(Minghui.org) July 20, 2023 marks the 24th year since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to suppress Falun Gong. Falun Gong practitioners in 44 countries submitted another list of human rights violators to their respective governments, urging them to hold these individuals accountable for the persecution of Falun Gong in China. The practitioners asked their governments to bar the perpetrators and their family members from entry, and to freeze their overseas assets.
Among the perpetrators listed are Li Qiang and Li Peng, directors of the Domestic Security Bureau of the Sichuan Provincial Public Security Department.
Perpetrator Information
Full Name of Perpetrator: Li (last name) Qiang (first name) (李强)Gender: MaleDate/year of Birth: September 1970Place of Birth: Chongqing City, Sichuan Province
Li Qiang
Full Name of Perpetrator: Li (last name) Peng (first name) (李鹏)Gender: MaleDate/year of Birth: June 1972Place of Birth: Unknown
Li Peng
Title and Position
Li Qiang
January 2022 – Present: deputy governor of the Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Government, secretary of the Party committee of the Prefecture Public Security Bureau, and deputy secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee of the Prefecture Party Committee (concurrently)
June 2020 – January 2022: deputy governor of the Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Government and director of the Prefecture Public Security Bureau
December 2017 – June 2020: chief of the Domestic Security Bureau of the Sichuan Provincial Public Security Department
June 2011 – December 2017: deputy chief of the Domestic Security Bureau of the Sichuan Provincial Public Security Department
August 2003 – June 2011: investigator, deputy director, and director of the Sixth Division of the Domestic Security Bureau of the Sichuan Provincial Public Security Department
Li Peng
December 2022 – Present: deputy governor of the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province, director of the Public Security Bureau, and deputy secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee
December 2020 – December 2022: chief of the Domestic Security Bureau of the Sichuan Provincial Public Security Department
March 2017 – December 2020: political commissar of the Domestic Security Bureau of the Sichuan Provincial Public Security Department
July 2014 – March 2017: director of Human Resources for the Political Department of the Sichuan Provincial Public Security Department
Main Crimes
Beginning in July 1999, under the direction of former CCP leader Jiang Zemin, Falun Gong practitioners were subjected to widespread persecution. The Domestic Security Bureau of the Public Security Department became instrumental in carrying out the persecution, especially in arresting practitioners, ransacking their homes, and submitting their cases to the procuratorate for further persecution.
Between June 2011 and June 2020, Li Qiang served as both deputy director and director of the Domestic Security Bureau for the Sichuan Provincial Public Security Department. Meanwhile, Li Peng held the position of political commissar of the bureau between 2017 and 2020 and took the position of director after Li Qiang moved up in 2020.
During their respective tenures, both were instrumental in executing the persecution policy against Falun Gong practitioners. They orchestrated a province-wide campaign, utilizing the entire public security resource to persecute Falun Gong practitioners.
According to reports published on Minghui.org, from 2017 to 2022, at least 37 Falun Gong practitioners in Sichuan Province died as a result of persecution. Others were arrested, had their homes ransacked, were sentenced, and many were tortured in prison.
Overview of Persecution Between 2017 and 2022
In 2017, a total of 2,061 Falun Gong practitioners in Sichuan Province were harassed and 523 were arrested. Among them, 161 were detained in various detention centers, brainwashing centers, and mental hospitals.
On the evening of September 14, 2017, a substantial number of special police were dispatched from the Shifang City Public Security Bureau. Along with police officers from various subordinate stations, community officials, and village officials, they arrested at least 28 Falun Gong practitioners.
In 2018, 270 Falun Gong practitioners were arrested. Their homes were raided and a total of 260,000 yuan in cash and personal property was confiscated. Another 67 practitioners were sentenced.
In 2019, as a part of the CCP’s “stability maintance campaign” surrounding the 70th anniversary of the Party’s founding, harassment and arrest of Falun Gong practitioners escalated. According to Minghui reports, 652 practitioners were arrested in Sichuan Province that year and 51 were sentenced to prison.
