AP: Hunger-Striking Falun Gong Member Dies

January 02, 2002

BEIJING (AP) - A member of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement detained in western China has died after a hunger strike, a hospital administrator said Wednesday.

Wan Guifu, 57, died Dec. 18 at the hospital of the Dashaping labor camp in the city of Lanzhou, said the administrator, contacted by telephone. He gave only his surname, Zhang.

The death added to a mounting loss of life among Falun Gong members since the group was outlawed in July, 1999 as a threat to communist rule.

[...]

Wan was detained in March for distributing Falun Gong materials in Lanzhou, Falun Gong supporters abroad said in a written statement. It said the retired autoworker stopped eating Oct. 15 to protest his confinement and was hospitalized in mid-December.

Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province, one of China's poorest areas, is about 650 miles southwest of Beijing.

http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=ASIA&STORYID=APIS7GPF6QG

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