Falun Dafa Minghui.org www.minghui.org PRINT

Three Fellow Practitioners Involved With Minghui Were Killed as a Result of the Persecution (Part I)

Feb. 18, 2004 |   By a Chinese practitioner living in USA

(Clearwisdom.net) The creation and distribution of Minghui articles is a collaboration of Dafa disciples in and out of China. The process of distribution centers in China, collecting materials, sending information, printing materials in mass quantities and exposing the persecution has produced many touching stories. The Dafa disciples in Mainland China have given up everything, including their lives, while in the harshest environment and under the most difficult material constraints, they have quietly established, safeguarded, and expanded Minghui's channels for receiving and distributing information.

Please allow me to introduce these three fellow practitioners in China to everyone in a new light.

Wang Chan originally worked in Beijing, but had to leave his home due to the persecution and returned to his hometown in Shandong. Not only did he work with Minghui--he brought along Dafa disciples in different locations as well. In a few short years, Wang Chan's footsteps could be traced to several provinces and dozens of cities--becoming one of the most reliable Minghui coordinators in China. The role of a coordinator was something that emerged naturally. The state that he cultivated to led everyone to gravitate to him. Whether it was establishing and safeguarding Minghui's information channels, distributing Minghui articles and materials widely, or leading everyone in improving diligently during Fa-rectification cultivation, Wang Chan's contributions were enormous.

Yuan Jiang was a Qinghua University alumnus who became the head of the Gansu Province assistance center. After the persecution began in 1999, he led the local practitioners of Gansu province to join in the Fa-rectification. He became the local coordinator for Minghui and was a part of many important projects. He made incalculable contributions in establishing the working relationship between Minghui and local practitioners, organizing sources for Minghui articles, establishing materials distribution centers, establishing and safeguarding information channels for Minghui, as well as using good Minghui articles discussing the Fa-principles to foster local practitioners' improvement during cultivation.

Li Zhongmin was a very steadfast cultivator. He was captured, imprisoned, and beaten multiple times, but broke out of the evil's den with righteous thoughts, completely baffling the evil. After Zhongmin was forced leave home, he quietly did the three things a Fa-rectification disciple should do, and became a liaison for Minghui in China. He was exceptionally diligent in ensuring the material center's operation, his own cultivation, and going out to clarify the truth. The fellow practitioners around him saw his actions, and this had a powerful cohesive effect.

The below are some details about these three fellow practitioners that we are able to share. (Because the persecution has not yet ended, we will not get into the specifics of how Minghui operates in order to protect other Mainland Chinese practitioners.)

Wang Chan

Wang Chan, 39, male, 1.78 m tall. He graduated from Shandong Institute of Industry (former name of Shandong University), and was employed at the central office of the People's Bank of China. He was recognized as a top technical manager with strong skills and accomplishments.

Wang Chan was one of the first practitioners who understood early on the importance of clarifying the truth to the general public. He put his understanding into action and led many other practitioners in the important task of clarifying the truth.

As soon as the persecution began in 1999, Wang Chan sent letters clarifying the truth about Dafa to various provincial and municipal governments all over China, eliciting a strong response. He also wrote to Chairman Jiang Zemin, asking him to stop violating the law in persecuting Falun Gong. Faced with the facts, Jiang Zemin refused to stop his actions and personally approved putting Wang Chan in jail for three months.

Because of the persecution, Wang Chan was forced to leave his workplace and wander. He became thin but was quite healthy. He did everything with dignity and in an upright way, with a tolerant heart. He treated everyone with frankness and engaging in conversation, always leaving the best things for others. Wang Chan was also very steadfast in his cultivation. During the three years of his forced homelessness, Wang had traveled to many places, set up numerous sites to produce Dafa materials, helped practitioners to improve their understanding of the Fa and helped many practitioners to improve, step forward, and join in the Fa-rectification.

According to the recollections of a fellow practitioner, Wang Chan traveled to every corner of China carrying with him six large bags He used up all of his savings--200,000 Yuan--for Fa-rectification. He bought five copiers, and five computers and printers. He left the footprints of Fa-rectification everywhere he went.

