Mr. Sun Shaomin, 54, Passes Away After 13 Years of Abuse

Name: Sun Shaomin
Gender: Male
Age: 54
Address: Wuchang City, Heilongjiang Province
Occupation: Employee of the Wuchang City Troupe
Date of Death: May 29th, 2012
Date of Most Recent Arrest: February 9th, 2002
Most Recent Place of Detention: Hulan Prison
City: Harbin
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Sleep deprivation, forced labour, brainwashing, beatings, imprisonment, torture, force-feedings, interrogation, detention

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Sun Shaomin from Wuchang City, Heilongjiang Province has been repeatedly arrested and detained during the past 13 years, and subjected to forced labour. He was sentenced to ten years in prison, where he was brutally tortured. He was mentally and physically worn down by the abuse and eventually passed away on May 29th, 2012 at 2:30 a.m., at the age of 54.

At around eight in the evening on October 18th, 2011, Mr. Sun's older sister received a phone call from Hulan Prison Fifth Division leader Qiao, who said that Mr. Sun had been taken to Hulan Chinese Medicine Hospital due to having a cerebral hemorrhage. A family member was needed to sign the surgery consent form. When the family members got to the hospital they saw that Mr. Sun no longer looked human. He was extremely emaciated and unconsciously laying in the hallway of the hospital. A ward head and division leader Qiao were there along with more than ten police officers. The ward head said that whether or not to perform the surgery was the family's decision. The medical specialist at the hospital said that Mr. Sun was bleeding from the left ventricle and the amount of blood was about 50 ml. In general, a patient in this condition would be in a vegetative state even if he woke up from the surgery. Upon hearing this, Mr. Sun's three sisters were all scared and said that they didn't want to deal with this. Yet Mr. Sun's ex-wife was also there at the time and said, “I am a practitioner of Falun Gong and I cultivate compassion. I cannot watch him die without even trying to save him. As long as there is still hope, we should try to save him. Please perform the surgery.” When the specialists came out of the surgery room after 10:00 p.m., they had a white surgical plate in hand that had bright red blood marbled with white brain tissues that were drawn from Mr. Sun's ventricle. The doctors said, “We didn't open his skull, instead we simply drilled a hole and drew blood from it. We think he will probably wake up.”

When the family tried to get Mr. Sun's medical parole paperwork the next day, the prison authorities told them that all medical expenses had to be covered by the family, otherwise Mr. Sun would be sent back to prison. In order to save Mr. Sun's life, his family had to agree. During the process of getting the paperwork done, the director of the Wuchang City Chongren Police Station gave them a hard time and refused to sign the paperwork.

Mr. Sun was released from the hospital on the morning of the third day. He soon became conscious after returning home. But he couldn't move the right side of his body, he still couldn't talk or read, and he was incontinent. Two weeks later, Mr. Sun was able to sit up. A month later, he was able to use the toilet with assistance. Then he was able to speak simple phrases.

But, overall, due to nearly a decade of torture and persecution, Mr. Sun had disorders in all of his bodily functions. He had a palm-sized bump where his rib cage was broken (where the spleen is located). The family had requested medical parole several years prior because of the bump, but it was never granted by the prison authorities. Due to brutal force-feedings, the only teeth left on the bottom part of his mouth were four contorted teeth, so it was very difficult for him to eat. He ate very little and his body no longer digested the food. His large intestine had become stiff and there were many half-inch-long wounds around his anus which caused him to only have a bowel movement once every three to four days. It was exhausting for Mr. Sun to have a bowel movement and he sweat profusely from the pain. Because of serious imbalance of the spleen and stomach functions, Mr. Sun's body could not absorb any nutrients. Most importantly, he couldn't study the Falun Gong teachings because he couldn't read, and he couldn't do the exercises because he was unable to stand. Thus, a Falun Gong practitioner lost his life at the young age of 54.

Mr. Sun said before he passed away that his cerebral hemorrhage was caused by being bullied by someone.

Background

Mr. Sun Shaomin, born in 1958, was an employee of the Wuchang City Troupe and lived in the town of Wuchang in Wuchang City. Mr. Sun was born into a family in the countryside and lost his father when he was little (his father died of pulmonary heart disease when Mr. Sun was seven years old). His mother had to take care of five children by herself. The family was not only extremely poor, but also discriminated against and bullied by others in the village. As a result, his mother developed a bad temper and took all her grievances out on the kids.

