3.5.16 Three Falun Gong practitioners from Australia arrested on Tiananmen Square

Message received: December 5, 1999

Victims:

1. Dai Meiling from Australia
2. Yi Qin from Australia
3. Zeng Jianling from Australia

Location of incident: Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China

Description:

December 4, 4:00pm, three Falun Gong practitioners from Australia, Dai Meiling, Yi Qin, and Zeng Jianling, and several practitioners in Beijing were arrested on Tiananmen Square when practicing Falun Gong exercises while holding a “Falun Dafa” banner. The three practitioners from Australia were expelled from Mainland China on the next day.

According to AP, police took away more than 20 practitioners who were doing sitting meditation in Tiananmen Square. A lot of policemen were patrolling around the Tiananmen Square.

3.5.17 Macao resident arrested in China for practicing Falun Gong

Message received: December 2, 1999

Victim: Zhang Yuhui, a Macao resident

Location of incident: Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China

Description:

Hong Kong-based Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China disclosed that a Macao resident--Zhang Yuhui, a Falun Gong practitioner, was arrested in Guangzhou when he met some Falun Gong practitioners there. He was taken into custody on November 10th in the second detention center of Kaiping city of Guangdong province. He might be sentenced after Macao’s return to Chinese rule in December of 1999. This news had been reported by AFP and Reuters respectively.

3.5.18 A personal view of China’s crackdown on Falun Gong

Victim: Feng Lili, female, assistant professor at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, US resident, Chinese citizen.

Location of incident: Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China

Summary:

On December 10, 1999, Ms. Feng was arrested and jailed by Guangzhou policemen for 13 days when she visited her friends in Shenzhen. She was forced to assemble hair brushes for export to the US. She experienced mistreatment during the detention. “A jail in China is nothing that an American can imagine. The moment you are arrested, you lose every right, and practically dis-appear from the world.”

Description:

Charged, arrested, and jailed for “disruption of social orders” by chatting with friends in a private home? This may require a stretch of imagination for Americans to comprehend, but it happened to me. I was jailed in Shenzhen, China for 13 days, slept on a cement floor, and was forced to assemble hair brushes for export to the US, all because I am a Falun Gong practitioner.

I am an assistant professor at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. On December 10, 1999, I went to Hong Kong to attend an Experience Sharing Conference of Falun Gong Practice and to visit my parents in Jiangxi Province afterwards. It would be my first trip back to my hometown in 11 years since I came to the US. On December 13, I went from Hong Kong to Shenzhen to purchase domestic flight tickets, and stayed at a friend’s home to wait for my flight on December 15. My friend, Mr. Chan, is a Hong Kong businessman and a Falun Gong practitioner. It is only natural for people with similar interests to get together, so some local Falun Gong practitioners whom Mr. Chan has known came to visit us on December 14. We talked about the benefits and experiences of our Falun Gong practices, and some also asked me questions about applying for graduate study programs in the US. All those happened at Mr. Chan’s private home before 11:00pm. At around 1 am on December 15, we were awaken by local policemen, who came in the house without any warrant, and were taken in for interrogation. Two other practitioners from northern California, Ms. Zhao Chen and Mr. Yun Huang, and a Hong Kong practitioner, Ms. Ren, were also rounded up at about the same time. We were released at dawn, but were arrested again in the afternoon when we came back for our travel documents, and handed a 15-day “administrative detention” for “disruption of social orders.”

The second arrest was apparently more serious than the first one. I was suspected of “conspiracy of external and internal forces against the government” and questioned for contacts and plots. Apparently, my articles and poems on Falun Gong which were confiscated by the police during our first arrest made them feel that I could be a dangerous person. At this point, I realized that my local friends could be endangered, so I claimed that I was the one responsible for calling local people to meet with me. Meanwhile, I insisted that I was not even trying to make a public statement, and asked how could I disrupt social orders at a private home. They did not get anything from me, but I could not get any explanation for the detention from them either. At the end of the day, the three from California (including myself) were thrown in jail, and the two from Hong Kong were expelled.

