Chen Zixiu's Family Members Are Still Being Persecuted

On April 20th, 2000, the Wall Street Journal posted on its front page a lengthy article entitled "Practising Falun Gong Was a Right, Ms. Chen Said, Up to Her Last Day" (http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2000/4/21/8441.html). The article was about Ms. Chen Zixiu, a Falun Gong practitioner from Weifang, Shandong province who was persecuted to death by the local authorities. This report attracted international attention and the journalist, Ian Johnson, received a Pulitzer Prize for it.

Over the past nine years, Chen Zixiu's family members have also been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party. Chen Zixiu's daughter, Zhang Xueling, was given three years of forced labour without trial; Chen Zixiu's sister and brother-in-law have been repeatedly abducted and sent to labour camps, and their home has been frequently searched in the last several years. The couple were taken away again before the 2008 Olympic Games, and are still being detained as of today; Chen Zixiu's nephew, Li Jiangang, was arrested again, and he has been detained at the Weifang Detention Centre for three months after he just completed serving three years of brutal labour "re-education". Li Jianggang's fiance, Kong Xi, was tied on a wooden cross and tortured for seven days and seven nights. Her life is at a critical point now.

The persecution of this family is continuing

Chen Zixiu's daugher Zhang Xueling, a delicate lady, held her five-year-old son's hand, and under great hardship, tried through every possible legal channel to find justice for her mother who was tortured to death. But what was waiting for her? The Wall Street Journal reported in an article called "Daughter in China Follows Tortuous Path to Seek Justice" (http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2000/10/4/6613.html) about her difficult experience through the year in dealing with the country "where the most powerful organization, the Communist Party, is above the law" to restore the justice for her mother. "But Ms. Zhang is beginning to learn how hard it is not only to obtain justice, but merely to seek it." What was more unexpected by her and her family was not only that she was not able to get justice for her mother, but one year later, on April 24th, 2001, Zhang Zueling herself was sentenced to three years labour re-education for the crime of "following an evil cult and damaging the implementation of the law." No legal procedures by the Weicheng District Public Security Bureau in Weifang City were followed.

Chen Zixiu's sister-in-law, Zhang Yufang and her husband Li Hengnan, were repeatedly detained and persecuted for upholding their belief in Falun Gong after the Jiang Zemin, [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] regime launched the persecution on July 20th, 1999. The couple went to Beijing to appeal several times and were repeatedly detained, had fines imposed on them, and had their home searched. In the beginning of January 2000, Li Hengnan was arrested and detained for two days because he attended an outdoor group exercise session. He was bailed out through his company. On January 23rd, 2000, his company tried to "transform¹" him, but failed, so the company conspired with the police department to send him to the Kuiwen District Detention Centre. He was detained there for a month. Later the authorities extorted his son-in-law (who is a non-practitioner) out of a large amount of money, and then released him. On the morning of October 14th, 2004, lawless people from the police department and the 610 Office² of Weifang City broke into the home of Li Hengnan and Zhang Yufang, arrested them and searched their home. Accoring to witnesses, those people were very brutal during the arrest process. They contorted the couple's arms and pushed them into the vehicle. The buttons on Mr. Li's clothes were ripped off. At that time, the couple was first detained in the infamous brainwashing centre in the Kuiwen District Party School (i.e. formerly Weifang Industrial Officer School). Later on, they were sentenced to three years of forced labour. Before the Beijing Olympic Games, on the morning of July 9th, 2008, about a dozen police from the Weifang City Criminal Police Team arrested the couple again, even though they had just been released shortly before.

Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to suppress Falun Gong, Mr. Li Jiangang has been brutally persectued many times because he went to Beijing to appeal. In less than a year after July 20th, 1999, he had been detained almost ten times and extorted out of about 12000 yuan.

At night on April 25th, 2004, the Weifang police arrested Mr. Li while he was driving his car. Before that, the police had followed him for many days. It was only ten days before Mr. Li's scheduled wedding ceremony. After being arrested, Li Jiangang refused to be "transformed". He was sentenced to three years' forced labour and detained in the Changle Forced Labour Camp in Weifang City. He was brutally tortured in the forced labour camp. The guards shocked him with four electric batons, beat him, and did not allow him to sleep in order to "transform" him.

Before the Beijing Olympic Games, Mr. Li Jiangang, who had just been released less than one year earlier, was arrested again. On the morning of July 9th, 2008, Officer Ding from the Weifang City Criminal Police Team led a dozen policemen to break into Mr. Li's apartment through a window. Mr. Li was taken to the detention centre. He has been detained there for more than three months.

At the same time, Mr. Li's parents Li Hengnan and Zhang Yufang, fiancee Kong Qian and Ms. Kong's mother Li Xiyun were also arrested.

Ms. Kong Qian is 30 years. She and her mother have experienced much suffering in the last nine years. They escaped from arrest many times, and were forced to become homeless. On July 9th, 2008, they were arrested and detained in the Weifang Detention Centre. Ms. Kong went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. The guards tied her on a cross frame supported by reinforced iron bars for seven days and seven nights. Her arms were stretched and tied with a leather belt; her legs were tied together; her whole body was put on two reinforced bars with a 15 mm diameter. The two bars were 10 cm apart. Only her head could move. Mr. Kong felt extreme pain. Usually, a person cannot endure this kind of torture for three days. When Ms. Kong was taken down from the cross frame, she could not move at all. She could not move for several days and nights. The guards gave her an intravenous drip every three days. No matter whether she had an intraveous drip or was force-fed, Ms.Kong remained tied to the cross. The three months of torture caused Ms. Kong to become emaciated. Now she is very weak, and on the verge of death.

Note

1. "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")

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/2008/10/17/187871.html