Practitioners Mr. Liu Mingyue, Mr. Liu Shuhua, and Ms. Yang Shengyun from Shandong Province Suffer Persecution

Mr. Liu Mingyue, 70 years old, was a government employee of the Longkou Power Supply Department at the Yantai Electric Power Bureau. His wife, Ms. Liu Shuhua, was a retired worker of the Longkou Power Plant. At the end of 1992, Ms. Liu Shuhua was unable to go to work owing to severe heart disease so she retired 6 years before she qualified for retirement. She was terminally ill when she was introduced to the practise of Falun Gong. After reading only two pages of a Falun Dafa book she said to her husband resolutely, "I will practise these exercises. It (Falun Gong) is really wonderful." Ever since then, she changed into a new person and was very energetic. On witnessing the wonders of health recovery and the power of Dafa, her husband also came to practise Falun Gong. Ever since then, the elderly couple set the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" as their standards and tried to be better people at all times.

On July 20th, 1999, however, the persecution of Falun Gong began, and the elderly couple was persecuted.

On that very day, Mr. Liu Mingyue's work unit informed him to go watch a video programme that slandered Falun Dafa. Mr. Liu Mingyue said that the programme was all lies and requested to go appeal to let the government know the truth. He was detained by his work place for a whole day, and on the following day was sent to Yantai City Electric Power Bureau. He was guarded by seven people around the clock and lost his personal freedom. He was reprimanded every day, and therefore suffered from extreme psychological stress. He was forced to write a guarantee statement, declaring that he would not practise Falun Gong again and was detained for one month. After returning home, Wang Chenghui, the Deputy Secretary of the Political and Judicial Committee of the Longkou 610 Office¹ and his men forced Mr. Liu to write articles to criticise Falun Gong. He would be harassed every day if he refused to write.

Mr. Liu Mingyue's wife, Ms. Liu Shuhua, was harassed by the manager of the power plant, the party secretary, and the chairmen of the trade union, all the way down to ordinary office workers. She was summoned to her work place to be reprimanded and to attend meetings, and was forced to write a guarantee statement. She was intimidated, threatened and forced to relinquish and submit her Falun Dafa books. Her home was under surveillance. She could not go out -- not even to the food market. If she wanted to buy food, someone else would have to do it for her. If she was summoned to official business or to attend meetings, she was tailed. She was not allowed to leave Longkou City nor could she go to appeal for Falun Gong. Her telephone was tapped. Ms. Liu Shuhua lost her personal freedom, basic human rights, and the dignity of being a human being.

On October 16th, 2000, Mr. Liu Mingyue and his wife, Ms. Liu Shuhua, were tricked into going to the guest house of the power plant by Han Ji'an, the head of the plant's security office, where they were harassed by three policemen from the Longkou City Police Bureau and the Longkou Township Police Sub-bureau. The police officers included a female officer, Ma Shumei, and two male officers, surnamed Gao and Li. They questioned the couple very briefly and then locked them into the Longkou Police Sub-bureau. The depraved policemen intimidated and threatened the elderly couple for two hours without any result. After being detained for three days, they were taken to Zhangjiagou Detention Centre for further persecution. The couple were handcuffed and shackled, and they were intimidated and tortured. The lawless officials threatened to torture them with four extreme methods, "stretching the muscles," "wearing an iron hat" (weighing about 20 kilos), hanging high, and electric shocking. On the following day their home was ransacked.

At about 11:30 p.m. a few days later, the police interrogated Mr. Liu Mingyue once again. A deputy director of the police bureau with a surname of Zou was also present. When Mr. Liu was taken to the guards' office, someone said that the elderly man would suffer from the worst torture. However, Mr. Liu remained calm and was not afraid. Several evildoers cuffed him to an iron chair. A big man came into the interrogation room. He raised his fist and punched the old man's head with force. However, it was really strange that he tried very hard, but his fist just could not touch the old man's head. The big man lost heart and did not know what was wrong. He walked out of the interrogation room. Then he argued with the interrogator, and it was getting louder and louder. They argued for more than ten minutes. That deputy director could not sit quietly anymore. He yelled, "What are you doing? Your behaviour is really shocking! You are dismissed - you can go now!" The interrogation ended in the police arguing.

To achieve their goal of persecution the depraved officials collaborated with each other to extort money by means of handing down prison terms. In order to retain the title of outstanding unit, the Yantai Electric Power Bureau dined the members of the "610 Office" and gave them 20 thousand yuan² in cash to split amongst themselves. Only then did the lawless officials from the 610 Office agree not to sentence the old couple. On November 11th, 2000, the couple was released after being detained for 20 days and extorted 500 yuan.

On June 9th, 2001, Ms. Liu Shuhua was tricked into the Xiadingjia Brainwashing Centre by Zhang Deshuai, Head of the Political Department of her work place. On June 13th, her husband was also taken there. In the brainwashing centre, Wang Chenghui, Madaotand, and Xie Zhuangda incited the office workers to repeatedly play audio and video tapes that slandered Falun Dafa. The detainees were also forced to listen to "reports" and forced to reprimand Falun Dafa. They were forced to write the so-called three statements³. Those who refused to write would be tortured and starved, confined in a solitary compartment, put under surveillance 24 hours-a-day, deprived of sleep, as well as physically tortured. Wang Chenghui tried many times to take his men to the Wangcun Detention Centre and Judiciary Centre (provincial brainwashing centre) so that they could learn more tricks and methods for persecuting local practitioners. Life inside the Xiadingjia Brian-washing Centre was really very hard to bear. Ms. Liu Shuhua could not sleep or eat well, so she wrote the three statements. Only then did the torture stop. During her detention, she suffered from diarrhoea, besides all the additional consequences of being tortured. As a result, she was thin and pallid. She was released on July 24th. Her husband, Mr. Liu Mingyue, was released one month later.