A jail in China is nothing that an American can imagine. The moment you are arrested, you lose every right, and practically disappear from the world. I was not allowed to contact anyone, by phone or by mail. My husband, after being informed of the news by Mr. Chan, called from San Diego to find out which detention center I was in. He was promptly told that criminals couldn’t receive phone calls. When he explained that he was trying to locate his wife, he was told to come in person.

During the next few days, he contacted the American General Consulate in Guangzhou, his friends in Shenzhen, and local Falun Gong practitioners, to ask for help to locate me. No one was able to find out, and all were given the run-around by the police. At one point, he was even told that I was released to American Embassy in China. It was not until a reporter from the San Diego Union-Tribune, Ms. Angela Lau, persevered in the run-around with the Shenzhen police that my location was determined.

Being cut off from the world was only a small part of the hardship. Since I was not at all prepared to be arrested again, I did not take any extra clothes with me. Two days after my arrest, Shenzhen was hit by the coldest weather in this century. I slept on the cement floor, and I could hear the cold wind howling through the prison wall. Worse yet, we were not allowed to wear shoes. As a result, my feet became badly chapped, and I still had a deep sore on one foot which was not yet healed. We were also forced to labor from 8:00am to 10:00pm every day, making head-brushes or shoes for export to the US. After I came back to the US, some people asked me what if someone refused to work. Refuse? I witnessed a girl being beaten up really good for being slow to assemble the brushes. An inmate recalled that some slow inmates were beaten up badly and stuck with needles in their private parts (so they could not show the marks to others). Fortunately, I was able to study and improve the assembly process and prevent more inmates from being beaten up for slow work. For all my forced labor there, I had to pay my own per diem - total of 130 Chinese Yuan for my 13 days of detention. Apparently, the forced labor was so systematic that the detention center I was in did not even bother to deny it when asked by a reporter who interviewed me after I was released.

It is in this inhumane environment that I witnessed the amazing power of Falun Gong in the salvation of people’s minds and bodies. Of the 38 inmates in the cell I was in, most were prostitutes, drug addicts, or both. Some of them were forced into prostitution by their husbands or families. It is when you are there you realize the so-called economic development is benefits enjoyed by a minority of privileged at the expenses of a large group of disadvantaged. Life has been so harsh on them that they had an absolute negative view about life. However, somehow they know Falun Gong practitioners are good people. The first night Ms. Zhao and I walked in the cells, they jumped in excitement --”Hey, Falun Gong!”-- and stayed up all night listening to our stories of practicing Falun Gong. I was given the name “Falun Gong 21” because I was the 22nd (there was a “Falun Gong 0”) to have been detained in that cell (You can imagine how many Falun Gong practitioners have been detained in thousands of jails in China.) During the next 13 days, Ms. Zhao and I converted most, if not all, of our inmates into Falun Gong practitioners. Fighting, beating and abuses were dramatically reduced, and by the time we were released, the three most powerful and vicious inmates, announced that they were going to adopt Falun Gong’s principle of “Truth-Benevolence-Forbearance” to run the cell. A 19-year old girl promised to me: “Professor, I will never sell my body once I get out. The next time I am in jail, it will be for Falun Gong.” Her statement silenced the whole cell and moved me to tears. Another prostitute who became a Falun Gong practitioner told me that she would go to Beijing after she is released to tell the government that Falun Gong saved her. There was an inmate who had a three-day overlap with me in the cell. At the time of her release, she begged the police: “Can I stay for a few more days? I want to learn more about Falun Gong.” When we first met, she was talking about revenge against her neighbors using sulfuric acid, but told me that she would never do a bad thing after learning Falun Gong. All the drug addicts together with me not only did not feel any crave for drugs any more, they did not even have the usual symptoms associate with quitting the drugs. Falun Gong may not be the only solution for these social and mental problems, but it is certainly the most powerful one that I have ever known.

I was released on the 13th day of my detention. The police refused to give me a reason for my arrest, but they hinted at the reason for my early release. I was told that there were dozens of phone calls every day from different news media around the world. After I arrived in Hong Kong, I learned that my husband, my fellow practitioners, friends, colleagues, The Scripps Research Institute, world news media, Senator Dianne Feinstein, the State Department, and many San Diegans that I do not know worked tirelessly for my rescue. It is the love, attention, support, and pressure from these people that have won my safe return.

