[Changchun City, Jilin Province] New Year's broadcast: a present to the practitioners being held in the labor camps
On the morning of January 24th (Chinese New Year's Day), loudspeakers hanging off the trees near the Fengjing Labor Camp, Weizigou Labor Camp, Heizuizi Labor Camp, and Chaoyanggou Labor Camp began to play a special broadcast. Master Li's latest article "Beyond the Limit of Forbearance" and other articles from Minghui were being broadcast repeatedly. The guards in the labor camps sounded all the alarms and ran around trying to find the speakers. The volume of the speakers was so loud that people could hear them from 3 miles away. The practitioners at the labor camps were greatly encouraged by what they heard. The broadcast was the Chinese New Year present from the local practitioners to their fellow practitioners and to the local residents.
[Kaifeng City, Henan Province] A scene from the black comedy "Jiang Zemin's 1 Million Signature Drive"
Seeing that he could not suppress Falun Gong with brute force, Jiang Zemin tried out a new weapon and orchestrated a so-called "petition drive to obtain millions of signatures against Falun Gong." In the Kaifeng district of Shunhe, accompanied by local policemen, an officials visited every home and forced the residents to put their signatures on some kind of form against Falun Gong. When a practitioner's spouse refused to sign the form, the official said, "This is the order from the higher-ups. If you do not sign your name, I will order your employer to fire you, and order your children's schools to expel them." The spouse said, "I am not going to sign the form even if it means I will lose my job!" Realizing that their scare tactics were not working, the official and the police had no choice but to leave. It was shocking and disturbing to see how low the "civil servants" and the "people's police" have sunk to such levels in their efforts to slander and attack Falun Gong.
[Baoding City, Hebei Province] College professors forced to stage a group hunger strike on the Chinese New Year eve
On the afternoon of January 23rd (the Chinese New Year's Eve), several professors from the Baoding Teacher's College, who were locked into the single faculty dorm, had not had any food or water for four days. They were getting weaker and weaker. Professor Shao Huisheng was in especially bad shape. The guards assigned to watch the practitioners were getting concerned and felt that they were on the verge of death. They kept sending reports to their superiors and asking for instructions. When the practitioners asked the guards who their superiors were, the guards refused to say anything. As the sun went down, the guards finally heard back from their superiors, who said that they could release the weakest practitioner. So, they decided to send Professor Shao to the hospital, and when she refused to go to the hospital, they agreed to let her go home.
As the evening came, all the other professors were allowed to go home as well. All of them had been removed from their teaching posts last year. When they were released, Su Zongying and Yan Zengnian, heads of the College Communist Party who were responsible for their lock-up, were not present.
[Wuhan City, Hubei Province] The district of Jianghan arrests a large number of practitioners before the Chinese New Year
Starting at 8pm on January 18th, 2001, all the local police stations in the Wuhan district of Jianghan began to illegally round up practitioners. The practitioners were locked into the Zhanbeiyu Manufacturing Factory, where they were forced to attend a "Falun Gong transformation class."
The behavior of the police and the guards at the "transformation class" clearly violate Chinese law. Rule 37 of the Chinese Constitution states "the personal freedom of a citizen should not be violated. It is illegal to take away or limit a person's freedom." Rule 39 of the Chinese Constitution states "the home of a citizen should not be invaded. It is against the laws to break into a home without cause."
We ask all the righteous and kind-hearted people to help and support those practitioners who are being illegally detained. It is against the law to arrest innocent people and suppress Falun Gong without cause.
[Tianjin City] The local authorities step up persecution of practitioners during the Chinese New Year
The Tianjin City government held a meeting a few days ago. Song Pingshun, the deputy general secretary of the city's Communist Party branch, was the main speaker. He announced orders from the 2nd decree of the Central Governmental Office, which asked the local governments to do a better job of "solving the Falun Gong problem." Zhang Lichang (the general secretary of the city's Communist Party branch), Li Chenglin (the city mayor), Fang Fengyou and Liu Fengyan (the deputy general secretaries of the city's Communist Party branch) all gave speeches at the meeting and ordered their subordinates to step up persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.
