Zhou Xiangyang's Brother and Sister-In-Law Detained In Langfang City Brainwashing Centre

On November 21st, police from Changli County in Qinhuangdao, Hebei Province arrested Mr. Zhou Xiangyang's elder brother, Zhou Xiangdang, and his wife, Li Xiangling, along with three practitioners who were visiting his elderly mother. It was said that the Tangshan Police Department sent out an order to investigate the organiser of a joint letter asking for Zhou Xiangyang's release. This investigation effort was being coordinated by the central regime authorities.

The three arrested practitioners have escaped while Ms. Li Xiangling held a hunger strike on November 21st-30th. On November 30th, Chang Xingliang, the head of the Changli County 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong), and agents Zhang Xueping and Zhang Zhihong took Mr. Zhou Xiangdang and his wife, Ms. Li Xiangling, to the Langfang City Brainwashing Centre.

Mr. Zhou's elderly mother went to the Domestic Security Division office every day to ask for the release of her son and daughter-in-law. Officers Chang Xingliang and Zhao Guoyun tried to deny their involvement and shirk their responsibility.

On the afternoon of November 21st, Zhao Guoyun, head of the Domestic Security Division, and a dozen police officers in three cars went to Mr. Zhou's parents' house. Ms. Li had to use the toilet and two male officers tried to follow her, but Mr. Zhou stopped them.

The police subsequently went to Mr. Zhou's house to wait for his return. He had gone out to repair electric appliances and returned home at around 7:00 p.m. Zhao Guoyun lied, saying that Mr. Zhou was only required to go to the police station to answer a few questions to update records and would be allowed to return home afterward. Mr. Zhou and his wife were thus conned into getting into the police car. That night, they were taken to Changli County Detention Centre; their family was not informed.

Two days later, seven to eight police officers, along with village Party heads Li Zhenxin and Li Zhenhe, went to Mr. Zhou's mother's house pretending to comfort the elderly lady.

They told her that Mr. Zhou and his wife would only be detained for several days and that Mr. Zhou had taken a ride in someone's car to give out Falun Gong brochures. When his family went to ask for their release, they were told several times that the couple's whereabouts were unknown.

A man on the street shouted, “It is hard to find a good person like Zhou nowadays. Yet a good person like him is arrested. It is truly unjust. Now we citizens have no place to make appeals.”

A middle aged woman agreed, loudly saying, “Zhou Xiangdang is a good man. Every one of us should sign a petition asking for his release.”

His neighbours said, “Both husband and wife are such good people. The regime has treated them unfairly. The Chinese Communist Party is falling into disfavour with the Chinese people.”

Background information:

Mr. Zhou Xiangyang was sentenced to nine years in prison in May 2003 for distributing leaflets exposing the persecution. He was brutally tortured in Gangbei Prison in Tianjin.

In July 2009, Mr. Zhou was released on medical parole due to his extremely poor health, which was a consequence of the persecution he was subjected to in prison. On March 5th, 2011, he was again arrested and taken to Gangbei Prison. He had just married, and his wife, Ms. Li Shanshan, kept making appeals to rescue her husband, whose life was in danger.

In June of this year, Ms. Li wrote an open letter titled, “A Young Man's Painful Experience: Seven Years of Waiting, Nine Years of Unjust Prison Sentence.” In the letter she talked about the benefits that practising Falun Gong had brought them and the brutal persecution they suffered throughout these years. This letter was subsequently published in nearly ten overseas media publications.

When villagers in Mr. Zhou's hometown of Changli County, Hebei Province ,read his wife's letter, they were shocked by what he had gone through and signed a petition asking for his release. By the end of September, nearly 2,300 people had signed the petition.

According to sources within the regime, this show of public support for Falun Gong is viewed as a major incident of the past 12 years. It unnerved officials at the top levels of the regime and hence the central 610 Office put pressure on Tangshan City and Qinhuangdao City police to jointly suppress the rescue effort.

Since mid-October, local police have harassed and threatened everyone who signed the petition and prevented Mr. Zhou's mother from visiting him. On October 29th, police from the Tangshan Domestic Security Division seized Ms. Li Shanshan from her stall in the Xintiandi Market and subsequently sentenced her to two years of forced labour. She was first detained at the First Forced Labour Camp in Hebei Province, then transferred to Hebei Province Women's Forced Labour Camp in late November.

Officers and officials involved in the persecution:
Chang Xingliang, head of Changli County 610 Office: +86-335-2982289 (Office), +86-15033352688, +86-13933632020
Zhao Guoyun, head of Changli County Domestic Security Division: +86-18932581702
Brainwashing center: +86-316-2168690
Han Zhiguang, head of Langfang City 610 Office and brainwashing centre: +86-316-2128956 (Home), +86-316-2025872 (Office)

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2011/12/23/250948.html