(Clearwisdom.net) The publication of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party and the wave of withdrawals from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) brought an unprecedented crisis to the CCP which has manifested as a fanatical, last ditch, all-out push to maintain power.
Weifang City is an area where the persecution is most severe. Since the persecution began on July 20, 1999, more than thirty practitioners there have been tortured to death. Many practitioners were arrested, detained, and sent to prisons, labor camps and brainwashing classes, and were savagely tortured. In March 2005, another around of arrests began. The perpetrators in Weifang City are the most fervent followers of the CCP in this persecution. According to an incomplete estimate, more than eighty practitioners were arrested between March and May of 2005. Twenty-one practitioners were arrested from Anqiu City, sixteen practitioners from Changyi, twelve practitioners from Qingzhou, ten practitioners from the Weicheng District, nine practitioners from Zhucheng, and a dozen practitioners each were arrested in Shouguang, Kuiwen, Gaomi and other counties and cities.
Looking at the situation in Weifang City, several characteristics regarding this large-scale wave of arrests are notable:
First, the arrests are pre-conceived and carried out in secret.
In March 2005, the provincial government held a meeting addressing the topic, "Intensify the monitoring and suppression regarding the new objective for Falun Gong." The CCP demanded a new investigation of practitioners, including the number of practitioner and their personal information.
All practitioners' names are put on a blacklist. Some street committees built "resident files" and told all the residents in the area to register. Monitoring systems were installed on Jiankang Street, Beigong Street and other thoroughfares.
The shopping district and Hi-Tech Commodity Supermarket set up security checkpoints to inspect people's bags for Dafa materials.
Some counties and cities require registration and inspection prior to renting a room and using a public computer.
The police, National Security Bureau officials, traffic police and city patrols randomly search cars, including their trunks, for Dafa materials.
The 610 Office sent collaborators to contact the practitioners and demand contact information about other practitioners.
Work units and street committees hired unemployed people to "visit" practitioners. One time a practitioner was approached by a stranger who asked him, "Are you still practicing Falun Gong? Do you know anyone else who does? Can you introduce me to them?" This practitioner immediately knew that this person was a hired agent and refused to give information to her.
In early April 2005, President of China, Hu Jintao and Vice President Zeng Qinghong went to Weifang City and Shouguang, and conducted secret tours. They gave orders pertaining to the current wave of withdrawals from the CCP, the Nine Commentaries, and the CCP's general effort to maintain control.
In May, the Shandong Province 610 Office held county, city and district meetings in Changle County, and secretly planned to arrest Falun Gong practitioners regarding the distribution of the Nine Commentaries. In the following 20 days, more than 30 practitioners were arrested in Shouguang, Changyi, Qingzhou and Zhucheng, as well as in other places. Eleven practitioners were arrested in Zhangling Town, Changyi City on May 19 alone.
These arrests were intentionally carried out in the countryside. The cities were avoided. Aside from three practitioners who were reported and arrested in an urban area when clarifying the truth or hanging banners, the majority of the arrested practitioners lived in the countryside. In the past, such arrests were highly publicized in order to intimidate other practitioners and the public. Now, the arrests are carried out secretly and are hidden from scrutiny. In April 2004 and October 2004, Luo Gan, director of the 610 Office, went to Weifang City, and more than ten practitioners were arrested. Most of them were the main coordinators of Dafa materials production sites. Because these practitioners in the city cooperated with each other and continually exposed the authorities' crimes, they were suppressed. The recent visit by Hu Jintao and Zeng Qinghong was followed by a change in tactics that is even more insidious.
The process of arrest is completely devoid of basic civility and restraint according to law. More than seventy practitioners who were arrested were doing chores around the house at the time of their arrests. Several other practitioners were working in the fields or in factories. The authorities broke into the practitioners' homes and rummaged through everything without showing any identification or warrants.
On March 15-16, twenty-one practitioners were arrested in Anqiu City. Of those, fourteen practitioners were sentenced to forced labor camps and two were sentenced to prison.
