(Minghui.org)
Name: Tian ZiqiangChinese Name: 田自强Gender: MaleAge: 76City: QiqiharProvince: HeilongjiangOccupation: Tax bureau employeeDate of Death: Early 2024Date of Most Recent Arrest: August 2023Most Recent Place of Detention: Local detention center
A 76-year-old resident of Qiqihar, Heilongjiang Province, died in early 2024, months after he was detained for his faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Mr. Tian Ziqiang met up with his daughter-in-law in Tiefeng District in August 2023 to discuss some private family matters. He was recorded by surveillance cameras, which the police used as evidence to allege that “he had gone out to promote Falun Gong.” He was soon arrested and had his blood, urine samples, and fingerprints collected. Despite a high blood pressure reading of 200 mmHg (the normal range is 120 or lower), he was taken to a local detention center. Eight days later, he was released after paying a bail bond of 3,000 yuan.
The police in Mr. Tian’s home district of Jianhua, and their counterparts in Tiefeng District, kept harassing him while he was on bail. His blood pressure remained elevated. He had a stroke in early 2024 and died (exact time unknown).
Prior to his last persecution episode, Mr. Tian had been repeatedly arrested over the past two decades for upholding his faith. He was given a one-year labor camp term in 2001, and his employer, the Qiqihar City Tax Bureau, suspended his pay during his detention. He was terminated from his job after he was sentenced to three years in prison in 2007. His wife, also a Falun Gong practitioner, was sentenced to a five-year term at the same time. Their son had just started high school at the time and was not allowed to visit them in prison. The police also harassed the teen boy at home from time to time. His maternal grandfather was so traumatized by Mr. Tian and his wife’s prison sentences that he fell and broke his leg. He passed away not long after his daughter was released from prison.
Mr. Tian filed a criminal complaint on June 28, 2015, against former Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin, for ordering the persecution of Falun Gong, only to be arrested a few more times and subjected to horrific tortures while in custody.
Given One Year of Forced Labor in 2001
Mr. Tian went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong on January 1, 2001, and was arrested at Tiananmen Square. After eight days of detention in the Haidian District Detention Center in Beijing, he was picked up by Xu Huan, deputy chief of the Wenhua Road Police Station in Qiqihar. Xu and his officers, including Gao Weixing, interrogated Mr. Tian at the police station and confiscated the 1,000 yuan he had with him, along with his Seiko watch and a gold pen, which were never returned.
That night, the police opened a window to freeze Mr. Tian for four hours while he was wearing thin layers of clothing. They then cuffed his hands to a heating pipe. A young police officer on the night shift tightened the handcuffs so tight that it caused unbearable pain to Mr. Tian. The handcuffs were not removed until 9 a.m. the next day, when the police transferred him to the Qiqihar City Second Detention Center. His fingers were all numb and he couldn’t hold them together until three months later.
After two months in the detention center, Mr. Tian was given one year of forced labor and taken to the Fuyu Labor Camp by then-police-chief Hu Bin and officer You Chiqi. He was forced to do manual labor there, including digging drainage ditches and building foundations, as well as carrying heavy sacks from one location to another.
15 Days of Detention in 2002
About eight officers from the Hubin Police Station, including deputy chiefs surnamed Zhang, Tian Chunli, and Niu Gang, broke into Mr. Tian’s home in April 2002. They raided the residence without a search warrant and confiscated some Falun Gong informational materials, along with other valuables. Zhang revealed that a higher-up had ordered every police station to arrest 50 Falun Gong practitioners.
Mr. Tian was made to sit on the cold cement floor at the police station for an entire night. Deputy chief Zhang kicked and punched him. Three days later, he was transferred to the Qiqihar City Second Detention Center to serve a 15-day detention.
Twice Arrested in 2006, Second Arrest Followed by a 3-Year Prison Sentence
Officer Chi Qi from the Wenhua Road Police Station showed up at Mr. Tian’s home on April 3, 2006, and ordered him to go to the police station. He refused to comply, so Chi called in more officers. They raided his home and took both he and his wife to the police station.
Mr. Tian’s wife was released that night, and he was taken to the Qiqihar City First Detention Center, where he was forced to roll toothpicks every day. He was not allowed to sleep if he did not finish his quota. He was released 40 days later.
A group of officers from the Zhengyang Police Station deceived Mr. Tian into opening the door on the night of August 25, 2006, by claiming to be checking his water meter. The lead officer was Zhao Shimin. They raided Mr. Tian’s home and videorecorded everything.
