The Plight of a Woman's Family in Wuhan

Ms. Hu Mingxiu, a former employee of Renfu Ltd. Company in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, is 54 years old. She began practising Falun Gong in April 1996. Her husband previously suffered from a spinal disc protrusion and bone hyperplasia. He was paralysed in December 1994. Her son was also disabled and needed assistance in daily life. Ms. Hu Mingxiu worked hard to take care of these two family members and led a difficult life.

One day, someone introduced Falun Gong to Ms. Hu's husband, Liu Shuisheng. At the beginning, he could not do the exercises. All he could do was to listen to Teacher Li’s lectures on tape [Teacher Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Dafa]. Six months later, a miracle happened, and Liu Shuisheng began to walk. Soon he found his way to an outdoor practice site. All of his diseases were cured.

After seeing her husband’s miraculous change, Hu Mingxiu also began learning Dafa. She listened to Teacher Li’s lecture tapes at home. Soon, she too became very healthy. Her outlook on the world also completely changed and she was no longer depressed. She became happy and optimistic.

But the good times did not last long. On July 20th, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began persecuting Falun Gong. From October 1999 to present, Hu Mingxiu has been detained five times. Her husband Liu Yongsheng has been arrested three times and he is now detained in Qinduankou Prison. Her family’s home was ransacked three times. Her elderly mother ultimately died from the stress of this long-term intimidation.

This tragic story began in October 1999. Ms. Hu Mingxiu went to Beijing to tell the government the facts about Falun Gong, but she was not able to see any officials in the visitors’ reception office at the appeals bureau. Instead, she was arrested by the police and sent to Wuhan’s liaison office in Beijing. The next day, she was sent back to Tangjiadun Police Branch in Wuhan. There she was detained in a steel cage with no bed or chair in it. Everyone was detained in the same place regardless of gender. People were not even allowed to use the toilet. She was locked up there for an entire evening without food or water.

In the following fifteen days, Hu Mingxiu was sent to Minyi Clinic near Liuduqiao at night, and during the day, she was escorted back to the police branch at Tangjiadun. She was forced to write an "understanding" statement opposing the practice of Falun Gong. The police then asked her to write a promise not to visit Beijing or contact other Falun Gong practitioners before she could be released. The Chinese Constitution, however, says that petitioning the government is a citizen’s right. After Falun Gong practitioners exercised these constitutional rights, they were being treated like criminals.

One early morning in March 2000, at about 2:00 a.m., several people from the Jianghan District 610 Office¹, the Tangjiadun Subdivision Office, the Xiangjiang Neighbourhood Administration, as well as the local police came to Hu Mingxiu’s house. Several men forced their way into her house and asked that Hu Mingxiu come to the police station to have a talk. After they tricked her into going to the local police branch, without reason they gave her a month-long detention sentence. Hu Mingxiu was detained in the Baofeng Road Seventh Police Station #1 office. A month later, the police still refused to release her. Instead, they sent her to the Jianghan District Beixincun Brainwashing Programme for two more months. The people in the brainwashing programme forced the Falun Gong practitioners to write letters promising not to visit Beijing or contact each other. If they refused, they would not be permitted to go home.

To uphold justice for Dafa and report the law violations by the local government agencies and police, Hu Mingxiu’s husband Liu Shuisheng went to Beijing to appeal to the central government in October of 2000. He was arrested and taken back to Wuhan, where he was detained in the Edaopeng Brainwashing Programme for two weeks.

In the first half of 2001, people from the Jianghan District 610 Office, the party secretary and director from the Tangjiadun Subdivision and Xiangjiang Neighbourhood Administration, along with local police, made separate arrests of Hu Mingxiu and her husband Liu Shuisheng at different places. Liu was tricked into coming to the police branch and Hu was arrested at her workplace, Renfu Medicine Co. Ltd. Subsequently, the authorities sent them to the Beixincun brainwashing session in Jianghan District. They also went to search their home and confiscate Dafa books and tapes. Hu Mingxiu’s mother was so scared by their violent act that she fell ill. She died in August 2001. Hu Mingxiu’s husband Liu Shuisheng was detained for over two months.

