3. Mass Arrest and Police Brutality

3.1 Large Scale Arrests and Beatings of Falun Gong Practitioners Who Went to Appeal

Case 1

Victims: Bai Lili (female), Wang Shuge (female), Yu Tian (age 5), Zhao Qun, Xu Wei (female, 4), Li Hongshen, Wang Youqun (female), Luo Lijuan, Fei Menlin, Ju Linyan and other Falun Gong practitioners

Location of incident: Tiananmen Square, Beijing

Description:

On the night of February 4, 2000, the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year, many Falun Gong practitioners from US, Australia, Japan, and Mainland China gathered at the Tiananmen Square to appeal to the Chinese central authorities to stop their irrational persecutions of Falun Gong practitioners.

Uniformed police officers, plainclothes agents, and armed policemen were all over the square. Passersby were questioned and body-searched, and were asked by the police whether they were Falun Gong practitioners. Some were taken to the police vans without any reason. According to telephone reports from eyewitnesses in Beijing, many Falun Gong practitioners practiced their meditation exercises in Tiananmen Square on the Chinese New Year’s Eve (February 5, 2000). Some of them raised banners with “Falun Dafa” and “Truth-Compassion-Forbearance”. Police stationed in the square started to beat and arrest the practitioners as soon as they discovered any. There were bloodstains, clothes, and watches left on the ground. The practitioners, however, remained peaceful.

At 11:00 PM, at the center of the square, two Beijing practitioners, Ms. Lili Bai and Ms. Wang Shuge, each held up a flag with the Falun emblem. When the police officers rushed over to seize the flags, they risked their lives to protect the flags. They were pushed down onto the ground and were brutally beaten up by the police officers. Even after they were taken to the police van, the police officers still continued to strike their faces forcefully. Later, many practitioners on the square held up banners reading “Falun Dafa practitioners have no hatred or anger”, “Falun Dafa practitioners appeal to the government because they trust the government”, etc. All of these practitioners were brutally beaten by plain-clothes agents and uniformed police officers and were then taken to the Tiananmen Square police station.

A 5-year-old practitioner named Yu Tian held up a banner of Falun Dafa with his parents on the square. The whole family was taken to the police van. Zhao Qun, Xu Wei, and Li Hongshen, practitioners from Linyi, Shandong Province, held up a banner on Tianamen Square. After about 20 seconds, 6 police officers rushed over and beat them onto the ground. They could not stand up for a long time. The police tried madly to tear the banners away from them. Later, the three of them were taken to a police van by some other police officers. The 4-year-old daughter of Xu Wei cried for her mother and was also taken to the police van in a short while.

At the northeastern corner of the square, a 40-year-old woman said, “let’s sit down,” and more than 100 practitioners sat down simultaneously to do the sitting meditation. The police rushed over and frantically beat these practitioners. They grabbed the hair of female practitioners and dragged them into police vans. Dai, A practitioner from Australia, fell down onto the ground after being kicked in the back three times by a police officer and was then taken to a police van. Zhen, a practitioner from Linyi district of Shandong Province, was severely beaten. There was blood on his face. A female practitioner from Hong Kong, Wang Youqun, was arrested at about 8:30 AM when she was holding up a banner.

A teenager practitioner who took photos on Tiananmen Square and her young friend (a daughter of a practitioner) were also taken to the Tiananmen Square police station. At that time, several hundred practitioners had already been detained there. The police exposed the teenager’s film, but this bright girl was able to save another film. Later, she managed to escape from the police station and told us her experience.

At 11:55 PM, a lot of armed police officers rushed to Tiananmen Square from the direction of Mao Zhedong memorial hall and the history museum. Meanwhile, uniformed police officers, plainclothes agents, and armed policemen started to frantically chase, beat up, and arrest practitioners. Practitioners were not afraid at all. They kept holding up banners and practicing Falun Dafa exercises. One practitioner recounted: “Near us, a female practitioner from Shijiazhuang also held up a red banner. The police rushed to her and a dozen of other practitioners around her. Some practitioners were beaten to the ground.” A Beijing practitioner, Luo Lijuan, questioned the police why they beat people. She and other practitioners tried to help those practitioners who fell onto the ground, but they were also taken onto police vans. During the whole process, plainclothes agents of the government videotaped how they treated the innocent and peaceful Falun Gong practitioners.

Fei Menlin, Ju Linyan, and four other practitioners from Bayan County of Heilongjiang province were taken to the Tiananmen Square police station. One practitioner said: “According to our knowledge, about 100 practitioners from Linyi district of Shandong province alone were arrested. About 30 people from Shunyi County of Beijing were arrested. More than 40 practitioners from Shijiazhuang, Xinji, Lincheng, and other regions who came with us were all arrested.” Many practitioners from Jiangsu province were arrested in the hotel even before they went to the Tiananmen Square.

It was estimated that over 1,000 practitioners were arrested on the Tiananmen Square on the New Year’s Eve. At 1:00 PM on February 5, a witness saw at least 4 buses full of practitioners, each carrying about 100 people.

Case 2

Message received on October 30, 1999.

