Latest News from China - 04/14/2000

[Chengdu,á Si-chuan Province] Graduate Students Detained for Months

Falun Gong practitioners Luo Ming-pu and Liu Tao, who are two graduate students from Si-chuan University, and Chen Ming-yong, a graduate student from Si-chuan Institute of Industry, have been detained for more than half a year since they got arrested in October of 1999 for their suspected involvements in drafting an open letter to Mr. Annan, the general secretary of UN, and collecting signatures.

They are now being detained with convicted criminals. Their family members are not allowed to visit them. Their situation is very bad.á

[Chengdu, Si-chuan Province] "If you do not write the pledge, we will destroy you politically, financially and mentally"

Recently, the police of Chengdu City have intensified the persecutions against Falun Gong practitioners in order to prevent them from continuing to go to Beijing to appeal to the central government and the National People's Congress. More practitioners including Ms. Qi Ming-zhen have been sent to the labor camps.á

Moreover, more practitioners have been punished for continuing to practice Falun Gong or having gone to Beijing to report the truth of Falun Gong to the central government. For example, two young teachers, Wang Xue-ming and Huang Yan, were removed from their posts in addition to a stiff fine of more than 10,000 Yuan imposed on each of them by the Education Committee of Long-quan-yi District. Mr. Jiang Zong-lin, a senior engineer and the director of the Ming-yuan Institute of Architecture in Chengdu City, was removed from his post because he refused to give up Falun Gong. Practitioner Ms. Wang, living in Yang-shi Street, got her pension suspended after being detained for 15 days for having gone to Beijing to report the truth of Falun Gong to the central government and the National People's Congress. Without financial income, she is now in a very bad situation.á

Many police stations in Chengdu City have resumed their "transformation and education classes" for Falun Gong practitioners. The police stations require all practitionersá to show up daily from 9am to 6pm until they write a pledge that they would not practice Falun Gong, not appeal and not associate with other practitioners. The policy of these police stations is, "If you do not write the pledge, we will destroy you politically, financially and mentally."

[Gui-yang, Gui-zhou Province] "I would still practice Falun Gong even if I am to be frozen to death"
á
On January 24 of 2000, about 100 practitioners went to the office of the Gui-yan Evening Newspaper to ask the newspaper to apologize for an vicious faked story intended to defame the founder of Falun Gong (later the communist authorities admitted that the article was a 100% fabrication, but the author insisted that he was just writing a "novel"). As a result, about 80 practitioners got detained for 10 to 15 days. Among them, the oldest one was over 70 years old and the youngest one was only 9 years old. Most of them were in 50s and 60s.á

A practitioner, who was in his 60s, got detained in a detention center. The cell head wanted to prevent him from practicing Falun Gong exercises and was about to beat him up. The practitioner then said, "I am here just because of practicing the exercises." The cell head was shocked. The cell head then said, "then you brush my shoes." The practitioner immediately started to brush the shoes for him. Out of respect for the practitioners' strong will and kindness, the cell head took the shoes back. Although the direction of the detention center had ordered the cell head to "educate" the practitioner, the cell head did not do so. The director then had to "educate" the practitioner himself. The director threatened the practitioner that he would let him frozen to death in the snow (it was unusually cold in those few days with a very rare big snow). "I would still practice Falun Gong even if I am to be frozen to death", the practitioner said at ease. Then, the director had no choice.á

Another practitioner got detained for 48 hours while being handcuffed. She was suspected to be the "organizer". She has been sentenced to 3 years of forced-labor "education" and now is detained in the Zhong-ba Labor Camp.á

A practitioner was taken to a police station after being arrested on the Tiananmen Square. She refused to tell the police where she came from.á She then suffered 6 to 8 hours of brutal beatings. She was hit and shocked by police with clubs and electrical batons. She was also double-handcuffed. But she was able to endure all of these with the words "Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance" in her mind.

A practitioner in his 70s had gone to Beijing twice to defend his belief. After he got out of detention center, he prepared to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong again. He said that this time he would walk to Beijing. He wanted to prove the power of Falun Gong with his deed.á

It is several thousand miles from Gui-zhou Province (in the very southern part of China) to Beijing. His workplace withheld his retirement pension because he refused to give up his belief. He then decided to bring only 50 Yuan (less than 7 US dollars) with him.