Former English Teacher Fired Eight Times and Almost Dies Serving a Seven-Year Prison Term for His Faith
(Minghui.org) Under the totalitarian rule of the Chinese Communist Party, a former middle school English teacher was forced to pay a hefty price for practicing Falun Gong. Mr. Che Hongfei of Yingkou City, Liaoning Province, lost his job eight times and was arrested five times because of his faith. He also served one year of forced labor and seven years in prison. While in custody, he endured relentless force feeding and torture and was on the verge of death.
When Dalian Prison officials released Mr. Che on medical parole in 2008, fearing that he might die there, his muscles were so atrophied that he was unable to move. He also had irregular heartbeat and stomach bleeding. When the warden took him back into custody in 2012 to finish serving the remaining five years of his term, he couldn’t even remember who the warden was.
Mr. Che Hongfei after being released from prison in 2008
After Mr. Che was released in 2017, the police continued to harass him, especially during the “Zero-out” campaign in recent years. But he remained firm in his faith, and by resuming doing Falun Gong exercises, he fully recovered. He found a new job and started a new life.
Brutally Persecuted for Upholding His Faith
Mr. Che, 53, took up Falun Gong in 1998. He credits the practice for helping him quit smoking and get over his addiction to playing Mahjong (a table game). The problem with his digestive system that had bothered him for years also disappeared.
In 2001, two years after the persecution began, Mr. Che’s employer, Hongqi Middle School, organized an anti-Falun Gong petition drive among the students and teachers. Mr. Che refused to sign and tried to explain to his students and colleagues that the persecution is wrong. He was arrested and taken to the Gaizhou City Detention Center. The guards beat him and burned his chin with a lighter. He was later given one year in the Yingkou City Forced Labor Camp. He was released five months later after contracting tuberculosis.
Mr. Che later found a job with the Xiongyue Town High School in the southwest region of the metro Yingkou area. He was arrested again in July 2004 and held at the Bayuquan Detention Center. He held a hunger strike to protest the persecution and was released in 20 days. The school fired him, so he made a living doing private tutoring.
On July 12, 2005, Mr. Che was arrested again for talking to the students about Falun Gong. At the Xiongyue Town Police Department, the police restrained him on a tiger bench and poured cold water over him. He was transferred to the Bayuquan Detention Center, held another hunger strike, and was released in 13 days.
Only four months later, in late October, Mr. Che was again taken to the Bayuquan Detention Center after the police deceived him into going to the Hongqi Town Police Station. He was released on bail after eight days in a hunger strike.
Mr. Che then taught at a private high school in the Yuhong District in Shenyang City (about 120 miles from Yingkou) in February 2006. The principal reported him for talking to his students about Falun Gong. Yuhong District Police Station officers arrested him and took him back to Yingkou, where he was held at the Bayuquan Detention Center. He was sentenced to seven years in prison by the Bayuquan District Court.
Due to his poor health, Dalian Prison refused to accept him and he was taken back to the Bayuquan Detention Center. Instigated by the guards, the inmates there beat him many times. He fell into critical condition and was taken to the hospital for emergency care.
Bayuquan Court staff members went to the hospital and held Mr. Che’s hands to fingerprint his verdict before ordering his family to pick him up. The secretary of the Bayuquan District Discipline Inspection Commission told his family that they wouldn’t be responsible for his health after his release.
The Hongqi Town Police Station arranged for officers to stay in Mr. Che’s home to monitor him around the clock. They even slept next to him. Nine days later, Mr. Che found an opportunity to escape and went to Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province, about 1,700 miles from Yingkou.
For exposing the persecution of Falun Gong, Mr. Che was arrested in Shenzhen around June 2006. Hongqi Town Police Station officers travelled to Shenzhen and escorted him back. He was first held in Dalian Prison and then transferred to Anshan Prison to serve the seven-year term handed down months earlier.
Mr. Che held a hunger strike in the prison for over eight months, during which time the guards force-fed him on a regular basis. They also handcuffed one hand to the bed. When he needed to urinate, an inmate brought him a urinal.
Due to the hunger strike and torture, his tuberculosis recurred, but Anshan Prison authorities still refused to release him. He became emaciated and his muscles atrophied. He also had an irregular heartbeat and stomach bleeding. He was so weak that even talking or opening his eyes was a struggle for him.
Not wanting to bear the responsibility for his possible death, Anshan Prison officials sent him back to Dalian Prison on December 27, 2007. His parents, wife, and mother-in-law learned about his situation and went to Dalian Prison two days later to demand his release. He wasn’t released until April 14, 2008, after his family had made four trips to the prison and insisted on his release. By then, Mr. Che was on the verge of death and had lost his memory.
Cared for by his family, Mr. Che survived and began to recover. But before he fully recovered, the Dalian Prison warden broke into his parent’s home, where he was staying, on January 11, 2012, and took him back to the prison. The warden asked him, “Do you know who I am?” Mr. Che said he did not. Mr. Che’s mother in her 70s tried to stop the prison guards from taking him away, but to no avail.
Mr. Che was released on March 17, 2017, after serving his term, but the police never stopped harassing him, causing him tremendous distress.
Related reports:
The Persecution of Practitioner Che Hongfei from Yingkou City, Liaoning Province