(Clearwisdom.net) Since the persecution began on July 20, 1999, hooligans in Tanbu Town led by Liu Zhimin, the Party secretary of the township party committee, have persecuted practitioners with violence, extortion, and home searches. Ms. Zhao Xiufang has been illegally detained and beaten several times, and has had 13,450 yuan extorted from her by the township government of Tanbu Town, Mengyin County.

Ms. Zhao, 42, lives in Nanjinshan Village, Tanbu Town, Mengyin County, Shandong Province. Her health was poor since childhood and her family lived in poverty. She became healthy after she started practicing Falun Dafa in 1998.

When the persecution began in 1999, Gong Piqian and Wang Duan'gao broke into Ms. Zhao Xiufang's home and extorted 100 yuan from her. They also forced her to give her fingerprint on a written statement renouncing Falun Dafa.

1. Zhao Xiufang was Tortured by the Beijing Police and Hooligans in the Branch Town of Tanbu Town, Mengyin County, in 2000

In late 2000, Zhao Xiufang went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong but was arrested by plainclothes police upon arriving at Tiananmen Square. A group of policemen castigated her and took her to a dungeon-like detention area after illegally questioning her in an office. She was detained in the dungeon, which was already full of Falun Dafa practitioners, until the afternoon. The police abused all the practitioners in the dungeon by kicking, punching, or hitting them with rubber-covered clubs. The practitioners were injured and some were bleeding. Some of the officers smashed practitioners' heads against the walls by dragging them by their hair, bloodying their faces. One policemen hit Ms. Zhao on the head with a rubber club, and she almost passed out. Then she was punched in the right eye, and she couldn't see anything for some time. Immediately her eyeball turned red, the skin became blue, and the eye started bleeding.

After being beaten and hit, Zhao Xiufang and other practitioners were sent to the Huairou Detention Center in Beijing, where they were tortured until the middle of the cold snowy night. Then they were locked in a cell and forced to sleep on metal slats. The practitioners could not sleep because the wardens turned on a large electric fan and pointed it at them. Since it was too cold to sleep, the practitioners started doing the Falun Dafa exercises. The wardens noticed this from the surveillance camera and went to beat the practitioners. One practitioner was pushed onto the metal slats and kicked by several wardens until bruises covered her body. Another practitioner was forced to stand still in the snow when she had her period. In addition, the wardens poured cold water on her from head to toe, and her hair and body were covered with ice. Other practitioners were forced to take off their coats and lay in the snow.

The next evening, Huo Zonbin, deputy mayor of Tanbu Town, Mengyin County, hooligans Yu Huazeng, Hu Yanfu, Gong Piqian, and Gong Pide, and policemen Wu Gang and Li Qiang from Tanbu Town Police Station, Mengyin County, went to get Ms. Zhao. They berated her, pulled her hair, beat her, and slapped her face. Then they handcuffed her, pushed her into a car, and took her from Beijing to the Tanbu Town Police Station, in Mengyin County.

The deputy director of the Tanbu Town Police Station, Li Qiang, kicked Zhao Xiufang's head while swearing at her, then forced her to sit on the floor and stood on her legs. While yelling "I will beat you to death," director of the police station Wang Jiquan and policemen Bu Fanwei, Wu Gang, and others severely beat Zhao Xiufang. One policeman kicked her back to push her to the floor, then dragged her by the hair around some potted plants in the yard while swearing at her. Policeman Miao Shuzheng hit her with a new, rolled up book, making her face bleed.

Zhao Xiufang was handcuffed to a basketball hoop, chairs fixed onto the floor, and stair rails. She was also forced to crouch on snow. Beating was a common torture that took place every day. After she had been on a hunger strike for five days, the policemen tortured her for two days while she was already very weak. Later, she and other practitioners were transported to the courtyard of the Tanbu Town government.

At around 10 o'clock in the evening, with instructions from Liu Zhimin, the Party secretary of Tanbu Party Committee, Gong Fangzhen, the deputy Party secretary, Yuan Junhai, the mayor of Tanbu Town, Pan Yushan, a member of the Party Committee, and other hooligans began another round of torture of the Falun Dafa practitioners. They beat Zhao Xiufang and fellow practitioners with wooden clubs about four centimeters in diameter. The beatings were carried out by Zhang Qian, Zhang Jiazhao, Feng Chuanqi, Zhang Minglei, Zhao Jian, Gong Yanpeng, Gong Weidong, Xu Jiadong, Yu Huazeng, Zhang Yu'an, Gong Piwu, Sun Jifang, Gong Xuefeng, Gong Weizao, Gong Weiguo, Gong Piqian, Gong Pide, Wang Youfu, Sun Chuankun, and others.

