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4.3 Financial Penalties
4.3.1 Police department imposed heavy bail
Message received: March 2, 2000
Victim: A Falun Gong practitioner from Baoding
Location of incident: Baoding, Hebei Province, China
Description:
A practitioner from Baoding went to Beijing to appeal around February 27. After he was escorted back to Baoding, he was required by the local police department to pay a bail of 10,000 Yuan in order to get released. This has tarnished the public image of the local government.
4.3.2 Practitioners arrested for attending a local conference
Message received: March 2, 2000
Victims: Falun Gong practitioners in Lanzhou
Location of incident: Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China
Description:
Practitioners in Lanzhou have become more determined about Falun Dafa after the local Falun Dafa experience sharing conference held recently. The police department has been investigating about the conference. To date, many of those practitioners who attended the conference have been arrested.
4.3.3 Practitioners detained for appealing to local government
Message received: March 2, 2000
Victims: Two Falun Gong practitioners in Tianjing
Location of incident: Tianjing, China
Description:
A practitioner from Tianjin has recently started to appeal to all levels of government. When he appealed to the city government, the official asked him, “Would you like to have a police vehicle send you home or you want to go home by yourself?”
The practitioner said, “I just got released after being detained for several months. I am afraid of nothing.” The official thus said, “You may just go home by yourself.” This practitioner got detained again after he went home. Now he has been detained for ten days.
Another practitioner had also attempted to appeal to all levels of government. However, he got detained when he appealed to a local department and has been detained for 6 days now.
4.3.4 Practitioners from oil plant arrested for practicing exercises in a part and imposed stiff fines
Message received: February 21, 2000
Victims:
1. Zhou Tianrong
2. Wu Zhengnan
3. Jing Tianming
4. Wang Haixia
5. Tan Jinming
And 89 other Falun Gong Practitioners
Location of incident: Shengli Oil Plant, Shandong Province
Description:
On January 29, practitioners from Shengli Oil Plant went to practice Falun Gong exercises in a park and 89 of them got arrested. Later, most of them were released after paying a fine of 2,000 to 20,000 Yuan except 17 practitioners. (6 female and 11 male) They were Zhou Tianrong, Wu Zhengnan, Jing Tianming, Wang Haixia, Tan Jinming and others. One of them was an aged woman. They were first detained in the detention center of the Public Security Bureau of Dongying City. On February 16, they were transferred to another place. Until February 20, they had been on hunger strike for 5 days. A female practitioner had difficulty getting herself around.
Currently, officials of the Shengli Oil Plant talked to practitioners and required practitioner to give up Falun Gong, otherwise, they would be fined from several thousand up to several tens of thousand Yuan.
4.3.5 Practitioners detained, their family members pay 1,000 Yuan per month to the detention center
Message received: February 7, 2000
Victims:
1. Tan Mimi, female, Changsha, Hunan Province
2. Feng Fei, Changsha, Hunan Province
Location of incident: Changsha, Hunan Province
Description:
Practitioners from Changsha, Mimi Tan and Fei Feng, have been detained since last August and September, for selling Falun Dafa books, and promoting and defending Falun Dafa. Their family members are not allowed to visit them. Moreover, their family members must pay approximately 1,000 Yuan per month to the detention center.
4.3.6 Doctor’s clinic confiscated for her appealing in Beijing
Victim: Doctor Miao, female, from Wuguiqiao, Sichuan Province
Location of incident: Wuguiqiao, Sichuan Province
Description:
Falun Gong practitioner, Doctor Miao, lives close to Wuguiqiao. Her clinic was confiscated by the police department because she went to Beijing to appeal. She is now under criminal detention.
