Family of Five Brutally Persecuted During Nine Years of Inhumane Suppression

Peng Min's family lives in Wuhan City, Hubei Province. His father Mr. Peng Weisheng and his Mother Ms. Li Yingxiu made a living by repairing bicycles. His elder brother was a sculptor, and sold sculptures at a street stall. His younger brother worked in a small company. His sister was unemployed. The whole family practises Falun Gong.

During the past nine years of the brutal persecution of Falun Gong, all five of them were arrested. Two of the family members died untimely deaths, victims of persecution, within a month.

1. Entire Family of Five Imprisoned

Father Mr. Peng Weisheng was sentenced to one and a half years in a forced labour camp because he went to Beijing in 1999 to appeal for Falun Gong. He was detained in the Second Brigade at Hewan Forced Labour Camp in Wuhan City. Mother Ms. Li Yingxiu was arrested because she also went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. She was detained at a custodial station.

Elder brother Peng Liang went to Beijing to appeal in 1999. He was arrested and detained at the Hongxia Brainwashing Centre in Qingling, Wuchang District, Wuhan City, in March 2000. Peng Min went to Beijing to appeal in March 2000, and he was also arrested. He was regarded as a "main activist," and was detained in Qingling Custodial Station in Wuhan. Sister Peng Yan was arrested and detained at the First Custodial Station in Wuhan City in March 2000. She was later sentenced to three years in jail. At the time, she was twenty-two years old. In July 2001 she was transferred to the Penzhi Squadron at Wuhan Women's Prison.

2. Two Family Members Persecuted to Death Within One Month

During Peng Min's detention at Qingling Custodial Station, guards instigated fifteen or sixteen prisoners to repeatedly hold him down on planks, and severely beat him with shoes. In August or September 2000, two blisters of thirteen to fifteen centimetres (5-6 inches) in diameter grew on his body and left leg. He was not treated. Instead guard Zhu Handong told inmates to teach him a lesson. More than ten inmates pressed on the blisters. He was in so much pain that his whole body twitched. As a result he was not able to sleep for a month.

On January 9th, 2001, police cruelly beat Peng Min and caused a fracture of his fifth spinal vertebra, and cervical vertebra compression fractures. He was totally paralysed, and was released. Not long after this, more than thirty policemen from the Anti-Riot Brigade of the police department in Wuhan City picked him up and took him to the Seventh Hospital of Wuhan City for so-called "treatment." They told his family, "Peng Min cannot be discharged until he dies. As long as he lives, he has to stay at the hospital." At the time, he had no feeling in any part of his body except his head. There was a big ulcerated hole on his back due to persecution at the custodial station.

At 6:00 p.m. on April 6th, 2001, Peng Min passed away while being held on an unclear falsified charge. His body was secretly cremated by the police at 10:00 a.m. on April 7th, 2001.

After Peng Min's death, his mother Li Yingxiu and brother Peng Liang were sent to the Hongxia brainwashing centre at the same time, but were detained in solitary confinement separately. She missed her son so much that she didn't want to eat anything for several days, which caused fever-like symptoms. For this, four guards severely beat her. She scolded them on the spot, and said to them that she would record their crimes. The police then hit her even harder, and fractured her skull. She died after she was sent to the hospital on April 29th, 2001, the 22nd day after her son's death at the same hospital. Her husband Peng Weisheng went to see her body while in handcuffs from the Hewan Forced Labour Camp. He found her head shaved with no hair, her face bruised, her nose and mouth clotted, and blood stains on her clothes. He angrily questioned the police: "How on earth did she die? One of the officers told him that she died because she "talked too much." As part of covering up the crime, a CCTV television broadcast claimed that Li Yingxiu died of "a sudden stroke."

3. Persecution of Family Members Intensified

After Peng Min died, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intensified the persecution of his other family members. His father's sentence in the forced labour camp was extended. He was due to be released on January 4th, 2001, but the CCP extended Mr. Peng Weisheng's sentence first by six months, and then by yet another three months, as they were afraid the true about the deaths of Peng's two family members would be exposed.

In January 2002, Mr. Peng Weisheng was transferred to the Wuchang District 610¹ Brainwashing Centre in Jiangti, Yujiatou, Wuchang District, Wuhan City, Hubei Province. The head there claimed that he would be detained indefinitely if he didn't give up Falun Gong. Afterwards he was transferred to the custodial station, and then to the brainwashing centre. He managed to escape from the brainwashing centre and came to Xinjiang. The Police Department of Wuchang District spent a lot of resources and manpower to catch him, and put him into the brainwashing centre again, but he was still very determined in his belief, and never had any thought of giving up.

Brother Peng Liang was brutally persecuted in the brainwashing centre. He was not released until he wrote a guarantee statement promising to give up Falun Gong practice. With the help of overseas practitioners, Peng Liang successfully lodged a lawsuit with the US court against Zhao Zhifei, deputy director of the Hubei Provincial Police Department in July 2001. Zhao started his rampant revenge after he returned home. Many practitioners who had helped Peng Liang were arrested. Peng Liang himself was arrested again on January 8th, 2001. He was initially detained at the Second Custodial Station in Wuhan City where criminals and death row criminals were detained. He was then transferred to the Qingling Custodial Station, and finally he was detained at the Wuchang District 610 Office brainwashing centre. He gave in after one year of barbaric persecution, but nobody was able to see or meet him due to the strict surveillance.

When the deaths of her two family members were exposed internationally, Sister Peng Yan had been detained for one year. The CCP resorted to every means to try to transform her. The prison guards received orders from their superiors to pressure her into giving up her belief, using any and all means. They organized a study class in a building vacated for this special purpose that was previously an inmates' dormitory and the monthly meeting place for meals with family members. They selected political instructors and team leaders experienced in persecuting practitioners, along with some prisoners, altogether twenty people, plus officials from the 610 Office. These people were stationed in the building for the sole purpose of dealing with Peng Yan. The order from superiors said that all involved prison guards couldn't go home until Peng Yan was transformed. Peng Yan was traumatized under huge spiritual and physical abuses, and she eventually gave in unwillingly.

Two days before the Olympic Torch arrived at Wuhan, the CCP officials instigated the local police and officials from the 610 Office, altogether six people, to break into Peng Liang's home. They arrested father Peng Weisheng and brother Peng Liang, searched the house, and confiscated a computer. The father and son were sentenced to one year in a forced labour camp. They are currently detained in Hewan Forced Labour Camp in Wuhan City.

In the nine years of persecution, a harmonious and happy family was broken apart, with tragedies of parents losing a son, husband losing a wife, and children losing their mother, solely due to their belief and intention of being good people.

However, good is rewarded with good and evil will meet with retributions. In July 2001, after Peng Min and his mother Li Yingxiu were tortured to death, US practitioners lodged a lawsuit against Zhao Zhifei, the deputy director of Hubei Provincial Police Department under the Internet authority of Peng Liang for Zhao's crimes of torture and causing death, imprisonment, and crimes against humanity. On December 21st, 2001, Zhao Zhifei received a court summons in New York City. The US court rendered a default judgement against him, and he lost the case.

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.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/7/27/182885.html