Latest News from China - 09/02/2000

[Beijing] The Chinese leaderships instructed to continue to crackdown on Falun Gong and to severely punish practitioners who circulated the new articles of Teacher Li

Recently, the few leaders of the Chinese Government who ordered the crackdown on Falun Gong for their own political interests have issued a new order to the Ministry of the public security. According to the news sources, the public security was instructed to severely punish those practitioners who had downloaded the new articles from the Minghui Net (Falun Dafa in North America) and distributed them to other practitioners. Once the practitioners got arrested, they would be sentenced to at least two years of forced labor. Currently, practitioner He Lizhi and the other two practitioners have already been detained in the Haiding District Detention Center.

[Beijing] Police started to check practitioners' computers

According to reliable news sources, the Ministry of the Public Security issued a new document on further cracking down on Falun Gong. The new document had the following four major points:

1. Eliminate Falun Gong before "October 1st" (the Chinese National Day) and politically discredit Falun Gong.

2. Exhaust practitioners' financial resources.

3. Execute some determined practitioners secretly.

4. 50 million Yuan would be allocated for further crackdown on Falun Gong.

Starting from yesterday, the police started to search the PCs and the printed materials in practitioners' homes, regardless whether they have gone to appeal for Falun Gong or not.

[Hunan] An officer punished for cursing Teacher Li

During the "re-education class" of the Changde City, Hunan Province, an officer cursed Teacher Li. After a short while, this officer started to slap his own face madly. Everyone at the scene witnessed this.

However, after this news was spread, the police did not take it as a lesson, instead, they investigated who had disclosed this "secret". Two practitioners who got detained for going to Beijing to appeal admitted that they had done that in order to protect other practitioners. Therefore, they were then put on shackles for over 20 days.

[Hunan Province] The Persecutions against Falun Gong practitioners

Jin City:

A female practitioner in Lijiapu village started to practice Falun Gong in 1998. She had been very sick before starting to practice Falun Gong. Her two eyes were near blind, and she suffered many illnesses. She had attempted to leave the world because of the pain. Later, she recovered completely after practicing Falun Gong. On August 12 of 1999 (the lunar calendar), the village government ransacked her home illegally and seized her Falun Gong materials. She was taken to the local police station and forced to give up her belief. She refused. Later, her family members paied 100 Yuan and picked her up. After that, the police frequently went to her home and to harass her. Under such condition, she had to go to Beijing to tell the government the injustice against her on October 15 of 1999 (the lunar calendar). She was demanded another fine of 1,100 Yuan after she went back home from Beijing. Later, some people again went to her home to harass her for a few times and also seized 200 Yuan, in the name of the deposit for giving up Falun Gong. On April 8 of 2000 (the lunar calendar), she went to visit a friend, and got arrested on her way back. She was taken to the village government and suffered the beatings by four officers. She was forced to kneel down in the baking sun for half a day. Those people in the government also pinched her neck to force her to give up her belief. She did not give in to them. Later, she was sent to the local detention center and got released after 7 days of hunger strike (no food and no water) there.

On June 30 (the lunar calendar) of 2000 when it was harvest time, she was taken to the City Jail and got detained together with other practitioners for over 30 days to receive the "re-education". Later the City government agreed to free the practitioners so that they could go home and work on their farms. However, the village government detained these practitioners for another two months, and demanded 300 Yuan from each practitioner. Practitioners refused to pay the illegal fine.

When the practitioners who had gone to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong got detained, they were provided with raw scallion and raw rice in all 3 meals each day. However, they were demanded to pay a monthly fee of 600 Yuan (about a worker's monthly income) for the living expenses.

A male practitioner whose surname was Jiang went to Beijing to appeal in last November. He got arrested in Beijing and was beaten to half dead by a police officer whose surname was Wang. After he was escorted back, he was given a criminal detention of 37 days. During the detention, the cell head often beat him up. Later, he was forced to work for the police station and was paid only a few Yuan monthly.

Li County:

15 practitioners were taken away while working in the farm in this July and have been detained since then. Some of them were hung up with two arms stretching backward for 24 hours and lost their consciousness. Some of them were handcuffed from the back for 72 hours. A 54-year-old female practitioner was taken away while transplanting rice seedlings in the farm. She was beaten up for a whole day while being hung up. No practitioners could contact her and no family members could visit her.

A female practitioner went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong this July. She only carried with her 28 Yuan. She finally arrived at Beijing after overcoming all kinds of hardships. After she got arrested in Beijing, she was transferred to Tianjin and other places before she was escorted back to her hometown. The police let a wolfhound bite her.

She has been detained and suffered all kinds of inhumane mistreatments.

In August, a practitioner was sentenced with two years of forced labor after going to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.

Changde City:

A male practitioner continued to practice Falun Gong. He was then taken away from his home because the police suspected that he might go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. Later, he was sent to a labor camp secretly.