Name: Xu Shufen (许淑芬)
Gender: Female
Age: About 48
Address: Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province
Occupation: Senior Teacher
Date of Most Recent Arrest: April 24, 2011
Most Recent Place of Detention: Heilongjiang Women's Drug Rehabilitation Labor Camp (黑龙江省女子戒毒劳教所)
City: Harbin
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Detention, forced labor reform, torture, sleep deprivation, forced labor, solitary confinement, beatings, long-term squatting
(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Xu Shufen was a senior teacher at Shihua First Elementary School in Daqing City. Because she told her students the facts about Falun Dafa on the afternoon of April 24, 2011, she was arrested and her house was searched. She was detained at the Heilongjiang Women's Drug Rehabilitation Labor Camp. This was the third time she had been detained there. She became mentally disoriented after this, with laughing or crying spells and being unable to sleep at night.
Ms. Xu started practicing Falun Dafa in 1996. She strictly followed the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. She worked very hard and was given the award of Excellent Educator for elementary and middle schools. Since July 1999, when the CCP started to persecute Falun Gong, her family has been severely persecuted by the CCP due to their persistence in practicing Falun Dafa. Her father, husband, and son all passed away as a result of circumstances related to the persecution. She has been detained three times and sent to labor camps twice, for one year each time. This senior teacher was later forced to work in the mail room of the school. Now she is being detained for the fourth time.
After Ms. Xu Shufen was detained at the drug addiction treatment labor camp, the guards forced her to sit on small bench from 5 a.m. until 10 p.m. This lasted for at least six or seven days at a time, and at times it lasted for months. She was also often deprived of sleep. Then she was forced to package toothpicks. Every person working on this task had a quota to finish every day. Usually nobody could finish in time, so people often had to work overtime. Despite such a heavy work overload, Ms. Xu was nevertheless only given soup for each meal, and there were always some rotten things in the soup.
At present, Ms. Xu is being kept alone in one room of the labor camp and is being closely guarded.
Before practicing Falun Dafa, all her family members suffered from severe diseases: her husband Li Xiaorong suffered from chronic diseases such as nephritis and rhinitis, and his left leg from his foot to his waist always felt cold and numb. These problems could not be alleviated by hospitalization. Her son Li Huayi had been weak since childhood. He often had to take injections and medicines. Once he was even taken to the emergency room due to convulsions, but the doctor could not identify the cause of his malady. Ms. Xu Shufen had low blood pressure since childhood. She also had tuberculosis, which left her with pulmonary calcification. She later had severe hemorrhoids and had two anal fissure surgeries. Moreover, she suffered from heart disease, pyelonephritis, and endometritis. These chronic diseases were not relieved after resorting to hospital visits for many years. In early 1996, her husband Li Xiaorong fortunately started practicing Falun Dafa, and she soon followed him in this. After practicing Falun Dafa, all their diseases went away. The entire family lived happily under the Buddha Fa's benevolence.
On July 20, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party started its comprehensive persecution of Dafa. Xu Shufen's family was persecuted severely. Her husband, Li Xiaorong, was deputy director of a refinery workshop at Daqing Petrochemical Company. He went to Beijing to show his support for Falun Dafa on the evening of December 1, 2000. After he shouted "Falun Dafa is good" in Tiananmen Square, he was caught and brought back to the local detention center. He was held for more than 100 days and released on March 21, 2001. On that day, he was bearded, and his weight had gone down to around 70 pounds. Even his mother could not recognize him. Only after people took him home did his mother realize that it was her son. Li Xiaorong passed away on December 14, 2001, in the the Daqing Second Hospital at the age of 41.
Their son, Li Huayi, was looked after by his 70-year-old grandparents since his parents were being persecuted on a regular basis. He became fearful whenever he saw a police car. In 2001, his father passed away, and his mother was in prison. He grew silent and did not play with others. Later, his mother returned to the school to work at the mail room and could take care of him. However, his mother was often monitored. When Li Huayi was a freshman in Daqing Sixty Secondary High School, he was forced to stay at school during the Chinese New Year in order keep his mother in the area. In late 2003, when Ms. Xu was released from the Harbin drug addiction treatment labor camp for the second time, she saw black spots on the floor. She asked her son, "What is this?" Li Huayi replied, "That is my blood. I spit it out." On June 9, 2006, Li Huayi passed away in the Daqing Second Hospital at age of 18.
When Ms. Xu Shufen was detained at the labor camp for the first time at June 2001, her father passed away from the grief of missing his daughter. Her brother went to the labor camp to request that they let her see their father for the last time. However, the authorities denied even this request. On December 14 when her husband Li Xiaorong passed away, Ms. Xu was escorted to the morgue to see his remains. The police snarled at her, "Is that your husband?" With Ms. Xu in extreme mental anguish, the callous police still threatened her about giving up the practice of Falun Dafa. Zou Quanbao, the head of labor camp at that time, even gave orders that this pitiful exchange be recorded.
Ms. Xu Shufen wrote a letter to the Harbin drug addiction treatment labor camp management section chief, Yang Yushan, to advise him on December 20, 2002. This letter was reported by a female guard, Ning Lixin. Due to this, Ms. Xu was held in the labor camp for another year. Captain Zhang Yushu instructed a male guard, Shi Yanjiang, to handcuff her and force her to squat. Ms. Xu was deprived of sleep once for 7 days and on another occasion for 6 days in a row. The captain also instructed the criminal inmates to kick Ms. Xu. Ms. Xu's feet and neck were kicked until they looked pale and bloodless. The labor camp also wouldn't let her wash her face and hands, and only supplied her with two meals a day. They only allowed her to go to the toilet three times a day. Her feet and legs became swollen due to this treatment. She was also forced to do slave labor to make money for the labor camp.
Ms. Xu Shufen has now been arrested and detained again. We hope kind people will offer their help and stop this persecution.
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“Husband Li Xiaorong Tortured to Death, Wife Xu Shufen Still in Detention”
