The Persecution of Practitioner Ma Guobiao and His Family in Shanghai

On February 22nd, 2008, Mr. Ma Guobiao and his elderly parents were arrested and the Shanghai 610 Office¹ searched their home in Shanghai. No further information about their whereabouts has been heard.

Ma Guobiao, his father Ma Dongquan, and his mother Jin Runfang are all Falun Gong practitioners. Ma Guobiao is 36 years old. He was detained in Beijing for 15 days when he went to Beijing to appeal against the persecution in May 2000. Not long after he was released, Ma Guobiao was arrested and sent to Qingpu Law College where he was forced to undergo brainwashing sessions. During these two months of imprisonment, he was bombarded with lies and brainwashing materials. He kept practising the exercises and studying the Falun Gong teachings, for which he was threatened to be sent to a forced labour camp by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agents. A few days after Mr. Ma left the brainwashing centre, he was detained again for 15 days.

In December 2002, when Ma Guobiao was at work, CCP agents from Changning District came to arrest him and detained him in Changning District Detention Centre. Later on, personnel from the Changning District Police Station sentenced him to two years of forced labour. The two people responsible for his sentence were Jin Weijun and Chen Kuang. In the labour camp, practitioners were imprisoned in a specific group and tortured. Ma Guobiao was shocked with electric batons on his private parts, and tortured with the "Shanghai Style Tiger Bench" (the practitioner is pushed against a wall and several people stretch his legs apart to 180 degrees, while several others beat him and hit him). He was also deprived of sleep.

While Ma Guobiao was being persecuted in the labour camp, his mother Jin Runfang was also persecuted in the women's forced labour camp, which was close by. Jin Runfang is in her 60's. She is a kind and caring person. She used to suffer from various diseases, but all of them disappeared after she started practising Falun Gong, and she regained her health. Because Ms. Jin benefited from Falun Gong, she often told others, "Falun Gong is great." After the persecution began in 1999, she went to Beijing to appeal despite her age. However, she was detained in Beijing for doing so. In the detention centre in Beijing, she often witnessed the police torturing practitioners, and heard the screams of practitioners being tortured.

In 2001, Jin Runfang went to Beijing to appeal for justice again, but was taken back to Shanghai by Shanghai policemen in Beijing. She was then sentenced to two years of forced labour. In the forced labour camp, Ms. Jin underwent violent brainwashing sessions and was forced to watch defaming TV programmes that were full of lies. However, she never submitted to saying that Falun Gong was wrong. All imprisoned practitioners had to go through "transformation²" and "education" including: being forced to stand facing the wall all day long, being forced to sit still for extended periods, being forced to hand copy the camp's regulations, being forced to read slanderous propaganda materials, being deprived of sleep, being forced to work, and being hung up if they tried to protest.

The local 610 Office has threatened Ma Guobiao's father Ma Dongquan from time to time. Once when Ma Guobiao was illegally detained, the 610 Office staff lied to Ma Dongquan, saying, "As long as you promise you won't go to Beijing to appeal and stay home, we will let your son come home." They also extorted money from him. Ma Dongquan had to agree in order to get his son out. However, after receiving the money, the 610 Office still sentenced Ma Guobiao to two years of forced labour. Upon learning of their deception, the Ma family couldn't do anything and were distraught.

When Ma Guobiao and his family were watching TV on the evening of February 22nd, 2008, policemen in Shanghai arrested them and searched their home. Ma Guobiao and his father are currently detained at the Jiading District Police Station.

Shanghai Jiading District Detention Centre: 86-21-59529290, 86-21-59538808
Directors Ying Zhiwei, Ge Zhongqi and Jiang Jianping
Deputy-director Chen Hongxia (female)

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. "Reform or Transform" Implementation of brainwashing and torture in order to force a practitioner to renounce Falun Gong. (Variations: "reform", "transform", "reformed", "reforming", "transformed", "transforming", and "transformation")

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/3/6/173744.html