Victims:

1. Cao Kai (male), Ph.D. student of China Academy of Science, and his wife,

The police was kicking a Falun Gong practitioner after he was beaten and fell to the ground. (This picture is from a video stream in a CNN news report: Falun Gong protest sees security tightened in Tiananmen Square ).

The arresting of Falun Gong practitioners in Tiananmen Square on December 5, 1999.

2. Zhang Wenfang (female);

3. Yang Jie

Location of incident: Beijing

Description:

Yesterday, Cao Kai, a Ph.D. student of China Academy of Science, and his wife, Zhang Wenfang, were detained when appealing to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. Yang Jie, a lawyer, was also detained two days ago for the same reason.

Case 3

Victims: Falun Gong practitioners who went to appeal

Location of incident: Outside the Hall of the National People’s Congress, Beijing

Description:

Many Falun Gong practitioners went to appeal to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. At about 10:30 AM on October 28, there were about a dozen of Falun Gong practitioners outside the Hall of the National People’s Congress. They were pushed into police cars before they could say anything. Some were beaten and fell to the ground. Some female practitioners were dragged by their hair and pulled on the ground. After they were forced into police cars, the police continued to beat and kick them. Their whereabouts is unknown.

Case 4

Victims: Falun Gong practitioners who went to appeal

Location of incident: Major cities in China

Description:

[Beijing] July 21, 1999 More than 10,000 practitioners went to North Huangchenggen St. to appeal together to the Main Governmental Appeals Bureau. Around 2,000 military police were sent out.

Around 9:00 o’clock, the police started to force the practitioners onto buses and sent them to Fengtai Stadium and Shijingshan Stadium. The practitioners did not want to leave, but were dragged by the military police. Some policemen used violence. Two military policemen held an old woman in her sixties by the legs and threw her onto the bus. Some pulled practitioners’ hair. About four to five thousand people were sent to each stadium. Many practitioners were forcefully taken to Fengtai Stadium. More practitioners arrived from out of town and were also taken to the stadium by force.

At about 11:00 o’clock, as the policemen harshly dragged some practitioners onto buses, practitioners started to crowd together, arm in arm. Because the policemen were unable to pull out individual practitioners, more troops were sent in. Soldiers, mostly in service for 1 to 3 years, formed a line surrounding the practitioners and then forced the practitioners onto the metro buses by dragging, pulling, and fierce wresting.

At around 12:00 o’clock, practitioners were driven to Fengtai Stadium. At that time, 20 buses carried a total of more than 3,400 practitioners over there. With 2 more buses came in the afternoon, the number of practitioners increased to about 3,700. Around 2:30 PM, police officers started to take personal information from the practitioners. Practitioners sat in the stadium in order.

After 5:30 PM, military police demanded that practitioners stand in groups according to their home districts and planned to send them back. The practitioners didn't move. It started to rain around 6:00 o'clock.

Typical sceans of plain-clothed and unifored police arresting peaceful practitioners in Tiananmen square.

Around 6:30 o’clock the police started to force practitioners onto buses and practitioners formed a human wall to stop the police. More police were sent in. While forcing the practitioners onto the buses, the military policemen used violence. They dragged the practitioners by hair, tore their clothes, and kicked them. An old woman over eighty years old was pushed down onto the ground and she almost fainted. One practitioner recalled: “My clothes were torn into strips. Two policemen grabbed my feet and dragged me on the ground for nearly thirty meters. They also kicked me and pulled my hair. A girl in her twenties also had her clothes torn open and the bone of her hand was almost fractured. Many practitioners, especially male, were beaten up. At 7:30 PM, they forced me and about one hundred other practitioners into a bus. It’s estimated that after 8:30 PM, all practitioners detained in the Fengtai Stadium were sent away by force.” The practitioners lost their personal freedom for nearly eight hours.

[Kunming, Yunnan Province] July 21, 1999

When some Falun Gong practitioners in Kunming were on their way to voice their concerns to the govern-mental departments, they were forced into three buses on South Cuihu Road by many police officers. At the same time, many streets were blocked to prohibit the passage of both vehicles and people. Those practitioners were taken to the second middle school in Xishan and were put into separate classrooms under heavy police surveillance. Practitioners who went to the city government were also sent there and went through the same procedures. The practitioners were detained there from noon to 9:30 PM, and were then picked up by police from their own districts. (Total number of practitioners was about 200.)

[Wuhan, Hubei Province] around 16:00 o’clock, July 21, 1999

Thousands of Falun Gong practitioners went to the provincial government to voice their concerns. It was a very hot day. Falun Gong practitioners stood quietly along the streets. Around 5:30 PM, many policemen

[Qiqihaer, Heilongjiang Province] July 21, 1999

On the night of July 21, Qiqihaer police also started to arrest practitioners. Naihui Zhan was arrested.

[Harerbin, Heilongjiang Practitioners often perform the exercises or raise a banner as a way of peaceful appeal to the authorities to end the crackdown, but they only get detained and in some cases tortured by the Chinese police. Province] July 21, 1999 Falun Gong assistants in Haerbin City were arrested.

