Ms. Li Cuiping Persecuted in Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province

Ms. Li Cuiping of Zhangbei County, Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province, has been harassed and assaulted three or four times by the Zhangbei County local government officials, and twice persecuted by the Zhangbei County Public Security Bureau and the 610 Office¹. She was also detained twice in the Zhangbei County Detention Centre and once sent to a brainwashing centre. She has been detained at Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp for 15 months.

Ms. Li started to practise Falun Gong in 2000 in the Zhangbei County Detention Centre. At the time she was being held in the detention centre on other charges. She should have been released in January 2001, but because she had started to practise Falun Gong, she was detained for an extra six months.

In July 2002, she was sent to a brainwashing centre for nearly ten days by Guo Shilin, the deputy director of Zhangbei County Public Security Bureau, and Hou Jianjun, the head of the Zhangbei County 610 Office.

In March 2004, while Ms. Li was distributing materials that explained the truth about the persecution of Falun Gong at Shangaigou Village, Hailiutu Township, Zhangbei County, she was chased by a villager named San Baohu on his motorbike. He had been deceived by the Chinese Communist Party propaganda against Falun Gong. He tied up Ms. Li and reported her again to the Hailiutu Township Police Station. Shortly thereafter, the police came in a car and took her to the police station. The local police called the Zhangbei County Public Security Bureau. The team leader of Zhangbei County Political Protection Team, Li Shanghong, and Liu Yanhui came with a few others. As soon as they entered the station, Li Shanghong started to verbally abuse Li Cuiping, kick her, and press her head into a corner until her mouth started to bleed.

Ms. Li was beaten until her eyes were swollen and her eye sockets turned black. Her face was covered with bruises. Then they pushed her onto the police van and took her to Zhangbei County Public Security Bureau. She didn't cooperate and refused to get out of the van. They dragged her out and carried her to the second floor of the building, where they forced her to endure a torture known as the tiger bench². She was detained there for about four or five days. During these four or five days, Li Shanghong tried to hit Li Cuiping in the face with a broom. Just as he was about to hit her with the broom, the staff person under him needed the broom and took it away. When he was trying to shock Li Cuiping with the electric baton, the electricity went to his own hands and he was forced to stop. The director of Zhangbei County Police Station, Hou Mou, hit her in the mouth with a book until she started to bleed. During that time, she went on a hunger strike to protest the arrest and persecution, so she was sent to the hospital and was force-fed against her will.

The police then took her to Zhangbei County Detention Centre. Several people placed her on a big bed. When they noticed that she hadn't moved after four hours, they took her to Zhangbei County Hospital out of fear that they would be held responsible for her possible death. That night after 11:00 p.m., Ms. Li escaped from the hospital. Li Shanghong, Sun Baolin, and a few others from the Zhangbei County Public Security Bureau went to her home and forced her family to sign an agreement to get a guarantor for her and hence to await trial out of custody. Her husband was forced to sign the agreement without understanding its consequences.

In April and in May, Li Shanghong and Liu Yanhui went to Li Cuiping's home to arrest her, but the people in the village stopped them. In October 2004, Duan Jinhai, brother of the Party secretary of Yuanquanchang Village, went to Ms. Li's home to watch for her. The next day, two more people including Wang Jun from Zhangbei Township also went to her home. Li Shanghong and Sun Baolin carried Li Cuiping to a car and took her to Gaoyang Women's Forced Labour Camp in Baoding. They had finalised the procedure for sending her to the labour camp beforehand.

After arriving at the camp, Li Cuiping spoke out for justice for Falun Gong. They beat her and shocked her mouth with an electric baton. Later they took her to a room and placed her on a door plank. Wire restraints were fixed on either side of the plank. They placed her hands in the wire and bound her to the plank. They also took off her shoes and socks, squeezed her socks into her mouth, and connected her two forefingers to a power source. There was a square box next to her. Whenever they touched the box, she would be shocked into unbearable suffering.

The next day, the guards tried to force-feed her. Ms. Li didn't cooperate, and she shouted "Falun Dafa is good!" Two guards shocked her palms, the arches of her feet, and the back of her neck with an electric baton; then they force-fed her. She became unconscious and was sent to the hospital and kept there for half a month. They force-fed her five or six times while she was there.

In the labour camp, every time administrators from upper levels came for inspections, the guards always hid male practitioners and prison inmates who were sick. Practitioner Ms. Wang Li was tortured to unconsciousness. Once the higher authorities came to check the place again, and Li Cuiping was ordered to carry Ms. Wang Li to a different place to hide her. Ms. Li refused. Ms. Wang started to show illness symptoms again because she was frightened, so a gang of people started to carry her out. In order to keep Ms. Wang from making noise, they stuffed a towel in her mouth. Ms. Li pulled them aside and told them, "Stop persecuting this Dafa practitioner!" She took the towel out of Ms. Wang's mouth. They handcuffed Li Cuiping, dragged her onto a flatbed tricycle, and went into another room. Fang Bao, the most vicious guard when it comes to persecuting Dafa disciples, took a shoe in his hand and struck Li Cuiping in the mouth and face more than 20 times. Former team leader Yang Zemin (who has since been transferred) gave a ferocious order to shock Ms. Li with an electric baton, but they couldn't find the electric baton, so Yang then said to burn her with fire. They finally stopped after they realised that she was unconscious. In the end, they sent her back on a taxi tricycle. A fellow practitioner carried her to her room.

Another time when the guards were searching for Dafa articles, they sent away all the practitioners and criminal inmates. They searched everywhere, even ripping out the linings and tearing off the covers of suitcases. They also did a body search on practitioners. Li Cuiping didn't cooperate and was carried to a room where she was tied on top of a door plank while handcuffed. They connected her forefinger to the power source again and also shocked her face with an electric baton. She couldn't bear it anymore. She told them that if they did not stop, she would bite her own tongue and commit suicide (Note: The excruciating torture had driven Ms. Li to this extreme measure, however, suicide or killing of any kind is against the teachings of Falun Dafa). Then she bit her tongue and spat out a lot of blood. They finally stopped torturing her after that, but they still kept her there for two nights.

Afterward Ms. Li was almost never allowed out of her room. Her food was brought to her by others. She was released on January 21st, 2006, after being detained for one year and three months in the labour camp.

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. "Tiger Bench": Prisoners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead without movement for long periods of time.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/11/8/166164.html