My experience in China is by no means unusual. In fact, compared with others, I was treated well. Falun Gong is simply a popular movement of mental and physical cultivation. The spiritual practice and study we do is no different from the Bible studies and church-goings of millions of ordinary Americans, and the meditation exercise we do is no more vigorous than jogging, aerobics, or other physical exercises millions of ordinary Americans do. Yet in China, millions of Falun Gong practitioners are stripped of their rights to a peaceful mind and a healthy body, tens of thousands of them are being jailed for their faith, some are forced to divorce, some sexually are abused, and some are tortured to death. What is happening in China is beyond the violation of human rights, it is a violation against the most basic human existence. Here, I would like to ask you to give the same love, attention, and support that you have given me to the innocent Falun Gong practitioners in China.

3.5.19 Jimmy Zou, USA Falun Gong practitioners’ experience in Beijing

Victim: Jimmy Zou, an actuary in a Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation in Virginia, US citizen

Location of incident: Beijing, China

Summary:

Mr. Jimmy Zou was arrested last November in Beijing. Police constantly and brutally beat him for six days in the police station. He was struck by stun baton, hand cuffed in a most torturous way, punched on the eyes, cheeks, chest and stomach areas, kicked fiercely in the chest. “... My body was beaten to the extent that I could not stand up and move around.”

Description:

In 1991, I developed a sustained headache. I tried various treatments including Chinese medicine, Western medicine, Qigong and surgical operations. But all treatments failed. I had to quit my job as an actuary in 1996 because of the sustained headache. In August 1996, I started to practice Falun Gong. In three months, my symptom was gone without any medical treatment. Falun Gong helped me to recover from my illness and go back to work. Today, I am healthy and work for Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation as an actuary.

In July 1999, the Chinese government denounced Falun Gong as “an illegal organization” and since then, they have been ruthlessly persecuting tens of millions of Falun Gong practitioners. I was concerned with the situation very much and I took a leave and traveled back to China in the middle of November. I arrived in Beijing by train from my hometown on November 30th. The next day, I went to Tiananmen Square by myself. At noon, I went to see the ceremony of relieving the sentries for 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 detained. Nobody answered me. The cops first forced a body search on me and took the book “Zhuan Falun” away from me. I protested and said that they had no right to rob my personal belongings because 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 three cops surrounded me and took away my glasses by force.

After that, one cop punched both of my eyes with his fist, and the other two struck my shoulders 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. The three cops surrounded me again. They forced my arms to be crossed behind 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 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 was 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 on my left was handcuffed in the same way and an old lady over 60 was also handcuffed like that on my right. The cops tortured the ladies and elderly persons with such cruelty! For 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 at my waist so they could have better contact with my skin with the stun baton.

In about fifteen minutes, a cop asked me if I would like to speak. I kept quiet. Two cops came over, and violently shook my arms a couple of times. My arms were still handcuffed across on my back, with one arm coming down from above the shoulder and the other coming up from below. I cried out in extreme pain. They then 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. The then 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 being handcuffed, the middle-aged gentleman was handcuffed like that for half a day. Another old gentleman over the age of 60 had been hand-cuffed 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 from various provinces in China. They let me sit down on the only chair in the back of the room after they saw how badly I was beaten. 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 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 they were moved by the moral courage of Falun Gong practitioners who came to Beijing to appeal with no fear for torture and persecution. Then a cop came over and did not allow 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 numbness but not too much pain. Maybe God protected me, otherwise with that much force, I would have fell down on the ground right away.

About six o’clock in the afternoon, I was sent to Anhui Agency in Beijing, together with other fellow practitioners from Anhui province. I was detained in a room together with about thirty other Anhui Falun Gong practitioners. Once arriving at Anhui Agency in Beijing, I was body searched by two plain-cloth cops. They took away my 8,000 Yuan and a cellar phone by force. 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. Maybe I should tell them that I am an American citizen, see if they still dare to beat me. So I told them my American citizenship status and the phone number to verify my passport number. They did not believe me at first and frantically stomped in anger and responded 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 had not expected 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 and move around. I knew that more practitioners from Anhui provinces 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 mistreated because she was practicing Falun Gong exercises. 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 a “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 to squat down on the floor with her knee bent and arms embracing her head. They did not allow her to stand up and 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 to squat down on the floor again.

