The Many Instances of Torture Inflicted Upon High School Teacher Guo Quantai of Wangdu County, Baoding City, Hebei Province

High school teacher and Falun Dafa practitioner Guo Quantai of Wangdu County, Baoding City, Hebei Province, has suffered countless instances of mental, physical and economic torture at the hands of the local Communist Party staff and police. He was almost close to death, and he was deprived of his salary for seven and a half years. The facts about the persecution of Guo Quantai are iron-clad proof of the Chinese Communist Party's genocidal policy of "ruin their reputations, bankrupt them financially, and destroy them physically " in its persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

Mr. Guo Quantai, who is 58 years old, is a level 1 teacher at Wangdu High School. Since he began cultivating Falun Gong in the winter of 1997, his previous cerebral thrombus, heart disease, and kidney stones were healed without medical treatment. Moreover, his mind was also purified. He was acclaimed by the school's staff and management, and he was elected "Excellent Teacher" in 1998. Since Jiang Zemin's [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] group started the persecution of Falun Gong, Mr. Guo has suffered brutal persecution by the Chinese Communist Party.

Since July 20th, 1999, Wangdu County Party members have followed Jiang Zemin's orders to persecute Falun Gong. They conducted brainwashing sessions at the county's Party school and grouped Falun Gong practitioners from all units together to attempt to brainwash them. Practitioners were forced to read the Party's documents defaming Falun Gong and to write "guarantee statements¹" and critical/disclosing statements. Guo Quantai was sent to the centre, but he no longer participated after half a day. Later, the Education Bureau and school's management asked him "Do you still practise Falun Gong?" Guo said, "Yes!" They dragged him to the police department and then put him in the county detention centre. He was detained there for two weeks, and the detention centre extorted more than 200 yuan² from him.

In March 2000, Guo Quantai went with other practitioners to the square to practise regularly, but then their audiotape were stolen. County police department officers arrested them. The practitioners explained the true situation of Falun Gong to the police. Deputy Chief Zhang said, "We are not reasoning with you, we are just following orders from above." The police later interrogated practitioners one by one and tried to force them to write guarantee statements. The police also extorted 2000 yuan from family members before letting the employer pick them up. Guo Quantai did not cooperate, so he was sent to the county detention centre to be detained for one month. For this arrest, the detention centre extorted 450 yuan, the county 610 Office extorted 2000 yuan, and the county police department extorted 3000 yuan from Guo Quantai. After he went back to his school, the school administration was pressured from above. They levied a serious offence administrative punishment on him, which included a salary deduction that allowed Guo only 200 yuan a month for a basic cost of living. Three months later, even his basic cost of living salary was suspended; Mr. Guo's salary was completely stopped.

Before July 1st, 2000, the county 610 Office³ again tried to force practitioners at the high school to write guarantee statements. Guo Quantai and fellow practitioners did not cooperate with the demand. They were then arrested by the 610 Office and taken from school to the brainwashing centre. There, those in charge tried to force practitioners to curse Dafa and write the four statements⁴. They applied various brutal means of torture such as the death bed to those who did not cooperate. One morning, the head of the county 610 Office, Shang Hongzhi, ordered his subordinates to write words on the wall defaming Dafa and forced Guo Quantai to squat in front of the wall. They demanded that he have both knees touch, his hands behind his neck, and face the wall. Shang also ordered his subordinates to watch him with clubs and beat him if he moved. From 6:00 a.m. in the morning until after 5:00 p.m. in the afternoon, he was tortured like this in the sun. The torture continued until he fainted. After waking up, he could not speak normally for a long time. He also suffered leg joint pain afterwards.

Guo Quantai was not willing to tolerate this torture, so he walked out of the brainwashing centre at night and assumed a life of homelessness. Thus, he had to give up his beloved teaching career. The county police department, 610 Office, Bureau of Education, and the school started to monitor Mr. Guo's family telephone. They sent people to watch his residence and follow his family members. They also conducted numerous harassments and searches of his home, his parents' home, and other relatives' homes. His mother, who is over 80 years old, is the only one living at Mr. Guo's parents' home. The authorities endlessly searched the home, regardless of whether it was daytime or night, causing the old mother to lose her senses due to the extreme mental distress. She lost the ability to take care of herself and often fearfully shouted, "I'm frightened! Someone is trying to hurt me."

