(Minghui.org) A Dehui City, Jilin Province resident died at the age of 35 on March 9, 2000, six days after she was arrested for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Lu Xinghua
Ms. Lu Xinghua took up Falun Gong in 1997 and enjoyed good health since. With the onset of the persecution in 1999 and the massive propaganda campaign put out by the communist regime to demonize Falun Gong, Ms. Lu and her husband went to Beijing on March 3, 2000 to appeal for the right to practice their faith.
The couple were arrested in Beijing and taken back to Dehui City. Because Ms. Lu refused to renounce Falun Gong, the police transferred her to the Dehui City Detention Center on March 6.
Ms. Lu held a hunger strike to protest the arbitrary detention. The guards force-fed her on March 8. Five male inmates held her down and inserted a feeding tube into her nose. Upon returning to her cell, she told her cellmates that her internal organs were damaged. She was extremely uncomfortable and she had excruciating pain in her right shoulder. She also had a high fever.
Torture illustration: forced-feeding
When her cellmates reported her condition to the guard on duty the next morning, the guard replied, “We will just carry her out if she dies.” Not until 5 p.m. did a doctor come and put her on IV drips.
As Ms. Lu’s whole body kept twitching and her temperature reached 107.6 °F, the guards rushed her to the hospital. Despite resuscitation attempts, she was pronounced dead at around 8 p.m.
Ms. Lu’s husband recalled, “The deputy head of the detention center asked me to go to the hospital to take care of her on the afternoon of March 9. He said she was sick and was carried to the hospital. When I got there, she was out of breath. About 15 minutes later, the doctor said she was dead.
“Xinghua had been very healthy since she took up Falun Gong. Why did she suddenly become sick after being force-fed? Didn’t she die from the forced-feeding?” the devastated husband asked.
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