Ms. Zhang Xiangling is a Falun Gong practitioner from Yongnian County, Hebei Province. On August 19, 2008, the police in Handan City, Hebei Province broke into her home and illegally arrested her. She is still in detention.

The Persecution Faced by Ms. Zhang Xiangling from Yongnian County, Hebei Province

Ms. Zhang Xiangling, in her 30's, is a resident of Qumo Village, Qumo Township, Yongnian County, Hebei Province. She started practicing Falun Gong in 1999. Everyone surrounding her knew that she is a good person. However, Ms. Zhang Xiangling has been repeatedly harassed, arrested and detained by CCP agents.

In October 2003, the Domestic Security Team of Yongnian County Police Department, along with the local police from Qumo Station, arrested Ms. Zhang Xiangling for her practicing Falun Gong. They interrogated and detained her at the County Detention Center because she refused to renounce her belief.

Ms. Zhang Xiangling later went on a hunger strike to protest. She warned the police that they would bear responsibility for anything that happened as a result. After 59 days of hunger strike, Ms. Zhang became bones and skin. The guards sent her to a hospital. The doctor said that her esophagus and stomach were damaged and that he couldn't treat her, although she was on the edge of death. As a result, the police ordered her family to take her home. When she returned home, she resumed her practice of the Falun Gong exercises and regained her health.

After she recovered, CCP agents kept harassing her, and thus Ms. Zhang couldn't lead a normal life with her family. She decided to leave her hometown and run a small business in Handan City to make a living for her family. When her small business didn't run well, she had to find some temporary jobs. The jobs she could find were all so physically demanding or dirty that no one else would take them, such as cleaning, moving bricks and mud, etc. However, no matter what jobs she took, she never complained, and she always fulfilled her duties very well, and thus her bosses always praised her.

Around 10:00 pm on August 19, 2008, agents from the Domestic Security Team and seven or eight policemen from Fudong Police Station broke into the home Ms. Zhang was renting. Without any warrant, they ransacked her home. They later detained her at Handan City Detention Center, where she remains to this day. The persecution brought Ms. Zhang's family great pain.