Mr. Bi Deheng was seventy years old. He was a retired worker from the Realty Department of the Xingshan Mine of the Hekuang Incorporation of Hegang City in Heilongjiang Province. He lived in the Xingshan District. On April 22 of 2002, he was sentenced to two years imprisonment at a forced labor camp. On December 20, 2002, he was placed on parole because of his high blood pressure. He died of throat cancer on August 14, 2004. His wife's social security was subsequently withheld. She was told it would be returned to her ten years later to pay for her husband's expenses incurred in prison.