(Minghui.org) It was recently confirmed that a man in Jingning County, Gansu Province, was sentenced to three years and three months for raising awareness of the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of his faith, Falun Gong.
Mr. Wang Shijun was arrested on March 22, 2023, after being reported for talking to pupils about Falun Gong outside a school. The arresting officers from the Jingning County Domestic Security Division took him to the Jingning County Detention Center. It is unclear when he was indicted, tried, or sentenced, but it is known that he has been transferred to Lanzhou Prison and is being denied family visits.
Mr. Wang, a former teacher at the Yanmiao Village School in Bali Town, Jingning County, took up Falun Gong in 1994 and soon regained his health. He became a much more conscientious teacher and was well regarded by his students, their parents, and his colleagues. After the persecution began in 1999, he held firm to his faith and was repeatedly arrested. He served three years of forced labor (November 2000 – November 2003) and was fired from his job in December 2000. After another arrest in March 2005, he was sentenced to prison (exact term unclear). He was tortured almost to death and then released ahead of time. His wife struggled to care for their children and elderly parents while he was in custody. She developed rheumatism and was in pain all year long. She passed away at an unknown date.
Targeted Before Official Start of the Persecution
The Chinese Communist Party established the 610 Office on June 10, 1999, before formally launching a nationwide campaign against Falun Gong a month later on July 20. The 610 Office is given power to override the law enforcement and judicial systems in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners.
Zhu from the Jingning County 610 Office showed up at Mr. Wang’s school in mid-June 1999 and asked him a lot of questions, such as when he attended which lectures given by the founder of Falun Gong. Days later, Wang Bin (no relation to Mr. Wang) from the Bali Town Board of Education showed up at Mr. Wang’s office and confiscated Falun Gong materials he had there. On June 22, 1999, authorities in Jingning County began a mass raid of local Falun Gong practitioners’ homes. Vice captain Liu Wenfeng of the Jingning County Domestic Security Division confiscated Mr. Wang’s Falun Gong books and other materials at noon that day.
Mr. Wang was assigned to proctor a final exam on July 10, 1999. The board of education dispatched three people to watch him that day.
On July 20, 1999, the communist regime formally announced that anyone practicing Falun Gong would be persecuted. Officer Liu Xinyu arrested Mr. Wang at home and took him to the local lockup, where he saw many other detained practitioners.
The police later handed Mr. Wang over to the Bali Town Police Station. He was held there for ten days before being moved to a room in the board of education. He wasn’t released until the end of the summer.
Mr. Wang’s wife, Ms. Wang Guojin, was also arrested around the same time for practicing Falun Gong and held in the local government building. The couple’s young children and their elderly parents were left to fend for themselves and deal with the busy farming season.
After Mr. Wang’s release, captain Wu Wenzheng of the Jingning County Domestic Security Division often went to his school and ordered him to write thought reports.
Arrested in February 2000 for Appealing in Beijing
Mr. Wang went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong in February 2000 and was arrested. He was taken to the Gansu Province’s Liaison Office in Beijing. About five days later, captain Wu, officer Yan Guosuo, and another man came to pick him up. Wu searched his bag and confiscated a letter he wrote to the central government, calling for an end to the persecution. The group then boarded a train back to Gansu.
As soon as they arrived in Lanzhou (the capital city of Gansu Province), Mr. Wang was put in a police cruiser and driven to the local lockup in Jingning County. The detention fee of 265 yuan was deducted from his pay. The county secretary, Li Xuefeng, held a meeting and announced that his pay would be suspended for the rest of the year. He was not released until May 2000.
Mr. Wang was still forced to work in the summer of 2000, without pay.
Given Three Years of Forced Labor Following Another Arrest in November 2000
Mr. Wang delivered Falun Gong materials to the Yanmiao Village Committee in November 2000. The committee turned the materials over to his school. The next day, principal Li Changsheng notified the board of education, which called the police. Captain Wu and secretary Chen Shangkong rushed to Mr. Wang’s school and arrested him.
Wu restrained Mr. Wang in a metal chair, and he and other officers interrogated him for four straight days. He was not allowed to sleep. He then suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning and lost consciousness for several hours.