After the meeting, the offices of all the local districts, counties, and townships of the city started to round up practitioners and forced them to attend "transformation classes" or "educational classes." Many practitioners were arrested for distributing Falun Gong truth-clarifying material. Some practitioners were forced to flee from their homes and live on the streets.
The Chinese New Year is supposed to be the biggest holiday of the year, when big family reunions are held. However, people who insist on following "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance" are being arrested and detained, and their families are forced to suffer along with them. Officials at the various levels of government were also forced to work over the holidays and participate in the "transformation" activities. Some officials complained in private, "What is the central government doing? Now we have more meetings to deal with Falun Gong than all the other city business combined. How are people supposed to live like this?"
[Chongqing City, Sichuan Province] Local practitioners face persecution with righteous thoughts and great compassion
On January 18th, 2001, the Chongqing government announced the so-called "decree from the central government", intended to ensure that no Chongqing practitioner will go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. The decree marked the beginning of a new round of persecution, which took place with no warning and covered nearly all known practitioners. Many practitioners were arrested and taken away from their homes or workplaces without any notice or warning. In addition, the authorities forced every practitioner that they knew to voice his or her opinion on Falun Gong, and write pledges promising to give up Falun Gong. They routinely sent the practitioners whose responses were less than "satisfactory" to attend the "transformation classes" or threatened to send them to the labor camps.
Faced with the persecution, many practitioners refused to give ground and insisted on being true to themselves. At the same time, they were able to apply the wisdom of cultivators and told people the truth behind the persecution of Falun Gong. Many kind-hearted people were awakened and offered assistance to the practitioners on their own.
[Harbin City, Helongjiang Province] The local authorities arrest a large number of local practitioners
Many Harbin practitioners have been arrested since January 1st, 2001. According to police sources, the city police was ordered to meet a quota of 400 Falun Gong arrests. Xu Youfang, the general secretary of the Helongjiang Provincial Communist Party, has stated that the police have the right to send anybody to the detention center as long as he or she is a Falun Gong practitioner.
The city of Harbin has initiated a reward system based on the number of practitioners that a policeman arrests and the number of practitioners that one helps to "transform." A certain head of the Nangang district was removed from his post because too many practitioners in his district had gone to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. A division leader in the Daoli district government's office with the surname of Zhao called the spouse of a practitioner, and stated the government would pay the practitioner 100 Yuan to attend a lunch party at his workplace, where he was ordered to attack Falun Gong. If the practitioner refused to do so, his employer would have the right to send him to the detention center directly. The head of a local manufacturing factory personally sent 3 practitioners to the local detention center. On January 15th, the Daowai Police Station arrested more than 30 practitioners. On the 16th, police from the Daoli Police Station broke into the home of practitioner Yang Qiuyun and took her away with no explanation. In the evening of the 20th, they broke into the home of practitioner of Fan Chunye and took her away. Nobody knows where these two practitioners are being held. A few other practitioners (whose names are unknown right now) have been arrested as well, and many practitioners have been forced to flee from their homes. Supposedly, the authorities are planning to continue the large-scale arrests for 15 days after the Chinese New Year.
[Nongan County, Jilin Province] 155 local practitioners arrested during the Chinese New Year
On the afternoon of January 16th, the local authorities began rounding up local practitioners and throwing them into the local detention center, where they were forced to attend a "re-education class." The next day, all the townships within the county applied the same method and arrested a total of 155 practitioners over a three-day period.
According to police sources, Zhang Shuming, the head of Nongan County, personally orchestrated this new wave of persecution. He had submitted written pledges to the provincial government promising that not a single practitioner from Nongan would go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong during the Chinese New Year. If this promise was not fulfilled, then he would resign from his post. Zhang then ordered the leaders of all the local companies and governmental agencies to make similar pledges. He also held secret meetings with the county police department, the police stations, and governmental officials to organize the large-scale arrest of local practitioners. He openly declared that if any practitioner dared to resist the arrest, the police had the power to do whatever it took to subdue the practitioner. He further stated that if anything happened, the county leaders would take full responsibility, and the police would not be blamed.
