An Impoverished Farmer Arrested after Making a Donation to the Sichuan Earthquake Crisis

Mr. Yin Zemin is a Falun Gong practitioner from Yongyang Town, Laishui County in Hebei Province. When he learned of the recent 7.9-magnitude earthquake, he consulted with his family, then donated 500 yuan¹ (which was a portion of the money the family saved for his father's medical care) to the devastated area relief efforts.

However, Yin Zemin's kindness was rewarded instead with a search and seizure. On June 6th, 2008, Mr. Yin was arrested by officers from the Yongyang Town police station. Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officers declared that practitioners do not have money, therefore, someone with the resources to donate 500 yuan must be a "Falun Gong coordinator." On July 1st, he was taken to the Baoding Forced Labour Camp. During the process of transferral to the camp, Yin Zemin suffered extremely high blood pressure, which endangered his life.

Throughout the nine years of persecution, the CCP have implemented brutal persecution of practitioners, following Jiang Zemin's, [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] directive to "destroy their reputations, cut them off financially, and eradicate them physically." Local officials have extorted money from practitioners through various means, ordered their homes to be searched and confiscated their property. As a result, practitioners' lives have become extremely difficult. As soon as he heard about the earthquake, Yin Zemin tried his best to help the victims of the disaster, but was instead persecuted by CCP officials.

Recently, the CCP of Laishui County, Hebei Province held a meeting concerning the persecution of practitioners. The meeting's focus was to plan the persecution of all practitioners in the Laishui County area under the guise of "protecting the Olympic Games." They also set a quota for no less than three hundred practitioners to be arrested. Moreover, a quota was set for each of the towns, villages and communities in the area. On June 6th, 2008, the CCP conducted a large-scale arrest of practitioners from all over the county, and reports have indicated that all but one of the thirteen practitioners had been taken to a forced labour camp. On July 10th, CCP officials conducted another round of large-scale arrests of practitioners from the entire county. Many practitioners were subsequently arrested, and their homes were searched.

Note

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

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/7/31/183125.html