(Minghui.org)
Name: Xu ShufenChinese Name: 许淑芬Gender: FemaleAge: 61City: DaqingProvince: HeilongjiangOccupation: Chinese teacherDate of Death: 2022Date of Most Recent Arrest: June 10, 2021Most Recent Place of Detention: Huizhan Police Station
After having lost her father, husband and son to the persecution of Falun Gong, a Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province resident passed away in 2022, after enduring years of detention, harassment and torture. She was 61.
Ms. Xu Shufen, a retired senior Chinese teacher of the Daqing Petrochemical Factory First Primary School, was born on August 24, 1962. Since childhood, she suffered from many diseases, including low blood pressure, tuberculosis, and calcification of her lungs. After growing up, she developed a severe heart condition, kidney infection, endometritis, ovarian cysts, cervical vertebrae hyperplasia, rheumatism, and migraines. She sought many treatments, but didn’t see any improvement.
Ms. Xu’s husband, Mr. Li Xiaorong, was the deputy director of the Hydrocracking Workshop of Daqing Petrochemical Company. After he took up Falun Gong in early 1996, his kidney infection, rhinitis and numbness in his left leg all disappeared. Encouraged by his changes, Ms. Xu also began to practice Falun Gong in March 1996 and soon regained health. The family’s happy life didn’t last long. After the Chinese Communist Party ordered the persecution on July 20, 1999, their family and numerous others were broken apart.
Mr. Li was forced to attend a brainwashing session hosted by his workplace on March 8, 2000. After the session ended 18 days later, he was demoted at work and only paid an allowance of 350 yuan per month.
Mr. Li set out to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong on the evening of December 1, 2000. He was arrested at the Tiananmen Square on December 4 and taken back to Daqing. When he was released after over 100 days of detention, the once strongly built man was emaciated, losing nearly 99 lbs of body weight. Even his mother had a hard time recognizing him.
Due to the abuse suffered in custody, he developed scabies and a lung condition. As Ms. Xu had also been arrested and given a forced labor camp term, Mr. Li stayed with his mother. His workplace personnel and the police kept calling him, threatening him not to practice Falun Gong anymore. His condition kept worsening due to the mental pressure. He passed away at the Daqing City Second Hospital on December 14, 2001. He was only 41.
Ms. Xu’s father, Mr. Xu Dianhong, took up Falun Gong in 1998. His leg rheumatism soon disappeared. After the persecution started in 1999, he also went to Beijing to appeal and was arrested. The police withheld his ID and often harassed him after he returned home. The mental pressure of the harassment and the distress worrying about his incarcerated daughter took a toll on his health. He died in June 2001. He was in his 70s.
Ms. Xu’s detention and Mr. Li’s passing dealt a hard blow to their son, Li Huayi. He became mute and stopped playing with other children. He developed a lung condition in 2003 and vomited blood, when Ms. Xu was serving the second labor camp term.
Huayi was terrified when news broke in 2006 that Falun Gong practitioners had their organs harvested while still alive. He was unable to eat and became numb in his body. He quit school and was hospitalized for treatment. When he saw other children with their fathers, he would stare at them and said, “It’s so nice to have a father.” He often said he missed his father.
Huayi died in the hospital on June 9, 2006, at the age of 18. The doctor said he suffered from malnutrition, leukemia, and tuberculosis.
Ms. Xu was first arrested on July 20, 1999 and detained for two days by her workplace. The police attempted to force her to write a statement to renounce Falun Gong.
Ms. Xu was arrested again on June 20, 2000, when she was doing Falun Gong exercises at a community park. She was held at the Daqing City Detention Center for 46 days and forced to pay 10,000 yuan. The Daqing Petrochemical General Plant and Daqing Petrochemical General Plant Education Department put her under one year of surveillance and only gave her 350 yuan of allowance each month. After paying various fees, she only received over 200 yuan each month, which caused tremendous financial hardships for the family.
Ms. Xu went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong on December 19, 2000 and was arrested. She was first held at the Daqing City Detention Center, and then transferred to the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Drug Rehab Center on January 18, 2001 to serve a one-year term.
