Ms. Xu Shuqin Sentenced to Four and a Half Years by the Zunhua City Court, Hebei Province

On April 17th, 2008, six Falun Gong practitioners, including Ms. Xu Shuqin, were unjustly tried by the Zunhua City Court in Hebei Province. The court appointed one lawyer for each practitioner for a mock defence. On April 24th, 2008, after the court session, the Zunhua City Court sentenced the six practitioners, including Ms. Xu, who was sentenced to four and a half years. She has already appealed to the Tangshan City Intermediate People's Court.

Xu Shuqin was born in 1955. She teaches at Wanfuzhuang Primary School, Xingwangzai Township, Zunhua City. Her husband, Lu Zhaozeng, is the head the of the motor pool of the Shirengou Iron Mine in Zunhua City, which is affiliated to Tangshan City Steel and Iron Corporation.

Ms. Xu started practising Falun Gong in early 1998. Her sicknesses, including rheumatoid arthritis, lumbar sacralization, lumbar muscle degeneration, periarthritis of the shoulder, myoma of the uterus, sensitivity in the hands to cold water, periodic inability to even lift a bowl, long-term poor appetite, etc., all gradually disappeared. She no longer gets fatigue when she works. Ms. Xu strictly adhered to the principle of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance" and was praised by her family, friends and colleagues.

But Jiang Zemin's, [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] regime started persecuting Falun Gong in July 1999, and misfortune subsequently arrived.

On January 1st, 2000, for possessing one Falun Gong exercise cassette tape, she was locked up in the Shirengou Police Station for three days and had two thousand yuan¹ extorted from her

On January 25th, 2002, for distributing leaflets exposing the persecution and telling people the facts about Falun Gong, she was detained by the Xisanli Township Police Station in Zunhua City. Four and a half months later, she was transferred to the Zunhua City Brainwashing Centre for over a month and had four thousand yuan extorted from her.

After being released, Ms. Xu was taken to the Zunhua City Brainwashing Centre again for forced "transformation²" by the head of the countryside central school because a Falun Gong book was found in her drawer. She was detained there for over three weeks.

Her stipend was withheld between January and June 2002.

In August 2004, her employer again wanted to send her to the Zunhua City Brainwashing Centre, claiming that she was not "transformed" well enough. After learning of this, she left home and remained homeless until October, 2004, when she returned home from Baoji City, Shanxxi Province. Her stipend was discontinued during that period.

In late 2004, Ms. Xu's employer again sent her to the Zunhua City Brainwashing Centre, using the excuse that she was not "transformed" well. When she was on her last breath after holding a hunger strike for seven days in the brainwashing centre, her family was ordered to take her home and pay five thousand yuan in bail. Since then, she has not been allowed to return to work and her stipend has also been stopped.

In January 2007, administrators from her school told her to come to work and promised to give her a stipend. But they did not keep their promise and she was not allowed to return to work. Only after Huang Xiaoming, the head of the Xingwangzai Township Central School, and Qian Zhenjie, the head of the Wanfuzhuang Primary School, were transferred was she able to return to work and receive her pay, from January 2007 to April 2007.

On the afternoon of October 1st, 2007, Ms. Xu and other Falun Gong practitioners, including Zhang Mengxia, Li Liping, Zhao Fengxia, Zhang Yuehua, and Wang Cuihua, drove to the Qingdongling Resort in Zunhua City to distribute Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution. They were taken into custody by officers of the Qingdongling Historic Relic Management Office and the local police station and have since been held in the Zunhua City Detention Centre.

Note

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

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.ca/mh/articles/2008/5/8/178027.html