China: Zhou Xiangyang on the Verge of Death

The pro-Falun Gong website Clearwisdom.net reports that Tianjin City resident Zhou Xiangyang has been on hunger strike for 300 days to protest his arrest and detention for his belief in the Falun Gong meditation practice. The 32-year-old has been jailed since 2003, and suffered torture and beatings in custody.

Mr. Zhou Xiangyang was arrested in mid-2003 for distributing information materials about the Falun Gong meditation practice, and detained in the Tianjin Hexi Police Station for 14 months.

He was then sentenced to nine years in prison, and has been jailed in the Gangbei Prison since August 9, 2004.

The Clearwisdom Web site reports that family members visited Mr. Zhou in June this year and he was carried out by four prisoners, emaciated and deathly white, after a hunger strike for 300 days.

Hunger striking is a protest of last resort. Under a state-operated campaign of detention, torture and brainwashing… Falun Gong practitioners have few avenues to appeal.

The Web site reports that during his detention, Mr. Zhou was beaten, cursed at, put in isolation, deprived of sleep and forced to watch video materials slandering Falun Gong.

During visits by family, all conversation was recorded and guards ordered him not to talk about his treatment in custody. Visits were ended if the guards thought his relatives were saying things that would obstruct the process of forcing Zhou to denounce Falun Gong.

After his hunger strike, Mr. Zhou was force-fed daily or taken to hospital for intravenous injections. As his health declined, his family were told this year that they could apply for his release on bail for medical treatment, but only if he renounced his belief in Falun Gong and transferred his permanent registered address from Tianjin city to a village with no ties to his hometown. His family were told not to disclose the terms of the deal.

But when his family applied, they were told Mr Zhou does not meet the conditions for release. Mr. Zhou remains in Gangbei Prison, in poor health and with an uncertain future.

(NTDTV)