[Changzhou, Jiangsu Province] July 21, 1999

In the morning of July 21, four practitioners in Zhangzhou were detained.

[Beijing] July 22, 1999

In the morning of July 22, Falun Gong practitioners, including many from other regions, gathered in Qianmen Street, Xidan, Fuyou Street, Tiananmen Square, and North Huangchenggen Street in Beijing. Practitioners stood on sidewalks in good order and left enough space for pedestrians. Some practitioners helped to keep the order.

Beginning at around 8:00, riot police forced practitioners onto buses. Because practitioners came in succession and were spread over many different locations, it was hard to estimate the number of practitioners. It was said that the total number of practitioners on the streets was 100,000. When the riot police tried to force the practitioners to get on the buses, most practitioners did not resist. They got on the buses calmly. There were a small number of practitioners who did not want to get on the buses, and were beaten by the policemen as a result.

One practitioner recounted: “At 11:30 AM, We were taken to a bus and sent to a suburban police station, along with 400 other practitioners on other buses. They kept us to watch the TV news at 3:00 PM for important news on the Chinese Central TV station. We were asked to register our names, addresses and companies. At 3:00 PM, CCTV started to broadcast the Chinese central govern-ment’s decision to ban Falun Gong. Then, there was a video show slandering Mr. Li Hongzhi. After that, police divided us into groups according to our home address and released us at 6:30 PM. From 11:30 AM to 6:30 PM, 400 of our freedom was restricted for 7 hours -- without any food.”

Practitioners from Xidan were sent to Shijinshan Stadium and then move to the district police stations according to their address. They were forced to watch the same TV program that defamed Mr. Li. Several practitioners from Tsinghua University and hundreds of others were sent to and kept in Middle School 101. As of 9:00 PM, they were still not released, nor were they allowed any food.

According to practitioners in Hebei, in the evening of July 22, 1999, nearly 10,000 practitioners who went to Beijing were arrested. At first they were taken to Fengtai Stadium. Later they were transferred to Langfang Agriculture Research Institute. No water or food was provided.

[Yancheng, Jiangsu] July 22, 1999

At 10:00 o’clock, nearly 1,000 Falun Dafa practitioners in Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province appealed to the city government. During the appealing process, they kept in good order. They had no drastic action, poster, or slogan. They waited there silently for an answer from the leader of the city government. After 5:00 o’clock PM, policemen had arrested more than 20 practitioners and dispersed other practitioners.

[Shanghai] Message received on July 22, 1999

We are Falun Gong practitioners in Shanghai. Yesterday morning, more than 1,000 Falun Gong practitioners came to appeal in People’s Square in front of the city government. They hoped that the central government could change their wrong decision about Falun Gong and release the arrested practitioners. All of the practitioners were in good order in the square.

Around 3:00 o’clock PM, the policemen took away 3 students in Shanghai Jiaotong University and one employee in Tongji University. According to eyewitnesses, they may be taken to the Huangpu police station.

Around 5:00 o’clock PM, more than 200 policemen came. They forced the practitioners to leave the square and get on the buses nearby.

Around 6:00 o’clock PM, the practitioners in the square were dispersed. Some of the practitioners who were forced onto buses were brought to some places in the counties they live. The leaders at their working places were called to pick up the practitioners.

They were not allowed to go home until 9:00 o’clock PM.

Around 3:30 AM this morning, two practitioners were taken away from their homes by policemen. It was said that many practitioners who are college students were also taken away.

[Harerbin, Heilongjiang] July 23, 1999

At 4:00 o’clock this morning, around 10,000 practitioners assembled in front of the Provincial Government office in Harerbing and requested for the release of four Falun Gong practitioners. They had been detained for more than 48 hours. Practitioners were in very good order.

Around 6:00 AM, policemen and riot policemen started to force practitioners onto buses. Messages were repeatedly broadcast to the practitioners using several loudspeakers: “Falun Gong Research Society is illegal .... Anyone who does not leave here will take the consequences by themselves.”

At 7:30 AM, all practitioners were sent to the Provincial Stadium and were told that a meeting would be held. In the stadium, practitioners either did excises or read books. The situation was harmonious.

At 9:30 AM, practitioners began to be taken away by buses. When the practitioners refused, four policemen forced one practitioner onto the buses. Troops were also used.

At 11:00 AM, some practitioners were moved to an elementary school, a middle school and other places. They were taken into different classrooms. But in front of the provincial government building, a large number of practitioners still gathered because more and more practitioners were coming from different regions.

[Beijing] Message received on July 25, 1999

Starting from July 23, the Chinese government began another wave of nationwide arrests of Falun Gong practitioners. Police searched practitioners’ homes and took away their books, videotapes and posters related to Falun Gong. Some practitioners were detained for about 15 days and were forced to pay heavy penalties. On July 24 and 25, more practitioners were arrested.

On Saturday, July 24, 1999, more than one thousand people were removed from Fengtai Stadium in Beijing and taken to Langfang Agricultural Science Institute where they were detained with no water, food, or electricity since July 22nd.

