(Clearwisdom.net)
News report "Writer Mr. Zhao Lishan From the Hebei Province Writers' Guild Sentenced to Ten Years in Prison for Practicing Falun Gong" was published on Clearwisdom.net on September 4, 2003. (http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2003/9/4/39886.html)
Mr. Zhao, a gentleman around 60 years old, a member of the Chinese Writers' Association and the Hebei Province Writers' Guild, and vice editor for the magazine Dang Dai Ren [Modern Person], is a victim of the "September 28" abduction incident. After being illegally detained for two years, he has been transferred to the Baoding Prison to begin an unjust 10-year prison term.
On the evening of September 28, 2001, led in person by the mayor of Shijiazhuang City, Zang Shengye, around 30-40 armed policemen from the Shijiazhuang City Public Security Bureau, the Qiaoxi Public Security Branch, and the Qiaoxi District Dongli Police Station stormed into a residence at No. 300 Gongnong Road in the Kaida district. They acted violently against people in the residence, slapping people in the face and striking at people's heads. They abducted six Falun Gong practitioners and confiscated their personal belongings including: four computers, two printers, two VCD recording devices, one scanner, and two motor-bikes.
On September 29 and October 3, following the above abduction, Dongli and Ninganlu police kidnapped another two people. The number of illegal arrests reached eight including, Zhao Lishan, Zhang Shijun, Niu Mingang, Yang Xiaojie, Lan Qizhi, Shi Yan, Zhang Lingjiang, and Liu Runling. At around the same time, the Shijiazhuang Public Security Bureau mobilized almost its entire security force to search the whole city, investigating and arresting the so-called "Important Persons." All known Falun Gong practitioners and their friends and families were being followed, their phones and cell phones tapped and recorded. Mr. Zhao Lishan's son, Zhao Liang, was detained for no reason for four days. Shijiazhuang City was in a shroud of terror.
According to mainland information sources, this abduction incident was named by the "610 Office" as the "No. 1 Case of Hebei," but the National Public Security Bureau was actually behind it. The eight Falun Gong practitioners, together with Wang Yunman and another practitioner who was abducted in August, were listed as "important" by the National Public Security, and its branch in Shijiazhuang was directly "overseeing" and conducting the secret trials. The Shijiazhuang Public Security Branch and organizations under it established the "September 28 Special Team," which tortured and interrogated each of these practitioners for up to a month, before sending them into different detention centers for "attentive detention." Sources said that some of them were tortured until they lapsed into a coma; some were made to sit in iron chairs for two months (which degenerated their thigh muscles and rendered them unable to walk); some were shocked with electric batons on their private parts; lives were in danger when some used hunger strike to protest the torture; and some were quietly transferred away (no one knows whether they are still alive or their whereabouts).
Clearwisdom.net reported that when the Xinhua Police Branch in Shijiazhuang City interrogated and tortured Zhao Lishan, he was kicked very hard in the chest by a policeman and fainted. Yet he did not answer the police during the entire interrogation, and was kept detained in Shijiazhuang No. 2 Detention Center. Due to prolonged incarceration Zhao's body was covered with scabies. When he was sent to the prison, the first several prisons refused to accept him.
Even so, the "610" system still closely monitored Zhao, and recently they have started a new round of psychological persecution. This is the so-called "forced transformation." One is not only forced to betray one's faith, but also to repeatedly curse at oneself and all the people and things that one respected and treasured in the past.
At the present moment, Zhao's health condition is very worrying. His blood pressure is unstable, sometimes as high as 170/220, and his face is pale and swollen. This is dangerous for someone with a history of paralysis.
Because Zhao refuses to give up his faith in Truth-Compassion-Forbearance or to be "transformed," he has been deprived of the right to be visited by family members, a right even the criminal inmates are granted. The prison requires that visiting families must not be Falun Gong practitioners and must fit the requirements of the "assistant instructor" [person responsible for transforming Falun Gong practitioners] before they can visit. Zhao's wife has already endured two years of torment and is now very skinny and weak; Zhao's old friends in the military, colleagues in his literary circle, and his students and readers are all very concerned about his health.
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Zhao Lishan Brief
Mr. Zhao Lishan, around 60 years of age, is a member of the Chinese National Association of Writers, a member of Hebei Province Writers' Guild, and Deputy Chief Editor of the "Dang Dai Ren" [Modern Person] magazine.
Hebei Province Writers' Guild:
Address: 2 Shizhuang Road, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province
CCP Party Secretary : 86-311-7836742 (office)
Chairman: 86-311-7041864 (office)
Local Police Station of Mr. Zhao's Area of Residence:
Dongjiao Police Station, Xinhua District, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province
Head Police: 86-311-7043788 ext. 3535 (office)
Currently in his 60's, Mr. Zhao has spent over 20 years of his life in a military career and more than 10 years studying culture and literature in the provincial area after retiring from the Army. His writings and editing work have won many awards. Friends' comments of Zhao are: "He works diligently, lives diligently, and practices Falun Gong diligently."
Mr. Zhao started practicing Falun Gong in 1996. His health condition was very poor before, and was once admitted to a hospital for symptoms of paralysis in half of his body. After starting to practice Falun Gong he gained improvement both mentally and physically, and experienced the lightness of an illness free body.
July 20, 1999, when Jiang's gang began to publicly defame and persecute Falun Gong, Zhao went to Beijing to appeal. Early in June 2001, Shigangdajie Police Station arrested him when he was distributing flyers. He managed to escape but then had to become homeless to avoid arrest. In August the same year, the police issued a "Wanted" notice for him. On September 28, Zhao was illegally arrested. He was tortured for information until he lost consciousness in Xinhua District Police Branch in Shijiazhuang City. Afterwards he was illegally detained in Shijiazhuang No. 2 Detention Center for two years. He has recently been transferred to Baoding Prison, Hebei Province, after he was secretly tried and given a 10-year prison sentence.