Liu Hua (alias), born May 1950, was a man from Guyuan City in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. He began believing in the Lord Jesus in 1992 and then entered into The Church of Almighty God (CAG) in 2004. He was honest, loyal and always happy to help others. In December of 2012, Liu Hua was arrested by police of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for spreading the gospel and was made to freeze in the -4 degrees Fahrenheit cold for over two hours, after which he was subjected to a form of torture in which the arms are held behind the back, and then the victim’s hands are forcibly jerked upwards. The torture caused an acute shoulder strain that triggered severe rheumatoid arthritis and several complications, which left him bedridden. During this period, the police continued to frequently harass him at his home, causing Liu extreme emotional stress, which aggravated his condition even further and eventually led to his death on March 5, 2019.
On December 8, 2012, the Christians Liu Hua and Huang Jian (alias) were just getting ready to go spread the gospel in Guyuan City when they were apprehended by three urban management officers and taken to the local police station.
According to Liu Hua’s testimony, a little after 9 a.m. on that day, he was taken by two policemen to point out Huang Jian’s house. When he failed to cooperate, the police made him stay out in the -4 degrees Fahrenheit cold for over two hours. The freezing cold and bone-chilling wind left his entire body stiff. After returning to the police station, two policemen suddenly took his arms behind his back and violently jerked his hands and arms in an upward motion. Liu Hua heard a sudden cracking noise in his right shoulder and then he passed out in pain and fell to the ground. After that, the police, showing no regard for his life, dragged Liu Hua into an interrogation room and made him sit on a tiger bench for more than 30 hours. During that time, the police viciously smacked him across the face with books and kicked him in the forehead, causing Liu severe dizziness and leaving a dark bruise on his forehead.
Liu Hua was falsely charged with “disturbing public order” on the afternoon of the next day and detained for fifteen days. At the detention center, his right shoulder hurt so much that he couldn’t even raise his arm and was unable to sleep at night. He couldn’t even fold his own blanket.
When he finally obtained his release, Liu Hua’s family took him to the hospital for treatment, but the doctors were unable to make a diagnosis, so he was left to rely on pain-killers to control his pain levels. Whenever there was cloudy or rainy weather, he would feel an excruciating pain, as though someone had taken a drill to his shoulder and his knees would be in such pain that he’d be unable to walk.
From April to October of 2013, Liu Hua’s family took him on three separate occasions to a large out-of-province hospital for further testing. The doctors told him that granulation tissue had already formed over the strained area of his right shoulder. Ultimately, he was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. After that, despite sticking closely to his drug regimen, his illness continued to worsen—every joint in his body was in pain, his wrist and middle finger joints were swollen, and his arms hurt so much that he couldn’t even hold his own rice bowl. His legs and feet were all swollen, making it very difficult to walk. According to his family, prior to his arrest, Liu Hua had been very healthy and had never displayed any of his current symptoms.
Even after he had been tortured to the point where he had developed this serious illness, the police still wouldn’t let up. On April 10, 2014, someone from the court called to interrogate Liu Hua regarding his faith and said that they wanted to conduct in his home the court case against his spreading the gospel. To avoid being arrested, tortured and persecuted by the CCP once again, Liu Hua and his wife were forced to leave their home and go into hiding. During that time, the police and the prosecutor’s office would call Liu’s children every one to two months and interrogate them regarding his whereabouts. At the end of 2016, because Liu’s health was declining and the police were unrelenting in the pressure they put on Liu’s children, he and his wife were forced to return home.
After that, representatives from the county public security bureau, prosecutor’s office and court made several visits to Liu’s home, hoping to prosecute and charge him. It was only after they realized the graveness of his illness and his inability to look after himself that they were forced to drop the case. They even threatened that they’d take away his retirement pension.
The torment of his intractable illness taken together with the stress of the CCP constantly making visits to harass and threaten him left Liu depressed and dejected. He often told his family, “I’d be better off dead!”
From September to October of 2017, Liu Hua’s condition worsened once again—every joint in his body was in unbearable pain and he was hospitalized twice. Further testing revealed that he had cerebellar atrophy and lumbar spinal stenosis, for which he underwent surgery. During his hospital stay, he had a constant fever, joint pain, was comatose for over ten days and was given three critical illness notices. During that same period, Liu Hua’s weight plummeted from 198 pounds to 110 pounds.
Liu Hua’s family ended up having to spend about 500,000 RMB (71,000 USD) on medical expenses related to complications from the illness he developed after being subjected to torture. His condition, however, continued to deteriorate and he finally passed away on March 5, 2019 at the age of 69.
