His Entire Family Persecuted, Mr. Liu Zhanyu, 57, from Inner Mongolia Dies

Name: Liu Zhanyu
Gender: Male
Age: 57
Address: Xiliu Village, Tuquan County, Inner Mongolia
Date of Death: January 18th, 2013
Date of Most Recent Arrest: November 11th, 2004
Most Recent Place of Detention: Weiningying Forced Labour Camp
City: Benxi
Province: Liaoning
Persecution Suffered: Electric shock, sleep deprivation, forced labour, brainwashing, beatings, imprisonment, torture, extortion, home ransacked, detention.

Mr. Liu Zhanyu died on January 18th, 2013, in the Bayuquan District, Yingkou City, Liaoning Province. His death was the result of years of brutal persecution by the Chinese Communist regime, simply because he and his family upheld their belief in the peaceful cultivation practice of Falun Gong.

Mr. Liu was a Falun Gong practitioner as is his wife, Ms. Zhang Wenling, and their three sons. The family benefited greatly from the practice, but they have been severely persecuted for their belief since 1999. Everyone in Mr. Liu's family has been arrested many times, sentenced to forced labour or prison, and severely tortured. Mr. Liu's right arm was disabled as a result of torture, and he suffered partial memory loss. His oldest son, Mr. Liu Fuli, sustained permanent injury to his right clavicle. His second son, Mr. Liu Fuming, lost all feeling in one leg. The persecution has rendered the family poor and homeless. They rely on doing odd jobs to survive.

Mr. Liu's wife, Ms. Zhang Wenling started practising Falun Gong in 1997 when she was 46. She took up the practice because she suffered many health problems, including arthritis, cervical discomfort, cholecystitis, nephritis, heart problems, and high blood pressure. Her ailments quickly disappeared after she started practising Falun Gong. Ms. Zhang's family witnessed the miracles that happened to her, so they all began to practise Falun Gong. After the persecution started, local officials frequently went to their home to harass them. The family moved to the Bayuquan District, Yingkou City in Liaoning Province to escape, but the nightmare continued.

Mr. Liu Zhanyu Sentenced to Forced Labour

On January 2001, local police besieged their home in the Bayuquan District. Mr. Liu's oldest son managed to flee, but the police confiscated the family's savings book with 6,000 yuan¹, a brand new mobile phone worth over 900 yuan, a mobile phone card worth more than 600 yuan, and a tricycle. They also confiscated 700 yuan in cash that the family had borrowed from their relatives. The family was taken to Honghai Police Station in the Bayuquan District, beaten, and were forced to return to their hometown.

The first time Mr. Liu was arrested was on October 16th, 2001, for talking to people about the truth behind the persecution of Falun Gong in Gaizhou City, Liaoning Province. He was taken to a police station in Gaizhou City to be interrogated. He was held in Gaizhou City Detention Centre for 15 days, during which time he was threatened, intimidated, deprived of sleep, forced to sit on a board for long periods of time, and tortured with the painful posture known as “fly an airplane” (standing bent over at 90 degrees with both hands pulled up from behind). Mr. Liu was taken to the Tuquan County Detention Centre in Hinggan League, Inner Mongolia, 119 days later. The guards ordered inmates to beat him and didn't allow him to sleep. He was sentenced to one year of forced labour on December 2001 and taken to Tumuji Forced Labour Camp in Inner Mongolia in January 2002. Mr. Liu was forced to do hard labour. He was force-fed salty water for asking to be exonerated.

In Tumuji Forced Labour Camp, the guards used all kinds of tactics to torture Mr. Liu in order to force him to renounce his belief. The tortures included: long term standing, having to continuously count numbers, reciting the camp regulations, standing under the baking sun for long periods of time, being beaten with electric batons. His hands were tied behind his back with a rope with one hand over his shoulder and the other hand forced up. A wooden stick was inserted in the middle of the rope to tighten it. His right clavicle was fractured, his shoulder blade broken and dislocated. He could not straighten his arms afterwards. The inmates also used the side of a wooden board to strike his arm, head, and body. He was injured in more than 20 places with 10 to 15-cm-long lacerations. One of his arms was swollen as big as his leg.

