The Facts of the Persecution of Falun Gong  -- April 29, 2007

Issued by Clearwisdom Net

Content

  • Mr. Zhang Lifeng and Ms. Fu Yan Illegally Sentenced in Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province

  • Ms. Cao Fengying and Others Arrested by CCP Authorities in Hebei Province

  • The Vicious Persecution at Deyang City Prison in Sichuan Province

  • The Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners at Tuanhe Women's Forced Labor Camp in Daxing, Beijing



  • Mr. Zhang Lifeng and Ms. Fu Yan Illegally Sentenced in Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province

    On October 25, 2006 in Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province, six practitioners were illegally arrested by  Beijie Police Station when they were studying the Falun Gong books at the home of practitioner Mr. Zhang Lifeng.

    People who participated in the arrest included Chief Han Jianwei and officer Tian Shihua of  Beijie Police Station, the chief of the investigative surveillance branch, Lu Zhiqiang, and Presiding Judge Li Hongbin of the Guta Procuratorate.

    The practitioners and their family members clarified the truth to these people, however, they refused to release the practitioners. Mr. Zhang Lifeng was detained the 1st Detention Center of Jinzhou City. In the meantime, other illegally-detained practitioners including Mr. Wang Junkai, Mr. Liu Litao, and Ms. Fu Yan, who were arrested by the Shiyou Police Station, are currently detained at the 2nd Detention Center.

    Mr. Zhang Lifeng is currently very weak. He has a prosthetic eye (a glass eye), which was lost when he was beaten by the police. The eyesight in his remaining eye has deteriorated, and his pre-existing rickets have re-occurred.

    On February 26, 2007, Guta Court secretly sentenced Mr. Zhang Lifeng to 4 years of imprisonment and Ms. Fu Yan to 3 years. Their family members were not informed about the proceedings.

    Mr. Zhang Lifeng and Ms. Fu Yan have sent appeals to the Intermediate Court of Jinzhou City.


    Ms. Cao Fengying and Others Arrested by CCP Authorities in Hebei Province

    At 4:00 a.m. on April 5, 2007, Jiang Aiguo, head of the National Security Group of Wanquan County Police Department, and eight other policemen broke into Ms. Cao Fenying's home and illegally arrested her and her son, Yan Bin, and other practitioners, eight persons in all, when they were practicing the Falun Gong exercises. Ms. Cao, her son, and Ms. Wen Guiyun are still detained.

    One older practitioner, in her 70s, lost consciousness instantly in the frightening confusion at Ms. Cao's home. The police kept the other practitioners surrounded until 6:00 a.m. when a police vehicle arrived. The police took all eight practitioners, including Ms. Cao and her son. Two officers remained behind to watch the older lady, who was still unconscious. About 11:00 a.m. police brought in a camcorder and videotaped the Cao home. When no one was at home they took away all her valuables and left nothing behind.

    The arrested eight practitioners were: Wen Guiyun, Liu Xiuqin, Chang Jinlan, Yan Bin, Cao Fenying, Wang Yuhua, Shi Yanying and Li Fenglian, most of them new practitioners. Five of them had money extorted from them before they were released. Of the five, three had to pay 3,000 to 4,000 yuan and the other two 5,000 yuan. Ms. Cao and her son, Yan Bin, are still detained, as is Ms. Wen Guiyun.

    At 5:00 p.m. that same day, Jiang Aiguo, five officials, and several policemen from different villages in Wanquan County broke into practitioners Liu Xiuqin and Chang Jinlan's home and confiscated Falun Gong books, an MP3 player, and other belongings.

    At the end of last year, Ms. Cao and her son accompanied the relatives of Wang Guibin, who died as a result of the persecution, to a funeral home. The police from the county National Security Group confiscated Yan Bin's motorcycle and 1300 yuan, the only money that Ms. Cao and her disabled son, Yan Bin, had to live on. To survive, Ms. Cao, despite poor health and risking possible detention, several times went to the National Security Group to ask for the money back, but there was no resolution.

    On April 2, 2007, Ms. Cao went to there again to ask for the return of her money. Police officer Jiang Aiguo said threateningly, "No one else would come here to ask for money back, except you! You put my name on the Internet and wrote a complaint letter about me. I have to deal with you Falun Gong."

    It seems that this was the impetus for the April 5 arrests.

    Among the eight arrested practitioners, most of them were in their 50s, and they had many diseases before practicing Falun Gong. Cultivation made them healthy and energetic. Ms. Cao's son used to be totally deaf and mute. After beginning to practice, he could not only speak some, but also regained some hearing abiility.



    The Vicious Persecution at Deyang City Prison in Sichuan Province

    The Deyang City Prison officials in Sichuan Province order inmates serving commuted life sentences or death sentences to torture Falun Gong practitioners.

