Hebei Man Imprisoned Twice for a Total of 13 Years for Refusing to Renounce His Faith

(Minghui.org) Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started persecuting Falun Gong, a spiritual and meditation discipline, in July 1999, countless practitioners have been persecuted for upholding their faith. 

One of them is 49-year-old Mr. Wang Xianghui from Li County, Hebei Province, who was repeatedly arrested and detained. He was fired from his job in March 2001. He served an 11-year prison term between 2002 and 2012 and was sentenced to 21 months after he was arrested again in June 2017. He was most recently released on March 15, 2019.

In addition to the torture he suffered himself, he also lost his mother and grandparents due to the persecution and was forced to divorce his wife. 

Arrested and Monitored at Work

Mr. Wang worked as an accountant at the Guodan Station for the Li County Electric Power Bureau. He started practicing Falun Gong in November 1997 and subsequently recovered from several diseases.

After the CCP began persecuting Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, Mr. Wang went to Beijing to appeal and was arrested. He was first dragged into a bus and taken to Fengtai Stadium. Afterward, he was transferred to a bus terminal. He returned home two days later.

The next day, Liu Xinle, the deputy director at Mr. Wang’s workplace, asked him if he went to Beijing. When he said “yes,” Liu said that the higher-ups have instructed that Falun Gong practitioners are not allowed to appeal. Liu ordered Mr. Wang to attend a brainwashing session at the bureau office. He wasn’t allowed to go home and was monitored around the clock during the time. His food was delivered to the bureau by his family. The authorities ordered him to sign guarantee statements and threatened him with a labor camp term if he didn’t comply.

After Mr. Wang was released, he was monitored closely and not allowed to do Falun Gong exercises. The power bureau associated his “performance” with five coworkers. If he was found to be practicing Falun Gong, the five coworkers’ salaries and bonuses would be affected.

Torture illustration: Metal cage

Mr. Wang went to Beijing again to appeal for Falun Gong on December 17, 1999 and was arrested again. The Beijing police locked him in a metal cage and extorted 3,100 yuan from him, before allowing the Baoding police in Hebei Province to take him back. He was detained at the Li County Detention Center by the 610 Office, with the charge of “interrupting social order.” His home was also ransacked.

Mr. Wang refused to respond to roll call in the detention center and was slapped in the face. The guards stripped off all of his clothes despite the freezing weather and forced him to lie face down on the concrete floor. He was released after 36 days. 

After returning home, Mr. Wang learned that his family was extorted 10,000 yuan by the 610 Office and 300 yuan for the food expense at the detention center. 

He wasn’t allowed to go back to work until March 1, 2000. His workplace suspended his salary and bonus between November 1999 and February 2000. His service in 1999 was wiped out as well. In May 2000, the power bureau reduced his salary to the lowest grade and informed him that this was an order from the 610 Office.

Since then, during anniversaries related to Falun Gong, Mr. Wang would be called to work. The 610 Office agents also constantly harassed him and threatened that he wasn’t allowed to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong again.

Fired from Work and Taken to Brainwashing Center

Mr. Wang was summoned to his workplace on Sunday, February 18, 2001. He was forced to live there and sleep at his desk. A colleague must go with him if he had to use the restroom.

On the evening of February 20, Han Zhongming, the bureau’s secretary, called Mr. Wang over to his office and asked him if he still practiced Falun Gong. Han said that the higher-ups had instructed them to treat Falun Gong practitioners like the “Five Black Categories” (referring to Landlords, Rich farmers, Counter-revolutionaries, Bad influencers, and Rightists) in the Cultural Revolution to be targeted for persecution. If the practitioners didn’t give up Falun Gong, they would be subjected to class struggle and their families would be ruined.

As Mr. Wang insisted that he wouldn’t renounce Falun Gong, Han read a document by the Party committee and announced that Mr. Wang was fired from his work. But he still had to stay in the office and be subjected to further brainwashing.

Mr. Wang decided that he wouldn’t endure the brainwashing anymore, so he managed to escape on February 26. The power bureau mobilized all employees to look for him in the afternoon. At 9 p.m., a deputy director found Mr. Wang at his home and told him that none of them was allowed to go home if they couldn’t find him. Unwilling to let his colleagues suffer, Mr. Wang returned to the workplace.

Mr. Wang escaped again five days later, but was found by another deputy director, who promised to reinstate his job if he went back. When he returned on March 3, Chen Dashui, the director of the power bureau, said that he could resume working and would be compensated 200 yuan each month. Mr. Wang didn’t accept the term.

Mr. Wang was notified on March 9 that the police intended to arrest him again. As he was about to leave and go into hiding, he was caught by the police and taken to the police station. 

The police asked him, “Do you still practice [Falun Gong]?” He answered, “Yes,” and was then held in a detention center for 15 days, on charges of “disrupting social order.”

Mr. Wang was arrested again at home on April 29 by the security personnel of his workplace and taken to the Balizhuang Brainwashing Center. He went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution and escaped five days later on May 3. As he wandered homeless to avoid persecution, the police put him on the wanted list.

Unable to find Mr. Wang, the 610 agents accused his wife, a police officer, of letting him off. She was placed on residential surveillance at work for a week, together with their five-year-old son.

