Chinese Villagers Defy Officials, Support Falun Gong

Li Lankui is a longtime resident of Donganfeng Village. He once suffered from a slipped disc that caused such pain he was bedridden for two years, according to the Falun Gong website en.minghui.org, which is the source for the information in this article about Li’s case. Being in constant pain and with the pressure of providing for his children and his elderly parents, Li was known to have a nasty temper.

After Li began practising the spiritual discipline of Falun Gong, his back pain disappeared and his temper improved. The entire area came to admire this man who made his living collecting scrap.

On June 1st officers from the 610 Office—a Communist Party organ created for the purpose of eradicating the practice of Falun Gong in China—arrived at Li’s home and tried to arrest him. Villagers surrounded the officers, who after a time retreated. They returned before dawn on June 7th, though, and abducted Li.

The arrest was made in connection with a planned visit to the area by the presumptive next head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Xi Jinping, and Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad. The 610 officers were following standard CCP procedure—arresting those who might protest in the presence of high officials.

The villagers wrote a petition asking for Li Lanqui’s release, and 700 of them signed their names and affixed their thumbprints in ink to it. Imprinting thumbprints is a traditional way in China of signing an important document.

The villagers also sent a letter to Gov. Branstad, asking him to intervene with his friend Xi Jinping on Li’s behalf.

At a hearing before the Foreign Relations Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives on July 25th, a copy of the Donganfeng villagers’ petition was presented as evidence of how the Chinese people are beginning to resist the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong.

The Party responded to the petition by sending senior officials from the Political and Legal Affairs Committee (the Party organ with authority over almost all aspects of law enforcement in China) to intensify the persecution of Falun Gong.

Li Lankui was sentenced to one year and three months in the Shijiazhuang City Forced Labour Camp, where he is reported to have suffered torture. His wife and daughter were also arrested and tortured.

After the petition to free Li Lankui appeared at the U.S. congressional hearing, a team of officers began knocking on every door in the area. They demanded to know who had organized the petition and threatened that whoever signed it would be in trouble.

Sixteen Falun Gong practitioners from the area have been arrested and are reported to have been tortured. Yang Yinqiao fell to her death when police broke into her fifth floor apartment and tried to abduct her.

The villagers and others in the area have not backed down. They submitted to authorities a second petition with 306 thumbprints, and then a third with 903 thumbprints. Recently, a fourth petition was submitted. This one had 1,108 signatures, of which 622 were thumbprints.

Among those who signed was an official from the Party’s township government. At the place where the petition signatures were collected, he said, “Falun Gong practitioners are widely recognized by locals as good people for their belief in truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. I can’t be involved in harming Falun Gong. Those 610 officials and policeman don’t do normal things. In order to rescue Falun Gong practitioners, I sign.”

A woman in her 60s said, “I must sign. This is a good thing: Harming others is against the will of heaven. I must sign.” She added, “I know Falun Gong is good. I support you.”