A Sixty-Year-Old Grandmother Is Persecuted and Has No One to Help Her

In Houshantun, Zhenxing Village, Zhaoyang Township, Zhaozhou County, Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, there is a 60-year-old grandmother who has had money extorted from her, who has been illegally imprisoned, persecuted, and harassed just because her family practises Falun Gong. Her son was sent to a forced labour camp, and she was left to look after her two young grandsons. With no one to help her, she went to various governmental departments every day to ask for help, but she was met with only verbal abuse and sarcasm.

Her son, Mr. Ma Hui, began practising Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) in January 1999 and benefited from it both mentally and physically. He was able to get over the pain of losing his wife and father and regained confidence in life. Later, Mr. Ma's mother and older sister also started practising Falun Gong. The family was living a happy, peaceful life.

However, the persecution of Falun Gong by Jiang's regime that started in July 1999 destroyed the Ma family's peaceful life. In June 2000, Ma Hui, his sister, mother, and Wang Shuying, another local practitioner, posted a few phrases near some pictures slandering Falun Dafa in the Harbin Museum; the phrases simply said, "Falun Dafa is good" and "Restore Teacher's reputation." They were all arrested, and Gao You, a police officer from Zhaoyang Township, and Lu Renhai, Secretary of the Zhenxing Village, took them back to the Zhaoyang Township Police Station. There the police beat them and humiliated them.

Officer Xu Qingjun grabbed Mr. Ma's mother's hair and slammed her head against a wall. Xu also kicked and verbally abused her. Mr. Ma, his sister, and mother were illegally imprisoned. Their detentions were prolonged several times. In August 2000, the Zhaozhou County officials sent Mr. Ma, his sister and mother to the Zhaozhou Brainwashing Centre. The officials used all kinds of ways to try to force them to give up Falun Dafa.

On January 1, 2001, the police in Beijing arrested Ms. Ma for going to Tiananmen Square and shouting "Falun Dafa is good." Later, Xing Deyou, a local police officer, now retired, and Lu Chuanguo, a captain from the People's Army of Zhenxing Village, took Mr. Ma back to Zhaoyang. Lu Chuanguo is the son of the Zhenxing Village Secretary, Lu Renhai, and is known as a local gangster. Even the local police and people from the local government dare not get on the wrong side of him. Lu Chuanguo arranged for his girlfriend to fly from Qingdao to Beijing so that she could travel with him. He also took her along when he went to Hebei to arrest Mr. Ma's mother, who was visiting her family in Shandong.

On their way to Changzhou City, Hebei Province, their car flipped over while making a turn. Though nobody was hurt, Xing Deyou and the others were frightened. Mr. Ma Hui tried to tell them not to go, as the accident was a warning from heaven that there would be consequences for their bad deeds. However, Xing and Lu insisted on going. When they arrived at Mr. Ma's house, Lu yelled at Mr. Ma's mother, "She flew all the way here and spent 5,000 yuan (1) on her trip so far. How could you resist the arrest'"

When they were in Beijing, Lu Chuanguo and others bought ten Peking ducks, expensive western desserts, and some local products. There were three big bags and Ma Hui was forced to carry them. They even humiliated Mr. Ma in public.

When they arrived in Harbin, Lu Chuanguo split the ducks and the other things they bought in Beijing into ten allotments (each worth about 200 yuan). Lu's girlfriend got two shares (one for herself and one for her family); Lu's father, Lu Renhai, got one; and a few people from the Zhaoyang Police Station and the Zhaoyang Township government received their shares. They split these things in front of Ma Hui and his mother.

Lu Chuanguo and Xing Deyou imprisoned Ma Hui in Zhaozhou County and wanted Mr. Ma to pay for all the expenses of the trip, including the flight for Lu's girlfriend, the expensive hotel room Lu and his girlfriend stayed in, the meals that cost more than 200 yuan each, and those three big bags of expensive purchases. Mr. Ma's cousin, who was a captain in a labour camp in Changzhou City, Hebei Province, warned Xing and others, "The country has rules regulating what you are doing, you can't just do whatever you want." Mr. Ma's cousin paid more than one thousand yuan out of his own pocket for Mr. Ma's expenses, in order to prevent Xing from "fining" Mr. Ma and his mother. However, Lu and Xing still confiscated 300 yuan from Mr. Ma.

Ma Hui had no other source income, just 20 acres of land. He had spent a lot of money for his wife's medical expenses before she passed away and had no savings left. He could barely pay the school fees and costs for his two children. Mr. Ma had two good horses at home; one of them was pregnant and had a market price of about 5,000-6,000 yuan. One night at around 11 o'clock, the Zhenxing Village Secretary, Lu Renhai and Ma Jinfang, an accountant, brought a horse dealer and took away Ma Hui's horses without his consent. They forced Ma Hui's brother to pay for the horses, otherwise they would sell the horses to the horse dealer. In the end, Ma Hui's brother paid Lu Renhai 2,600 yuan for the horses.

