Persecution of Practitioners and Their Families in Huining County, Gansu Province

Since the persecution began in 1999, police in Huining County, Gansu Province, have been actively persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. The Gansu Provincial Public Security Department has gone so far as to provide the Huining Police Department with a vehicle dedicated solely for this purpose. Local officials and the police have been conducting illegal searches and ransacking, engaged in random harassment, and have imprisoned practitioners and sent them to forced labour camps. Upon their release, many practitioners are unable to return to their own homes. Some of their family members have even died as a result of the stress from the tremendous pressure of this persecution. Many tragedies have resulted.

1. Practitioners who have been subjected to forced labour and imprisonment

Practitioners sent to forced-labour camps include Mr. Yang Lichuang (manager at a local business), Mr. Wang Pengyun (college student), Ms. Chen Shuxian, Ms. Deng Yuping, Mr. Liu Xinshun (high school physics teacher), Ms. Wang Qingfang, Duan (family name, given name unknown), Mr. Wang Hao, Ms. Li Jinping, and several others whose names are not known.

Practitioners who are imprisoned include Mr. Wang Pengyun (20 years, currently imprisoned in Tianshui Prison), Mr. Shao Yanbo (imprisoned for 8 years, student from Physical Education Department of Northwestern Normal University, currently imprisoned in Lanzhou Prison), Mr. Zhang Yong (high school teacher, no further details available), Mr. Zhang Hengtong (3 year jail term, high school teacher, currently imprisoned in Lanzhou Prison), Ms. Chen Jie (3 year jail term, returned home in December 2006 after serving full sentence), Ms. Chen Shuxian (3.5 year jail term, served the full sentence but was also subjected to several additional months of persecution in a brainwashing programme in Gongjiawan, due to non-compliance with the CCP), Li (family name, no further details available).

Practitioners who have been tortured to death include Mr. Yang Lichuang (In 2006, steadfast in his belief in Falun Gong, he was subjected to brutal interrogation through torture by the Huining Committee of Political and Legislative Affairs in collusion with the Public Security Police. He was then beaten to death and his body was thrown into a water cellar. They claimed that he "committed suicide for fear of punishment for his crimes"). Mr. Zhang Xiaodong was tortured to death in the labour camp hospital during his imprisonment.

In 2007, the local government transferred all Falun Gong practitioners who worked in the education sector to small businesses in local villages and townships.

2. Families of Falun Gong practitioners who have also been persecuted

The family members of these practitioners have also been subjected to various degrees of persecution. Wang Xiao, who is the younger sister of Wang Pengyun, has been harassed and hunted down for several years. Her home has been frequently searched and ransacked.

While Ms. Chen Shuxian was being imprisoned, her husband, who was unable to withstand the coercion by local officials and police, divorced her. Chen Shuxian then had to live with her eighty-year-old mother. However, the persecution did not stop here. In October 2007, the police even searched Chen Shuxian's mother's home and took away her mother's Falun Gong books. Whenever there was any sign of truth clarification activities in the area, the police immediately came to search and ransack this older woman's home. They bullied her, repeatedly breaking into her home, turning her home upside down, and if they could not find any Falun Gong items, they robbed her. They did not confine their harassment only to ransacking her home, they also went so far as to destroy her orchard, throwing apples and apricots all over the ground and breaking open the unripe watermelons and throwing them all over the place. They turned her place into a complete shambles. As a result of all this, Ms. Chen Shuxian's 80 year-old mother has now become destitute and is currently homeless. Unfortunately, Ms. Chen's own situation is unknown at this time. Her older bother was a policeman before the persecution started in 1999. He was also the local assistant for a practice site. After 1999, he was detained and dismissed from his job. The police bugged his residential phone for several years. Ms. Chen's younger sister is currently also destitute and homeless. Her whereabouts are also unknown.

Shao Yanbo's father and mother have also been subjected to various degrees of persecution. In 2006, with his son Shao Yanbo absent, his father passed away due the stress of day-to-day survival and the mental pressure of the persecution. Currently, his mother is living a hard life, all alone. In the last three years, Shao Yanbo's family members have had little to no contact with him, let alone bringing him supplies. No one knows his current situation.

Before the CCP's 17th Congress, the ringleaders of the Committee of Political and Legislative Affairs began a stepped-up campaign of going into practitioners' homes to coerce, allure and intimidate them.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/3/29/175395.html