Mr. Liu's labour camp term was extended for one month and he returned home in 2003.

Sentenced to Two Years of Forced Labour Again

Mr. Liu Fuming, Mr. Liu Zhanyu's second son, was arrested by officers from the Tuquan County Police Department in Hinggan League, Inner Mongolia; the Yingkou City Police Department in Liaoning Province; and the Bayuquan Domestic Security Division on November 11th, 2004, and was taken a brainwashing centre in Ulanhot City, Hinggan League. The police deceived Mr. Liu Zhanyu into going to the police station by ringing him up and telling him that he had to fetch his third son's manpower tricycle from the police station. When he arrived, the police arrested him again.

Mr. Liu's home was ransacked, and his Falun Gong books, exercise tape, audiotapes, and other items were confiscated. He was taken to the Bayuquan Detention Centre. Fifteen days later he was sentenced to two years of forced labour and taken to the Weiningying Forced Labour Camp in Benxi City, Liaoning Province, where he was forced to do hard labour. He was also forced to watch the videos that slandered Falun Gong and to write “thought reports.” He was released two years later at the end of his term.

As a result of severe, repeated torture, Mr. Liu's right arm became disabled and his right shoulder prolapsed. There was a big lump on his clavicle. He lost his memory because of the electrical shocks and also from being beaten frequently on his head. His responded very slowly and needed constant reminders to do the most basic tasks. He also had headaches and had to take pills for his heart problem. When he got frightened, he would sweat profusely and have to lie down. Mr. Liu was so traumatised by the persecution that he was unable to recover his health, and he died at 3 a.m. on January 18th, 2013.

Mr. Liu's Wife Persecuted

Ms. Zhang Wenling was arrested for distributing materials explaining the facts about Falun Gong in the Dashiqiao area of Liaoning Province on January 9th, 2002. She was then taken to the Dashiqiao Detention Centre by officers from the Luwang Police Station and forced to work over 10 hours a day. She was sentenced to two years in Masanjia Forced Labour Camp five months after she was arrested.

All female Falun Gong practitioners were detained in the First, Second, and Third Teams in Masanjia; there were 1,500 practitioners in total. Ms. Song Yawen, who was sentenced to three years; Ms. Li Lan; and Ms. Zhang Fengyun were held there along with Ms. Zhang Wenling. The guards used many tactics to try to force practitioners to renounce their belief, including brainwashing, threats, forcing them to sit on a small stool for long periods of time, and making them watch videos that slandered Falun Gong. Practitioners were tortured in the Zhonghe Building.

Mr. Liu's Sons Persecuted

Mr. Liu Fuli, 23, and Mr. Liu Fuming, 21, are Mr. Liu Zhanyu's sons. They were arrested by the head of the county and officers from the local police department on September 16th, 2001, for talking to people about Falun Gong at Tuquan County in Inner Mongolia.

Both brothers were taken to the Limin Police Station in Tuquan County, where they were then separated. Zhang Dezhi, chief of the Tuquan Police Department, ordered more than 10 officers, including Zhang Qing, Pei Fucheng, Chen Guoxiang, Wang Jinghua, Yu Hailin, Yang Lichun, to interrogate them using torture. Officers took turns torturing Mr. Liu Fuli. They hung him up with his hands cuffed behind his back, kicked and punched him, and beat him with electric batons until he bled from his mouth and nose. One officer pushed his back to make him kneel down, but he refused. The police then started kicking his chest and grabbed his hair to pull him up, slapped his face countless times, hit his head and neck, hit his face with the soles of their shoes, and used electric batons to shock him. The police also put urine into a bottle, then forced it into his mouth. Later they put dirty, foul water into the bottle and ordered him to drink it, but he refused. When the police force-fed him, he nearly choked to death. He was beaten from 8 p.m. until 3 a.m. the following day.

