(Minghui.org) The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) frequently imprisons elderly Falun Gong practitioners who are physically weak or injured. This has become an operating model in China.
This is yet another crime committed by the CCP in its 27-year-long persecution of Falun Gong. It is an extension of former CCP leader Jiang Zemin’s orders to persecute practitioners by “ruining their reputations, bankrupting them financially, and destroying them physically.”
Most of these elderly practitioners developed serious illnesses due to long-term persecution by the CCP. Some were tortured until they were unable to care for themselves. According to Chinese law, they are entitled to medical parole at home after they are (illegally) sentenced. At home they can be cared for by relatives and helped by friends, family, and other Falun Gong practitioners. They can gradually recover and regain their health by practicing the exercises and reading Falun Gong’s teachings.
However, the CCP’s courts and police departments collude to seize and imprison these elderly people. In some instances, even those who were receiving intravenous drips were put on stretchers and taken directly to prison.
So, how do prisons treat these elderly Falun Gong practitioners?
Some people may not know that every province (or autonomous region and municipality) in China has prisons specifically for detaining Falun Gong practitioners. These prisons have a special ward, usually called the “Ninth Ward.” It is under the direct control of the prison’s 610 Office and linked to the local 610 Office system.
When a Falun Gong practitioner has just been illegally sentenced by the court but has not yet been sent to prison, the prison’s 610 Office notifies the prison ward in advance to “make preparations,” including researching the practitioner’s personal information and personality traits, to formulate a specific persecution plan. This premeditated “preparation-research-implementation” process constitutes a key link in the systematic persecution.
Why is imprisoning these elderly practitioners equivalent to murder? The two following cases reveal how prisons abuse them to the point of death.
Case 1: Forced to Sleep on the Upper Bunk, Beaten, and Suffocated
I was once illegally detained in Zhengzhou Prison in Henan Province. There I learned that an elderly Falun Gong practitioner, due to his frailty, had great difficulty climbing to the upper bunk. But the prison authorities, knowing his condition, forced him to sleep there. After the practitioner fell and was injured, he was unable to move, so he soiled the bed. The prison authorities sent him to the prison hospital, claiming he had a “mental illness,” and forced him to take medication.
The elderly practitioner refused to continue taking the medication because it caused heart palpitations. The inmate assigned to take care of him not only failed to look after him, but also dragged him to a blind spot in the ward’s surveillance system, smothered him with a blanket, and severely beat him. No one could hear his cries for help.
Case 2: Elderly Man from Sheqi County, Henan Province Was Persecuted to Death
Mr. Wang Zizhou, a 74-year-old Falun Gong practitioner from Sheqi County, Henan Province, was arrested and his home was ransacked in 2019. He was later illegally sentenced to three and a half years in prison. On October 14, 2023, he died as a result of persecution in Xinmi Prison.
Prison surveillance video showed that:
- Mr. Wang, who was elderly, had been seriously ill for a long time but had never received any treatment.- He was not given anything to eat for two days in a row.- He was unable to take care of himself and needed assistance to use the toilet.- He was still forced to attend roll call despite his condition.- The guards did nothing.
Mr. Wang was in unbearable pain, but no one came to his aid. It wasn't until 10 minutes after he stopped moving that someone kicked him a few times to try to rouse him. Only then was he taken away for “emergency treatment.”
After Mr. Wang died, the prison authorities denied his family members’ requests to see the autopsy report, medical records, or surveillance footage, claiming it was “classified information.”
The above are just two instances I personally witnessed. Numerous similar cases can be found on Minghui.org. The CCP not only murders elderly practitioners but also other practitioners.
The Minghui.org website has verified that more than 5,000 practitioners have died as a result of persecution, while the actual number of deaths is far greater. The CCP makes investigating these deaths difficult. The challenges include Internet censorship and the inability of many practitioners to access the Internet. The regime routinely tracks practitioners and puts them under surveillance. Due to the CCP’s internet censorship it’s difficult to verify details about the persecution and difficult to submit the information to Minghui.org.
While I was detained in Zhengzhou Prison, Li Xilong, the director of the Zhengzhou Prison 610 Office, shouted, “Just let the Falun Gong practitioners die here.”
The CCP wants to eradicate Falun Gong because the regime’s promotion of class struggle and hatred contradict traditional values, including Falun Gong’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. The CCP has now exported this suppression to other countries.
A girl, who was attending school in Canada and watched a performance given by Falun Gong practitioners on traditional Chinese culture, was arrested when she visited relatives in China. This clearly shows that the CCP is monitoring Chinese communities outside China.
The CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong has gone on for 27 years. Practitioners are faced with systematic illegal detention and being tortured, sometimes until they die. Such information is routinely covered up. We hope more people will speak up and help stop this ongoing persecution.