Older Practitioner in Shandong Province Sent to Forced Labour Camp

Name: Xu Yanjiang
Gender: Male
Age: 65
Address: Xinglong Village, Jinan City
Date of Most Recent Arrest: August 8th, 2012
Most Recent Place of Detention: Jinan Second Men's Forced Labour Camp
City: Jinan
Province: Shandong
Persecution Suffered: Forced labour, brainwashing, beatings, imprisonment, extortion, detention.

On August 4th, 2012, Mr. Xu Yanjiang, 65, from Xinglong Village, Jinan City, was arrested when he was distributing Shen Yun DVDs [a world-class traditional Chinese cultural show] and taken to the Zhangzhuang Detention Centre. Police said they would detain him for two weeks. His family went to relevant departments to seek his release, but each department just passed responsibility and refused to release him. Two weeks later, the Ganshiqiao Police Station secretly sent Mr. Xu to the Jinan Second Men's Forced Labour Camp. When the family found out where Mr. Xu was imprisoned and went to ask for his release, they were refused entry by the labour camp.

Mr. Xu Yanjiang originally had various illnesses: hepatitis, high blood lipid, and pharyngitis. He was unable to do any physical labour for years. He was hospitalized from time to time and had to take medication every day. After he began practising Falun Gong in 1998, all his illnesses were healed. He persisted in exposing the persecution of Falun Gong to the general public and thus was persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This was the fourth time he was arrested. His previous arrests were due to clarifying the truth in Beijing and telling people about the goodness of Falun Gong. Twice, police had extorted money from him and beat him up.

On August 16th, 2012, Mr. Xu's family went to the detention centre and was told to pay 200 yuan¹ to have a meal with him in the detention centre; otherwise they would not be allowed to see him. The family agreed and finally met him.

When Mr. Xu was just arrested, he went on a hunger strike to protest. Prison guards at the detention centre worried about his health if he continued the hunger strike, as they knew the labor camp would not take him if he did not pass the physical examination. Guards knew the labour camp had previously refused to accept him in 2011 because he failed the physical examination. They figured that if Mr. Xu continued the hunger strike for two weeks, he would not be able to pass the physical examination, so they tried every means to persuade him to give it up. They even gave him tofu stew since he was not wearing dentures and couldn't eat hard food. They told him that if he wouldn't eat they would be disciplined. The kind-hearted Mr. Xu thus began to eat.

Guards told the family that he would be released on August 18th, but on that day the family did not receive any notification. That evening, police from the Ganshiqiao Police Station went to the Xinglong Village Committee, and also called Mr. Xu's family to join them. They told the family that Mr. Xu had been sent to a labour camp and wanted his wife to sign a document. When his wife refused, police went ahead and wrote Mr. Xu's wife's name on the document.

When the family asked about his whereabouts, police refused to give them any information. The family told them, “Xu Yanjiang was infected with hepatitis when he was thirty years old and was unable to do work. In addition, he had high blood lipids and needed to have blood transfusions every year, and the family could no longer afford the medical expenses. After he began practising Falun Gong, all his illnesses disappeared and he was able to resume work. As he had benefited from Gong, he told others about its goodness, hoping others would also benefit from practising it. What is wrong with that?” Police listened silently without saying anything and left.

On August 20th, Mr. Xu's family once again went to the Ganshiqiao Police Station to ask his whereabouts, but police just ignored them and wouldn't give them any answer.

On August 28th, his family found out that he was imprisoned in the Jinan Second Men's Forced Labour Camp. They went to the camp to inquire about him. The entrance guard checked for a long time and could not find his name. Later, the family told the guard that Mr. Xu was a Falun Gong practitioner. The guard asked why didn't they mention that in the first place? The guard then made a call and told them he had located him. Obviously, the CCP knew it was illegal to detain Falun Gong practitioners, so they did not list them in the formal public roster but put them instead in a separate book. As the pressure of voices of justice against the persecution from overseas becomes more urgent, the CCP has become more secretive in concealing their crimes.

When the family asked the entrance guard to let them in, the guard told them not to mention anything about Falun Gong being good, otherwise they would not be able to see him. When the family went inside, prison guards all acted in an intimidating manner. The guards told them to curse Falun Gong, otherwise they would not be allowed to see him. The family told them that his illnesses were healed because of practising Falun Gong, how could they curse Falun Gong? The prison guards told them that Mr. Xu had refused to be “transformed” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] and that they could not see him. Without any choice, the family left some clothes for him and left.

Still not giving up their efforts to see him, Mr. Xu's family visited the Ganshiqiao Police Station, Judicial Testimony Office, Civil Affairs Bureau, District Petition Office, and Provincial Department of Justice. All these departments evaded the issue and said it was not within their authority. Finally, the family contacted the Provincial Labour Camp Administrative Bureau. The personnel did not evade the issue and informed the family that what the labour camp had done was against the regulations. They told the family that the reason they could not see him was because they did not bring their permanent residence cards with them. But when the family went to the labour camp with their residence cards, the same thing happened again. The labour camp still acted perversely and would not let the family see Mr. Xu.

By this time, the family members realized that the Labour Camp Administrative Bureau had deceived them, so they went back to question the authorities as to why they lied to them. The authorities altered their previous explanation and said that each labour camp had its own regulations to be complied with. They also affirmed that if Falun Gong practitioners had not been “transformed,” then they would not be allowed to see their family. The family had no choice but to give up and went home.

Note

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