There are tens of thousands of elderly people like Mr. Liu Mingyue and Ms. Liu Shuhua suffering from persecution in China.

Ms. Yang Shengyun is an employee from the Longkou Electric Power Plant who learned the practise of Falun Gong in 1996. She set a very high standard for herself in accordance with the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance." Her family became harmonious and she received prominent achievements at work. Owing to the tremendous changes they saw in her, her colleagues and family members all started to practise Falun Gong. Ms. Yang's 6 year-old daughter became the first one to benefit from practising the exercises. It was normally very easy for her to run a high fever; sometimes the fever would not go down, even after one week of infusion. She was diagnosed with epilepsy and relied on medicine. Despite all the medical treatment, her symptoms did not show any sign of improvement. However, after she listened to Teacher Li Hongzhi's lectures, her seizures never recurred. She would have a high temperature but it would come down in two hours. Ms. Yang's daughter, therefore, stopped taking any medicine thereafter. Because of this miracle, Ms. Yang's husband, sister-in-law, and nephew all started to practise Falun Dafa. Later, when Ms. Yang mother-in-law found that his son changed from being a very bad-tempered person to a very gentle one and quit all his vices, the old lady began to practise Falun Gong. The whole family became benevolent and happy.

Jiang Zemin began to persecute Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999. Ms. Yang's family of three went to the local government to appeal and were detained. When Ms. Yang was taken back by her work place, Xu Guorong, the Party Secretary, and Liu Fujing, the deputy manager of the plant, accused, intimidated, and spoke sarcastically about her. Since she insisted in continuing to practise Falun Dafa, she was forced to write a letter of resignation. Since the Jiang Zemin clique compelled leaders at all levels to persecute Falun Gong, the head of a work place would be responsible and be condemned if any of the employees went to appeal for Falun Dafa. Therefore, Ms. Yang was under house arrest by the so-called "help-and-teach" team, which was made up by Liu Weixi, Wang Jiaxing, Lin Rong, Cui Sibin, Leng Ailing and Huang Wei. The lawless officials forced her to relinquish Falun Dafa books and materials, and to write so-called "ideological reports." They also adopted various intimidation methods. Wang Yihua, the former president of the trade union, insulted her, but she refused to cooperate with the evildoers. Liu Weixi and Wang Jiaxing forcefully dragged Ms. Yang's 70 year-old mother to a detention place. When it was midnight, the old couple was in tears. They knew their daughter did not do anything wrong and she was wrongly accused. However, in order to save their daughter from being tortured, they were on their knees begging Ms. Yang to write the guarantee statement against her own will. Despite this, Ms. Yang's home was under surveillance 24 hours-a-day. Wherever she went she would be followed. In one month she suffered all kinds of mental tribulations and really wanted to die rather than suffer these mental tortures. Luckily, she remembered that Dafa teachings forbid suicide, otherwise she would not be alive today. During this period of time, her work unit, as well as that of her husband's, deducted 20 per cent of their bonuses. The evildoers also forced Ms. Yang's family to take note of the particulars of the slander material against Falun Dafa from the evening programs of CCTV. Ms. Yang's husband and mother-in-law could not bear the suffering caused by the most wickedest scoundrel gang any more and decided to quit the exercises. A happy and harmonious family now had to live a miserable life as a result of the persecution of Falun Gong.

On May 31st, 2001, Ms. Yang Shengyun was detained by the Longkou Police Sub-bureau for spreading leaflets exposing the persecution and her house was ransacked. Many items were confiscated. The arrest warrant was issued after the arrest and the reason given on it was "joining superstitious sects and secret societies." This is exactly what the Chinese saying means: "If you are out to condemn someone you can always trump up a charge." She was detained at the Zhangjiagou Detention Centre, where she was locked up with murderers and served terrible food. Worse still, she was interrogated frequently. After her husband and friends gave dinners or sent gifts, Ms. Yang was released more than 20 days later.

When she went to work, Zhang Deshuai, Liu Weixi, and Wang Jiaxing forced her to write the so-called three statements and watch video programs that slandered Dafa. She was on the verge of collapse, so she thought of suicide once again. However, she remembered the requirements of Falun Dafa: Do not kill lives and do not commit suicide. She finally withstood all the suffering. Not long after, Ms. Yang Shengyun was escorted to Xiadingjia Brainwashing Centre. Qie Zhuangda and Wang Ji'an played dirty tricks to force Ms. Yang to write the three statements while extorting 1000 yuan from the family. She was forced to take a blood test. During this period, her husband was working in other parts of the country so no one was home to take care of their child. The persecutors described their behaviour as "showing concern" and "offering redemption." What nonsense! She was detained for one month and her work place deducted 20 per cent of her bonus.

After returning home, the evildoers still made phone calls to harass her, even at midnight. Her normal life was ruined and she suffered a great deal mentally.

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

3. "Three Statements": Practitioners are coerced under brainwashing and torture to write "Repentance Statement," "Guarantee Statement" or 'Dissociation Statement" as proof that they have given up their belief. In the statement, the practitioner is forced to admit remorse for practising Falun Gong, promise to give up Falun Gong, and never again associate with other practitioners or go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/9/26/138714.html