Sanctioned Rape and Cover-Up: How the Chinese Communist Party Reacted to the Hebei Police Rape

After the rape of Falun Gong practitioners by police officer in Hebei's Zhuozhou City was exposed to the world, victim Ms. Liu Jizhi and witnesses Mr. Wang Helin and Ms. Qu Wenting went public to tell people what they knew. The Communist regime did not take quick action to punish the rapist. On the contrary, they put a bounty on the victim and witnesses.

These kinds of unthinkable things send disturbing signals. What kind of message can we take away from this?

Let's look at the criminal's behaviour. On November 25th, 2005, policeman He Xuejian raped two women Falun Gong practitioners named Liu Jizhi and Han Yuzhi. Unlike other rapists who do it behind closed doors, He Xuejian raped the women during the daytime in the police station, in front of another policeman named Wang Zengjun. He Xuejian did not run away after committing this crime, nor did he turn himself in or show any remorse. Instead, he continued to show up at work as if nothing had happened. He even insisted on charging each rape victim a 3,000 yuan fine before releasing them! He didn't seem to have any concern over his despicable crime. Apparently he never looked at raping Falun Gong practitioners as a crime and was unconcerned about legal punishment.

Policeman Wang Zengjun, as a bystander, witnessed the rape. This fact revealed that not only He Xuejian, but also the police department as a whole, share the same view, that they could do anything, no matter how terrible, to Falun Gong practitioners without having to face consequences. Indeed, without the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) persecution policy to eliminate Falun Gong, the police would not be able to commit such brutal crimes without reservation.

Now let us look at the Communist regime's response to the case. Under strong pressure from the international media, they arrested He Xuejian. But so far we have seen no action to punish him. People familiar with the CCP's tactics thought that the regime would follow their usual way of treating He Xuejian as a scapegoat so that the spotlight will be steered away from their persecution. However, the Communist regime did not take any further actions against the criminal.

In fact, the Hebei police rape is not the first time that the Communist regime arrested and persecuted victims and witnesses. Similar incidents pertaining to savage torture and killings were quite common in the past several years of persecution against Falun Gong. The cases involving Liao Yuanhua, Wei Xingyan, and Gao Rongrong are just a few examples.

Falun Gong practitioner Liao Yuanhua, former Disciplinary Secretary in Hubei's Wuxue City Agriculture Department, was subjected to over 30 kinds of severe torture while being detained in the Fanjiatai Prison in Hubei's Shayang City. These tortures included being burnt with hot bricks; "airplane-style" standing; a dirty towel dipped in human waste covering the mouth; hanging by all four limbs and swinging; slapping the face with shoes; hot pepper sprayed into the eyes; slamming the head into a wall; deprived of toilet breaks; deprived of sleep, injection with unknown drugs; force-feeding; and inserting a bottle into the anus and forcing it out by stomping on the body. After Liao Yuanhua was released, he exposed the torture using re-enactment demonstrations and published the photos on the Internet. The Communist regime refused to investigate the criminals. Instead, they announced that the tortures demonstrated in the photos were fake. They subsequently arrested Mr. Liao again and used even harsher tortures to force him to say that the torture re-enactment photos were faked.

Another example is that of Miss Wei Xingyan, a graduate student at Chongqing University's High Voltage DC Transfer and Simulation Technology Program, who refused to betray her belief in Falun Gong. In May 2003, a police officer raped Miss Wei in front of others at the Baiheling Detention Centre. After the case was exposed, Wei Xingyan herself disappeared, and the whistle-blowers were sentenced to prison. The female students living on the same floor with Wei Xingyan in a Chongqing University dormitory all temporarily disappeared. Chongqing University even went so far as to wipe out all website listings about the High Voltage DC Transfer and Simulation Technology Program and even denied the very existence of Wei Xingyan.

In September of 2004, Shenyang Luxun Fine Arts School's member Gao Rongrong suffered a most cruel torture. Policeman Tang Yubao at the Longshan Forced Labour Camp electrically shocked Gao Rongrong's face for seven hours with high voltage batons, causing severe facial mutilation. With the help of sympathisers, Ms. Gao escaped and published the heart-breaking photo of her scar-covered face. Facing the outrage of the whole world, the Communist regime showed no remorse. On the contrary, Luo Gan ordered to establish a special team to arrest Gao Rongrong at any cost. This led to her sympathisers receiving long prison sentences. Ms. Gao herself was captured and tortured to death on June 16th, 2005.

These incidents show that, when its crimes are exposed, the Communist regime's first reaction is retaliation. They go after all the witnesses and people with knowledge of these cases. They try to stop further exposure and publicity of their crimes and put the people involved under duress to change their stories. The Communist regime always hopes that all those people who couldn't endure physical torture and psychological torment might become their tools to deny such charges. If the people refuse to bend under pressure, the regime will manage to make them disappear, send them to prison or even kill them, so that the evidence will cease to exist.

It is the same with the Hebei police rape incident. When the crime was exposed, the regime was not interested in punishing the criminal, because policeman He Xuejian's conduct, in their eyes, was an application of the Communist regime's policy on Falun Gong, "Do what you want with Falun Gong; if you kill them, just say they committed suicide; there is no need to verify their identity; send them straight to cremation." Since the regime is attempting to arrest the victims and witnesses, the motive is quite clear: they want everyone to remain silent so they can continue to persecute Falun Gong.

This time, however, their plan did not work. Ms. Liu Jizhi has the courage to live on and tell the world of her terrible ordeal and expose the police officer's government-sanctioned crime. Mr. Wang Helin and Ms. Qu Wenting also published their testimony, exposing this rape and the Communist regime's relentless efforts to persecute Falun Gong and its practitioners.

On January 14th, 2006 Ms. Liu Jizhi told the world, "There are other criminals besides He Xuejian, but they are still at large. If the criminals are not brought to justice and Falun Gong continues to suffer persecution, I cannot return home safely. I will continue to expose the persecution. I hope friends outside of China continue to support us. Under the public watch and condemnation by the world, these people will not dare to persecute good people. The continuing public outcry will bring these criminals to justice. Only after they stop the persecution of Falun Gong can I return home with dignity."

All of us can only feel safe after the persecution of Falun Gong is over and criminals like He Xuejian are punished according to the law. Right now, He Xuejian and other corrupt police officers make their living to supposedly safeguard the social stability. Officers from the Dongchengfang Town Police Station are responsible for public safety, but faced with these lawless individuals, who can feel safe? A law enforcement body that tolerates rape is capable of all kinds of criminal activities at any given time. The police are in fact an organised crime gang sanctioned by the Communist regime. When the CCP wants to persecute Falun Gong practitioners, when they plan and carry out their schemes to eliminate people's belief in "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance," the only choice they have is to use police gangs.

This latest rape incident demonstrates the following: Based on their need to persecute good people, the Communist regime will not get rid of those individuals who persecute Falun Gong. Rape is one of the persecution methods the Communist regime sanctions. Another aspect of the persecution is to silence the victims and witnesses. To carry out this policy, the communist regime will stoop to anything, including murder.

The past six years have shown that the CCP's atrocities will not stop by themselves. Even at the last moment before its death knell, the Communist regime will not express any signs of remorse. The Communist regime's persecution of good people is not only hurting Falun Gong practitioners. It has profoundly damaged all of Chinese society.