Urgent Call to Stop Persecuting Two Older Falun Gong Practitioners -- Ms. Li Chunmei and Ms. Ren Xueying

Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began persecuting Falun Gong, Ms. Li Chunmei and Ms. Ren Xueying, two older practitioners from Zhoukou City in Henan Province, have been detained and persecuted multiple times. At about 3:00 p.m. on August 24th, 2007, Ren Xueying and Li Chunmei were taken from their homes at the same time.

Ms. Ren Xueying, 58, is a retired senior lecturer from the Zhoukou Sports School. Prior to her retirement, her superiors had declared her a "distinguished teacher" for several years. She had gone to Beijing twice--in October 1999 and September 2000--to appeal for justice and tell the government the facts about Falun Gong. She managed to escape following her first arrest. Zhoukou City Political and Security officials eventually learned her story and extorted several thousand yuan¹ from her. After Ms. Ren's second Beijing appeal the persecutors sentenced her to one year and nine months of forced labour. During the interim, her employers withheld all her salary.

Ms. Li Chunmei is an elderly retired employee from the Department of Logistics at Zhoukou Normal University. Prior to practising Falun Gong she suffered from vascular brain malformations. She consulted many renowned doctors to find a cure, and Ms. Li underwent gamma knife surgery in Luoyang City, but this still did not help. Her illness required over three hundred days of hospitalisation every year. Her face was frighteningly swollen, and she was distraught. Each time she needed to go upstairs to her home, her older son carried her on his back. After Ms. Li practised Falun Gong for a month, her illnesses disappeared as did the swelling in her face. Her mind became clear, and she was full of energy. She often carried her bicycle up to her apartment on the fifth floor. From then on she saved her employers over ten thousand "yuan" in medical expenses.

Her husband fully supported her Falun Gong practice.

In October 1999, when Li Chunmei had gone to Beijing to appeal against the injustice done to Falun Gong, the Beijing police seized her and turned her over to Zhoukou police agents. The Zhoukou police took her back and unlawfully locked her up in a detention centre where she was mistreated. Because Ms. Li kept practising the Falun Gong exercises in the detention centre, the guards put on her in shackles that weighed 19 kg (42 lb). In the meantime, the guards also put a Majia on her [a kind of severe torture instrument, where the person cannot stand, walk or lie down, and can only remain with his or her body bent]. This torture instrument is especially made for use on death row inmates.

During that time, Zhoukou Normal College was actively pursuing university status. The vicious CCP then took the opportunity to tie the college's university application to the persecution of Falun Gong, and forced the college officials to aggravate the persecution of Falun Gong. As a result, after Li Chunmei's return home, the college officials instructed an associate party secretary of the college, someone from the security department and from the logistics department to closely monitor Li Chunmei. They withheld her wages and only provided her with a small amount of money to cover basic living expenses. The college officials told her husband and second son, who are also employees of the college, that if something "goes wrong" with Ms. Li, all three of them will be fired.

Toward the end of September 2000, Li Chunmei again went to Beijing to tell the government about the goodness of Falun Dafa. She was arrested in Zhongnanhai [the location of the Chinese CCP's Central Government]. Officials from the Zhoukou City 610 Office² and the Political and Security system sentenced her to three years of forced labour. After about one month in the labour camp her old brain illness relapsed and she was then sent home.

Once at home, the school officials put tremendous pressure on her family members. They placed her under even stricter monitoring. Under this intense pressure, her husband Shi Xuezeng came close to having a mental collapse. He was afraid of the Party and was forced to endure the injustice. He vented his anger on his wife. He did not consider their love, nor think about the fact that Li Chunmei had previously suffered from severe illnesses, which had burdened the family greatly, and that her cultivation brought about a night-and-day change in her health. Instead, he frequently swore at and beat Ms. Li. Several times late in the night when he could not fall asleep, he kicked the door to his wife's room open, and then beat and kicked her.

Those who are not amid this kind of tribulation can hardly understand how much pressure Falun Gong practitioners' family members have endured. In fact, depraved individuals in the CCP and its culture have caused all of these misfortunes. The CCP currently uses some of the exact same tactics they used previously to persecute family members during previous vicious political movements.

