Mr. You Quanming and Ms. Xiao Danfeng Sentenced in Pengzhou City, Sichuan Province

Not long after the Olympics ended, Falun Gong practitioner You Quanming and his wife, Ms. Xiao Danfeng, from Sanhe Village, Lian Town, Pengzhou City, Sichuan Province, were sentenced to three and five years respectively. They were taken to Kunming, though the exact location is unknown. Their daughter, You Xuechun, wanted to visit them during her summer vacation but authorities denied her request.

Before Ms. Xiao Danfeng began practising Falun Gong, she suffered from severe nephritis and chronic hepatitis. She was living on medicines, but her health continued to worsen. In 1996 she learned Falun Gong, and within a month her illnesses all disappeared. Witnessing this miracle, her husband also joined her in the practice. Soon his persistent rhinitis also disappeared. The couple ran a wholesale food business, and after practising Falun Gong, their characters improved, they treated people very kindly, and their business got better and better. When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started the persecution of Falun Gong, Ms. Xiao and Mr. You stood up and spoke in defence of Falun Gong. As a result they were brutally persecuted.

Ms. Xiao Danfeng went to Beijing twice, in December 1999 and December 2000, to appeal for Falun Gong. The first time she was detained for 15 days and her home was ransacked. The second time she went with other practitioners from the same town, including Zhang Qinfang, Ms. Song Fangju, Mr. Liu Zhaoxiang, Yang Tingju, and Wang Yiying. After they returned from Beijing, they were beaten by more than thirty town officers, including Liao Tianze (town leader), Zhang Chuanbing, He Xiaozhou, Li Zhuo and Guo Lijuan. For more than three hours the next day, these officials slapped the detained practitioners on their faces, kicked them with heavy boots (so much that He Xiaozhou even damaged his boots), and whipped their legs with electrical wires. The practitioners were detained there for 17 days and then were taken to a detention center for another two months. On January 17th, 2001, Ms. Xiao Danfengm, Zhang Qinfang and Yang Tingju were sentenced for one and a half years in a forced labour camp.

On July 30th, 2002, at around 10:00 p.m., Xie Zihua, the CCP Secretary in Lian Town, along with more than a dozen police officers, arrested many practitioners including Ms. Xiao Danfeng, her husband Mr. Liu Zhaoxiang (63 years old), Wang Yiying, Ms. Song Fangju, Zhang Xijun, and He Xiaoqin (about 20 years old). The police broke into their homes and dragged them from their beds without even giving them time to get dressed. The practitioners were taken to Pengzhou City brainwashing centre. There they were forced to purchase their necessities at unreasonably high prices and they were also forced to walk around the yard. They were beaten if they didn't follow orders. Huang Chengfang, the 610 Office¹ director, said that they were not allowed to go home until they were "transformed²."

During the busy season for farm work, Mr. You Quanming protested by holding a hunger strike for a week. He was released after his family made strong demands but Ms. Xiao Danfeng and other practitioners were detained for nearly two years and were not released until June 2004.

Because of the CCP's continuous persecution, the couple's business could not continue, and they had to go to Lijiang, Yunnan Province to make a living. In October 2007, some CCP members from Pengzhou City and Zhang Hongquan, the CCP secretary of Sanhe Village, went to Lijiang and tracked down Mr. You Quanming and Ms. Xiao Danfeng. Lijiang police then ransacked their home and arrested them. After being detained for a year, they were sentenced to three and five years. Their families were not notified.

We are calling for the international community and all kind people to take action against the CCP's persecution of human rights. We are also calling for help for Mr. You Quanming and Ms. Xiao Danfeng, and an end to this persecution.

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. "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/2008/9/30/186845.html