On the fourth day, a few practitioners were taken away by 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 seven o’clock at night, 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 weighing over ten pounds, and forced me carrying them by in my two hands with my knees bent. They kept me in that position for more than an hour. I was so tired from carrying 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 the practitioners thought that what we had done was right, but all of us should bear the hardship together instead of only three of us.

At about four o’clock in the fifth morning, all the practitioners got up and started practicing Falun Gong meditative exercises. The cops were sleeping, but they opened their eyes a few times and saw us practicing. However, they pretended not to see us practicing. In the early morning of the sixth day, everyone got up to practice like we did 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 and tried 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 20’s 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 is illegal to beat people, and our practicing exercises did not interfere with any other people. Doing meditation is part of our personal lifestyle, and there is nothing against the government. At that time there were three other practitioners coming over, and the four of us covered the young practitioner with our bodies, saying to the cop that please 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, listening 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 told them about the actual mental and physical one gets from practicing Falun Gong, our own experiences. We also told them how the slanderous propaganda against Falun Gong confused right and wrong, how the decision made by the central government against Falun Gong was wrong, and how Falun Gong practitioners came to Beijing to appeal for justice and truth by sacrificing their personal interests. 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.

That same day, I was released from the Anhui Agency in Beijing. Later I returned to America. After experiencing six days of beating and torture, I truly appreciate how much freedom I have in the U.S. Practicing Falun Gong exercises is my personal right, and I would never be detained for practicing the exercises in the U.S. However, in China, walking by Tiananmen Square as a Falun Gong practitioner would result in detention and inhumane torture. I hope the Chinese government would respect people’s basic human rights including those detained by the cops for their personal beliefs. I also hope that the Chinese government would correct their wrongdoings against Falun Gong and give tens of millions of practitioners a lenient environment to practice their meditative exercises and their spiritual beliefs in truthfulness, benevolence, and forbearance.

3.5.20 Falun Gong practitioners From Australia, Sweden, US were arrested in Guangzhou

Victims:

1. Anne Hakosalo, female, an exchange student studying at Dalian University in China; Sweden citizen
2. Christine Jiang, female, Australia citizen
3. Gao Yuan, a piano teacher and pianist, Australia citizen
4. Yan Zhen, female, Australia citizen
5. Shelley Jiang, female, a computer network engineer, Australian citizen
6. Sun Jie, female, a computer consultant working for Xpedior Corp, in Colorado, US Citizen
7. Tang Jian, female, a software engineer at Alltel Communication Inc. in Colorado US resident. and 45 other Chinese Falun Gong practitioners including Jiang Zhaohui who was sentenced to 12 years in jail in January 2000

Location of incident: Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China

Summary:

52 Falun Gong practitioners were arrested in Guangzhou from two private apartments on November 25, 1999. 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 local practitioners’ apartments in Guangzhou to share experiences to help each other get over their hardships after China outlawed Falun Gong in October. At 1:00am November 25, about 40 policemen broke into the private apartments without a search or an arrest warrant, took all practitioners to the police station. There were 17 people arrested at one apartment and 35 at another one, among them were 4 citizens of Australia, one from the United States and one from Sweden.

All who were not Chinese citizens were expelled from China to Hong Kong on November 27. They were mistreated during the time they were detained in China, where they experienced or witnessed brutal beatings and torture.

Seventeen people were arrested at the first apartment. They were detained in a detention center in Guangzhou. Starting at 3:00am after the arrest, they were interrogated for 10 to 20 hours individually. During the interrogations they were only allowed to drink some water without any rest. All of them were forced to stay in one room of a typical apartment living room size. 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 forcefully hit to the wall and lost consciousness. Anna said that during her detention, the police not only continuously interrogated her and forcefully searched her purse, but also did not allow her to eat or call the Swedish consulate for help.

