On September 8, 2009, Ms Zhang Xinyi was arrested the fourth time, because she was trying to persuade authorities to release a Falun Gong practitioner who was detained in a mental hospital. She her husband had obtained United Nations refugee status in Cambodian. But CCP let the Cambodian government arrest and repatriate them. She had been sentenced to three years in prison in 2006.
United Nations Refugee Zhang Xinyi Was Arrested Again by 610 Office
Name: Zhang Xinyi (张新义)
Gender: Female
Age: 55
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Teacher
Date of Most Recent Arrest: September 8, 2009
Most recent place of detention: Changsha City Legal Education
Training Center (长沙市"六一零"法制教育培训中心)
City: Changsha City
Province: Hunan Province
Persecution Suffered: Imprisonment, Home Ransacked, Solitary Confinement
On September 8, 2009, Ms. Zhang Xinyi, a retired teacher from Changsha City, and her friend He Minna, went to the Hunan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine to persuade the school authorities to release a employee Tang Min, a Falun Gong practitioner who was illegally detained at the 2nd People's Hospital of Hunan Province (a Mental Hospital, also know as the Provincial Neural Specialty Hospital). As a result, Ms. Zhang and Ms. He were seized by the school security section and reported to Hanpu Police Station. In the afternoon, both of them were taken to Changsha City Legal Education Training Center (a brainwashing center) located in Laodaohe Town, Kaifu District, Changsha City. This is the fourth time Ms. Zhang has been arrested.
In summer of 1998, Ms. Zhang and her husband went to teach at the Phnom Penh Chinese school in Cambodia. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began persecuting Falun Gong in July 1999, Ms. Zhang obtained United Nations refugee status. Article 3 of the Convention against Torture prohibits any signatory from repatriating anyone to a country that uses torture. China signed the UN Convention against Torture in 1988. However, the government violates the Convention against Torture. In August 2002, CCP convinced the Cambodian government to arrest and repatriate Ms. Zhang Xinyi and her husband, Li Guojun. Right after she and her husband arrived in China, they were taken to Changsha City Detention Center. Ms. Zhang was released a month later.
In April 2005, in an joint action launched by Hunan Province Police Department, Changsha City Police Department, Tianxin District Police Precinct and Xinkaipu Police Station, the police arrested Ms. Zhang. Her home was ransacked and her passport was confiscated. Without notifying her family, the District Court held a secret hearing and sentenced her to three years in prison. In January 2006, she was sent to the Hunan Provincial Women's Prison.
On the morning of July 11, 2009, when Ms. Zhang went to visit a friend in Zhuzhou City, several Domestic Security agents arrested her when she arrived. A few hours later, the Domestic Security personnel handed her over to Shifeng District Precinct in Zhuzou City. The guards tortured her in an effort to extort a confession from her. She went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. The police tried twice to have her transferred Baimalong Forced Labor Camp in Zhuzhou City, but the camp refused to admit her due to her physical condition. After spending two nights at the so-called Legal System Training Base, she was released on July 23. But six weeks later, she was arrested again.
Hunger Strike to Protest the Persecution
This time, Ms. Zhang was sent to the City Legal Education Training Center, a brainwashing center run by the 610 Office, and is being kept in a cell 10 meters square where she is monitored 24 hours a day. The training center personnel also tried to force her to renounce Falun Gong.
Ms. Zhang went on a hunger strike for over ten days to protest her illegal detention and persecution. She only drank some milk and juice provided by her family and her students. She became very weak. However, the training center personnel refuse to release her, claiming, "It is impossible to get out of here by going on a hunger strike."