The "Electronic Baton" is one of the most frequently used torture methods by policemen and labour camp guards. Electronic batons of high voltage—up to 30,000 volts—are used to shock sensitive and private places, like the mouth, genitals, and nipples Read more about torture methods

Falun Gong practitioners are often bound, beaten, brutally tortured and even disfigured with wooden batons and electric cattle prods. Brainwashing and mental tortures are also extensively used, and often, practitioners are force-fed toxic liquids, even those mixed with human feces and urine, when they protest with hunger strikes. Women and men alike are sexually abused and subjected to disgusting atrocities.

Still, Falun Gong practitioners continue to appeal peacefully and non-violently to bring an end to the Jiang regime’s persecution of “Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance,” the essential teachings of Falun Gong, and the principles that the practitioners listed below have defended with their lives.

The deaths of at least 578 practitioners (reports / sources) have been documented by the European Falun Gong Information Centre, while reliable sources in China suggest the true figure to be in the thousands.

Practitioners Recently Reported Dead from Persecution include:

• Ms. Liu ShuFen was killed shortly after she witnessed police beat fellow practitioner Ms. Zhang Dezhen to death in a Shandong Province detention Centre


• Mr. Sun Shizong, who died after guards ordered other labour camp inmates to beat him


• Ms. Ren Hanfen, a 73 year old space scientist, fell to her death under police pursuit


• Ms. Zhou Wenjie, an English teacher in her 40’s from Liaoyuan City, Jilin Province


• Ms. Fu Guilan, a woman who went to Beijing to appeal for justice from Harbin, Heilongjiang Province


• Mr. Yu Tianyong, tortured to death in Wanjia Labour Camp’s “hospital”


• Ms. Du Guilan from Hegang City, died in a police raid on a material site


• Mr. Sui Futao, died after brutal beatings in Chao-yang-gou Forced Labour Camp


• Ms. Zhang Zhen, a 39 year old high school teacher from Mengyin County, Shandong Province


• A practitioner whose name is unknown, died over the Chinese New Year as a result of force-feeding in a Mengyin County hospital, Shandong Province


• Dr. Zhang Yunyi, a physician from Beijing, after surviving brutal torture in a forced labour camp, died after his release in a police raid on a material site


• Mr. Peng Fangjian, a 45 year-old, appears to have died from brutal beatings in a police detention Centre


• Ms. Zhang Zhibing, a woman from Qinglong County, Hebei Province, beaten to death in December 2000


• Ms. Wang Fengqin, 36, died two days after being picked up by Yantai police for distributing Falun Gong materials near a local hotel


• Ms. Wang Shouhu died as a result of force feeding administered during a hunger strike

Ms. Liu ShuFen was killed shortly after she witnessed police beat fellow practitioner Ms. Zhang Dezhen to death in a Mengyin County, Shandong Province detention Centre on January 29, 2003. The two, together with many others, had been arrested while distributing Falun Gong flyers. Both Ms. Liu and Ms. Zhang were taken aside and cruelly tortured together. Ms. Liu was the only witness to Ms. Zhang’s death at the hands of their captors. To hide their misdeeds, Ms. Liu was beaten unconscious and taken to hospital for “brain surgery.” The other practitioners jailed with Ms. Liu report that at this time, she was still breathing normally, and she didn’t seem to be feverish. They felt that she was simply unconscious from the beating, but the guards dragged her out, and she died tragically after her “operation.”

Mr. Sun Shizhong from Songyuan City, Jilin Province was arrested and taken to Jiutai Labour Camp on March 24. 2003. A group of inmates, under direct orders from camp guards, beat him to death. Guard Lu Changtai is reported to be most directly responsible for Mr. Sun’s death. He ordered the inmates to torture Falun Gong practitioners, and rewarded those who best carried out his twisted directives. Zhang Laoqi, Zhang Dapeng, Xie Yunpu, Wang Bo, Pan Zhaotian and Xue Quan were among other practitioners similarly beaten. After Sun’s death, the guards put all blame on the inmates, behaving as if the tragedy had nothing to do with them. To stop information about the atrocity from leaking to the outside world, prisoners were forbidden to leave their quarters, and calls and visits with family were denied. Practitioner Lu Changtai also disappeared at this time. His current condition and whereabouts are unknown.