Agents from the county 610 Office also employed the despicable tactic of implicating relatives. They arrested Guo Quantai's son and daughter-in-law and took them to the brainwashing centre, leaving the six-year-old granddaughter without care. They also arrested Guo's younger sister and brother-in-law, neither of whom are practitioners, and took them to the brainwashing centre. They also ordered the employers of these relatives to fire them. Guo's sister was mentally broken down in the brainwashing centre.

They also threatened to arrest other relatives. They hypocritically told the family that as long as Guo Quantai came back, he would immediately be allowed to go back to work and the past mistakes would be cancelled, with suspended salaries all returned. The head of the Culture and Education Bureau, Ma Wenku, also signed an agreement with the family. Guo Quantai was gullible and believed the Chinese Communist Party's promises, so he returned to work at Wangdu High School in October 2001. However, Ma Wenku reneged on his promise, and Guo Quantai was immediately taken into custody. Moreover, Ma Wenku did not allow any salary payments to be made to Mr. Guo At present, the Education Bureau has suspended over 90 months of his salary, and he is in dire financial straits.

One evening in late May 2002, Deputy Head of the police department Cao Jinyao and a group of police offices had the school authorities persuade Mr. Guo Quantai to open the door of his home. The police rushed in and searched everywhere. They took some Dafa books and leaflets exposing the persecution. They also took 11 videotapes that Gou's son had borrowed to study cooking. The police have never returned the property they took.

Cao Jinyao and other officers arrested Mr. Guo Quantai and took him to the county police department. The head of the department, Liu Hexiang, shouted, "You kneel down!" Mr. Guo straightened his body and did not kneel. Liu, Cao, and their subordinates pushed him to the ground, twisted his arms, pulled his hair, slapped his face, beat, and kicked him. Mr. Guo was beaten until he was full of cuts and bruises. His hair was pulled out after a few grabs. Later, they handcuffed Mr. Guo and had him sit on the concrete floor. Cao Jinyao and another police officer named Yang took turns using thin clubs to whip Mr. Guo's ankles, hands, shoulders, and other joints. His feet and hands were beaten until they swelled greatly. Police officer Yang also used a cigarette lighter to burn Mr. Guo's fingernails. Using these means, they tortured Guo Quantai until the next morning. Cao told the police to handcuff Mr. Guo to a metal chair and shouted, "Cuff him tight!" The next day Cao Jinyao came again, and he slapped Mr. Guo again. Guo Quantai was handcuffed to the metal chair for two days and nights. He was later sent to the county brainwashing centre, where those in charge tried to force him to write four statements, watch videos that slandered Dafa, and read articles that defamed Dafa. Guo Quantai solidly refused to comply with them.

The head of the police department, Liu Hexiang, and Deputy Head Cao Jinyao once went to the brainwashing centre and ordered subordinates to bring a bamboo stick that was one inch wide and one meter long. Liu Hexiang and Cao Jinyao took turns beating and whipping Guo Quantai while everyone watched, until the bamboo stick came apart.

Because Guo Quantai suffered brutal tortures time and time again by the vicious people of the county 610 Office and police department, both his mind and body were severely injured. He showed symptoms of cerebral thrombus in the brainwashing centre, and he was sent to the county's Chinese Medicine Hospital for emergency treatment. The older doctor at the hospital could not tolerate the situation and said angrily, "You have beaten him until he is in such a state, yet you still do not stop. It's a matter of life and death!" Only then, did the police and 610 Office agents unwillingly leave.

Guo Quantai remains at home, yet people from the 610 Office and police department still ask the school management about him quite often.

Note

1. "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.

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

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. "Four Statements": Practitioners are coerced under brainwashing and torture to write the "four statements" as proof that they have given up their belief. Created by the 610 Office, they consist of "a letter of repentance," "a guarantee" to never again practise Falun Gong, a "Dissociation Statement" to declare a dissociation with Falun Gong and promise not go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and a list of names and addresses of all family members, friends and acquaintances who are practitioners.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2007/9/16/162767.html