Name: Zhang Lihong( 张立宏)
Gender: Female
Age: 58
Address: Yueyang City, Hunan Province
Occupation: Retired health worker
Date of Most Recent Arrest: November 25, 2003
Most recent place of detention: Hunan Women's Prison (湖南女子监狱 )
City: Changsha
Province: Hunan
Persecution Suffered: Detention, forced labor, extortion, beatings, force-feedings, interrogation, home ransacked, illegal sentencing, brainwashing, sleep deprivation, torture, hung up
(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Zhang Lihong, retired, was a health worker at the Baling Petroleum Chemical Industry in Yueyang City, Hunan Province. She began practicing Falun Gong in 1997. Prior to that time she had numerous illnesses, such as hypertension, chronic urinary tract infections, and bronchiectasis that flared up several times a year and caused her to cough up serious amounts of blood. After she had practiced Falun Gong for less than a month, her mind and body changed enormously, and she became lively and regained her health. She was grateful for Dafa and to Master from the bottom of her heart.
After the CCP began persecuting Falun Gong, she and fellow practitioners went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong on December 28, 1999. They were arrested in Tiananmen Square and transferred to the Yueyang Public Security Bureau Office located in Beijing. There were over 10 practitioners there already, and seven to eight people were squeezed into one small room that only had two beds. Most of them had to sleep on the floor. They were then escorted back to Yueyang City and held in a detention center for slave labor for over 30 days. The police extorted 2000 yuan from her husband.
In December 2000, Ms. Zhang and two fellow practitioners went to Beijing again. In Tiananmen Square, the two other practitioners opened their banner and Ms. Zhang began calling out "Falun Dafa is good!" Several practitioners nearby also shouted with her, "Falun Dafa is good!" A plainclothes policeman ran toward her, grabbed her collar, and began hitting her head and back hard, then pushed her up against a police car. Another police officer began slapping her face, kicking her, and verbally abusing her. She was taken to the Tiananmen Square Police Station, where numerous other Falun Gong practitioners were already being held.
The next day, Ms. Zhang was transferred 300 li away from Beijing to Pinggu County Police Station. A police officer slapped her face hard and kicked her. Those practitioners who refused to give their names and addressed were stripped down to their underwear and made to stand outdoors in subzero temperatures. Later they were dragged inside and beaten in an attempt to get their names and addresses. Because none of them cooperated, on the third day they were transferred to a detention center. In protest, they began a hunger strike, and the police officers then force-fed them, including a young practitioner aged 12.
Ms. Zhang continued her hunger strike for nine days. She was slapped and kicked by male inmates and the prison physician before each force-feeding. The feeding tube was left in after the force feeding and she was forced to walk in the yard for half an hour. In just a few days her condition became critical and the guards were afraid she would die. They put her in a car and dropped her on the street. She could not stop coughing and could not speak. When she arrived home, her husband could not recognize her.
In 2001, 13 days before the New Year, Jiang Zemin's regime applied pressure to the local government and there were massive arrests of Falun Gong practitioners in all provinces. Thirty practitioners were arrested in Yueyang City alone. Ms. Zhang was arrested by six officials at 9 p.m. that evening. Two directors from Nanhu Police Station, female police officer Zhang Lixin, and others took her to the detention center. She refused to go quietly and shouted, "Falun Dafa is good!" Director Hu dragged her into the car and held her in the detention center.
Ms. Zhang's family began looking for her, since Nanhu Police Station personnel did not notify them of her whereabouts. They finally found out where she was from someone in the Public Security Bureau.
On February 8, 2001, a guard took Ms. Zhang to a police van where they met up with three male and two female officers from the City Legal Committee, including Director Song. Ms. Zhang was taken to Zhuzhou Baimalong Forced Labor Camp and sentenced to a two-and-a-half-year term. However, the results of her physical disqualified her for acceptance into the labor camp. She was returned to Yueyang the same day.
She was held in a dark, foul smelling room in a criminal police battalion. A week later, she was transferred back to the detention center where she again began a hunger strike. The guard ordered male inmates to force feed her. They used brutal force, and her teeth were loosened and her mouth was bruised inside and out. She almost died one time. Most of her teeth are now lost and her face is disfigured.
