Xue Guiqing

Chinese Name: 薛桂清
Gender: Female
Age: 54
City: Tianjin City
Province: Tianjin
Occupation:
Date of Death: 2007-03-16
Date of Most Recent Arrest: 2004-02
Most recent place of detention: Tianjin Female Prison
Case Description:

Ms. Xue Guiqing, 54, a Falun Dafa practitioner from Niuzhen Village, Gaocun Township, Wuqing District, Tianjin City. She Ms. Xue Guiqing went to Beijing on October 1, 2000 to appeal for Falun Gong. She was taken back by Gaocun Township police and detained at Wuqing District Detention Center. She was sentenced to three years of forced labor and taken to the Tianjin City Banqiao Female Forced Labor Camp. After being on hunger strike for more than 300 days to protest the persecution, her body weight dropped from 150 pounds to 70 pounds. She was released on bail for medical treatment when she was in critical condition.

After Ms. Xue returned home, it did not take long for her to recover. In 2002, she went again to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong and was arrested and taken back to the Tianjin Banqiao Female Forced Labor Camp. The labor camp refused to take her. The local authorities and police brought her back and pressured her husband. They were afraid that she would go again to Beijing. They goaded her husband into breaking her legs. Her husband tied her up and beat her legs hard until they were all bloody and smashed. Her children sent her to the hospital and doctors said that the treatment would cost at least 30,000 yuan, and even then she might not recover. Ms. Xue did not wish to be treated. She returned home and cultivated in Falun Dafa. Her legs healed within six months and only a scar could be seen. During this time, staff from the Tianjin Banqiao Female Forced Labor Camp harassed Ms. Xue at her home many times. Ms. Xue did not cooperate. They thus, took her back to the forced labor camp. Ms. Xue went on a hunger strike again. Two months later her sentence expired and her family members took her back home.

In February 2004, Ms. Xue Guiqing went to Beijing to appeal one more time. She was arrested and taken back to Tianjin by Gaocun Township police and detained at the Wuqing District Detention Center. During the detention she was secretly tried. The first trial ended with her telling about her own experience of how good Dafa is. At the second trial, the authorities asked her to stop going to Beijing to appeal. Ms. Xue insisted that she would not give up cultivating. The Wuqing District court sentenced her to four years in prison. In the prison, Ms. Xue protested her treatment, refused to write repentance statements and went on a hunger strike for 10 months. Vice Director Li Hong arranged four prisoners to watch Ms. Xue. They handcuffed her day and night, fed her through a tube and did not remove it. They did not allow her to go to the restroom. In the cold winter they did not put any covers on her and her face became purple from the freezing temperature. Sometimes they even took her clothes off and turned fans toward her. In July 2005, Ms. Xue Guiqing was very weak because of the torture she suffered. Prison staff did not want to take responsibility and informed Ms. Xue's family to take her home on bail for medical treatment.

After returning home, Ms. Xue practiced Falun Gong and soon recovered. During that time, prison guards came to her home many times, but she did not cooperate with them. In February 2006 she was taken back to the prison. On March 14, 2007, Tianjin Female Prison informed Ms. Xue's family to take her home. By this time she was nearly dead and weighed less than 70 pounds. Two days later Ms. Xue passed away.