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

The interrogation lasted for a long period. The police used very cruel ways during the interrogation. One practitioner was forced to half squat for more than one and half hours (this physical punishment is named ‘invisible squat’). Each time when the policeman asked him a question, he would slam him.

Facing these brutal treatments, the practitioners started hunger strikes during this time, one of the Australian practitioners was kicked on the shoulder. He saw the policeman dragging a 20-year-old female practitioner outside while threatening to “beat her to death.” On late evening November 26, two Australian practitioners were deported and the rest of practitioners were escorted somewhere else.

Most of the Chinese practitioners arrested on November 25 were on a ‘most wanted’ list issued by the Chinese government since they participated in the October 28 international news press secretly held in Beijing. The news press was attended by many news agencies around the world including AFP, AP, Reuters, the New York Times, etc. The above newspapers have 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 is no doubt that these practitioners will face severe charges. As of the date of this report, Jiang Zhaohui, one the 45 Chinese practitioners arrested and the person who initiated the October 28 news press, was sentenced to 12 years in prison in January 2000.

Appendix

Name list of Falun Gong Practitioners arrested on November 25, 1999 in Guangzhou, China

Li Baoxing Zhao Liying Li Yuling Zhang Wenlong Sun Yibiao Fu Limin Wang Ling Zhao Yun Pan Xueyun Chen Bimei Zhong Xiaoming Ye Youqing Shi Xiaochun Liu Yumei Yu Jishu Yang Zhenwu Li Huijing Wang Kai Sun Jianyi Xiang Guilan Song Junmei Ding Yan Li Shisong Gu Linna Shan Huihong Meng Hongyu Wang Jun Yuan Zhaoxia Xu Hongyu Lu Yuandong Liang Fuyou Liang Zhaohui Qiu Lidong Zhang Ke Cao Hairong Zhou Huamin Feng Jian Jiang Zhaohui Ma Qiaoling Liu Qingwei Wang Ling Li Zhendi Li Yanqiao Li Ying Li Bin Anne Hakosalo (Sweden citizen, released on November 26) Shelley Jiang (Australia citizen, released on November 27) Christine Jiang (Australia citizen, released on November 27) Jian Tang (US resident, released on Dec 9) Yan Zhen (Australia citizen, released on Nov 7) Yuan Gao (Australia citizen, released on Nov 27) Jie Sun (US citizen, release on November 27) Jimmy Zou (US citizen, was arrested later in December and released 6 days after)

3.5.21 Australia Falun Gong Practitioners Arrested and Tortured in China.

Case 1: Ms. Zhang Cuiying, Falun Gong practitioner from Sydney Australia went to Beijing Tiananmen Square at the end of December 1999. After talking with some Falun Gong practitioners, she was taken away by police. Because she did not tell the police that she was from Australia and an Australian passport holder, the policeman beat her with a magazine roll. Her head was bleeding, half of her face was swollen. The magazine roll was full of blood. Later, she was locked in a small iron cage. When policemen found out that she was from Australia, they deported her.

Case 2: Ms. Liu Zuoping, 50, arrived in Beijing on December 14, 1999. On December 16 at about 12:00pm midnight, while she was talking with some practitioners at home, all of a sudden about ten Chinese policemen broke into the flat without showing any searching order or warrant. They took pictures of Ms. Liu and others and arrested them just because there were two copies of Zhuan Falun book on the table.

During the interrogation, Ms. Liu asked many times to go to the restroom, but the request was denied. She wet her pants on the way to the restroom after the interrogation.. It was -10C at that time. She only had a chance to change the pants after she was deported and arrived in Sydney.

During the detention, the policemen took away all of her money. She was also forced to pay 6800 Yuan (equivalent to A$1400) for a one way ticket from Beijing to Sydney despite the fact that she had already purchased her own return ticket (HK-Beijing, HK, Sydney)

Case 3: Ms. Helen Tao, an Australia citizen, was arrested in Tiananmen Square late in December 1999. She was detained in Tiananmen Police Station for a whole day. Because she did not reveal her nationality, the policemen tortured her as a Chinese Falun Gong practitioner--handcuffed her hands at the back with one arm down from above the shoulder and the other arm up from below the armpit. Another girl was treated the same way and vomited due to the extreme pain. Tao witnessed the beating suffered by many arrested practitioners. She was expelled to Hong Kong after the policemen found out her citizenship.

