The Persecution of Mr. Yu Yaou, a Doctoral Student at the South China Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

In 2008, Mr. Yu Yaou, a doctoral student at the South China Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was arrested along with his wife Ms. Li Shanshan while visiting a friend in Guilin. The police took them to a brainwashing centre. After they returned home, Ms. Li was fired from her job and Mr. Yu, who was working on his research dissertation, has been constantly harassed and threatened.

Mr. Yu Yaou, 28 years old, is a Falun Gong practitioner from Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province. He began practising Falun Gong in 1998. He is a postgraduate candidate and close to graduation. Ms. Li Shanshan, also 28 years old, started practising Falun Gong in 2004. She has been employed as a laboratory technician at the South China Botanical Garden since 2007. They were married in 2005.

In June 2008, Mr. Yu and Ms. Li went to visit a practitioner friend in Guilin. Police officers from the Guilin Public Security Station arrested the couple in a motel, took them to the police station, and then to the Guilin No.3 Detention Centre. In the detention centre, the couple was forced to perform hard labour. Ms. Li refused to wear the prison uniform and to do the forced labour. The guards ordered other prisoners to beat and insult Ms. Li. They tortured her by shackling her hands and feet together.

On July 10th, Mr. Yu and Ms. Li returned to their home in Guangzhou. Ms. Li was fired from her job. The local 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong), Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and Botanical Garden Security Department personnel monitored them and followed them everywhere. Their neighbours and colleagues were also asked to monitor them. A dozen cars and several institute employees were specifically assigned to monitor the couple.

Police officers secretly searched the couple's home when they were out. They were followed everywhere, whether shopping or dining.

Mr. Yu is to graduate in January 2010, but the police have disrupted his research. They ordered him to write a "thought report," meet with the local police, and threatened him with his graduation and future job in order to make him stop practising Falun Gong. The 610 Office personnel even tried to make Mr. Yu's dissertation adviser pressure him to stop practising Falun Gong. Mr. Yu did not give in to any of these demands, and often talked to the persecutors about the goodness of Falun Gong in order to dispel the CCP's lies.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/11/30/213537.html