Mr. Tian and his wife were both taken to the police station. He refused to answer the police’s questions and was taken to the Longsha District Police Department. As soon as he was brought in, officer Zhao instructed other officers to cuff Mr. Tian’s hands behind his back and hang him up with from a high beam using ropes linked to the handcuffs, so his feet were off the ground. They did not let him down until 20 minutes later, only to hang him up again a short while later. They repeated this torture many times. Mr. Tian was in excruciating pain. During the hang-up torture, the officers also lit cigarettes near his nose, smeared mustard oil into his nostrils, and tickled the soles of his feet, to make him suffer even more.
The torture did not stop until hours later, around evening time. After a brief break, the police resumed the torture session. One officer came up with a new torture method. He twisted Mr. Tian’s hands behind his back and forced him to kneel down, before tying his hands and feet together behind his back. The officer then inserted a thick wooden bar into the cavity between his tied limbs and his back, with the two ends of the bar resting on two tables. His mid-section curved down and an officer stomped on it to make him suffer even more. This torture continued until late at night.
Mr. Tian refused to admit “guilt” during an interrogation session, and officer Liu Fushan kicked him about the head with his leather shoes. At the time, Mr. Tian had his hands cuffed behind his back, affixed to a pipe on the ground, and was unable to move at all. Liu kicked him repeatedly. His head bled so badly that his hair was stuck together by the blood. His mouth and ears also bled. Liu then un-cuffed him and ordered him to wash off the blood, but he couldn’t stand or walk steadily. Deputy chief Tian Chunli happened to come in and asked what had happened. Before he got a chance to talk, Liu said, “he hit his head on the wall.”
During his five days of detention at the Zhengyang Police Station, Mr. Tian wasn’t given water to drink, and wasn’t allowed to use the restroom. Every night his hands were cuffed, and they became extremely swollen. He was transferred to the Qiqihar City First Detention Center on August 31, 2006. An inmate there once kicked him on the arm, which was still healing from the wounds he sustained at the police station. The wound burst open and blood splattered all over the bed.
Mr. Tian and his wife were both sentenced by the Longsha District Court in July 2007, with him receiving a three-year term, and his wife five years. Because he refused to have his picture taken or blood drawn, a detention center guard surnamed Fang instructed an inmate to hold him tight and take photos of him. Another guard named Wang Shuli directed inmates to hold his hands down to draw blood. The guards then put a special torture device (similar to handcuffs but more damaging to the victim) and shackles on him, with the device and shackles linked in a way so that he could not straighten his back or relieve himself on his own. This torture continued for three days, until one day in October 2007, when he was admitted to the Tailai Prison. The day before his prison transfer, he requested to see his wife, but Guo Zhenchuan, vice director of the detention center, rejected him on the grounds that the couple both practiced Falun Gong.
Because Mr. Tian refused to renounce his faith, the prison guards forced him to stand motionless every day from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. (which was later extended to 10 p.m., and then midnight). This standing torture lasted two straight months, causing his legs to become extremely swollen. He was only given steamed buns to eat for eight months in 2008, with no vegetables or meat at all. Sometimes he was not even given water to wash down the dry steamed buns.
The guards had two inmates watch Mr. Tian every night for about three weeks in the spring of 2009, and did not allow him to sleep at all. As soon as he closed his eyes, the two inmates would pull his pillow to wake him up. Head inmate Song Changchun even sat at his bed and punched him on the bed when he dozed off. Then at dawn, he had to do hard labor. He was so sleepy that he sometimes fell while standing.
During the wintertime, the guards had Mr. Tian wash and store vegetables in the cellar. It was cold and damp there, and the cotton coat given to him was too thin to keep him warm. He developed knee pain after the long-term standing in the cellar. It became difficult for him to walk up stairs, and one day he couldn’t even move his right knee joint, as it was stuck and frozen. Even after his subsequent release, he had to skip around on his left leg, as he still had trouble with his right knee.
Another Arrest in 2009
Three officers from the Wenhua Road Police Station arrested Mr. Tian in November 2009 and took him to a hotel, part of which was used as a brainwashing center. Li Jiaming and Zhao Ping, heads of the 610 Office in Qiqihar City and Jianhua District, were in charge of the brainwashing center. Mr. Tian was forced to study materials smearing Falun Gong. It is unclear when he was released.
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