4.3.7 Practitioners detained and tortured for not being able to afford the financial penalty
Message received: February 1, 2000
Victims:
1. Liu Yumei, female, Nansu Town of Laixi, Shandong Province
2. Liu Zhili, Ms. Liu’s daughter
Location of incident: Nansu Town of Laixi, Shandong Province
Description:
Liu Yumei and her daughter Liu Zhili were escorted back to their hometown on December 5, 1999 after being arrested in Beijing. They have been detained in the Nansu Town of Laixi, Shandong Province without any legal formality and they have not been released because they could not afford the financial penalty of 10,000 Yuan (about the annual income of an average Chinese worker). During the detention, they suffered inhumane treatments. They were forced to run, and would be beaten if they could not run. They were also forced to squat down on a very narrow plat and would be kicked if they failed to do that.
4.3.8 Practitioners escorted back from Beijing asked to pay for air ticket and 10,000 Yuan fine
Message received: January 24, 2000
Victims: Falun Gong Practitioners from Changsha, Hunan Province
Location of incident: Changsha, Hunan Province
Description:
A practitioner went to Beijing to appeal. After he was arrested in Beijing and escorted back to his hometown, he was required to pay 3,000 Yuan (more than three months of salary of an average Chinese worker) for the transportation fee and other unspecified expenses. A practitioner from Changsha was escorted back from Beijing by air. In addition to the money for the air tickets, he was ordered to pay another 10,000 Yuan (about the annual salary of an average Chinese worker). He refused.
4.3.9 Practitioners threatened life imprisonment if they refuse to pay high financial penalty
Message received: January 24, 2000
Victims: Falun Gong Practitioners from Hengyang, Hunan Province
Location of incident: Hengyang, Hunan Province
Description:
Because too many practitioners are being detained in the Hengyang detention center, some “stubborn” practitioners will be sent to Zhuzhou City. The police department demanded that these practitioners pay 30,000 Yuan (three years of income of an average Chinese worker) and serve three years of forced labor. The police department threatened that if they refused to pay the 30,000Yuan, they would be jailed for life.
4.3.10 Practitioners fined 40,000 Yuan for appealing in Beijing; School bonus award cancelled
Message received: January 24, 2000
Victims: Falun Gong Practitioners from Longquanyi, Sichuan Province
Location of incident: Longquanyi, Sichuan Province
Description:
Recently, two practitioners, who are both teachers in a school of Longquanyi District in Sichuan Province, went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. They were immediately arrested and were required to pay a penalty of 40,000 Yuan (about four years of income of an average employee in China) after they were escorted back from Beijing. In the meantime, the local government announced that the bonus of 30,000 Yuan to be awarded to their school would be cancelled because the school authority failed to prevent them from going to Beijing to appeal. Longquanyi District is located in the Long-quan Mountains. Most of the schools are located in the remote mountain areas. The teachers are leading very hard lives. Their incomes are relatively low. They all hoped that they could get some bonus for celebrating the Chinese Spring Festival. What the local communist government did was unfair to both the school employees and the two Falun Gong practitioners.
4.3.11 Enterprises fined for failing to prevent their employees from going to Beijing
Message received: January 24, 2000
Victims: Falun Gong Practitioners from Sichuan Province
Location of incident: Sichuan Province
Description:
Those enterprises that were fined by the police department for failing to prevent their employees from going to Beijing asked the police department to give a reason. The answer was that it was the order of the local government.
4.3.12 Practitioners serve criminal detention because workplaces refused to pay the 350,000 Yuan penalty
Message received: January 22, 2000
Victims: Falun Gong Practitioners
Location of incident: Chengdu, Sichuan province
Description:
Three practitioners from Longquanyi District of Chengdu, among them Cheng Zhan, were arrested and their homes ransacked when they went to Beijing to appeal. They served criminal detention because their employer refused to pay the 350,000 Yuan penalty to the police department. Some other practitioners from Chengdu including Li Xiaojun were also serving criminal detention. They were finally released after their workplaces or family members paid several thousand Yuan. The male practitioners had their heads shaved by the police. Many of them had bruises due to police tortures. They were beaten by both police officers and detained criminals. They were forced to do hard labor for 18 to 19 hours every day while in police custody and not given enough food. Now they are under intense surveillance by the security sections of their workplaces as well as the police station.
