Latest News from china - 04/17/2000

[Hong Kong] Practitioner Ms. Wang Yao-qing has been secretly detained in the Yan-tian detention center of Shen-zhen City since the beginning of March. She has lost contact with the outside.

[Qingdao City, Shan-dong Province] Prisoners Taught to Lie to Foreigner

On the afternoon of March 30, an American came to the Labor Camp of Qingdao City to have a look at the human rights situation.

The officials of the Labor Camp then mobilized all manpower to clean and repaint all the possible places. The most ridiculous part was that they even announced in the closed circuit TV that "if the foreigner asks you any question, you must answer it according to 'the facts'."

'The facts' were as follows.

Question: How many hours do you work everyday?

Standard Answer: 6 hours. (As a matter of fact, some people have worked continuously for over 48 hours. In general, one has to work for 14 to 15 hours per day.)

Question: Are your family members allowed to visit you? Can you communicate with the outside? Can you make or receive phone calls?

Standard Answer: Yes, I can be visited at any time. I am not monitored when being visited. Phone calls and communications are protected under the law. (These are impossible. Everybody knows the truth.)

The authority taught prisoners to lie by providing questions and answers. This has made the prisoners very anxious. The authority even took off the strange plate of "Training Team".

Currently, 2 female practitioners and 5 male practitioners from Qingdao City are serving forced-labor "education". They are Ms. Zhang Hui-mei, Ms. Shao Gui-xin, Mr. Sun Guang-li, Mr. Sun Hong, Mr. Gao Xiu-sheng, a practitioner from Huang-dao and a practitioner from Qingdao City who is serving the forced-labor education outside the labor camp.

All practitioners in the labor camp are very determined about their beliefs in Falun Dafa.

[Da-lian City] Pregnant Practitioner Beaten in Drug-Stopping Center

Ms. Sun Xue-zhi from Da-lian City got detained in the Da-lian drug-stopping center because she had gone to Beijing to appeal. The guards beat her up despite of the fact that she had already been pregnant for 3 months.

Because of the beatings, she started to feel great pain in her abdomen. The guard then released her yesterday for fear of any possible accidents.

[Da-lian City]

The police department and the security department of Da-lian City are intensively investigating and monitoring practitioners who are able to connect to the Internet.

[Da-lian City] Bring Your Curses If You Want to Travel to Beijing

Currently, many practitioners from Da-lian have gone to Beijing to appeal. In order to prevent practitioners from going to Beijing to appeal, many police officers are patrolling in the train station, bus station and airport to search for practitioners.

In particular, for the trains of number K83 and number 581 from Da-lian to Beijing, the police guarded every gate. They held a plate reading "Falun Gong is heretic organization" and ordered every passenger who is to board the train to recite these words. Some police officers even ordered the passengers to shout a slogan attacking the founder of Falun Gong such as "down with ..." (a type of slogan very common in culture revolution). If the passenger refuses to do that, he or she would be interrogated or be taken away.

The mayor of Da-lian City, Mr. Bo, has called for developing the Da-lian City into an "civilized and modernized international city". It is unclear to us whether attacking Falun Gong and cursing the founder of Falun Gong is part of the project?

Those practitioners who got arrested for appealing would not only be sent to labor camps, detention centers, or drug-stopping centers, but they would also be imposed a stiff fine. Those who were intercepted by police on their way to Beijing would be fined 1,000 Yuan. Those who have gone to Beijing would be fined 3,000 Yuan to 5,000 Yuan. All practitioners detained in the drug-stopping centers must pay 40 Yuan per day. Some police officers demanded a deposit of 10,000 Yuan from those practitioners who they suspect might go to Beijing to appeal. Some practitioners were removed from their posts. Some practitioners were expelled from their homes.