Case 5

Victims: Liu Wenjie, Wang Hongbin, Li Qun (female), Zhang Zhaodong (age 30), Qu Xiuhua (female,
66), Liu Shuziang (female, 50), and other Falun Gong practitioners

Location of incident: Governmental Appealing Bureau, Dalian City, Liaoning Province

Description:

On July 20, 1999, at around 1:00 o’clock PM, thousands of practitioners went to the Governmental Appealing Bureau to inquire about the situation of some practitioners who had been arrested early that morning under the accusation of “assembling the mass to make trouble and disturb social orders.” Around 1:30, policemen started to drag out young male practitioners and beat them. Liu Wenjie and Wang Hongbin were each beaten by 4 or 5 policemen. They were dragged to the police cars and were sent to the police station. Policemen asked for their personal information and threaten them that if they went to the municipal government again, they would not be treated as “gently” as this time.

Li Qun, a young female practitioner, went to the People’s Square at 12:30 PM. She was dragged by her hair and carried away to a police car at 1:30. Then she was sent to the police station along with 8 or 9 other practitioners. When they arrived, they found out that around 10 practitioners were already there. The policemen said, “We are the authorities here.” In the police station, many practitioners were beaten. A 30-year-old woman was dragged by her hair and beaten up by 3 or 4 policemen. Zhang Zhaodong, 30 years old, was dragged out by 5 or 6 policemen when he went out to help those who fell on the ground. His clothes were torn and his neck was bruised badly. A 63-year-old grandma was dragged to the street and fell over many times because the policemen kept pushing and beating. One female practitioner lost her shoes when she was dragged. A 13-year-old girl got a 4-inch-long scratch on her arm. A policeman carried a 10-year-old boy to a police vehicle by his legs. A practitioner was beaten in the face after being dragged out of the crowd. Qu Xiuhua, a 66-year-old woman, was dragged out of the crowd, and the buttons were torn from here clothes. Liu Shuziang, a woman around 50, was dragged by her hair and pushed to the ground many times. A female practitioner was dragged out and got bruises on her arm. When she saw a policeman dropped his walkie-talkie, however, she picked it up for the policeman. In the midst of this brutality, no Falun Gong practitioners fought back. As of 8:00 PM, there was no reply from the government.

3.2 Arrests and Beatings of Overseas Falun Gong Practitioners

Case 1 (Japan)

Victims: Xiao Xinli, Wu Lili (female)

Location of incident: Tiananmen Square, Beijing

Description:

On the New Year’s Eve, Xiao Xinli and Wu Lili, practitioners from Tokyo, Japan, were arrested when practicing Falun Gong exercises on Tiananmen Square. Wu Lili was sent back to her hometown in Anhui Province. Her family in China has learned that she is being detained in the Luoshigang Detention Center in Hefei City, but they are not allowed to visit her. Wu Lili’s 2-year-old son, now in Japan, misses his mother very much. Wu Lili’s sister, Wu Xiaohua, an associate professor of Hefei Architecture Institute, was also arrested in Beijing for attempting to audit the trial of the four major contact people of Falun Gong. She was sent back to Hefei City on December 26th, 1999. Xiao Xinli is a graduate student in a university in Tokyo.

Case 2 (USA)

Victim: Jimmy Zhimin Zou (male), a U.S. citizen, an actuary in a Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation in Virginia

Location of incident: Beijing

Summary:

Mr. Zou was arrested in November 1999 in Beijing. In the police station, he was incessantly and ruthlessly beaten up by police officers for six days. He was struck by an electric stun baton, handcuffed in the most torturous way, punched in the eyes, cheeks, chest, and stomach area, and kicked fiercely at his chest. He recalled, “my body was beaten to the extent that I could not stand up and move around.”

Jimmy Zhimin Zou’s Own Recount:

In July 1999, the Chinese government denounced Falun Gong as “an illegal organization.” Since then, they have been ruthlessly persecuting tens of millions of Falun Gong practitioners. I was very concerned with the situation. I took a leave from work and traveled back to China in the middle of November. On November 30th, I arrived in Beijing by train from my hometown. The next day, I went to Tiananmen Square by myself. At noon, I went to see the ceremony of relieving sentries of the national flag. A policeman came over and asked me if I was a Falun Gong practitioner. I said “Yes”. Then I was taken into a police car and sent to Tiananmen Square Police Substation. I asked why I was being detained. Nobody answered me. The cops first forced a body search on me and took the “Zhuan Falun” book away from me. I protested and said that they had no right to rob my personal belongings for I had not committed any crime. The cops ignored my protest. I did not carry my passport with me at the moment. I thought that the cops had no right to detain me and take my book away. Then there came three cops surrounding me, taking away my glasses by force. After that, one cop punched both of my eyes with his fist, and the other two struck my shoulder and arms and kicked my legs. I felt dizzy and my left eye swelled like a ball. One cop continued to punch me for a while. Then there again came three cops surrounding me. They forced my arms to be crossed on my back. One hand came down from above the shoulder and the other came up from below the armpit. My wrists were pulled together and handcuffed forcefully. I was wearing a lot of winter clothes then, and my arms were not very flexible. At first, a cop tried to pull my arms together so they could cross on my back. He could not make it no matter how hard he tried. Then the three cops pulled and pressed my two arms together and handcuffed me by the wrists. I cried out with great pain. At the time I noticed that there were eight other practitioners handcuffed like this in the room. A middle aged gentleman looked like he had already been handcuffed in this way for a very long time, because both of his hands were swollen and looked dark and purple like the color of eggplants. A young lady was handcuffed in the same way and stood on my left, and an old lady over 60 was also handcuffed like that and stood on my right. The cops tortured the ladies and elderly persons with such cruelty! Every four to five minutes, the cops struck each person’s neck, hands and waist with a stun baton. The cops pushed aside my clothes in order to have firm touches of my skin in the waist with the stun baton.

