(Clearwisdom.net) Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Cao Jisong, 67, is a retired official from the Ruichang City Pricing Bureau in Jiangxi Province. At approximately 5:00 p.m. on August 4, 2008, two cars with plainclothes policemen stopped at the village where Mr. Cao lives. Several police officers then broke into his house and handcuffed his hands behind his back. At the time, Mr. Cao's practitioner wife Zhu Bishu was in the vegetable garden. The noise from Mr. Cao's house alerted his neighbor, a farmer named Chen Yujing, who came over to see what was happening. A policeman grabbed her and pushed her into the house, as well.

When Ms. Zhu returned from the vegetable garden, several officers grabbed her, pushed her into the car, and took the couple away. Seventeen police officers in six police cars came to the house over the course of the day. They confiscated a copy machine and other valuables worth 20,000 yuan in total. Mr. Cao and his wife are being held at the Baomaoshan Detention Center in Ruichang City.

Mr. Cao had many medical problems prior to beginning the Falun Gong practice. Ms. Zhu Bishu is 65 years old this year and a retiree of the city grain and oil company. She had many illnesses prior to beginning Falun Gong practice, and had tried different kinds of medication and even converted to Buddhism to find a cure, but she continued to suffer from multiple ailments. The couple began Falun Gong practice in 1996, and their illnesses disappeared. In order to have more people benefit from the practice, they actively promoted Falun Gong. Mr. Cao was a volunteer coordinator for Ruichang City prior to July 20, 1999, when the persecution began.

On July 21, 1999, Mr. Cao, his wife and other practitioners went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. They were detained for fifteen days and subjected to brainwashing. On December 12, 1999, Ms. Zhu and three other practitioners again went to Beijing. As a result, she was sentenced and served a two-year term in a forced labor camp. She was severely beaten during detention for holding a protest hunger strike. On December 24, 2000, Mr. Cao was arrested, detained for 25 days, and released after the family was forced to pay the police 3,000 yuan.

Afterwards, they moved back to their hometown in the mountains, but they are still being hounded by the police and government officials.