17-Year-Old Ms. Zhang Tongtong Detained for Brainwashing -- Authorities Extort Huge Sum From Her Family to Secure Her Release

Ms. Zhang Tongtong, 17 years old, is a Falun Dafa practitioner from Mengyin County, Shandong Province. On July 20, 2003, she went to Beijing to appeal to the government on behalf of Falun Gong and was arrested by the Beijing Public Security Branch Bureau. She was brought back to Mengyin County and sent to a brainwashing centre.

Ms. Zhang Tongtong went on a hunger strike to protest the illegal arrest. She asked to see her family members and asked for her release. At around noon on the third day of her detention, her father (not a practitioner) was told to go visit her. The "610 Office" chief, Lei Yancheng, threatened Tongtong's father: "If your daughter doesn't start eating, you will not be leaving here." Zhang Tongtong told them, "If you don't let my father go, I will not eat." Jiao Yuxiang, deputy chief of the "610 Office," said to her sarcastically, "You think you are still qualified to bargain with us?"

Several days later, Tongtong's father came to visit her again. Lei Yancheng threatened him again, "If your daughter is not being transformed, you won't be leaving here!" Her father said, "If you detain me illegally for twenty-four hours, I can go to court to sue you for your abuse of power." Lei laughed and said, "That is funny! You are going to sue me? I am the law here, what I say is what counts. Also there is a secret order from Jiang Zemin that we don't have to follow the law when it comes to dealing with Falun Gong affairs. Go ahead and sue me, nobody will bother with you." Lei Yancheng then had him imprisoned for ten days.

During their imprisonment, both father and daughter were verbally abused by Lei Yancheng.They were beaten and forced to watch films slandering Falun Dafa and spreading lies about the staged Tiananmen Square self-immolation. They were forced to write down what they "learned", brainwashed every night, and deprived of sleep. Lei used different tactics on Tongtong's father. At one instant, Lei would say to Tongtong's father, "We won't beat your daughter, since she is only a child. Let's work together to educate her and save her." But later, Lei would threaten her father, "We are following Jiang's policy that it doesn't matter if we kill a Falun Gong practitioner, and those who are killed can be counted as suicide. Although I don't have the power to kill you, I can have your daughter sentenced for ten or eight years in prison." This kind of treatment exhausted her father both mentally and physically.

After they detained her father for ten days, they told him to go home and to bring fifteen thousand yuan in exchange for her release; otherwise, Zhang Tongtong would be sent to Jinan Forced Labour Camp for two years. They also told him that the order for her daughter to be sent to the forced labour camp had been approved. Later on, no one from Zhang Tongtong's family was allowed to visit her. Lei also threatened Zhang Tongtong by saying, "You are being sentenced to two years of forced labour. If you are not reformed, we will send you to the labour camp." Lei and his subordinates used lies, trickery, intimidation and extortion against her family, and in the meantime subjected her to brainwashing.

On August 26, 2003, Zhang Tongtong's father managed to borrow fifteen thousand yuan, which is a huge sum of money for a poor village family. Lei and his subordinates were overjoyed and divided up the money among them. Mr. Zhang wasn't given any receipt or documentation for the money.

Now, Zhang Tongtong's family is deeply in debt, and her father blames her for causing their family such a burden. This has created a tremendous amount of pressure for Tongtong. Another family is being torn apart as a result of the persecution.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/9/16/84320.html