In about fifteen minutes, a cop asked me if I would like to speak, I kept quiet. Then two cops came over, and shook violently a couple of times my arms that were handcuffed across on my back, with one arm coming down from above the shoulder and the other coming up from below. I cried out with extreme pain. Then they pushed me to the original place. Half an hour later, sweat from the unbearable pain was dripping down my face and prevented me from opening my eyes. One of the cops dragged me over and asked me again, and I told him my home address in China. So the cop opened up my handcuff and sent me to a room together with about fifty other practitioners. Later on I found out that among the eight practitioners handcuffed with their hands crossed on their backs (with one arm coming down from above the shoulder and the other coming up from below), the middle aged gentleman was handcuffed like that for half a day, the old gentleman over the age of 60 had been handcuffed like that for a whole day! If I were not there myself, I would not believe that Chinese police could torture Falun Gong practitioners like that!

When I got in the room, I was very happy upon seeing over fifty practitioners coming from various provinces of China. They let me sit down on the only chair in the back of the room after seeing me having been beaten to the extent that I could not stand firmly and felt numb in my hands. At the time, my arms still felt very painful and could not move. My neck could not move either due to the pain. I sat for about two hours before I tried to stand up and move around. When the fellow practitioners knew that I was from America, they were all eager to find out from me the Falun Gong situation abroad. I told them that people around the world were supporting Falun Gong practitioners who were being persecuted in China and that they were moved by the moral courage of Falun Gong practitioners who came to Beijing to appeal without fear for torture and persecution. Then a cop came over and prohibited us to talk. He came inside the room and found out that I was the focus of the discussion. The cop then kicked my chest fiercely. I felt pressured and numb but not too much pain. Maybe I was protected by God. Otherwise, with that much force, I would have fallen down to the ground right away.

About six o’clock in the afternoon, I was sent to the Anhui Agency in Beijing, along with other fellow practitioners from Anhui province. I was detained in a room together with about thirty other Anhui Falun Gong practitioners. Once arriving the Anhui Agency in Beijing, I was body-searched by two plain-cloth cops. They took away by force my 8,000 Yuan [Chinese currency] and cellular phone. Then the two cops began to interrogate me. They dragged me to the hallway and beat me in turn because I refused to cooperate with them. They punched my cheeks, chest, and stomach area. One of the cops struck my feet with a baton. The other cop punched my cheeks, which made me dizzy and lightheaded. The torture lasted for more than an hour. At the moment, I thought that the cops’ treatments of Falun Gong practitioners had constituted a severe violation of human rights. I was tortured like that only for being a Falun Gong practitioner and walking by Tiananmen Square. I thought, “Maybe I should tell them that I am an American citizen, see if they still dare to beat me.” So I told them about my American citizenship and the phone number they can all to verify my passport number. They did not believe me at first, stamping frantically in anger and responding with more violent beating. They then said that American citizens were the ones they would like to beat. I told them they should not beat a foreign citizen and asked them to call my hometown to verify my passport number. They did not pay attention to my request and kept beating me. They did not release me back to the room until they got tired of beating me.

I did not expect to have a chance to see so many fellow practitioners from my home province. I was happy talking to them even though my face was swollen out of shape. My body was beaten to the extent that I could not stand up or move around. I knew that more practitioners from Anhui province were coming to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. The second day, I sat down on the floor and felt pain all over my body. At night, a lady over 50 was physically abused because she practiced the Falun Gong exercises in custody. She sat meditating with her legs double-crossed--a position known as “full lotus”. She was then dragged to the hallway and beaten up by a cop. I could only hear “bang, bang” sound from the beating and the cop asking her if she would still practice. They released her back to the room half an hour later. The cops forced the old lady squatting down on the floor with her knees bent and embracing her head with two arms, and did not allow her to stand up to take a rest unless she agreed to stop practicing Falun Gong exercises. The old lady insisted her right to practice Falun Gong exercises, and also said to herself “practicing Falun Gong is a serious matter.” I felt happy for her determination because she is a genuine practitioner. The cop forced her to maintain that position for a whole night. She was so tired that she fell down on the floor for more than a dozen of times. Every time when she fell down on the floor, the cops forced her squatting down on the floor again.

