Persecution of Falun Dafa Practitioners from Daiwangcheng Town in Hebei Province

Since 1999, the local officials of Daiwangcheng Town had to report the actions of Falun Gong practitioners to the town government in their villages. They monitored the practitioners and didn't allow them to leave town. On "sensitive days" several years ago, they required practitioners to report to the government three times a day. Those who didn't would be fined. In order to finish their political assignment, the town officials often tricked and abducted practitioners and then sent them to the county-held brainwashing class, where they were cruelly tortured. They were fined thousands and even tens of thousands of yuan (1) before being released from the class. For practitioners who persist in their belief of Truth, Compassion, Forbearance, the perpetrators watch and follow them, restrict their personal freedom, don't allow them to appeal or congregate, and deprive them of their right to receive an education. They break into practitioners' homes at all times of the day and night. They search and ransack their homes, detain, interrogate and savagely beat them, and also persecute the practitioners' families.

More than 40 practitioners became targets of persecution

In February 2000, Li Runmei and 60-year-old Ma Guangrong Gao Yuping, Zhang Xiuzhi, Liu Guiming, and Cai Jinzhi and his wife went to Beijing to appeal. Beijing police abducted them at the Appeals Office. Zheng Rongxin, the secretary of the Political and Judiciary Committee, and Zhang Jianqiang, the deputy head of the police station, went to Beijing to pick them up. They body-searched the practitioners and took all of their money and private belongings. After they took the practitioners back in the afternoon, the perpetrators beat Liu Guiming until his face became disfigured and extremely swollen. Li Fuchun, the head of the town government, said through clenched teeth, "I would really love to slice you into pieces."

After the six practitioners went to Beijing, officials abducted more than 40 practitioners whom they thought were "important" and held them in two dormitory rooms in Beizhong, Weizhou Town, where they tortured the practitioners fiendishly. Duan Bin gave orders while Li Fuchun, the head of town government, and Shao Jie, the head of police station, led a group of roughnecks to torture and beat the practitioners.

In the afternoon on the first day of detention, police officers dragged practitioner Xiao Tang to the parade ground. The perpetrators burned his face with cigarette butts and ordered Fan Kai to watch him while they made him stand for an entire afternoon. That same afternoon, police also beat practitioner Bai Jinhua. They slapped her face until their hands hurt, then whipped her with tree branches. Another officer also whipped practitioner Xiao Tang's son Xiao Yongfei. In the evening, Xiao Tang, Xiao Yongfei and the other practitioners who went to Beijing to appeal were forced to half-squat in front of the dormitory. If they refused, the perpetrators would beat and kick them.

The perpetrators thought that Li Xi was the organizer of the appeal, so in the evening, they took him to the yard behind the dorm. Li Fuchun shouted, "I won't stop until I fix him." Wu Chun, Li Junfeng and Tian Jianquan beat 60-year-old Li Xi to the ground. Fan Kai held him down while three others beat him. Later they shocked him for a long time with two electric batons. They took him to a room with many town government officials, including Shao Jie, Li Fuchun and Zhang Jianqiang. They turned off the light and jumped on top of Li Xi. They beat and kicked him until they were exhausted. Li Xi's face and body was covered in blood and mud. He was hardly recognizable. Shao Jie was afraid their crime would be exposed, so he made Li Xi wash his face and wipe off the mud on his clothes before sending him back to the dorm. His wife and other practitioners cried when they saw him. His molars were knocked out and his front teeth were loose.

After a short while, they took practitioner Li Jinjun. Fan Jinhai and Gao Hai struck him to the ground at the gate and kicked his body and head. Then they shocked him with two electric batons until he lost consciousness. They poured cold water down his neck. When he came to, they forced him to half-squat outside in the freezing cold. He was forced to squat for a very long time. They took him to a room in the back, and Shao Jie put an electric baton on his neck and left it there. The high-voltage electricity ran through Li Jinjun, and his whole body involuntarily convulsed. The electric baton was going off even as he collapsed to the ground.

At the same time, police officers Gao Hai, Fan Jinhai, Fan Kai beat and kicked practitioner Xiao Yongfei and whipped his buttocks. Fan Kai called out practitioner Xiao Tang. Tian Jianquan took Xiao Tang to a room in the back. Upon entering the room, Shao Jie asked, "Will you still practise?" Xiao Tang ignored him, and five or six thugs beat and kicked him and shocked him with two electric batons for a long time. Then they sent him to the yard and made him squat.

Practitioner Liu Guiming was the next to be the taken to the room. Police officers first beat him with wooden sticks and fire-tongs until the fire-tongs were bent. Then they removed Liu Guiming's belt and whipped him with his own belt until it broke in two. They then made him kneel on bricks lying on their sides. They brought in his wife, Cai Jinzhi, and deputy Party secretary Zhao Chunfu said, "Now I'll try another approach. Let his wife watch him being tortured and see if that'll get him to give up Falun Gong." Li Fuchun said, "Let Cai Jinzhi kneel on a wooden stick while watching her husband being beaten up." They proceeded to shock Liu Guiming with electric batons.

Police officers Zhang Jianqiang, Gao Hai, Fan Jinhai and others went to the dorm and saw practitioners Gao Yuping, Li Runmei and the elderly Zhang Xiuzhi, Ma Guangrong, and a few other practitioners. The perpetrators first rabidly attacked Gao Yuping and Li Runmei with fire-tongs, broomsticks and electric batons and made the two elderly practitioners watch. They asked, "Will you still practise?" They shocked the practitioners' whole bodies with electric batons until they lost consciousness; then they poured cold water on them. The two elderly practitioners trembled in fear.

Note:

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

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/1/17/93657.html