Crimes of Liu Kai, Deputy Governor of Hebei Province and Director of the Hebei Public Security Department, in Persecuting Falun Gong

(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioners in 36 countries recently presented their respective governments with an up-to-date list of perpetrators involved in the persecution of the spiritual practice in China. The lists were submitted around December 10, 2021, on International Human Rights Day. Practitioners asked their governments to bar the perpetrators and their family members from entering those countries and freeze their assets.

The 36 countries include the Five Eyes Alliance (the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand), 23 countries in the European Union (France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Poland, Belgium, Sweden, Austria, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Czech Republic, Romania, Portugal, Greece, Hungary, Slovakia, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Estonia, and Malta), and 8 additional countries (Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Israel, and Mexico).

Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since July 1999. The hostility and ill-treatment meted out include torturing practitioners resulting in death, continuous harassment, and government-sanctioned selling of their vital organs, which also results in death.

Adherents outside China have previously submitted lists of perpetrators to various governments requesting that sanctions be imposed on the named human rights violators. The latest submission marks the first time that Estonia has participated in this effort.

Liu Kai, Deputy Governor of Hebei Province, and Director of the Hebei Public Security Department

Full Name: Liu (last name) Kai (first name) (刘凯)Gender: MaleCountry: ChinaEthnicity: HanDate/year of Birth: August 1969Place of Birth: Chaohu City, Anhui Province

Positions Held by Liu Kai

September 1999 – February 2005: Assistant to the Director of the Domestic Security Office, Director of the Command Office, Director of the Research Office, and Deputy Director of the Command Department of the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau.

April 2005 – July 2008: Member of the Standing Committee and Deputy District Mayor of the Qingpu District Committee of Shanghai, Director of the Qingpu Branch of the Municipal Public Security Bureau and Secretary of the Party Committee.

July 2008 – August 2013: Deputy Director and Head of Command, Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau.

August 2013 – March 2017: Member of the Standing Committee of the Ningbo Municipal Committee of Zhejiang Province, Deputy Secretary of the Political and Legal Committee, Director of the Municipal Public Security Bureau, Secretary of the Party Committee, and Inspector General.

March 2017 – January 2018: Member of the Party Leadership Group of Hebei Provincial Government, Member of the Political and Legal Committee of the Provincial Party Committee, Director of the Provincial Public Security Department, Secretary of the Party Committee, and Inspector General.

January 2018 – Present: Deputy Governor of Hebei Provincial Government, Member of the Party Leadership Group, Member of the Political and Legal Committee of the Provincial Party Committee, Director of the Provincial Public Security Department, Secretary of the Party Committee, and Inspector General.

The Domestic Security Office is also known as the First Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security. Its predecessor was the Political Security Department of the Public Security Bureau. It is an organization that specifically carries out the instructions of former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Jiang Zemin to persecute Falun Gong. In the past two decades, the Domestic Security Office has been responsible for the persecution and coercion of local police to persecute Falun Gong practitioners, including harassing and arresting practitioners, ransacking their homes, and torturing them.

Liu’s Main Crimes

Liu Kai started his career in the Shanghai political and legal system. He was promoted up the Party ladder by Wu Zhiming, former secretary of the Shanghai Political and Legal Affairs Committee. Wu is Jiang Zemin’s nephew and is in charge of the persecution of Falun Gong by the public security system in Shanghai.

During Liu Kai’s tenure in Shanghai, he followed Wu Zhiming’s orders and was his accomplice in actively persecuting Falun Gong. From the beginning of the persecution in 1999 to 2005, he served as an assistant to the Director of the Domestic Security Office, Director of the Command Office, Director of the Research Office, and Deputy Director in Command. According to information collected by Minghui.org, at least 12 Falun Gong practitioners were tortured to death during his tenure, including Lu Xingguo, Li Weihong, Yang Xueqin, Ma Xinxing, Li Jianbin, Li Baifan, Li Limao, Cao Jinxian, Huang Qiaolan, Ge Wenxin, Chen Jun, and Ding Youmu.

One follower of the discipline, Mr. Ma Xinxing, was in his 40s. In late 1999, police from the Xuhui district locked Mr. Ma in a psychiatric hospital for over three months and administered nerve-damaging drugs. In late 2000, Mr. Ma was taken to the Qingpu Third Forced Labor Camp. In November 2003, as Mr. Ma was on the brink of death because of the torture he was subjected to, the police, wanting to avoid responsibility if he died, told his family to take him home. Mr. Ma died on December 14, 2003.

In August 2016, during Liu Kai’s tenure as Deputy Director of the Ningbo Public Security Bureau, the Ningbo 610 Office used the G20 summit as an excuse to launch a joint operation with the public security system and the subordinate 610 Office in the Yinzhou District, to start a brainwashing class at Xiongfeng Mountain Villa in Ninghai County. On August 26, eight Falun Gong practitioners, including Hong Jijing, Ying Guofang, Jiang Chunya, and Niu Zixia, were taken there.

