Mr. Li Min, Harbin Public Servant, Persecuted to Death in 2009

Name: Li Min
Gender: Male
Age: 52
Address: Hulan District, Harbin, Heilongjiang
Occupation: Employee of Hulan District Finance Bureau
Date of Death: May 26th, 2009
Date of Most Recent Arrest: March 10th, 2005
Most Recent Place of Detention: Daqing Prison
City: Harbin
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Forced labour, brainwashing, beatings, hung up, imprisonment, torture, home ransacked, interrogation, detention

Mr. Li Min was a Falun Gong practitioner and a public servant with the Hulan District Finance Bureau, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province. Officers from the Hulan District Police Department arrested and interrogated him eight years ago using torture and sentenced him to eight years in prison. Mr. Li, 52, died in Daqing Prison on May 26th, 2009, as a result of persecution.

Mr. Li had been repeatedly arrested, detained, and imprisoned in labour camps and prisons for practising Falun Gong and exposing the persecution. He was incarcerated in the Hulan Detention Centre, Harbin No.1 Detention Centre, Harbin No.2 Detention Centre, Changlinzi Forced Labour Camp, Wuchang Brainwashing Centre, Hulan Prison, and Daqing Prison.

After Becoming a New Person from Practising Falun Gong, Repeatedly Arrested for Exposing the Persecution

Mr. Li and his wife, Ms. Du Xiuzheng, started to practise in 1998, and his cerebral thrombosis symptoms disappeared.

He followed the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance in his life, which totally changed him. He no longer took advantage of publicly funded dinners, he quit drinking and gambling, and he went straight home after work. He even washed his own clothes, though before that he had never done any household chores. His wife was happy and told others that Li Min had became a new person.

Mr. Li was in charge of financing grain systems in the Finance Bureau. It was an unspoken rule for subordinate companies in the grain system to give their superiors gifts at every holiday. Mr. Li refused to accept any of the gifts. At first, people neither believed nor understood him. He repeatedly explained that it was the required behaviour of a Falun Gong practitioner. Employees with the subordinate companies were all shocked.

After Jiang Zemin's, [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] regime began persecuting Falun Gong in 1999, his supervisors pushed him to give up cultivation practice. His family was also worried about him. Mr. Li did not give up despite the pressure. He went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong on December 9th, 2001. He was first arrested by officers from the Qianmen Police Department in Beijing, then transferred to the Hulan District Police Department and detained at the Hulun Detention Centre. On January 6th, 2001, he was sentenced to one year of forced labour and imprisoned in Changlinzi Forced Labour Camp, where he had to do slave labour.

After he was released, Mr. Li kept exposing the persecution to the Chinese who had been poisoned by the lies of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He used his own money to make Falun Gong materials. Although he lived frugally, he did not hesitate to spend money to help people see the truth.

Officers Intent on Fabricating a Major Case Torture the Couple during Interrogation

Deputy director of the Hulan District Police Department Jiang Jimin, chief of the Domestic Security Division Chen Zhaolin, political commissar Lu Wenxue, and a dozen other officers arrested Mr. Li in his office on the afternoon of March 10th, 2005, in the Hulan District Finance Bureau. They handcuffed him and took his house key. The director of the Guangming Police Station, Wang Zhongsen, and a dozen officers broke into his home. They pushed his wife, Ms. Du Xiuzhen, down, handcuffed her, and searched their home. They made a mess and took their computers, printers, printer paper, Falun Gong books, and truth clarification materials. The officers confiscated belongings worth more than 20,000 yuan¹, plus more than 6,000 yuan cash.

Yan Tinghui, Xu Xingwu, and other officers from the Hulan Domestic Security Division stayed at Mr. Li's home with the intention of arresting other practitioners. They lived in Mr. Li's home for three days and nights and did damage in the house.

Intending to fabricate a major case, the officers tortured Mr. Li and Ms. Du during their interrogations. They tried to force them to name other practitioners and make false statements. They hung them by their handcuffs separately in two rooms and brutally beat them. The couple could hear each other screaming. They later learned they had been in the Wuchang City Brainwashing Centre. The main perpetrators were head Fu Yanchun, Yao Zhenshan, Zhu Xianfu, Han Guang, Jing Ji, Jiang Zhanhai, and Shi Xingfu. They cuffed Mr. Li's hands and feet to the four corners of a bed, beat him with hard white plastic tubes, grabbed his hair, stuffed his mouth, and burned him with cigarettes. They tortured him for 24 hours. Mr. Li fainted several times. There were black and blue marks were all over his body. Mr. Li and Ms. Du suffered brutal beatings and various torture methods in the following five and a half months. No legal procedures were observed.

An Attempt to Extort Money

Five and a half months later, Fu Yanchun; Zhang Yaobin, an officer with the Sixth Division of Harbin Police Department; Qi Jiamin, director of the Harbin City 610 Office; and Zhang Jinfeng, director of the Heilongjiang Province 610 Office, started to extort money. Fu repeatedly told the couple, “You will be free if you are willing to pay.”

Officers with the Sixth Division of the Harbin Police Department Zhang Yaobin, Xing Jianwu, Wu Jian, and Li Shuxin visited the Wuchang Brainwashing Centre several times. Zhang talked to Mr. Li in private at every visit. He said that if Mr. Li paid up, he could “work a deal,” since this was the only way they could be free. Qi Jiamin and Zhang Jinfeng each went twice to the brainwashing centre and talked to Mr. Li in private, saying that, if Mr. Li was willing to spend money and cooperate with them, he would be free and back home. Fu Yanchun phoned Mr. Li's son, Li Lingyu, three times and told him to go the the brainwashing centre and discuss with his father how to give money to Zhang Yaobin, Qi Jiamin, and others. Fu even gave him those people's phone numbers. They did not get any money.

Sentenced to Eight Years, Persecuted to Death after Four Years in Prison

Mr. Li and Ms. Du were sentenced to eight years in prison by the Hulan District Court on May 12th, 2005. Ms. Du has been imprisoned in the Heilongjiang Women's Prison. Mr. Li was taken first to the Hulan Prison, then to Daqing Prison.

Mr. Li suffered from persistent pain because he had injuries all over his body as a result of the beatings. He was admitted several times to the Daqing Prison Hospital.

His condition became critical in 2009. Daqing Prison first agreed to release him on medical parole, but later refused to release him because the Hulan District 610 Office and Hulan Police Department would not sign the document to monitor him. Mr. Li died in the Seventh Ward of Daqing Prison on May 26th, 2009.

It has been over 13 years since the Jiang regime began persecuting Falun Gong. Mr. Li Min's family is one of the millions of victims.

Note

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