A Family of Practitioners is Severely Persecuted in Weifang City, One Beaten to Death

[Editor's note: Ms. Zhang Yufang's sister-in-law is Ms. Chen Zixiu, whose death was reported on Wall Street Journal by Ian Johnson and is well-known outside China.]

In Weifang City, which is notorious all over the world for brutally persecuting Falun Gong practitioners, unlawful officials performed yet another travesty of justice.

On the morning of October 14, 2004, personnel from the Weifang City Police Department and the "610 Office" broke into practitioners Li Hengnan's and Zhang Yufang's house. They abducted the couple and another visiting practitioner, Ms. Zhang Huiping, who is about 40 years old and works at the Weifang City Electric Meter Plant. They ransacked the house. According to witnesses, the three were pushed into a car with their arms twisted behind them, and Li Hengnan's buttons were torn off. Currently they are being detained in a brainwashing class.

Acquaintances of Mr. Li Hengnan and his wife Mrs. Zhang Yufang affirmed that they are upright and eager to help others. Li Hengnan is 61 years old now and retired from the Weifang City Statistics Bureau. He used to suffer from spinal osteoarthritis. A pinched nerve in his left arm caused his arm to go numb for so long that his muscles atrophied. His 56-year-old wife is a retired staff member of the Weifang City Electric Meter Plant. She suffered from a serious case of inflammatory arthritis in her shoulder and could not take care of herself. She also suffered serious nervous headaches and was sometimes in extreme pain. The couple tried all kinds of medical treatments but to no avail. Although their financial condition was fairly good, they lived unhappy lives. Their son Li Jiangang had been a menace to society from a very early age. Instead of having a proper job, he engaged in fighting, drinking, and gambling. Li Hengnan often needed to go to the police station to pay a fine and bail out his son. All this caused the couple much anxiety.

After the couple started practising Falun Gong in 1995, however, everything changed. The stubborn diseases that had tortured them for years disappeared without a trace. Meanwhile, the principles of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" uplifted their sense of morality and helped them become more broadminded. They were especially glad that their son Li Jiangang totally changed after he began to cultivate Falun Gong in January of 1999. He gave up all his bad habits and followed the principles of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" all the time. When others treated him badly, he was tolerant and magnanimous. He changed into a just and sympathetic person, always willing to help. His friends and relatives were all very surprised at his change.

Since the persecution of Falun Gong started on July 20, 1999, the whole family has suffered all kinds of persecution because they have persisted in seeking justice for their belief. Li Hengnan and Zhang Yufang went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong several times. As a result, they were detained, fined, and their house was ransacked many times.

At the beginning of January 2000, Li Hengnan was arrested by local police and detained for two days because he practised the Falun Gong exercises outdoors. His work unit bailed him out. On January 23, his work unit deceived him into attending the so-called "brainwashing." After the brainwashing failed, his work unit, in collusion with the police department, illegally forced him into the Kuiwen District Detention Centre for one month. After extorting large sums of money out of his son-in-law, the police released him.

For five years, Li Jiangang suffered brutal persecution since he refused to give up practising cultivation and appealing on behalf of Falun Gong. During the year following July 20, 1999, the police illegally detained him nearly 10 times and extorted 12,000 yuan from him[500 yuan is the average monthly income for an urban worker in China].

Li Jiangang was to be married on May 4, 2004. He had obtained a marriage certificate and invited friends and relatives. However, just ten days before the wedding, agents from the State Security Bureau arrested him when was driving down the street the night of April 25, 2004.

At around 1 a.m. on April 26, more than ten agents came to the temporary residence of Li Jiangang's fiancée Kong Qian and her mother Li Xiyun (both of whom also practise Falun Dafa), seeking to arrest the mother and daughter on the pretext of "searching for a thief." Fortunately, the women saw through their scheme and escaped the clutches of the authorities by jumping over a wall. Now they have been forced into homelessness and destitution.

Afterwards, the agents broke into the residence and looted everything, including tens of thousands of yuan, a bank deposit book (since Li Jiangang is still in detention, the exact amount of money involved is not clear), a TV, a DVD player, a car, two motorcycles, a residence booklet, and an ID card.

Li Jiangang was sentenced to three years in a forced labour camp since he refused to be "transformed." He is being held in Changle Forced Labour Camp. Nearly six months have passed, but his relatives haven't received any kind of formal or official notice. Until recently, his relatives were not even allowed to visit him regularly. According to people released from this labour camp, Li Jiangang was subjected to torture. The perpetrators shocked him with four electric batons, beat him, and deprived him of sleep in order to "transform" him into renouncing the practice of Falun Gong.

During this barbarous persecution, those persecuted are not limited to just Li Hengnan, Zhang Yufang, and their son and daughter-in-law. Dafa practitioner Chen Zixiu is Zhang Yufang's sister-in-law. Chen Zixiu was beaten to death in the Chengguan Street Office's "private prison". Zhang Xueling, Zhang Yufang's niece and Chen Zixiu's daughter, was sentenced to three years in a forced labour camp because she exposed the authorities' persecution of her mother and appealed for redress and justice for her mother.

After Li Jiangang was arrested, his aged grandmother missed him terribly. As a result, her illness was aggravated and she passed away in August 2004.

Li Hengnan and Zhang Yufang had been taking care of two nine-year-old children. One is their niece, and the other is the child of a relative. After the couple was arrested, the two children were left unattended.

Li Hengnan, Zhang Yufang and Zhang Huiping were reportedly detained in separate brainwashing classes. Brainwashing class director and the “610 Office” monitored them very closely. On October 15, Li Hengnan's daughter went to visit her parents. They detained her illegally under the pretence that she was to be the "chaperone." She was released so that she could find another worker in her company to replace her. Fu Jinbin also demanded 5,000 yuan from her as Zhang Yufang's living fee for one month. She flatly refused to pay it. The perpetrators also declared that the Statistics Bureau would pay Li Hengnan's 5,000-yuan living fee.

More than 30 Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted to death in Weifang City, the most infamous city in China.

Relevant phone numbers:

Zhang Chuanlin, Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee: 86-536-8789003, 86-13356709886 (mobile), 86-13562690099 (mobile)

Zhang Xinqi, Mayor: 86-536-8789950, 86-13605360198 (mobile)

Fu Jinbin, Deputy Director of the Weifang City 610 Office and Director of the brainwashing class: 86-13853646838 (mobile)

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/10/22/87266.html