The disappearance of Ms. Shao Yuhua leads to protests and inquiries in Taiwan.

A summary of research from the Minghui (Clearwisdom in Chinese) website.

Taiwan Falun Gong Practitioner Forcibly Taken Away While Visiting Relatives in China

Because she practices Falun Gong, Ms. Shao Yuhua, a permanent resident of Taiwan, was forcibly taken away by agents from the Chinese Communist Party State Security Bureau on the morning of July 31, 2009. She had traveled to China to visit relatives in Nanyang, Henan Province. Her whereabouts remain unknown.

According to Ms. Xiao, who lives in the same city, agents from the State Security Bureau first deceived Ms. Shao with a phone call and coerced her into leaving her sister's home. They then forcibly took her away and searched her sister's home, confiscating her money, passport and luggage. They then took away Shao Yuhua's sister Shao Yuxiu as well.

Yang Yi, spokesman and director of the information office for the China-based Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council is currently visiting Taiwan. Chang Ching-hsi, chairman of the Taiwan Falun Dafa Association, handed a statement to Yan Yi on the evening of August 1 and asked for the immediate release of Ms. Shao Yuhua.

Eleven years ago, Shao Yuhua went to Taiwan from Nanyang, Henan Province to be married. She started practicing Falun Gong in December 2007. This July, she went back to her hometown with her ten-year-old daughter to visit relatives, and they stayed in her sister's home. On the evening of July 31, when Shao Yuhua was leaving the Nanyang Cigarette Factory in Henan Province, she was abducted by agents from the State Security Bureau, who then searched the home and confiscated her personal property.

Chang Ching-hsi, chairman of the Taiwan Falun Dafa Association, and Chu Wan-chi, chief executive of the United States Human Rights Law Association in Asia, as well as other people, held a press conference at 5:00 p.m. on August 1.

Chu Wan-chi pointed out that Ms. Shao committed no unlawful deeds while in China. She was forcibly taken away by State Security Bureau agents simply because of her faith in Falun Gong. Chu Wan-chi asked Yan Yi, director of the information office for Taiwan Affairs of the State Council who is visiting Taiwan, to quickly make inquiries and ensure Shao Yuhua's basic human rights.

Qiu Yi, a legislator of the Chinese Nationalist Party, also spoke at the press conference via phone link. He condemned the Chinese Communist Party's violations of human rights. He said the Chinese Communist Party often casually arrests people without giving a reason. He said the Taiwan Executive Yuan's mainland China committee and the Foundation for the the Exchange Across the Straits should actively pursue the release of Shao Yuhua. He said that since Yang Yi is emphasizing information exchange and freedom of the media, he should voice his opinion about this case.

Ms. Shao's husband, Zheng Shuda, said that his wife went back to her hometown just to visit relatives. She went back to Henan Province in 2007 as well. At that time, everything was normal. Later she started practicing Falun Gong, and was forcibly taken away when she returned to China. Mr. Zheng sincerely asked Taiwanese people from all circles to "help my wife."

Ming Chu-Cheng, a professor from the political department of Taiwan University, said that since the Chinese Communist Party regards Falun Gong as a danger, it shows that the human rights situation in China has not improved.

The speakers presented an appeal calling on the Chinese Communist Party to immediately release Shao Yuhua, and asking the Straits Foundation to help mistreated Falun Gong practitioners come back to Taiwan. They then went to the place where the Foundation for the the Exchange Across the Straits was having a banquet, intending to express their appeal to Yang Yi face to face. But guards would not allow them through.

On July 20, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party launched a comprehensive persecution of Falun Gong. According to incomplete statistics, 3292 Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted to death. This number only includes those we know about, while the actual number could be much higher. The deaths are spread across more than thirty provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government. Among them, women count for roughly 54 percent, while senior people over fifty count for 57 percent.

Ten years have passed, and the Chinese Communist Party's persecution of Falun Gong still continues, and even extends overseas. This is not the first time that the Chinese Communist Party has forcibly taken away Taiwan Falun Gong practitioners when they visited China.

In January and October 2003, Taiwan residents Wang Xiuhua and Lin Xiaokai were both locked up by the Shanghai State Security Bureau for almost a month. The Security Bureau tried to "convert" them, make them do undercover work and betray other Taiwan Falun Gong practitioners. In another case, Ms. Li Xinjue went back to her hometown in Jiangxi Province on January 29, 2004, to celebrate her elderly mother's birthday. As soon as she got off the plane, she was forcibly taken to an unidentified place by agents from the Nanchang City State Security Bureau, and locked there for 96 hours.

