The Persecution of Two Disabled People and Their Young Son

Forty-four-year old Ms. Zou Cairong is from Jiamusi, Heilongjiang Province. She was disabled by polio. After she started practising Falun Gong in 1995, she was able to walk without a cane, and her other diseases were healed, too. Her husband is semi-blind, but he and their son also started cultivating Falun Gong. Their life was happy, although they were not rich.

Since the Chinese Communist Party launched the persecution in July 1999, Ms. Zou, her partially sighted husband and their nine-year old son have also been persecuted.

Ms. Zou has been arrested many times, and her house has been searched many times

Agents from the Zhongshan Police Station have arrested Ms. Zou several times. On July 20th, 1999, many practitioners from the Qianjin District were taken to the district police department. Every practitioner was taken to a room to answer questions. Song Xianbing, the chief of the National Security Division and policeman Yang conducted the interrogations.

The police searched Ms. Zou's house and confiscated many Falun Gong books. Policeman Song Yawei, who is now the deputy chief of the police station, and another policeman took Ms. Zou's and her husband's ID cards. Song Yawei, political head Shao Fuxiang, Liu Guangdong, Sun Yibin, and Wang have been involved in almost every arrest of Falun Gong practitioners and in searching their homes.

On February 2nd, 2000, some practitioners from the Qianjin District went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. Zhongshan Police Station agents received the order that they needed to watch those practitioners who did not go. That night, several other practitioners went to Ms. Zou's house. Xianfeng Residential Area head Han saw them and reported to the police. Policeman Song Yawei and eight other officers went to Ms. Zou's house and arrested seven practitioners including her husband. They even took her nine-year old son, as well as many Falun Gong books and videotapes. The next day, Ms. Zou's husband was bailed out by his workplace so that he could take care of his young son. Other practitioners were jailed in a detention centre. Ms. Zou was jailed there for three months.

Ms. Zou was beaten and jailed for appealing for Falun Gong

In November 2000, Ms. Zou went to Beijing again to appeal for Falun Gong with other practitioners. They were arrested at Tiananmen Square. Ms. Zou was beaten by the police, and her face was badly injured. She was jailed. Officer Song Yawei from the Zhongshan Police Station asked Ms. Zou's husband for money, but he refused to cooperate. Song Yawei then deceived and threatened Ms. Zou's 70-year-old mother and extorted 700 yuan¹ of her retirement pension. He also used her ID card to take her last 700 yuan from her bank account. Song didn't return her ID card until five months later. Ms. Zou and another practitioner were sent back to Jiamusi by train. She was handcuffed in a compartment on the train for the entire day. They were sent to a detention centre in Jiamusi. Ms. Zou was jailed there for 50 days and was forced to pay 200 yuan for food.

On April 30th, 2001, several policemen broke into Ms. Zou's house and tried to take her away. She refused to go with them. Five policemen carried her into a police car and took her to a detention centre.

Because Ms. Zou had a skin disease, the detention centre refused to accept her. Policeman Song Yawei argued with the detention centre officials. He said that he would take all the responsibility if the detention centre would accept Ms. Zou. At the same time, Ms. Zou's husband, her mother-in-law, and her son went to the police station and asked them to release her. The police station chief said, "The May 1st Labour Day holiday is coming. We arrested her for public security reasons."

Ms. Zou's husband asked him how a disabled, kind person could be harmful to public security. As they were arguing, Song Yawei called the police station chief from the detention centre and told him that the detention centre had refused to accept Ms. Zou. So, the chief told Ms. Zou's husband that they would release her right away, which they did.

Shao Fuyang, the political head of Zhongshan Police Station, often went to Ms. Zou's house with some collaborators² to try to reform her. They failed, so he tried to send her to a forced labour camp.

Being persecuted in the labour camp

In May 2001, Li Wei, an agent from the 610 Office³ in the Qianjin District; Xu Yongli, the chief of Zhongshan Police Station; and four policemen went to Ms. Zou's house to her to a labour camp. Ms. Zou's relatives were visiting her at the time. They stopped the officers and told them of the changes that happened to Ms. Zou after she practised Falun Gong. They asked the policemen, "Who would take care of her mother-in-law and her son if Ms. Zou were in the labour camp?" The police had no adequate reply and left.

On May 21st, 2001, Ms. Zou's brother and sister came to visit her. Since many people were assembled in her house, someone reported this to the police. Several officers arrived, arrested her, and sent her to the detention centre. They claimed that Ms. Zou had Falun Gong books and materials. She started a hunger strike to protest the persecution. She was tied spread eagle to a large wooden board for 24 hours. Two days later she was sent to a forced labour camp with another practitioner.