Zhaoyang Township police officers Gao You and Xing Deyou learned that the money Ma Hui had earned from selling his corn crop was at his brother's place. They and a few other people broke into Ma Hui's brother's house. The police threatened Ma Hui's brother and his family with a pistol, "If you don't hand over the money Ma Hui made selling the corn, we will arrest you." Mr. Ma's brother and his wife were farmers and were not Falun Gong practitioners. They practically kneeled down to beg the police but it did not help. The police extorted 1,470 yuan from them.

Mr. Ma's mother took her grandsons and went to the Village Secretary, Lu Renhai, "We have never done anything to you. I can pay for the expenses incurred by the police that went to Beijing to pick up my son, but I should not have to pay for the travel expenses of your girlfriend. You give the horses back to me and let's get the debts straight." Lu Renhai yelled, "You want your horses' I will not even give you your land!"

When Ma Hui's mother planned to go to court, Lu Renhai sent someone to watch her. The accountant (Ma Jinfang's son) told Ma Hui's mother that her son would be severely punished if she went to court. One time Lu Renhai even tried to kill Mr. Ma's mother with a knife.

Zhaoyang police officer Xing Deyou did not want to be responsible. He gave back the money he owed for his share of the souvenirs from Beijing (even though Lu tried to prevent it) and tried to calm Mr. Ma's mother, "Don't sue, old lady. I will get Ma Hui out. Just forget about it." Not long after that, Ma Hui was sentenced to two years of forced labour and sent to the Daqing City Forced labour Camp by the Zhaozhou County Police Department.

Ma Hui's mother and his children went to the Zhaoyang Township Police Department to ask for their money and horses back, since they were under severe financial hardship. They wanted the portion of travel expenses that Ma Hui was not supposed to pay for, so they could at least get something to eat. Unfortunately, Lu Chuanguo was in the station, and he hit Ma Hui's mother and broke her elbow. She fell to the ground and could not get up. Gao You, director of the police department, and others did nothing to help her.

After being injured, Ma Hui's mother went to the Zhaoyang Township government to appeal, but no one would take her case. She told Dan Fuli, who was in charge of persecuting Falun Gong in the township, that she was going back to her hometown, Qiqihar, until the injury was healed. She could not take care of her two grandsons anyway. Her neighbour and Ma Hui's brother would take care of her grandsons. Lu Renhai and his son, Lu Chuanguo, misunderstood and thought that Ma Hui's mother had sued them. Thus, they went to Ma Hui's brother's home every day to harass him.

After returning from Qiqihar, Ma Hui's mother went to the Zhaoyang Township Communist Party Commission Secretary, Liang Xueyi, who is currently the Vice-Chair of the Zhaozhou County Political Commission, and asked him to help get Ma Hui out of prison. She also asked Liang to help get the money back that Ma Hui paid for the trip to Beijing, because the family had nothing to live on anymore. Liang laughed at her, "Throwing him (Ma Hui) in the labour camp saved us a lot of worries." Ma Hui's mother then talked to Dong Zhiping in the Zhaozhou County Police Department. Dong refused to help her and denied any knowledge of what happened. Ma's mother went to the Zhaozhou County "610 Office" (2) and described her family's situation. Niu Yi of the 610 Office told her, "Nowadays there are lots of horse thieves. Just pretend that your horses were stolen!"

For the last 100 days, Mr. Ma's mother has gone to the county government every day to appeal and look for help. She has not received any help to date.

Name, work unit, telephone numbers of some of the perpetrators:

Niu Yi, Zhaozhou County "610 Office": 86-459-8523844 (Work), 86-13009905543 (Mobile)

Dong Zhiping, Zhaozhou County Police Department: 86-459-8526559 (Home),
86-459-8514874 (Work), 86-13904692782 (Mobile)

Gao You, Director of the Zhaozhou County Wanbao Township Police Station: 86-459-8525388 (Home), 86-13936945388 (Mobile).

Xu Qingjun, Zhaoyang Township Police Department: 86-459-8660100 (Home)

Lu Renhai, Secretary of Zhaoyang Township Zhenxing Village: 86-459-8660333 (Home)

Zhaoyang Township Police Department: 86-459-8660110

Government of the Zhaoyang Township Police Department: 86-459-8660023

Dan Fuli, Zhaoyang Township government, in charge of Falun Gong issues: 86-459-8660224 (Home)C86-13836826970 (Mobile).

Liang Xueyi, Zhaoyang Township Communist Party Commission Secretary, currently the Vice-Chair of the Zhaozhou County Political Commission: 86-459-8522897 (Home)C
86-13936933788 (Mobile).

Zhang Xuefu, Secretary of the Zhaoyang Township Communist Party Commission:
86-459-8660021 (Work)

(1) yuan: 500 yuan is the average monthly income for an urban worker in China.

(2) "610 Office": an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.