Chuanhui District 610 Office personnel, along with police officer Gao Feng and other vicious police officers were all personally involved in each and every persecution incident involving Ren Xueying and Li Chunmei. Agents from the Chuanhui District 610 Office are the real perpetrators behind all of the persecution incidents involving the local Falun Gong practitioners. The 610 Office is involved in relaying the CCP's persecution policies and deploying specific policies to persecute practitioners. Each practitioner who is being detained, sentenced to forced labour, or imprisoned, is being persecuted according to instructions from the 610 Office.

This time when Ren Xueying and Li Chunmei together gave people information about the persecution of Falun Gong in the compound of the City Party Committee members' families, monitoring devices recorded their activities, which Gao Feng later recognised. The Shanan Police Department officials and Chuanhui District 610 Office personnel dispatched agents from the Railroad Police Station and from the Nanjiao Police Station and also lawless persons from the Zhoukou Sports School. These people went in two groups to Ms. Li's and Ms. Ren's homes at the same time and arrested the two practitioners. They also ransacked the practitioners' homes.

This break-in caused Li Chunmei to again have epileptic seizures, which had not occurred since she started practising Falun Gong. As a result, she lost consciousness and lay on the floor. While persecutors monitored her, she was admitted to a hospital for emergency treatment and then to the Shangshui Detention Centre. Seeing her poor condition, the detention centre officials refused to accept her, citing that the detention centre was already full.

Chuanhui District 610 Office personnel and Zhoukou City Shanan Police Department agents took Li Chunmei back. They indicated they would take her to the Zhoukou City Detention Centre for detention, with no regard for her critical condition. Once there, Ms. Li's illness worsened. She underwent several hospital treatments, and once back in the detention centre she became bedridden. The officials released her on the afternoon of September 12th, 2000, and sent her home. Zhoukou Normal University sent eight persons to monitor her.

Ren Xueying is now detained at the Xihua Detention Centre.

Arresting Ren Xueying and Li Chunmei was ordered by Zhoukou City Party Secretary Mao Chaofeng, plotted by Shanan Police Department Director Zhao Jianshe, and executed by Shanan Police Department National Security Division leader Gao Feng. Between 1998 and 2004 Zhao Jianshe was the political commissioner of the Shenqiu Police Department.

After the CCP started persecuting Falun Gong, Zhao Jianshe was very active in targeting the innocent Falun Gong practitioners, and as a result earned the title "Provincial Advanced Personnel of Fighting" in Henan Province. This title is soaked with the blood of Falun Gong practitioners, and is an extremely shameful and lamentable title. It is especially disgusting that Zhao is proud of this title. He had used this notoriety as a standard to boast of his crimes and gain from it. In March 2004, Zhao became Shanan Police Department head. During the subsequent several years, nine Falun Gong practitioners in Shanan were unlawfully arrested and detained. Gu Xuemin, Yang Xiuling, and Hu Xinzheng were arrested and then sentenced. Before Zhao's appointment, there were no such examples of Chuanhui District police arresting and sentencing Dafa practitioners.

National Security Department leader Gao Feng of the Shanan Police Department is an accomplice of the CCP in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. He often hangs around Zhoukou City streets like a ghost, day or night, and he continually watches the actions of Falun Gong practitioners. He has personally led each and every incident when the police harassed, ransacked, and arrested Falun Gong practitioners. Gao is extremely cunning and sinister, and has many faces. He smiles in front of common people, and is vicious toward practitioners who do not yield. He uses the most wicked and vicious language to humiliate Falun Gong practitioners. He once growled at practitioners, "Do you know where this is? This is hell in the human world! I am the King of Hades. If I want you to die, you can no way live!" He kicked female practitioner Yang Xiuqin's head and caused internal head injuries. Her blood pressure went as high as 260 mmHg, and she died two years later.

Since the persecution started, Gao Feng has taken a large amount of money and possessions from Falun Gong practitioners' family members. He has also brazenly extorted money from families that are financially comfortable. Each time, the extortion exceeds one thousand yuan.

We strongly demand that the CCP stop its persecution of the above-mentioned two older Falun Gong practitioners. We also hope that all kind people will extend their help and work together to end this persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

Note

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

2. "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://minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/9/17/162837.html