(Clearwisdom.net June 15, 2003) Liu Hongguang, male, 31 years old, is an employee of Guangshui City Waterworks Company in Hubei Province. He started to practice Falun Gong in February 1997 and has enjoyed tremendous physical and mental benefits from the practice. In October 2000, he went to Beijing to appeal for an end to the persecution of Falun Dafa and its practitioners. The police beat him up in Tiananmen Square. Later, he was brought back to his town by force by Cao Chaoqun, Liu Xuejian, and Mao Jianhua from Guangshui City "6.10 Office*" and Guangshui City Police Department. The police in Yingshan Dongcheng Police Station, including Su Xingming, brutally beat, tortured, and interrogated him. All the belongings and money he carried with him were taken away. During his six months of detention in the Guangshui City Detention Center, he was stripped and exposed to the bitter conditions of ice, snow, and cold wind. In addition, he was beaten with batons, rods, and bamboo strips, and suffered bruises and wounds all over his body. All this, together with the bitter living conditions in the detention center, made his health extremely fragile. Several times, he almost fainted. However, before letting him return home, Guangshui City Police Department extorted 13,000 Yuan** from his family, while the detention center took a living expense of 400 Yuan from his family.
Before May 1, 2001 [the International Labor Day], afraid that Dafa practitioners would go out to appeal, several lawless officials in Guangshui City sent eight policemen from Dongcheng Police Station to break into Liu's home again. They knocked Liu down to the ground and beat him up for over half an hour. After the beating, they took him to the detention center, where they again beat and humiliated him many times. The torture made him unable to eat for over a week in the detention center. During this illegal arrest, he was detained for over three months.
During the Chinese New Year in 2002, Liu was arrested again for clarifying the truth about the persecution. His motorcycle, worth over 7000 Yuan, was illegally confiscated. He was on hunger strike for 16 days in the detention center, during which time many guards, including Fu Xiaodong, Li Junan, and Li Conghua pried his mouth open and force-fed him many times. Liu experienced extreme torture physically and mentally. The Guangshui Police Department tried to extort 20,000 Yuan from his family before letting him go home, but since his family savings had already been used up due to extortions and they could not give out the money, the police illegally sentenced Liu to a labor camp for two years. Liu is now being persecuted in Shayang Labor Camp of Hubei Province.
*"610 Office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.
**Yuan is the Chinese currency. The average monthly salary of an urban worker in China is 500 Yuan.
