A comatose elderly woman from China has died after suffering years of abuse at the hands of Chinese Communist Party officials, according to a report published on Feb. 23.
The reason why, according to Minghui, is because Chen is an adherent of Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, which is a traditional Chinese self-improvement practice that consists of moral teachings combined with a sitting meditation and four slow-moving, Qigong-style exercises.
“By the time she was released, she was paralyzed and unable to care for herself,” the website stated. “She fought for her life over the course of the next few years, only to slip into a coma last September, and died on February 1 of this year,” it added.
Since around 2000, Chen had been arrested five times for continuing to practice Falun Gong. In that period, she was sentenced twice to forced labor in 2001 and 2008, when she was around 68 years old.
She was forced to work for more than 14 hours a day. The guards often verbally and physically abused her. They also forced her to take unknown pills or injected her with unknown drugs. As a result, her blood pressure shot up to 200. Only then did the labor camp release her on medical parole, but not before forcing her family to pay 20,000 yuan (about $3,000).Chen had stated that after she started practicing in 1997, it restored her health. She says she suffered from a number of health issues, including migraines and high blood pressure.
The official press office for Falun Gong, Falun Dafa Information Center, has estimated that millions of Falun Gong adherents have been detained over the past 17 years.