Officials from the 610 Office in the Qianjin District and Zhongshan Police Station had planned the arrest and confinement in a labour camp. Since Ms. Zou was disabled, the labour camp initially refused to accept her. Li Wei, a 610 Office agent, told the labour camp officers, "You can let her go if she gets "reformed⁴" after a month of brainwashing." The police station gave 850 yuan to the labour camp, so the labour camp accepted Zou. Li Wei and Song Xianbin took Ms. Zou and another practitioner to the labour camp.

In the labour camp Ms. Zou was forbidden to talk to other practitioners. She was forced to watch Falun Gong-slandering videos. Criminals monitored her. The mental pressure she had to endure was indescribable. Since she didn't give up Falun Gong, a month later her sentence was extended to three months. Finally, since the police station didn't want to pay any more to the labour camp and the labour camp could not make a profit from Ms. Zou, they released her on September 11th, 2001.

Becoming Homeless

In August 2002, Zhongshan Police Station agents broke into Ms. Zou's house. She was not home at the time. Her son and other children were watching a movie. The police took photos of her house and took some Falun Gong materials. They even took her son's English-teaching cassettes. They took her son to the police station and asked him some questions. They took photos and fingerprints of the boy as if he were an adult criminal. They abducted the boy to try to make Ms. Zou's husband cooperate with them, but he refused. The boy was eventually released. Because the police were trying to arrest her, she left home and become an exile.

In September 2002, the police found Ms. Zou at her sister's house. They surrounded the house. Song Yawei broke in and arrested Ms. Zou. At the police station, she was tied to a chair with her head covered. The officers then carried the chair with her in it to the detention centre.

Once in the detention centre, Ms. Zou started a hunger strike to protest the persecution. She became very weak. The detention centre officials told people at the police station several times to send a doctor to examine her. The request was ignored until finally Song Yawei took a doctor to the detention centre. Somebody said to Song Yawei, "She is so weak, and she is disabled. Why don't we just let her go?" Song said, "She will go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong if we let her go." Later, Song lied to the detention centre, saying that Ms. Zou was fine.

Sentenced to two years; hung up for 28 hours

Ms. Zou was sentenced to two years in prison. On April 1st, 2003, she was sent to the Women's Prison in Harbin. The prison refused to accept her due to her bad health.

On July 31st, she was sent there again, and again the prison refused to take her for the same reason. Policewoman Zhang Yanli from Jiamusi negotiated with the prison, and finally the prison agreed to accept Ms. Zou.

In the prison, she was forced to sit on a small chair from 5:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., which made her legs badly swollen. Since she refused to cooperate with the prison officials, she was hung up for 28 hours.

On September 15th, 2004, she was released. Song Yawei and Li Wei went to her house and asked who had exposed Ms. Zou's persecution experiences on the Internet. They warned her family not to do it anymore.

Unable to pay son's middle school tuition; son had to quit school and go to work

In November 2005, one of Ms. Zou's relatives visited her. She showed the relative a Falun Gong movie. Another practitioner, Xu, was also there. Zhongshan Police Station officers Shao Fuxiang, Sun Yibin, and Wang broke into her house. They took practitioner Xu and the DVD player. Shao Fuxiang threatened the passers-by and said he would arrest them if they would try to speak up for Ms. Zou.

Ms. Zou's husband had to take care of their son each time she was jailed. During the seven-year long persecution, Ms. Zou has spent four years away from home.

When she went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, her husband's work place withheld his salary for four months. The family lived in an apartment in very poor condition. The temperature inside was as cold as outside. The water in the water tank sometimes froze in the winter. In those four months they didn't even have money to buy salt and had very poor quality food.

In such a difficult situation the father asked the son, "Would you still cultivate Dafa?" The son answered solidly, "Of course."

Since they didn't have money to buy thread to repair their torn clothes, the son took strings out of wheat storage bags. Since the father is half-blind, he cannot see well to cook, so there were often dead bugs and cockroach eggs in the food.

Ms. Zou's family belongs to the low-income category, and they are supposed to have government financial aid. But the Jiamusi City government refused to allot them the money, because the whole family practises Falun Gong. The son had to drop out of school and find a job to make money.

Not long ago a policeman asked the boy how old he was. He was surprised that the boy is only 16, because he looks like a 20-year-old. Ms. Zou told the policeman the reason the boy looks so old is because he has had to experience the seven-year long persecution.

The boy had to take care of his father and do the housework when his mother was in prison. He never complained, because he knows there is nothing wrong with cultivating Falun Gong. His mother was arrested for being a good person. A teenager is enduring hardships that are difficult even for an adult to endure.

Note

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

2. "Collaborators": Former practitioners who have turned against Falun Gong under brainwashing and torture. They are then made to assist in brainwashing and torturing practitioners.

3. "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.

4. "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")

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/8/29/136628.html