The Painful Experience of a Family of Dafa Practitioners in Hebei Province

This is the experience of an ordinary family in Gao Village, Shiting Town, Laishui County, Hebei Province, who suffered tremendous persecution simply because they practise Falun Gong.

There are five people in this family: The couple, Mr. Yu Zhengang and Ms. Chang Zhenying, and three daughters -- Yu Yaxin, Yu Yajuan and Yu Yajing. All of the family members successively learned Dafa and began cultivation practice in 1998. After Jiang Zemin's regime began to persecute Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999, in order to maintain their legitimate right to practise, all five people of this family stepped forward and opposed the persecution.

On the morning of September 15th, 1999, Mr. Yu Zhengang and 23 other Falun Gong students did the exercises at the open area of the Shiting Town market. They were arrested by officers from the local police station, and imprisoned in the police station and the town government. The town cadres, led by the town head Li Yamin, and the police brutally persecuted the practitioners. Li Yamin used a wet towel to whip Mr. Yu Zhengang in the face, and policemen Zhang Fuhe and Dong Honghao beat him up. They also used high-voltage electric batons to shock Mr. Yu Zhengang's armpits and back. Later on, Zhang was arrested for armed robbery.

In the first few days of October 1999, Mr. Yu Zhengang and his daughter Yu Yaxin went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. Along with several other Falun Gong practitioners, they were arrested and detained in Chaoyang District. After several days, they were transferred to and imprisoned in the Laishui County Police Station. In a basement room used for interrogation by torture, the former county communist party committee secretary Han Yasheng personally directed the police to mercilessly beat Mr. Yu Zhengang and other Falun Gong practitioners. (Han was later arrested for corruption.) Mr. Yu's face was beaten to the point of bleeding in many places. His eyes were extravagated with blood and his body was beaten with a rubber stick until he was covered with bruises.

After Mr. Yu was held in jail over ten days, he was sent to a firing range in Xinzhuangtou and was imprisoned and persecuted along with several dozen other Falun Gong practitioners. The police, prosecutor's office, the justice department and the local 610 Office¹ took turns watching them as they went through brainwashing sessions and lost their freedom completely. Mr. Yu was later sent to the detention centre and imprisoned there.

In October of 1999, Yu Yaxin was also imprisoned in the detention centre. When Dai Chunjie from the Department of Politics and Security made the records, he intentionally rewrote her age from "15" to "18." The police also hit her face, which became swollen as a result. Her hair was pulled out in clumps. They used a thorny tree branch to beat her and forced her to kneel on a brick for a long time. After Miss Yu was imprisoned for over ten days, she was sent to the firing range in Xinzhuangtou and imprisoned there.

Mr. Yu's wife Ms. Chang Zhenying was arrested and brought to the Shiting police station. This was done by the police led by County Police Station secretary Liu Yaohua. After Liu Yaohua struck Ms. Chang's face and used a stick to savagely beat her, she was sent to the firing range in Xinzhuangtou, where she was forced to go through brainwashing and subjected to violence in order to "transform²" her. At the firing range, the police twisted electric wires into a whip and used the tiger bench³ and other cruel methods to brutally beat and torture Falun Gong practitioners. Some of the practitioners were seriously injured and even disabled from the beatings.

In March 2000, Ms. Chang Zhenying and other Falun Gong practitioners were imprisoned in the town government garage by the local police. The head of the town Li Yamin personally hit and incited others to beat these ten practitioners. The wooden stick used for beating them was broken. The practitioners' faces were beaten to the point of being deformed and were blue and purple, and their bodies were covered with wounds. Only after these Falun Gong practitioners paid differing amounts in fines, were they finally released.

In November 2000, Ms. Chang Zhenying visited a fellow Falun Gong practitioner. Six of them were taken to the Sunzhuang Township police station. The police used electric batons to shock Ms. Chang's neck and a leather belt to lash her face. After several days, she was transferred to the Laishui County Detention Centre. She was not released until April 2001. On New Year's Day of 2001, the deputy secretary of Shiting Town Xia Xuesong led more than ten people from the local police station and the town cadres to Ms. Chang's home. They broke in and confiscated a television set and a tape recorder, smashed a tea table, broke a thermos bottle and threw a desk clock into the street. The shock of the incident traumatised the elderly parent, who became a seriously ill as a result.