    Because the practitioners continuously exposed the persecution in Deyang Prison, the Chinese Communist Party authortities made the prison director Ma Aijun a scapegoat and fired him in May 2006. Subsequently, the brainwashing class at the Newcomers' Group of Ward 2 fell completely apart on September 24, 2006. Ward 2 and Ward 8 have since merged into the Production Group, where the detainees are forced to do slave labor. The persecution is not as rampant now, but is still continuing in a more insidious manner.

    Liu Yuanhang, the new prison director, set up secret torture beds. Practitioner Wei Bin was tied to a torture bed face-up between December 28, 2006 and January 13, 2007 while handcuffed and shackled. They also restricted his restroom use.

    The following is belated information:

    Six practitioners were held in the Newcomers' Group in Ward 2 on October 23, 2003. These practitioners are:

    1. He Yuanchao from Chengdu City was sentenced to ten years in prison
    2. Luo Xiaoxing from Panzhihua City was sentenced to nine years in prison
    3. Geng Dexin from Liangshanzhou was sentenced to nine years in prison
    4. Chen Jingxi was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison
    5. Gong Wenyou was sentenced to eight years in prison
    6. Gong Guanlei from Miyi County, Panzhihua City was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison.

    Practitioners He Yuanchao, Luo Xiaoxing and Gong Wenyou each declared, "I am not a prisoner" and refused to wear a prisoner's uniform. All three practitioners were beaten. Cui Weigang, a guard in Ward 2 tried to force Luo Xiaoxing to wear a prisoner's uniform; he verbally assaulted Luo Xiaoxing and slapped his face. Luo Xiaoxing was also sent to a surveillance room on the second floor where inmate Wang Cheng who was serving a life sentence, under secret instruction from the guards, savagely beat Mr. Luo and forced him to declare himself "guilty." Wang Cheng is currently held in Ward 6. The inmates also taped the practitioners' mouths shut and proceeded to beat them and torture them, such as forcing them to stand in the baking sun and from 6:00 a.m. until 2:00 a.m. the next day.

    Around November 10, 2003, because all six practitioners refused to sing the "reform" song and recite prison regulations, the guards forced them run 50 laps, 100 laps, and later 200 laps on the military drill ground outside Ward 2. Practitioner He Yuanchao banged his head against a wall and lost consciousness. [Note: this act does not conform to Falun Gong's teachings, although it is an effort to resist the persecution.] The guards then put He Yuanchao under "strict control" for two months. Strict control consists of two and a half hours of daily standing between 6:00 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. followed by running 80 laps; in the afternoon, it is standing in military posture for one hour and running another 80 laps.

    The guards launched another round of persecution targeting steadfast practitioners in mid-December 2003. They sent the practitioners to different places: He Yuanchao and Gong Wenyou were sent to Guangyuan Prison; Geng Dexin and Xu Bin were sent to Wumaping Prison in Leshan; Yang Yourun, Song Ziming, Wei Bin, Li Chengdong, Luo Xiaoxing, Gong Guanlei, Gan Jin, Xu Tianfu, Deng Weijian, Wu Mingshan, Yuan Xiaodong, Chen Jingxi and several other practitioners are still held at Deyang City Prison.

    The following guards participated in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners: ward head Zeng Guifu, deputy ward head Ma Chengde, 610 Office director Cui Weigang, Chen Ping, Zhang Jun, Li Runmin, Yang Shubin and Qiu Shen.

    In July or August 2005, practitioners Xu Tianfu and Luo Xiaoxing refused to stand in the posture known as "holding the head" (squatting on the ground while holding one's head in their hands; it is a humiliating posture). Inmate Lu Jiaqiang, currently held in Ward 3 and inmate Zeng Xiangjun, currently held in Ward 1 were in charge of military drills at the time. They deceived the practitioners into going to the TV room on the ground floor and brutally beat them. Lu Jiaqiang slapped practitioner Xu Tianfu's face, although Xu Tianfu was in his 60s. They beat Luo Xiaoxing for one hour, hitting his ribs and slapping his face. Luo Xiaoxing told guards Yang Shubin and Cui Weigang about the beating, but the guards refused to look into the matter.

    Luo Xiaoxing refused to wear a prisoner's uniform on February 1, 2007 while being held in Ward 4. 610 Office agent Lai Dengzhou from Ward 4 and two inmates including Wu Jun forcibly removed his coat. Lai Dengzhou hit Luo Xiaoxing' head and abdomen and forcibly put the uniform on him. Two minutes later Luo Xiaoxing took the uniform off and walked out of the office in front of the persecutors. They refused to return his coat. Lai Dengzhou also withheld Luo Xiaoxing's "shopping card" in an attempt to force him to submit to the authorities' "control and education" (Note: the "shopping card" is a kind of purchasing card with which inmates may buy necessities in the canteen such as toilet paper and toothpaste, with funds that were deposited from their own money.) The prison officials forced detainees to work extra hours on Sundays. Luo Xiaoxing refused to work, to protest the withholding of his shopping card. Inmate Tang Guohui, head of the Special Sewing Machine Group in Ward 4, shoved and scratched Luo Xiaoxing and left him with a four-inch-long scratch wound on his left arm. Luo Xiaoxing reported the incident to Rong Feng, head of Ward 4, and guard Lai Dengzhou reluctantly returned the shopping card to Luo Xiaoxing after holding it for five months.