Arrested for Intercepting TV Signal to Broadcast Videos about Falun Gong

In order to expose the persecution of Falun Gong in China, in August 2002, Mr. Wang and other practitioners tapped into the TV cable in Baoding City and broadcasted videos that clarified the truth about the Tiananmen self-immolation, one of the biggest propaganda stunts fabricated by the communist regime to demonize Falun Gong. 

He was arrested on August 27 and had his cell phone and some cash confiscated. At the Xushui County Police Department, Mr. Wang was detained for 24 hours and interrogated. He was beaten by several officers, handcuffed, shocked with electric batons, and forced to sit in a metal chair. All of his toes were crushed. He was also hit with heavy objects while wearing a helmet. 

On August 28, Mr. Wang was taken to the Xushui County Detention Center, where the guards connected the electric outlet to his hands and toes. When the electricity went through his body, he shook involuntarily and he felt his heart was about to explode. The guards also hit his calf with a wooden club, until he passed out. Fearing that he may die, the guards burned his finger with a cigarette and he woke up from the pain.

During his detention until October 15, 2003, Mr. Wang went on hunger strikes several times and was beaten, slapped in his face, forced to stand, and hit by a wooden plank. In the freezing winter, the prison guards poured cold water onto him and left him standing outside for three days. His feet suffered from severe frostbite, his left arm became disabled, and five of his molars fell out.

On September 5, 2003, Mr. Wang’s wife divorced him as she couldn’t handle the pressure and was afraid of losing her job and not being able to care for their son. However, she continued to visit Mr. Wang every month after he was sentenced to 11 years.

Sentenced to 11 Years, Persecuted to the Verge of Death

The Xushui Court sentenced Mr. Wang to 11 years in prison in October 2003. He appealed against the sentence but the verdict was upheld. On October 15, Mr. Wang was taken to Hebei Province No. 1 Prison.

Mr. Wang and other practitioners were first sent to the strict control team and forced to wear the prison uniform, memorize the prison rules, write guarantee statements, and watch programs that slandered Falun Gong. They were threatened and forced to stand if they refused to cooperate. When Mr. Wang and other practitioners went on a hunger strike, the prison sent four practitioners to Shijiazhuang Prison while Mr. Wang and the other four practitioners remained at Hebei Province No. 1 Prison. Each practitioner was taken to a room and monitored by three inmates.

After more than 20 days at the strict control team, Mr. Wang was taken to Division 2 in Baoding Prison and monitored by five inmates. He continued to be monitored when going to the restroom and ordered to write guarantee statements and memorize the prison rules. As he refused to comply, he was forced to stand every day from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m., with four hours of break in between, for over 20 days. Afterward, he had to do forced labor.

The prison strictly controlled Mr. Wang from writing letters, calling, and seeing his family. The 610 Office must verify that Mr. Wang’s family members did not practice Falun Gong before they were allowed to visit him. Mr. Wang was forced to write thought reports and do roll call over 10 times a day. He was monitored all year round by inmates. As he was not allowed to do the Falun Gong exercises, he developed many illnesses, including dizziness, headaches, toothaches, diarrhea, constipation, stomachaches and pain in his feet. He went on a hunger strike for seven years and was on the verge of death many times.

Family Separated, Grandparents Died

During his lengthy term, Mr. Wang’s son wasn’t allowed to see him. He longed for Mr. Wang’s return so much that his nickname on social media was “Missing (You).”

Mr. Wang’s mother, Ms. Liu Guipu, was once detained for more than seven months and subjected to intensive torture. She became paralyzed and bedridden for more than five years before passing away in June 2017.

Mr. Wang’s father, Mr. Wang Pingjun, was arrested and given a labor camp term for refusing to renounce Falun Gong. The elder Mr. Wang was fired from his job and denied pension payments. His own parents passed away one after another after being horrified and traumatized by the repeated arrests, home-ransacking and detention of his family.

When the younger Mr. Wang was allowed to be released a year ahead of time on October 27, 2012, the 610 Office took him to the brainwashing center and held him there for over 20 days.

Anxious to be reunited with him, his father went to the brainwashing center to visit him but was denied visitation.

With his accountant license and electrician certificate invalidated after years of inactivity, Mr. Wang had to do odd jobs to make a living.

Sentenced for Asking to Return to Work

In 2017, in order to pay his mother’s medical expenses and his son’s tuition, Mr. Wang insisted that the power bureau let him return to work. They refused to, so he wrote letters to top government officials and demanded compensation from the state and public information bureau regarding the 610 Office.

In retaliation, the police arrested him on June 16, 2017, five days after his mother passed away. 

Mr. Wang was sentenced by the Li County Court to one year and nine months in prison with a 10,000 yuan fine on December 25, 2018. He appealed the verdict, but the higher court ruled to uphold his original sentence. He was released on March 15, 2019.

Related reports:

Hebei Man Sentenced to 21 Months After 11 Years of Imprisonment for His Faith

Police Arrest Falun Gong Practitioner First, Then Fabricate Evidence to Charge Him

Wang Xianghui in Baoding City, Hebei Province Persecuted to the Verge of Death

The Persecution of 45 Practitioners in Li County and Suning County, Hebei Province

An Imprisoned Practitioner’s Young Son Asks, “When Will Daddy Come Back Home?”