Belated News: Shandong Teacher Passes Away After Long-Term Persecution

(Minghui.org) Mr. Jing Zhaowei, a middle school teacher from Guan County, Shandong Province, suffered from severe health complications from involuntary drug administration while being held in a forced labor camp for refusing to give up his faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. Three years after being released from the labor camp, he passed away on April 25, 2012, at the age of 50.

Mr. Jing, who worked as a teacher of Jia Town Middle School since 1984, was awarded as a model teacher and recognized as a key asset of the school. Living by Falun Gong’s principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance, he often voluntarily gave away annual promotion opportunities to other teachers, as he said with a smile, “Let other teachers get promoted first since the quota of promotions awarded is limited.”

Severe Arthritis and Addiction Cured Through Practicing Falun Gong 

Mr. Jing suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis in the mid-1990s. He walked with a limp as a result. Sometimes, he could not lift his hands or ride a bicycle. To not miss classes, a lot of times he had to ride a donkey-drawn carriage to school. Neither Chinese nor western medicine was effective on him. Only in his early 30s, he was desperate about his future. 

In the spring of 1999, he heard about the health benefits of Falun Gong and took up the practice. He bought the book Zhuan Falun, the main text of Falun Gong, and learned the exercises. Within a month, he quit his addiction to smoking and alcohol, and his health also recovered.

After the persecution of Falun Gong started on July 20, 1999, Mr. Jing and his family suffered persecution for their faith, like millions of other practitioners in China.

Tortured by Local Police

From July 1999 to 2002, for three and a half years, Lin Hongjun, the director of Jia Twon Police Station, ordered Mr. Jing, his wife, and other local practitioners to report to the police station every morning and evening to take roll call. They were fined if they arrived late. 

The practitioners were also forced to do a lot of heavy work for the police station without pay, including cleaning the toilets. In order to humiliate practitioners, the police ordered Mr. Jing and several other practitioners to carry the excrement to a faraway place on the busy market days, so that people at the market could see them.

On a Saturday night at the beginning of summer 2000, the police from Jia Town Police Station scaled the wall into Mr. Jing’s yard and arrested him, his wife, and four practitioners who were visitors at his home. All of them were locked in a room at the police station and denied restroom use. 

The next day, director Lin Hongjun kicked Mr. Jing, shocked him with an electric baton, and slapped him in the face. Mr. Jing was forced to stamp his fingerprint on a document before his release. His wife was also shocked with electric batons.

In the winter of 2000, Mr. Jing, his wife, and many practitioners were again detained at the police station. They were put into a newly constructed room without heating or any furniture but only a knitted bag on the ground throughout the night. The walls of the room were damp due to the cold weather.

Deprived of Teaching

Mr. Jing was forced to live in the school in the spring of 2001. Principal Song Jianye deprived him of teaching classes under the direction of the local 610 Office. Three school staff members were ordered to monitor him in shifts and they even followed him to the restroom. He was not allowed to leave freely. His dormitory in school, which used to be a popular place for teachers to gather, no longer had any visitors. 

Later, Mr. Jing was assigned to manage the student dormitories, which was a 24/7 job without weekends or holidays. But the school did not pay him for the extra hours he worked. He voluntarily fixed the broken bunk beds for the students. When he went home to bring his own tools and supplies, he was monitored and followed by the undercover police. The parents of students who knew him did not understand why the school didn’t allow such an excellent teacher to teach. 

Tortured in Forced Labor Camp, Injected with an Unknown Drug

When the police from Jia Town Police Station ordered Song Xiangzeng, a villager from Gaozhuangpu Village in Jia Town, to check on Mr. Jing at school on July 4, 2008, Song noticed that Mr. Jing was not there. He then found Mr. Jing’s child and tricked the child into giving away Mr. Jing’s whereabouts. 

Mr. Jing actually went back to his home village, Jinglou Village in Jia Town, that day and worked on building a new house. Then Jinglou Village Communist Party secretary Jing Zhaode was informed. He led people and raided Mr. Jing’s home. They did not find anything but forced him to go to Jia Town Police Station. His dormitory at school was broken into on the same day and raided as well. His Falun Gong books were confiscated. The construction work of his house was only halfway done but had to be halted.

Ms. Jing’s wife went to Jia Town Police Station to seek his release on the same afternoon but was told that he was taken to Guan County Detention Center. She and her child went to Guan County Detention Center the next day and brought some daily necessities for him, only to be told that he was not there. His wife repeatedly went back to the village office to ask Jing Zhaode about her husband’s detention location, before being told that he was locked up in Liaocheng Detention Center. 

His wife and child rushed there to take him the necessities. However, Mr. Jing later told his family that none of the items were given to him.

Mr. Jing was taken to the Wangcun Labor Camp in Zibo City a month later. The school suspended his salary during his detention there.

In Wangcun Forced Labor Camp, Mr. Jing was deprived of sleep and severely beaten, which led to swollen and painful testicles. He was unable to sit or stand. 

Later, he was injected with an unknown drug and he was unable to walk as a result. However, he was still forced to work for twenty hours a day and given food that was barely edible. 

Mr. Jing was released in June 2009. On the day after he returned home, two small red spots appeared on his leg, which later became reddish and swollen, growing larger and larger.

Within a week after his release, police officer Liu Qingxiang from Jia Town Police Station and several other officers barged into Mr. Jing to harass him again.

A few days later, his leg turned from red to black and purple and oozed a lot of pus, and the two red spots later developed into two egg-sized holes. There were also many small red spots growing on the surface of his foot, bleeding with pus. He bore excruciating pain and had to rely on his wife’s help to go to the restroom.

Death Follows Escalated Persecution in School 

After Mr. Jing recovered a little by doing Falun Gong exercises, the school principal Zhang Zhitong assigned him to teach the first grade at Xiangjiang Guangcai Primary School, although he had more than 20 years of teaching experience in middle school. Mr. Jing did not complain, instead, he worked diligently as the homeroom teacher. 

Not long after, Mr. Jing’s health problem relapsed during the 2010-2011 school year. A bean-sized pustule grew on his back and he could not lie down or lie on his side, so he could hardly sleep. About a week later, a lot of pus flowed out after it ruptured. 

Despite his condition, principal Zhang assigned Mr. Jing to teach four courses, including Chinese, politics, ethics, and music. He had to resign as a homeroom teacher in order to have time to prepare the classes. Since he had no knowledge about music, he had to learn everything from scratch. Many times, he learned something the night before he taught the children the next day.

Under high pressure and stress, Mr. Jing’s health deteriorated. He lost his energy, often became drowsy, and lost his appetite. By late March 2012, his neck became inflexible and red spots grew on his neck. He had to take time off to rest at home. During this period, principal Zhang sent a teacher to harass Mr. Jing at home.

He went to the hospital and the doctor could not find the cause of his illness. The red dots suddenly ruptured the night of April 6, 2012. While on the way to the hospital, he lost consciousness.

Mr. Jing passed away 19 days later, on April 25, 2012.