(Minghui.org)
Name: Liu YanChinese Name: 刘燕Gender: FemaleAge: 50City: YinchuanProvince: NingxiaOccupation: N/ADate of Death: April 12, 2024Date of Most Recent Arrest: January 6, 2021Most Recent Place of Detention: a local detention center
Ms. Liu Yan credited Falun Gong for restoring her health, but she was repeatedly targeted for upholding her faith. She was last arrested on January 6, 2021, and detained for 14 days. The persecution took a toll on her health. She began experiencing stomach pain and vaginal bleeding in 2022. Her condition worsened in early 2023, and there was no improvement after hospitalization. She died on April 12, 2024, at the age of 50.
Taking Up Falun Gong
In 1983, Ms. Liu of Yinchuan City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, was hit by a car and thrown more than 10 yards. She remained in a coma for 20 days. Hospitalized for the next 10 years, she returned home but suffered severe complications from a brain stem injury, including brain fog, incoherent speech, and severe migraines. She later developed a serious gynecological condition and persistent numbness in her left leg. Because of her medical conditions, she had very low self-esteem and was introverted.
Not long after she took up Falun Gong in early December 1998, Ms. Liu’s symptoms disappeared. She became cheerful and clear-headed. She regained confidence and felt she was the luckiest and happiest person in the world.
Returning to Falun Gong After Years of Drifting Away
Ms. Liu lost contact with other practitioners after the communist regime started persecuting Falun Gong in July 1999. That August, village secretary Yang Zhongde notified her to report to the Daxin Town Police Station. She went, and chief Yang Ruisheng ordered her to sign a renunciation statement promising not to practice Falun Gong. She complied out of fear, but immediately felt tremendous regret.
Ms. Liu gradually drifted away from Falun Gong and got involved in pyramid schemes. Her husband abandoned her and their 7-year-old son in December 2001. She had a mental collapse and tried to kill herself. A man saved her and later became her new husband.
A local practitioner managed to get in touch with Ms. Liu in 2005 and guided her to resume practicing Falun Gong. She then quit the pyramid schemes. In early May 2005, a village official notified her to say yes when higher-ups came to check if she had received an income subsidy. Two people from the disciplinary committee came on May 12, and she signed her name on their list of residents who had received income subsidies.
Ms. Liu actually never received any subsidy even though she was qualified for it. Moments after she signed, she didn't feel right, because Falun Gong taught her to be truthful. She then told the disciplinary committee representatives that she had to retract her signature because she could not tell a lie.
Learning that she practiced Falun Gong, the officials reported her to the police. She went grocery shopping after they left, and when she returned, she saw a police car parked outside her apartment building. She managed to escape, thanks to a neighbor who knew Falun Gong was being wrongfully persecuted.
Detained for 24 Days in Mid-2008
Ms. Liu heard knocks on the door on the afternoon of June 20, 2008. It was chief Wu and another officer from the Daxin Town Police Station. They questioned if she was still practicing Falun Gong. She said yes, and they raided her home. Wu then called in 20-30 more agents from the various police agencies. Together they searched her home again until around 8 p.m. They then took her and her then 13-month-old daughter to the police station.
During the interrogation, Ms. Liu remained silent. One officer hit her in the face with a CD. She warned him that he’d be held accountable for abusing a law-abiding citizen. He stopped.
The police also deceived Ms. Liu’s middle-school-age son and her husband into coming to the police station. Chief Wu ordered them to reveal where Ms. Liu got her Falun Gong informational materials. They refused to answer.
Around midnight, an officer snatched Ms. Liu’s daughter from her lap and handed the infant to her husband. By then, the baby, who had recently been weaned, had not been fed for 10 hours. Ms. Liu’s husband took the two kids home.
The police drove Ms. Liu to the Yinchuan City Detention Center and she was put in Cell Three of the Third Division. The guards ordered her to put on and inmate uniform. She refused to comply, and they made her stand the whole night. After dawn broke, they moved her to Cell Four.
Ms. Liu was forced to do hard labor for 10 hours a day. She and another female inmate, both barefoot per the guards’ orders, had to lift 50-kilogram bags of baking soda from the ground to a 1.5-meter-high workbench, where other inmates repackaged the soda into smaller sizes. The inmate assigned to monitor her cursed her whenever she was deemed slow.
There were no breaks. Ms. Liu was only given a few minutes to eat lunch, which was usually just cabbage and squash soup. After finishing work at night, she was covered in dust. The guards made her sweep up all the baking soda that had fallen on the floor and been trampled into the nooks and crannies and mix it into the smaller packages. After she returned to the cell, she was only allowed cold showers.
Ms. Liu began experiencing rectal bleeding and peeling skin on her hands on the third day. Upon being told about her condition, the team lead simply asked her to drink more water without offering any medical care. She was later moved to another workshop to assemble lighters. The new task required her to sit all day long. Her legs and buttocks swelled as a result. Her fingers also blistered and bled.
To instigate hatred towards Falun Gong practitioners, the guards grouped them together with other inmates. If any practitioner refused to do hard labor, the rest of the group had to pick up the slack. Inmate Chen Mei once threatened to beat Ms. Liu because she was too slow.
During her 24 days at the detention center, Ms. Liu lived in fear and despair and never had a peaceful night of sleep. After she was released on July 14, 2008, she learned that her husband had taken their two children to the Daxin Town Police Station and implored them to release her. The police ignored him. Her son had to skip school to take care of his little sister, while his stepfather worked to support the family.
Endless Harassment
In December 2008, local village official Yang Wenke led two people to Ms. Liu’s home for a “welfare check.” They promised to give her family low income subsidies if she renounced Falun Gong. She turned them down. Yang returned in February 2009, with four officers (one of them surnamed Zhang). He ordered her to sign a statement to give up her belief. She again said no. Zhang came back two months later to harass her.
Ms. Liu went to the village government to do some paperwork on June 3, 2009. Zhang soon arrived to question her if she had plans the next day to raise awareness of the persecution and whether she still practiced Falun Gong.
Yang led property management director Wang Zizhang to Ms. Liu’s home in September 2009, but failed to make her renounce Falun Gong. Days later, Yang returned with five officers, including Zhang, to harass her.
Guo Guang and another officer from the Daxin Town Police Station harassed Ms. Liu at home at around 9 p.m. on August 31, 2016. They demanded to know her cell phone number and videorecorded her.
Detained in 2017 and 2020
Guo and a female officer harassed Ms. Liu at home on June 8, 2017, claiming they were there to verify her household registration.
Guo and three other officers, including Ma Zili and Zou Haijun (both in plainclothes) from the Yinchuan City Domestic Security Office, raided Ms. Liu’s home on July 1, 2017. They confiscated her Falun Gong books, e-books, an MP3 player, memory cards, and other items.
Ms. Liu was detained for ten days and released on July 11, 2017.
In the second half of 2020, officers from the Daxin Town Police Station repeatedly harassed Ms. Liu at home, ordering her to write statements to renounce her faith. They also threatened her son to put pressure her. On September 3, 2020, the police came again. In order not to implicate her son, she wrote the required statements against her will.
On the morning of January 6, 2021, eight officers broke into Ms. Liu’s home and confiscated all her Falun Gong books and materials, as well as an iPhone. She was detained for 14 days. Only days after she was released, three officers harassed her at home and ordered her to write statements to renounce Falun Gong.
Ms. Liu’s health began to decline in 2022, and she passed away on April 12, 2024.
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