Reports of Chinese President Xi Jinping under house arrest and a coup set the internet abuzz over the weekend, thanks to a tweet by a Jennifer Zeng. She said seniors of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) removed him as head of the China's People's Liberation Army (PLA).
Who is Jennifer Zeng
Jennifer Zeng is a human rights activist and journalist who was arrested four times in China for following Falun Gong – a Chinese religious spiritual practice that combines exercises, mediation and belief in truth, compassion and tolerance. She is the author of Witnessing History: One Chinese Woman's Fight for Freedom and Falun Gong.
Zeng was sent to a labor camp, Beijing Municipal Women's Re-Education-through-Labor Camp, where she was physically and mentally tortured and abused. Zeng, who now lives in the United States, was also subjected to brainwashing and electroshock treatment.
In an interview in 2019, Zeng revealed that they wanted to destroy their minds in the dispatch center. The detainees were made to recite regulations designed to dehumanize them. "It was mental torture and almost made me feel like I was raped mentally, again and again," she said.
The authorities also used sleep deprivation to mentally and physically break the followers of Falun Gong. "Those who did not give in and reform were forced to stand against the wall, you could hear the sound of people as they fell asleep standing up...you could just hear 'dong! dong! dong!' as their heads hit the wall," Zeng said.
The Escape
The 55-year-old managed to escape from the concentration camp in 2001 by "pretending to reform". Zeng revealed that she was forced to write essays about how evil the practice (Falun Gong) is. She had to read it to the fellow practitioners, and torture jail mates.
When Zeng finally got out, she wrote the book. She also made the documentary "Free China: The Courage to Believe". Since her release, Zeng has dedicated herself to increasing international awareness of the severe human rights violations taking place in China.
The Chinese government continues to persecute those who practice Falun Gong. The followers are subjected to arrests, re-education camps, and organ harvesting, as well as murder.