The officials hated him and were so afraid of him that they offered 100,000 Yuan as a bounty for his capture. While eluding capture, he became thinner and thinner, but no matter how the evil pursued him in their frenzy, he never doubted Dafa and nobody could stop him from clarifying the truth. He once said to a fellow practitioner, "No matter how harsh and evil the persecution is, we simply follow what Teacher requires us to do, and no one can do anything to us."

On the afternoon of August 21, Jining policeman Guo Hongtao unlawfully arrested Wang Chan at the bus station of Liangshan County, Shandong Province.

In the detention center, he was severely tortured. The police punched and kicked him, handcuffed his hands behind their backs and hung them up beating them with rubber clubs. The police could not get any information out of him, so they detained him at the Jining detention center. Later on, the police shamelessly kidnapped Wang Chan's mother who is over 60 years old after they found out Wang Chan's real name.

Prior to Wang Chan's illegal arrest, the Police Ministry had issued the order to arrest him without delay. Therefore, in order to arrest him, the Police Ministry specifically dispatched policemen to Jining City, Shandong Province.

After Wang Chan was captured, the policemen were overjoyed, thinking that this was their big chance to get rich. This was especially true with the policeman Guo Hongtao. In the Jining Detention Center, Guo kept Wang Chan from sleeping for several days and nights, continuously interrogating him. Relying on the immovable will power bestowed on him by Dafa, Wang Chan remained steadfast and did not give the evil any opportunities to cause damage. Out of frustration, they tortured him ferociously.

On August 28, 2002, Wang Chan was tortured to death by Guo Hongtao and others while being held at the Jining Detention Center. According to an eyewitness, Wang Chan's body showed severe bleeding from the head, which is quite likely the cause of death.

After Wang Chan's death, the local public security bureau and 610 Office threatened his family not to leak any information, saying that his two brothers would lose their jobs if they did. The local authorities cremated his body against family wishes.

Yuan Jiang

Yuan Jiang was born into a family of educators. His father was a professor and head of department at the Northwest Normal University and his mother was a high school teacher. Yuan Jiang graduated from the Department of Computer Science in Qinghua University in July of 1995. He started practicing Falun Gong in 1993 when he was a student, one of the first in Qinghua University. After graduation, he returned to Gansu province and became the head of the assistance center of Gansu province. He was also the Vice Chairman of the Information Technology Engineering Company under the Gansu Province Telecommunications Bureau in the city of Lanzhou. He passed away on November 9, 2001 as a result of torture at age 29.

Before his cultivation of Dafa, Yuan Jiang suffered from many diseases. He even had to interrupt his schooling for a year because of his poor health. However, he had a deep predestined connection with Dafa, and participated in four of Teacher's classes. Ever since he started to learn Dafa, he experienced great changes in his body and mind. In August 1994, after a Qinghua University professor attended Master's lecture in Harbin, he established a practice site at Qinghua University, and Yuan Jiang became one of the first participants at the practice site. During that time, he persisted in studying and reciting the Fa everyday, repeatedly stressing the importance of studying the Fa. Yuan Jiang and other early-period Dafa disciples at Qinghua studied the Fa and practice the exercises everyday, establishing a firm foundation for promoting Dafa at Qinghua and in the surrounding areas.

The following is a recollection by a Qinghua alumnus who is currently in England:

"When Master gave a lecture at the initial publishing ceremony of Zhuan Falun in Beijing on January 4, 1995, there were many practitioners in Beijing and people could only get in with a ticket. The Qinghua practice site got only a few tickets, and I got one of them. One of my classmates just started practicing Falun Gong, and I thought how wonderful it would be for him to see Master! While I knew he didn't have a ticket, I dragged him along to the auditorium where Master was giving his lecture.

"After Yuan Jiang found out, he gave his ticket to my classmate, while he waited for a chance to get into the auditorium outside in the cold. He displayed what it meant to be a Dafa disciple with his own actions.

"Yuan Jiang was always full of compassion and kindness in everything he did, leaving behind a deep impression with those that interacted with him. In July 1995, he left Qinghua and stepped on a westbound train, beginning his journey to promote Dafa in the Western provinces. He gave everything he had to help people see and attain the Fa.

