A Family of Three in China Die From Persecution One After Another

Falun Gong adherents hold a candlelight vigil in front of the Chinese Consulate to mark the 23 years of persecution by the Chinese Communist Party in Los Angeles on July 18, 2022. Debora Cheng/The Epoch Times

Zhang Jiuhai, a Beijing resident, died in early 2023, about one and half years after he was released from a 4-year prison term for practicing Falun Gong.

After Zhang was released from prison in May 2021, he struggled with poor health from the long-term torture he had endured while in custody, according to a Minghui.org report. Minghui is a U.S.-based online platform that reports on the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong in China. He was 56.

When he was first arrested in 2000 for practicing Falun Gong, he was only 33.

Zhang was predeceased by both of his parents. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to persecute Falun Gong in 1999, the three of them were arrested on numerous occasions, according to the report.

A Brutal Persecution

Falun Gong is a mind and body practice based on universal principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance. Since its introduction in 1992, the cultivation practice has benefited more than a hundred million practitioners worldwide.

However, Falun Gong believers have been subject to severe persecution by the regime.

On July 20, 1999, former CCP leader Jiang Zemin began the persecution of Falun Gong when the number of Chinese people practicing had grown larger than the CCP, and while people were enthusiastically embracing it across China.

After more than two decades of brutal persecution, an unknown number of practitioners have been persecuted to death.

Torture by electric baton. Illustration by Minghui.org

Arrests and Torture

Before the four-year imprisonment, Zhang had been detained in labor camps four times for a total of seven years, according to the report.

For more than 20 years, Zhang and his parents suffered brutal persecution. They had their home ransacked and had their personal belongings stolen. They endured beatings.

In 2002, Zhang was sentenced to two years of forced labor. At one point he was tied up for 40 days. He went on a hunger strike and the guards extended it another 32 days, according to the report.

The guards receive awards if they are able to have a Falun Gong practitioner renounce their beliefs. At times they offer prisoners reduced sentences if they monitor or beat practitioners.

In 2003, Zhang was put into a special section for Falun Gong practitioners who refused to renounce their faith, according to the report. There he was subjected to intensified torture. The aim was to force him to renounce Falun Gong and follow communism.

In the special section, he was deprived of sleep and not allowed to drink water. For meals, he was given half of a steam bun and two pickles, according to Minghui.

Zhang was confined to sitting on a small chair. He would be beaten if he moved a little. Four ribs were broken and his right cheekbone was broken. When he refused to renounce Falun Gong, the sitting time was extended to 20 hours a day, the report said.

Sitting on a small chair. A Depiction of the torture method in the Chinese prison.

In 2008, Zhang was arrested again and put in another labor camp for two years.

On March 29, 2012, police arrested him again when he was distributing information on a bus about Falun Gong and the persecution by the CCP. He was sentenced to two years of forced labor at Xin'an Forced Labor Camp, where he was forcibly fed with unknown drugs, according to the report.

Zhang was arrested again on May 8, 2017, according to the report. The police had stopped him when he went out. They ransacked his home and confiscated his laptop, printer, and Falun Gong books.

Zhang’s mother passed away on Nov. 6, 2014, the Minghui report said.

Following Zhang’s last arrest in May 2017, his father fell and broke a hip. He was unable to take care of himself. Meanwhile, Zhang’s requests to be released to care for his father were rejected.

The elderly man died seven months later at home, according to the report.