Ms. Zhang Shuchun and Her Family from Xinzhuang Town, Zhaoyuan City, Repeatedly Persecuted

Ms. Zhang Shuchun, 44, from Taishang Village, north of Xinzhuang Town, Zhaoyuan City, Shandong Province, was repeatedly persecuted by local Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials and police in recent years, simply because she upholds her belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and strives to be a good person. Her home has been searched and her property confiscated several times. She was forced to wander about homeless due to the persecution.

Fourteen years ago, Ms. Zhang, then 30, had many illnesses, and she was nothing but skin and bones. She was always drowsy and sleepy because of severe chronic fatigue syndrome. She had to be taken to the hospital for emergency treatment several times a year for her heart disease, and on several occasions she was on the verge of death.

After she started practising Falun Gong in September 1994, all of her diseases and symptoms disappeared. Her whole body felt light, and she could finally work in the fields like others. These unexpected improvements made her family very happy, and everyone in the village witnessed this.

Since the unprecedented persecution of Falun Gong and its practitioners started on July 20th, 1999, it became common for Ms. Zhang to be arrested and detained. Over the years she has been repeatedly detained and shuttled back and forth between detention centres and public security bureaus. Sometimes she was at home less than 15 days during an entire year. Her family was subjected to great pressure, her mother-in-law often cried, and her husband was worried sick.

In September 2005, she was released on the condition that her husband pay a 5,000-yuan¹ "fine." Even after she was released, however, she was still unable to live undisturbed, because agents were sent to shadow her. Sometimes she was watched day and night, and from time to time she would suddenly be arrested again. The whole family lived in fear.

In order to keep her family from being persecuted and not to burden them, she decided to leave. She has wandered about homeless ever since. Over the past eight years she has been unable to spend time with her family. Local authorities have also repeatedly harassed her family over the years.

On January 8th, 2008, after 8:00 p.m., over 20 agents from the Zhaoyuan 610 Office² and the Xinzhuang Public Security Bureau went to Zhang Shuchun's home in four cars. Some banged on the door, others jumped into the courtyard, and still others kicked the door until it broke open. As soon as they entered the house they grabbed Ms. Zhang's husband by the hair and slapped his face and head for more than an hour, until he was swollen and covered with bruises. They forced him to disclose his wife's whereabouts. He said that someone saw her visit her father's grave.

They also searched the home and stole the 1,600 yuan the family had just earned from selling corn. For Zhang Shuchun's husband, this was a heavy blow. As farmers, the family was already poor, and he had to pay the school fees for their child. Several days prior, he had finally managed to sell the corn, resolving their extremely urgent circumstances. But in one instant the money was snatched away. The police also ransacked Ms. Zhang's mother's home.

On August 4th, 2008, at around 4:30 p.m., the Zhaoyuan 610 Office again sent two police cars and three private cars to Zhang Shuchun's home. They entered the house by climbing over the wall and with steel clubs and rubber batons in their hands. They used the clubs to beat on the walls of the home and around the courtyard. The whole place was turned upside down. When they couldn't find anything they wanted, they went to the home of her brother-in-law, who is not a practitioner. They searched everywhere and took DVDs exposing the persecution of Falun Gong. They also arrested her brother and sister-in-law.

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://minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/8/20/184428.html