Case 4: On December 4, 1999, at 4:00pm, three Falun Gong practitioners from Australia, Dai Meiling, Yi Qin, and Zeng Jianling, and several practitioners from Beijing were arrested in Tiananmen Square when practicing Falun Gong exercise and holding a “Falun Dafa” banner. The three practitioners from Australia were expelled from Mainland China on the next day.

Five more Falun Gong practitioners from Australia were arrested when they were sharing experience with other practitioners at the residence of a Beijing practitioner. That Beijing practitioner was also arrested. Their whereabouts were yet unknown.

3.5.22 USA Falun Gong Practitioners Arrested and Tortured in China

Case 1: Ms. Qian Zhizheng, a US citizen, was arrested on October 27, 1999 when she had lunch with a local practitioner in a restaurant in Beijing. Ten policemen held both of them to the police car without any explanation. At Qianmen Police Station, Ms. Qian was interrogated for more than 2 hours and was later sent to Beijing Public Security Bureau On October 28, she underwent another 3-hour interrogation with intermittent harassment and threats. Afterwards, the police officer released her withholding her US passport and air ticket. Two days later, Ms. Qian was arrested again in Tiananmen Square while talking with another practitioner. The policemen made a forceful and thorough search of their belongs before they were taken to Tiananmen Police Station, where Qian found the cells were full of detained Falun Gong practitioners. She was released on November 5, 1999, after a 5-day detention in a hotel.

Case 2: Mr. Sam Guo, from California, USA, arrived in Beijing with Ning Han, an other US practitioner on October 14, 1999. The next day, around lunch time, they went to Xinhua Gate of the Zhongnanhai compound and presented the 10,000-word petition letter to the policemen at the Gate. The policemen asked for their ID’s and they showed their passport.15 minutes later, a 110 patrol van pulled over and they were sent to the Chengfu Road Police Station, where they were separated. Mr. Guo was questioned all the afternoon about his personal information and the purpose of his trip. He told them he just want to make the petition.

In the evening, Mr. Guo was sent to the Public Police Bureau of Hubei Province, Gao’s home province. On the night of arrival, two men interrogated him for 2-3 hours, asking him the same questions over and over. He explained to them that he only want to petition to the government and hope the government can stop suppression of Falun Gong practitioners.

For the rest of the weeks, he lost his freedom. One policeman from his hometown slept in the same room with him during the night. His request of paying a visit to his hometown was rejected by the police. After 4 days of interrogation, he was forced into the airplane and sent back to U.S. on October 9, 1999.

Mr. Guo went back to China again with other practitioners on December 29, 1999. After he arrived at Beijing International Airport, he was detained by the police for one night and sent back to U.S. the next day. He was beaten by the policemen the night he was detained, and his Falun Gong related books confiscated.

Case 3: Mr. Qu Zheng and Ms. Zou Bin are a couple and Chinese citizens. On December 26, 1999 they, with their two-and-half-a-year-old son, went to Beijing First Intermediate People’s Court to apply for an auditing permit for the trial of the four key members of the former “Falun Dafa Research Society”. Around 9:00am a policeman stopped them as they were walking eastwards towards the main entrance of the court. They noticed that policemen were all over the streets leading to the court building, stopping and questioning people on the streets. The police asked if they were Falun Gong practitioners. The replied yes and explained to him their intention. The policemen requested them to get in a nearby police van after seeing their ID’s. Later on, they were sent to Shijinshan stadium where about 300 other Falun Gong practitioners were already there. Without food and drink, all of the practitioners were detained in the open field until 7:00pm. In the afternoon, when it was getting cold (around 30 degrees F), some practitioners started doing Falun Gong exercises. Policemen immediately pounced them, beating and dragging them out of the crowd. These practitioners were forced to squat and put their hands over their heads. A few of them were beaten and kicked when they refused to do so. A mid-aged woman stood up saying “we didn’t do anything wrong” and started doing the exercises again. Several strong male policemen dragged her away and kicked her. Later on, the family of Qu was taken to Beijing Chaoyang District Police Substation and released after being questioned for a short while. Most of other practitioners were still detained. To their knowledge, some of them were not released until February 4, 2000.