Falun Gong practitioners in other countries and areas have also been persecuted by the Chinese State Security Bureau. Among them are Mr. Wang Xingguo and his wife Wu Fengjiao in Geneva, Switzerland, Ms. Li Juan in the United States, Ms. Xin Qin in the United States, Mr. Liu Yi in Wellington, New Zealand, Mr. Zhang Junan in Germany, Mr. Fan Ziyu in Canada, Mr. Zhu Ying in Montreal, Canada, Ms. Cai Yingzi in Japan, Ms. Wang Zhengtian in Hongkong, and others. They were all harassed by the Chinese State Security Bureau when they went back to China. They published articles on the Minghui/Clearwisdom websites describing their experiences.

After Shao Yuhua was forcibly taken away, many media including the Central News Agency, Liberty Times, Taiwan Times, China Times, Taipei Times and Central Broadcasting Station followed the issue and published the news on August 2. The Taipei Times published it on the front page of its online paper.

The Chinese Communist Party Has Committed Many Serious Crimes in Ten Years of Persecuting Falun Gong (Photos)

Because of the persistent efforts by Falun Gong practitioners to clarify the facts during the last 10 years, in spite of the cruelest persecution in human history, more and more people have been moved by the tremendous sacrifices made by practitioners, and they have learned about the crimes that have been taking place against Falun Gong in China.

On July 20, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to use the nation's resources to persecute more than 100 million practitioners in China, kindhearted people who simply wanted to improve themselves physically and mentally through following the principle of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. The CCP carried out a massive number of arrests all over China. Following its policy of "destroy their reputations, cut off their financial resources, and physically eradicate them," the Communist regime led by Jiang Zemin attempted to completely annihilate Falun Gong within three months. Over the next several years, as Falun Gong practitioners maintained a rational and tranquil state, they steadfastly held onto their righteous beliefs and refused to be cowed by the extreme physical violence and torture. The regime continued to escalate the persecution against Falun Gong. It enforced such policies as, "It is not a crime to beat a Falun Gong practitioner to death. If a Falun Gong practitioner is beaten to death, it is counted as a suicide." Another enforced policy is, "There is no need to carry out an investigation into the death of any Falun Gong practitioner. Cremate the body immediately." The persecution was pushed to the extremes.

Over the last ten years, practitioners in China have made tremendous personal sacrifices in their efforts to break through the information blockade imposed by the regime, and they have regularly submitted reports about the CCP's heartless crimes to the Minghui/Clearwisdom website. The website has gathered an astounding number of first-hand reports of persecution cases over the last 10 years. The extent of the persecution is truly shocking. The Minghui Data Center has started the massive task of organizing and categorizing the reported cases of persecution.

This article provides a few statistics on the reported cases of persecution that the Minghui website received from June 1, 2002, to July 15, 2009. Behind the numbers, one can see that the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners that was initiated, carried out, and enforced by the Communist regime is unprecedented in terms of the amount of area that it covered, the number of people who have been victimized, and the cruel extent of the persecution.

• Tens of Thousand Reported Cases of Persecution Took Place in More than 31 Provinces and Autonomous Regions in Mainland China

The total number of reported cases of persecution collected by the Minghui Data Center were 48,085 (from June 1, 2002 to July 15, 2009)

A chart that shows an increase in the total number of reported cases of persecution over the years

A chart that shows the number of reported cases of persecution each year

From the chart that shows the number of reported cases of persecution each year, one can see that because of the persistent, stoic, peaceful, and rational efforts that Falun Gong practitioners have made to combat the persecution, the righteous force has been strengthening continuously, and the evil has been continuously eliminated. Even though it still persecutes practitioners, it is no longer as audacious as it used to be several years ago.

The following table shows the number of reported cases of persecution in each Chinese province:

• 3,294 Confirmed Deaths of Falun Gong Practitioners as a Direct Result of the Persecution

As of July 15, 2009, a total of 3,294 Falun Gong practitioners are confirmed to have died as a direct result of the persecution. These death cases are spread out over 31 provinces and autonomous regions in China. Of these deaths, 53.46 percent or 1,716 of the victims were women, and 43.05 percent or 1,418 of the victims were men. In 115 death cases or 3.49 percent the gender of the victim is unknown. On average, 27 practitioners have died each month.

• A High Number of Death Cases Resulted from Harvesting Organs from Practitioners Who Were Still Alive

In their independent investigation report entitled Bloody Harvest - A Revised Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China, two prominent Canadian lawyers, David Matas and David Kilgour, pointed out that, according to the official statistics from the Chinese government, after the persecution against Falun Gong started, the total number of organ transplants in China performed during the five years from 2000 to 2005 reached 60,000. This reflected a sharp increase over the previous five years. In 41,500 of those cases, the Communist regime couldn't explain the origins of those organs.

