Brutally Tortured into Mental Instability, Ms. Tan Xiufen Jumped from a Building to Her Death

Two months after Ms. Tan Xiufen was released from the Tiandong County Detention Centre, she jumped from the fifth floor of her apartment building. She lived in Unit 3, Building 23 in the new district of the Tiandong Petroleum Chemicals Corp., a branch of the Chinese Petroleum Corp. in Guangxi Province. She died on the morning of March 27th, 2006.

The Chinese communist regime falsely claimed that Ms. Tan jumped from the building because she went insane from practising Falun Gong. Many people who did not know the true situation became terrified after this horrific incident. They were scared to talk about Falun Gong. Some of them verbally abused and refused to listen the truth about the spiritual practice. It has been a great deterrent when practitioners have tried to clear up the misconceptions in Tiandong County and the nearby areas for many years. Therefore, we believed that it was necessary to conduct a thorough investigation of the incident. Below are the results of the preliminary investigation.

Ms. Tan Xiufen starts to practise Falun Gong

Tan Xiufen was born on December 15th, 1962, in Napo County, Guangxi Province. She was a teacher employed by the company school affiliated with the Tiandong Petroleum Chemicals Corp. in Guangxi Province. She was praised for her personal integrity and won the "Model Employee" award in her company. She started practising Falun Gong in March 1999. As a result, she recovered gradually from Hepatitis B and faucitis. She benefited physically and psychologically. She often reiterated to her relatives, colleagues, and her students that Falun Gong was good.

Unjustly arrested and sent to prison

On the morning of September 24th, 2005, officials with the 610 Office¹ and the police station of Tiandong County dispatched a squad of police agents to iarrest Ms. Tan. They first found Bi Xiurong, the middle school provost, and forced her to coax Ms. Tan to come out of the classroom where she was teaching at the time.

Peng Chengyu, female, from the Domestic Security Division of Tiandong County Police Station; Lu Cailing, female, from the Department of Economical Crimes of Tiandong County Police Station; Li Zaitang; Su Chengqing; Yang Bangshi; Li Shujian; and Zhao Weiren immediately held her arms and forced her to get into the police wagon as soon as she came out of the classroom. She was still holding a piece of chalk.

They drove her to her home and searched it without a search warrant. Having strong righteous thoughts, Ms. Tan refused to open the door. It took almost an hour for the police to open the door. They confiscated many Falun Gong books, video and audio tapes, a computer, printer, and other items. The police did not leave a list of the items they took. They did not leave any legal arrest documents for Ms. Tan's family. That is a summary of Ms. Tan's arrest.

Li Zaitang, the Director of Domestic Security Division of Tiandong County Police Station, Su Chengqing, the Team Leader of Domestic Security Division, and other police officers interrogated her. Initially, she kept silent to protest her detention. The police threatened her. They said they would arrest her husband and her son. They had found a Falun Gong book under her husband's pillow. The police did not believe that Ms. Tan could have mastered a computer. They believed that her son had helped her with it. After she had been detained for over three weeks, she began to tell how she had benefited from the practice. She explained the facts about the persecution and the worldwide spread of Falun Gong even as she was interrogated into a state of extreme terror.

She also admitted to distributing and posting Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution. Deceived by the hypocritical police, she also gave away the name of another practitioner who is still practising. As a result, the police searched this practitioner's home and took a computer. In order to get political credit, the police labelled the video and audio tapes of Ms. Tan's speech as evidence. They also listed all the Falun Gong books taken from Ms. Tan's home as evidence. In their reports submitted to their supervisors, they claimed that they had obtained more than 1000 pieces of evidence. Along with this so-called evidence, they included a piece of paper, blank computer disks, and empty envelopes. In order to gain rewards from the 610 Office, they claimed that they had successfully solved a very important case and publicized it. They reported to the Procuratorate Department of Tiandong County for their approval on Ms. Tan's formal arrest.

Tan Xiufen was held in the Tiandong County Detention Centre. She suffered many kinds of arduous mental torments, insults and criticism, and threats and brainwashing. The guards took advantage of her love for her family. They threatened her husband and her son to pressure her to give up her belief in Falun Gong. Unable to endure these tortures, she wrote a "Guarantee Statement" to give up her practice.

Her behaviour became psychotic as she often took her clothes off and mumbled nonsense. After she lost control of her bowels and bladder, she couldn't take care of herself. Her family begged for her release. However, the security personnel from the police station refused to release her due to "political concerns." They didn't approve her medical bail until Ms. Tan was extremely weak and almost on the edge of death.

