Father Died in the Midst of Persecution--Son Also Arrested

Because he persisted in practising Falun Gong, 26-year-old Wang Lihui has been held for nearly twenty days. The National Security Team of the Nangang District Police Department denied his family their right to visit him. His 60-year-old mother is so worried, that her heart attacks frequently recur, and she suffers from extremely painful headaches. Over the past several years, she has witnessed her husband Mr. Wang Shixue being arrested and tortured to near death several times. He died recently, and now her son has also been arrested. She is very worried about her son.

Because he persisted in practising Falun Gong, Mr. Wang Shixue was persecuted by village official Sun Guangxiang in Shuangcheng City, police officer Ge Xiaogang from the Gongzheng Township Police Station, police officer Zhang Guofu of Shuangcheng City, as well as the guards from the Changlinzi Forced Labour Camp. The persecution brought great physical and mental peril as well as financial loss to him and his family. Mr. Wang died in a car accident on February 29th, 2008. Nonetheless, the Gongzheng Township police officers and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials still issued the order to monitor his whereabouts before the Beijing Olympics.

Mr. Wang Shixue's younger son, Wang Lihui, went to work in Harbin City to make a living after he buried his father. On April 1st, he was stopped and patted-down by police officers who were patrolling the streets that night in Harbin City at around 9 o'clock in the evening. The police officers found several Falun Gong exposing the persecution his father had left, so they took him to the Liaoyuan District Police Station in Harbin City. He was detained by the National Security Team of the Nangang District Police Department in Harbin City, and has been held there for nearly 20 days.

Mr. Wang Lihui's family went to the Nangang District Police Department and requested to see him. They also wanted to get him back as soon as possible, and were willing to pay to have Wang Lihui released. The related people told them that right now is a special time (close to the Olympics), and they dared not to accept the money to release him. Some of the police department staff said that it was actually not a big deal to find several flyers on Wang Lihui, but it became hard to handle because of the approaching Olympics.

The Persecution of Mr. Wang Xueshi

Wang Lihui's father, Mr. Wang Shixue, 60, lived in Guoxing Village, Gongzheng Township in Shuangcheng City. He started practising Falun Gong in 1997. He had many diseases before he began practising, including heart disease, lower back pain, and leg pain. His ribs were badly hurt in a car accident. He had severe stomach disease, and he spit up green fluids whenever it acted up. He lived on medicines for many years, and because of the diseases, Mr. Wang had a very bad temper and often quarrelled with his wife. He also had many bad habits, including smoking, drinking alcohol, and gambling. Through practising Falun Gong, all of his diseases disappeared. He also got rid of all of his bad habits, and his family became harmonized. His family, neighbours and relatives were amazed by the tremendous changes in Wang Shixue.

However, after the Chinese Communist Party launched the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in July 1999, Mr. Wang Shixue was subjected to continuous physical, mental and financial persecution from CCP officials.

In the summer of 2000, Mr. Wang went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. He was brought back and held in the Shuangcheng Detention Centre. Guard Zhang Guofu extorted 1,000 yuan¹ from him without giving him a receipt. He was then transferred to the Gongzheng Township Brainwashing Centre. His family spent another seven to eight hundred yuan to treat township and village officials to dinner, in order to get Wang Shixue back as soon as possible. He was finally released after more than ten days.

After New Year's day of 2001, Mr. Wang Shixue went to Beijing again. He was then brought back and held in the Shuangcheng Detention Centre for four months. Because he went to Beijing twice, he was sentenced to one year of forced labour and held in the Changlinzi Forced Labour Camp in Harbin City. During the detention, the guards incited the inmates to brutally beat him. He was also force-fed, and he spat up blood for several months. As a result, he was severely injured mentally and physically and became extremely weak. The result of a physical examination in the No. 2 hospital of Harbin Medical School showed that many of his vital statistics, including heart and blood pressure were abnormal. The guards in the Changlinzi Forced Labour Camp feared that he would die in the labor camp, so they released him.

During his detention, village official Sun Guangxiang demanded that Mr. Wang's family pay 8,000 yuan for the trips to get Mr. Wang back from Beijing. His family could not afford the money. Sun Guangxiang led people to harass his family every day. They didn't stop harassing Mr. Wang's family until the end of the year. Then they made a public announcement, and attempted to sell the farmland Mr. Wang's family leased at auction (the attempt failed). After that, they showed up in a truck and tried to steal the soybeans Mr. Wang's family planted (that attempt also failed). Mr. Wang's family could not endure the harassment, and paid 4,500 yuan.

Before the Chinese New Year of 2002, police officer Ge Xiaogang from Gongzheng Township Police Station drove to Mr. Wang Shixue's home, and forcibly took him away. Mr. Wang 's older son, Wang Lidong, tried to stop them from arresting his father. Ge Xiaogang threatened that they would arrest his son Wang Lidong after taking away Mr. Wang Shixue. Wang Lidong was so frightened that he dared not spend the Chinese New Year holiday at home. His family had to pay another 500 yuan to end the threat.

Mr. Wang Shixue was sent to Shuangcheng Detention Centre. There, he was brutally tortured by the inmates. He was forced to sit on a tiger bench², force-fed with salt water, and badly beaten by the inmates until he was on the brink of death. He was emaciated, and could not take care of himself. His internal organs were severely damaged, and he could hardly breathe. He was released because the authorities at Shuangcheng Detention Centre feared he would die.

Not long after he regained his health through Fa study and doing the exercises, Mr. Wang was arrested again at his home, and sent to Shuangcheng Detention Centre by officials from the Shuangcheng City 610 Office³, and police officers from Gongzheng Township Police Station. His home was also ransacked. This time, Mr. Wang was very weak and could not eat or drink because of the terrible torture to which he was subjected over the past several years. He was released after nine days.

Before Mr. Wang Shixue died, he had been repeatedly arrested and held in forced labour camps by the Gongzheng Township police officers and CCP officials in Shuangcheng City. The continual abuse and harassment, both in and out of detention, brought him severe harm physically, mentally and financially, and he died on February 29th, 2008 from a car accident. His family is in anguish.

We call for all domestic and international justice-loving organizations and individuals to condemn the inhumane atrocities committed by the police officers from the National Security Team of Nangang District Police Department and CCP officials in Harbin City, and help rescue Mr. Wang's younger son, Wang Lihui.

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

2. "Tiger Bench": Prisoners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead without movement for long periods of time.

3. "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://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/4/20/176847.html