Falun Gong is a large new religious movement in China. It was founded by Li Hongzhi (李洪志) in 1992, and teaches physical exercises and martial arts as well as meditation and breathing techniques. Initially the Chinese Communist Party encouraged such groups, but turned against them in the late 1990s and banned it in 1999. Falun Gong members have faced severe persecution since then.
“Falun Gong Practitioner Persecuted to Death 5 Days After Arrival in Notorious Prison,” by Shen Xiang, Bitter Winter, October 21, 2024:
In Heilongjiang Province, Falun Gong practitioner Ren Changbin was tortured to death on September 28, 2024, merely five days after his incarceration in the notorious Shuangyashan Prison, where torture is routinely practiced. Ren Changbin was born in 1964 in Jiamusi City in Heilongjiang Province. He previously worked at the Jiamusi Gongnong Glass Factory before retiring and later joined the Jiamusi Jianxing Ready-Mixed Concrete Company. On September 14 and 15, 2023, a special anti-xie jiao (the Chinese name for banned “organizations spreading heterodox teachings,” sometimes less correctly translated as “evil cults”) squad of the Jiamusi Public Security Bureau raided several private homes, arresting some thirty Falun Gong practitioners and their families. Among them, Ren Changbin was arrested by the police at his home on the evening of September 14. He was accused of being active in a xie jiao, a crime punished by Article 300 of the Chinese Criminal Code. On July 25, 2024, he was sentenced to three years in prison by the Jiamusi Xiangyang District Court. Ren Changbin was transferred to Shuangyashan Prison on September 23, 2024. He was tortured to death just five days later, on the 28th, at the age of 60….
