Shandong Man Admitted to Prison to Serve 11 Years for His Faith

(Minghui.org) A 57-year-old Weifang City, Shandong Province, resident was admitted to Shandong Province Prison on September 22, 2022, to serve an 11-year sentence for his faith in Falun Gong.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Mr. Wu Chengshou was arrested on April 20, 2021, after spending 11 years away from home to avoid being persecuted. The police snatched his keys and raided his home. His wife, Ms. Wang Xian, was handcuffed and held aside during the raid. The police videotaped the raid. The couple’s Falun Gong books, photo of Falun Gong’s founder, 10,700 yuan in cash, a computer, a broken paper cutter, and their son’s old computer were all confiscated.

To gather information about the couple, the police forced their son, Mr. Wu Binjie, who doesn’t practice Falun Gong and works in Inner Mongolia about 600 miles away, to come back to Weifang and be interrogated.

Mr. Wu’s family later heard from an insider that he was dealing with a medical condition in custody. Worried about his health and not allowed to visit him themselves, his family hired a lawyer to visit him. The detention center initially approved the lawyer’s visit but soon canceled it, noting that he had already been sentenced to prison and his appeal rejected.

Mr. Wu’s family later confirmed from a person familiar with his case that he was sentenced to 11 years and fined 100,000 yuan.

Past Persecution

Savage Beating and Extortion

On July 20, 1999, the day the persecution started, Mr. Wu was arrested with two other practitioners, Mr. Wu Ruguang and Mr. Yu Qifu. Although the authorities soon released them due to strong protests from other local practitioners, they installed bright lights outside of the practitioners’ homes and arranged for people to stay outside to monitor them around the clock and prevent them from going out.

Over 20 officers broke into Mr. Wu Chengshou’s home on July 22, 1999, and ordered him to turn in his Falun Gong books. When he refused to comply, they beat him and ransacked his home. All of his Falun Gong books and photos of the practice’s founder were confiscated. The police also beat his brother, who didn’t practice Falun Gong, when he went to visit him. The brother’s motorcycle was impounded as well.

That evening, Mr. Wu and his wife were arrested again. They were beaten by Liu Youzhi, an officer from the Armed Force Department of the township government. The couple were forced to work without pay and watch videos and read newspapers that smeared Falun Gong. They were released nine days later.

The township officials connected Mr. Wu’s landline to their own office and made him cover their phone bill, claiming that made it easier for them to monitor his phone calls.

On January 19, 2000, Mr. Wu, his wife, and four other practitioners (Mr. Sun Huajun, Mr. Sun Shichao, Mr. Sun Mingde, and Mr. Wu Chengxi) were seized by Liu again. They covered the practitioners’ eyes and forced them to sit barefoot on the ground, with their legs and arms straight forward. Then the officers began to hit them on their heads, hands, and feet with sticks. Others whipped them with a leather baton or rubbed their shoes against their ankles, tearing their skin open.

After seven days of torture, Li Guangjun, the secretary of the township Political and Legal Affairs Committee, demanded a large amount of money from the practitioners. Those who couldn’t afford to pay were subjected to continued beatings until they came up with enough money to pay Li.

Altogether, Mr. Sun Huajun had 30,000 yuan extorted from him; Mr. Sun Mingde, 22,000 yuan; Mr. Wu Chengshou, 20,000 yuan; and Mr. Wu Chengxi, 10,000 yuan (paid in three installments).

The authorities arrested Mr. Wu and his wife one more time in May 2000 and asked them if they still practiced Falun Gong. When they said they did, the police broke two batons beating them.

Officer Cai Jiyan warned them, “I will beat you to death and pour gasoline on you to burn you up. I can then claim that you set yourselves on fire.”

Another officer, Li Maoliang, shouted, “I will smash you to death and bury you in a pit, or I can throw you in the water.”

Officer Liu Youzhi claimed he would bankrupt them if they continued to practice Falun Gong.

Repeated Arrests

Mr. Wu was arrested again in late 2000 for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. The police beat him for three days in an attempt to find out where he got the materials. Although Mr. Wu escaped from custody shortly after, he was seized by the police one more time in the summer of 2001 and tortured in custody.

Because Mr. Wu refused to renounce Falun Gong, he was given three years of forced labor. By the time he was taken to a local labor camp, he was already severely injured. The labor camp thus denied him admission, so the police had to take him back to the station. Instead of releasing him, they tortured him for another three days, until he was on the verge of death.

Because his wife was on the run to hide from the police, his mother in her 80s took care of him. Only three days after he returned home, the police showed up again. They ordered his mother to get out, closed the door, and beat him again. Unable to live a normal life, Mr. Wu was forced to live away from home as well.

After seven years of displacement, Ms. Wang was arrested on November 5, 2008, and given a labor camp term.

Forced to Live Away from Home for a Decade

The couple was next arrested on March 27, 2010. They were interrogated at the police station. Mr. Wu escaped four days later, on the morning of March 31, and was forced to live away from home to hide from the police for the next ten years.

To force Mr. Wu and his wife to renounce Falun Gong, the police also went to Qingdao University, where their son was attending college, and arrested him.

Li Luchun, the head of the Weicheng District Domestic Security Office, broke into Mr. Wu and Ms. Wang’s home on October 28, 2019, when the couple’s son was home on a vacation. Li attempted to force Ms. Wu and her son to reveal Mr. Wu’s whereabouts, but they didn’t. The younger Mr. Wu later learned that the police also went to his employer in Inner Mongolia to look for him, not knowing he had returned to Weifang.

After Li left, Ms. Wang saw several officers camped outside of her home to monitor them. Li came back twice more to harass her. When she wouldn’t tell him where Mr. Wu was, he went to Mr. Wu’s hometown and attempted to get information about him from his uncle.

When Mr. Wu did return home after over a decade of displacement, he was soon arrested and sentenced to a lengthy term after one year of detention.

Related report:

After a Decade of Displacement, Shandong Man Secretly Sentenced to 11 Years