Zhang Mingkai - 张明开
Zhang Mingkai, born in 1942, was a Dafa practitioner from Xigang District, Dalian City, Liaoning Province. He used to suffer from various diseases and was well known for his poor health. However, after he took up the practice of Falun Gong in 1995, he became very healthy. In the years that followed, he never used any medication. Since he benefited so much from Falun Gong, he never stopped cultivating.
On April 9, 2002, authorities in Dalian City launched a mass arrest of practitioners. Zhang's wife was taken away by police from her home in Zhongshan District. She was detained in Yaojia Jail for half a month. In order to gain credit, policeman Yang Yongyi from the Rixin Police Station in Xigang District abducted Zhang on April 24, and sent him to Yaojia Detention Center. On that day, his wife's detention term expired. Yang Yongyi then transferred Zhang's wife from Yaojia Jail to Yaojia Detention Center. Later the police sent his wife to Masanjia Labor Camp.
While in detention, Zhang was beaten and insulted many times by criminals in the same cell. He was also forced to scratch criminals' backs covered with scabies. By the next month when Zhang was released, he had also developed scabies all over his body.
After Zhang's wife was sent to Masanjia Labor Camp, she was brutally tortured. About two months later, she was in critical condition. Not wanting to take responsibility, the labor camp authorities released her on medical parole. However, after she returned home, the labor camp authorities still kept calling her to intimidate her to write statements promising not to practice Falun Gong. They threatened to take her back to the camp. In order to avoid further persecution, Zhang and his wife were forced into homelessness. Because of poor living conditions and lack of medical care, Zhang passed away in May 2003, seven months after he left home.