In China there is a massive underground market for harvested organs for transplant. The actual number of organ transplants that have taken place in China is several times the official figure. For example, if the official figure of the number of organ transplants is 30,000 per year, the actual number could easily be 110,000 per year. Because of the huge availability of organs--meaning, from the huge number of illegally detained Falun Gong--many hospitals' officially reported numbers of organ transplants cannot be relied on, because the hospitals perform many transplants independently. This means the actual number of transplants is much higher than the official figure. Exact figures are difficult to obtain. Based on the most conservative estimate, over the last 10 years, the number of Falun Gong practitioners who have been killed for their organs has exceeded 15,000. The actual number could be more than 100,000.

• The Large Numbers of Persecution Cases

According to an incomplete analysis of the data available on the Minghui website, close to 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners have been illegally sentenced to prisons, and more than 100,000 have been illegally sent to forced labor camps. Several thousand practitioners have been locked up in mental hospitals where they were forcefully injected with drugs that damaged their central nervous systems. Tens of thousands of practitioners have simply been seized by authorities and hauled off to brainwashing centers, where they endured mental anguish. Even more practitioners have been beaten, otherwise tortured, or had money extorted from them by government officials.

The Minghui Data Center performed an analysis on the reported cases of persecution and provided a breakdown of the various types of persecution used against Falun Gong practitioners as well as the number of victims in each category.

The analysis shows a disturbingly high number of cases in which practitioners have been physically abused. The cases by specific means of persecution methods include the following:

Beaten: 12,553 cases

Physically punished: 5,766 cases

Handcuffed for long periods of time: 4,976 cases

Shocked with electric batons: 4,300 cases

Devastating Force-feedings: 3,123 cases

Locked in small cages: 3,040 cases

Hoisted off the ground and left hanging for long periods of time: 2,123 cases

Left outdoors in the winter and exposed to cold climates: 1,757 cases

Forced to sit on narrow stools for long periods of time: 1,614 cases

Bound with ropes for long periods of time: 1,311 cases

Injected with unknown drugs: 999 cases

Burned with fire or scalded with boiling water: 790 cases

Penetrating victims' hands with screwdrivers or sharp objects: 414 cases

Sexually assaulted: 300 cases

Bend body parts, roll and ground on victim's legs, hands and feet with heavy objects: 235 cases

Nearly suffocated repeatedly: 180 cases

Bitten by poisonous bugs, mosquitoes, or police dogs: 89 cases

Other forms of cruel tortures: 2473 cases

Cases in which practitioners have been mentally tortured include the following:

Tortured mentally (forced to curse Master Li and Falun Gong, forced to deface Master Li's portraits, etc): 9,216 cases

Mentally abused in forced brainwashing centers (forced to read, watch, and listen to material against Falun Gong; monitored by people who stayed right next to the practitioners 24 hours a day; or deprived of sleep for long periods of time): 8,194 cases

Abused in mental hospitals (injected with chemical agents, forced to take unknown drugs, forced to live with mental patients): 432 cases

The data about cases where practitioners experienced human rights abuses include the following:

Arrested without any legal procedures being followed: 56,274 cases

Summoned, tried and judged without any legal procedures being followed: 25,979 cases

Had homes ransacked: 8,420 cases

Deprived of access to basic living necessities: 7,895 cases

Harassed and threatened verbally: 5,298 cases

Illegally watched and followed: 2,884 cases

Humiliated and degraded: 2,490 cases

Fired from jobs or expelled from schools: 1,474 cases

Other human rights abuses not included above: 2,232 cases

The cases where practitioners suffered financial losses include:

Suffered financial losses: 6,458 cases (including 1,279 cases where they had funds extorted from them, 169 cases where their wages or benefits were suspended, and 38 cases where their own businesses suffered financially)

Had their valuables confiscated: 4,577 cases

Illegally fined (including practitioners and their employers): 3,358 cases

Had their property taken away: 39 cases

Other cases of persecution include:

Persecuting relatives, friends, classmates, and customers of Falun Gong practitioners: 3,070 cases

Instigating, encouraging, and condoning common criminals at prisons and labor camps to abuse Falun Gong practitioners: 1,860 cases

Defaming and slandering Falun Gong practitioners: 916 cases

Other types of persecution: 2,274 cases

Falun Gong practitioners have made it through 10 years of their grand journey in their efforts against the persecution. In this extraordinary and unique period of time, they have maintained their calm rationality, steadfast belief, and selfless sacrifice to provide the world's people the opportunity to learn the truth. As a result, people have learned how Falun Dafa has spread throughout the human world and felt the benevolence of Dafa. Furthermore, they have come to understand how the practitioners have transcended their own pain and suffering to spread the light, and recognized the cruelty of the Chinese Communist Party and how it is doomed to fail.