3.5.23 Maltreatment of Canadian Falun Gong practitioners when they visited China for peaceful appeal

Case 1: Li Jingyu, female, from Montreal, Canada, a Canadian citizen: 514-748-9071

Ms. Li went back to China to help her husband come to Canada and make an appeal to the Chinese government. On December14, 1999 she met with her younger brother in Shanghai, China, when several policemen broke into the apartment. Since she did not have her passport with her, they asked her to go to the police office two hours away from her residence. At the office, she was fined 500 Yuan, and claimed to have violated the Chinese law.

On December 20, 1999, when she was practicing Falun Gong with her husband and another friend, the police broke in and detained her and her husband. During the detention that night, she kept introducing to the policemen how she benefited from Falun Gong.

On December 22, 1999, the couple went to Beijing with a letter, appealing to the central authority for Falun Gong. The next day, policemen from Shanghai escorted Li back to Shanghai and ordered her to leave for Canada within 48 hours.

Case 2: Guan Weidong, Canadian permanent resident,

Address: Apt.16, 3085 Dupis Ave. Montreal PQ

Phone: 514-342-6558

On December 6, 1999, Mr. Guan went to Beijing to tell Chinese government the truth about Falun Gong. When he was looking for the appealing office of central government, a police arrested him and took him to Fuyou Street Police Substation. He was detained there for ten hours without any food. At night, he was transferred and detained at Nanning (his home city) liaison office in Beijing until December10 1999, when he was sent back to Canada..

Case 3: Zhu Xueye, a Ph.D. student at Civil Engineering Department in Concordia, a Canadian permanent resident,. His contact information: xue_zhu@civil.concordia.ca

When Mr. Zhu went back to Shenzhen City to visit his parents, the Customs of Shenzhen City detained him for more than 30 hours. During his detention, he was hand-cuffed several times.

At the end of December, he went to Beijing to appeal. Policemen from Fuyou Street Police Substation arrested him and transferred him to Shezhen liaison office in Beijing. During the 8-9 days of detention, he was required a sign a letter denouncing Falun Gong. Since he refused, he was not allowed to leave the hostel and ordered to do some cleaning work in the hotel. Sometimes he was kept with several male and female practitioners at the same room for several days.

On January 7, 2000, he was sent back to Canada.

3.5.24 Falun Gong practitioners from Japan arrested and tortured in China

On the eve of the new millennium, a dozen practitioners from Japan gathered in Tiananmen Square and were soon arrested. Seven of them were deported and sent back to Tokyo on the afternoon of January 1, 2000, six of whom held Japanese passports and one held Taiwan passport. Policemen rushed to the practitioners and dragged them onto police vans. Female practitioners were dragged into the vans by their hair. It’s said that they were sent to detention centers in Beijing. Many people and foreign journalists witnessed police brutality against practitioners.

Practitioners with Chinese passports remained in custody. When this news was written, Zhang Yufu and his seven-year-old son were already escorted back to their hometown in Harbin. Zhang Yufu’s mother-in-law had been informed to pick up the child. Zhang’s wife is also a practitioner and she had been denied entrance to China twice. The whereabouts of other arrested practitioners were yet unknown.

3.5.25 Hong Kong Falun Gong practitioners being arrested and tortured in China

Hong Kong “New City Broadcast Station” reported that, according to a Falun Gong practitioner whose last name is Peng, on November 18, 5 Falun Gong practitioners and a 6-year-old child from Hong Kong held up a banner reading “Falun Gong” in Tiananmen Square. The police immediately took them away. Their whereabouts were yet unknown. Ms. Peng said that these 5 Falun Gong practitioners from Hong Kong voluntarily went to Beijing to express their concerns over those arrested Falun Gong practitioners and to voice their objection against Chinese government’s crackdown on Falun Gong.