4.3.13 Practitioners escorted back from Beijing and required to pay a fine of 5, 000 Yuan
Message received: January 18, 2000
Victims: Falun Gong practitioners from Jinan, Shandong Province
Location of incident: Jinan, Shandong Province
Description:
In recent months, more than two thousand appealing practitioners from Shandong Province have been escorted back from Beijing. Several days ago, several groups of practitioners from Jinan City of Shandong Province were escorted back from Beijing. Each of them was required to pay a fine of 5,000 Yuan (about half of the annual salary of an average employee). All of them were detained in a hotel. All the expenses were covered by practitioners themselves. In addition, some practitioners were directly sent to the detention center for criminal detention, waiting for possible jail sentence. Also, Jinan police forced each of the contact people of Falun Gong to pay 2,000 Yuan to cover the “expenses” for holding thought-transformation classes.
4.3.14 Practitioners denied salary increase
Message received: January 7, 2000
Victims: Falun Gong Practitioners in Tiefa Coal Company
Location of incident: Tiefa Coal Company, Liaoning Province
Description:
Tiefa Coal Company in Liaoning province has raised the salary of every employee since January 1st except those of Falun Gong practitioners. In particular, item 11 of the qualification for salary increase states explicitly that “those who practice Falun Gong and refuse to give up Falun Gong after being educated are not qualified for a salary increase.” It is easy to tell that the authorities are taking all possible means to intensify the persecutions against Falun Gong practitioners. In the future, whether one practices Falun Gong or not will be listed as one of the criteria for being admitted to the communist party (party membership is connected to practical gains in today’s China, but has little or nothing to do with the communist belief), promotion and salary increase.
4.3.15 Practitioner fined 20,000 Yuan for appealing in Beijing
Message received: December 23, 1999
Victims:
1. Yang Li
2. Zhang Zhiying
3. Another practitioner
Location of incident: Chengdu, Sichuan Province
Description:
Financial Penalty: In December, Yang Li, Zhang Zhiying and another practitioner went to Beijing to appeal. After they got back, each of them was fined 20,000 Yuan by the local government. Some local officials were also criticized for not being able to prevent them from going to Beijing. The government is imposing great pressure on both practitioners and local officials.
4.3.16 Local authority represses practitioners with financial penalties
Message received: December 19, 1999
Victims: Falun Dafa practitioners
Location of incident: Dongying, Shandong province
Description:
The local authority has adopted a policy to repress Falun Dafa practitioners with financial penalties. If escorted back from Beijing for appealing, the practitioner will be held responsible for all the expenses for the escort, such as the cost of the police vehicle, expenses by the police, etc. After being escorted back, they’re detained in hotels and apartments for five days. All expenses include room rental, police lodging and meal, etc. during the detention must be paid by the practitioners.
4.3.17 Practitioners escorted back from Beijing asked to pay for expenses of the police officers
Message received: December 14, 1999
Victims: Falun Gong practitioners in Xinhua North District, Chengdu, Sichuan Province
Location of incident: Xinhua North District, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
Description:
The practitioners who were escorted back from Beijing must pay for all the expenses of those police officers who went to Beijing to escort them back, including their round-trip flight tickets. The expenses range from 1,000 Yuan to 5,000 Yuan. Such penalties are simply unprecedented in the practice of police departments.
4.3.18 Practitioners detained and fined 3,000 Yuan, their grain of stock confiscated if they failed to pay
Message received: November 19, 1999
Victims:
1. Hu Chunxiang
2. Jin Jiang
3. Ou Hongmei
4. Sun Lizhu
5. Wang Hongmei
6. Yang Xu
7. Sun Xiuzhi
8. Liu Duansheng
and 9 family members
Location of incident: Liaoyuan, Jilin Province
Description:
In Liaoyuan, Jilin Province, all detained Falun Gong practitioners are required to pay 3,000 Yuan. If one cannot afford it, the grain stock in one’s home will be taken away.
