(Minghui.org) Continued from Part 3.

Police Violence

Ms. Wang Meihong (Minghui's mother) was first arrested in the summer of 2001. When her husband petitioned at the local radio station and the Complaints and Proposal Administration, he made the wanted list with a 50,000 yuan ($7,632.31 U.S.) reward. After failed attempts to find Mr. Yu, the police decided to arrest Ms. Wang and Mr. Yu’s sister instead. Both were detained until Mr. Yu was arrested in September. They were then released after Ms. Wang went on a hunger strike. 

Ms. Wang was arrested again on October 22, 2003, by officers from the Xinhua Police Station. Officer Su Lei held her at gunpoint and gave her a pat-down. Six or seven big male officers beat her, dragged her down from the 7th floor, and threw her in the car. After she arrived at the police station, they grabbed her hair and dragged her from the car to the building’s second floor. 

A burly officer slapped Ms. Wang with a book. Her face swelled up and her shirt was torn. At the Dongan District Domestic Security Division, more than twenty officers including director Zhang Fu took turns interrogating her. They didn’t let her sleep and cuffed her in a metal chair for three days. Poor circulation caused severe swelling in her feet.

Forced Labor and Special Watch 

Ms. Wang was later sentenced to 11 years, a year after her husband was given 14 years for their shared faith.

At the Heilongjiang Women’s Prison, she was often made to stand for long periods of time as a punishment by Yang Hua, the head of Division No. 7. 

The guards always assigned Ms. Wang the most labor-intensive task, forcing her to work in a tight space between two machines that were consistently operating at 350 degrees. Even during the hottest days of summer when temperatures easily climbed to 100 or higher, she worked 14-hour days without breaks. The horrible working condition and constant exposure to high heat made her hair turn gray.

Ms. Wang was put on a “special watch” in 2006 for not renouncing her faith. She was made to sit on a small stool all day and every day. Her every move was monitored, be it going to the bathroom in the middle of the night or doing mundane chores like the dishes, and the assigned inmate followed her around like a hawk. She was not allowed to see any other Falun Dafa practitioners nor talk to them, or she’d be reprimanded and insulted.

Torture reenactment: Sitting on a small stool for long periods of time

When Ms. Wang was found meditating on her bed in February 2008, guard Zhang Xiaojuan, inmate Xu Zhen and several others attacked her. They dragged her off the bed causing her knee to smash against the ground. She walked with a limp for days afterward and has since suffered chronic pain above the right knee.

Another round of torture began in December 2011. Ms. Wang was isolated from other practitioners and monitored round the clock by two inmates. One of them is a convicted murderer who was specifically pulled from the workshop to monitor Ms. Wang.

Coming Home

After eleven years of imprisonment, Ms. Wang was released in 2014. She returned to an empty home with her husband still imprisoned and her daughter studying abroad.

Mr. Yu’s term was extended for more than a month but he eventually walked out of Mudanjiang Prison alive on October 17, 2016. 

Minghui was so relieved and happy when she heard that her Dad had been released. All her worries that had been building up over the years melted into tears of joy. 

Financial Difficulties

Mr. Yu and Ms. Wang were both fired from their jobs for practicing Falun Dafa. They didn’t have a source of income immediately after being released from prison. While going to school full time, Minghui worked part-time jobs to cover her own expenses in the U.K. and managed to save a little bit to send to her parents in China. 

Ms. Wang soon found a job as a caregiver to an elderly person. Mr. Yu taught drawing and painting lessons. After paying an amount into their Social Security, the couple now receives a little over 1,000 yuan a month in benefits—it is not much but enough to support their simple lifestyle. 

Persecution Continues and Mom’s Most Recent Arrest

On April 23, 2018, Ms. Wang was arrested again while visiting a fellow practitioner. She and seven other female practitioners held a hunger strike to protest the persecution and were released four days later.

The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) started another round of nationwide crackdown on Falun Gong in 2019 with the goal of a 100% transformation rate. The local police and residential committee harassed practitioners and their families, trying to get them to write the guarantee statement renouncing their faith. Minghui’s parents left their hometown and moved to Harbin City in the same Heilongjiang Province to hide from the police.

While living in Harbin, Ms. Wang was found by the police and arrested for the fourth time on November 23, 2020, at the Xuefu Bookstore by officers from the Haxi Police Station. The arrest was retro approved and a warrant was issued while she was in detention. 

Although the case has been submitted to the local procuratorate, Ms. Wang was told by officials from the Nangang District Domestic Security Division that they’d let her walk away as soon as she renounces Falun Gong and signs a guarantee statement, otherwise she would face trial and sentence. She was told this is how all Falun Dafa cases are handled.

After over four months of detention at the Harbin City No. 2 Detention Center, Ms. Wang appeared in Daoli District Court on March 31, 2021. The judge blocked her lawyer Xie Yanyi from representing her in court. She is now facing another possible prison term.

(To be continued.)

Chinese version available

Category: Accounts of Persecution