The police understood the instructions as meaning that it would not matter if they killed practitioners along the way. During their detention, some practitioners held hunger strikes in protest, but the guards and detention center heads totally ignored them. The only thing that they did was to hide the cornbread that the practitioners had refused to eat whenever their superiors came by to check up on things. The practitioners were locked up for nine days and not released until the morning of January 25th. According to reliable sources, the local government is planning to employ the same tactics at the beginning of February during the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) annual meeting.
In addition, at the beginning of January 2001, the central government ordered the heads of 5 provinces to attend a special Falun Gong meeting. During the meeting, the followers of Jiang Zemin reprimanded Wang Yunkong, the head of Jilin Province, because too many Jilin practitioners had gone to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. Wang pledged to do a better job at controlling the local practitioners, and he promised to resign if a single Jilin practitioner goes to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong during the Chinese New Year holidays and the CCP annual meeting.
[Zhengzhou City, Henan Province] Local practitioners use the Chinese laws to protect their rights
Before the Chinese New Year, in order to prevent practitioners from going to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, the Zhengzhou police arrested and detained a large number of local practitioners and forced them to attend "transformation classes." The practitioners held themselves to a high standard and did their best to tell the truth about Falun Gong to the local people.
The local police and officials from the local residential neighborhood commission visited the home of a practitioner more than a dozen times and tried to force her to attend a "transformation class." The practitioner refused to go, and she was constantly harassed and threatened. She finally decided to open her window and shouted out, "There are bad people in my home. They knock on my door every single day and want to take me away by force." In the end, the police decided to leave her alone.
The police came to the home of a practitioner with the surname of Wang and tried to take her away. Her husband declared, "If you take her away, I will drive my own car and bring the several dozen people in our family to Beijing to appeal on her behalf." The police did not know what to do and decided not to take her away.
The police needed to meet a certain quota and decided to take away an 18-year-old female practitioner. Her parents went to the local governmental agencies and police stations everyday and asked for her release. They told the authorities that it was illegal to arrest people without cause, and they would be forced to go to Beijing if she was not released soon. On January 23rd, the female practitioner was released.
All the practitioners and their families are asked to stand up for their rights and use the laws as their weapon to fight against the groundless persecution.
[Linghe City, Inner Mongolia Province] The suffering of a pregnant practitioner
I am a female practitioner from Linghe City, Inner Mongolia Province. My name is Li Dan (a pseudo name). The following describes the torture and abuse that I have endured after I was arrested in Tiananmen Square for holding an appeal for Falun Gong.
On February 19th, 2000, the police brought me back to Linghe. They took turns interrogating me and beating me throughout the night. A police officer with the surname of Yang (who is about 1.78 m or 5ཆ" tall) slapped me repeatedly.
Without any legal basis, the police then sent me to a labor camp. After I refused to sign the sentencing form, they put shackles on my feet and drove me to the Huhehaote Female Labor Camp. I was detained there from February 19th to July 30th. During that time, I was forced to perform hard labor and suffered a great deal. Nine of us had to unload 30 tons of coal each day. Then, we had to spread cow manure around a field and plow it. When we did not have any farming tasks to do, each of us had to meet a quota of wrapping 10,000 pairs of disposable chopsticks per day.
Because I insisted on practicing the Falun Gong exercises, every morning I was handcuffed to the railing of the stairway and forced to maintain a squatting position. One day, as I was running from the corridor of the dorm back to my room, the head of the 3rd squadron of the labor camp with the surname of Liu kept hitting me with an electric baton. Afterwards, Chang Hong, the deputy head of the squadron, ordered the guards to hang me up with my feet off the ground. I was suspended like this for 2 hours, until both of my arms had turned blue and icy, and I could no longer feel them anymore. Later on, I was hung back up again for an entire day.
Around July 10th, I finally collapsed with a sharp pain coming from my stomach. A doctor came to examine me and told me that I was several months pregnant. Even after finding out about my pregnancy, the labor camp still detained me for another two weeks before I was allowed to go home in handcuffs. The Linghe police ordered the hospital to abort my baby. By that time, I was already more than 8 months pregnant, and it was too late to perform an abortion. Thus, I was allowed to leave Linghe to have my baby. As soon as the baby was born, the police sent people and tried to force me to write statements attacking Falun Gong. When I refused, they slapped me with a fine of 30,000-Yuan (3 years' average salary). I had no money, so they decided to confiscate my home. By the time that my baby had turned 3-months old, they were sending 5 or 6 people to my home everyday to harass me. I lost all of my personal freedom and was being watched 24 hours a day. I was forced to flee from my home and live on the streets.