In 2020, 348 practitioners were arrested, 788 were harassed and another 57 were indicted. On October 26, 2020, 14 practitioners in Neijiang City were arrested by nearly 30 officers. The police confiscated more than 100,000 yuan in cash, numerous printers, computers, and other office supplies that the practitioners used to print informational materials about Falun Gong.
In the next year, the CCP launched the “Zero-out” campaign and attempted to target every Falun Gong practitioner on the government’s blacklist. In that year, 512 practitioners were arrested and 1,083 were harassed in Sichuan Province, with Sichuan ranking third among provinces across the country for intensity of the campagin. The oldest practitioner targeted was 93.
When a police officer ordered a practitioner to renounce Falun Gong, he threatened the practitioner, “If you don’t sign it while you’re alive, you’ll sign when you die. You will have to sign it at least three times.” Some practitioners reported being harassed over thirty times.
In 2022, the deaths of 16 practitioners were reported. Another 38 practitioners were sentenced, 275 were arrested, and 519 were harassed. Forty other practitioners were held in brainwashing centers.
Select Death Cases
Case 1: Sichuan Woman Dies While Serving Five Years
Six months after Ms. Qing Liju was sentenced to five years for her faith in Falun Gong, the once healthy 51-year-old Pengzhou City, Sichuan Province resident died.
Ms. Qing was arrested on March 9, 2021, while distributing Falun Gong informational materials. The arrest came only two years after Ms. Qing was released from serving ten years for her faith.
After her arrest, the authorities prohibited her family from visiting Ms. Qing. They were only allowed to deliver clothes to her twice. Later, the detention center also forbade them from delivering any clothes, citing the pandemic as an excuse. The Pengzhou Court sentenced Ms. Qing to five years in Qionglai Prison on June 21, 2022.
On October 1, Ms. Qing’s family received a call from the prison, telling them that she was in serious condition. The family went to the prison that day and was allowed to have a video chat with her. But when they applied for medical parole for Ms. Qing, the prison refused their application.
Two weeks later on October 14, the prison called them and said that Ms. Qing had been hospitalized. The family went to the prison hospital on October 16 and had another video chat with her. By then, she had become extremely weak and her legs were severely swollen. The family demanded medical parole for her again, yet the prison still refused.
The family had another video chat with Ms. Qing weeks later and her condition was even worse. When the family made one more request to see her in mid-November, the prison refused again, citing the pandemic lockdown as an excuse.
The last call the family received from the prison was on December 11 and they were told that Ms. Qing was undergoing emergency treatment in the hospital. When they rushed to the hospital, Ms. Qing had already passed away. The doctor told them that when she was transferred from the Zhengcheng Hospital in the morning, she had already stopped breathing.
Case 2: Woman in Her 50s Dies Three Days After Being Arrested for Practicing Falun Gong
Ms. Huang Sulan, of Chengdu, Sichuan Province, was arrested outside of her apartment building on January 20, 2022, and was held at a secret detention facility in Pengzhou.
The police covered her head with a black hood and took her to Room 416 of Yunduan Hotel in Chengdu. She was handcuffed and shackled. Two people monitored her around the clock.
The police continued to interrogate Ms. Huang for the next two days, on January 22 and 23. On the evening of January 23, people in the room nearby heard that Ms. Huang was being beaten and there was the sound of chairs being dragged around. Ms. Huang was taken to the hospital around midnight and pronounced dead. The police informed her family to take her body from the funeral home on the afternoon of January 24.
Case 3: 30-year-old Former Radio Host Beaten to Death in Prison
A 30-year-old former host of the Sichuan People’s Radio Station was beaten to death on December 2, 2022, while serving a five-year term in Jiazhou Prison, Sichuan Province.
Mr. Pang Xun
Mr. Pang Xun’s body was covered in bruises from the beating and had marks from electric shocks and being tied up tightly with rope. He had also become incontinent due to the torture. The prison denied having tortured Mr. Pang and claimed that he died of hyperthyroidism.
Mr. Pang was arrested on July 27, 2020, for distributing Falun Gong informational materials, and was later sentenced to five years in Jiazhou Prison.
Mr. Pang Xun was covered with bruises when he died.