On June 29, 2003, she and two fellow practitioners were handing out Falun Gong materials in Lijaduan, Miluo. They were reported to the police, arrested, and taken to Lijiaduan Police Station, where the police took 100 yuan in cash from her and a watch worth 500 yuan. The next day, Miluo 610 Office personnel and Zhou Po from the police station interrogated them. The practitioners were beaten and tortured to the point of vomiting blood and passing bloody urine. They were transferred to Xiangyin Detention Center that afternoon. Ms. Zhang began a hunger strike that lasted 18 days. She was again in critical condition and was able to be bailed out by her workplace.
On November 25, 2003, Wu Yuexin with the Miluo Domestic Security Division, Yang Dingqiu, Yang Zhengqiu with the Criminal Police Battalion, Baling Company Security Director Tan Cheng, Jiang Chao with the Lou District Public Security Subdivision Domestic Security Division, and others ransacked Ms. Zhang Lihong's home. They broke into her home through a balcony. They took several thousand yuan, a cell phone worth 4000 yuan, and receipts for her home renovation. Her husband, who was was out of town, hurried home and demanded answers. The perpetrators returned some cash and the receipts. Ms. Zhang was then held in Xiangyin Detention Center. She held a hunger strike that lasted for 28 days. They tried to inject her with unknown drugs.She was tied down but struggled and was unable to be injected. Prison doctor Xu kicked her in the head which resulted in numerous lumps. She was later taken to Xiangyin People's Hospital for emergency treatment.
Six days after the practitioners were arrested, they all went on a hunger strike. Miluo 610 Office personnel and detention center guard Hu Jianjun interrogated them. Several days later, three young female judges from Miluo County Court went to the detention center with Miluo 610 Office personnel from the Miluo 610 Office Procuratorate. They held court in a hospital room, where three Falun Gong practitioners were lying in bed receiving oxygen and an IV fluid drip. One female judge said: "The court proceedings began for three corpses."
Miu Cui was sentenced to six years, and Ms. Zhang Lihong, and Zhang Lanhui were sentenced to four years each. They appealed to an upper level court, but their appeals were not successful and the original verdicts were upheld.
Four days before the Chinese New Year, they were being held in Hunan Women's Prison, initially in a unit for intense "transforming." They were closely monitored by two to three inmates who forced them to watch videos and read books that slandered Falun Gong. They were deprived of sleep; they had spicy liquid smeared on their eyelids; their eyes were whipped with a small rope made of three nylon threads; they were forced to stand and sit on a small bench for long period of times; they were beaten, cursed, hung up, and handcuffed; and their lives were made miserable due to the torture, making every day seem like a year. In order to reduce their sentences and earn bonuses, inmates and prison guards tried every means possible to "transform" Falun Gong practitioners. (Labor camps or prisons will reward anyone with 10,000 yuan for the "transformation" of a Falun Gong practitioner.)
The second step was forced labor, and whoever refused to cooperate had her responsibilities increased. Ms. Zhang had to get up at 5 a.m. to peel broad beans. She worked until 2 to 3 a.m. the next morning. She was not allowed to sleep if she did not finish the work. The broad beans were soaked in icy water, and each bean had to be cut individually. Her fingers would bleed and often became infected. Guard Li Ling assigned Ms. Zhang heavy duties most of time, and she usually did not finish until 1 or 2 a.m. She was verbally abused, beaten, and deprived of sleep. She was also brainwashed every night. Ms. Zhang was devastated in both mind and body.
After she was released, Ms. Zhang could not tell directions, and she was easily lost and could not find her way home. She remained like that for a long time.
Perpetrators:
Jiang Chao, Yueyang Public Security Bureau
Nanhu Police Station: Director Hu, Zhang Lixin
Hu Jianjun, Xiangyin County Detention Center
Yueyang 610 Office: Director Song
Yueyang Detention Center: Director Li, Political Instructor Huang
Hunan Women's Prison: Changsha Women's Prison
Miluo Criminal Police: Yang Zhengqiu
Miluo National Security Battalion: Yang Dingqiu, Wu Yuexin
