The Persecution of 45 Practitioners in Li County, Hebei Province

Brief Summary of the Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners in Li County, Hebei Province

1) Practitioner Mr. Wang Xianghui, 36, worked as an accountant at the Guodan Station for the Li County Electric Power Bureau in Hebei Province. He started practising Falun Gong in 1998. He went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Dafa on December 18th, 1999, after Jiang Zemin started the persecution on July 20th, 1999. Mr. Wang was taken back to Li County by county 610 Office¹ agents and held at a detention centre for 37 days. During this period, he refused to respond to roll call, and guard Yang Daxue beat him ruthlessly, slapped his face, and kicked him. Guard Li Guochang stripped off all of Mr. Wang's clothes and forced him to lie face down on the concrete floor while he kicked him. Mr. Wang was fined 13,000 yuan² before he was released.

During the two Party Congresses held in 2001, officials detained Mr. Wang at his place of work for many days to prevent him from going to Beijing. He refused to cooperate so he lost his employment contract, was terminated from his job, and his salary was suspended. His former superiors forced him to work under their supervision in April 2001, even though his work contract was no longer valid. Han Xiaofa, head of the Electric Power Bureau, frequently attempted to force him into writing a guarantee statement³, but he always refused. Officers from the Electric Power Police Station took him to the Power Bureau and asked him, "Do you still practise [Falun Gong]?" He answered, "Yes," and was then held in a detention centre for 13 days.

Wang Yuqing and others from the Power Station Security Section arrested Mr. Wang Xianghui from his home in June 2001 and took him to the Balizhuang Brainwashing Centre. Mr. Wang Xianghui defied the persecution, leaving the brainwashing centre with the power of his righteous thoughts, and stayed away from home for more than a year.

He exposed the persecution to the public through TV broadcasting on August 27th, 2002. Xushui County National Security Division officers arrested and held him in the County Detention Centre for more than a year, during which time he was severely persecuted. He defied the persecution and went on a hunger strike 11 times.

Xushui Court officials sentenced Mr. Wang to 11 years in prison in October 2003. He has been held in Group 2, Ward 1 of Baoding Prison. Political head Zhang Jianxin of Division 1, Group 2 political head Yang Guanghui, and group head Li Jun are among those responsible for persecuting Mr. Wang.

2) Ms. He Rongmiao, 45, started practising Falun Dafa in 1997. She used to suffer from insomnia and stomachaches, which were completely healed soon after she started practising. Ms. He and several other practitioners went to Beijing to appeal in 1999. They were intercepted and taken to the local government liaison office and then to a school where Xinxing Town officials monitored them. The practitioners were forbidden to sleep. Local secretary of the Political and Judiciary Committee Li Hefang forced them to write a "guarantee statement" before they could go home. The officials also ransacked Ms. He's home and took Dafa books.

Ms. He and some other practitioners from the same village went to Beijing to appeal on December 21st, 1999. Beijing plainclothes police officers arrested them and took them to the local liaison office in Beijing. The county 610 Office agents handcuffed the practitioners together, facing a wall. The practitioners were taken to the County Detention Centre later that night, where they were held for 47 days and fined a total of 13,000 yuan. Ms. He's husband was also taken to the town government office and fined 3,000 yuan before he was allowed to go home.

Li Hefang and other officials constantly monitored and harassed Ms. He in 2001. She was taken to the town government office and County Brainwashing Centre in 2002. She was later taken to Zhuozhou Brainwashing Centre where she was often made to watch slanderous videos and was brutally beaten. Once when she touched her face, official Gao Xuefei and others took her to a small room and brutally beat her with a stick. The stick had a nail-covered rubber ball on the top and a metal wire on the bottom. After the beating, the officials force-fed her. A month later, she was taken back to the County Brainwashing Centre. She was prevented from using the toilet and was handcuffed to a tree in the courtyard. In the evening, she was handcuffed in an unheated room.

Official Hui also handcuffed Ms. He to a thorn bush in such a way she could neither stand up nor sit. This torture lasted until midnight. After six days of torture at the County Brainwashing Centre, Ms He was fined 4,000 yuan before being released.