The environment that Mr. Sun was brought up in made him an irresponsible loafer that was not motivated to achieve anything in life. He enjoyed smoking and playing mahjong as a way of escape. Mr. Sun suffered from serious illnesses, including irregular heartbeat and genetic pulmonary heart disease. Every recurrence of the illnesses caused him to suffer tremendously. It was painful and miserable for him, and hard for others to watch. He swore that he would quit smoking every time his lung disease recurred, yet each time he smoked even more afterward. His wife gave up all hope and divorced him in early 1990.

Mr. Sun started practising Falun Gong in August 1996. Cultivating in Falun Gong gave him a new life. On the second day of practicing Falun Gong, he quit smoking, and before long, all of Mr. Sun's illnesses and bad habits had disappeared. His state of mind ascended constantly. He became a good person who always considered others first whenever he encountered conflicts. His changes were noticed by everyone who knew him well.

Arrested and Sentenced to Forced Labour

On July 20th 1999, Jiang Zemin, the then-leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) out of selfishness and jealousy, abused his power and attempted to invert good and evil by launching the persecution of Falun Gong, a meditation practice which promotes the self-cultivation principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

Jiang used his power within the party to instigate CCP officials to “use all means to eradicate Falun Gong,” carried out the policies “to ruin their reputation, bankrupt them financially, and destroy them physically,” and claimed he would “eradicate Falun Gong within three months.” All organs of the party including community residential committees were employed to monitor, report, and assist in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Regardless of sex or age, no one was allowed to even practice at home. During their tenures, Xiao Jianchun, then secretary of Wuchang City Municipal Committee of the CCP, Chen Shusen, deputy director of Wuchang City Police Department, and Zhu Xianfu, head of Wuchang City 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong), ordered, instigated, deployed, and became directly involved in persecuting those who believed in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

Mr. Sun was arrested on July 22nd, 1999 and sent to a brainwashing centre.

On February 15th, 2000, Mr. Sun took a train from Wuchang City to Harbin, planning to go to Beijing to appeal, and tell the state leaders the true story of how he improved mentally and physically from practising Falun Gong. When the train arrived at the Beiyinhe station, a group of police officers got on and arrested Mr. Sun and others. Later they were detained at the Wuchang City Administrative Detention Centre (director Wu Hongzhang) by officials of the Wuchang City Political and Legal Affairs Committee, including Ai Chunming and Yang Songpeng. Mr. Sun was transferred two days later to Wuchang City First Detention Center (director Lu Bo), from which Mr. Sun eventually broke free.

Mr. Sun again went to Beijing to valappeal for Falun Gong on December 5th, 2000. Since there was no other channel to file complaints or to appeal, in an upright and dignified manner, Mr. Sun went to Tiananmen Square and held up a banner that said “Falun Gong is good.” He shouted, “Falun Gong is good!” and “Falun Gong is a righteous way.” The many police officers at the square quickly ran over and tried to grab the banner from him. Mr. Sun was fearless—he kept shouting and ran half a lap around the square with police officers chasing after him. More officers came and they surrounded him. Mr. Sun was arrested and forcibly put into a van. The police took him to and detained him at the Qianmen Police Station. On the same day, Mr. Sun was taken to the Wuchang Liaison Office in Beijing by officers from the Wuchang Domestic Security Division, including Wang Zhiming. Four days later, officers from the Wuchang Domestic Security Division, including Zhan Zhigang, took him to and detained him at the Wuchang City Administrative Detention Centre. More than 90 local Falun Gong practitioners were detained there at the time. More than 20 detainees (including criminals) shared a cell of less than 108 square feet. All activities of daily living—including eating, drinking, and relieving themselves—happened in the cell. Wu Hongzhang was the director of the detention center at the time and Ma Guoliang was the deputy director. Because the authorities from the local police department and the Politics and Law Section refused to release practitioners and attempted to escalate the persecution through forced labour, the detained practitioners had no choice but to hold hunger strikes in an effort to resist the persecution.

After 14 days of not eating or drinking anything, Mr. Sun was released. However, he was later sentenced to two years of forced labour by Zhu Xianfu, the head of the Wuchang City 610 Office, Chen Shusen, director of the police department, Zong Yiwen, executive director, Liu Fang, section chief of Politics and Law, and Yan Yu of the Legislative Affairs Section, working in collusion with authorities of the Harbin 610 Office and police department.

