(Minghui.org) Since Jiang Zemin, former head of the Chinese Communist Party, launched the persecution of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, the Party has spread propaganda to justify its violent campaign. Among them are the so-called “1,400 deaths.”
The death of Xin Fengqin, a farmer in Heilongjiang Province who died from cancer, was listed as one of the 1,400 cases and was used as evidence in the trial of Li Chang and three other members of the Falun Gong Research Association.
Death from Cancer
Xin was 43 years old and lived in Youhao village, Nehe City, Heilongjiang Province. She was diagnosed with late-stage oral cancer in October 1998 and passed away on December 21 of the same year.
Many people who knew Xin Fengqin were aware that her cancer was already in the late stage by the time it was diagnosed. One of her acquaintances in the Morin Dawa Daur Autonomous Banner of Inner Mongolia introduced Falun Gong to her. However, Xin had doubts and declined qigong exercises because she was in so much pain from the cancer. She seized every opportunity to get medical help.
By the time she was admitted to Nehe City People's Hospital, her cancer was already untreatable. Less than two months passed between her diagnosis and her death.
Information Gathering
Shortly after the April 25 appeal in 1999, Nehe City Police Department, like other cities in China, had plainclothes policemen monitoring Falun Gong exercise groups and recording the number of people and their names. They covertly collected information on every person that could be used as evidence against Falun Gong, regardless of whether the person stopped practicing.
All the information collected was submitted to the Political and Legal Affairs Committee and high-level police departments. Xin Fengqin's name was on the list even though she had passed away in 1998.
Casting for Television
The Heilongjiang Province 610 Office decided to make an example of Xin's case. Her husband and daughter were threatened by officials from the 610 Office, the Political and Legal Affairs Commission, and the Nehe City Police Department. Her daughter was taken in and pressured to provide testimony on a TV program, saying her mother died because Falun Gong wouldn't allow practitioners to take any medicine. The testimony was used to incite public hatred against Falun Gong.
According to insiders, Yu Hongyan, the former Vice Secretary of Nehei City's Political and Legal Affairs Committee, asked Xin's husband, Jiang Zheng'an, to go to Beijing with him to serve as a witness in the case against the four members of the Falun Gong Research Association.
Yu also wanted Xin's doctor at Nehe City People's Hospital to serve as the second witness. The president of the hospital, Wang Zhensheng, told Dr. Jiang that she would be given a free sightseeing trip to Beijing, but would have to agree to an interview with CCTV in exchange; all they needed Dr. Jiang to do was to testify that Xin had refused to take any medicine because she practiced Falun Gong. After finding out the intention of the trip, Dr. Jiang turned down the offer, saying he had to take care of his child as an excuse.
Wang called Dr. Zhang Xiaowei, a young doctor in the cardiology department, to ask if she would make the trip. Dr. Zhang was a recent medical school graduate who had never met Xin. However, she immediately agreed to make the trip and provide the testimony on TV. After Dr. Zhang hung up the phone, she told her colleagues that she was happy to go visit Beijing because she had never been there.
Yu Hongyan took Xin's husband, Jiang Zheng'an, and Dr. Zhang Xiaowei to Beijing. According to sources, they were arranged to stay at an undisclosed location and not allowed to go outside.
Under what amounted to house arrest, they were given detailed instructions on how to answer questions regarding Xin's death. They had no choice but to say what they were told to say. They appeared in court to provide their “testimonies” during the trial of Falun Gong Research Association members. A CCTV program was broadcast in the evening. Many people noticed on the video that Dr. Zhang Xiaowei entered the courtroom with her head lowered and body slouched.
After Dr. Zhang returned to work, her colleagues asked her about the testimony and sightseeing in Beijing. She looked disturbed and refused to talk about it. She looked depressed after the trip.
