The Plight of a Family in Hebei Province

By Li Shuxia, a Falun Dafa practitioner from Qiantong Town, Yanshan County, Hebei Province

My family lives in Qiantong Town, Yanshan County, Hebei Province. In August of 1998 I was the first in my family to practise Falun Gong, then my husband followed in my footsteps. Through studying the teachings of Falun Dafa our minds and bodies have been purified.

Even though the persecution against Falun Gong started on July 20, 1999, we still studied the teachings and practised the exercises. Because of this, the Yanshan County police harassed us many times. My family has suffered greatly at the hands of the lawless authorities.

On December 31, 2000, my husband and I went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. I was arrested and detained for more than three months in Beijing. While I was being detained, Liu Guoqing from my local police station led a gang of people to ransack my home. Our agricultural machinery and other personal belongings were taken away. My son held on to his favorite sheep and begged them to let him keep it, but they took it from him anyway. They saw a suitcase and a neighbour said, "Don't take the suitcase. There's money in it." When they heard the word "money" they took the suitcase with them right away. The crowd reprimanded them for behaving like gangsters. Because my home was stripped clean, my son was forced to leave school because he could no longer afford the school fees.

In October 2002, the Yanshan County police again climbed over a wall to enter my home. They made an arrest and ransacked my home. My fourteen-year old son cried and shouted in protest, so they stuck a dirty rag used for wiping the car into his mouth. They handcuffed him in the basement of the police station. They hit, scorned, and interrogated him in an attempt to get information about other local Dafa practitioners. After my son staged a hunger strike for two days they released him. Then they threatened my boy's grandfather, saying, "Send the kid back again to the police station in a couple of days." As a result my son ran away from home and had to beg for food on the streets. Zhang Xinping from the political security office of the police station claimed to have sent my son to a juvenile detention facility until they can sentence him as an adult.

My husband Liu Huanjie, who was also arrested for going to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, was first detained in a police station for about five days and then sent to the Yanshan Detention Centre. After a few days he was taken to the basement of a police station for an interrogation session that lasted eleven days. We never could find out what kind of cruel tortures the police subjected him to, but we heard that they wouldn't let him sleep for eleven days. When family members visited him, we saw that his eyes were red, swollen, and bloodshot. Afterwards, unknown to any of his family members, the police tried him in secret and illegally sentenced him to ten years.

I didn't give any statement during the police interrogation. Zhang Xinping threatened me and said, "Even without a statement we can still sentence you." Later they sent me to a detention centre where I held a hunger strike to protest. After the chief of the centre slapped me in the face, I was forced to sit in a big metal chair. The back of the chair was tilted, so a person could only maintain a half-seated posture. At the top and bottom of the chair were two iron hoops to keep a person's legs and arms straight. Both of my ankles were stuck in an iron hoop. One belt immobilized each knee and another compressed the chest and made it difficult to breathe. Both arms were twisted backwards and the wrists were handcuffed to the two upper hoops. They wouldn't let you out of the chair even if you needed to use the toilet. An average person usually would not be able to endure it for more than 24 hours. I was tied up there for about forty hours. After that, they put me in a metal cage. The cage was about 60 centimeters in width. It was wide enough for me to stand, but it was too narrow if I wished to sit down, as I would be sandwiched tightly. No matter whether metal chairs or metal cages, in the winter they were always put in the corridor day and night. I was still subjected to force-feeding when I was in the iron cage. One day Zhang Xinping came with a warrant for arrest, forced my hands out of the cage, and pressed my fingers to make fingerprints on the warrant. They locked me in the cage for four to five days. It was only after I vomited blood that they let me out.

As soon as I got back to my village, however, the Yanshan County Police Station instructed Zhang Moxiang, the local police chief, to again lead policemen to make an arrest. At midnight they first went to my parents' home to find me, but to no avail. They again came to my village at midnight. They climbed over a wall to enter my sister-in-law's home and smashed the doors and windows. I was not home at the time, so their efforts were futile.

On November 16, 2003, I was at a fellow practitioner's home and was recognized by Liu Zhenming from the police station. (That day a gang of policemen was searching each household for Dafa practitioners). They took me away by force and once again sent me to a detention centre. I was again tied to the metal chair and subjected to the torture of force-feeding every day. The wide tube they used for force-feeding was forced up into my nose and down into my stomach and it was very painful. They released me after eleven days, but they still keep me under surveillance, so I am deprived of my freedom.

The policemen who directly participated in the persecution:

The Yanshan County Police Station, Hebei Province: Gao Chongde, 86-317-6228593 (home)

Liu Zhenming: 86-317-6226882 (home), 13931781316 (mobile)

Zhang Xinping: 86-317-6226559 (home)

Qiantong Police Station in Yanshan County, Hebei Province: 86-317-6370110

Chief of Qiantong Police Station, Yanshan County, Hebei Province: Zhang Moxiang

Instructor of Qiantong Police Station, Yanshan County, Hebei Province: Liu Guoqing

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/1/21/65335.html