Name: Zhang Zongxiu (张宗秀)
Gender: Female
Age: 48
Address: Beicaiyuan Street, Fuping County, Hebei Province
Occupation: Farmer
Date of Most Recent Arrest: October 6, 2004
Most recent place of detention: Fuping County Detention Center (阜平县看守所)
City: Fuping County
Province: Hebei Province
Persecution Suffered: Detention, home ransacked, extortion, brainwashing, force-feedings, torture
(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Zhang Zongxiu, a Falun Gong practitioner, has been illegally detained three times and sent to a brainwashing center once. She has been harassed and threatened on numerous occasions. Her family has been extorted out of over 7,000 yuan.
On the afternoon of September 30, 2000, the Police Bureau's Discipline and Procurator Office Commissioner Zhou Qiulai, Head of the Politics and Law Section Ma Baozhong, Wang Shunhai, and others ransacked Ms. Zhang's home. The police then sent Ms. Zhang to Fuping County Detention Center. Ms. Zhang's family gave 5,000 yuan to the police and Zhang was released after 28 days.
Around noon on June 14, 2001, deputy director Chen Lei of the Chengguan County Police Station led a group of police to break into Zhang Zongxiu's home and take Zhang to Hekou Brainwashing Center of Fuping County.
Around 11 p.m. on November 12, 2003, police Yang Zhigang and several others again ransacked Ms. Zhang's home and took her to Fuping Detention Center.
While being detained, Zhang Zongxiu went on hunger strike to protest the persecution. Head of Fuping County 610 Office Qi Guiliang, deputy director of police department Zhai Xiangyu, and captain of the Domestic Security Division Zhang Jinhui together issued orders to force feed Ms. Zhang Zongxiu. Prison doctor Li Xinpo instructed several inmates to pin Ms. Zhang down, and then brutally inserted a tube through her nose and into her stomach for forced feeding. It is not clear what was being fed to Ms. Zhang Zongxiu. After every forced feeding, Zhang would lie there motionlessly.
The police at the detention center threatened Ms. Zhang's family, saying that they would send her to a forced labor camp. The police extorted 2,000 yuan from her family, and Zhang Zongxiu was released after eleven days.
On the evening of October 6, 2004, while walking down the street, Ms. Zhang was spotted by Chengguan County Police Station director Wang Mengjie. Wang twisted Ms. Zhang's arm behind her back and pushed her to the ground. Ms. Zhang Zongxiu was in such pain that she lost control of her bladder. Her face turned white and she kept sweating from the pain. Her arm went numb for a long time. Ms. Zhang was again sent to Fuping County Detention Center, where she was force-fed. She was released after eight days.
During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, people from the Chengguan police station, village committee, and other police officers went to Zhang Zongxiu's home several times to harass her. They took her picture against her will and took away her identification card.