A Falun Gong practitioner from Anxu Town of Dongliao County, was able to get rid of her cancer after practicing Falun Gong. Because she does not want to give up Falun Gong, her grain stock was confiscated. Her husband was detained.
A Falun Gong practitioner from Yima Village of Anxu Town. One day, when he was working in the farm field, a village official came over and asked him whether or not he would continue to practice Falun Gong, he answered yes. So he was detained for 15 days.
Ou Hongmei, a practitioner from the Siyi Town of Dongliao County had his grain of stock confiscated.
In order to brainwash Falun Gong practitioners, the police officer of the detention center collected 60 Yuan from the family of each of the detained Falun Gong practitioners to buy a color TV which was used to show programs defaming Falun Dafa. Up to now, 4 TVs have been bought.
In Liaoyuan, 9 family members of a Falun Gong practitioner named Sun Lizhu are being detained. To go to Beijing to appeal, they raised 7,000 Yuan by selling their personal properties. They had stayed in Beijing for about 3 months. After Falun Gong was branded an “evil religion”, they stood out to defend Falun Gong, thus they were thrown into the detention center. After 15 days of detention, they still refuse to give up Falun Gong. Therefore, they were transferred to the local General Machinery for further detention.
After Wang Hongmei from Deheng Company was released from the detention center, she was detained in the security section of her workplace.
Yang Xu and her 8-month-old baby were detained in the detention center. At that time, her husband was also being detained.
Before UN Secretary Kofi Annan came to China, some practitioners had been released. Later they were detained again. On November 17, 8 practitioners including Sun Xiuzhi and Liu Duansheng were sentenced to labor camps.
4.3.19 Practitioner arrested and fined 20,000 Yuan
Message received: October 26, 1999
Victim: Xiao Ya, from Anguo, Hebei province, currently in Beijing
Location of incident: Baoding, Hebei Province
Description:
On the morning of July 24, dozens of policemen came and forced us to turn in all Dafa materials such as books and tapes. The Falun Dafa contact person in our city was arrested and fined 20,000 Yuan. Every Falun Dafa practitioner who went to Beijing was fined 200 Yuan.
4.3.20 Practitioners forced to pay stiff fines
Message received: October 18, 1999
Victims: Falun Gong practitioners, from Guang County, Shandong Province
Location of incident: Police department in Guang County, Shandong Province
Description:
The police in Guang County of Shandong Province have forced Falun Dafa practitioners to pay stiff fines.
Anyone who had gone to Beijing after July 21st must pay 3,000 Yuan. They also require everyone to pay 5,000 Yuan as a deposit to guarantee that they will not go to Beijing to appeal.
4.3.21 Practitioners’ money taken without any reason after being released
Message received: October 16, 1999
Victims:
1. Chen Kaiqu
2. Li Xiaodong
3. Hong Wei
Location of incident: Beijing
Description:
On October 14, three graduate students from the Chinese Academy of Sciences were released after 40 days of criminal detention. They were arrested on September 5 when they were doing the morning group practice. Their 700 Yuan was taken without any reason and they were only given 10 Yuan to take the bus.
4.3.22 Practitioner’s family asked to pay 1,000 Yuan to get him released
Message received: August 28, 1999
Victim: A Falun Gong practitioner
Location of incident:
Description:
A practitioner in some city went to a quiet place to practice early in the morning and got arrested by the police. The police asked his family to pay 1,000 Yuan in order to get him released.
4.3.23 Practitioners’ personal computers confiscated
Message received: August 28, 1999
Victims: Some Falun Gong practitioners
Location of incident: Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province
Description:
Since July 20, in order to prevent the practitioners from getting online, the public security department in Shijiazhuang confiscated all of their home computers and illegally kept the computers in the computing center of the department.
