Ms. Wang Yangfang Persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party for Eight Years

Ms. Wang Yangfang is a retired employee of the No. 7 People's Hospital in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, where she was the supervising doctor of Chinese medicine. She is 65 and began practising Falun Gong in 1997. Before practising Falun Gong, she suffered from a difficult and complicated illness called "steaming bone syndrome"¹, which was considered incurable. She also suffered from alopecia, stomach trouble, arthritis, heart disease, osteomalacia², insomnia, anaemia, arteriosclerosis, and bleeding in her left eye. Not long after she began practising Falun Gong, all of her illnesses were eliminated. When she went to the health centre at work, the doctor asked her, "Your skin is so nice. Have you had plastic surgery? Ms. Wang told the doctor that the changes in her skin occurred because she practised Falun Gong.

However, after the persecution of Falun Gong started in 1999, Ms. Wang Yangfang was detained, sentenced to forced labour, monitored in her daily life, harassed, and tortured.

1. Detained and Sentenced to Forced Labour in 1999

On July 20th, 1999 Jiang Zemin's regime started using many methods and every type of media to slander and persecute Falun Gong. On that day Ms. Wang Yangfang and many other practitioners went to the Sichuan Provincial Government to appeal for the right to practise Falun Gong. Before the persecution of Falun Gong started, Ms. Wang and some other practitioners wrote a letter stating the benefits they had received from practising Falun Gong. Later the Yulin Police Station used this letter as an excuse to persecute Ms. Wang.

At the end of 1999, Ms. Wang went to Beijing to appeal for Dafa but was arrested by police officers from the Qianmen Police Station in Tiananmen Square. Afterwards, she was handed over to the Sichuan Provincial Office in Beijing and interrogated. The police took 200 yuan³ from her, which was all she had at the time. They subjected her to sleep deprivation and severe torture. Ms. Wang was then taken back to Yulin, Chengdu City. She was held at the Jiuru Village Detention Centre for 15 days.

Upon returning home, Ms. Wang's work unit detained her in a meeting room and ordered her to "confess." Her friends tried to persuade her to give up her cultivation practice. They told her that "the weak cannot contend with the strong." A police officer asked her if she still wanted to practise Falun Gong. She replied resolutely, "Yes, I do!" As a result she was again detained at the Jiuru Village Detention Centre for 15 days. Shortly after she was released, another young policeman from the Yulin Police Station demanded that she quit the cultivation practice while interrogating her. Ms. Wang explained the facts about Falun Gong to him. She told him that practitioners use the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" as their standards to live by and were all striving to become better people. After practising Falun Gong, their illnesses disappeared. The head of the police station with the surname of Xue asked her again, "Do you still want to practise? Will you still go to Beijing to appeal?" Ms. Wang clearly told her that she would not give up Falun Gong. Without being allowed to say anything more, Ms. Wang was taken to the Lianhua Village Detention Centre, where she was held for a month.

According to incomplete statistics, in the Yulin Residential Area alone, more than 20 practitioners have been arrested or detained. Approximately eighteen practitioners have been sentenced to forced labour camps. Several practitioners clarified the truth to Police Chief Xue, and she admitted that she suffered from headaches due to persecuting Falun Gong. Later in 2003, she was transferred to Wuhou Police Department and assigned other duties.

Ms. Wang was detained at the Lianhua Village Detention Centre for a month. Since she continued to practise the Falun Gong exercises and refused to renounce her beliefs, she was transferred to the Jingxia Street Transfer Centre, where she was detained for over 10 days. She was there in February 2000, which meant that she spent the Chinese New Year in the centre. Later she was transferred to Nanmusi Forced Labour Camp in Zizhong City, where she was held for a year.

At Nanmusi Forced Labour Camp, Ms. Wang was sent to the No. 3 Division. The head of the division was a woman named Zhan, and her deputy was a woman named Wang. From March to July the detained practitioners continuously clarified the facts to the police officers. However, the officers refused to listen. They didn't allow the practitioners to do the exercises or study the Falun Dafa teachings. The practitioners did the sitting meditation and went on a hunger strike in protest of the mistreatment. They were then forced to do excessive manual labour. In July 2000 the forced labour camp brought all of the practitioners from several divisions together to undergo brainwashing.

