Widower Sentenced to 3.5 Years After Wife Dies in Custody for Possessing the ‘Nine Commentaries

Twenty years ago, the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party were published, exposing the harsh realities of Communist rule in China. Today, the book’s message continues to inspire, but those who have shared it also face the repercussions of the regime’s brutal measures to suppress it.

Mr. Zhang Aiquan, a former police commissioner turned Falun Gong practitioner, is fighting to appeal his 3.5-year prison sentence after being swept up in a November 2023 police raid on Falun Gong practitioners in Dongying City, Shandong Province. Authorities monitored Mr. Zhang and at least 18 other practitioners for months before his arrest. In July 2024, the Dongying District Court sentenced him, and he remains detained at Binhai Detention Center.

This is not the first time Mr. Zhang has faced persecution. Since the Communist Party’s crackdown on Falun Gong began in 1999, he has endured job loss, forced labor, and relentless surveillance. Mr. Zhang was fired from his job as police commissioner at the Binhai Police Traffic Control Center. In July 2000, dozens of officers went to Mr. Zhang’s home and arrested him. A few months later, he was sentenced to three years in a forced labor camp.

His suffering is compounded by a personal tragedy: in 2013, his wife, jailed for possessing copies of the Nine Commentaries, died just three months after her release. Her death followed years of hard labor, sleep deprivation, and force-feeding with unknown substances in prison.

The couple’s arrest for possessing the Nine Commentaries

Following Mr. Zhang’s release from a labor camp in the early 2000s, police routinely monitored him and made threatening calls to his home. While monitoring Mr. Zhang, they discovered he was distributing copies of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party and other materials with information exposing the persecution of Falun Gong.

The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party is a nine-part critique of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), examining its history, ideology, and methods of control. The Nine Commentaries lay out the CCP’s track record of devastating Chinese society, including its destruction of traditional culture and values. The book argues that the authoritarian regime is fundamentally at odds with China’s cultural heritage and covers topics like the CCP’s violent rise to power, the systematic persecution of various groups, including Falun Gong practitioners, and the party’s campaigns against religion and traditional beliefs.

Since the book’s release, the Nine Commentaries have inspired a significant movement called “Tuidang” (退党), where millions of Chinese people have publicly renounced their affiliation with the CCP. The essays have been credited with providing a new perspective on the party’s history of violence and manipulation, prompting many to reconsider their views on the CCP. The series argues that severing ties with the party is a moral obligation due to its extensive record of repression and human rights abuses.

Imprisonment and abuse in custody

On May 13, 2005, police confiscated copies of the book from Mr. Zhang’s home and arrested him and his wife, Ms. Wang Mingyun. During the arrest, officers beat Mr. Zhang until his clothes were soaked with blood. They took Mr. Zhang to an extralegal detention center inside a hotel, where they handcuffed and shackled him to a metal chair and interrogated him for nine days. Police shocked him with electron batons and prevented him from sleeping in an attempt to coerce information about the couple’s copies of the Nine Commentaries. On May 22, 2005, Zhang was transferred to a detention center where he was tied to a bed frame for over a month.

On July 28, 2006, a judge at the Huaitai Court in Dongying City gave Mr. Zhang and Ms. Wang lengthy prison sentences of eight and seven and a half years respectively. Mr. Zhang served his sentence at Shandong Province Prison, where the abuse continued. Mr. Zhang was regularly beaten and deprived of sleep by guards and inmates instigated to harass him. He was once beaten by eight inmates for two days straight, causing him to go into shock. The injuries were so severe that he could not walk for weeks and the pain in his right arm, right leg, and back lasted for several years after Mr. Zhang’s release from prison. During all of this, the prison barred Mr. Zhang’s family from visiting him.

Death of Ms. Wang after abuse in custody

Meanwhile, Ms. Wang faced similar treatment at Shandong Province Women’s Prison. A common torture technique used on Falun Gong practitioners in detention is forcing them to stay in the same position for extended periods of time, leading to excruciating joint pain and festering sores. Ms. Wang was forced to stand for long hours each day for over 40 days and was only allowed to stop to sleep for two to three hours each night. Meanwhile, guards instigated inmates to beat and harass her. Guards also denied her family visits and restricted her from buying daily necessities. Furthermore, guards force-fed Ms. Wang unknown drugs.

Ms. Wang’s hair grayed rapidly, her teeth became loose, itchy bumps formed all over her body, and her blood pressure became dangerously high. She was sent to the prison hospital several times where medical personnel said she was in critical condition. Her family requested that she be released on medical parole, but the request was denied. Meanwhile, on several occasions, prison authorities called the family to demand that they pay for Ms. Wang’s medical treatment.

Ms. Wang’s prison sentence ended on November 19, 2012, and she was released. However, she was in very poor condition. Just three months after her release, she passed away on February 11, 2013, at the age of 52.