The Tanbu Town government had a policy that those who beat practitioners harder would receive bigger bonuses. Thus, these hooligans tried their best to beat the practitioners with all their might. Broken wooden clubs piled up. They tried to force Zhao Xiufang to swear at Teacher and to promise to no longer practice Falun Gong. She refused. Pan Yushan told his fellow hooligans to beat her to death, and that it would not cause them any legal trouble. Ms. Zhao hadn't had any food for six days, and it was cold. Her lips and body shivered terribly. Under such pressure, she said things against her will. In the meantime, they brought Zhao Xiufang's husband, who was not a Dafa practitioner, to the government building and slapped him hard on the face. He could not hear for several days because of the beating, and he lost a tooth. Zhao Xiufang and her husband also had 10,000 yuan extorted from them.

2. Money was Extorted from Zhao Xiufang's Family in 2001

Eight days after the 2001 Chinese New Year, Zhang Qian, Zhang Jiazhao, Sun Jifang, Sun Digui, and others went to Ms. Zhao Xiufang's home and ordered her husband to give them 800 yuan by four o'clock in the afternoon. Zhang Qian threatened to kill Ms. Zhao if her husband couldn't give them the money. Zhao Xiufang's husband was unable to gather the money on time, so Zhang Qian, Zhang Jiazhao, and Gong Yanpeng abducted Zhao Xiufang and took her to her home village, then forced her to give them the money. Zhang Qian swore at Ms. Zhao with humiliating words in public. She had 500 yuan extorted from her again on the 12th of that month.

Upon receiving the money, Zhang Jiazhao kicked Zhao Xiufang again and then left in a good mood. Zhao Xiufang was then sent to a brainwashing center for nine months. At the end of the nine months, the township 610 Office and the Township Party Committee sent staff to test the practitioners. Those who badmouthed Dafa and Teacher and renounced Dafa were allowed to go home, otherwise they were sent to the 610 Office and forced to stay at the brainwashing center or even sent to a forced labor camp. When Pan Yushan, Song Bingjiang, and others ordered her to slander Teacher, she refused. So Gong Weidong and Gong Yanpeng beat her and kicked her like a ball. In the end, they hit her with a metal club until she passed out. Her back was full of bruises and she could not walk home without help from other practitioners. The authorities wouldn't leave her alone. They went to her home later to force her fingerprint on a statement renouncing Falun Gong.

3. The Township 610 Office has Persecuted Zhao Xiufang since 2002

On September 29, 2002, Ms. Zhao Xiufang and another practitioner, Ren Liangxiu, clarified the truth about Falun Gong to people on the street, but they were reported to the township 610 Office. Shen Yueyou, who was in charge of persecuting practitioners at the 610 Office, ordered Yu Huazeng, Zhang Yu'an, Xu Jiadong, Zhang Jiazhao, Zhang Ming, Gong Pide, and two women (one of them was Zhang Limei) to go to Ms. Zhao's home to arrest her and Ren Liangxiu. During the night in the 610 Office, Yu Huazeng, Xu Jiadong, Zhang Qian, and Gong Fangqiang beat Ms. Zhao, and Zhang Qian also swore at Dafa. The two practitioners were forced to stay in a 20-day brainwashing session, which was run especially for them. Zhao Xiufang's family had 13,450 yuan in total extorted from them, which put the family into serious debt.

One day in 2002, Zhao Xiufang's 13-year-old son was the only one at home. Hooligans Xu Zhigang and Gong Weiguo forced him to give them his fingerprints.

On January 17, 2006, 12 people, including some policemen led by Wang Mingjun and Liu Zhen, and the heads of the township 610 Office went to Zhao Xiufang's home without any notice. Finding out that no one was at home, Wang Mingjun kicked the locked the door before they left.

Relevant people and their phone numbers:

Liu Zhimin, Party secretary of Tanbu Township Chinese Communist Party Committee, Mengyin County, later the Party secretary of Taoxu Township Chinese Communist Party Committee, and currently the head of the Human Resources Bureau: 86-539-272939 (Office), 86-539-4806761 (Home), 86-13954948668 (Cell)

Huo Zongbin, deputy mayor of Tanbu Township Government, Mengyin County, Shandong Province

Pan Yushan, member of the Tanbu Township Chinese Communist Party Committee, Mengyin County, Shandong Province: 86-539-4558918 (Office), 86-539-4558899 (Home), 86-13864979636 (Cell)
Gong Fangzhen, deputy Party secretary of Tanbu Township Chinese Communist Party Committee, Mengyin County, Shandong Province;
Yuan Junhai, mayor of Tanbu Township Government, Mengyin County, Shandong Province
Shen Yueyou, the third deputy Party secretary of the Tanbu Township Chinese Communist Party Committee, Mengyin County, Shandong Province: 86-539-4272093 (Office), 86-539-4805226 (Home), 86-13573904069 (Cell)

Gong Piwu, director of the Civil Affairs Office, Tanbu Township Government, Mengyin County, Shandong Province

Tanbu Town Police Station, Mengyin County, Shandong Province
Chief: Wang Jiquan

Deputy chief: Li Qiang

Police officers Bu Fanwei, Miao Shuzheng, and Wu Gang

July 17, 2007