[Linghe City, Inner Mongolia Province] The police torture and abuse local practitioners
Around January 12th, the Linghe police took away practitioners Yao Huizhen and Wang Yulan without cause. They were first held at the Linghe Police Detention Center, and Yao Huizhen was moved to the Huhehaote Female Labor Camp around January 14th.
While they were detained at the Linghe detention center, the police used a variety of methods to torture them. They beat Yao so badly that her body was covered in blood when she finally lost consciousness. She was in such terrible shape that onlookers were in tears.
Wang Xia, the daughter of Yao Huizhen, is also a practitioner. After she was arrested for going to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong in February 2000, she was first detained at the Linghe Detention Center and then locked up at the Houhehaote Female Labor Camp. When she was finally released, she was the subject of constant police surveillance and harassment. Furthermore, she has been forced to flee from her home.
[Inner Mongolia Province] The authorities persecute the local practitioners and their families
Recently, the cities of Wuhai and Linghe both sent out orders stating that practitioners who go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong will lose their pensions or get fired from their jobs, and their family members will be punished along with them.
[Suihua City, Helongjiang Province] The local government forms a special division to persecute Falun Gong practitioners
The Suihua government has used a variety of methods to persecute local practitioners, including stalking them, bugging their telephone lines, placing them under house arrest, employing scare tactics to harass them, and sending them to detention centers, labor camps and prisons. Recently it has borrowed 120 security officers from various local companies and organized them into a special division to persecute local practitioners exclusively.
At this time, several dozen practitioners are still being held in the Suihua Prison, where they are subjected to inhumane treatment daily. The authorities are also building a new prison to hold steadfast practitioners from the entire province. How is their plan different from Hitler's concentration camps?
[Qinglong County] Officials at the Qinglong Detention Center torture Falun Gong practitioners
Wang Jin is the head of the detention center in Qinglong County. Once he proudly announced, "If a murderer comes in here, I won't touch him at all, but I just want to beat all you Falun Gong practitioners. Nowadays we do not want you to be good people. We just want you to be bad people. If you do not listen to us, we will beat you to death." Had I not heard it with my own ears, how could anyone believe that it came out of the mouth of a law enforcement officer who holds a high-level leadership position? However, that is really what was said, and the police have behaved accordingly from top to bottom.
In the morning of December 18th, after a heavy rain, the wind was howling, and the ground was covered with thick ice. Wang Jin and another division leader with the surname of Xie decided to punish practitioners from the 3rd and 4th cells for holding group practices. They dragged the practitioners outside and forced them to clear out the ice with hammers for more than 4 hours. They then ordered the inmates in charge of the cells to beat practitioners with leather belts dozens of times. Wang pulled the hair of practitioner Liu Haili, a 57-year-old lady, tearing it out in clumps. Then in front of everybody, they stripped practitioner Zhang Aiying (who was in the middle of her menstrual period) naked and hit her with leather belts. How is their behavior different from that of animals?
Practitioners detained at the 6th and 7th cells were severely beaten as well. While four people stepped on the hands and feet of a practitioner, two police used a huge wooden bat to beat him until he lost consciousness. Practitioners Dua Wenyan, Pei Suige, Zhu Xuiping, among others, were beaten with leather belts dozens of times. Zhu Xuiping fainted on the spot, and was rushed to the hospital, where she remains in a coma to this day.
[Dalian City, Liaoning Province] The police arrest practitioner Miao Junjie without cause
Miao Junjie lived in the Dalian district of Jingzhou. The police took him away from his home right before January 1st, 2001. After he was arrested, he refused to say anything and started a hunger strike in protest. His current condition is unknown.
[Xingtai City, Hebei Province] Practitioner Liu Zengkui arrested by the police
In the morning of January 23rd, the police arrested practitioner Liu Zenghui when he went out to distribute Falun Gong truth-clarifying material.
