Detailed Accounts of Falun Gong Practitioners Persecuted at Lanzhou University

Falun Gong was introduced to the general public in China in 1992 and quickly spread throughout China by word of mouth. Falun Gong practitioners consist of people from across sectors of society, ranging from the working masses to government officials, from illiterate, older rural women to learned professors and scholars. They are attracted by Falun Gong's principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance," which speaks volumes about the moral appeal of Falun Gong. However, the legitimate right to practise Falun Gong and the constitutional rights of practitioners at Lanzhou University have been denied by the Chinese Communist Party due to the severe persecution of Falun Gong practitioners that began on July 20th, 1999.

Lanzhou University set up a 610 Office¹ to help carry out orders for the provincial and municipal 610 Offices. The 610 Office, a vast system that exists specifically to carry out the persecution of Falun Gong at various levels of the government throughout the country, was created by Jiang Zemin, former head of the regime, on June 10th, 1999. The system operates above the law and possesses the power to arrest and imprison practitioners. In addition, it holds countless brainwashing sessions everywhere to "reform²" practitioners. It brutally tortures those who refuse to betray their faith. To date, more than 3,000 Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured to death.

Falun Gong practitioners are among the students and scholars in every college and university in China. Many of these people achieve academic excellence or are great teachers. However, durint the past eight years, they have been persecuted to varying degrees. Some were forced to write the so-called "confessions" and subjected to mental abuse. Others were expelled, arrested, detained, imprisoned, and physically tortured. Some were even tortured to death. Lanzhou University is no exception. It is one of the universities where many of the students and teachers practising Falun Gong have been brutally persecuted.

Worse still, the authorities sent political agents to the campus to manipulate the institution's policies and to organize campaigns against Falun Gong, using same techniques used in the Cultural Revolution.

In 2001, Lanzhou University was filled with posters, banners, and radio broadcasts slandering Falun Gong. On March 8th, 2001, a gathering boasting 10,000 people was held in the university auditorium to slander and criticize Falun Gong. It was actually a show put on by a few despicable people. In 2003, Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-controlled personnel, including Li Hengbin, deputy Party secretary of Lanzhou University; Wang Wei, deputy secretary-general of the Standing Committee of the Gansu Provincial [anti Falun Gong] Association; Zhang Jian, director of the 610 Office of Lanzhou University and vice president of the local Communist Party School; Zhang Xuchen, secretary of the Communist Youth League of Lanzhou University; Yao Liwen, deputy director of the Publicity Department of the CCP of Lanzhou University; and Yu Chunzi, deputy secretary of the Communist Youth League, solicited articles from the university students for an activity to show "respect for science and opposition to "illegal beliefs." Such activities aimed to distort the souls of the college students.

Below are several accounts of the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners at Lanzhou University.

1. Mr .Wan Jiqiang was a postgraduate in the College of Physics, Lanzhou University. On October 27th, 1999, Mr. Wan went to the Appeals Office in Beijing to legally petition the government on behalf of Falun Gong. He was taken into custody in Lanzhou and detained in Taoshuping Detention Centre for 15 days. Later, the university forced Mr. Wan to withdraw from the university. In October 2000, he returned to the university and was threatened with dismissal because he refused to write the three statements, promising to stop practising Falun Gong. On December 31st, 2000, he was arrested again after appealing for Falun Gong in front of Jinshui Bridge at Tiananmen Square. In the detention centre, the police tortured him for an entire day in an attempt to force a so-called "confession" out of him. Every despicable tactic, such as using electric batons and handcuffing him outside in freezing temperatures, were employed to no avail. An older man who was detained with Mr. Wan was shocked directly on his chest because he said that he previously had serious heart disease. His whereabouts are unknown. Mr. Wan was escorted back and taken into custody for another 15 days. Afterwards, his father bought a train ticket for him to come home for the Chinese New Year, but he was detained in an underground apartment at the university for "brainwashing sessions," for the sole purpose of forcing him to give up Falun Gong. He protested solemnly and went on a hunger strike for three days. The guards from the university pinched his nose and tried to force-feed him, but they did not succeed. Finally they had to let him go home. Mr. Wan had no choice but to leave home and the university to avoid being arrested again.

