Five Years of State Terror...1998 
Senior Chinese official, Luo Gan, seeks political gain by orchestrating anti-Falun Gong publicity and harassment. The Premier orders that Falun Gong be left alone, but his orders are withheld. The following year, Jiang Zemin attempts to destroy Falun Gong because it is so popular and respected. July 20, 1999  Falun Gong volunteers throughout China are taken from their homes in the middle of the night. Tens of thousands are detained over the next few days. On July 22, Jiang Zemin illegally bans Falun Gong. Within weeks, the first death in custody is reported by Falun Gong practitioners in China. Fall/Winter 1999 
To date, tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners are arbitrarily arrested and sent to forced labor camps without trial; lawyers are ordered by the Bureau of Justice not to represent Falun Gong practitioners; millions of Falun Gong books are confiscated and burned in public book burnings. Fall 2000  A healthy Army Lieutenant General is incarcerated in a mental hospital and tortured with drug injections. Hundreds more are undergoing similar torture in state-run mental facilities. Falun Gong practitioners are being held in every one of the nation's 300 forced-labor camps. January 2001 
5 individuals set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square. Chinese authorities flood the state-run media with grisly photos of the event, claiming the self-immolators were Falun Gong practitioners. Days later, aWashington Post article reveals that at least two of the self-immolators were not practitioners. Further evidence later demonstrates the incident was staged. May-July 2001 
On the evening of May 14 in Beijing, a female Falun Gong practitioner is beaten and raped on the street by a policeman. In June, police in Xingtai Public Security Bureau gang-rape many female Falun Gong practitioners. The total number of deaths verified by FDI increases 400% in less than one year. January 2003 
Authorities detain Dr. Charles Lee, an American citizen, accuse him of intending to expose human rights violations over China's state-run media, and sentence him to prison. Lee endures beatings, forced-feedings, daily brainwashing sessions, and other abuse as the authorities try to "transform" him. May 2003 
After being tortured, 56-year-old Ms. Zhao Chunying wrote about her ordeal and posted it on the Internet. Local police discovered what Ms. Zhao revealed, and arrested her on April 15, 2003. Less than a month later, Ms. Zhao is dead. Photographs taken by her family show her death was horrifyingly brutal. | 
