all the benefits that had been issued to her.
Sentenced to 8 Months Following Arrest in 2022
Ms. Wang was arrested again in mid-January 2022 and taken to the Jiaozuo City Detention Center. Due to abuse, she developed severe medical conditions in about one month and was taken to the Jiaozuo City Third People’s Hospital. She was later sentenced to eight months and it was unclear where she served time.
Ms. Wang moved in with a relative after she was released. Years of incarceration and torture had taken a toll on her health. She was diagnosed with breast cancer and was in critical condition several times. She died in early August 2023.
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