[Hebei Province] The determination and steadfastness of an elderly practitioner
In July of 2000, a 71-year-old practitioner from a certain county in Hebei Province was arrested at the local train station on her way to Beijing. After locking her up at the local detention center for 40 days, the police officers from the county's Political Security Division refused to hand over the order of release to her. Instead, they sent her and several other practitioners to the county's Law Education Center, where they were illegally detained. A head of the county viciously declared, "Just lock them up for six months!"
The elderly practitioner has been detained there for more than six months now. During this time, all her white hair has fallen out, and she now has a full head of black hair. Even the guards said, "how could anyone believe you are in your 70s?"
On January 23rd, 2001 (the Chinese New Year's Eve), her husband passed away. The last thing that he did before he died was to hold up his hand and point to the direction of the Law Education Center where she was being detained. Even though he had lost the ability to speak, everyone knew what he was trying to say. In spite of this, the county government still refuses to release this kind-hearted old lady.
We urge the Chinese government to release all the innocent Falun Gong practitioners!
[Hebei Province] The experience of two sister practitioners
In February of 2000, a female practitioner with the surname of Zhang, who is in her 30s, was arrested for sharing Falun Gong material with fellow practitioners (the police followed her secretly and took her away when she got home). Six months ago, her older sister was doing chores at home when a local policeman came to see her and asked her what her opinion of Falun Gong was. She replied, "Falun Dafa is good." The police then replied, "You are coming with me!" Just because of what she said, she was arrested and detained at the local prison for more than six months. The two sisters finally were reunited in prison.
During their detention, the police beat the younger sister many times and hit her with electric batons so often that her body was covered with scars from her injuries. One day, in front of the older sister, a male policeman used an electric baton to hit the private area of the younger sister. Afterwards, he had the audacity to ask, "I am hitting your sister! What are your thoughts on that?" She replied, "You are a shameless crook!"
At the beginning of January 2001, the police ordered the two sisters and other female practitioners being detained in the prison to write pledges promising to give up Falun Gong, and they refused to do so. The police then tried to force them to write material attacking Falun Gong, and they refused as well. The practitioners decided to hold a group hunger strike in protest for a total of 4 days. Not knowing what to do with them, the police finally decided to release the six or seven practitioners several days ago.
After they were released, these practitioners told their fellow practitioners, "We have scored a victory! We did not bend our heads, and in the end we were able to conquer the evil. As long as we support each other and have righteous thoughts, the evil will disappear!"
[Mainland] Beware - Certain people are stealing the identities of oversea practitioners and sending emails to practitioners in China
I am a Chicago practitioner. Recently when I talked to practitioners in the mainland, I was surprised to hear that several weeks ago, they had received emails from my email address at Northwestern University. The emails were written in English with various content, but I never sent out such emails. In some cases, I did not even know the email addresses of the people who had received the emails. Let this be a lesson to us. When we contact practitioners who are in China, we need to be extra cautious and make sure that we have not unknowingly caused damage to the Dafa. The good thing is that the practitioners in China were very cautious and alert, and the emails did not cause any damage.
[Shenyang City, Liaoning Province] People who still have kindness in their hearts
The head of a certain Shenyang residential neighborhood commission (who holds some Buddhist beliefs) told a friend of hers: "Several days ago, I ran into a female Falun Gong practitioner who looked like a high school student. She was passing out Falun Gong flyers to all the apartment buildings, but I did not turn her in. We the people who believe in Buddhism will never do such a bad deed. I read a copy of the flyers that she was passing out. It simply told people to be good and contained no anti-governmental references." Her friend was in complete agreement with her.
[Harbin City, Helongjiang Province] The bandit-like behavior of detention center officials
On January 18th, the deputy head of the Taiping Detention Center with the surname of Gong robbed practitioners who were being held at the detention center. He took away their leather shoes, coats and even leather belts. When the practitioners asked for their belongings to be returned to them, he not only refused, but also had the audacity to say, "Why don't you get the hell out of here?"
Another vicious policeman with the surname of Huang stole a cell phone and 2000-Yuan from a practitioner.
