(Minghui.org) A 60-year-old Feicheng City, Shandong Province, resident has been detained since his arrest on November 3, 2023 for raising awareness about the persecution of his faith, Falun Gong.
Mr. Zhang Xumin was seized from his home after the police spotted him distributing Falun Gong materials when they viewed surveillance camera footage while looking for an unrelated electric motorcycle theft case. His home was also ransacked. Mr. Zhang has been held at the Feicheng City Detention Center since then.
Before his latest arrest, Mr. Zhang previously served a one forced labor camp term and two prison terms for a total of nine years, simply for practicing Falun Gong. He was also repeatedly demoted from his high-ranking government job, until he was eventually fired.
Mr. Zhang worked as the deputy director of Feicheng City Secrecy Bureau before he took up Falun Gong in January 1998. He had severe digestive problems, and often threw up and had loose bowels. While reading Zhuan Falun, the main text of Falun Gong, he was drawn to its profound principles and understood the connection between improving one’s moral character and maintaining health. By working on his character and doing the Falun Gong exercises, he soon regained his health and felt light and energetic. He wished to let more people benefit from Falun Gong like he did, so he joined other practitioners in organizing events to introduce the practice to the public.
Similar to Mr. Zhang, many other practitioners who benefited from Falun Gong took the initiative to tell their families and friends about it. By July 1999, when it’s estimated that between 700 to 100 million people in China were practicing Falun Gong, which exceeded the number people who were registered Communist Party members, Jiang Zemin, the then head of the Party, ordered a nationwide persecution, which continues to this day.
In the fall of 1999, just months after the persecution started, Mr. Zhang was demoted and appointed deputy director of the Feicheng City Land and Resources Bureau.
Mr. Zhang went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong in late November 2000. He was arrested and taken back to Feicheng that night. After being held at a police station for a week, he was transferred to the Feicheng City Detention Center. He was later given two years at the Shandong Province Second Forced Labor Camp and released in the fall of 2002. He was further demoted at work and became a rank-and-file employee of the Feicheng City Land and Resources Bureau.
Mr. Zhang was arrested again in the spring of 2007 after someone reported him when he distributed Falun Gong materials. He was sentenced to 4.5 years in the Taian Prison. He was fired from his position when he was released in September 2010 and had to do odd jobs to make a living.
Also for distributing Falun Gong materials, Mr. Zhang was arrested another time on August 14, 2018, sentenced to 2.5 years and fined 30,000 yuan. He served time at the Shandong Province Prison and was released in mid-December 2020.
Related Report:
Six Falun Gong Practitioners in Shandong Province Indicted for Their Faith
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