Sichuan University Professor Mr. Li Ming Twice Sent to Forced Labour Camp and Tortured

Mr. Li Ming, 35, graduated from the Department of Economics at Sichuan University in 1995. After graduating he taught at Chengdu Senior Business College (Currently Chengdu University of Technology) until June 1999. He was once honoured as an excellent and dedicated teacher, and his students loved him. His parents also taught at Sichuan University as chemistry professors. Mr. Li resides in Zhulin Village at Sichuan University. Due to his strong belief in Falun Dafa, and consistently speaking out for justice about the persecution to people, he was twice sent to a forced labour camp and brutally tortured.

In October 2000 he was distributing leaflets exposing the persecution and telling people the facts about Falun Gong at Sichuan University prior to his taking part in a test, and he was arrested by a plainclothes police officer. Without even being questioned, he was sent directly to Xinhua Forced Labour Camp in Mianyang City for 18 months.

Practitioners who are steadfast in their belief were directly taken to the brick factory where they were forced to labour for more than ten hours per day. Every steadfast practitioner was tortured with gruelling slave labour in harsh surroundings. They were treated without human dignity and held in complete confinement.

Mr. Li Ming soon became inflicted with scabies. He began to have blood in his bowel movements and the wounds on his feet became infected with pus. Mr. Li came to realise that he should not passively submit to the persecution. He and other fellow practitioners held a strike together in the brick factory and they began to do Falun Gong exercises. The guards became so irritated that they bound protesting Falun Gong practitioners with ropes and brutally beat the practitioners with electric batons. A group of these guards smeared their faces with ashes soaked in urine and dragged them to the door of the furnace to torture them with extreme heat.

During the break-time, practitioners were forced to take part in the co-called "condemning rally." At each such rally there would be some practitioner courageously shouting, "Falun Dafa is good!" The shouter would soon be dragged outside and brutally tortured.

In 2001, a few months after his release from the forced labour camp, Mr. Li Ming was talking about Falun Dafa to some students of Sichuan University and was reported to the authorities. The Wuhou district prosecuting office issued Li Ming an arrest notice. Li Ming's family wanted to hire a lawyer, but the lawyer said, "There's no way to defend this kind of case, but you can pay money to reduce the penalty." So, after they paid 15,000 yuan¹, the prosecuting office threw out the case for insufficient support of evidence. The Public Security Department however, gave Li Ming another two-years of forced labour anyway.

While in Chengdu's Pi County Detention Centre, Mr. Li refused to wear the inmate clothing and he continued to do Falun Gong exercises. Guards ordered inmates to beat Li Ming every day. As a result, Li Ming's head and half of his face went numb and his legs were fractured. They burned him with cigarettes, gagged his mouth with filthy socks and poured water on his ears.

For a period of two months Li Ming's hands and legs were handcuffed, and he held a hunger strike for over forty days to protest the persecution and torture. He was not only force-fed, but also had to shower in cold water. At that time, quite a few Falun Gong practitioners passed away, one of them being only 17 years old. Because SARS was rampant in China at the time, the authorities used this as an excuse to detain many practitioners for longer periods of time, claiming that since they were exposed to it, they could not be released.

After seven months in the detention centre, Li Ming was transferred to Mianyang City's Xinhua Forced Labour Camp. At that time the atmosphere was very tense, for there was a practitioner persecuted to death and another who was viciously declared as being "mentally ill" after being injected with nerve-damaging drugs. Any practitioner who did not comply was taken out to be tortured with an electric baton and bound with ropes.

Later at this forced labour camp, a so-called "condemning rally" was called. Mr. Li Ming stood up to protest the rally. The guard who hosted the rally screamed at Li Ming, "Wait to see how I will punish you!" The other nearby guards responded quickly, circled close to Li Ming, hauled him away and dragged him to a room. A cruel voice was heard shouting to the guards, "Be vicious!" Li Ming was kicked down to the ground and others circled Li Ming kicking him, punching him, and also stomping on his face. After a little while, three guards came in. One of them shouted at Li Ming, "Stand up, stand straight." As soon as Mr. Li stood up, the guard gave him a giant kick, slapped his face, stripped his clothes and tied him up with rope. Then the other one hit him with a police baton and spit on his face until Li Ming's face became swollen and deformed.

Mr. Li Ming's labour camp sentence was extended an additional six months with strict supervision. Mr. Wang Renwei, another practitioner, was tortured with an electric baton, which caused his face to become covered with scars. The forced labour camp came up with a vicious promotional picture smearing Falun Dafa and Mr. Wang stood up to protest. The next day, Wang's eyes were blackened and he lowered his head when eating, though he appeared to be smiling. This protest caused authorities to extend his prison sentence.

Mr. Li Ming was confined a total of three years and eight months during his two forced labour camp terms.

On April 11th, 2005, while Mr. Li was distributing leaflets he was arrested by 610 Office² agents from Pi County. On the following day he was detained at the Jinhuaqiao Street Office Brainwashing Centre by officers from the Wangjiang Police Precinct of Wuhou District.

On May 19th, 2007 at 3:00 p.m., Mr. Li Ming was arrested again by Sichuan University's Security Department when he was distributing leaflets. His home was ransacked by police from Wangjiang Road precinct and Street Office. He was detained at Jinhuashen of Wuhou District, Chengdu City. He was soon released.

On October 15th, Li Ming was arrested once again when he was distributing leaflets. He was sentenced to a term of 14 days in jail for "disturbing public security." He was originally scheduled for release on October 29th, but after plotting between Wuhou District's Street Office, Wangjiang Police Precinct, the local 610 Office, and the political and legal committees, he was sent to the Xinjin Brainwashing Centre on October 29. He's still being detained and it took a great amount of persistent questioning before his family was informed of the detention by the local authorities.

Li Ming's parents are quite elderly and they have health problems. For many years, because of the persecution of their son, the family was subjected to constant threats and interference which caused tribulation and pain beyond words.

There are many more persecuted Falun Gong practitioners at Sichuan University, including professor Yang Jinxia, a 69-year-old environmental protection expert, Ms. Luo Ping, a 31 year-old instructor at the Public Health College, and Professor Chen Qinggui of the Irrigation College. Wang Haibo, College of Mathematics Assistant Professor, was sentenced to three years in prison. Ms. Fang Hui, a foreign language assistant professor, was sentenced to three years and six months in prison. Assistant Professor Ding Zeyang is currently detained, and has been given a formal notice of arrest.

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://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/12/28/169192.html