    Luo Xiaoxing is currently held at the Special Sewing Machine Group where he is forced to process clothing for export, between 8:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. daily, a violation of the International Human Rights Pact. The clothes orders come from the Guangyin Company and the finished products are sold to foreign countries under the label "Sichuan Province Clothing Import & Export Company." Guard Lai Dengzhou orders inmates Zhang Jun and Tang Yanghong to monitor the slave laborer-practitioners and rewards each inmate with a half of a point per month, which is equivalent to four days of work credit.


    The Persecution at Tuanhe Women's Forced Labor Camp in Daxing, Beijing

    Ms. Li Guixia, 54 years old, a native of Beijing, was sentenced to one-and-a-half years of forced labor. The time was extended by an additional six months. She was ruthlessly beaten for a long time for her refusal to be "reformed." Drug addict inmates pulled out large hunks of her hair. The long-term torture caused Ms. Li to be stooped over and she developed edema in her legs. The authorities eventually transferred her to the "Drill Team" where the guards tried to force her to "reform." She was forbidden from seeing anyone.

    Ms. Wang Yunhua, in her 40s, a native of Fangshan in Beijing, was sentenced to two years of imprisonment. She has been imprisoned twice. No matter how the perpetrator abused her, she would always shout, "Falun Dafa is good." She tore up all the propaganda materials given to her to read. Ms. Wang was eventually transferred to the "Drill Team" to be further tortured. She escaped later.

    Ms. Yue Jun, 54 years old, a native of Henan Province, was illegally held in a detention center and held a protest hunger strike. A guard used an electric baton to beat her. Ms. Yue remained steadfast and survived the torture. Imprisoned with her was a practitioner from Shandong Province. The guards forced this practitioner to "ride the airplane" [a painful posture] shocked her with an electric baton, slapped her face, and opened the window to freeze her in the winter. When she was menstruating, the guards didn't give her any sanitary pads. The guards also took away all their money.

    Ms. Zhang Shurui, in her 40s, is a native of Changping in Beijing. Because she remained steadfast in her belief, the guards shocked her with electric batons. She lost consciousness from the abuse for more than ten hours. Ms. Zhang was forced to face a wall for over a month.

    Ms. Wang Yuhua, in her 50s, is a native of Changping in Beijing. Despite being illegally detained, she remained steadfast in her cultivation and refused to be "reformed." The guards ordered her to face a wall and did not give her food or water. She was forbidden to go to the restroom and forced to stand in the cold. A month later they transferred Ms. Wang to the "Drill Team." Because she still would not be "reformed," the guards broke her legs. They sent her to a hospital from where she was able to escape.

    Ms. Zhang Liqian, 36 years old, is a native of Beijing. Because she refused to be "reformed," the guards made her stand for a long time after eating. She was frequently beaten; however, the prison guards would not let her cry out. After beating her, the prison guards forced her to jump rope and would not let her sleep.

    Ms. Qian Shufen shouted out, "Falun Dafa is good" and was therefore transferred to the Drill Team. Her whole body twitched uncontrollably, but the prison guards said she was pretending, so they put her in shackles. In addition, they put a glass of boiling water on her foot, burning her.

    Ms. Cheng Jianhua, in her 40s, is a native of Northeast of China. She worked in Beijing as a teacher. She was sentenced to the forced labor dispatching division where she suffered from inhuman torture. She was tied to a bed and prevented from using the restroom. It was so cold that she started to have a stomachache. The guards tried to force her to "reform," but she held a hunger strike to protest for over ten days. The officials transferred her to a police hospital in shackles. A mere few steps made the skin on her feet and ankles peel off. Ms. Cheng was locked up in a basement, unable to tell if it was day or night. A nurse said, "When you see us, it is daytime; if you do not see us, it is nighttime." When she slept in the evenings one of her hands was handcuffed, and she had to wear shackles day and night.

    Ms. Liu Jirong, a native of Yanqing, practiced Falun Gong with her husband. In the forced labor dispatching division, because she would not give in and renounce Falun Gong, the guards urged criminals Wu Jing and Xu Liyun to kick and beat her. Ms. Liu sustained back and leg injuries and was unable to squat when using the restroom. The forced labor dispatching division restricted her restroom use. The guards accused Ms. Liu of faking illness. She was eventually released on medical parole for treatment of a mental disorder caused by the severe abuse.

    Ms. Zhang Litian is in her 30s. She endured barbaric torture because of her refusal to be "reformed." The tortures she endured led to her toenails peeling off. In the winter, the guards forced Ms. Zhang to run in the snow. If she refused to run, they would beat her until she started to run again. These long-term tortures also deformed her wrists from repeatedly falling down to the ground. Ms. Zhang's agonizing screams and painful cries were so upsetting to a criminal inmate that she became mentally deranged and did not recover even after being released.