Ms. Wang Jixiu, a School Teacher from Mengyin County, Shandong Province, Repeatedly Arrested and Tortured

Name: Wang Jixiu
Gender: Female
Age: 54
Address: Mengyin County, Shandong Province
Occupation: Schoolteacher
Date of Most Recent Arrest: December 26th, 2008
Most Recent Place of Detention: A forced brainwashing facility in Linyi City
City: Linyi
Province: Shandong
Persecution Suffered: Sleep deprivation, brainwashing, beatings, imprisonment, torture, extortion, job loss, physical restraint, home ransacked, interrogation, detention, denial of toilet use
Key Persecutors: Fang Simin, Mengyin County 610 Office Chief: 86-539-4811681 (Office), 86-13853931001 (Mobile), Lei Yancheng, Mengyin County 610 Office Chief: 86-539-4806956 (Home), 86-13905392183 (Mobile)

At around 3:00 p.m. on July 20th, 2011, two Falun Gong practitioners from Mengyin County, Linyi City, Shandong Province, Ms. Wang Jixiu and Mr. Zhang Mingxia, were arrested for practising Falun Gong while they were on Gongyiayuan Fifth Road in downtown Mengyin County. The police ransacked Ms. Wang's home, confiscated her personal collection of Falun Gong books, and took away her car. Mr. Zhang, on the other hand, was startled by the police actions and suffered a stroke. At the time of this writing, Mr. Zhang remains in ICU at Mengyin Hospital and Ms. Wang's whereabouts are unknown.

Ms. Wang Jixiu, an Elementary School Teacher, Cured of Herniated Lumbar Disc After Practising Falun Gong

Ms. Wang Jixiu used to be an elementary school teacher in Liuzhuanglian, Taoxu Town, Mengyin County, Shandong Province [before she was removed from her post for practising Falun Gong]. She is about 54 years old. Before she practised Falun Gong, she used to suffer from rheumatoid arthritis, lumbar disc hernia in the neck and lower back, hyperostosis, arrhythmia and gastritis. When she was diagnosed with lumbar disc hernia in 1995, she became bed-ridden and dependent on others. Her husband was working in a different city at the time, so she was left to the care of her elderly mother-in-law. Her family could do nothing but watch her suffer in agony.

In 1996 Ms. Wang started to practise Falun Gong, and soon she became free of illness. She looked like a completely different person, with a fair and healthy complexion and having returned to her normal weight. Her health transformation brought joy to the entire family, who was now relieved. Joy and laughter returned to her family.

Arrest, Torture, and Extortion After Appealing for Falun Gong in Beijing

As someone who has been practising Falun Gong and benefiting from its cultivation practice, Ms. Wang Jixiu decided to travel to Beijing and exercise her constitutional right to share important facts about Falun Gong and to reverse the false accusations against Falun Gong and Falun Gong's founder. On January 13th, 2001, Ms. Wang boarded a train to Beijing.

However, the suppression against Falun Gong reached its peak in 2001. There was no opportunity [at the State Appeals Office] for Falun Gong practitioners to have their voice heard by the Chinese Communist government. Therefore, practitioners went to Tiananmen Square, the most open space in Beijing, and shouted out "Falun Gong is good", hoping to be heard. Unfortunately police officers in uniform and civilian clothing roamed Tiananmen Square and arrested everyone who spoke for Falun Gong immediately. Ms. Wang Jixiu was arrested, as well. On January 14th, she was arrested at Tiananmen Square and incarcerated without food or water. She was later transferred to Mengyin by Mengyin police and incarcerated again by the Mengyin County 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong), where she was tortured.

After she was incarcerated, Lei Yancheng (male) had her handcuffed with one leg between her arms and then put foot shackles on her. She was unable to stand up straight or sit. She was forced to keep bending over for long periods of time. Sometimes 610 Office agents would even add verbal insults and beatings to the torture. One day a torturer shouted at her, "Wang Jixiu, look, who has come?" When Ms. Wang did not respond, the torturer kicked her in the head. Later on, Fang Simin from the 610 Office denied her sleep and the right to use the toilet. Ms. Wang would be forced to stand more than 10 hours a day. After a few days, Ms. Wang started to have diarrhoea and asked to use the toilet, but they ignored her plea. One torturer even made sarcastic remarks, "Are you practising the principle of forbearance? Why don't you forbear?" She had no choice but to relieve herself in her trousers. One could imagine how she felt afterwards in the middle of January in northeastern China. Because she was denied the right to use the toilet, Ms. Wang decided to go on a hunger strike. In response, Xing Xianying, the deputy chairman of the 610 Office, and Fang Simin accused her of "not cooperating" and escalated the level of torture. For example, Xing Xianying repeatedly slapped Ms. Wang's face and Fang Ximing organised a group of people to punch and kick her. They kicked her back and forth in the room. Her head repeatedly hit the concrete wall. In the next few days, she was unable to move at all.

Around February 3rd, the 610 Office finally summoned a physician to check on her. The physician declared that she was in critical condition. The 610 Office did not want her to die in their custody, so they notified Ms. Wang's family to pick her up.

