‘Disgusting and Inhumane’: Sen. Scott Condemns CCP Over Death of Falun Gong Practitioner While in Custody

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) speaks about his opposition to S. 1, the "For The People Act" in Washington, on June 17, 2021. (Joshua Roberts/Getty Images)

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) has condemned the Chinese communist regime for its persecution of a 65-year-old Falun Gong practitioner and mother, who died in custody after being arrested simply for practicing her spiritual beliefs.

Ji Yunzhi died on March 21 after being tortured while in custody, 48 days after she was put in a detention center in Bairin Left Banner, in northern China’s Inner Mongolia region, according to Minghui.org, a U.S.-based website that documents the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of Falun Gong. She is survived by her husband and two sons, one of whom is U.S. resident Simon Zhang.

“My heart breaks for Simon and his father dealing with this tragic and senseless loss,” Scott said in a March 29 statement.

“Beijing’s gross campaign against Falun Gong practitioners has gone on for far too long, and its latest victim is an innocent woman who was simply living out her beliefs in the face of Communist China’s oppressive authoritarian regime.”

Ji Yunzhi with her son Simon Zhang in an undated photo. (Sen. Scott's office)

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice that features moral teachings based on three core tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, along with a set of slow-moving exercises. The discipline surged in popularity in China during the 1990s, with 70 million to 100 million practitioners by the end of the decade, according to estimates.

In 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) deemed that popularity a threat to its control, and began a nationwide persecution campaign to eradicate the practice.

Since then, millions of adherents have been thrown into jails, labor camps, detention centers, and other facilities, where they are subjected to torture, brainwashing, and organ harvesting.

“It is no secret that brutal human rights abuses like this regularly occur in Communist China, and that Xi Jinping’s regime regularly imprisons and tortures innocent people,” Scott said.

Death in Custody

According to Minghui, following Ji’s death, her family hurried to the hospital where her body lay. However, local police officers denied their request to let them view her body. Though kept outside the door, the family members could see her esophagus was cut open and her face and shoulder were stained with blood.

Meanwhile, local authorities mobilized a large number of police officers to guard Ji’s body, Minghui said. Family members said the officers were there to conceal evidence of abuse and to prevent them from examining or photographing her body.

Prior to her death, Ji suffered severe beatings by guards and other inmates at the detention center, which almost killed her, according to Minghui.

“If I end up with death,” Ji once told her cellmates, “I must have died from persecution,” Minghui reported.

Scott said that Chinese Communist Party “thugs” had previously “lied to Simon’s family and claimed they weren’t torturing his mom.”

Chinese authorities also refused to allow Ji to go home to be with her husband in her final days, the senator said.

“It’s disgusting and inhumane,” he said.

Reenactment of one of the torture methods employed by Chinese officials to coerce Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their faith.
(Minghui.org)

Prior to her recent detention, Ji had previously been sent to labor camps in Inner Mongolia in 2001 and 2008, where she suffered various forms of mistreatment and torture, including prolonged electrocution, according to Minghui.

Scott hopes that Ji’s case and others like hers can serve as a “wakeup call” to all U.S. companies doing business in communist China, such as Intel, Nike, Coca-Cola, Delta, and Wall Street hedge funds.

“Any company that continues to work in Communist China is funneling money to the regime and funding these atrocities,” he said.

The Chinese regime’s more than two-decades-long suppression of Falun Gong adherents has been described by experts as a genocide.

There are no signs that the persecution is abating. Data compiled by Minghui show that 782 adherents were detained or harassed simply for their spiritual beliefs during the first two months this year, including 33 aged 80 and older.

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the number of Ji’s offspring. She has two sons. The Epoch Times regrets the error.