4.3.24 Policemen blackmail practitioners for money
Message received: August 20 1999
Victims: Faun Gong Practitioners
Location of incident:
Description:
During the time practitioners were detained, they had to pay more than 100 Yuan every day (It is not known whether it’s a fine or for the living expenses in prison). When they were released, they had to pay several thousands to ten thousands of Yuan as a cash pledge.
4.3.25 Practitioners required to pay 5,000 Yuan as cash pledge, confiscated if go to Beijing
Message received: August 5, 1999
Victims: Falun Gong practitioners
Location of incident: Yantai City, Shangdong Province
Description:
In some villages and towns in Yantai City, Shandong Province, Falun Gong practitioners are put together to make them do hard labor under the scorching sun every day. Also, every practitioner was unreasonably required to pay 5,000 Chinese Yuan as a cash pledge. If there are several practitioners in one family, they need to pay 10,000 Chinese Yuan. To those families who are already very poor, paying this amount of money makes their lives more difficult. If any one still practices Falun Gong or goes to appeal, the cash pledge will be confiscated and the practitioner will be punished even further.
4.3.26 Practitioners beaten and fined from 500 to 5,000 Yuan
Message received: August 2, 1999
Victims: Falun Gong practitioners in the countryside
Location of incident:
Description:
The practitioners in the countryside were not only beaten, but also fined anywhere from 500 to 5,000 Yuan. If they don’t have enough money to pay the fine, their electronics at home will be taken away.
4.3.27 Practitioners forced to pay a large sum of penalty
Victims: The assistant and associate assistant in Dafa Beizhan Road assistance center
Location of incident: Changsha, Hunan Province
Description:
They were forced by the police to pay a large sum of penalty and write a statement of repentance.
4.3.28 Practitioners’ company car confiscated and used by the police
Victims:
1. Zhou Ximeng, female
2. Jia Zhicun
Location of incident: Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province
Description:
Zhou Xingmeng, the general manager in Tianming Architecture and Decoration Company, was arrested in Beijing and sent back to Shijiazhuang for criminal detention. Their company car (under Jia Zhicun’s name) was confiscated and used by the police.
4.4 Humiliation by Street Parade
4.4.1 Practitioners paraded through streets
Message received: February 25, 2000
Victims: Li and those practitioners who had gone to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong
Location of incident: Dazhou, Sichuan Province, China
Description:
On January 27, the local governments of Dazhou City and Xuanhan County roped those practitioners who had gone to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong on a truck, together with those convicted criminals, and paraded them through all the streets.
Li, a practitioner from the remote mountain area of Xuanhan County, went to Beijing with two other family members to appeal for Falun Gong. After they were escorted back, they were forced to sign the pledge that they would take responsibilities if their other family members went to Beijing to appeal.
4.4.2 Practitioners paraded barefooted on streets for appealing in Beijing
Message received: January 21, 2000
Victims: 15 Falun Gong practitioners, Pengjia Town of Shuangliu County, Sichuan Province
Location of incident: Pengjia Town of Shuangliu County, Sichuan Province
Description:
On January 8, local police paraded 15 Falun Gong practitioners bare-footed through the crowded streets in the chilly wind on Market Day. These practitioners had gone to appeal in Beijing. This kind of humiliation tactic was often used during the “Great Cultural Revolution” in order to dishonor people in front of their peers.
4.4.4 Practitioners humiliated in street parade
Message received: January 7, 2000
Victims: Falun Gong practitioners, Guangrao, Shandong Province
Location of incident: Guangrao, Shandong Province
Description:
Falun Gong practitioners were publicly humiliated by being paraded through the streets. They were forced to stand on trucks posted with signs slandering Falun Gong. Each practitioner had a board with his/her name hung around their neck.
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