Hunan Province Maternal and Children's Hospital Nurse He Xianggu Arrested for the Eighth Time After Being Persecuted at Mental Hospitals Twice and Labour Camps Three Times

On the night of April 23rd, 2008, police officers from the Wujialing Police Department in Changsha City arrested practitioner Ms. He Xianggu at her home. After they arrested her, they ransacked her home. Her personal belongings, including her computer, were taken away. On April 24th, after being held in custody for 24 hours, she was transferred to the Changsha City Detention Centre, also known as Changqiao Detention Centre. This is the eighth time Ms. He Xiangguu has been arrested and jailed since the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999 by the Chinese Communist Party. Ms. He was detained twice at mental hospitals, and sent to labour camps three times.

Ms. He Xianggu is 47 years old, and works as a nurse in the emergency room at Hunan Province Maternal and Children's Hospital. Before she started practising Falun Gong in 1998, she suffered from left vertebral artery insufficiency. She often couldn't walk steadily, experienced dizziness, vomited, and required bed rest for long periods of time. She took medicine for years but it did not cure her. At the end of 1997, she accidentally broke her right ankle It did not heal properly, forcing her to use a walking stick. In April 1998, Ms. He started to practise Falun Gong. She followed the teachings of Falun Gong, practised the exercises, and cultivated her heart to be a good person. Gradually, she stopped suffering from dizziness, she got rid of her walking stick, and her body became healthy again. The principles of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" helped her think of others in every possible way. During this period of time she worked at a restaurant in Shenzhen City, and the owner of the restaurant told her, "You practise Falun Gong but you are not like what they say on TV. I see that you try to be a good person. It's my pleasure to have you as my employee."

In December 1999, Ms. He Xianggu was arrested and detained for 15 days because she went to Tiananmen Square in Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. After 15 days, with the support of the Disinfection Health Department of Hunan Province, the then secretary of Hunan Province Maternal and Children's Hospital, Mr. Wu Shifan, sent Ms. He to the Mental Hospital of Hunan Province. She was injected with some type of drug which caused her whole body to become stiff and she had no strength at all. She wanted to stand up when she sat down, and she wanted to sit down when she stood up; she couldn't stay calm. She also felt nauseated and vomited. Ms. He Xianggu was detained at the mental hospital for two months.

After being released from the mental hospital, Ms. He was constantly harassed in her everyday life. In the second half of 2000, Ms. He's personal locker at her workplace was pried open, and her Falun Gong book was stolen. This incident resulted in her being detained again at the mental hospital, this time for more than three months.

On April 13th, 2001, Ms. He Xianggu was forced into getting a divorce. On the day after the divorce was finalized, Hunan Province Maternal and Children's Hospital transferred her from the mental hospital to a local motel, where she was put under 24-hour surveillance by 2 people at a time. During this period, Ms. He was taken to a detention centre. While she was under the custody of her employer, she constantly faced verbal assault. One of the people in charge of the Maternal and Children's clinic once yelled at Ms. He, "If you insist on practising Falun Gong, I will make sure you have no family, no son, no husband, no job and no money!"

In order to resist the persecution, Ms. He Xianggu left her former employer in June 2001. She went to Shenzhen City, and found a job in a restaurant as a dishwasher in Buji Town. She was arrested again in May 2002 when she returned to Changsha City to visit her son. This time, she was sentenced to one and a half years at a forced labour camp. At the Baimalong Labour Camp in Zhuzhou City, Ms. He Xianggu started a hunger strike to resist the persecution. She faced all kinds of verbal assaults, force-feedings, intravenous injections, etc. After being on hunger strike for 160 days, her vital signs were barely present. She was then taken back to her original home in You County, Zhuzhou City, Hunan Province on November 20th, 2002.

Approximately ten days after she returned home, she lost two thirds of her hair and her whole body was swollen, especially below the knees. The skin was stretched and looked polished. She had diarrhoea 7 or 8 times a day, and had to crawl on all fours if she was walking uphill. She maintained her faith in Falun Gong. After studying the teachings and doing the exercises for over a month, she fully recovered and her body returned to normal.

During the Chinese New Year in 2003, Ms. He Xianggu returned to her home town and explained the facts about Falun Gong to her friends and relatives. Someone who didn't know the truth about the persecution reported her to the authorities, and she was arrested. After going on a hunger strike without water, she was released in 7 days.

In April 2003, after going through many difficulties, Hunan Province Maternal and Children's Hospital finally agreed to let her return to work, but they forced her to sign an agreement, and had people keep watch on her. Ms. He treated her job seriously and responsibly. The head of the nursing department even let her be in charge of the department's ambulance and first aid equipment. Regardless, some people in charge of Hunan Province Maternal and Children's Hospital still didn't allow her to practise Falun Gong, and didn't allow her to say that she had become a good person because of Falun Gong. If she persisted, they wouldn't give her regular job status back.

In September 2003, Ms. He Xianggu was arrested for the sixth time while she was distributing leaflets exposing the persecution and telling people the facts about Falun Gong. The hospital officials told the prosecutor to make sure to send her to a labour camp. Some hospital staff who were involved claimed, "I am not scared if I have to go to hell for this!" Facing persecution inside the labour camp again, Ms. He went on a hunger strike again. On the 28th day of her hunger strike, the guards pushed her into a chair and used braces, her sweater and her trousers to tie down her wrists, chest, abdomen, thighs, and ankles. Two people held her shoulders from behind, another held her head, and one held her nose. Another person in front of her used a tongue depressor to open her mouth, and poured rice porridge into her mouth until her throat made strange sounds. They released the tongue depressor after she almost suffocated, and she vomited immediately afterwards. This torture continued for over 40 minutes. During the force-feeding, a young female guard sat on a table nearby and kept yelling and cursing. Later that day, during an intravenous injection, Ms. He Xianggu appeared to have heart failure: she had difficulty breathing, and her face and ears turned purple. She was taken to Zhuhua Hospital for emergency treatment.

On October 15th, 2003, Ms. He Xianggu was taken home. After she returned home, she visited Hunan Province Maternal and Children's Hospital three times to request to return to work. She was yelled at by Zhang Cixiu (then Chinese Communist Party (CCP Secretary of the Hospital, now retired): "Get out! Get out of here now!" Thus, she visited the State Appeals Office of Changsha City in Kaifu District and was turned away. She wrote letters to the governor of Hunan Province, the mayor of Changsha City, and the chief executive of Kaifu District, but didn't receive any replies.

In April 2005, not long after she left a fellow practitioner's home, police officers searched and arrested her after finding Falun Gong books on her. Ms. He was taken to the Baimalong Labour Camp in Zhu Prefecture, Hunan Province for the third time. After two months on hunger strike, she showed very weak vital signals and was taken home.

After going through so many difficulties, Ms. He Xianggu still uses what she learned from Falun Gong's principle of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" to treat everyone and everything around her peacefully and compassionately. Her innocence, compassion and honesty proved the power of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance," and she received a compassionate response: She got her job back and now she has a good relationship with her son.

However, on April 23rd, 2008, Ms He Xianggu was arrested for the eighth time at her own home.

Wujialing Police Station of Changsha City: 86-731-4485495, 86-731-4361465
Wang Shuguang (male, deputy director), Wang Junhui (male, deputy director), Qu Lifang (male, also the deputy director): 86-13975130588 (Mobile)
Hunan Province Maternal and Children's Hospital chief: 86-731-43321014.

Note: Hunan Province Maternal and Children's Hospital has always participated in and supported the persecution of Falun Gong. It has only become a little better in recent years.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/4/28/177389.html