(Clearwisdom.net) To protest the frequent beatings and willful persecution at the hands of the guards, Ms. Zhou Zi, a Falun Gong practitioner from Beijing, has been on hunger strike for 51 days as of April 17.

After guard Zheng Yumei (female) beat Ms. Zhou, Deputy Warden Zhou Ying (female), who is in charge of persecuting practitioners, put on airs to investigate the event. The investigation was actually an arrangement to cover up the facts and check on their effect. Even the death of practitioner Ms. Dong Cuifang and the disablement of other practitioners due to torture has been concealed, and those responsible protected. This event is certainly not exceptional. The prison authorities have spread among the guards that Ms. Zhou is holding a hunger strike on her own initiative, that it has nothing to do with being beaten, and that her possible death will have nothing to do with the prison administration. The personnel of the prison are extremely indifferent to her hunger strike.

Ms. Zhou Zi's parents are both in their sixties. They got up at about 4:00 a.m. and traveled about 125 miles round-trip to the Beijing Women's Prison five times. Nevertheless, they were never allowed to see their daughter.