Mr. Bai Shaohua Arrested after the Death of His Practitioner Brother

At around 3 p.m. on February 20th, 2008, Falun Gong practitioners Mr. Bai Shaohua and Mr. Yang Hui were arrested after police stopped them to inspect their car. On February 21st, Yang Hui's family went to the local police station to find out what had happened to him. They were told that he was sent to the Beijing Huairou District Detention Centre. Presumably, Mr. Bai was sent there as well.

In 2005, Mr. Bai Shaohua was tortured to the brink of death

Mr. Bai Shaohua's entire family has been severely persecuted in recent years. His older brother Bai Xiaojun was repeatedly imprisoned at Chaoyanggou Forced Labour Camp, Changchun City, where he was so brutally abused that he could not care for himself and lost consciousness. He died in July 2003. Mr. Bai's mother, who is over 70, was detained many times because she refused to give up her belief in Falun Gong. She ended up losing her sight because of how brutally she was treated in detention. Bai Shaohua was detained repeatedly. While in detention, he was shocked with electric batons and one of his legs was broken during a beating. In 2005, he was in critical condition at Qinghei Detention Centre in Beijing. Bai Shaohua's wife, Ms. Ji Lei, was also detained and taken to a forced labour camp. In order to try to force Ms. Ji to divorce Bai Shaohua, the police used torture, extending her detention term, and other shameless methods. Even Bai Shaohua's daughter was arrested when she was just four years old.

Mr. Bai Shaohua is 37. His father was a member of the Chinese Artists Association, and his mother was a music teacher at an elementary school. Bai Shaohua and his brother, Bai Xiaojun, were both good calligraphers and very talented musicians. In 1994, the whole family started practising Falun Gong and lived in harmony. When the persecution started on July 20th, 1999, the Bai family was targeted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and was severely persecuted.

The older brother, Bai Xiaojun, was a philosophy lecturer at Northeast Normal University and editor of the university newspaper. On July 21st, 1999, he went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong and was detained at Fengtai Stadium. He witnessed an armed police officer harassing a female practitioner and tried to intervene. The police kicked him and injured his ribs. On July 20th, 2000, Bai Xiaojun again went to Beijing to appeal. He was beaten so badly that his legs were broken. After two years in a forced labour camp, he was extremely weak. Refusing to be brainwashed, he died from the inhuman treatment he was subjected to.

Bai Shaohua was detained and brainwashed on several occasions. The police issued a nationwide warrant for his arrest. At one time, a team from Beijing was put together just to find and capture him. On April 14th, 2002, Mr. Bai was arrested and taken to the notorious Beijing Legal System Training Centre (a brainwashing centre), where he was brutally mistreated. He was sentenced to two years of forced labour. While in the No. 7 Team of Beijing's Tuanhe Labour Camp, he was tied to the "Dead Man's Bed¹" for a long period of time. On October 14th, 2004, after appeals by his mother and petitions from friends and family, Bai Shaohua was released after serving his sentence. However, he had to live life on the run thereafter to avoid further harassment.

Before October 1st, 2005, Bai Shaohua's whole family was arrested. Mr. Bai went on a hunger strike in protest and was brutally force-fed. His life was in danger and he was hospitalized twice. He was sent home on December 28th, 2005. At the time, his wife was being held at the Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp in Baoding, Hebei Province. His mother, who was in her 70s, his five-year-old daughter, and Bai Shaohua, who was near death, have a difficult time just getting by.

The persecution of Bai Shaohua's family includes illegal searches of their home, extortion of money, forced relocations, brainwashing, and imprisonment. In the process, they have lived in most parts of China.

Meng Xianghai, Director of Huairou Detention Centre in Beijing, 86-10-61697828

Note

1. "Death Bed" torture: A practitioner is tied to a bed with his hands handcuffed above his head to the bed rails, and his legs tied with thin nylon ropes. The rope is then tightly wrapped around the practitioner's body and the bed, from his legs to his chest. The rope is wrapped so tightly that the practitioner has difficulty breathing and eventually loses consciousness.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/3/2/173444.html