Case 4: Accountant Dies While Serving 11.5 Years
While in a detention center awaiting the results of her appeal of an 11.5-year prison sentence, Ms. Mao Kun, an accountant in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, was taken to a hospital emergency room around April 9, 2021. Her family was asked to apply for medical parole on her behalf. But before they even got a chance to submit the application, Ms. Mao passed away in the hospital on the evening of April 11. She was 57. Her family suspects that torture may have been responsible for her sudden death.
Ms. Mao Kun
Ms. Mao was arrested at home on July 10, 2019. Her arm was broken and her face was bruised during the violent arrest. Dozens of officers ransacked Ms. Mao’s home from 4 p.m. the day of the arrest until 2 a.m. the next day. Many personal belongings and informational materials about Falun Gong were confiscated. Ms. Mao’s parents, in their 80s and who lived with her, were traumatized by the police raid. They wept in the hallway while the police were ransacking their home.
Ms. Mao stood trial on December 28, 2020, and was later sentenced to 11.5 years with a 20,000-yuan fine.
Case 5: Woman Dies Same Day of Her Arrest
Ms. Liu Suzhen of Chengdu City was arrested by officers from the Huangwa Street Police Station on December 24, 2018, when she was distributing Falun Gong flyers in Kuanzhai Alley. She died at the police station.
Officers from the Huangwa Street Police Station told Ms. Liu’s family that she suddenly collapsed and died. Her family member was shocked to learn that Ms. Liu was dead when he came to the police station. He asked to review the security videotape. The officers showed him, but he did not know if it had been edited or not. When the officers threatened him, he dared not ask any more questions.
Select Torture and Sentencing Cases
Case 1: Chengdu Man Beaten at a Hotel-turned Detention Site, Incurred Injuries to His Leg and Gallbladder
Mr. Liu Jia, a 53-year-old resident of Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, suffered fractures in his left leg and inflammation of the gallbladder, after being beaten by the police for practicing Falun Gong. He was operated on and had his gallbladder removed.
After Mr. Liu’s arrest on January 6, 2022, the police brought him to the fourth floor of the “Urban Cloud Hotel” in nearby Pengzhou. There was a surveillance camera in the room. All of the windows were covered and no light came in. Several people took turns monitoring him.
As Mr. Liu refused to tell the police the password to his cellphones, they took him to a room without a surveillance camera and beat him, causing a fracture to his left leg and inflammation of his gallbladder. He was then taken to the hospital to have his gallbladder removed.
Mr. Liu was kept in the hotel for 18 days. With his lawyer’s intervention, the police transferred him to the Pengzhou City Detention Center on January 24. When he was admitted, both of his legs were severely swollen and he was unable to stand or walk on his own. There was also swelling in his right knee.
Case 2: Woman Detained for a Month and Forced to Sit for Long Hours Each Day
Ms. Xu Zhiqiong, a 69-year-old Pengzhou City, Sichuan Province resident, was arrested on March 9, 2021 and taken to the Mengyang Town Police Station. She was handcuffed to a metal chair for interrogation. After being forced to sit overnight, Ms. Xu was taken to the hospital for a physical checkup the next day, before being admitted to the Chengdu City Detention Center. She was forced to sit on a hard board for over ten hours during her one-month detention.
As her right hand was fractured by the police during her arrest, Ms. Xu was later hospitalized for four days. The police kept her handcuffed and forced her to wear heavy shackles all the time. She was released on April 9, 2021.
Case 3: Arrested in a Police Sweep, Married Couple Each Sentenced to Eight Years
Mr. Liu Wei and Ms. Ai Chaoyu, a married couple in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, were arrested in a police sweep of 40 local Falun Gong practitioners on July 10, 2019. The Chenghua District Procuratorate indicted the couple on April 3, 2020. They were each sentenced to eight years in prison by the Chenghua District Court on April 27, 2021.
Case 4: Man in His 60s Beaten by the Police
Mr. Wu Mingshu, a Suining City resident in his 60s, was arrested on August 28, 2018. At the Dongchan Police Station, he was brutally beaten and lost consciousness. Fearing that he might die there, the police took him to the emergency room, where he was diagnosed with severe injuries including intracerebral hemorrhage.
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