While detained at the forced labour camp, Ms. Wang suffered from inhuman torture. She was not allowed to sleep, and in the summer she was forced to stand under the scorching sun for hours or stand facing a wall all day long (called holding the "army corps" position). She was not allowed to use the toilet, shower, brush her teeth, or drink water. Whenever the guards found her practising the exercises, they would beat her with a spiked club. One day a guard from the security division beat Ms. Wang very badly.

The guards tried to force her to write three statements renouncing Falun Gong or a confession. She was also followed by personal monitors wherever she went. The head of the forced labour camp with the surname of Wu tried to deceive her into renouncing Falun Gong but failed.

2. Ms. Wang Was Harassed and Persecuted by the Yulin Neighbourhood Committee in 2000

In July 2000, a group of former practitioners who had turned against Dafa was invited to the forced labour camp to brainwash practitioners. Because Ms. Wang had been under severe pressure for a long time, both her mental and physical health were devastated. In addition, she still had a lot of attachments. As a result, she did things against her conscience and was released in October, 2000.

After returning home, the Yulin Neighbourhood Committee often harassed her and tried to force her to give up Falun Gong. They also forced Ms. Wang to report to the judicial office and the comprehensive administration office every day. At the time, the head of the judicial office was a woman named Liu. The people in charge often called Ms. Wang to their offices for "chats" and tried to force her to give up Falun Gong. They also threatened to send Ms. Wang back to the forced labour camp. Ms. Wang clarified the truth to them but they wouldn't listen and slandered Dafa.

One year later, both of these officials were replaced . The new director of the comprehensive office Jiang Lin called Ms. Wang to the office many times and pressured her to quit her practice of Falun Gong. When he found that Ms. Wang was as firm as ever with her belief in Falun Gong, he continued to slander Dafa and escalated the persecution in the area. They arranged for Director of the Yulin Neighbourhood Committee Zhou Wenshun and two others to monitor her.

3. Arrested and Sent to a Brainwashing Centre in 2001

In May 2001, the Yunlin Neighbourhood Committee locked Ms. Wang and other local practitioners who refused to give up Falun Gong in a meeting room and subjected them to brainwashing. Officers from the Yunlin Police Station guarded the door and forced the practitioners to watch video programmes that slandered Falun Gong. All of the practitioners turned their heads away and refused to watch. The officers tried to force the practitioners to sign a statement promising not to practise the exercises, not to go to Beijing to appeal, and not to associate with other practitioners. Some of the practitioners' family members helped to persuade them to sign the statement. Eventually, only eight practitioners refused to cooperate with the evildoers and remained determined not to sign the statement. They began a hunger strike to protest their unjust detention.

In the evening, the staff at the Yulin Neighbourhood Committee quietly transferred all of the remaining practitioners to another place. On the following day these practitioners continued the hunger strike. In the afternoon, the authorities summoned the practitioners' family members and threatened them in front of the practitioners to apply more pressure. However, Ms. Wang was very firm and unaffected by this tactic. In the evening, the head of the neighbourhood committee and several officials tried to force the practitioners to give up one by one. Ms. Wang was taken to an office where there were about 14 people including the Party Secretary, a director of the Comprehensive Administration Office with the surname of Zhang, head of the police station with the surname of Liu, and a person with the surname of Duan. They used threats and other methods to try to force Ms. Wang to cooperate with them. Ms. Wang remained unmoved. At midnight Ms. Wang still remained firm, which flabbergasted those officials. Finally Chen Zhiming, Party Secretary of the neighbourhood committee, called Ms. Wang into another office and asked her, "Can you promise not to practise Falun Gong and not to go to Beijing?" Ms. Wang answered, "I will determine what I should or should not do." That night, Ms. Wang was released and the brainwashing efforts fell apart.

