The Persecution of a Kindergarten Teacher and a Cashier

Ms. Qi Xiaoping, a teacher, and Ms. Wang Xiaomei, a cashier, at Dadong Street Kindergarten in Zhongjiang County, Deyang City, Sichuan Province, were repeatedly harassed, threatened, and detained for their belief in Falun Gong. While being taken to a forced labour camp, they escaped from the police. On August 13th, 2008, the police again arrested them and have since detained them in a detention centre.

Cultivating to Improve Themselves

Ms. Qi Xiaoping, 49, suffered from severe problems with her kidneys and spleen, as well as long-term sciatica, insomnia and other ailments before she practised Falun Gong. She began the practice in October1998. A few months later, all of her ailments disappeared. Ms. Wang Xiaomei, 51, suffered from severe migraines and trigeminal neuralgia. She needed a towel to wrap around her head when she sat in a car or laid on a bed, to avoid injury to the blocked blood vessels in her brain. After took up the practice of Falun Gong, in a mere three months, her illnesses were gone. Ms. Qi and Ms. Wang were the only two employees in the school who didn't report any medical expenses for the year.

Since Ms. Qi and Ms. Wang started practising Falun Gong, they have tried to improve themselves according to Falun Gong's principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Their attitudes became more positive and harmonious, and they were very responsible in their jobs and paid meticulous care to the children in school. Since Ms. Wang became a cashier for that school, she has refused to take gifts or money from parents. Over time these practitioners won the respect of their colleagues, students, and their parents. In 2000, Ms. Qi won a teaching award.

Persecuted for Not Giving Up Their Beliefs

On July 10th, 2001, at about 9:00 a.m., Xu Zhicheng and He Xiantian from the National Security Offices of Zhongjiang County went to the kindergarten. They called Ms. Qi to come to the office building. Without showing any identification documents, they started searching her desk. After finding nothing, they took her to the Chengguan Police Station. Li Bing, the director of the police station, came to the interrogation room, and He Xiantian was there to take notes. Xu Zhicheng asked Ms. Qi, "Why does __(a fellow practitioner) have your name in her telephone book?" She answered, "As Falun Gong practitioners, we live according to the principles that our Teacher taught us: Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. We are friends, and calling each other is not breaking the law." Xu Zhicheng and Li Bing immediately interrupted and said, "You still dare to say good things about Falun Gong. It appears that you are a die-hard Falun Gong element." They went to inform Li Xiaohui, the director of the kindergarten, and Wu Yan, the deputy director of the Bureau of Education. They also called her husband, son, relatives and several other school leaders to the police precinct.

A Series of Implications and High-pressure Intimidation

In the presence of her family, including her high-school student son, and school leaders, Li Bing said loudly, "Ms. Qi, according to the policy from above, if a grandmother practises Falun Gong, even her grandson won't be able to go to college or join the army. I heard that your son just finished taking the college entrance examination. If you don't give up the practice, I won't allow your son to pass." Wu Yan and Li Xiaohui added, "If you persist in practising Falun Gong, it won't be only your job that will be affected. It will include your husband and all of the teachers at the kindergarten, including those who are retired. It will also affect the futures of your son, friends, and relatives."

Right after this, the Bureau of Education collaborated with the kindergarten to form a "Re-education Team" to force Ms. Qi and Ms. Wang to give up Falun Gong. In order to coerce them into completely giving up their belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, personnel from both departments designed a specific program. For nearly a month during summer vacation, they arranged for the two women to read propaganda materials that slandered Falun Gong. They also were forced to write down "understandings" that defame Falun Gong and to report daily to the "Re-education Team." During this period of time, the Bureau of Education suspended Ms. Qi's husband from his job and ordered him to restrict his wife's personal freedom by monitoring her at home and outside.

On August 23rd, 2001, at about 3:00 p.m., Li Xiaohui urged Ms. Qi and Ms. Wang to give a speech renouncing Falun Gong during a staff conference. After she summed up her current work assignments, Ms. Wang declared she would continue practising Falun Gong and affirmed her belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

Since Ms. Qi and Ms. Wang didn't give up the practice, Li Xiaohui removed them from their posts at the beginning of the new semester and assigned them temporary work.

A Happy Family is Forced to Break Up

In July and August 2001, Ms. Qi's whole family lived under extreme pressure because of Jiang Zemin [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] and the Chinese Communist Party's policies to "ruin their (Falun Gong practitioners') reputations, bankrupt them financially, and destroy them physically." She couldn't bear to see the pain that her family was suffering for her. In order to avoid further implication and persecution of her husband and son, she reluctantly chose to divorce her husband in August. She just took a few necessities and left her home.

The Wicked Brainwashing Centre

On September 23rd, 2001, at about 9:00 a.m., Li Xiaohui, Wu Yan, and Huang Quandeng from the Education Bureau, Xu Zhicheng and You Zhonglin from the Bureau of National Security, and Huang Ying from the Chengguan Police Station arrested Ms. Qi and Ms. Wang at the school and took them to the Deyang Transformation Centre. Li Xiaohui said, "You two will have to stay here for a month. The boarding expense per person is 450 yuan¹. It will be taken from your salaries." As it turned out, they were forced to stay for more than three months.

The brainwashing center was originally named "School for Advocating Science in Deyang City." During the brainwashing sessions, Ms. Wang, Ms. Qi and a dozen other Falun Gong practitioners were locked up in a dark, damp cell. Guards forced them to listen to propaganda materials and threatened them. The centre forced their family members to sign "guarantee notes²" for them. They also took pictures of Falun Gong practitioners without their knowledge and inserted them into articles written by other people. They then published the articles in newspapers such as "Deyang Daily" and "The Legal System Newspaper of Sichuan" in order to defame Falun Gong. In spite of all this, the two practitioners refused to give up their belief.