3) Ms. Song Yanshuang was born in 1974 and is a teacher at the Xingren Village Elementary School in Li County. She became healthy and her family relations improved after she started practising cultivation. After the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999, she and several other practitioners went to Beijing to clarify the truth. They arrived at the Office of Letters and Calls in Beijing. When the officials learned that they practised Falun Gong, they produced a registration form and told the practitioners to fill it out. Then the officials called for a police vehicle. There were too many practitioners to fit in the vehicle, so Ms. Song and another practitioner were put in the trunk and driven to the local liaison office in Beijing. Each practitioner there was fined 100 yuan for food expenses. They were later taken to the Li County Detention Centre, where many practitioners were already being held. Some practitioners had been on a hunger strike for many days and some practitioners had been verbally and physically abused and forced to kneel on the floor. One day, guard Huang Xilu attempted to force Ms. Song to give up cultivation, but she firmly refused. Huang Xilu was furious and said, "If you were not a young woman, I would beat you!" Her family members paid 1,000 yuan as "bail" before she could go home.

Officials from the Education Committee, the 610 Office, and the police department often harassed Ms. Song at home. Her family members lived in constant fear under the tremendous pressure.

Zhu Guoyu from the 610 Office led a group of people to barge into Ms. Song Yanshuang's home in the summer of 2001. They took her to the Balizhuang Brainwashing Centre. She confronted the officials and asked, "What did I do? Why are you treating me this way?" Zhu Guoyu shouted, "Take her away. I'll take the responsibility if anything happens to her!" Ms. Song fell to the floor amid the chaos, and her legs were scraped. She was held at the brainwashing centre for ten days and fined 5,000 yuan before being released.

4). Practitioner Ms. Chen Xiyan, 32, works at the Li County Middle School. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started persecuting Falun Gong, her home was ransacked because she printed Dafa materials at home. She was held in a detention centre. Ms. Chen went on a hunger strike, and the guards handcuffed and shackled her. They tied her up and beat and kicked her. They also sexually harassed her. 610 Office officials also harassed her many times at her home, which frightened and traumatised her elderly father who passed away soon afterwards. The officials sent Ms. Chen to the Baoding Forced Labour Camp and later sentenced her to three years in prison. They took her to the No. 2 Prison in Shijiazhuang City. Her grandmother learned about the sentence and suffered a nervous breakdown. Three years later, Ms. Chen went to the Education Committee, the Li County Middle School, and the county government many times to appeal. The officials finally let her teach at Beinian Middle School. They deducted a large part of her salary and never paid it back.

5). Practitioner Ms. Chen Wenhui, 35, worked at the Li County Court before the persecution began. She wrote a letter to the Bureau of Letters and Calls in which she said, "The persecution is wrong." As a result, she was sentenced to three years of forced labour. She was taken to the Shijiazhuang Forced Labour Camp and later transferred to the Balizhuang Forced Labour Camp in Baoding City. The camp authorities forced her to stand, shocked her with electric batons, stretched her on the Death Bed⁴, forced her to do heavy labour, refused to let her sleep, and forced her to watch slanderous videos in an attempt to "reform⁵, " her. She returned home after three years and went to the court, the 610 Office and the government. She even saw Party secretary Ning Hongmao, but everyone refused to let her resume her work. She had no choice but to leave home and work odd jobs. The 610 Office agents feared Ms. Chen would continue to practise Falun Gong, so they lied to her and promised her work in exchange for her return to town. When she got home, however, she realized she had been deceived, as the agents did not give her a job. Instead, they harassed her at her home repeatedly. She left home again and has been working odd jobs.

6) Ms. Liu Xiaoai was born in 1945 and lived in Xingren Village in Li County. She went to Beijing to appeal in April 2001, and was arrested and taken to Shunyi Detention Centre where she was hung up and beaten by the guards. She was also forbidden to sleep. Ms. Liu was eventually transferred to the Li County Detention Centre. She held a hunger strike for two weeks and developed symptoms of systemic failure, so she was allowed to go home. Within less than a month, however, officials from the Li County Political and Security Section deceived her into going to the police department and sentenced her to two years of forced labour. She was forced to stand and squat and was not allowed to sleep at the labour camp. The officials also played videos that slandered Dafa and forced her to work very long hours. They held her until October 2001.

