Ms. Zhang Xiuling from Laishui County, Hebei Province, Dies as a Result of Persecution

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Zhang Xiuling, from Laishui County, Hebei Province, was severely persecuted. She had a relapse of her previous diseases and passed away on March 31st, 2009. Within these past ten years, the 610 Office¹ in Laishui County, the local police department, as well as the village and township governments, have been persecuting Falun Gong practitioners by beating them, damaging and ransacking their homes, threatening and intimidating them and luring them with false promises. Under such conditions, Zhang Xiuling's family members, from the eldest to the youngest, are afraid to stay at home and live a normal life.

Ms. Zhang started to practise Falun Gong in 1997 and was in good health during the past ten years. Local villagers thus witnessed the wonderfulness of Falun Gong. Ms. Zhang once suffered from high neurogenic pressure and often couldn't stop vomiting. Her husband, Qiao Yongfu, was in poor health when he was young and his health became even worse with age. After the elderly couple practised Falun Gong, their health improved and they lived a happy life. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, the 610 Office in Laishui County repeatedly detained them, sent them to brainwashing centres, extorted money from them and ransacked their home.

On April 7th, 2000, the 610 Office forcibly sent the couple to the Laishui County CCP School. Led by the township Party Secretary Zhang Shiliang, township Chief Wang Lei personally tortured them. First, he beat their faces until they bled. Then he forced Qiao Yongfu to hold a stool with wall planks on his head. He also beat his bottom until it became black and blue. The officers also forced all practitioners to kneel. Another township chief, Cheng Yuhe, kicked Zhang Xiuling in the back with heavy leather shoes on. Whether it was day or night, people could see or hear the beatings. Finally the couple was extorted of 2,300 yuan² each before they were released.

On December 16th, 2000, Zhang Xiuling went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. The next day Zhang Shiliang and Lu Donghai brought her back by car from the Fuping Prison in Beijing directly to the Township Government Office. Former Deputy Party Secretary Zhang Xiuming, along with Zhang Jianhua and two other people, savagely beat her. By the time Zhang Xiuling went to Beijing, Zhang Xiuming and Cui Fengxiang had forcibly taken Qiao Yongfu away from the field he was working in, arrested all practitioners in the township, and sent them to the Township Government Office. They were detained there even during the Chinese New Year. They were not released until officials extorted 2,500 yuan from each of them on February 10th, 2001. Zhang Xiuling was not released until February 11th.

One day in June 2002, at about 11 p.m., several plain clothes policemen went to harass Zhang Xiuling at her home, but Ms. Zhang didn't open the door for them. They then went to the back of her house and shouted through the back window that they would take actions if she didn't open the door. They had been outside the house for two and a half hours before they left. The next day, at almost the same time, they came to harass her again. They smashed the big steel gate of Ms. Zhang's house six or seven times before they made a grand exit. The loud banging noise could be heard from far away. At about 11 p.m. on July 18th, the Party Secretary of the village led fifteen or sixteen people to come to her house in two vehicles. They shouted hysterically at Ms. Zhang for not opening the door for them. Then, four or five people climbed over the fence wall to forcibly open the door. They lit up the house with torches and questioned Ms. Zhang about why she didn't open the door for them. There were so many of them that they filled the house. They searched the house for two hours but found nothing, leaving a mess behind them.

On the morning of April 25th, 2003, Dong Honghao, Li Xuepeng and Wan Qingwen from the Township Government came to harass Ms. Zhang again. Village officials Hu Wenshen, Kang Zhenghe, Hu Chengwen and Hu Yinshui tried to force Ms. Zhang to go to the township office but she didn't cooperate. Dong Honghao and Li Xuepeng confiscated a copy of the Falun Gong book Zhuan Falun. They lifted Ms. Zhang into one of their vehicles.

On June 23rd, 2003, just after the wheat harvest, the 610 Office in Laishui County plotted with the Director of the Wangcun Township Police Department, Zhang Lian. Zhang led more than twenty people, accompanied by locals Kang Zhenhe and Hu Wenshen, into the village and raided Zhang Xiuling's home at 11 p.m. on June 28th. They took Ms. Zhang's son into custody, confiscated a photocopier, and broke through the gate of the old yard and searched the two yards. They even threw the 75kg cabbages into the well in their yard. Ms. Zhang's son was severely tortured and as a result he had incontinence, vomited blood and was emaciated. The 610 Office was afraid of his dying so they notified his family to take him home.

On June 23rd, 2006, Zhang Xiuling and Qiao Yongfu were forced to leave home and wander from place to place in order to avoid further persecution. Officials from the Laishui County 610 Office cut open one of the window screens and entered through the window into their house. They thoroughly searched the house, leaving a mess behind them.

At about 2 p.m. on December 4th, 2006, a jeep drove into the Zhaogezhuang Village in Wangcun Township and parked outside the house of local resident Zhang Huisen. Four people in their forties and fifties dressed in plain clothes, got out of the jeep and went directly to the home of Zhang Xiuling and Qiao Yongfu. They broke open the door and smashed all the windows, doors and some furniture. They also destroyed some of the electrical appliances. The noise of the smashing, the crashing of glass and the barking of dogs, intermingled to shock over ten villagers, who came to watch what was going on. While everyone stared, the gang removed the heads of spades and used the spade handles to smash glass and property, leaving the house a total mess. Within less than thirty minutes, a well-conditioned house became a total wreck. The officials also went to Mr. Qiao's old home. They broke through the door to ransack that house as well.

In June 2008, Zhang Xiuling and Qiao Yongfu returned home. Because he could not study Falun Gong or do the exercises, Ms. Zhang had a relapse of her former disease. Three days after she had an emergency treatment, officials from the 610 Office came to harass her and asked the couple if they still practised Falun Gong.

At about 12 p.m. on August 5th, 2008, the heads of the Village Committee, Jin Xuecai and Hu Jinrui, led more than ten policemen from the township police station in two vehicles and broke into Qiao Yongfu's home, wanting to arrest him. Mr. Qiao was not at home and only the half-paralysed Chang Xiuling was there. They went to neighbours' homes several times and didn't leave until they were assured that Mr. Qiao had not been seen.

Zhang Xiuling was subjected to various forms of torture and persecution, such as being beaten, her property being smashed and stolen as well as intimidation tactics. She was in a poor mental state and her health worsened daily. At about 11 a.m. on March 31st, 2009, she had a relapse and was taken to the hospital for emergency treatment. She passed away at 4 a.m. the next day.

Note

1. "The 610 office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

2. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/4/17/199123.html