The Brutal Persecution of Retired Teacher Li Shouwo

Mr. Li Shouwo, a 72-year-old Falun Gong practitioner, was a teacher at Pingshan Elementary School, Hebei Province. It was said that he was one of the most excellent role models in the whole county. Before 1999, Li Shouwo, wanting to have a healthy body and be a good person, began to practise Falun Gong. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) persecution of Falun Gong began, Mr. Li was detained many times without just cause. He was violently beaten and suffered brutal torture. He was almost tortured to death several times.

In July 1999, Li Shouwo went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong and was arrested by CCP staff members. The police took away his cash in the amount of 385 yuan. They also forced him to pay 200 "yuan"¹. After Mr. Li was sent back to his home town, he was detained for three days and the local police fined him 160 yuan. Later on, he was sent to the detention centre twice. He was detained for 29 days the first time and 45 days the second time.

Around 10:30 p.m. on May 30th, 2001, Dong Shuan, the director of the Dawu Township Security Department, brought over a dozen people and took Li Shouwo to a brainwashing session at Li Village, Dawu Township. Hou Cunli, a staff member from the 610 Office² visited Li Shouwo several times and forced more propaganda on him. Because Li Shouwo did not give up his belief and went on a protest hunger strike for 16 days, he was sent to the county detention centre and was persecuted there for one month.

One month later, on July 17th, Li Shouwo was sent to a brainwashing centre in the Shiyan Middle School. About 13 Falun Gong practitioners were detained there in a ten-metre-square room. Each day, they only gave each practitioner 6 ounces of food. Sometimes they would make 4 people share one piece of fried dough. Sometimes they were only allowed to eat a half bowl of rice soup without any rice as a meal. They would not allow Falun Gong practitioners to go to the toilet. There was one toilet bucket in the room and practitioners had to relieve themselves in the room. Practitioners were not allowed to open the window even in very hot weather. There was no drinking water provided, let alone water for taking a shower.

Once Li Shouwo told Hou Cunli in front of everyone, "Is it enough to only give us each 6 ounces of food?" Hou Cunli said, "If you complain that it is not enough, be "transformed³" quickly! Stop complaining. This is under the CCP's control. You are only allowed to follow orders. You are forbidden to say or do anything else. How can you dare to complain! How can you dare to be against us..." At that moment, Wang Gengting, the head of the 610 Office, walked up to Li Shouwo and kicked him hard, making him fall down on his back and lose consciousness. Then, Wang Gengting ordered people to drag Li Shouwo to a place away from the others. They waited until Li Shouwo came back to life and then slapped Li Shouwo's face twice so heavily that Li saw darkness in front of him and could not see anything. Wang Gengting said while he was slapping Mr. Li's face, "Now I will see if you dare to complain any more. How can you dare to be against us..." Then he ordered Li Shouwo to stand under the hot sun for a whole day.

One night, Zhang Xingang, a member of the 610 Office, was chatting with other people and said that Niu Zengui, the assistant secretary of Pingsahn County, had a secret order saying that the local government would find a job for anyone who could "transform" a Falun Gong practitioner (at that time some of the 610 Office members were students recently graduated from college). He also mentioned they could use any kind of method against Falun Gong practitioners as long as they were not beaten to death. He added that it would not matter too much even if they really beat a Falun Gong practitioner to death.