On a late evening in July 2002, seven to eight people from the Tangjiadun Police Station, the Jianghan District 610 Office and the Neighbourhood Administration came to her house to harass her again. They ordered Hu Mingxiu to open the door and pushed their way into the house. When they could not find her husband, they became angry and left. From that day on, her husband could no longer return home. The family was torn apart. In order to take care of her son, Hu Mingxiu filed for early retirement. She had to feed the family with her meagre pension.

On March 10th, 2003, Liu Shuisheng was arrested by the 610 Office personnel on Jiangjun Road of the Dongxiwu area of Wuhan. He was sentenced to eight years in prison. On April 2nd, 2003, at 9:00 a.m., seven or eight people from the Jianghan District 610 Office, the party secretary and director from Tangjiadun Village, as well as Xiangjiang Neighbourhood Administration rushed into Hu Mingxiu’s house to arrest her. Even her guests were arrested. They also confiscated some Falun Gong books. They once again sent Hu Mingxiu directly to the Beixincun Brainwashing Centre and detained her there for 23 days. During this time, her disabled son was sent to a hospital because he could not care for himself. In the brainwashing centre, the guards did not allow her to sleep. Every day, they forced her to listen to recordings defaming Falun Dafa. They forcibly attempted to make her give up her belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. They also forced her to denounce and write criticism papers on other practitioners. This is all part of the CCP’s brainwashing programme as part of the persecution against Falun Gong.

Despite such severe tribulations, Ms. Hu Mingxiu was not discouraged in her pursuit of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Cultivation and wanting to be a good person is not wrong anywhere. Ms. Hu often has tried to visit her husband, sometimes with her son. But so far, she has not been allowed to see him even once, because she is also a Dafa practitioner.

In the summer of 2005, Hu Mingxiu paid another visit to Qinduankou Prison, hoping that she could see her husband. But this time the prison did not even let his own brother see him. When Ms. Hu tried to reason with the prison, officer Liu Wei called the 999 police hot line to report that Hu was "disturbing the peace." Police from the Qinduankou Police Station came and arrested Hu. They kept her locked up for five hours before releasing her.

This is the unjust story of an ordinary working woman who, simply because she practises Falun Gong and tries to improve her moral standard, has suffered so much persecution. People in her family have also suffered very badly. Her mother is dead and her family has been harassed for years. Her children could not be taken care of by their parents. Hu Mingxiu’s plight is a microcosm of the persecution carried out against countless families.

Attachment: How Liu Shuisheng and others were arrested and persecuted

In March 2003, Wuhan City Falun Gong practitioners Xu Jianjun, Xie Fengyi, Liu Shuisheng, Xu Ganghai were arrested by police from the Wuhan City 610 Office and Wuhan Police Division One. In December 2003, they were sentenced by the Dongxihu Court House. In court, these four practitioners explained the facts about Falun Dafa. Xu Jianjun was sentenced to thirteen years, Xie Fengyi (65) received eight years, Liu Shuisheng (56) was sentenced to eight years and is in Qinduankou Prison, and Yu Ganghai (60) was sentenced to nine years and is now in Fanjiatai Prison of the Shayang Farm in Hubei Province.

Xiangjiang Neighbourhood Administration
Address: Tianmendun Road, Jianghan District, Wuhan City, 430015
Office phone: 86-27-65601450
Party secretary and Director Wang Chunfang
Deputy director: Ma Hongbing
Neighbourhood police officer: Qiu Xianyuan, Police badge number: 025607, phone: 86-27-62902113

Tangjiadun Police Station
Address: 34 Machang Road, Jianghan District, Wuhan City, 430023
Phone: 86-27-85394673

Duanqinkou Prison
Address: P.O. Box 51183, Wuhan City, 430051
Political director: Yang Changchu

Warden: Kong Jinxi

Prison general office manager: Hu Chuhua

Education section chief: Zhu Qisong

Operators: 86-27-84613744

General Office Phones: 86-27-84613655, 84657252, 84657035

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.

Chinese version available at http://www.mingui.org/mh/articles/2006/10/23/140814.html