Practitioners Wang Jinyi and Sun Zhiye were released in 2000 and 2003, respectively, from labor camps. They have been arrested and sentenced to another three years of forced labor. Practitioner Su Xiaoyou and his wife Zhou Shufang, who is in her 60s, were arrested at home. The four officers included Cheng Shuping and Liu Jinlai. The practitioners are still being held at a detention center. Su Xiaoyou and his wife were arrested many times and detained, sent to brainwashing classes and brutally tortured. This happened because they went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong along with their three daughters, who are also Dafa practitioners, in October 1999. In October 2000, they were illegally sentenced to three years of forced labor and their land was confiscated. Their oldest daughter, Su Baolan, was tortured to death in October 2001, and their second daughter, Su Baoyun, was sentenced to three years of forced labor in October 2000 and released in 2003. She was recently arrested again and her home ransacked. Their youngest daughter, Su Baoli, was arrested and detained many times and was compelled to leave home to avoid further persecution. She had over 30,000 yuan extorted from her while incarcerated at the Anqiu Detention Center in October 2002. Ms. Su was arrested again at home on March 15, 2003 and sent to the Wangcun Forced Labor Camp to be held for three years. Su Xiaoyou's entire family is being persecuted for their belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. In summary, four members of the family are held at labor camps and one member was tortured to death. Right now, three members are still in detention.
The corrupt authorities also robbed practitioners of their personal computers, TVs, cash and other valuables when ransacking their homes. When they ransacked the home of practitioner Wang Erde, a practitioner in his 70s living in Shidui Township, they took 1,000 yuan in cash, his salary card, two radios and Dafa materials.
Ten officers including Xu Wende, the head of the Qingzhou City 610 Office and group head Zuo Hengfa used pry bars to open the door of the home of practitioner Xu Baohua and his wife Wang Shumin. As they arrested the practitioners, they also took a TV, a VCD player, two radios, one computer, 30,000 yuan in cash, and Dafa materials.
Officers Zhou Zhong, Mao Yulong and others from Chengguan Town, Zhucheng City arrested practitioner Song Zhengyun at her home and sent her to a brainwashing class. They wrote a 5,000 yuan "fine" slip and went to Song Zhengyun's brother saying, "Give us 5,000 yuan and you can bail out your sister, otherwise we'll send her to a labor camp." Her brother pooled the 5,000 yuan from among the siblings and gave it to the officers.
Police officers from the Development District in Weifang City arrested practitioners from Jinma Village and extorted money from the [non-practitioner] villagers to incite hatred against the practitioners. On May 19, practitioner Liu Shulian from Zhangling Town, Changyi City was beaten and arrested at home by group leader Chen Xiaodong and other officials who broke the practitioner's leg(s) during savage beatings.
The above cases reveal the CCP's frenzied efforts in the persecution of Falun Gong. Presently, the persecution continues. A short while back, authorities from the Changle County 610 Office announced blatantly, "Fifty practitioners will be arrested in Wutu Town." When faced with such cruel persecution, we practitioners should increase our efforts to expose the persecution in our local areas, send forth righteous thoughts on a more frequent basis to eliminate the evil elements in other dimensions, and rescue fellow practitioners. We urgently call on the international community and kind-hearted people everywhere to pay attention to and stop these perpetrators from brutalizing law-abiding citizens.
It is a heavenly law that good will be rewarded and evildoing will reap its own punishment. The following are examples of perpetrators who have experienced retribution for their roles in the persecution:
Wang Lifu, former deputy secretary of the Weifang City Party Committee died from lung cancer in the spring of 2002.
Zhu Jinde, of the former Weifang City Liaison Office in Beijing, was promoted for his ruthlessness and changing the methods of persecution. He died from cancer in September 2000.
Wang Limin, deputy secretary of the Changle County Politics and Law Committee, and the main person in charge of persecuting Falun Gong in the county, died from cancer in 2001.
Dong Jianhua, the former deputy head of the Fangzi District Police Department in Weifang City, was in charge of persecuting Falun Gong. In September 2001, Dong Jianhua and his wife were riding in a car on a highway when their car suddenly crashed into a fuel truck and exploded. He and his wife died on the spot and were burnt beyond recognition.
Editors' Note: Each time we publish news of this nature, we do so with heavy hearts. These people started off as public servants, but under the intense pressure applied by Jiang Zemin and the CCP, they were pushed into persecuting Dafa disciples. In the process of destroying the lives of kind, law-abiding citizens, they have sealed their own fates and inevitably faced karmic retribution as punishment. If it weren't for Jiang's wicked orders, perhaps their fates would have been different.