Since March 2017, Liu Kai has served as Director and Secretary of the Hebei Provincial Public Security Department, Deputy Governor of Hebei Province, and Member of the Political and Legal Committee. He continues to follow Jiang Zemin’s instructions in overseeing public security officers persecuting Falun Gong practitioners.

There have been many large-scale arrests of Falun Gong adherents in various cities in Hebei Province in recent years that were directly tied to Liu Kai. For example, in the second half of 2017, 2,092 Falun Gong practitioners were harassed in Hebei Province, the highest number compared to other regions. Since then, Hebei has remained either the number one or number two province in the country targeting practitioners for their faith.

In 2018, Falun Gong practitioners from 11 regions of Hebei Province were persecuted. Among them, 2 died, 326 were arrested, 180 were detained, 1,075 were harassed, and 41 had their homes ransacked.

In 2019, at least 10 Falun Gong practitioners from Hebei Province died in the persecution, 544 were arrested, 234 were harassed, and 289 had their homes ransacked.

In 2020, also 10 Falun Gong practitioners in Hebei Province died in the persecution, at least 683 people were arrested and 1,690 harassed.

Large-scale Harassment

Numerous Falun Gong practitioners were arrested in the name of the “government’s special task force to eradicate criminal gangs.”

From July to August 2018, under the instruction of the Laishui Government, the Political and Legal Committee, the Stability Maintenance Office, and the Public Security Bureau of Laishui County, Hebei Province, agents ransacked the homes of 550 Falun Gong practitioners from 284 villages in 15 townships. They took pictures, video recordings, and collected practitioners’ personal information.

According to information compiled by Minghui.org, authorities in Hebei Province launched a 100-day campaign to target practitioners who refused to renounce their faith in Falun Gong. A special task force was set up by the Hebei Province Public Security Bureau to carry out the campaign, which lasted from April 5 to July 15, 2019. The task force was headquartered in a hotel in Laishui County. Li Hongyu, former head of the Laishui County 610 Office, lead the task force.

More than 300 police officers were mobilized to round up the practitioners at around 3 a.m. on July 6, 2019. A police chief revealed that they had monitored the practitioners’ cellphones for two months before making their move. The officers were required to arrest more than 30 people.

On July 13, 2019, 34 Falun Gong practitioners from Weichang County were arrested by the Chengde Domestic Security Office. The following day, police ransacked their homes and confiscated printers, laptops, Falun Gong books, and informational materials like flyers and CDs.

Thirteen of them were tried by the Luanping County Court on September 28, 2020. Among them, Liu Zhifeng was sentenced to six years and fined 10,000 yuan (about $1,570); Wang Guangxue was sentenced to five years and fined 10,000 yuan; Wang Yongxing and Wang Haiqin were sentenced to four years and fined 10,000 yuan each; Chen Haidong, Wang Sufang, Du Guilan were each sentenced to 20 months and fined 5,000 yuan (about $785); Ge Sufen was sentenced to 18 months and fined 5,000 yuan; Li Yanhua was sentenced to 15 months with two years probation, and fined 5,000 yuan; Liu Fengxia, Tang Fengxia, Liu Lina, and Wang Haibing were each sentenced to 14 months with two years probation, and fined 5,000 yuan each.

Large Scale ‘Zero-out’ Campaign

Since mid-June 2020, the Hebei Public Security Bureaus, police stations, 610 Offices, street offices, community neighborhood committees, and Falun Gong practitioners’ employers have been conducting the so-called “Zero-out harassment campaign,” a coordinated effort to force every practitioner on the government’s blacklist to renounce Falun Gong.

The Public Security Bureau and police station in the Fengrun District, Tangshan City dispatched a group of officers to break into 38 Falun Gong practitioners’ homes around 4 a.m. on June 18, 2020. They harassed, intimidated, and arrested people. Ms. Han Yuqin, 68, died in the police station hours after being arrested. Another five practitioners were sentenced to prison on October 15, 2021, ranging from 17 months to eight years.

Starting in June 2020, the Qianxi County’s Political and Legal Affairs Committee compiled a list of more than 150 practitioners, including those in their 80s, and set a deadline for the authorities to force them to renounce their belief. They searched the practitioners’ homes and threatened them with the loss of their jobs, pensions, and that of their children, even their education, in order to force the practitioners to sign a declaration renouncing their faith.

In nearby Baoding City, at least 150 practitioners had been harassed by mid-September. Another 40 plus practitioners were harassed in Taocheng District, Hengshui City. The district established a “one person, one file” rule for each Falun Gong practitioner, and formulated a transformation plan. The practitioners who did not agree to “transform” received threats of detention and re-education (brainwashing sessions).

