A Falun Gong adherent died in northeastern China after experiencing instances of torture, according to Minghui.org, a U.S.-based website that reports on Beijing’s persecution of Falun Gong.
On Oct. 21, Wu Dongsheng, 57, died in Baoqing County, Shuangyashan City, Heilongjiang Province, reported Minghui. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) deprived her of a steady income. She experienced harassment and arrests, eventually developed a stress-related illness.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice that features three core tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, along with five slow-moving exercises. After it was made public in 1992, its following in China grew to 70 million to 100 million people by 1999. Then, the Chinese regime, deeming the practice’s popularity a threat, launched a nationwide persecution campaign to eradicate it.
Wu, born on Sept. 30, 1965, was a former employee of No. 597 Farm under the province’s Farms & Land Reclamation Administration. She had several health issues, including a heart condition, kidney inflammation, and gynecological problems. She claimed that all of the conditions disappeared after she began practicing Falun Gong in September 1998.
However, the CCP’s nationwide campaign against Falun Gong changed her life when a full-blown persecution began in July 1999.
On Sept. 7, 2001, the farm authorities arrested Wu for talking about the persecution of Falun Gong with other residents. She was sent to the Hongxinglong Detention Center.
There, she began a hunger strike in protest of the illegal arrest but was then subject to forced feeding. Her hands were bound to a bedstead; her mouth was forced open with a spoon, and her hair was violently pulled so her head hit the bedboard.
Days later, Wu was sent to a labor camp in the city of Jiamusi.
Upon completion of her term on Jan. 24, 2002, local authorities extended her stay by 37 days for her peaceful non-compliance.
“We can keep you detained indefinitely as long as you practice Falun Gong,” said Chen Jianfu, head of the local political and legal affairs committee, according to Minghui. “We needn’t follow the law when it comes to you guys.”
The local officials released her on March 5 because she continued to hunger strike.
Then, from Sept. 27, 2002, to Sept. 27, 2004, Wu was held in a local indoctrination base in the Qixing Farm, where she again suffered through torture and solitary confinement, and lost four teeth.
On Aug. 26, 2006, Wu was sentenced to serve a 3-year term in a labor camp in Jiamusi for her Falun Gong activities. Guards coerced her into signing five pre-written documents stating that she would renounce her faith in Falun Gong. While imprisoned, she was diagnosed with uterine fibroids.
The last harassment she experienced before her death occurred on May 26, 2021, when officers from Zhennan Police Station came to her house to monitor her activities.
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