(Minghui.org)
Name: Zhang GuifangChinese Name: 张桂芳Gender: FemaleAge: 71City: DaqingProvince: HeilongjiangOccupation: TeacherDate of Death: Mid-October 2024Date of Most Recent Arrest: January 13, 2012Most Recent Place of Detention: Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison
A 71-year-old resident of Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, died in mid-October 2024 after suffering years of persecution for her faith in Falun Gong.
Ms. Zhang Guifang, a former teacher at a school affiliated with Daqing Oil Field, took up Falun Gong in 1998. After the Chinese Communist Party began to persecute the practice the following year, she was repeatedly targeted for upholding her faith. She was twice given forced labor and once sentenced to three years in prison. When she was not in detention, she faced constant harassment by the authorities who attempted to make her give up her belief. Even just months before her death, the police called her often to ask if she still practiced Falun Gong.
When Ms. Zhang went to the provincial government in the capital city of Harbin on July 22, 1999, to appeal for Falun Gong, she was arrested. She was forced to sit under the scorching sun for three hours. After she was taken back to Daqing, she was held in the brainwashing center run by her school.
Ms. Zhang was arrested again in May 2000 for appealing for Falun Gong in Beijing. Chief Geng Xiaobo and deputy Jiang Yuhai from her local Linyuan Town Police Station took her back to Daqing City the next day. They cursed her and gave her 15 days of detention at the Datong District Lockup.
After another trip to Beijing in September 2000 to appeal for Falun Gong, Ms. Zhang was arrested and given one year of forced labor at the Shuanghe Labor Camp in Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province. She was later moved to the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Drug Rehabilitation Center. Her school extorted more than 5,000 yuan from her and suspended over 8,000 yuan in contributions to her employee benefits.
When Ms. Zhang boarded a train to Beijing a third time in November 2001, a railway officer identified her as a Falun Gong practitioner. He contacted her school after her arrival in Beijing and turned her over to the Daqing City’s Liaison Office in Beijing. Representatives from her school and local police station travelled to Beijing that night and escorted her back to Daqing. They did not let her put on her shoes or belt before boarding the train.
The police interrogated her at the Linyuan Town Police Station. She refused to write statements to renounce Falun Gong and was later moved to the Datong District Lockup. She went on a hunger strike in protest and was force-fed three times. She was released on the 14th day of her hunger strike.
Her school and the police worked hand-in-glove to get her another year of forced labor. They deceived her into reporting to the police station and seized her when she got there. They took her to the Datong District Police Department, which transferred her to the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Drug Rehabilitation Center the next day. During the required physical exam, the guards instructed the inmates to strip her naked to humiliate her. She was later forced to do hard labor in a cold, damp basement that really hurt her knees.
Ms. Zhang was arrested again on February 24, 2011, and released on bail on October 6 that year. She was sentenced to three years in prison on December 11 and taken back into custody on January 13, 2012. After a brief stay at the Daqing City Detention Center, she was admitted to the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison. She had symptoms of a stroke and heart disease when she arrived and was put in the prison hospital. For details of her 2011 arrest and subsequent imprisonment, see the first two related reports below.
After she was released in 2014, Ms. Zhang suffered from frequent headaches. By practicing Falun Gong, her condition improved a bit, but the relentless police harassment took a toll on her health. She filed a criminal complaint in the summer of 2015 against former Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin for launching the persecution of Falun Gong. The police harassed her in October that year and returned on a regular basis in the years that followed, until her death in mid-October 2024.