Persecution-induced mental instability caused her to commit suicide

Ms. Tan became skin and bones after she returned home. Her eyes appeared lifeless. Her mind was not clear all the time. She couldn't take care of herself or eat independently. She needed two people to take care of her. She often mumbled to herself such as "I feel so ashamed to see people, my family members and I all committed sins. I wasn't beaten up at the detention centre, I got injections..." She often seemed to be in a state of abject terror.

On the morning of March 27th, 2006, she jumped from a building. She was taken immediately to the Emergency Room of Tiandong County People's Hospital. Even during that critical time, Tiandong Police Station officials sent over Li Zaitang and some plainclothes agents. After they arrived at the hospital, they interrogated Ms. Tan's husband and his companions and wrote out the interrogation reports. Her husband was so petrified that he couldn't help sobbing. The crowd gathered nearby were startled and bewildered by what was going on. They commented that, even when Ms. Tan was on the verge of death, instead of trying to revive and save her, the police were still interrogating her family!

Others also commented that they knew Ms. Tan had been practising Falun Gong for seven years and that she had been healthy and rigorous in teaching her students. However, after she was detained by the police for six months, she became very weak, and soon after she was released, she jumped from a building. What happened to her during her detention? She had become all skin and bones and her mind wasn't clear. Why didn't the police just let her go? Her family should sue the police.

More and more people went to the hospital to visit Ms. Tan. Many of them were indignant and condemned the police. The police were intimidated by the justified criticism and finally left.

Tan Xiufen passed away the following morning. They couldn't revive her in the hospital. The news of her death was immediately made public and reported on the Clearwisdom website. Many people worldwide made phone calls to the 610 Office and the police station of Tiandong County. The calls were to explain the facts about Falun Gong and about Ms. Tan's case. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agents were not remorseful about the crimes they had committed in persecuting Tan Xiufen to death. Instead, they investigated the people responsible for reporting the case to the unbiased media outside mainland China.

On May 28th, 2007, several officers from the Tiandong County Police Station, including Su Chengqing, Li Zaitang, Li Shujian, Yang Bangshi, Peng Chengyu, Lu Cailing, and Zhao Wei, broke into the home of practitioner Mr. Huang Dongying. They took a personal computer, an instrument, and software to copy videotapes.

From the investigation we can conclude that Ms. Tan Xiufen became mentally disordered due to the brutal persecution implemented by the police. Later, she jumped from a building and died. Due to the Internet and media blockade and the limitation of the free flow of information, there has been a lack of detailed information on how Ms. Tan was interrogated and detained. Below are some details collected from different informed sources.

1. Ms. Tan had been forced to stay awake for several days and nights. She was injected with toxic drugs, which caused her to become mentally disordered. She violently hit her head against the wall in the detention center and later lost the ability to take care of herself. Then the Tiandong County Police Station sent Peng Chengyu and Lu Cailing to monitor her. Certain reliable sources said that she had been on a hunger strike, while others said that the guard at the detention center had deprived her of her meals.

2. The officers at Tiandong County Police Station were corrupt. In October 2007, more than a dozen from the Department of Drugs were arrested. According to orders from the Supreme Department, "the law will be reinforced and implemented at Tiandong Police Station." There were incidents in the detention center where the police tortured prisoners to death during interrogations. These prisoners were not Falun Gong practitioners. Their families sued the police.

We urge the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) to investigate the torture of Ms. Tan Xiufen in prison.

Police Department at Tiandong County, Guangxi Province:

Xu Chenggang, Tan Yonglu, Huang Jian, Su Jianzhong, Huang Longchan, Deng Zanchao, Zhao Chaozheng, Xin Huaxiong: 86-776-5222506, 86-776-5222327, 86-776-5237360.

National Security Team at Tiandong County: Su Chengqing, Li Zaitang, Peng chengyun, Lu Cailing, Li Shujian

Detention Centre at Tiandong County:

Huang Zhongxiao, Su Xiutao, Su Wei
Employer of Tan Xiufen's husband, Liang Peishan
Party and Public Relations Department at Tiandong Petroleum Chemicals Corp., Guangxi Province

Related articles:
Ms. Tan Xiufen Died from Jumping off a Building After Being Tortured to Mental Instability
http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200605/32906.html

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://minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/9/3/185236.html