3.5.26 Singapore Falun Gong practitioners being arrested and tortured in China

Three Falun Gong practitioners from Singapore, Wu Guorui, Xiong Changnei and Xiong Shouyong, who are students of Nanyang Institute of Technology, went back to China on November 6 to appeal to the Chinese government to stop its persecution against Falun Gong practitioners. Till now, they have been detained by the Beijing police for more than one month. It is believed that they were arrested on the Tiananmen Square four or five days after they arrived in Beijing. These three Chinese students are recipients of the scholarships awarded by the Department of Education of Singapore.

3.5.27 Macao Falun Gong practitioners being arrested and tortured in China

At the grand ceremony of Macao’s return to China on December 20, a Falun Dafa practitioner from Macao, Ms. Yang Qingping, held up a banner reading “Falun Dafa - Truthfulness, Benevolence, and Forbearance” right after President Jiang finished his speech. She also shouted “Falun Dafa” which shocked the whole conference room. A dozen public security officers rushed over and pushed her to the ground but she kept crying out about the communist regime’s injustices against Falun Dafa. Later, she was taken into custody by the Macao police, and would be sentenced. At the time, detailed information was not available.

Yang Qingping has two children. She, her mother, Zhang Jieyu, and sister, Yang Cuiping, all started to learn Falun Dafa in May 1999. Both her mother and sister joined the group practice in Macao on December 19 and were detained by the police. It was said that her mother would be escorted back to China for sentencing because she held a Chinese passport. Her sister was already freed by the police. However, her phone is monitored and she is under close surveillance.

The above news was provided by a practitioner from Australia, Tao Hualian. She returned to Hong Kong on December 19 and arrived in Shenzhen (a city in Guangdong Province) the same night. On December 21, she went to a store to fax the above news. She suddenly heard somebody yelling “she is the person” before she could send the news out. As soon as she raised her head, she found that a police officer in uniform and 4 in plain-clothes had already surrounded her. She held the article tightly in her hands. A policeman pulled her left ear with force and searched her body and took away all the materials she carried with her. She was then sent to the Yanhe Police Station for interrogation that started at 11:00pm on December 21 and ended at 12:15am on December 22. The police also recorded the whole interrogation. She was then sent to the Shengzhen Police Station at 5:00pm on December 22 and at about 6:30pm. She went back to Hong Kong through Luohu Customs. She then sent out the news concerning what had happened on December 19 and December 20.

3.5.28 He was arrested twice in Beijing

Victim: Sam Guo, resident in California

Location of incidents: Beijing, China

Description

“On Oct. 4 [1999], I arrived in Beijin with Ning Han, a practitioner from El Cerrito, California. The next day, around lunchtime, we went to Xinhua Men of the Zhongnan Hai compound to petition for Falun Gong practitioners. We presented the 10 thousand words petition letter to the police in front of the gate. A police van came over and we were picked up and sent to the Chengfu Lu police station. There, we two were separated. I was questioned all the afternoon by one cop, asking all my personal information and the purpose of my trip. I told them I just want to do the petition.

In the evening, I was asked to go with two men, who came from the police department of Hubei Province. (I was born in Huanggang Districe of Hubei province. ). That night I stayed at the Huanggang District Agency in Beijing, Haidian district of Beijing. These two policemen interrogated me for 2~3 hours, asking me the same questions over and over again. I just explained to them that I only want to petition to the government and hope the government can stop suppressing Falun Gong practitioners. They didn’t listen to my words.

For the rest of the weeks, I lost my freedom and one cop from my hometown monitored me during the nights. After 4 days of interrogation, they decided to send me back to U.S. I said I wanted to go to my hometown. They refused my request. Then, I was forced into the airplane and sent back to U.S on Oct. 9, 1999.

The second time, I went back to China with other practitioners on December 29, 1999. When I arrived in Beijing International Airport, I was detained by the police for one night and sent back to U.S next day. They also took away my books. I was beaten by the police that night I was detained.”

Index

Previous

Next