After she returned home, Ms. Wang remained in critical condition, but the 610 Office did not leave her alone. The forced brainwashing facility operated by the 610 Office extorted 5,000 yuan¹ from her family as "bail". Next Mo Guangli, former Deputy Mayor of Taoxu Town, demanded 15,000 yuan as the fine for going to Beijing and appealing for Falun Gong. Ms. Wang's family could not afford to pay. Her husband produced a statement that showed the amount of her teacher's salary that Taoxu Town had not paid. But Mo Guangli insisted that they pay the "fine". Her husband had no choice but to borrow money from his old classmates and friends to pay. However, the 610 Office did not leave her alone. With threats to fire her husband from his job and send him to a forced labour camp, they made Ms. Wang go to a forced brainwashing facility in an attempt to her make her renounce Falun Gong.

Ms. Wang Leaves Town after Being Tortured in the Forced Brainwashing Facility

Ms. Wang gave in to the threat and went to the forced brainwashing facility operated by the Mengyin County 610 Office. She faced psychological torments worse than physical ones. Every day she was forced to watch video programmes slandering Falun Gong. Afterwards she was made to insult and renounce Falun Gong in writing. She gave in to the pressure and transcribed in tears an article renouncing Falun Gong. After that, Yan Leicheng and Fang Simin made her an aide in brainwashing other Falun Gong practitioners.

After 40 days Ms. Wang was at the brink of breaking down. But Lei Yancheng and Fang Simin still would not leave her alone. She could not face the psychological torture any longer. She decided to flee and go into hiding.

She returned home after hiding at a friend's home for two weeks, but she was spotted and reported to the police. She was arrested and sent to the forced brainwashing facility once again. A group of people led by Fang Simin forced her left hand to the ground to make her squat on a pile of ashes, while they punched and kicked her in attempts to make her tell them whose home she had been hiding in. She was forced to squat on top of a pile of ashes in the middle of the winter throughout the night. She fled the next night.
Over the following four years, her teacher's salary was suspended by the 610 Office. Even the elementary school principals in Liuzhuanglian faced discipline because she was a schoolteacher.

Tortured Again at the End of 2008

At around 11:30 a.m. on December 26th, 2008, Ms. Wang Jixiu was just finishing visiting her cousin, Ms. Zhang Rongqiu, 58, a retired employee from Mengyin Credit Union. She was about to leave her cousin's place when Wang Wei, a policeman from Mengyin County Public Security Bureau, showed up with about a dozen men and arrested her and her cousin without an arrest warrant. They were taken to Mengyin Police Station. They took her purse and found her house key. The police entered her home while no one was home and confiscated a copy of the Falun Gong book Zhuan Falun, a photograph of Falun Gong's founder, an electronic book reader that she used to study Falun Gong books, and a MP3 player with Falun Gong exercise music on it.

That afternoon, Zhang Yong, the chairman of the Mengyin County 610 Office, and Du Zhongtai, a police officer from Mengyin Police Station, subjected Ms. Wang and her cousin to interrogation. Ms. Wang refused to give them any information. Instead, she shared with them her personal experiences of practising Falun Gong and how much she has benefited from the practice. That night she was locked behind a metal gate inside an office without any heating. Ms. Wang was experiencing a heavy flow of menstrual bleeding. In fact, she had been bleeding for about seven days. She had to change her sanitary napkins nine times that night. Ms. Wang was becoming increasingly weak after heavy menstrual bleeding for seven days and staying overnight in a room without heat. But the next day she was transferred to a forced brainwashing facility operated by the Linyi 610 Office.

The staff of the facility took turns trying to brainwash her. Ms. Wang remained steadfast in her faith. She simply shared her personal experiences of practising Falun Gong with compassion in the hope of saving them from the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) lies. But she was becoming extremely frail after four days of torture, diarrhoea, and heavy menstrual bleeding. She could not sleep. Her heart rate became faster. She insisted on being released and told them that they would be fully responsible if something should happen to her. The Linyi 610 Office did not want to face any consequences, so they asked the Mengyin County 610 Office to pick her up. On December 31st, 2008, Fang Simin and Ms. Wang's husband picked her up. She was finally released.

Before she left Linyi, the head of the brainwashing facility insisted, "Remember, we did not beat you or curse you." These words revealed their fear.

When Ms. Wang Jixiu was arrested, she had 24 yuan and about 8 Falun Gong amulets in her purse, but they were never returned after Wang Wei, a police officer from Mengyin County Public Security Bureau, took her purse. Before she was released, Ms. Wang's husband was forced to pay 2,000 yuan.

Relevant individuals involved in the persecution of Ms. Wang:

Peng Bo, standing member of the Mengyin CCP Committee and secretary of the Mengyi CCP Political and Legal Committee: 86-539-4273690 (Office), 86-13583997936 (Mobile)
Wang Delu, deputy secretary of the Mengyin Political and Legal Committee: 86-539-4271456 (Office), 86-13953954910 (Mobile)
Zhang Yuanxue, Mengyin police chief: 86-539-4818801, 86-13705397128 (Mobile) 86-539- 4818901
Li Baoyuan, chairman of the Mengyin 610 Office: 86-539-4811681 (Office), 86-13953958936 (Mobile)
Sun Shuai, deputy chairman of the Mengyin 610 Office: 86-539-4811681 (Office), 86-13173095056 (Mobile)
Zhang Yong, captain of the Domestic Security Team: 86-13953906866 (Mobile)
Liu Heyan, deputy captain of the Domestic Security Team: 86-13954993678 (Mobile)
Wang Wei, a thug hired by the 610 Office: 86-13563979797 (Mobile)

Note

1. "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://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2011/7/26/244502.html