Nearly Blind from Weeping and Losing Her Teeth from Worry, Ms. Guo Calls for Help

"Please rescue my daughter!" echos Ms. Guo's desperate plea. This heartbroken mother is in her 50s, yet one eye is blind from crying and her teeth are falling out from worry.

Ms. Guo is the mother of Ms. Li Hongshu, an employee of Panjin City First People's Hospital and an outstanding university graduate. She is also the wife of Mr. Li Shangshi, who was sentenced twice to a total of 17 and a half years in prison because of her desire to continue to practise Falun Gong.

Ms. Guo originally had a happy family of four. However, when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)started its brutal persecution of Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999, her family fell on difficult times. Her husband, Mr. Li Shangshi, was sentenced in 1999 to three and a half years of imprisonment due to his practice of Falun Dafa and belief in Zhen-Shan-Ren (Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance). After his release in 2003, he was immediately sentenced again to 14 years in prison. Mr. Li has just been transferred to Dabei Prison from Fushun Prison. Their daughter, Ms. Li Hongshu, was also sentenced to three years of forced labour in 1999 and was imprisoned in Masanjia Forced Labour Camp. At the beginning of 2002, she was again sentenced to ten years and was imprisoned at Dabei Women's Prison in Shenyang City. She has suffered inhuman torture and mental abuse. When Ms. Guo would try to visit her daughter, she was frequently harassed and turned away by the prison personnel.

On November 20th, 2007, when she went to visit her daughter, the prison guard told her, "Ms. Li Hongshu is under strict control and is not allowed to meet with family because she has read and distributed Falun Gong articles. You can come again two months from now." Once again, Ms. Guo returned home with tears in her eyes, utterly disappointed. After going home, she felt like a dagger had been twisted in her heart. She did not know whether her daughter was dead or alive. All she knew was that many practitioners had died in prison.

Ms. Guo anxiously waited until January 9th, 2008, and went to visit her daughter again. When she saw her daughter, she was shocked. Ms. Li's entire face was disfigured. The right side was terribly swollen, and her eyes were bruised so much that they were only slits. The left side of her face was so thin that it seemed only skin and bones. She was very thin and walked with great difficulty. Even standing or sitting down was very strenuous for her. When Ms. Guo saw her daughter's condition, she broke down in tears. She then asked the two prison guards by her daughter's side, "How can this happen? Why was she beaten like this?" Chief Liu said, "She was under strict control for two months and was pressured. The pressure has been suspended for quite a few days now." Ms. Guo then asked, "Why was she under strict control?" Liu said, "Just that matter of her practice of Falun Dafa." Ms. Guo cried and asked, "Why is she so thin? Didn't she have any food to eat?" The prison guard said, "How could we not give her food? It's just that what she eats is different from normal." Ms. Guo looked at her daughter again and said, "Isn't her leg crippled? Hongshu, stand up and let mother have a look!" But Hongshu couldn't stand up. By now Ms. Guo was sobbing and said to the prison guards, "You should do some good deeds! Don't treat my daughter like this anymore! We are all good people--let her come out alive!" The prison guard said that everything was alright, and they were just applying a little pressure on her. Then they pointed at the less than 1,500-gram food container and said, "Look, she can still carry this thing, so she is all right." The prison guard also said to Ms. Guo, "We did not want to let you see your daughter at all, because we feared that you would cry and make a fuss after seeing your daughter." During the ten-minute meeting period, no matter what Aunt Guo asked, Ms. Li Hongshu did not say one sentence but just cried. The prison guard said, "Usually, no matter how we abuse her, she never cries." The short meeting passed quickly. Ms. Li Hongshu stood up with extreme difficulty. With tears in her eyes, she said to her mother, "Mother, you take care of yourself." After saying this, she turned around with great difficulty and moved slowly away, step by step, all the time under the watchful eyes of the two guards.

Ms. Guo stared at her daughter's tortured body moving slowly away. She simply dared not to think how her daughter might look next time. She turned around and walked out of the prison, her eyes staring blankly, her heart weeping, and crying out silently, "Who will rescue my daughter? Where is heavenly justice? Where is humanity?"

We don't know how long Ms. Guo must walk this road, and we do not know how long her 33-year-old daughter can last. She has already been imprisoned for nine years and has endured all kinds of torture because of her steadfastness in practising Falun Gong.

During this New Year's festive time, Ms. Guo moves her tired legs that support her small, thin, hunched-over frame. She brings clothing for the new season to her husband and daughter, and staggers along the road to visit them in prison. From summer to winter, she is seen walking without stopping. The people familiar with her cannot help but shed tears seeing her pass by.

Now Ms. Guo, her right eye blurred and dim and her gnarled frail hands, is staying up late every night to knit a woollen sweater for her daughter to wear to celebrate the new year in prison. While knitting the woolen sweater she frequently lays it down to stretch both of her hands and says aloud to herself, "If only my hands did not ache so from rheumatism and I could straighten them, I could knit a little bit faster."

I, the author, looked at this heartbroken mother whose left eye is blind from crying and whose teeth are falling out from worry. She has suffered such grievous misery. I could not help but choke with sobs. I must ask, "Who created this disaster? Who should be held responsible for this brutal disaster?" I do not possess the gift of eloquence, but I am finishing this article with sincerity and tears. Kindhearted friends of all races around the world, please help rescue the tens of thousands of Ms. Li Hongshus imprisoned in China! Let us appeal together to thoroughly end this persecution.

Relevant telephone numbers:
Shenyang Municipal Second Prison (Liaoning Provincial Women's Prison, Dabei Prison):
Warden Wang Bin (Gender Unknown): 86-24-89296501 (Office), 86-13390115188 (Mobile)

Dabei Women's Prison, Shenyang City: 86-24-88905055
Shu Shi (Gender Unknown): 86-24-89296516 (Office), 86-13390115055 (Mobile)
Political commissar Han Tianguo (Gender Unknown): 86-24-89296503 (Office), 86-13390115028 (Mobile)
Sixth Ward: 86-24-89292749, 86-24-89292704, 86-24-89292728
Chief Jing Tao (Gender Unknown)
Chief Liu Bin (Gender Unknown)
Reception Room Director Meng Yanning (Gender Unknown): 86-24-89292918

Sideli community, Dadong District, Shenyang City:
Liu Zhiming (Gender Unknown): 86-24-88093544
Director, Wang Xin (Gender Unknown): 86-24-89813158
Deputy director, Zhao Tiefeng (Gender Unknown): 86-24-89813089
Jiao Lingling (Female): 86-13840450921(Mobile)

Shenyang Second Prison address: 1 Xinsheng Street, Dadong District, Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, zip code: 110044
12th Ward: 86-24-88092474
Warden Sun Huifu (Gender Unknown)
Chief Li Jianguo (male): 86-24-23217856 (Home)
Political instructor Li Xiangdong
Clerks (Gender Unknown): Li Zheng, Wang Shihai, Zhang Lei
Clerks with surnames Zhou, Tong, Gao, Zhang

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/2/2/171592.html