Wang Fang (alias: Jiajia), female, was born on September 13, 1980 in Jinyang Town, Liangzhou District, Wuwei City, Gansu Province. She lived in the dormitories of a mud logging company in Huochezhan Town, Shanshan County, Xinjiang. She joined The Church of Almighty God in 2011.
One day in December 2012, Wang Fang was arrested by police in Shanshan County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region because of her belief in Almighty God. On December 24, she was criminally detained by the Tuha Public Security Bureau on suspicion of “sabotaging the enforcement of laws by organizing and utilizing cult organizations.”
On August 30, 2013 the Shanshan County Court sentenced Wang Fang to three years in prison for “sabotaging the enforcement of laws by organizing and utilizing cult organizations” by actively spreading the gospel.
On October 13, 2013, Wang Fang was sent to Women’s Prison in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to serve her sentence.
According to Zheng Zhen (an alias), another inmate who was also a Christian from The Church of Almighty God, she, Wang Fang and other Christians were subjected to forced conversion for three months in Prison Area 6, Block 12. In January 2014, they were sent for labor reform in Prison Area 3, Block 6, where the work was hardest of all. They would be sent out to work between 7:30 and 8 a.m. each day and would often only finish at 2 a.m. the following morning. The prisoners regularly worked for over 18 hours at a time. Sometimes, the guards would even make them work for three days and nights without rest.
According to another Christian called Wenwen (an alias), who was detained in the same block as Wang Fang, the hardest part of being in Block 6 was the extended sleep deprivation. At times, the prison guards would make them work through the night without a break, often scaring them with bangs from their electric batons. The prisoners were in a state of anxiety, depressed and exhausted both mentally and physically.
Christians who were detained there at the same time said that Wang Fang was often verbally abused by her monitor (the guards specially assigned other prisoners as monitors for those who believed in Almighty God), as a result of which she became reserved and uncommunicative. One day in October 2014, Wang Fang’s monitor reported her to the prison guard for this. When the prison guard talked to Wang Fang, she said nothing. The next day, after work finished at 2 a.m. and Wang Fang didn’t report herself, a guard accused her of “resisting reform” in front of 200 other prisoners. Prisoners who resisted reform were sent to special punishment cells (cells expressly reserved for prisoners who broke the rules.)
After returning to the dormitory, a prison guard handcuffed her to her bed and arranged for a monitor to keep watch on her. They didn’t let her sleep or close her eyes the whole night. When Wang Fang said, “Why are you doing this to me? I haven’t done anything wrong!” The guard replied harshly, “You’re resisting reforms. We have a right to do this!” (At the time, Wenwen was in the next dormitory and heard what was said between Wang Fang and the guard.)
When the prisoners were put to work in the morning, Wang Fang fainted and then slipped into a coma. She stopped breathing as she was being taken to the hospital. The doctor said it was “sudden death.” Wang Fang had been physically weakened by prolonged overwork. Clearly, she had suddenly fallen ill and died after being persecuted without reason and not allowed to close her eyes the whole night.
Afterward, the prison refused to release any information, forbade the prisoners from discussing Wang Fang’s death, and secretly disposed of her personal items. They also told her family her death had nothing to do with the prison. Thus was a 34-year-old Christian persecuted to death by the government of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