In December 2001, Xia Xuesong led a group of people to scale the wall and force their way into the home, and confiscated another television set and a tape recorder. They took Ms. Chang Zhenying to the County Detention Centre and imprisoned her there. Later on, they imprisoned Ms. Chang in the county government's hotel and Procuratorate in order to "transform" her. Because she was not "transformed," she was sent back to the detention centre. In September 2002, Ms. Chang was sent to a brainwashing base in Nanma, Zhuo County, built by the Baoding District. Ms. Chang staged a hunger strike in protest. In October, she was released and went back home. During that period of time, the town local police station and the judicial institute frequently visited Ms. Chang's home to harass her. Under this environment of terror and without their parents, the younger daughters, Yu Yajing and Yu Yajuan each quit school. In April 2002, Xia Xuesong led the local police and town cadres to arrest these two teenage children and imprisoned them in the town government building. After staging a hunger strike for three days, they were released.

In May 2003, Xia Xuesong led people to arrest Miss Yu Yajuan and sent her to the firing range in Xinzhuangtou for at least 10 days.

On September 5th, 2005, the head of the County 610 Office Wang Fucai and the chief of the Department of Politics and Security Dai Chunjie drove in four vehicles with over 10 people to Ms. Chang's home and searched it. They confiscated two notebook computers, a television set, a recording machine, a VCD, a printer, a sealing machine, a mobile phone, Dafa books and three MP3 players. They locked up Ms. Chang, Miss Yu Yaxin, Miss Yu Yajuan and Miss Yu Yajing in the police station.

In the police station, Wang Fucai and Dai Chunjie threatened and intimidated Miss Yu Yajing for three hours, who was trembling under duress. After she was released, she did not dare to live at home. Even now, she is not willing to talk about the incident. When Shi Jianzhong made a written record on Miss Yu Yajuan, he struck her in the face. Ms. Chang and Miss Yu Yajuan were imprisoned in the jail. One day, Dai Chunjie brought a form and said to Ms. Chang, "You have been sentenced to reeducation through labour." Ms. Chang said, "We are only trying to be good people. Why are we to be reeducated through labour? I do not acknowledge it." Dai Chunjie said, "Just because you want to be good people, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) does not allow you to be good people." Ms. Chang did not sign the document. After several days, Ms. Chang and her daughter Miss Yu Yajuan were sentenced to Baoding Forced Labour Camp for three years. However, their family members were not informed of this.

When Ms. Chang and Miss Yu Yajuan were sent to the labour camp, Ms. Chang did not qualify for entrance because of her poor health condition and she was rejected. When she was returned to the jail, they did not accept her either. Liu Yaohua ordered that Ms. Chang be detained in the detention centre. At this point, Ms. Chang's blood pressure was 180 to 220. Even in this condition, she was detained for 8 days. The doctor examined her, and said that her illness was aggravated and it was a very dangerous situation. Only then was she released.

Miss Yu Yajuan was imprisoned in the forced labour camp. The instructors there did not allow her to have any contact with the outside. Her parents tried to visit her during visiting hours, but they were not allowed to see her. During the visiting hours for the second month, Miss Yu's aunt was finally allowed to see her after going through a lot of trouble. When they met, there were two female police officers, one in the front and one in the back, watching them. One of them, named Wu Wenshuang, often interrupted their conversation. When family members met each other, they were not even allowed to talk freely.

Note

1. "The 610 office" is 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.

2. "Reform or Transform" Implementation of brainwashing and torture in order to force a practitioner to renounce Falun Gong. (Variations: "reform", "transform", "reformed", "reforming", "transformed", "transforming", and "transformation")

3. "Tiger Bench": Prisoners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead without movement for long periods of time.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/1/14/118595.html