On the fourth day, a few practitioners were taken away by people from the Anhui local police bureau, and nine practitioners from Fugang City who came to Beijing to appeal were sent in. Everyday, some practitioners were sent in and some others were escorted back, and there were always over thirty practitioners detained in the room. At 19:00 o’clock, two practitioners from Fugang City said that we should practice Falun Gong exercises. A practitioner should practice everyday. Then two of them started practicing the sitting meditation. I also sat down in the lotus position and started practicing together with them. The cops saw us doing meditation and said that it was not allowed to practice Falun Gong exercises in the room. All three of us continued practicing Falun Gong meditation. Then there came six or seven cops who dragged us out to the hallway by force. A cop struck me a couple of times with his fists. They forced us to stand facing the wall with our knees bent, and embracing our heads with our arms. The cops would kick our legs if our knees were not bent down enough. They thought that I was the person who led the practice. In order to punish me more severely, they found two fire extinguishers, each weighted over ten pounds, and forced me carrying them by two hands with my knees bent. They kept me in that position for more than an hour. I was so tired to carry the two fire extinguishers that they slipped out of my hands as soon as I lifted them up because my hands were sweaty and weak. The cops forced me to lift the fire extinguishers again once they slipped out of my hands. The person who started practicing first was tortured to the extent that he kept vomiting on the floor. The cops kept torturing us from seven or eight o’clock to eleven o’clock at night. After we were released back to the room, we told other practitioners what had happened to us. All of the practitioners thought that what we had done was right, and that all, instead of only three, of us should bear the hardship together.

At about four o’clock in the fifth morning, all of the practitioners got up and started practicing the Falun Gong meditation exercise. The cops were sleeping, but they opened their eyes a few times and saw us practicing. Yet they pretended not seeing us practicing. In the early morning of the sixth day, everyone got up practicing as we did in the previous morning. At night a cop who was in charge of the whole building walked by and found us practicing Falun Gong exercises. He came into the room, trying to stop us from practicing. He said he would beat whoever kept doing the exercises, and threatened that the baton was covered with foam so that no trace of external injury would be left but internal injury would be caused by it. He first pushed down a young practitioner in his 20s by force and wanted to beat him with the baton. I was just meditating in the lotus position by the side of the young practitioner. I stood up and covered the young practitioner with my body. I told the cop that it was illegal to beat people, that our practicing of the exercises did not interfere with any other people, and that doing meditation is part of our personal lifestyle and it is not anti-government. At that time there were three other practitioners coming over, and the four of us covered the young practitioner with our bodies, asking the cop that he could beat us first because we all practiced the exercises. When the cop saw the situation, he changed his attitude and said that he would not beat the young man. Later the cop said that he would punish us if we kept practicing. Then more than twenty of us stood up, saying that we would like to take the punishment together. After a while, the cop felt put out and stopped bothering us. We all sat down and discussed what had just happened. The cop who wanted to beat us and another cop who came for the morning shift also sat by our side and listened to our discussion. They even asked us a few questions; for example, why we kept practicing Falun Gong exercises and why we came to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong with no fear for severe punishment. We then introduced to them from our own experiences the mental and physical benefits of practicing Falun Gong. We told them that the slanderous propaganda against Falun Gong had confused right and wrong, that the decision made by the central government against Falun Gong was completely wrong, and that the reason why Falun Gong practitioners came to Beijing, sacrificing their personal interests, was to appeal for justice and truth. The two cops showed their sympathy after talking with us. They said that they did not know much about Falun Gong before and they had no choice but to fulfill their duties.

On that same day, I was released from the Anhui Agency in Beijing. Later on, I returned to the United States. After experiencing six days of beating and torturing, I truly appreciate how much freedom I have in U.S. Practicing Falun Gong exercises is my personal right and I would never be detained for practicing exercises in U.S. But in China, walking by Tiananmen Square as a Falun Gong practitioner results in detention and inhumane torture. I hope that the Chinese government would respect the basic human rights of their people, including those detained by cops for practicing their personal beliefs. I also hope that the Chinese government would correct their wrongdoing against Falun Gong and give tens of millions of Falun Gong practitioners a reasonable environment to practice their exercises and their spiritual beliefs in “Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance.”

Case 3 (USA)

December 1999 - China’s crackdown on the Falun Gong is tearing suburban Denver family apart

Victim: Tang Jian, female, a software engineering of Alltel Communications Inc. in Colorado, US resident, Chinese citizen

Location of incident: Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, China

Summary: Ms. Tang was arrested in last November and detained for 15 days in Guangzhou, China. Her husband and daughter who live in Highlands Ranch, Colorado could not find any information about her. The police in China refused to give any information about her when Denver local newspaper reporter and the family called to require the information. During her detention, police put shackles on her legs and ordered 5 male inmates forcing her down on the floor, fed her with salt water using plastic tube. “I thought that I would suffocate to death if they continued to do that.”

Description:

Personal Account

On November 22, I went on my two week vacation to visit China. On November 24, I arrived in Guangzhou to visit friends who are also Falun Gong practitioners. It was in a suburban resident home where I met with over 30 practitioners. Among them there were practitioners from Australia and Sweden as well. They exchanged their experiences and helped each other to get through the current hardship.

