(Clearwisdom.net)

Falun Dafa practitioners Li Kai, Huang Jian, Ma Jin, Wei Shijun, Wang Guiqing (female), and Shi Jingping (female) were unlawfully placed under arrest in the summer of 2002. They are currently being held and face stiff sentences in the detention center affiliated with the Qincheng Prison, where many well-known political prisoners have served their terms.

Recently, orders from higher authorities have been issued to organizations and enterprises in Changchun City to re-register all Falun Dafa practitioners. The registration includes those who have been forced, against their conscience, to write "guarantees" stating that they would give up practicing Falun Gong. The orders stated that all Party members must decide between their Party membership and Falun Gong. They have to either sign the "five statements" [denouncing Falun Gong] or withdraw from the Party. Subsequent brainwashing sessions have been planned in individual organizations and enterprises against those who will not give up their belief. Anyone who remains steadfast in his or her belief will then be dismissed from work and sent to a centralized brainwashing center.

On February 18, 2003, Huang Min was arrested while distributing Falun Gong materials. Huang is being held in Weihai City, Shandong Province. A warrant of highest priority has been issued by the Public Security Ministry, offering a 60,000-Yuan award, 50000 financed by the ministry and the remaining 10000 paid by local authorities, for Huang's arrest. The head of the central "610 Office" Li Lanqing is personally in charge of this case.

[500 Yuan is the average monthly income for an urban worker in China.]

[The 610 Office is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems]

Prior to the April 25 anniversary [of Falun Gong practitioners appealing in Appeals Office outside the Zhongnanhai compound in 1999], the Benxi City "610 Office" has started a new round of frenzied persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Orders have been issued to check out each and every practitioner at home. Officers from local police stations have forced their way into practitioners' homes to force them to sign statements. Anyone who refuses to do so is immediately taken to the Weiningying Rehabilitation Institute for brainwashing. Ms. Wang Guimei, 62 years old, was among those abducted.

In the afternoon of April 14, 2003, Ms. Wang suddenly received a phone call while she was at her daughter's home. It was from a police officer who said, "I just got assigned to this jurisdiction, and would like to pay you a visit." When he arrived, the officer immediately demanded that Ms. Wang sign a statement promising not to practice Falun Gong, which she refused. After insisting for almost an hour, the officer finally left. Wang then prepared to leave for her own home. As soon as she stepped out of the building, officers who had been on a stakeout there abducted her and sent her to the Weiningying Rehabilitation Institute for brainwashing.

In March 2002, Yin Xiuping was turned in to the police when telling others the facts about Falun Gong. She was besieged by officers from the local police department. However she managed to escape and had been staying away from home to avoid arrest.

On March 15, 2003, police officer Bi Shijun spotted Yin Xiuping in the family quarters of the Heishan County Liquor Factory. Officer Bi grabbed Ms. Yin and held on to her. Yin refused to follow him. Officer Bi hit Ms. Yin, who is over 50 years old, as hard as he could, which attracted a crowd of on-lookers. In the end Bi called in two more officers to forcibly take her away. Sources say that Ms. Yin has staged a hunger strike to protest the unlawful interrogation, and the police force-fed her, knocking out some of her teeth in the process. She is currently being held in a detention center. Officers claimed, "She is not to be released even if she dies, which would be her own fault." Concurrently, another Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Huang Xiaodong is being held in custody.

Ms. Ren Linbo, over 20 years old, is from Jianbala Village at Taohaotai Township in Qianguo County, Jilin Province. In May 2001, police abducted Ms. Ren and her father (over 70 years old) while they were distributing leaflets containing facts about Falun Gong. They were detained for fifteen days and were released only after their family paid over 2,000 Yuan. In March 2000, Ms. Ren was practicing Falun Gong exercises at home, and someone turned her in. The local police department had promised a 500-Yuan reward to every informant who turns in a Falun Gong practitioner. All three members of her family were arrested, and a tape recorder for playing the exercise music was confiscated. Her father was detained for half a month. Ren Linbo was unlawfully sentenced to one and a half years of forced labor camp for not giving up her belief and thrown into the Yinmahe Forced Labor Camp in Jiutai. There she has been suffering physical and mental torture ever since.

Ms. Cui Yan, over 40 years old, is from the Lianhuapao area in Songyuan City, Jilin Province. In March 2002, she was arrested and sentenced to three years of forced labor only because a copy of Falun Gong was found in her home. She was held in the Heizuizi Women's Forced Labor Camp in Changchun City, Jilin Province. As of March 2003, her family has exhausted their resources and paid authorities over 20,000 Yuan in order to get her out of the labor camp.

Recently authorities in Beijing have invited the public to practice various Qigong exercises including the "Game of Five Birds." One coordinator revealed that this activity was directly targeted against Falun Gong. Each residential area has to send in people to attend. It is not yet clear if this charade is being staged to support official claims that "the public has the right to practice qigong exercises" or to force Falun Gong practitioners to practice a different Qigong method, a policy previously enforced in some labor camps housing Falun Gong practitioners.

April 16, 2003