Xu Chensheng, 47, Chenzhou

Name: Xu Chensheng (???)
Gender: Female
Age: 47
Date of Most Recent Arrest: May 16, 2012
Date of Most Recent Release: Died in custody
Date of Death: May 16, 2012
City: Chenzhou City
Province: Hunan
Most Recent Place of Detention: Renmin West Street Police Station

Case details:

At 10am on May 16, 2012, police officers in the city of Chenzhou, Hunan province, abducted Ms. Xu Chensheng (???), off the street, presumably because they discovered she was a Falun Gong practitioner. They took her to Renmin West Street Police Station, where they handcuffed and interrogated her for approximately twelve hours. Later that night, she was driven to the hospital.

At 11:15pm, the Chenzhou City No. 1 People’s Hospital pronounced her dead. The police department informed her family members of the 47-year-old’s death two days later. A photo of her corpse (below) and the details of her case were soon sent to the overseas Chinese Minghui.org website and posted online.

Although local media have been barred from reporting on the case, posters have appeared in Chenzhou stating, “The murderers should be punished!” Emboldened by the community support, her family members, including her 87-year-old mother, hired a lawyer and an independent examiner to perform an autopsy on Ms. Xu, whose corpse is still being held in an official morgue. All their requests have been denied and her brother has been harassed at his workplace, the Lanshan County Education Bureau.

One month before her abduction, Ms. Xu told a friend that she feared she was being monitored and followed. Like many Falun Gong practitioners, she had been abducted numerous times previously and had spent several months in jails and Re-education Through Labor (RTL) camps. 

In 2005, her employer, the Chenzhou Cigarette Factory, colluded with the local 610 Office, an extralegal Communist Party task force leading the campaign against Falun Gong, to force Ms. Xu to attend brainwashing classes. To avoid the persecution, she went into hiding. She was subsequently fired, lost her ID card, and essentially lived on the run. Her home was ransacked several times and her husband divorced her under pressure. 

In 2011, she attempted to board a train but, because she had no ID card, was searched. Railway personnel found a Falun Gong book and several informational flyers in her possession. She was detained and abused for nearly two months. Upon her release, she was weak and emaciated. The Railway Bureau praised the attendant responsible for her detention, awarding him 100,000 yuan (US$15,700).