"Arriving in Lanzhou, Yuan Jiang actively promoted Dafa in Lanzhou and the surrounding areas. According to locals, at that time Yuan Jiang practiced Falun Gong exercises alone every morning on the playground at the Northwest Normal University. For a long time it was just he and a banner, but he kept on practicing every day. Within one or two years, the number of people participating in the practice increased greatly. In the urban area alone, the number reached tens of thousands. It is almost certain that Yuan Jiang's quiet yet persistent efforts had greatly contributed to the rapid spread of Falun Dafa in Gansu Province and the Northwest region of China.

"After Yuan Jiang passed away, some fellow disciples remembered that Yuan Jiang had consistently followed Master's words of "study the Fa well", and led everyone to study the Fa together. There would be group study and practice every night, and whenever possible, Yuan Jiang would participate. Sometimes when he had to work late, he would just buy a couple of buns and rush to the group study. Whenever he heard that a new practitioner had not gotten a copy of Zhuan Falun he would always find a way to get a copy to him or her. When others found out that Yuan Jiang would take advantage of lunch breaks and the evening to always study the Fa for four or five hours, it inspired everyone around him to study the Fa more, as well. This created a wonderful environment for everyone's improvement.

"In July 1998, when an incident occurred with the Gansu newspaper, he sent a letter to the related officials with a cultivator's kindness and compassion. This led to the officials' publicly admitting fault and sending a letter of apology.

"Between 1998 and 1999, the number of practitioners in Northwest China grew very rapidly. As a result, Dafa books and materials were in short supply. Yuan Jiang often used his own salary to buy books from other regions and then mailed them out to practitioners. The demand for videotapes of Teacher's lectures exceeded supply all the time, so Yuan bought several hundred tapes with his savings and sent them out to practitioners who needed them. Whenever a new practice site was formed, Yuan always used his own money to rent a room so the new practitioners could watch Teacher's 9-day lecture videotapes. Quite often he was short of money to the point of having to skip meals for himself.

"In the four years between 1995 and 1999, whether it was the sizzling summer or the frigid winter, ignoring harsh weather conditions and after April 1999, the police tailing him and anti-riot police surrounding us, Yuan Jiang continued to study the Fa and share experiences with everyone at the same place. When everyone saw his calm demeanor, they all felt more at ease inside. He would often say, "Master is here and so is the Fa, what are we afraid of?"

"Right before July 20, 1999, the situation got worse, like dark clouds gathering before a storm. Within and outside of Gansu province, there were many cases in which the media was increasing its slander against Dafa. At the same time, many practice sites were harassed and many practitioners were beaten and abused, and Dafa banners and books confiscated. In private, Yuan Jiang's unit manager "persuaded" him, and the police threatened him. Yet Yuan did not abide by their requests. Instead, he stepped forward and acted as the "representative" of the local practitioners and appealed many times to government offices."

Yuan Jiang was a kind and honest person with outstanding talents. He used to be the Vice President of the Information Technology Engineering Co., an affiliate to the Telecommunications Bureau in the city of Lanzhou. He was later removed from the position and made chief technical executive because he wouldn't give up practicing Falun Dafa. He was widely recognized in the City Telecommunications Bureau as one of the leading technical people and middle-level executives. Based on his age, background, talent, and integrity, Yuan Jiang seemed to be on a fast track for success, but he was not attached to fame and fortune.

Yuan Jiang was forced to leave his home in January of 2001 to avoid persecution. He moved from place to place, quietly helping spread the truth of Falun Dafa. Due to his traveling, he couldn't have meals on a regular basis, but this never deterred him in spreading the practice. He was not noted for being eloquent, he often quoted Master succinctly,

"Following [the Fa] in everything,
Compliance is cultivation."

(Solid Cultivation. Hong Yin)

Yuan Jiang was arrested on September 30, 2001 near Dunhuang, Gansu Province. The police, while riding a bus without an ID, discovered him. The Ministry of Public Security in Beijing had just given a secret order at that time for the police and military forces to stop ten or more practitioners traveling on their way from Changchun, Jilin Province to Xinjiang Province via the Gansu Corridor. So the police painstakingly checked all passengers for identification.