4. Ms. Wang Was Arrested in 2002 and Tortured

At about 9 p.m. on November 15th, 2002, when Ms. Wang went to the bicycle parking lot at the No. 7 Hospital in Chengdu City to pick up her bike, she was grabbed by the hospital security guards, including guard Li Xiaohua and her husband Zhang Nan. Ms. Wang was taken to the Zhimin Road Police Station in Wuhou District. Other guards confiscated Ms. Wang's watch, handbag, and bicycle. At the Zhimin Road Police Station, a policewoman searched Ms. Wang. Then a dozen or so policemen from the Zhimin Road and Yulin police stations, the Huhou Police Department (headed by Secretary Zhang of the Huhou Political and Judiciary Commission), and Party Secretary Chen of Yulin Police Station ransacked Ms. Wang's home. They confiscated Falun Dafa books and materials. During the process Ms. Wang's daughter asked to see a search warrant, but they could not produce one.

After ransacking the house, they forced Ms. Wang to go with them. When Ms. Wang did not go willingly, her hands were handcuffed behind her back and a large policeman pulled on the cuffs to lift her up, almost breaking Ms. Wang's wrists and causing excruciating pain. Ms. Wang was detained at Zhimin Road Police Station and suffered severe torture there. In the evening she was handcuffed to a chair that was next to a sewage ditch. Her feet could not touch the ground and she was not allowed to sleep. During the day she was not allowed to eat. At 9 o'clock on the following morning two guards named Zhang and Wu Bo approached Ms. Wang. Guard Zhang told Ms. Wang that they were going to take her picture. Ms. Wang said, "We are all good people, so I refuse to have my picture taken like a common criminal." Guard Zhang became furious. He grabbed Ms. Wang's head with both hands and pushed her to the ground. As a result Ms. Wang could not see out of her left eye while she was at Chengdu Detention Centre in Pixian County. The photo was not taken.

On November 16th, 2002 Ms. Wang Yangfang was arrested on criminal charges by the Huhou District Police Sub-department, Chengdu City Police Department. She was sent to Chengdu Detention Centre in Pixian County, where she was tortured both physically and mentally. She was subjected to sleep deprivation and forced to do excessive hard labour until 2 to 3 in the morning.

On December 5th, 2002, Ms. Wang was formally arrested by the Huhou District Police Sub-department of the Chengdu City Police Department

One night in January 2003, the inmates covered Ms. Wang's head with clothing and then beat her up, while the other practitioners were asleep. Four practitioners in the cell were beaten in this manner.

During her detention at the Chengdu Detention Centre, Ms. Wang developed the symptoms of high blood pressure (systolic pressure of 230 mm Hg), heart disease, and elevated intraocular pressure. Her eyes were red and swollen. Policeman Zhang from Zhimin Road Police Station pressed on her temples and the prison doctor Fu didn't treat her at that time. As a result, Ms. Wang could not see out of her left eye. She asked to go to the hospital for treatment, but Fu did not agree to let her go. Only when her illness became acute and she began to vomit did the guard ask the other practitioners to help take Ms. Wang to the prison clinic. A male guard accompanied them and watched the doctor check Ms. Wang's eye, measure her blood pressure, listen to her heart, and prescribe medication. The doctor told Ms. Wang, "Ask Doctor Fu to take you to Chengdu No. 3 People's Hospital for a follow-up assessment."

On March 3rd, 2003, a physical examination showed that her left eye had final stage glaucoma, and her blood pressure went as high as 230 mm Hg. The eye drops prescribed by the doctor actually made her eyes feel worse--even more painful and swollen than before. Ms. Wang asked the prison doctor Fu and the guards many times to take her to an outside hospital for treatment. However, they lied and told her that it was the Zhimin Road Police Station and the Procuratorate that did not allow her to get outside treatment. Ms. Wang learned later that the Yulin Neighbourhood Committee and Jiang Lin, the Director of the Comprehensive Administrative Office, also tried very hard to stop her from being released. Ms. Wang went on a hunger strike to protest her situation. Twenty days later, she was emaciated and too weak to talk. When the patrolling guards passed by, a practitioner reported the situation to them. Ms. Wang was then rushed to the hospital for treatment for dehydration.

