Mr. Zhang Ziyang Brutally Persecuted in Dandong Forced Labor Camp

Name: Zhang Ziyang (张紫阳)
Gender: Male
Age: 36
Address: Ximenzi Town, Fengcheng City, Dandong, Liaoning Province
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: December 18, 2012
Most Recent Place of Detention: Dandong Forced Labor Camp (丹东劳教院)
City: Fengcheng
Province: Liaoning
Persecution Suffered: Forced labor, brainwashing, illegal sentencing, torture, extortion, home ransacking, interrogation, detention

(Minghui.org) Mr. Zhang Ziyang is a 36-year-old Falun Gong practitioner in Fengcheng City, Liaoning Province. In order to avoid the persecution, he was forced to leave home for ten years. In early December 2012, he returned home to have a reunion with his family. However, officials from the Domestic Security Divisions in Dandong City, Fengcheng City, and Donggang City followed him and forcibly arrested him. He is currently detained in the Dandong Forced Labor Camp and being subjected to brutal persecution.

According to an insider, Mr. Zhang was held in a cage in Dandong Forced Labor Camp and tortured with various inhuman atrocities. The labor camp guards collaborated with the Dandong Domestic Security Division, and used torture to extort a "confession" from him. His family went to the labor camp and demanded his release on December 24, 2012, but they were denied.

The officials claimed that it would be just a temporary detention, and directed his family to the Dandong Domestic Security Division for any request approval, which indicates that the Dandong Domestic Security Division is actually in charge of this conspiracy. The authorities even extended the persecution to his teenaged son. They coerced his son’s teacher to gang up with them, and searched for his son to further persecute him.

Arrested After Being Tracked and Monitored

Mr. Zhang lives in Ximenzi Town, Fengcheng City, Liaoning Province. His whereabouts became unknown after the afternoon of December 18, 2012. The following day at around 1:00 p.m., a number of officers went to his tenement unit at Xinchengzi District, with his photo. They demanded that his landlord give them the key to Mr. Zhang's unit, but the landlord refused. They later broke into his unit and took away all his belongings.

It is known after an investigation that the arrest was directed by the 610 Office, police departments, and Domestic Security Divisions in Dandong City, Donggang City, and Fengcheng City, and was carried out by officers from the Simenzi Town Police Station in Fengcheng City. They collaborated with each other and had been monitoring his phone and following him for a long time.

Persecuted Multiple Times and Forced to Leave Home for Ten Years to Avoid Further Persecution

Mr. Zhang has been persecuted multiple times since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began the persecution of Falun Gong in July 1999. He was arrested and detained twice for nearly two months, during which time the guards severely tortured him in the detention center, and also extorted 3,000 yuan from him.

In October 2002, directed by Fengcheng City Political and Judiciary Committee Head Lan Caiyan, Sun Xiaobin, a 610 Office agent; Liu Gang, head of the Simenzi Town Police Station (currently deputy head of the Fengcheng City Police Department); Guan Guangxue, deputy head of Simenzi Town Government; and a number of officers, Mr. Zhang’s home was broken into, and he was forcibly arrested along with his wife, Ms. Yu Fengwei. Their son, who was only five years old at the time, was traumatized and cried the entire night. Ms. Yu was released the next day. Mr. Zhang was sent to the Fengcheng Detention Center where he was tortured. The Fengcheng City Police Department later collaborated with the Dandong City Forced Labor Camp Committee and sentenced him to two years of forced labor in the Dandong Forced Labor Camp.

The Dandong Labor Camp is notorious for its brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Crimes committed at this labor camp have been put on record by the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong and many international human rights organizations. When Mr. Zhang was detained there, he was subjected to brainwashing and various tortures, and also forced to do slave labor. In September 2003, the labor camp made practitioners do hard labor outside the camp. Mr. Zhang seized this opportunity and managed to escape.

After he got away, the authorities ordered his arrest nationwide over the Internet. The labor camp spent hundreds of thousands of yuan searching for him. In order to avoid further persecution, Mr. Zhang had to leave his home and became destitute and homeless for nearly ten years.

Reunited Family Broken Up Again

Mr. Zhang’s wife divorced him because she could not withstand the tremendous pressure from the authorities. Although he was homeless and in great difficulty, Mr. Zhang didn’t blame his wife. He knew that the CCP had broken up his family.

His wife felt guilty after the divorce because she knew that her husband and Falun Gong practitioners were good people. Knowing that the CCP committed crimes against good people, despite the pressure, she returned to him in early December 2012. The family that had been broken up for years was finally reunited.

Several days later, Mr. Zhang’s younger brother got married. Thinking that his family also suffered a lot during the more than ten-year persecution, Mr. Zhang decided to attend the wedding to please his parents and relatives. So he returned to his hometown in Simenzi Town, Fengcheng City with his wife and son. However, his return was soon discovered by an agent who had been paid by the regime for years to monitor Mr. Zhang's family in his hometown. The agent reported this to the 610 Office and police stations, and the police subsequently arrested him.

Mr. Zhang's family, which was reunited for only a few days, was broken up again.

The various tortures used to persecute practitioners in Dandong Forced Labor Camp are so brutal that it makes one bristle with anger. It is unknown whether Mr. Zhang is alive or dead. Hereby we call for the international community's attention to his life and safety, and call for help to save him.

Those involved in the persecution of Mr. Zhang Ziyang:

Yang Feng, head of Dandong City Political and Judiciary Committee: [phone], [phone]
Yang Xiaodong, head of the Fengcheng City Police Department: [phone], [phone]
Liu Gang, deputy head of the Fengcheng City Police Department: [phone], [phone], [phone]
Sun Shuke, head of Dandong Forced Labor Camp: [phone], [phone]