The next morning, the police beat Liu Fuli again for two or three hours and then took him to the Tuquan County Detention Centre. The guard there ordered inmates to torment him by forcing him to recite the rules of the detention centre, making him take cold showers, and having stand on the concrete floor in his bare feet until 9 p.m. He had to sleep on a wooden board without a blanket, was forced to drink the water that other inmates washed their feet in, had to sit on a board for long periods of time, and had his hands cuffed behind his back with one hand forced over his shoulder and the other pushed up from his waist for more than 50 minutes. Then the guards would change his hands before handcuffing him again like that for another 50 minutes. The guards hit and kicked him, used a belt to whip him, used a beer bottle to beat him, and then took his clothes off, and used a broom to strike his genitals. The guards even claimed that they would burn him to death with gasoline and then tell outsiders that he self-immolated.

Mr. Liu Fuli was sentenced to three years in prison after being in the detention centre for 11 months. First taken to the Wulahada Prison, he was transferred to Bao'anzhao Prison in Inner Mongolia 20 days later. He was released in October 2004 with a disability.

Mr. Liu Fuming, the second son of Mr. Liu Zhanyu, had a similar experience. The police used a belt to lash his face and body for over an hour, and then his hands were cuffed behind his back, with one hand over his shoulder and the other forced up behind his back. The handcuffs cut so deeply into his wrist that one could see the bone. The police burned his arm with cigarette ends. They tied a belt to a chair with the other end of the belt around his neck, using the chair as a weight. The weight of the chair bent his back to 90 degrees. They poured boiling water over his head, dug into his eye sockets with their fingers, and opened his eyes with matchsticks to keep him from sleeping. The police grabbed his hair and pulled it out in clumps. They used a beer bottle to strike his face and head. He was beaten to the point of convulsions and passed out a few times. The police then poured cold water on him and shocked him with electric batons to resuscitate him, then continued to beat him. The torture started from 8 p.m. on September 16th until 6 a.m. the following day. Mr. Liu Fuming was taken to Tuquan County Detention Centre on the morning of September 17th.

Liu Fuming was severely beaten in the detention centre. The police grabbed his finger and forced him to put his fingerprint on a paper. He was sentenced to three years in prison nine months after he was arrested and taken to Wulahada Prison. He was transferred to Bao'anzhao Prison 20 days later. In an attempt to get him to give up his belief, the guards in the prison shocked him with electric batons and slapped his face. He ended up losing all feeling in his leg. Liu Fuming was released three years later after completing his term.

Youngest Son Persecuted

Mr. Liu Zhanyu's youngest son, Mr. Liu Fuzhong, 19, was arrested by officers from the Jinqiao Police Department in Dashiqiao City, Liaoning Province in November 2001 while exposing the persecution of Falun Gong. He was then taken to the Dashiqiao Detention Centre.

The police not only kicked Mr. Liu Fuzhong, they also ordered inmates to beat him also. They poured cold water on him just because he did the Falun Gong exercises there. He started a hunger strike to protest the persecution. He was then handcuffed, taken to a hospital, and brutally force-fed for a week. He was sentenced to one year of forced labour 26 days later and he was taken to the Fifth Team of Yingkou Forced Labour Camp in Liaoning Province. The guards there ordered inmates to make him recite the rules of the detention centre, forced him to sit on a small stool for long periods of time, and forced him to do slave labour for over 10 hours a day.

Mr. Liu Fuzhong was transferred to Weiningying Forced Labour Camp on November 22nd, 2002, after a year in Yingkou Forced Labour Camp. There were over 50 male practitioners there. The camp guards forced him to watch videos that slandered Falun Gong and tried to brainwash him. His sentence was up at the end of the year, but because his parents and brothers were all in labour camps, he was forced to stay there longer. He was released on January 2003. During that time, his father, Mr. Liu Zhanyu, was in Tumuji Forced Labour Camp in Inner Mongolia, His mother, Ms. Zhang Wenling, was in Masanjia Forced Labour Camp, and his two brothers were both in Bao'anzhao Prison in Inner Mongolia.

Note

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