On October 9th, at around 8:00 p. m., Zhang Xingang, a staff member from the 610 Office and seven other people took Li Shouwo to a small room. Zhang Xingang said to Li Shouwo, "Stop practising Falun Gong. There is no use in it." Li Shouwo said, "Falun Gong asks us to be a good person. I got rid of my illnesses after practising Falun Gong. Why are you preventing me from practising such a good system." Zhang Xingang said viciously, "You practised Falun Gong and your illnesses were gone. Now we will beat you up to let you have your illnesses again." Li Shouwo said, "It is illegal to beat up people." Zhang Xingang then jumped to his feet and patted his chest, "I graduated from a Politics and Law University. How could I not know that beating up people is illegal. We'll beat you up. I tell you that if you want to sue us, you will not be allowed to step out of this room. We commit crimes and nobody dares to step in. No one will be successful if they want to sue us. The CCP wants us to beat you up. Jiang Zemin [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] asks us to beat you up, and the 610 Office asks us to beat you up. The 610 Office makes these decisions. I represent the 610 Office, therefore whatever I say, goes. If you stop practicing Falun Gong, we will send you home immediately. If you say that you will continue to practice, then...." He waved a stick at Li Shouwo's face and continued, "We will use this to take you to the end." Li Shouwo said firmly, "I will continue with my practice!" As soon as he said that, seven people rushed over to him and violently beat his head, chest, back, arms and legs with leather-covered sticks and wooden sticks. At the beginning, Li Shouwo cried out because of the pain. Not long after that, he lost consciousness and fell down on the floor. No one knew how long a time had passed, when sharp pain woke up Li Shouwo and he opened his eyes. Zhang Xingang saw him opening his eyes and said, "Now Lao Li has come back to life. Give him some water." Then, they rubbed hot pepper water onto Mr. Li's eyes. Li Shouwo felt his whole body violently ache. His stomach was burning like fire and it felt like a knife was poking into his eyes. Then Li Shouwo lost consciousness again (it was around 11:00 a. m.). When Li Shouwo came to again, it was around 6:00 or 7:00 p. m. in the evening. He woke up for about ten minutes and then lost consciousness again. When he regained consciousness again, it was night and he was not sure of the exact time. That night, Li Shouwo lost consciousness several more times.

The next day (October 10th), when Zhang Xingang saw that Li Shouwo had not died, he beat Li Showo using bamboo strips. With two people in a team, they stood by Li Shouwo's sides while each person violently beat Li Shouwo's back with a one-metre-long bamboo strip. While beating Li Shouwo, Zhang Xingang said, "This bamboo strip is too soft. Even though it cannot beat you to death, it will let you suffer for a while." Two people were beating Li Shouwo's back and two people were beating his hands and feet with chopsticks. They would stop when they saw Li Shouwo lose consciousness. After a whole day's brutal beating, Li Shouwo's entire body turned black and blue.

On the third day (October 11th), they handcuffed Li Shouwo to a tree in the yard. Zhang Xingang said, "We will use fire today." Then each of them used a cigarette lighter to burn his hands, his eye-brows and moustache, while another person burned his hair and two other people burned his body with cigarettes. They shouted and laughed while they were burning Li Shouwo. Li Showo cried out because of the pain and his body emitted a strong burning smell. He once again lost consciousness. Li Shouwo's moustache and eyebrows were all gone because of the burning. He lost most of his hair. There were many places on his hands that were burned and blistered. After that, Li Shouwo totally lost control of his mind and his whole body constantly went into convulsions. That night, two doctors stayed at Li Shouwo's bedside, waiting to see if his heart stopped beating so they could immediately dispose of his body.

The news that Li Shouwo was dying in the brainwashing centre spread over the entire Pingshan Township and to the neighbouring townships. The 610 Office had no choice but to send Li Shouwo to a hospital. Five days later, the police sent him to the brainwashing centre again for further persecution, even before he recovered from his life-threatening condition.

Finally, even though Li Shouwo did not give up his firm belief in Falun Gong, he was released to go home by the 610 Office on November 17th, 2001.

In 2003, the 610 Office took Li Shouwo to the Wentang Brainwashing Centre and detained him there for over 20 days while torturing him both physically and mentally. Since then the CCP has sent people to secretly monitor Li Shouwo, even until today.

Over the course of the persecution, CCP staff members have severely persecuted Li Shouwo financially. During the two-year period from 2000 to 2001, Li Shouwo was fined a total of 10,000 yuan. Later on, the elementary school stopped his monthly income for 14 months, which resulted in financial loss of over 11,300 yuan. The elementary school did not increase his annual stipend which added up to 150 yuan each month or over 10, 000 yuan for seven years. The CCP has extorted a total of 30,000 yuan from this elderly man.

The cruelty of the CCP is horrifying. However, what Li Shouwo has been suffering is only the tip of the iceberg in the persecution of Falun Gong.

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.

3. "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/2008/6/26/180946.html