In order to expose the CCP's lies and explain the truth about Falun Gong to the deceived people, Mr. Sun went to Dujia Township of Wuchang City to pass out leaflets exposing the persecution of Falun Gong on the evening of January 8th, 2001, and was arrested by several police officers from the Dujia Township Police Station, led by director Zuo Fenghe. For this arrest, Zuo was commended by the authorities of the Wuchang Police Department and awarded 1000 yuan¹. Later, Zuo further intensified the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners. Zuo worked in collusion with officials of the police department and the Political and Legal Affairs Committee to arrest and detain Mr. Sun at the Wuchang City Second Detention Centre. They quickly relocated Mr. Sun and another practitioner to Harbin City Changlinzi Forced Labour Camp on the morning of the next day.

Brutal Nasal Feeding at Forced Labour Camp

Practitioners were brutally persecuted for long periods of time at the Changlinzi Forced Labour Camp. The correctional officers there tortured practitioners who refused to “transform” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong]. Falun Gong practitioners were forced to face the wall until midnight every night and were often subjected to beating and verbal abuse. During the period when he was illegally detained there, Mr. Sun was considered the “most stubborn” for persisting in his beliefs. He was thus subjected to tremendous physical and psychological torture. Even when he was covered with scabies and couldn't take care of himself, the prison authorities didn't allow his family to visit him or send him any seasonal clothes. The prison authorities said, “If he does't compromise, we'll use all kinds of methods to punish him.”

In early February 2001, at a party organized by the forced labour camp authorities, a Falun Gong practitioner demanded to be released, but was severely beaten and locked up in a small cell. Due to being subjected to long-term brutal torture and persecution, more than 100 unyielding Falun Gong practitioners, including Mr. Sun, began a group hunger strike on July 2nd to protest. They demanded to be released right away. Two days later the authorities of the forced labor camp began to force-feed all the practitioners who participated in the hunger strike twice per day.

Shi Changjing, the director of the labour camp, gave the order to nasal feed all of the practitioners participating in the hunger strike. Nasal feeding is an inhumane torture method. A feeding tube is inserted into the victim's nasal cavity, and it gets pulled back and forth and is often covered with blood. The food that was forcibly fed to the practitioners had a high salt content and caused dizziness and nausea in the victims. Mr. Sun was nasal fed more than 100 times.

On July 25th (the twenty third day of the hunger strike), a relative of Mr. Sun's received a notice from the forced labour camp saying that Mr. Sun was in critical condition and the family was asked to visit him. Once at the forced labor camp, the family learned that Ms. Sun was having the symptoms of heart disease as a result of the persecution. The labour camp authorities tricked the family in an effort to persuade him to eat. Monitored by the Education Reform Division leader, Mr. Sun's 10-year-old son visited Mr. Sun and was traumatized seeing that his originally healthy father, who weighed about 170 pounds before entering the forced labour camp, had become a mere skeleton due to torture. Mr. Sun barely looked like himself. Mr. Sun told his family, “Please don't be sad. We try to save the world's people out of compassion. We are good people. It is a crime for them to persecute us. I will validate Dafa in my actual daily conduct and demand to be released.” Since his family didn't try to persuade Mr. Sun to eat according the forced labour camp's requirements, they were soon driven away. However, the family was again notified three days later by the forced labour camp authorities to attend a meeting (there were still seven practitioners on hunger strike at the time). Mr. Sun's older sister went to the meeting and was asked to sign paperwork by the labor camp authorities, who explained, “If the practitioners die, it's their own fault. The forced labour camp doesn't take any responsibility.” The family of the detained were themselves illegally detained and locked in a room when they refused to sign the paperwork. They were not released until one person, who had something urgent to take care of, said, “Let us go. We won't hold you guys responsible if someone dies.”

After suffering inhumane torture for nearly 90 days, Mr. Sun was released unconditionally on September 29th, 2001, by authorities of the Harbin Labor and Reeducation Bureau and Changlinzi Forced Labour Camp.

Sentenced to Ten Years in Prison

In early 2002, after shopping at a market in Harbin City, Mr. Sun was followed by three officers of the Harbin 610 Office from Harbin City to a site producing Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution in Wuchang. The officers watched the site from outside in an attempt to arrest local practitioners by continuously monitoring and following them. However, Mr. Sun and another practitioner escaped. When the 610 Office officials found out that their conspiracy had been brought to light, they were flustered and exasperated. They worked in collusion with the Wuchang City Police Department and confiscated all the equipment and materials, worth nearly 20,000 yuan, from the site.

