The Persecution of Ms. Hu Qiuxia in Jinzhou City Over the Past Nine Years

Ms. Hu Qiuxia is a practitioner from Taihe District, Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province. Simply because she practises Falun Gong, she had been arrested five times and has been sentenced to forced labour once. Since the summer of 2002, she had to live away from home to avoid persecution. Her home was ransacked many times by the police and her husband lived in fear and was under continuous pressure from the police. He suffered illness as a result and passed away in October of 2007.

Ms. Hu Qiuxia, 49 years old, was an employee of the Jinzhou City Plastic Flower Factory. Before she began to practise Falun Gong, she used to have many illnesses, including high blood pressure and excessive anxiety. She was very weak and had a very bad temper. In November 1997, one of her relatives recommended Falun Gong to her. She began to practise with the thought of just giving it a try. However, shortly after she started, all of her illnesses disappeared. Her body became light, her face became rosy and her freckles were gone. She felt gratitude towards Falun Gong and made up her mind to practice it seriously. Ms. Hu started to follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance in every aspect of her behaviour. She became more respectful to her parents-in-law and her husband. She worked diligently without any complaints and no longer competed for personal interests. She was happier and became peaceful. Everyone who knew Ms. Hu thought she had become a totally different person.

Several months after after the persecution began, in September 1999, the police tracked down Ms. Hu after several practitioners were arrested. The police from the Taihe Police Station arrested her in the market and detained her in the police station. Then, they went to her home and ransacked it. They confiscated some of her Falun Gong materials. Her husband was shaking from fear. The police interrogated Ms. Hu about the source of the materials but she refused to answer. One police officer pulled her hair and banged her head violently against the wall. Later, three more police officers from the Taihe Police Department were called over to assist in the interrogation. They beat Hu Qiuxia with a metal tube more than three feet long while interrogating her. Liu Wenge, the instructor of the Taihe Police Station beat her severely. Ms. Hu was having trouble breathing but she refused to say anything. After two days and one night of torture, she suffered severe internal injuries to her chest. On the night of the second day after her arrest, they sent Ms. Hu to the Jinzhou City Detention Centre. She was released after 30 days of detention.

Twenty days after her release, Zhang Fengchang, a police officer from the Taihe Police Station, ran into Ms. Hu at the market and forced her back to the police station. There he asked her, "Do you still practise Falun Gong? Are you going to go to Beijing to appeal?" Ms. Hu answered, "I definitely will practise. The persecution of Falun Gong is wrong, so I will also appeal for justice." The police then sent her to the brainwashing centre in the Taihe District Chinese Communist Party (CCP) School, where many practitioners were being detained. The officials at the brainwashing centre extorted 2,000 yuan¹ from every practitioner's family before releasing them. From then on, the local residential committee officials and police went to Ms. Hu's business stand and her home frequently to harass her and her family. Her husband lived in constant fear.

On April 16th, 2000, Ms. Hu and other practitioners went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. Before they made it to the appeals office, they were arrested in Beijing. They were sent to the Longfeng Hotel in Beijing. In the hotel, over thirty practitioners were detained in a small room about ten square meters. The room was packed. Later, a police officer came into the room. He shouted loudly, "I am the Deputy Director of the Beijing Police Department." Then he started kicking practitioners, one of them an elderly woman over 80 years old. Many practitioners were hurt. After he tired of kicking people, he came in front of practitioner Ms. Zhou Hanchun, shouting, "See what you came to Beijing for?" He started to slap Ms. Zhou. Her mouth bled badly and one of her front teeth became loose. He slapped her so hard that he shattered his watch. He kept asking, "Who is the leader among all of you from Jinzhou City?" After witnessing his cruelty, in order to protect other practitioners, Ms. Hu Yanxia stood up and said, "It is me." He came over to Ms. Hu and slapped her twice. Then he searched practitioners and took away all their money before he left.