Ms. Ren Hanfen, a 73 year old long time Party cadre and widely respected aeronautical engineer active in China’s space program for decades, was kidnapped from her workplace, the Aeromechanics Institute in Beijing’s Fengtai district, and subjected to a lengthy term of brainwashing because she wouldn’t renounce her practice of Falun Gong. Under coercion, and with the promise of her early release if she did so, she finally signed a statement promising to give up the practice, even though it was against her will. After her release from brainwashing, spies frequently harassed Ms. Ren Hanfen, leaving her little choice but to flee her home to avoid further persecution. Searching her out, the police found her in a rented apartment and blocked her in. Ms. Ren tried to escape, tying a rope from the window and falling to her death while climbing down. After her death, the authorities tried to block new of her death from leaking out.

Ms. Zhou Wenjie, an English teacher at Donfeng County No.2 Middle School in Liaoyuan City, Jilin Province was persecuted to death on May 26, 2002. Zhou was completely cured of a serious case of diabetes after practicing Falun Gong. When southern China suffered widespread flooding in 1998, she donated 25,000 Yuan that she had saved to buy a house to the government. Zhou was sentenced to1 year of forced labour in Heizuizi Female Labour Camp in Jilin Province for appealing for Falun Gong in 1999. On May 20th 2002, Changchun Railroad Station Police kidnapped her while distributing Falun Gong materials. Zhou refused to give her name and address and protested her arrest by going on a hunger strike. She died only six days later.

Ms. Fu Guilan from Harbin City died tragically on December 29, 2002. Fu went to Beijing to appeal when the persecution of Falun Gong began in July 1999. She was arrested and sent home for 9 months of detention. In April 2001, police from Nangang Police Station arrested her while she was making Falun Gong materials and sentenced her to 2 years of forced labour. She protested her illegal detention by going on a hunger strike until her life was in danger, and she was released for medical reasons. In 2002, police again took Fu away, this time from one of her children’s home. She continued to protest through hunger strike until her death on December 29, 2002.

Ms. Du Guilan was killed in a recent wake of mass arrests of Falun Gong practitioners in Hegang City. In mid-January 2003, Hegang police searched a local apartment that was used as a Falun Gong material site and arrested practitioners Fan Chunyan and Han Ru, who have since disappeared. 10 days later, the site was again raided and police confiscated the copy machine and all of the materials. Du Guilan was in the apartment at the time, and she tragically died attempting to escape from the police by jumping out a second story window.

Mr. Yu Tianyong died in the “care” of Wanjia Forced Labour Camp Hospital. Illegally arrested by Taiping police on January 1, 2001, Yu was sentenced to 10 years in a Harbin City prison. He was released due to rapidly declining health. Authorities returned him to prison after a partial recovery, and he was later transferred to the Wanjia Labour Camp Hospital where he died in January 2003.

Mr. Sui Futao from Liuhe County, Jilin province, was persecuted to death in Chao-yang-gou Labour Camp. He was first detained in Tonghua Labour Camp and then transferred to Chao-yang-gou Labour Camp in Changchun in December 2001. During Sui’s first two days at Chao-yang-gou Labour Camp, he was brutally beaten twice, until his face was swollen, black and blue, and he was left unable to eat for days. After that, in the poor conditions of the camp, his health declined rapidly and he died in June 2002 at the age of 30. The warden of Chao-yang-gou labour camp, Wang Yanwei, is reported to be directly responsible for Sui Futao’s death, though in attempts to escape responsibility for his death, camp authorities claim Sui died of heart attack.

