How The Persecution Affects Practitioners Outside Mainland China – Part 1

He Lizhi, 38, husband of Toronto practitioner Zhang Li.

He Lizhi is a Senior Engineer regarded in the top six in his field in all of China and has received more than ten national awards for his work. On July 21, 2000, he was illegally sentenced to three and a half years in prison because he mailed some articles about Falun Gong to his friends. His wife Zhang Li found him seriously ill after six months of detention. Before he was arrested in July 2000, Lizhi had received his Canadian landing status issued by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. He is now imprisoned in Qianjin Prison in Tianjin, China.

Peng Tingxiong, 29, twin sister of Toronto practitioner Peng Tingying.

Tingxiong worked as an office clerk with the First Military Medical University in Guangdong Province. She was detained and tortured psychologically in March 2001 for distributing Falun Gong materials, and was forced to leave her four-month old child behind. In April 2002, she was abducted again from home and sent to a brainwashing centre where she is still incarcerated.

Shi Bei, 49, mother of Ottawa practitioner Chris Xu
Shi was detained in the Seventh Hospital of Hangzhou City. She was denied food for a week, then forcefully injected with unknown substances. She died on September 10, 2000.

Zou Songtao, 28, brother-in-law of Vancouver practitioner Zhang Tianxiao

Zou, was tortured to death at Wangcun Labor Camp in Zibo City, Shandong Province in November 2000. It was stated that police brutality resulted in serious wounds to his chest, and a punctured lung before he died. Zou who obtained his Master’s degree from Qingtao Oceanic University of Shandong, had not been allowed to get a job because he practiced Falun Gong.