After midnight, we heard shouting and fierce knocking on the door. We all came to the living room as the police rushed in, shouting “Don’t move! Sit down!” Practitioners asked: “Which law have we broken? How can you just break in?” The police gave no answer and showed no warrant for arresting or searching. They started to beat practitioners on their head and body. One practitioner was beaten by four or five policemen at the same time. Another practitioner was beaten to the ground, his body cranked up and sweating from the pain. As the police started to beat on the Australian practitioner, Gao Yuan, two Chinese practitioners tried to protect him with their bodies. Two practitioners were dragged downstairs by the policemen. From the beginning to the end, no one fought back and maintained great forbearance.

The police handcuffed every two of us together and then took us downstairs. Police then started to search through our luggage. Anything related to Falun Dafa was confiscated. Books brought by Australian practitioners were all taken away. They even took some of our personal belongings.

Later police took us to Tianhe Detention Center. They ordered us to sit on the floor of the dining hall and took us one by one for questioning. From time to time, I heard noises of beatings. There was one practitioner who got slapped on the face every time he was asked a question. He was also forced to squat half way down for one and a half hours. I was taken for questioning before dawn. Police asked me why I still practice Falun Gong after it was banned. I told him, “Falun Dafa helped millions of people become free of painful illnesses, this is a fact witnessed by the whole society. Falun Dafa taught people to become a better person and helped millions to improve their morality. That is also witnessed by the whole society.” He asked why I came to China. I said because I saw the Chinese government could not tell right from wrong and they are defaming Dafa. As a Chinese citizen, I have the obligation to come and clear the facts on Falun Gong and I cared about practitioners in China. I came to see their situation. The police sighed and told me that they had to do those things because they were ordered to do so.

After all 36 of us were questioned. We were locked up in 3 rooms on a second floor. We decided to carry out a hunger strike. We also demanded them to return our books and release us since we haven’t broken any law. Most of us felt all right after 2 days of no food and no water.

In the afternoon, the guards ordered us to have our photos taken for records. We told them that we were not criminals, so we would not take photos. Then they came over to drag us. A guard dragged a slim girl out and shouted, “I will beat you to death.” The girl screamed. We then encircled the guard, and asked him to let her go. He then loosened his hands. At night, the guard told us that they would transfer us to another place and ordered us to get out. We knew that they were going to punish us. Then the practitioners from Australia requested to see the Australia Consulate in Guangzhou, saying that they would not move before their request was granted because they felt that their personal safety was in danger. The officer who was responsible for foreign affairs came and after some negotiations agreed to call the Australia Consulate. But he never came back. Later the guards dragged all of us out while beating and kicking us. They dragged us to the yard downstairs and ordered us to squat down. Then they ordered us one by one into a room and conducted thorough body searches. Later we were separately detained in different cells with other criminals.

I was assigned to the sixth cell. I found a practitioner from Jiangxi province and six criminals. After a short while, the officer in charge of female prisoners came over and asked whether I had eaten or not and threatened to feed me with salt water if I would refuse to eat. The inmates all told me that it was a very terrible thing to be fed with salt water. Meanwhile, I heard someone screaming in another cell. They told me that it must be that someone was being fed with salt water. The officer then ordered 4 to 5 male criminals to come over. One of them carried a tool for feeding salt water, which is a long glass tube attached with a soft and thin tube and some other stuff. I sat on the floor and was close to the wall. The officer approached me and asked whether I still refused to eat. I asked him why I was arrested since I had not committed any crime. Up to now I had not seen the arrest certificate. He became extremely angry and kicked my right breast heavily, yelling, “Who do you think you are?” He then said to the criminals “Feed her with salt water.”

Several male criminals came over and dragged me on the floor to the door, pushed me down and put shackles on me. I felt that somebody squeezing my nose and I could not breathe. Then something big was squeezed into my mouth. My mouth was immediately full of salt water. Since I could not breathe I had to swallow it. It was high-density salt water. Basically, it was made by adding a cup of water to a bag of solid salt. My throat felt like what I swallowed were all grains of salt, or a lot of salt plus tiny bits of water. I wanted to struggle but my hands and feet were forcefully held. I could not move at all. After a long time, I still heard the officer order, “Feed more.” I thought that I would suffocate to death if they continued to do that. After another 3 to 4 minutes, they let me go but I could not breathe freely for a long time. I felt like I would be suffocated to death. Then my stomach felt terrible. I wanted to drink water. I could not speak. My inmates held a bowl of cereal and fed me but after a short while, all the cereals were thrown up. I had to constantly drink water and throw up. My clothes were full of salt and dirty stuff. The other practitioner could not help crying upon seeing me like that.

In the next day we were taken to the Police Station in Yuexiu District. After a 2 or 3 hour interrogation, they finally convicted us of “participating in illegal Falun Gong activities” and we were given 15-day detention. I asked to use the telephone, but was refused. On the 10th day in Yuexiu Detention Center, police from Chengdu (my hometown) came to take me to Chengdu province. I was released two days later. The police told me they real-ly could not let me go back to the US but they decided to release me due to other factors.

