PureInsight | August 27, 2023
[PureInsight.org] According to information released by the Falun Gong Information Center, as of July 13th, over five thousand Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted to death.
Regarding the number of Falun Gong practitioners persecuted to death, Frank Wolf, a member of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, told The Epoch Times on the 24th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party's persecution of Falun Gong, "The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom condemns the Chinese Communist Party's brutal actions in the strongest terms." He added, "The Chinese Communist authorities have harassed, detained, imprisoned, and killed thousands of Falun Gong practitioners."
Marco Respinti, a journalist and director-in-charge of the magazine Bitter Winter, also told The Epoch Times, "This figure is shocking... It's a clear terror figure and just the tip of the iceberg of the Chinese Communist Party's criminal record."
The Falun Gong Information Center stated that over five thousand people have been persecuted to death, calling it a "tragic milestone."
Falun Gong is a spiritual and self-cultivation practice based on the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance", including five sets of exercises. It gained popularity due to its remarkable health benefits. However, since July 20, 1999, the then leader of the Chinese Communist Party, Jiang Zemin, feared that the number of Falun Gong practitioners exceeded the Party's membership; he ordered its eradication. The persecution has never ceased since then.
120 Falun Gong Practitioners Died as a Result of Persecution in the First Half of This Year
As reported by Minghui.org, from January to June 2023, 120 Falun Gong practitioners died during the persecution.
Among them, 14 people died due to the persecution in custody, detention centers, brainwashing centers, and prisons. 106 people died as a result of long-term persecution and harassment.
The data above covers the period from January 1 to June 30, 2023. Some victims might have died before this period, due to information censorship and suppression by the Chinese Communist Party, the news reached overseas sources until the first half of this year.
The Falun Gong Information Center stated in a declaration that the actual death toll could be much higher than the reported number. "Countless Falun Gong practitioners have been killed during detention due to physical attacks or torture. However, due to the Chinese Communist Party's strict information censorship and the pressure from family members, not all cases were reported, plus it was not easy to obtain all information.”
The following are some of the cases reported by Minghui.org:
Hu Yongxiu Was Abducted and Persecuted to Death within 6 Days
Hu Yongxiu, aged 64, was a Falun Gong practitioner from Jiang’an District Wuhan city.
On March 30, 2023, while clarifying the truth about Falun Gong near the Sixth Hospital, Hu Yongxiu was abducted by the police. Only six days later, on April 5, her family was informed that she had been persecuted to death.
A mourning hall was set up in Hu Yongxiu's home. It is reported that police officers from the local police station were present, monitoring the situation.
Retired Associate Professor Died Unjustly in Prison
An Fuzi, a Korean ethnic, was a retired associate professor from Yanbian Radio & Television University
In late August 2021, An Fuzi was abducted by Chinese Communist Party police. The reason was that she had been reading a Falun Gong book, Zhuan Falun, together with other practitioners at a fellow practitioner's home several years ago. An Fuzi was later detained in Jilin Women's Prison. On February 22, 2023, she died unjustly in prison at the age of 82. Without the consent of her family, the prison secretly cremated her body.
During her lifetime, the police did not allow her family to contact her through video or phone calls.
Sichuan Radio and Television Station Host Beaten to Death
On December 2, 2022, Pang Xun, a host from Sichuan Radio and Television Station, was persecuted to death for clarifying the truth about Falun Gong at Jiazhou Prison in Leshan, Sichuan Province. He was only 30 years old. His body was covered in bruises. Witnesses stated that Pang Xun was beaten to death.
The information about this case reached overseas sources in February 2023.
Lai Zhiqiang Persecuted to Death in Jidong Prison
Lai Zhiqiang, a Falun Gong practitioner in his 50s, was from Tangshan City, Hebei Province.
Before the 2016 International Horticultural Exposition held in Tangshan, Hebei, the local authorities used the pretext of "maintaining stability" to initiate the persecution, creating the "3.31 Persecution Case". From March 31 to April 5, at least 36 Falun Gong practitioners including Lai Zhiqiang were abducted.
In September 2016, Lai Zhiqiang was unlawfully sentenced to 7 years in prison and was detained at the Jidong Branch of Hebei Prison Administration Bureau.
During his imprisonment, Lai Zhiqiang suffered from symptoms of cerebral thrombosis and was in critical condition, but the prison authorities refused to allow him to seek medical treatment outside. Shortly before Lai's sentence was due to end, on January 3, 2023, Lai's wife received a notification from Jidong Prison stating that Lai Zhiqiang had died.
The Falun Gong Information Center stated that there are still a large number of Falun Gong practitioners who died due to forced organ harvesting, which cannot be accounted for in official statistics.
The number of 5,000 persecuted to death is just the "tip of the iceberg"
Marco Respinti, a journalist and director-in-charge of the magazine Bitter Winter, told The Epoch Times, "5,000 people is an obviously terrifying number, and it is just the tip of the iceberg of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) criminal record."
"All these deaths have been carefully confirmed and recorded, and these victims' cases are stored in databases and archived for anyone willing to view, verify, and study, even for doubters and deniers to double-check."
"This means it's not just a simple statistical figure. These are real individuals, standing in a long and bloody line one after another. These 5,000 death cases are stories, irreplaceable worlds; lives lost due to being aware of the madness of China's new post-national-communist (CCP) era."
He mentioned that the actual death toll is higher than 5,000 people, "5,000 people, that's the number of (fatal) victims that have been confirmed and recorded. But, of course, there are many more deaths."
"Our hearts bleed for those we cannot commemorate."
"They (Falun Gong practitioners in China) face the risk of being as a group, and individuals suffer tremendous pain."
"Communism is the greatest man-made disaster in human history, and the CCP is the regime that has killed the most people in history."
"As of today, 410 million Chinese people have quit the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated organizations. Regarding this movement, I can only say: Thanks God. It means that the CCP's ideology has collapsed, Marxism-Leninism has failed, and the truth has emerged. It is very gratifying to see this happening today. Let me dedicate this truth to all Falun Dafa practitioners who have been killed, tortured, and harassed by the CCP."
Respinti is the director-in-charge of the magazine Bitter Winter, which focuses on religious freedom. On the 24th anniversary of Falun Gong practitioners’ resistance to the persecution, he published a series of four articles exposing and condemning the CCP's brutal persecution of Falun Gong.
In his articles, he described the persecution of Falun Gong by the CCP as "a tragedy that cannot be ignored in our time."
Chinese version: https://www.zhengjian.org/node/284618