In December 2000, three people, including secretary Jing Zhongzheng and accountant Wang Guozhu (who happened to Mr. Wang’s wife’s brother) from the board of education came to the lockup to announce that he had been fired from his job but would be given back the pay suspended in 2000.
Mr. Wang was then given three years of forced labor. The Ping’antai Labor Camp doctor found he had lung infection and refused to admit him. Wu took him to a hospital, but they, too, said he had a lung infection. The 147-yuan exam fee was deducted from his pay.
In April 2001, Wu managed to get the labor camp to admit Mr. Wang even though he was found to have the same lung infection in another checkup that month.
Tortured in Labor Camp
Mr. Wang was punched on the face by the head inmate on his first day in the labor camp when he tried to clarify the facts about Falun Gong.
The inmates took turns monitoring Mr. Wang around the clock, usually in pairs. He was not allowed to talk to other detained Falun Gong practitioners or do the Falun Gong exercises. When he once greeted another practitioner, head inmate Lai Gengcheng kicked him on the chest, which hurt for the next few months. He was also made to wipe the windows or mop the floor when non-practitioner inmates were taking a nap.
A 20-year-old inmate surnamed Ma was assigned to monitor Mr. Wang in the fall of 2001. Mr. Wang was required to do the same amount of hard labor as Ma. He couldn’t keep up and Ma punched him on the chest and abdomen every day, sometimes twice a day. He estimated that Ma beat him at least 100 times in a few months. Ma said he didn’t want to do what he did but feared being beaten himself by the head inmate if he didn’t “do his job.”
Mr. Wang’s health declined over time. He sometimes felt he was about to pass out if he stood a bit longer. One night an instructor ordered him to take an unknown drug. He refused and was taken to another cell to have his hands cuffed behind his back to a bunk bed. He then lost consciousness. When he woke up, he found himself in bed with a labor camp doctor checking his pulse and breathing.
The instructor kept him cuffed to the bed, but with his hands in front of him. He was only given half a steamed bun per meal. The inmate assigned to monitor him felt bad and secretly gave him another bun. His hands became extremely swollen. The instructor eventually removed the handcuffs eight days later. By then he had not had a bowel movement for eight days.
After he was taken back to his cell, an inmate who passed by commented how emaciated “that old man” was. Mr. Wang was only 45 at the time, but he’d been reduced to just skin and bone due to the relentless torture.
The forced labor Mr. Wang and other practitioners, regardless of age, were ordered to do included all kinds of manual work, from carting away fertilizer to raising livestock. They were punched and kicked when they failed to keep up and given very little to eat.
In the spring of 2003, when the ground was still frozen, Mr. Wang was forced to dig holes for saplings. Head inmate Wang Gang beat him every day because he was so slow. He developed a stomachache and had diarrhea. The guards then took him to a hospital but forced him to work and tortured him again after he got a bit better.
One night Mr. Wang was taken to the washroom, where he was made to bend over at 45 degrees with his head pressed against the wall. He was forced to remain in that position for several hours before two inmates took him back to the cell and forced him to stand so that he could not sleep. When day broke, he was forced to do hard labor again.
A guard once took Mr. Wang to an office and slapped him in the face for more than an hour. After one hand got tired, he took a break before switching to the other hand to slap Mr. Wang again.
After Mr. Wang was released in November 2004, he learned from his wife that she had been arrested in early 2003. The police demanded 2,500 yuan in exchange for her release. His father ended up selling his cow to pay the fine to get her released.
Sentenced to Prison Following Arrest in 2005
Mr. Wang was arrested again in March 2005 and sentenced to prison. There were three versions of his prison sentence submitted to Minghui.org: three years, three and a half years, and four years. The exact term remains to be investigated.
While serving time in Tianshui Prison, Mr. Wang was tortured like he was in the labor camp, so his health continued to worsen. He became so weak that he couldn’t hold a broom to sweep the floor or speak in audibly. The prison then summoned his local government official to pick him up.
Two officers harassed Mr. Wang at home five times over the next few years. The Gansu Province Prison Bureau also twice dispatched people to his home to see if he still held firm to his faith.
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