72-Year-Old Doctor of Internal Medicine Tortured for Her Faith, Dies Days After Prison Release

Torture re-enactment: Unknown drugs being forcibly injected to a Falun Gong practitioner to coerce them to renounce their faith. Minghui.org

A doctor of internal medicine who was repeatedly arrested, sentenced, and tortured in China for not renouncing her faith died days after being released from her last prison term.

Before passing away at the age of 72, Liu Dongxian, a former chief physician at Taoyuan County Red Cross Hospital in Hunan Province, China, had spent almost 16 years behind bars, facing abuse and torment for raising awareness about the spiritual practice of Falun Gong. She was persecuted on all fronts.

At work, Liu was demoted to carrying out odd tasks at a drug warehouse. While imprisoned, she was beaten and shocked with electric batons, made to stand for long hours in the cold after being stripped naked, handcuffed and hung up by her wrists, and force-fed. She was once denied the use of the restroom for a week and was forced to lick the floor dry when guards found urine in her cell. Extreme torture left her legs and feet swollen and festering, according Minghui.org—a U.S.-based nonprofit that reports on the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) ongoing persecution of Falun Gong.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a self-improvement cultivation system that includes gentle meditative exercises and moral teachings based on the three core principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance. Introduced in 1992, Falun Gong became widely popular in China by the late 1990s. By 1999, the then-CCP leader Jiang Zemin perceived Falun Gong’s moral teachings and growing popularity as a threat to the CCP’s culture of struggle, atheism, and materialism, and he launched a nationwide campaign of persecution to eradicate the practice on July 20, 1999. The violent suppression continues to this date.

Falun Gong practitioners take part in a parade in Washington, D.C., to mark the 24th anniversary of the persecution of the spiritual discipline in China by the CCP on July 20, 2023. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

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The Last Arrest

Liu was arrested in December 2016 for raising awareness about the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong.

She was later sentenced to nine years by the Taoyuan County Court. She tried to appeal, but the Changde City Intermediate Court upheld the verdict, and she was sent to the Hunan Province Women’s Prison to serve her term, the report stated.

In prison, the guards forced Liu to stand for long hours without moving. When she still refused to renounce her faith, she was not allowed to use the restroom unless the head inmate gave her permission.

A drawing of the extreme torture routinely used on Falun Gong practitioners incarcerated in Chinese jails. Minghui.org

In January 2022, the “high-security” division of the prison where Liu and other Falun Gong practitioners were detained was moved to the fifth floor. She was placed in a cell with other Falun Gong practitioners, most of whom were suffering from serious health conditions after enduring long-term abuse.

By May 2024, Liu developed a heart condition and her blood pressure was noticeably high. In an attempt to avoid responsibility for her critical condition, the authorities released her 19 months early. She died a few days later at the age of 72.

A painting depicting the force-feeding torture method. Minghui.org

Abused, Threatened, Surveilled

Prior to her latest arrest in 2016, Liu had been arrested and jailed several times and spent one year and nine months in a forced labor camp.

She was first arrested in 2000 for doing the meditative exercises of Falun Gong and was detained for a month. She was again arrested in July that year and spent another month in jail. Then, in 2001, Liu was arrested again and detained for five days. After her release, she traveled to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong but was arrested for a fourth time and sent to a detention center. There, she was beaten and shocked with electric batons for five hours.

Liu was then sentenced to one year and nine months and sent to the Baimalong Forced Labor Camp. There, she was subjected to various torture methods: being forced to sit on a small stool or stand for long hours, being handcuffed, and being force-fed after going on hunger strike. She almost suffocated during the force-feeding process and later had severe gastric bleeding. Her blood pressure increased to 300 mmHg after the prison guards forcibly injected her with unknown drugs.

On Nov. 5, 2002, Liu was released but not before signing a surveillance agreement and being told by the police that her husband would be made to pay a 20,000 yuan ($2,830) fine and her brother would be fired from his job if she breached the agreement terms.

Still refusing to stop practicing her faith and informing people about the ongoing persecution, Liu was arrested again in 2003 and 2004 and was detained at a brainwashing center.

In August 2006, Liu was arrested again. She went on hunger strike and was force-fed until she vomited blood. She went on hunger strike again in February 2007, which lasted for three months, Minghui.org reported. She was then forced-fed every day and eventually lost half of her original body weight.

She was sentenced to three years in a case hearing on April 3, 2007.

Then in August 2011, Liu was again arrested and sentenced to four years in prison. There, she was deprived of sleep and the use of a restroom and was also forced to stand for long hours.

During all the years she was imprisoned, Liu was not only abused physically but also psychologically. The inmates often threatened to kill her if she didn’t cooperate with them and renounce her faith. Despite her declining health due to the constant abuse, she stood true to her faith.

Arsh Sarao contributed to this report.