Zhao Zemin - 赵则敏
(Minghui.org) Mr. Zhao Zemin was 48 years old. Because of his insistence on practicing Falun Dafa, he was arrested, detained and sent to forced labor camps numerous times by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He was subjected to all sorts of torture and was under enormous physical and psychological devastation. When his family picked him up from the forced labor camp at the end of December 2009, he was paralyzed. Under constant harassment and intimidation from the CCP, he passed away on November 24, 2012 and left behind a 90-year-old mother, his wife, and two children.
Prior to practicing Dafa in 1998, Mr. Zhao was weak, emaciated and constantly ill. He had a serious encephalitis sequelae that his head often shook involuntarily. He often had dizzy spells and difficulty walking. Several months after practicing Falun Gong, all the symptoms disappeared and he became strong. His weight increased from 121 to 165 lbs.
Since July 1999, when the CCP started the persecution of Dafa, Jiang Zemin and his gang utilized the propaganda machinery to frame and slander Falun Dafa and use cruel and despicable means to persecute practitioners. To seek justice, Mr. Zhao went to Beijing several times to appeal and was persecuted.
In November 1999, Mr. Zhao went to Beijing to appeal and was arrested by the police from the Qi County 610 Office and the Police Department. He was held at a detention center. He endured much torture, including: Squatting, handcuffs behind the back, heavy shackles, and being hit in the face. The guards dragged him to a large conference room on the top floor of the police department and stripped him naked, with windows opened and fans turned on during the freezing weather for more than three hours.
In July 2000, Mr. Zhao went to Beijing to tell people about the goodness of Dafa. Police from the Tienanmen Police Department arrested him and sent him to a detention center in Tianjin. The detention center guards tortured him and beat him severely. He went on a hunger strike to protest the brutal persecution and demanded to be released unconditionally. The guards thus force-fed him and beat him so violently that his lung was injured. He had a high fever and vomited blood and pus. While he was on the verge of death, the Qi County Police Department took him back and detained him in a local detention center.
While in the detention center, Mr. Zhao vomited blood, spit pus, and had a fever for more than a month. He was emaciated, his full head of black hair had fallen out and his body was beyond recognition. Even so, the authorities still detained him in administrative detention. When he had recovered slightly, they sentenced him to two years of forced labor and sent him to the Kaifeng Forced Labor Camp.
While in the Kaifeng Forced Labor Camp, Mr. Zhao was assigned to the most notorious fourth brigade. He was forced to do slave labor for longer than 16 hours a day loading phosphate fertilizer. Later, when he refused to cooperate, guards instigated inmates to hit him with a shovel and broke his two ribs. He had pulmonary bleeding and had a fever for over one month. Even in this condition, that mob forced him to do heavy manual labor. When he was released, he was emaciated and his whole body was covered with scabies.
After returning home from two years of forced labor, he was fired from his work. In order to support his family, he and his wife opened a small business to make a living. The Qi County 610 Office and the Domestic Security Division often came to harass them. Mr. Zhao was illegally arrested and detained several times. At the time of the 16th National Congress, officers from the 610 Office, Domestic Security Division, and Xiguan Police Station climbed over the exterior wall to enter his home and arrested him. They detained him for over two months.
Before the 2008 Olympic Games, the CCP wantonly arrested Falun Gong practitioners. On the morning of May 22, 2008, while Mr. Zhao was riding a bike to a store, several police from the Domestic Security Division swarmed him and arrested him. They sent him to the Xuchang Forced Labor Camp to serve two years of forced labor. While in the Xuchang Forced Labor Camp, because of his unwillingness to give up his belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and refusal to be "reformed," he suffered brutal persecution. They forced him to watch videos slandering Dafa and to do labor in an attempt to “reform” him. When he refused to cooperate, prison guard Zhu Yingkui beat him so viciously that both of his eyes swelled up and became bloodshot, resulting in unclear vision.
Because of his exposing the evil persecution, the guards from the third brigade got very angry. They organized all the forces of the third brigade to "transform" Mr. Zhao and other Falun Gong practitioners. They instigated Liao Hao, a drug addict, with the promise of a “high reduction of prison term” as bait, to ruthlessly persecute Mr. Zhao. They used psychological tactics and held a general assembly to create an atmosphere of terror.
Soon after, Mr. Zhao couldn't walk and couldn't take care of himself. When he walked, two people held and dragged him, regardless of whether there was wind, rain, or snow. People dragged him so hard that several shoes were worn through in one year. Icy water soaked inside his shoes resulting in his feet becoming frozen and rotten. Even in this condition, the guards said he was malingering and ordered prisoners to maliciously let go of him to see whether he was feigning illness. He was tortured until he was bony and extremely weak. His hair turned gray. However, the labor camp still wouldn't let him go, and instead they persecuted him further. The guards told two criminals to drag him outside to expose him to the sun when it was 38 degrees Celsius. After being baked under the sun for several months, layers of his skin came off. The labor camp guards still had two people hold him up and forced him to do manual labor.
His family asked several times for his release, but the labor camp not only did not release him, but also refused to let them see him. Later, because he could no lonber take care of himself, the labor camp let his family take him home on December 28, 2009. In less than two years, this robust, middle-aged man became disabled.
After 13 years of severe harm and impairment, plus the constant harassment and intimidation, Mr. Zhao died on November 24, 2012.
Such a good person, who was always considerate of others, suffered 13 years of persecution and terror that eventually claimed his precious life prematurely, just because he did not want to give up his belief. A formerly happy family was shattered.
