Retired teacher Ms. Liu Lihua died January 28, 2010, a few months after her release in poor condition from her most recent imprisonment. Over the past ten years, Ms. Liu was detained and imprisoned multiple times. One of her earlier experiences of imprisonment and torture was documented by human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng.

Ms. Liu Lihua Dies as Result of Persecution

Name: Liu Lihua 
Gender: Female
Age: 61
Address: Fushan District, Yantai City, Shandong Province
Occupation: Retired teacher
Date of Death: January 28, 2010
Date of Most Recent Arrest: March 14, 2009
Most Recent Place of Detention: The 2nd Detention Center of Yantai City Developing Zone
City: Yantai
Province: Shandong
Persecution Suffered: Brainwashing, illegal sentencing, beatings, torture, extortion, physical restraint, home ransacked, interrogation, detention

Ms. Liu Lihua is the retired teacher "Liu Li" mentioned in lawyer Gao Zhisheng's open letter to top Chinese officials Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao. Over the past ten years, Ms. Liu was detained multiple times, sent to forced labor camps, and sentenced to imprisonment.

March 14, 2009, was her last arrest. It came as she was passing out truth clarifying materials. The police detained her for six months in the 2nd Detention Center of Yantai City Developing Zone. Her husband tried to visit her many times, but was not allowed to see her. Ms. Liu was sentenced to five years in prison in a secret trial, and taken to the Jinan City Women's Prison. However, the prison refused to accept her due to her poor physical condition and she was therefore released on September 30, 2009. Ms. Liu suffered severe mistreatment in confinement, and her health was damaged. She passed out in the bathroom on the evening of January 27, 2010, and died on the evening of January 28 in the hospital.

Another Falun Gong practitioner, Ms. Wang Yuhuan, was interviewed by Lawyer Gao Zhisheng and died in 2007 (see /emh/articles/2007/10/15/90516.html). In 2005, Ms. Liu Lihua spoke to Lawyer Gao for two hours about how she was cruelly tortured from June 2001 to 2005. Below are quotations from Lawyer Gao's open letter:

A retired teacher Ms. Liu Li (by her request I am not using her real name here) quietly sat down and talked for almost two hours straight. She said:

"I was first arrested in June 2001. After one year of torture my health became very poor, so they released me. After I was released in 2003, I found that since 2000 all of my wages had been confiscated by the 610 Office. I talked to the staff at the 610 Office and our school director many times. I cannot even remember how many times, and the issue is still unresolved.

My husband was also jailed due to his practice of Falun Gong. He lost his memory as a result of brutal torture in jail. The whereabouts of our only bank account records, which he used to take care of, is unknown since our home was ransacked. He could not remember the account number. During the 2003 Spring Festival, I gave 100 yuan [U.S.$12.50], which was all I had, to my husband, who was in jail. My daughter and I had not a single penny left during the Chinese New Year.

In June 2003, four to five policemen came to ransack our home. They found two Falun Gong books, and so they forcefully took me to the local police station and beat me. I asked why police were allowed to beat people. They were yelling while beating me: 'Beat you--so what!' They interrogated me for a whole day and night. One policeman whose surname is Zhang said, 'If you do not confess, you will really have bad luck!' He copied a written statement from another policeman's writing and asked me to sign my name, but I refused. He then signed my name himself. The other policeman with the surname Chen could not stand watching this and asked, 'Why did you sign her name since she refused?'

He gnashed his teeth and said, 'I'll let her suffer badly.' Later they used this fake record made in front of me to detain me for 15 days. I was then sent to the Fushan Brainwashing Center. At the brainwashing session they did not allow me to sleep, and forced me to 'reform.' By January 2002, I still had not 'reformed,' and so they used that fake record and directly sentenced me to one year in prison.

Wang Yuefeng, director of the 610 Office, sent me to a labor camp. The labor camp did a physical examination on me. Because my health was so poor, they refused to accept me, but Wang Yuefeng insisted on the forced labor camp taking me. They whispered for a while, and then a doctor gave me an injection. I resisted, so four to five people pushed me to a bed and forcibly gave me the injection. In the end, they saw that my physical condition was too poor, and I was sent back by Wang.

On Nov. 20, 2002, I went to the Communist Party Committee in Fushan Town once again to ask the mayor of the town, Mr. Che, about the illegal confiscation of my salary. I arrived at Che's office, and after I introduced myself, he stood up and went out. After I waited for a long time, he came back and told me: 'I will let Secretary Zhao talk to you. You need to go to his office.' So I went to Zhao's office.

Immediately after I entered the door about four or five policemen rushed in from outside and dragged me into their car without giving any reason. They forcefully took me to the Fushan Brainwashing Center where I was taken into custody. I was not released from the brainwashing center until Nov. 17, 2003.

During the time I was in prison, the guards employed absolutely inhumane means to torture me. Once I was continuously handcuffed for as long as 43 days. With both of my hands cuffed behind my back, I was hung on a metal door and was beaten. After I was in prison for about a year, since they could not achieve the goal of having me give up the practice [of Falun Gong], they released me.

On Nov. 28, 2004, I was arrested again. The local police station sent me to Qixia Detention Center. After I was detained for seven days, I was transferred to the Qixia Brainwashing Center and was not released until March 18, 2005. Within this period of time, they continued to torture me by depriving me of sleep. I was once deprived of sleep for 26 consecutive days. Once my eyes closed they would wake me up by beating me. I fainted many times. They had me stand continuously so I could not rest. In the meantime, they beat me. Each time they beat me so hard that they themselves became very tired and out of breath."