Ms. Zhang Zhen was a 39 year-old Jiuzhaixiang High School teacher from Mengyin County, Shandong Province. Zhang went on a hunger strike to protest her illegal detention, so she was sent to Mengyin County Chinese Medicine Hospital to be force-fed. She died as a result, over the 2003 Chinese New Year holidays.

Another Falun Gong practitioner, whose name is still unknown, also died during the same period of time at the same hospital. Hospital officials claim that both victims died of heart attack.

Dr. Zhang Yunyi, a physician in his thirties was one of the chief doctors at the Beijing Western and Chinese Medicine Combination Hospital. Dr. Zhang faced frequent police harassment at his residence in Fuzhou City and was arrested while distributing Falun Gong materials in the summer of 2000, and detained at Tuanhe Labour Camp, where he suffered brutal torture. After being released, he returned to Fuzhou City. In August 2002, police broke into the apartment where Zhang and some other practitioners were living. They confiscated a large number of materials disclosing the true situation of the persecution of Falun Gong in China. Zhang refused to answer any questions and died after jumping out of a window in an attempt to escape.

Mr. Peng Fangjian, a 45 year-old from Suining City, Sichuan Province, died on February 10. On January 28, 2003, Peng was kidnapped from his home and taken to the Renli Police Station by local policemen Yuan Xiaolin, Hu Zongcheng and Zhang Kangping. Three days later, he was transferred to Lingquansi Detention Centre where he went on a hunger strike to protest his illegal detention. Less than two weeks later, on February 10, Peng died as a result of the brutalities committed against him. To conceal incriminating evidence, the police quickly cremated his body. Relatives permitted to see his body before cremation described how Peng’s eyes and mouth were wide open, with both arms straight out with the hands clenched into fists, bruises on the back of his head at the base of his skull.

Ms. Zhang Zhibing, a practitioner from Qinglong County, Hebei Province in her thirties, was beaten to death in December 2000. A “610 Office” representative refused to discuss details of the case with a local reporter, denying her death and claiming, “We have rules. I can only talk about this with county officials.” Ms. Zhang Zhibing’s is the 63rd death confirmed in Hebei Province.

Ms. Wang Fengqin, a 36 year old woman from Yantai City, Shandong Province, died in Zhifu South Suburban Detention Centre a mere two days after being arrested for distributing Falun Gong materials near Liuhuangding Hotel on January 26, 2003. When family members were called in, they found her clothes frozen to her body and her wrists showing handcuff marks. The policemen extorted 1,000 Yuan from Ms. Wang’s family and quickly cremated her body.

Ms. Wang Shouhu died in November 2002 in Changchun City No.3 Detention Centre from cruelly administered force-feeding attempts during her hunger strike protesting her illegal detention.

Background

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa (about), is a practice of meditation and exercises with teachings based on the universal principle of “Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance.” It is a practice that was taught in private for thousands of years before being made public in 1992 by Mr. Li Hongzhi. Falun Gong has roots in traditional Chinese culture, but it is distinct and separate from other practices such as the religions of Buddhism and Taoism. Since its introduction in 1992, it quickly spread by word of mouth throughout China, and is now practiced in over 50 countries.

With government estimates of as many as 100 million practicing Falun Gong, China's President Jiang Zemin outlawed the peaceful practice in July 1999 (report), fearful of anything touching the hearts and minds of more citizens than the Communist Party. Unable to crush the spirit of millions who had experienced improved health and positive life changes from Falun Gong, Jiang’s regime has intensified its propaganda campaign to turn public opinion against the practice while quietly imprisoning, torturing and even murdering those who practice it.

The European Falun Gong Information Centre has verified details of 578 deaths (report / sources) since the persecution of Falun Gong in China began in 1999. Government officials inside China, however, report that the actual death toll is well over 1,600, while expert sources estimate that figure to be much higher. Hundreds of thousands have been detained, with more than 100,000 being sentenced to forced labour camps, typically without trial.