Outstanding Teacher from Heilongjiang Province Repeatedly Suspended, Detained and Tortured

Name: Zuo Xianfeng (左先凤)
Gender: Female
Age: 32
Address: Sandaogang Township, Yilan County, Heilongjiang Province
Occupation: English Teacher
Date of Most Recent Arrest: July 30, 2012
Most Recent Place of Detention: Yilan County Detention Center (依兰县看守所)
City: Yilan
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Interrogation, detention, illegal sentencing, forced labor, beatings, torture, electric shock, solitary confinement, force-feedings, home ransacked

(Minghui.org) Ms. Zuo Xianfeng, 32, taught English at the Sandaogang Township Middle School in Yilan County, Heilongjiang Province. She was praised by her colleagues and students for being an outstanding teacher and an honest, generous, and kindhearted person. She was awarded the “Excellent Homeroom Teacher” distinction at the city level and “Excellent Teacher” at the county level, and her class won an award at a county competition.

However, Ms. Zuo has been continuously persecuted by the communist regime for practicing Falun Gong. The Yilan County Department of Education colluded with the 610 Office in September 2009 and ordered the principal of Sandaogang Township Middle School to suspend Ms. Zuo's teaching priviledges. Though the school had a great shortage of teaching staff at the time, they still suspended Ms. Zuo. The school principal said: “I know that Ms. Zuo has excellent teaching abilities and great moral character, yet this is an order from my superior. There is nothing I can do!”

On May 30, 2010, Ms. Zuo was illegally arrested for giving out Shen Yun Performing Arts DVDs. Yilan County Domestic Security Division director Zhang Yingduo and deputy director Song Yuze then collaborated with officer Xi Jingwu from the Sandaogang Police Station and assistant principal of the Sandaogang Township Middle School to search Ms. Zuo's sister's home, where Ms. Zuo had been staying. They confiscated Falun Gong books and an MP5 player, calling these items “incriminating evidence.”

Ms. Zuo was sentenced to 1.5 years of forced labor and taken to Harbin Qianjin Forced Labor Camp on June 23, 2010. The labor camp guards employed vicious means to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. In order to force Ms. Zuo to give up her belief, they shocked her with electric batons, hung her up by the handcuffs for long periods of time, locked her up in a tiny cell, subjected her to the iron chair torture, beat and kicked her, forced her to stand still for a long period of time, and subjected her to freezing cold. When Ms. Zuo went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution, the guards brutally force-fed her. Subsequently, the forced labor camp authorities extended her term by 61 days without reason. Ms. Zuo was in critical condition as a result of the persecution in the labor camp.

Ms. Zuo was released on February 29, 2012. Upon her return, the Sandaogang Township Middle School leaders arranged for her to teach seventh-grade Chinese literature and geography.

However, on April 25, 2012, the head of the Yilan County 610 Office, Xu Haibo, again ordered the Department of Education to suspend her.

In the afternoon of July 30, 2012, deputy director of Yilan County Police Department Li Baihe and head of the Domestic Security Division Zhang Yingduo illegally detained Ms. Zuo for 10 days, after they discovered that her account of the persecution suffered in the labor camp was published on the Minghui website (“High School Teacher Shocked with Electric Baton and Beaten,” http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2011/3/30/124124.html).

On July 31, Zhang Yingduo, Song Yuze, and Hao Jianfei from the Yilan County Domestic Security Division interrogated Ms. Zuo through force at the detention center. They pulled her hair and slapped her face. The police also tried to obtain her DNA sample. When Ms. Zuo did not cooperate, Zhang shouted: “The labor camp abused you, but I am worse than the labor camp! I will beat you to death today.” He slapped her countless times and then grabbed her hair and pushed her to the ground. Song and Hao pressed her head and held her right arm, while Zhang kneeled on her left arm, pinched her nose, and attempted to force her to open her month so that he could get an epithelial tissue sample from the inside. Ms. Zuo was tortured until she became so weak that she could not move. Only then did the three officers stop the abuse.

Related articles:

“Police Officer Violently Obtains DNA Sample from Ms. Zuo Xianfeng and Shouts 'I'll Torture You to Death!'” (http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/9/4/135280.html)

“High School Teacher Shocked with Electric Baton and Beaten” (http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2011/3/30/124124.html)

Parties involved in the persecution of Ms. Zuo Xianfeng:

Wang Qingfeng, Communist Party secretary and director of Yilan County Police Department: [phone] (Office), [phone] (Cell)
Zhao Chaogui, deputy Party secretary and political commissar of Yilan County Police Department: [phone] (Office), [phone] (Home), [phone] (Cell)
Li Baihe, deputy director of Yilan County Police Department: [phone] (Office), [phone] (Home), [phone] (Cell)
Zhang Yingduo, head of Yilan County Domestic Security Division: [phone] (Office), [phone] (Home), [phone] (Cell)
Hao Jianfei, political director of Yilan County Domestic Security Division: [phone] (Office), [phone] (Cell)
Song Yuze, deputy head of Yilan County Domestic Security Division: [phone] (Office), [phone] (Cell)