Refusing To Give Up Beliefs, Chinese Doctor Dies After Being Beaten by Policemen

Falun Gong practitioners march from the U.S. Capitol to the Washington Monument to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Chinse regime's persecution of the practice on July 18, 2019. (Larry Dye/The Epoch Times)

At least 27 Falun Gong practitioners died due to persecution in China from January to May 2020, according to data collected by Minghui.org, a website that records first-hand information about the ongoing suppression campaign in China.

The Chinese regime has persecuted Falun Gong—a spiritual practice with moral teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance—since July 20, 1999. Thousands of adherents have been detained in prisons, labor camps, brainwashing centers, and psychiatric wards in an effort to force them to renounce their faith, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center.

In June this year, several more Chinese practitioners were tortured to death in their hometowns, according to Minghui.org.

One of the casualties was 66-year-old Dr. Wang. She died of a hemorrhagic stroke on July 2, only 10 days after she was severely beaten by police who were attempting to force her to give up her beliefs in Falun Gong.

Because of the regime’s tight control of information and brutal rule, people outside the prisons—including the practitioners’ families—often do not know the true situation of detained Falun Gong practitioners.

Over the past 21 years, Falun Gong practitioners around the world, together with government leaders and human rights activists, have asked repeatedly for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to end the persecution.

Dr. Wang’s Story

Wang Shukun was a therapeutic doctor at Hailin Township Hospital in Hailin city in northeastern China’s Heilongjiang Province. In recent months, she stayed at home due to the CCP virus outbreak.

Dr. Wang’s husband, Yu Xiaopeng, said local police frequently attempted to force her to give up her beliefs.

According to Minghui.org, Wang was detained in August 2010, and the police raided her house and forced her family to pay 10,000 yuan ($1,430) before they released her.

In late June, Wang received a phone call from Han Yan, the Chinese Communist Party leader of the hospital, who asked her to go to the workplace. Wang told her husband that she thought the hospital was calling her back to work.

However, instead of asking her to resume working, a group of police from the No.1 police station of Hailin were waiting for her there and requested her to give up her beliefs.

Because Wang refused the request, the police started to beat her severely for several hours, and threatened that they would detain her again.

When Wang was released, her husband saw she had bruises in several places on her body, one of her knees was broken, and all her clothes were wet due to heavy sweating.

Her husband said Wang was very stressed because of the torture and threats afterward.

On the evening of July 1, Wang started to have symptoms of a hemorrhagic stroke. Hours later, she passed away at 4 a.m. on July 2. Her body was cremated at the Hailin Funeral Home on July 4.

“My wife is innocent. My wife died of injustice,” Yu cried badly before Wang’s body was cremated.

Yu said that the police officers from the No.1 police station threatened him to keep silent about Wang’s death, but he said he would seek justice for his wife.

An Old Couple’s Story

Wang Dianguo and Yu Baofang live with their son Wang Yu in Anshan city of northeastern China’s Liaoning Province. All practice Falun Gong.

On July 4, 2017, five police from the Anshan police bureau, Tiexi branch, broke into Wang’s house and detained all three members of the family as well as Wang’s sister, who was visiting at that time. The police raided the house and took away all the cash they could find, according to Minghui.org.

Yu Baofang, the mother, was tortured to death at the Anshan detention center on July 17, 2017. Wang Dingguo, the father, was sent to the Dalian Prison in Dalian city about 180 miles away from Anshan. Wang Yu, the son, was detained until his mother died.

“The director surnamed Guan of Anshan detention center wanted to pay us [the father and son] ten to twenty thousand yuan ($1,430-$2,860) for my mom’s death… he refused to show any surveillance video footage about my mom’s last hours,” Wang Yu wrote in his testimony in September 2017. “Just in less than half a month, I experienced death and life. It’s painful, bitter, and confusing. My family is destroyed.”

Three years later, the Dalian prison notified the family that Wang Dianguo (the father) died of stomach cancer at 67 on June 16, according to Minghui.org.

When the family arrived in Dalian, Wang’s body was in a funeral home. There, an officer from the prison only allowed the family to see Wang’s face, on which the family found scars at the corner of the mouth.

Workers at the funeral home told the family that these scars were caused by force-feeding, according to Minghui.org. Then, the family visited the doctor who treated Wang at his last moments. The doctor said Wang was on the edge of death when the prison sent him to the hospital.

However, the prison did not allow the family to see Wang’s body and refused to give any explanation.

More Stories From Minghui.org

Han Yumei, 68, a female Falun Gong practitioner in Tangshan city in northern China’s Hebei Province, was tortured to death on the day she was detained on June 18.

Han started to practice Falun Gong in 1995, and hadn’t been sick in the past 25 years. After she died, her family saw there was blood inside her nose and her hair was in a mess.

Meng Qiangmei, 76, a female Falun Gong practitioner in Shan county in eastern China’s Shandong Province, was tortured to death at the Shandong Women’s Prison on June 14.

Meng had been practicing Falun Gong since July 1999 and was detained in prison several times in attempts to force her to renounce her practice. On May 20, 2017, she was kidnapped by a group of police without a cited reason and had been detained since.