7) Ms. Zhang Xia was born in October 1969 and worked at the Li County National Resource Bureau. She went to Beijing to appeal at the end of 2000. Ms. Zhang was arrested and taken to the liaison office in Beijing where the officials searched her and took 500 yuan from her. She went to Beijing again in early 2001. She was arrested and taken to the Mancheng Detention Centre where she was interrogated many times, and all of her money was taken away. She held a hunger strike to protest the persecution and was subsequently released. Superiors at her place of work watched her on sensitive dates and would not let her go home. They would not let her go out the front gate of the Resource Bureau and held her there for two weeks.

Ms. Zhang's superiors again refused to let her go home in April 2001. She managed to leave, however, and went to Beijing. She was arrested and taken to the Shunyi Detention Centre. Her superiors later picked her up and sent her to the County Detention Centre where she went on a two-week hunger strike. Police department head Wei Zhanliang ordered armed police officers to force-feed her. She then developed abnormal symptoms. The detention centre authorities ordered her family members to pay 200 yuan without issuing a receipt before they let her go home. Yao Xiaosong, head of the Land Bureau, ordered section head Zhou Liangcai and other officials from the Land Section to watch Ms. Zhang at her home on a daily basis. Within a few days, county head Li Zhigang and Yao Xiaosong harassed her at her home, claiming they were afraid she would commit suicide. They took her to a county government hotel and held her there for two weeks. After she went home, Wang Junchang from the Political and Security Section and Zhou Liangcai, head of the Land Section, deceived her into going to the police department. They took her to the Balizhuang Forced Labour Camp in Baoding City in the afternoon and sentenced her to three years of forced labour.

At the labour camp, Ms. Zhang Xia was forced to stand and squat and was forbidden to sleep. She was forced to watch slanderous videos and do slave labour for extended periods of time. She was released in October 2001. She went to bureau head Yao Xiaosong many times and requested to return to work. The bureau did not let her return to work until the end of 2001. They had deducted eight months' salary that was never repaid.

8) Ms. Cai Guiju, 39, went to Beijing to appeal in December 1999 but was taken back and sent to a detention centre where she was held for more than 40 days and fined 13,000 yuan.

Ms. Cai was again detained on January 1st, 2001 and subsequently held in a forced labour camp for two years. She was forced to rub poisonous lead plates for more than 12 hours a day. She refused to be "reformed" and was forced to stand for long periods of time. She was often subjected to brainwashing tactics and her personal freedom was restricted. Her job at the land bureau has not yet been restored.

9) Liu Meijia, age 12, followed her mother, Ms. Cai Guiju, to Beijing to appeal on April 22nd, 2001. She was held overnight at the Shunyi Detention Centre. Officers from Li County Police Department picked her up the next day and detained her at the local police department for four days.

10) Mr. Liu Xikun, 38, worked at the Electric Power Bureau. He went to Beijing to appeal in December 1999. He was taken back and sent to a detention centre where he was held for more than 40 days and fined 13,000 yuan. During the two Party Congresses in 2000, Electric Power Bureau head Chen Dashui colluded with the police. Mr. Liu was sent to a detention centre without any explanation and held there for 15 days. The Disciplinary Inspection Committee held him at a hotel for one month in the summer of 2000 and extorted 3,000 yuan from him. He appealed in Beijing again on April 25th, 2001, was taken back and held for three months, followed by a two-year forced labour sentence. He was brutally tortured at the detention centre, beaten, and forced to sleep naked on the concrete floor face-down in the winter while guard Yang Daxue stepped on him. (Yang Daxue died soon afterwards.) Mr. Liu Xikun was also forced to sit motionless on the concrete floor from early morning on until late at night.

Mr. Liu's salary was lowered by two levels at the electric power plant, and more than 10,000 yuan was deducted from his salary.

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. "Guarantee Statement": A statement to declare that one is remorseful for practising Falun Gong and guarantees not to practise Falun Gong again, not to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and never again associate with any Falun Dafa practitioners.

4. "Death Bed" torture: A practitioner is tied to a bed with his hands handcuffed above his head to the bed rails, and his legs tied with thin nylon ropes. The rope is then tightly wrapped around the practitioner's body and the bed, from his legs to his chest. The rope is wrapped so tightly that the practitioner has difficulty breathing and eventually loses consciousness.

5. "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.ca/mh/articles/2007/4/5/152196.html