At the drug rehab center, Ms. Xu was forced to sit on a small stool for long hours each day and watch propaganda smearing Falun Gong. Two inmates watched her around the clock and verbally abused her at will. She wasn’t allowed to leave her cell.
After a month of brainwashing, she was forced to write a statement to renounce Falun Gong. She regretted the decision two months later and announced her renouncing statement to be void. In retaliation, the guards intensified the persecution against her again. She held two hunger strikes to protest and had her term extended by two months.
During her term, her husband and father died one after another. With her family’s strong demand, she was taken to the hospital to see her husband’s body for the last time. When she was grief-stricken, the drug rehab center guards again ordered her to renounce Falun Gong. She refused to comply and was taken back to the drug rehab center.
After Ms. Xu was released in February 2002, she wasn’t allowed to go back to teach, but was arranged to work in the mail room, with 350 yuan allowance each month.
Ms. Xu wrote to Yang Yushan, a manager of the drug rehab center, on December 20, 2002, urging him not to participate in the persecution. Four officers, including Bai Xiuli and Zhang Lin, of the Longfeng District Domestic Security Division, raided her home, slapped her in the face and took her to the Daqing City Detention Center. A month later, she was taken back to the drug rehab center to serve another one-year term. Bai also took away 7,000 yuan in cash from Ms. Xu’s home and refused to return it.
As Ms. Xu refused to renounce Falun Gong, she was forced to sit on a small stool from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day. The director Zhang Yushu ordered guard Shi Yanjiang to handcuff Ms. Xu, force her to squat and stomp on her. Zhang also instigated the inmates to beat Ms. Xu. Her ankles and feet were bruised, and her legs were swollen. Ms. Xu protested the persecution. The guards prohibited her from taking showers, reduced her meals to twice a day, restricted her restroom use to three times a day and also forced her to do intensive labor without pay.
When Ms. Xu was released in 2003, she was devastated to find her son coughing and vomiting blood frequently. The poor boy had struggled to live by himself due to Ms. Xu’s incarceration and Mr. Li’s passing. His health continued to decline over the years and he died on June 9, 2006.
Ms. Xu was arrested again on April 24, 2011, after being reported for talking to a middle school student about Falun Gong. She was again held at the Daqing City Detention Center, and later given a third labor camp term at the drug rehab center. The guards often held her in solitary confinement, deprived her of sleep, and forced her to sit on small stool or do intensive labor for long hours. She suffered a mental breakdown as a result.
On May 27, 2015, shortly after Ms. Xu recovered and returned to work, she was arrested again by agents of the Daqing City 610 Office and Longfeng District Political and Legal Affairs Committee. She was tortured for over three months at a brainwashing center, and she developed vertigo.
During her brainwashing detention, the police raided her home twice, and the 22,000 yuan cash she kept at home was taken.
Zhang Jin, the secretary of the Longfeng District Political and Legal Affairs Committee, and Kong Qi, Lu Cheng and Yang Li of the brainwashing center, harassed Ms. Xu at school on December 23, 2015. Kong ordered her to write a thought report every month. She refused to comply.
Officers of the Dongguang Police Station harassed Ms. Xu at work and videotaped her on September 21, 2017.
Li Zijian of the Longfeng Street Residential Community harassed Ms. Xu, who had already retired, at home in January 2021. He took her photos without her permission. The police attempted to arrest Ms. Xu on May 10, 2021, but relented after she was found to have a lump in her breast.
Men Zhixin of the Huizhan Police Station arrested Ms. Xu at home on the morning of June 10, 2021 and took her to the interrogation room. She resisted with all her might. With the excuse that she was a “repeat offender” due to her previous labor camp terms, Men attempted to persecute her again. Ms. Xu explained that she had a severe heart condition and couldn’t be detained again. Men forced her brother and sister-in-law to sign statements to renounce Falun Gong on her behalf, before allowing her to go home.
Ms. Xu succumbed to the persecution in 2022.
Three Family Members Die Due to Persecution; Elementary School Teacher Ms. Xu Shufeng Arrested Again