Upon news of his arrest, those in the police department of Gansu Province were overjoyed. They used this despicable incident as a bargaining chip to increase their chances for promotion. Following the requirements of the police department, the Provincial Telecommunications Bureau provided a garden of theirs at the back of the White Pagoda Hill in Lanzhou City. It is a place located five miles away from the downtown area of Lanzhou City, surrounded by mountains covered with flourishing woods. There are luxurious villas for the high-ranking officials in the province and those in the Telecommunications Bureau. As the weather was getting cold and no visitors were seen, the police were pleased to have such an isolated place with excellent living conditions all to their own. They quickly moved in, taking with them two truckloads worth of instruments for conducting torture.

As the person responsible in Gansu Province and the local Minghui coordinator, Yuan Jiang knew so much information. The faces of volunteer assistants around the country were all in his mind. You can imagine what happened to him in the following days. For the specific details, we can only wait for the day when the Fa rectifies the cosmos, when the killers will confess their crimes one by one. However, we can say with certainty that Yuan Jiang was indestructible in his will. He didn't betray any practitioners, nor did he turn back on the pledges he had with Master.

They tortured him for nearly two months, using all of their implements of torture. They hung Yuan up in the air with his 4 limbs stretched apart and beat him viciously. Finally, seeing that Yuan was on the verge of death, the persecutors set him down but still kept him in handcuffs and shackles. Knowing that the wicked people could not be saved, Yuan took off his handcuffs and shackles with his strong righteous thoughts and escaped from this demon's den. This happened around October 26, 2001.

Because of the long-term torture he had suffered, wounds covered his body. And because of the hunger strike he had undertaken, Yuan Jiang was extremely weak. In the cold mountain wilderness, he used all of his strength and climbed into a cave, where he remained unconscious for 4 days and 4 nights.

During this time, the authorities mobilized a force of three thousand military police and searched extensively for him. They checked and examined people at every major roadway, railroad and bus station. In addition, almost all the practitioners' homes in Lanzhou City were searched from top to bottom. The massive manhunt was even extended to nearby cities and counties. Some practitioners' doors were pried open, and a practitioner in her 60's was forced to jump from the 4th floor while trying to escape and broke her back and legs.

The sirens faded out. Yuan Jiang literally crawled out of the mountain. In the darkness of night, he went to another practitioner's home, where he received good care. But he had a high fever and often fell unconscious, obviously with some internal injuries. Yuan Jiang tenaciously sustained his life until November 9, 2001. He left the world due to serious injuries he received from the torture.

One local practitioner wrote the following to the Minghui website:

"After I heard about what happened to you, I felt that I had to see you no matter what. With help of other practitioners, I was able to catch sight of you. At that point, you were only skin and bones, emaciated to the point of being unrecognizable. If a fellow practitioner had not pointed you out, there was no way I would've believed it was you. Your eyes were squinted, while blood seeped from your mouth and nose, and you were lying there motionless. At that moment, my mind went blank, and tears poured down my face. My heart was wracked with pain. I touched your forehead, and it was already cold. I tugged on your hand, which was beginning to harden, and when I saw your legs, I almost fell unconscious. Your entire right leg underneath the kneecap was entirely black! Your calf had a hand-sized section and the leg's right side had a finger-sized section that had withered away completely, and the entire leg looked like a dried out tree branch."

After Yuan Jiang passed away, the authorities went to great lengths to cover up the torture against him. They immediately began a large-scale search and arrested many practitioners who had assisted in taking care of him. The police also kept a close watch on his parents.They transferred those who had participated in killing him one after another, and sent someone to the Siergo Detention Center, threatening the inmates there: "Yuan Jiang was never detained here, whoever says so would suffer the consequences!"

From August 30, 2001, when he was arrested near Dunhuang, Gansu Province, until November 9, 2001 when he passed away, the suffering that Yuan Jiang went through will one day come to light. All of those who participated in causing his death, if they don't make up for their crimes, will inevitable receive due punishment from the law and the Heavens!

(To be continued)