Ms. Gong Hui, 57, Tianjin

Name: Gong Hui (??)
Gender: Female
Age: 57
Occupation: Medical Doctor
Date of Most Recent Arrest: August 13, 2008
Date of Most Recent Release: November, 2009
Date of Death: December 4, 2009
Province: Tianjin
City: Tianjin
Address: Nankai District, Tianjin City
Most Recent Place of Detention: Banqiao Women’s Forced Labor Camp in Tianjin City (?????????)

Case Details: 

Local police and security bureau officers detained Ms. Gong without a warrant on August 13, 2008, during the period of the Beijing Olympics. She was initially held at Nankai District Detention Center for 35 days.

On September 17, 2008, She was then “sentenced” to 15-months of “re-education through labor” taken to Banqiao forced labor camp.

In an effort to force her to renounce her faith in Falun Gong, guards at the camp placed Ms. Gong in solitary confinement for extended periods of time, deprived her of food and sleep, and forced her to stand for hours at a time. The guards also instigated non-practitioner inmates to beat her.

On November 9, 2008, Ms. Gong was reportedly subjected to a particularly harsh session of torture, lasting from 9:00am until 11:00pm and resulting in her near physical collapse. Within three months of being detained at the camp, Ms. Gong had become emaciated, sickly, and had difficulty speaking. Despite calls for Ms. Gong’s release by family members, the camp continued to detain her despite her deteriorating condition.

After suffering for one year and three months, she was finally allowed to return home after completing the full sentence she had originally been given. Unable to recover from the torture she suffered in custody, Ms. Gong died on December 4, 2009, slightly more than three weeks after her release.

 For more information see: Falun Dafa Information Center, “Olympics Prisoner Dies from Torture Shortly after Release from Labor Camp,” January 4, 2010

Jay Nordlinger from the National Review Online commented on Ms. Gong’s case (link):

“You could write about a Falun Gong practitioner, abused or killed by the Chinese government, every day. I have not mentioned any names in a while. May I mention that of Gong Hui? She died last month, having been thrown into the gulag during the run-up to the Beijing Olympics. I wrote about this run-up — and the terrible things that went on — extensively. If you’re interested in a relevant series, go to my archive and look under August 2008.

Gong Hui was a typical case. This report gives us the particulars: “In an effort to force her to renounce her faith in Falun Gong, guards at the camp placed Gong in solitary confinement for extended periods of time, deprived her of food and sleep, and forced her to stand for hours at a time. The guards also instigated non-practitioner inmates to beat her.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They’re all the same, these cases. The Chinese authorities are absolutely predictable and consistent in their brutality. Because of the sameness of the cases, we might turn away, lose interest. But that would be a shame, wouldn’t it? Individuals in cells depend on world interest.”