The doctor tried hard but failed to find her vein to administer the fluids. Police officers Wu Bo and and Huang from the Zhimin Road Police Station took Ms. Wang to the Yulin Police Station and asked her to sign a document entitled "Released on Bail for Medical Treatment." Ms. Wang found that the document slandered Falun Gong and misrepresented her words, so she refused to sign it. Ms. Wang called her daughter to come and pick her up and take her back home. She went home on March 24th, 2003 after being detained for more than four months.

After Ms. Wang returned home, the neighbourhood committee sent people to monitor her every move. She was constantly interfered with and followed wherever she went.

On April 11th, 2003, Ms. Wang Yangfang was charged by the Huhou District People's Procuratorate in Chengdu City.

One day in May 2003, two people from the Procuratorate came to Ms. Wang's home. After explaining their purpose, they asked Ms. Wang to sign for receipt of a summons to court. Eventually, they forced Ms. Wang to sign a document that said she was "out on bail awaiting trial." At that time, she had no knowledge of legal proceedings. She was afraid that if she did not sign the document, she would receive a severe sentence. Because of this, she signed the document. Later, she realised that what she had done was wrong. Therefore, she did not sign in acceptance of either of the verdicts at two subsequent trials. About 10 days after the first trial, Ms. Wang wrote a letter to the judge and stated that her signature on the bail notice was null and void. At the next trial Ms. Wang asked the judge if she had received the letter. The judge answered yes, and told her that the letter had been forwarded to the intermediate court.

On August 21st, 2003, Ms. Wang was sentenced to three years in prison, but was allowed to serve the sentence outside the prison.

5. Ms. Wang's Family Members Were Also Harassed

In May and June of 2005, Li Li, Deputy Head of the neighbourhood committee, went to Ms. Wang's home to try and force her to sign a statement to renounce Falun Gong. Ms. Wang told Li Li that she would never sign such a statement. Later on local officials went to ask Ms. Wang's husband at his workplace two or three times to sign the form for her. Her husband also refused. Then, employees from the comprehensive administrative office repeatedly waited outside the entrance of the neighbourhood committee to force Ms. Wang's daughter Wang Yangfang to sign the form for her mother. They threatened and intimidated her, but Ms. Wang's daughter refused, as well.

On April 18th, 2006, policeman Gao Shan from Yulin Police Station asked Ms. Wang to sign a notice to lift the "Transformation and Investigation Under Surveillance." Ms. Wang refused to do so. However, Gao Shan said, "Someone signed the notice for you." Ms. Wang was stunned by this news. At home she asked her husband and daughter if they had signed and they both said they hadn't. A few days later when Ms. Wang came across Gao Shan again, she stated clearly that no one in her family had signed the statement. Around October, Gao Shan asked Ms. Wang to go to the police station to put her fingerprint on the document, but she resolutely refused.

Telephone numbers of those responsible for the persecution:

Area Code: (28)

Liang Lan, Wuhou District People's Procuratorate, Chengdu City: 86-28-85069732 (Office)
The General On-duty Office of Wuhou District Police Sub-department, Chengdu City: 86-28-85079567, 86-28-85070486
The No. 1 Section of Wuhou District Police Sub-department, Chengdu City: 86-28-86406628
The On-duty Office of the Yulin Police Station, Wuhou District Police Sub-department, Chengdu City:86-28-85553503
Zhimin Road Police Station, Wuhou District Police Sub-department, Chengdu City: 86-28-85443629, 86-28-85454582
Yulin Neighbourhood Committee: 86-28-85553994
The Comprehensive Administrative Office, Yulin Neighbourhood Committee: 86-28-85582936
Jiang Lin, Director of the 610 Office
Yang Huajie, Head of the Security Section of No. 7 People's Hospital: 86-28-84513530 (H), 86-13658069558(Mobile)

Note

1. Traditional Chinese medicine describes a person's condition in terms that are often foreign to the West. "Steaming bone syndrome" refers to internal heat caused by low yin energy. The patient feels like heat is coming from within the bones.

2. Softening of the bones caused by lack of calcium, phosphorous, or vitamin D.

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

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/9/25/163248.html