In the early hours of August 12, around 100 police officers were dispatched in Tangshan City’s Fengnan District to arrest more than 10 Falun Gong practitioners and ransack their homes. Among them, Mr. Dong Jianquan was persecuted to death on October 25, 2020, and six practitioners were sentenced to between six months and 10 years in prison.

As Director and Deputy Governor of the Public Security Department of Hebei Province, Liu Kai bears a direct and unavoidable responsibility for the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in Hebei Province. 

Typical Cases of Persecution

Ms. Ma Guilan died due to force-feeding in Qinhuangdao Detention Center

Ms. Ma Guilan was arrested on July 4, 2018, and held in a detention facility for two weeks before being transferred to the Qinhuangdao City Detention Center. There, authorities tried to force her to renounce Falun Gong. When she refused, they poured spicy water on her face. Ms. Ma started a hunger strike around September 11 to protest her detention. Guards began force-feeding her three days later. Her cellmates heard her frightening screams during the force-feeding.

On September 16, guards force-fed her for the third time. By 7 a.m. on September 17, Ms. Ma was barely conscious and unable to get up from her bed. Two cellmates helped her sit up. They noticed that her hands and feet were very cold. Her cellmates put her back into bed. By then, her eyes and mouth were wide open – she was unconscious.

Ms. Ma was taken to the Qinhuangdao Police Hospital and died about an hour later. Several officials from a provincial government agency came and removed her organs for some alleged examinations. It’s not clear what organs were removed or where they took them.

Ms. Kong Hongyun tortured to death in Baoding Detention Center

Ms. Kong Hongyun, 47, was arrested by Hepingli Police Station officers on January 2, 2019, and held in Baoding City Detention Center. She was taken to a hospital by detention center staff on March 8. The doctor recommended that she be hospitalized, but the detention center refused.

On the evening of March 10, Ms. Kong fell into a coma. Detention center staff took her to the hospital again, where a specialist wrote up a death notification and performed a tracheotomy on her. After the operation, her life was maintained on a ventilator. Later, the doctor urged the police to notify her family about her condition. Her family rushed to the hospital at around 8 a.m. on June 12, only to find that she had already died.

Mr. Wei Qishan tortured to death in Qinhuangdao Detention Center

Mr. Wei Qishan and his wife, Ms. Yu Shurong, were arrested on June 12, 2018. After more than a year of detention, Mr. Wei was sentenced to 4 years in prison, while Ms. Yu was given 3.5 years.

Mr. Wei was tortured to death in Qinhuangdao Detention Center on the evening of November 23, 2019. His family rushed to the Qinhuangdao City People’s Hospital, and saw that his eyes were half-closed and his right arm was purple and black with severe bruising.

Ms. Han Yuqin died within hours of arrest

A group of officers from Fengrun District’s Duanminglu Police Station broke into Ms. Han Yuqin’s home on June 18, 2020. They took her to the police station, forced her to sit on a metal chair, and ordered her to fill out a form renouncing Falun Gong. She refused to comply.

Ms. Han’s legs became swollen as a result of sitting for hours in the chair. She went to the restroom around 4 p.m. as officers waited outside the door. When she didn’t come out, they entered and found her collapsed on the floor. She was taken to hospital where she was pronounced dead shortly after.

Ms. Han’s family was informed of her death around 6 p.m. When they saw her in the hospital, her hair was mussed up and there was blood in her nose. She was 68.

Ms. Ma Huixin’s life hanging by a thread

Ms. Ma Huixin was arrested by Yaocheng Police Station officers in Anguo City on June 13, 2020. She was taken to Baoding Detention Center the next afternoon by Chen Yanqing, deputy head of the Domestic Security Office. Ms. Ma was in good health.

On November 7, the detention center informed Ms. Ma’s family that she was in critical condition after suffering a stroke. Ms. Ma underwent a craniotomy on November 10 and was treated in the intensive care unit for two weeks. She was removed from the hospital and taken to an assisted living facility for seniors without her family’s consent on November 30.

Mr. Li Yanchun and his wife, Ms. Pei Yuxian, were sentenced to lengthy prison terms

Mr. Li Yanchun and his wife, Ms. Pei Yuxian, were arrested on November 25, 2018, after being reported for handing out calendars containing information about Falun Gong. They were handcuffed and shackled while being interrogated. The officers later took the couple to their home and ransacked the place. When Mr. Li resisted, officers slapped him in the face, causing his mouth to bleed. They forced him to kneel with his hands cuffed behind his back.

After 20 hours of detention, Mr. Li was released on bail due to high blood pressure. Ms. Pei was taken to the Qinhuangdao City Detention Center.

Mr. Li was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison and fined 20,000 yuan (about $3,139). Ms. Pei Yuxian was sentenced to 4 years by the Changli County Court on May 31, 2019.