Arrested in Connection With the Olympic Torch Relay: Practitioner Ms. Liu Xiuqing from Datong City

Ms. Liu Xiuqing has been repeatedly persecuted as a Falun Gong practitioner. On June 24th, 2008, Ms. Liu Xiuqing was arrested in connection with the Olympic Torch Relay. She is currently being detained at the Mining Area Detention Centre. Ms. Liu is just one of many practitioners arrested in the run up to the Olympics.

Several workplaces are complicit in her arrest including the Chemical Industry Factory of Datong Mining Bureau and the Datong Mining Bureau. The Heping Street Police Substation, and the 610 Office¹ also took part. No further details are available at this time regarding her most recent arrest.

The following report from Ms. Liu Xiuqing outlines some of the persecution she has experienced in years past.

My name is Ms. Liu Xiuqing. I was born in 1963. I reside at Shizhuang Village, Nanjiao District, in Datong City, Shanxi Province. I suffered from the chronic and stubborn disease of psoriasis for many years. After long treatments, it was still not healed. Afterwards, the factory refused to approve my medical expense reimbursements. The expensive medical expenditures brought despair to my family, and this painful experience made me feel that my life was even worse than death. Then in 1997, I started practising Falun Gong, and I strived to be a good person. Within three months, my chronic disease was cured without treatment. Ever since then, I have felt very energetic and I have experienced in person the miracles of Falun Gong.

In July 1999, the persecution started. Within a short period of time, the rumours, the defamation and the suppression came down as if the sky were falling. I went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong from my own experience, informing all levels of the government that there is nothing wrong about Falun Gong, and that "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" is good. As a result, I was held in a detention centre. Xiao Guihe and Hao Jinlong from the security department of the Datong Mining Bureau deducted food expenses from my monthly salary.

In January 2000, I went back to the factory to work. However, I was told very soon after that I was dismissed from my job. I therefore became unemployed. Every month, I was paid 230 yuan² in unemployment compensation.

On August 28th, 2000, I was sentenced to three years of forced labour for distributing leaflets exposing the persecution, telling people the facts about Falun Gong and telling the world's people that Falun Gong teaches people to follow the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance." During this period of time, the factory stopped paying for my living expenses. As a result, my 14-year-old son had to drop out of school and had to roam about on the street. In November 2002, I was released from the labour camp, but my husband was tortured and left crippled. My family life was very difficult.

In 2003, I went back to the factory to resume my job. Very soon the staff from the public security section including Xiao Guihe tried to force me to be "transformed³." I said, "I am trying to be a good person by following "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance." What you want me to transform into?" Since I did not co-operate with them, on Sundays and holidays they had a group go to my home to harass me. Sometimes, it was midnight, and they still came to knock at the door, and they sat on my bed without any intention of leaving. They said they were doing their jobs.

On June 18th, 2005, I went to do my grocery shopping and I told a farmer that I was persecuted for six years because I believe in Falun Gong. For this I was reported to the police. As a result, I was arrested by the National Security Team of the Nanjiao Public Security Sub-bureau of Datong City and was detained at the Datong City Detention Centre for thirty-eight days.

In September 2005, the Datong Mining Bureau once again suspended my salary. In the wintertime we had no money to buy coal to keep ourselves warm, and our life was very difficult.

In 2006, Yu Dahai, director of the Chemical Industry Factory, and the 610 Office, Pang Minguo and Gao Yang from the Public Security Section had three shifts of people keeping surveillance over me around the clock. Some of them said all kinds of dirty words, which were very disgusting.

Afterwards they kept changing these people, and some were just making trouble and said many crude words the moment they stepped into my home, "This is my job. The Communist Party paid me the money, and I just do whatever they want me to do. If they give me more money, even if they ask me to kill people, I will do it." They clearly exemplified the hooligan nature of the Chinese Communist Party. They came in to harass people, but they said it was job assigned to them by the Communist Party. They won't have to take any legal responsibility if they kill people for money since it is the Communist Party who asks them to do so. Those people poisoned by the Communist Party culture have turned out to be handy tools when they are being used. Of course, there are more and more people who understand the truth and will no longer participate in the persecution, and they also play very a positive role.

For the past several years, although I have been persecuted, I still hope that these people will understand the truth and understand why the Chinese Communist Party persecutes Falun Gong.

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

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/2008/7/5/181493.html