In order to resist the long-term, illegal detention and to protest the persecution, the practitioners held a hunger strike on December 13th-25th, 2001. On December 25th, the date that the transformation³ centre was disbanded, Li Xiaohui, Director of Personnel Xu Dongmei, and police officers from Kaijiang and Xuanwu Police Stations came to pick up Ms. Wang and Ms. Qi. After returning to the county, Ms. Wang and Ms. Qi were forced to go to the local government to register their names. Afterwards, Ms. Wang was taken to the police station and forced to write a guarantee statement, but she refused to cooperate. Disregarding the fact that Ms. Qi was very weak as a result of being on a hunger strike for seven days, Li Xiaohui ordered Xu Dongmei to send her to Xuanwu Police Station. Ms. Qi refused to cooperate with them and left early.

Suspended at Work, Arrested and Detained

On January 4th, 2002, the first day they reported to work after they came out of the "transformation" centre, Li Xiaohui asked Ms. Qi to decorate the education building with murals, and told Ms. Wang to purchase a magnetic blackboard. Two hours later, she called them into her office and said, "From now on, you will both work at home. I will arrange someone to go to your residences to mark your attendance." They understood immediately what she meant. In fact, Li was afraid that they would expose the persecution to their colleagues and the children's parents.

On the morning of January 8th, 2002, the school sent Ms. Zhang, who worked in the office, to Ms. Wang's and Ms. Qi's homes, and called them to come back to the school for a short while. Less than half an hour after they arrived at the school, Xu Zhicheng and You Zhonglin came in, seized Ms. Qi and took her to the Xuanwu Police Station. They also took Ms. Wang to the Kaijiang Police Station, where she was interrogated. Xu Zhicheng took out a banner and started questioning Ms. Qi, "Who wrote this?" She replied, "Whoever dares to write something like this is a truly great person." Meanwhile, she nullified the statement that she signed under pressure from He Xiantian on July 12th, 2001, regarding "breaking with Falun Gong."

Since Xu Zhicheng and You Zhonglin didn't get anything out of them in the interrogations, they ordered three strong men to handcuff them to a metal window frame. At about 5:00 a.m., they unlocked the practitioners and took them to the Nanmenwai Detention Centre. Xie Jiuzhou from the detention centre asked them to report their names and addresses. Ms. Wang and Ms. Qi said to her, "We didn't do anything wrong. We are innocent, and we shouldn't be here." Xie called in a male instructor with a surname Xiu. With a spiked club in his hand, the instructor forced them to bang their heads against the wall. Because they didn't obey, he hit them on their backs with a police baton. Seeing that they still didn't obey, he called in two other men, and they forcibly handcuffed Ms. Wang and Ms. Qi to a shelf. Xie Jiuzhou said, "If you don't obey, I will handcuff you and freeze you overnight." They handcuffed them for 24 hours without letting them have a drop of water.

Several days later, Xie forced them to write an "education report." Ms. Qi said to her, "We Falun Gong practitioners are good people. We don't lie, and we haven't committed any wrongdoing here." Xie asked them about their relatives, but they didn't tell her to avoid implicating them. Xie then deliberately assigned them a work quota that was normally meant for three people. She said to a group of people, "If they don't finish it on time, I will harshly punish them." One practitioner walked away half-way through, but the workload was not reduced accordingly. Xie took advantage of this opportunity and called all Falun Gong practitioners to go outside. She hit them viciously with a police baton in front of everyone. Panting, she said, "Some people told me hitting Falun Gong practitioners will incur retribution, but I have already hit so many of them without any consequences." Many practitioners had swelling in their lower backs and bruises all over their bodies. They couldn't lie down normally to sleep, or sit up on a bench for more than a month. However, they still had to work 12-14 hours per day at hard labour. Ms. Wang and Ms. Qi were detained for a month. During this period of time, You Zhonglin came to interrogate them twice.

Sent to a Forced Labour Camp

On February 8th, 2002, Ms. Qi and Ms. Wang were called to the office of the detention centre. Without following any legal procedures, You Zhonglin asked the personnel in the office to give consent to send Ms. Qi and Ms. Wang to the Nanmusi Forced Labour Camp in Zizhong City for one year, but they refused. However, on the next morning at about 8:00 a.m., Xie Jiuzhou ordered Ms. Wang and Ms. Qi to pack up their things. They were handcuffed together and forced into a car. Xie told them that they would be taken to the Nanmusi Forced Labour Camp. The driver got lost three times on the highway, and he couldn't get to the destination. At about 11:00 a.m., while the car was being filled with gas, the two practitioners ran away.

During the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) National Congress, the secretary of Zhongjiang County, Hu Jiaren, instructed the Department of National Security to issue a 10,000-yuan reward for the arrest of Ms. Wang and Ms. Qi.

Once Again Arrested and Detained

On August 13th, 2008, Ms. Qi and Ms. Wang went to Fuxing Town in Zhongjiang County to expose the persecution of Falun Gong. They were arrested after being turned in. They were detained in the police station for a week, and then transferred to a county detention centre. As they were interrogated, they tried to speak out for justice for Falun Gong and expose the persecution.

Since Ms. Wang was detained, police have come to her home several times to harass her family. On September 19th, 2008, more than a dozen people from the Bureau of National Security in Zhongjiang County went to search the homes of Ms. Wang's 80-year-old mother and her other relatives.

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

2. "Guarantee Statement": A statement to declare that one is remorseful for practising Falun Gong and guarantees not to practise Falun Gong again, not to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and never again associate with any Falun Gong practitioners.

3. "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.org/mh/articles/2008/11/10/189500.html