On February 9th, 2002, Mr. Sun went to visit a Falun Gong practitioner in Harbin. As soon as he got to the city, he and the other practitioners were arrested by officers from the Harbin City 610 Office and the Harbin City Police Department. Their families asked around yet couldn't determine where they were.

After being arrested, Mr. Sun was taken to a secret location in Harbin and subjected to torture and interrogation. He was then secretly detained at the Wuchang First Detention Centre for more than two months. Later, he was sentenced to ten years of prison by authorities of the Harbin 610 Office and Harbin Police Department, including Chen Shusen of the Wuchang Police Department, Zhan Zhigang of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee, Zhu Xianfu of the Wuchang 610 Office, and authorities from the Wuchang City Court. Mr. Sun was detained at the Harbin City Hulan Prison.

At the Fifth Ward of Hulan Prison, Mr. Sun was brutally tortured and his life was in danger many times. Mr. Sun, during an account given about the persecution he experienced, said that on April 24th-29th, 2003, political director Li Mingjun and team leader Wang Bin instigated prisoners to force him to undergo brainwashing. “Prisoner Wang Yu, Liang Haitao, Yu Hai, Liu Dazhuang, Hu Xiaofeng, and Sun Liang divided into three shifts and took turns monitoring me. They didn't let me eat, sleep, or drink for five days and five nights. They pushed and kicked me and forced me to write the three statements.” On October 20th-29th, guards Li Mingjun and Wang Bin instigated prisoners Zhang Li, Lu Yuechen, Wang Yu, Mao Wenjun, and Song Zhaolong to brutally torture Mr. Sun. They pushed, beat, and kicked him, put seven plastic bags on his head, forced him to sit on a torture device, tiger bench, stuffed hot pepper powder into his nose, and force-fed him with salt. Mr. Sun's rib cage was broken as a result of the beatings. His lower back was injured and he couldn't stand straight. He couldn't walk, but was still forced to do hard labour while being pushed from behind.

Mr. Sun had held a six-month hunger strike to resist the persecution. On the afternoon of September 20th, 2005, a prison guard and two prisoners carried him to the prison hospital for force-feeding. Two of them carried him by the shoulders and one carried his feet. After only a few steps, they let go of his feet and dragged him by the shoulders to the hospital. Guards from the Hulan Prison treated prisoners' lives as a joke. They insisted on force-feeding Mr. Sun even when he was extremely weak physically and didn't care if he lived or died. As a result of the severe persecution, Mr. Sun's weight dropped from being about 170 pounds originally to less than 100 pounds. He had become a mere skeleton.

The fact that Mr. Sun suffered from the persecution for 13 years is sufficient to prove that the crimes committed by the perpetrators are numerous, including abuse of power, inflicting injury intentionally, illegally detaining practitioners, illegally searching homes, illegal intrusions, harassment, interrogation through torture, violent body searches, serious maltreatment, unlawful deprivation of citizens' freedom of religious belief, and robbery.

Mr. Sun's family hopes that international human rights organizations will investigate the persecution that Mr. Sun was subjected to during the past 13 years, and bring the real criminals to justice.

Parties Responsible for the Persecution of Mr. Sun Shaomin:

Sun Kaiwen, warden of Hulan Prison: +86-451-57307303 (Office), +86-451- 57307719 (Office), +86-451-57307220 (Office)
Chen Weiqiang, Education Reform Office of Hulan Prison, +86-13136764116 (Mobile)
Qiao, team leader at the Hulan Prison, +86-13936032809 (Mobile)
Director of Wuchang City Police Department, +86-451-53522216 (Office)
Chen Shusen, deputy director of Wuchang City Police Department, in charge of persecuting Falun Gong
Zhan Zhigang, Wuchang City Police Department Domestic Security Division, +86-451-53524126 (Office), +86-13936551668 (Mobile)
Zhu Xianfu, then head of Wuchang City 610 Office, +86-13115456599 (Mobile)
Fu Yanchun, head of Wuchang City 610 Office, +86-13936017177(Mobile)
Lu Bo, then director of Wuchang Prison (First Detention Centre), +86-451-53544733 (Office)

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.