At 4:00 p.m. on April 18th, 2000, police from the Taihe Police Station took Ms. Hu back to Jinzhou City. Right after they arrived at the Taihe Police Station, they immediately forced her to stand against the wall and started to punch and kick her. The instructor, Liu Wenge (female), was cursing and beating Ms. Hu. Afterwards, they sent Ms. Hu to the detention centre. On the second afternoon after she had arrived, Liu Wenge and another police officer, Zhang Fengchang, brought her to a meeting room on the first floor. Zhang Fengchang started to beat Ms. Hu with a bamboo strip. When she covered her head with her hands for protection, he slapped her hands. He kicked her arms and thighs and stomped on her feet and toes. After the torture, Ms. Hu had bruises all over her body. Her ear drums were damaged and she had trouble hearing. When she was sent back to her cell in the detention centre, other practitioners saw her condition. They all decided, including an elderly practitioner over 70 years old, to start a hunger strike to protest the inhumane treatment. Then Ms. Hu was sent to the Jinzhou City First Detention Centre and was later released.

On May 16th, 2000, police from the Taihe Police Department and the Taihe Police Station arrested Ms. Hu Qiuxia again. She was sentenced to one and a half years of forced labour in Masanjia Forced Labour Camp. Masanjia Forced Labour Camp is notorious for its inhumane treatment of Falun Gong practitioners. The camp officials force practitioners to watch videos that defame Falun Gong, in an effort to have them renounce their faith. Dai Yuhong, a section chief, ordered those people who gave up practising Falun Gong under pressure to help torture practitioners. They would surround Ms. Hu and take turns, around the clock, to try and force her to renounce Falun Gong. Since she refused, she had to endure sleep deprivation. If that didn't work, they would torture her. She was forced to stand, sit on a stool, or squat for long periods of time and was punched, kicked and shocked with electric batons. Practitioners in the detention centre were not allowed to speak to each other. They were given five minutes in the morning to wash up and use the toilet and most of the time they didn't have time to wash themselves. They were forced to start work at 5:00 a.m. and weren't allowed to finish until 11:30 p.m. They had to work intensively every day for 16 to 17 hours and were often forced to work overtime. The officials of the labour camp made huge profits from this slave labour.

Ms. Hu suffered physically and mentally in the labour camp due to the torture and brainwashing. She developed high blood pressure of 220 to 180 although she was very healthy before she was detained. She was too weak to attend the morning forced jogging, however, the camp guards claimed she was pretending. She was close to mental breakdown when she was released from the labour camp.

After a year of her release, in August of 2002, Hu Qiuxia attended practitioner Ms. Cao Shufang's funeral, who had died due to persecution. The local police and 610 Office² officials arrested many practitioners who attended the funeral. Ms. Hu was able to escape but had to leave home to avoid further persecution. However, before the CCP 16th National People's Congress, the Taihe Police Station issued a warrant for her arrest.

Ms. Hu worried about her family and returned home. At around 5:00 p.m. on March 31st, 2004, police from the Taihe Police Station broke into Ms. Hu's home. Her husband and her parents-in-law were terrified and didn't know what to do. One police officer grabbed Ms. Hu and pulled her arms behind her back. Liu Xiaodong, the director of the Taihe Police Station, Li Dongming, the instructor, and police officer Ma Baoyuan and Li Zhongwen started ransacking the home. They confiscated Falun Gong materials, and their mobile phones. Four police officers also accosted practitioner Mr. Wang Xiaomin, who was visiting at that time, and kicked and beat him to the floor. They pulled off his belt and tied him up with it. They dragged Ms. Hu and Mr. Wang from her home on the third floor and pushed them into a police car, without allowing them to put on their shoes.

At the Taihe Police Station, the police interrogated Ms. Hu about where she had obtained Falun Gong materials. She refused to answer. They tortured her and force-fed her for four days until she was very weak and her life was in danger. Then, they extorted 2,000 yuan from her husband and released her. After Ms. Hu recovered, she had to leave home again.

The CCP's persecution of Ms. Hu brought her family tremendous difficulties and stress. She was not able to take care of her parents-in-law or to be with her husband and son. After her home was ransacked, her husband was so traumatized that could not live a normal life, and he eventually suffered a cerebral haemorrhage. Ms. Hu had to bring her husband to her rental place in order to take care of him. However, her husband was very nervous every day. Whenever someone knocked on their door, he thought that it was the police. When they went out, he suspected they were being followed. Under such a situation, one year later, in October of 2007, he passed away at the age of 52.

Note

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

2. "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://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/5/25/179125.html