Examining the CCP's Persecution Via Implicating Family Members

On April 20, 2000, The Wall Street Journal published a report entitled, "Practicing 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 Chen Zixiu, a Falun Gong practitioner from Weifang, Shandong Province, who died as a result of the persecution. That report drew international attention, and journalist Ian Johnson won a Pulitzer Prize for it. In the report, Mr. Johnson wrote, "Enraged, the local officials ordered Ms. Chen to run barefoot in the snow. Two days of torture had left her legs bruised and her short black hair matted with pus and blood, said cell-mates and other prisoners who witnessed the incident. She crawled outside, vomited and collapsed. She never regained consciousness, and died on Feb. 21."

The persecution began in July 1999. The CCP mobilized the entire government's machinery and fabricated lies against Falun Gong. Many people were fooled, and this award-winning report from the Wall Street Journal did a good job of exposing the persecution and drawing attention to it. Many Westerners began to find out about the CCP's brutal violence and suppression of Falun Gong.

There is, however, another aspect of the persecution that has been covered up effectively by the CCP over the past nine years. On October 17, 2008, the Clearwisdom website published a report about Chen Zixiu's relatives, who are still suffering persecution.

The article "Chen Zixiu's Family Members Are Still Being Persecuted" describes how although Chen Zixiu passed away several years ago, her family members have been suffering from the CCP's persecution in the past few years. Without any sentencing procedure, Chen Zixiu's daughter Zhang Xueling was sent to a forced labor camp for three years. Chen Zixiu's younger sister and her sister's husband were arrested, sent to forced labor camp and had their home ransacked several times. They were arrested again before the Beijing Olympics this year, and they are still detained now. Chen Zixiu's nephew Li Jiangang, after suffering a three-year forced labor camp term, was arrested again. He has been detained at the Weifang Detention Center for over three months. Kong Xi, Li Jiangang's fianc�e was tied to a wooden cross and tortured for seven days and nights. Her life is now in danger. The CCP's persecution towards this family has not let up at all due to Chen Zixiu's death and the persecution still continues at present.

The above story reminded me of news from this mid-August, which was about Gao Rongrong, a Falun Gong practitioner who died as a result of persecution in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province. Gao Rongrong's mother left Beijing and went to Shenyang to handle some house maintenance. After the house was repaired, she was ready to go back to Beijing. This old lady, who is about 76 years old, did not pass "Olympic inspection" that was conducted on trains and buses. She was asked to stay in Shenyang. Now she cannot go back to her home in Beijing, where she has lived over the past few years.

On May 7, 2004, in the Longshan Forced Labor Camp, Gao Rongrong suffered electric shocks for seven hours that was carried out by police officers Tang Yubao and Jiang Zhaohua. Her face was severely damaged and hardly recognizable. It was badly swollen and covered with blisters. Her burnt skin and hair were stuck together with bloody pus, and her eyes were barely visible due to the huge swelling. Her mouth was also severely swollen, and the prisoners in the same cell could hardly recognize her. Those photos of her show her condition after the blisters had dried up along with the severity of the burns. In some places on her face, the scars were very thick, indicating the severity of the burns. Many blisters and burnt spots overlap each other due to repeated shocks on the same spot. This incident again drew attention from the international society.

On October 5, 2004, with the rescue efforts of some kind-hearted people, Gao Rongrong escaped from illegal detention and ran away from the hospital. In March 2005, Gao Rongrong was arrested again by the CCP authorities. On June 16, 2005, Gao Rongrong was tortured to death, and she was only 37 years old. The authorities even concealed Gao Rongrong's body, which was covered with wounds. They claimed that if Gao Rongrong's parents wanted to see her body, they must be accompanied by staff members from the Shenyang City Judicial Bureau.

For more than a year, Gao Rongrong's parents and sister went to appeal for justice in several different departments and were not successful. The murderers are still at large. The police and Justice Department tried to cover it up and shifted responsibility. Gao Rongrong's father, who was nearly 80 years old, could not endure the cruel news of his daughter being tortured to death and became severely ill. Gao Rongrong's mother could not take care of him, so they went to Beijing and stayed with their other daughter. They hardly ever went to Shenyang. In Shenyang, the police station near Gao Rongrong's home and the 610 Office were fully aware of Gao Rongrong's parents' situation. They still put Gao Rongrong's family members' names into a database in order to monitor them. Gao Rongrong's elder sister's daughter obtained a Canadian student visa, but she could not leave China because she was on the CCP's national security department black list.

Jiang Zemin's regime and the CCP started the policy of "beating them to death is to be counted as suicide, no need for their families to identify the bodies, and cremate them directly." This has allowed such atrocities to happen on a large scale. Because of the CCP's cover-ups, the murderers are still at large. Furthermore, the implication of other family members makes the persecution even worse and more widespread. The suffering that Chen Zixiu and Gao Rongrong's families have encountered are only the tip of the iceberg.