2. Mr. Liu Jianxin was an undergraduate in the Law School. He was arrested and detained for 15 days after he went to Beijing in early 2000 to appeal on behalf of Falun Gong. He was suspended from school. On October 1st, 2000, when university authorities were discussing the possibility of allowing him to resume his education, he went to appeal in Bejing for a second time and was again detained for 15 days. He did not change his mind, even when threatened by the prospect of forced labour and expulsion from the university. After his release, the authorities of the university were totally indifferent to him. They intended to allow him to graduate early so they would have nothing more to do with him. However, he went to Beijing for a third time in mid-December to appeal. During his stay in Beijing, he assisted many practitioners to find room and board. Later, the place where he was staying was searched, and more than 40 people living there were arrested. He was sentenced in Beijing to a term at Tuanhe Forced Labour Camp and was brutally tortured in an attempt to "transform" him.

3. Mr. Bao Xinkang was a lecturer at Lanzhou University. During the 2000 New Year, he appealed in Beijing. At the same time, he solemnly declared that his words and deeds, coerced under great pressure in 1999 were null and void. He was arrested by plain clothes police in Tiananmen Square because he refused to answer their questions. He was then taken to Shahe Town Police Station in Changping County, where he was brutally tortured. He was taken back to Lanzhou and detained for 15 days after the police found his name and address. At the end of his detention, Mr. Bao was shut in the underground apartment in Lanzhou University for so-called law "study classes" (which were actually brainwashing sessions). He was deprived of his basic liberties and freedom for three months. In late 2001, the police knocked on his door in the middle of the night. As a result, he fell down the stairs while trying to escape, causing serious fractures. Not letting up, in late 2002, the police arrested Mr. Bao again and took him to the Lanzhou City Gongjiawan Brainwashing Centre for compulsory "transformation."

4. Mr. Chen Duoju was a student at Lanzhou University. In December 1999, he went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. After he returned, university officials put him in detention for 15 days on the pretext of "disturbing public order." He was suspend from school for a year. After he returned to the university, the leaders of the department confined him in a brainwashing class on March 2nd, 2001, because he refused to write the "three statements" and refused to slander and criticize Falun Gong. Before the 2001 New Year, he was interrogated by the Gulang County Public Security Bureau, which intended to detain him but failed. On March 13th, Mr. Chen escaped to an unknown destination because he refused to be persecuted for no reason. That same year, he was arrested at a fellow practitioner's home and detained in the West Orchard Detention Centre. In 2002, the authorities released him but continued to monitor him. He was arrested soon afterwards and sentenced to forced labour for a year. He was subjected to many types of torture. After his term expired, he was taken directly to Gongjiawan Brainwashing Centre for compulsory "transformation."

5. Ms. Tan Xiaorong was doctoral student in the College of Life Sciences at Lanzhou University. She produced leaflets exposing the persecution with her computer and printer at home in Xuzhou and distributed them in student dormitories at Xuzhou Normal University. On January 12th, 2001, she was arrested. Her home was raided, and about 20 Falun Gong books and several exercise tapes were confiscated. In addition, her computer and printer were also seized. She was detained in the First Reception Hotel of Xuzhou Normal University with residential surveillance. On January 23rd, 2001, she was taken back to Lanzhou University and confined to the brainwashing centre in the underground apartment for three months. In May 2001, Ms. Tan was arrested while writing "Falun Gong is good" near a highway. She was sentenced to forced labour for one and a half years. In the forced labour camp, she was tortured by being made to do hard physical labour, and was beaten while being hung in the air, and deprived of sleep in efforts to "transform" her.

Contact Information:

Lanzhou University, 222 Tianshui South Rd, Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, Zip code: 730000
Former director of the security department Kang Liucheng: 0931-8911101 (Home)
Zhou Lanbao: 13109436647
Former director of the 610 Office in Lanzhou University Zhang Jian: 0931-8912124 (Office), 8913498 (Home)
Former CCP secretary of Lanzhou University: Chen Dewen (transferred to Jilin University in March 2008)
Former president Li Fashen: 89111998 (Home)
Director of the security department Wu Jianqiang: 0931-8910177
Director of the 610 Office in Lanzhou University Liu Tongchang: 13893141110
Deputy director of the 610 Office in Lanzhou University Liu Bailin: 0931-8912156 (Office)

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.org/mh/articles/2008/4/14/176463.html