Although I’ve returned to the U.S., I’m still thinking of our fellow practitioners in China. I am very worried about their safety.

Case 4 (Australia, Sweden, and USA)

Victims:

1. Anne Hakosalo (female), Swedish Citizen, an exchange student studying at Dalian University in China;

2. Christine Jiang (female), Australian Citizen;

3. Gao Yuan (male), Australian Citizen, piano teacher;

4. Yan Zhen (female), Australian Citizen;

5. Shelley Jiang (female), Australian Citizen, computer network engineer;

6. Sun Jie (female), U.S. Citizen, computer consultant working for Xpedior Corp, in Colorado, U.S.

7. Tang Jian (female), U.S. Resident, Chinese Citizen, software engineer at Alltel Communication Inc. in Colorado, USA
48

Other 45 Chinese Falun Gong practitioners including Jiang Zhaohui (male), who has been sentenced to 12 years in jail in January 2000.

Location of incident: Guangzhou, Guangdong Province

Summary:

On November 25, 1999, 52 Falun Gong practitioners were arrested in Guangzhou in two private apartments. Among them, six people are citizens of Australia, USA, and Sweden. They were mistreated and beaten up at the time of arrest and during the detention.

Description:

In November 1999, about 52 Falun Gong practitioners gathered at a few local practitioners’ apartments in Guangzhou to share experiences and help each other get through the hardships after China outlawed Falun Gong in October 1999. On November 25th, at 1:00 o’clock in the morning, about 40 policemen broke into the private apartments and, without a search or an arrest warrant, took all of the practitioners to the police station. There were 17 people arrested at one apartment and 35 at another one. Among them were 4 Australian citizens, one American citizen, and one Sweden citizen.

All those non-Chinese citizens were expelled from China to Hong Kong on November 27th. They were mistreated during the time they were detained in China, and they experienced or witnessed brutal beatings and torture.

Seventeen people who were arrested in one apartment were detained in a detention center in Guangzhou. Starting at 3:00 o’clock after their arrest, they were individually interrogated for 10 to 20 hours. During the interrogations they were only allowed to drink some water and could not rest. All of them were forced to stay in one room in the size of a typical apartment’s living room. They had to sleep on the concrete floor for the night. The Swedish student, Anne Hakosalo, was released after one day’s detention. After her release, Anna revealed that during the arrest, one practitioner was hit forcefully to the wall and lost consciousness. Anna said that during her detention, the police not only forcefully searched her purse and interrogated her continuously, but also forbade her to eat or call the Swedish consulate for help.

When practitioners who were arrested in the other apartment asked about the reason of the arrest, the police refused to answer and started to beat them. Two were dragged downstairs and beaten. Four or five policemen beat one practitioner at the same time. In the flat, one practitioner was beaten down on the ground and could not get up. When the police was about to beat an Australian practitioner, Mr. Yuan Gao, two other practitioners protected him with their own bodies. The police handcuffed these 35 practitioners and detained them in Tianhe Detention Centre in Guangzhou.

The interrogation lasted for a long time and the police officers were very cruel during the interrogation. One practitioner was forced to half-squat for more than one and a half hours (this physical punishment is known as the ‘invisible squat’), and the cop slammed him each time the cop asked him a question.

Having been subjected to these brutal treatments for no legitimate reason, the practitioners started a hunger strike. During this time, one of the Australian practitioners was kicked on the shoulder, and he saw a cop drag a 20-year-old female practitioner outside, threatening her to “beat her to death.” On November 26th, when two Australian practitioners were forced to be deported in the late evening, the rest of the practitioners were escorted somewhere else.

Most of the Chinese practitioners arrested on November 25th were on a ‘most wanted’ list issued by the Chinese government because they participated in the international news press conference secretly held in Beijing on October 28th. The press conference was attended by many major news agencies around the world, including AFP, AP, Reuters, the New York Times, etc. The above newspapers published photographs of the practitioners along with their stories of being tortured in detention centers, losing their jobs, and being expelled from their schools because they would not give up practicing Falun Gong. There was no doubt that these practitioners would face severe charges. As of the date this report was written, Jiang Zhaohui, who initiated the press conference and was among the 45 Chinese practitioners arrested, had been sentenced to 12 years in prison in January 2000.

Case 5 (Macau)

Victim: Zhang Yuhui (male), from Macau

Location of incident: Guangdong Province

Description:

As of December 21, 1999, Zhang Yuhui, a Falun Gong practitioner who entered China to meet other Falun Gong practitioners, had been held by police for nearly six weeks without being charged. Zhang Yuhui’s family had received no word on his whereabouts nor formal notice that he had been arrested, the Hong Kong-based Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China reported. Under Chinese law, the police are not supposed to hold suspects for more than 30 days without formally arresting them, although loopholes make longer detentions possible. Zhang left Macau for the neighboring Guangdong province and was picked up by police while meeting other Falun Gong practitioners on November 11, 1999, the information center said. At the time of the arrest, Macau had not returned to the Chinese rule yet.

Part II

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