Hong Kong Resident Exposes the Persecution of His Wife by the Zengcheng City 610 Office in Guangdong Province

Hong Kong resident Mr. Chen Yingtian and Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Yang Xiaolan from Zengcheng City were married in mainland China before 1999. However, because Ms. Yang practises Falun Gong and refused to give up the practice, she was persecuted by the 610 Office¹ of the Zengcheng Municipal Police Station. Currently, Ms. Yang is being detained, and not allowed to reunite with her husband and their child. Mr. Chen Yingtian provided the following statement.

I am Chen Yingtian, a Hong Kong resident. Yang Xiaolan and I are a legally married couple, registered with the Zengcheng Civil Affairs Office. Around 1998, my wife and son applied for permanent residence in Hong Kong, to reunite our family. My wife is a Falun Gong practitioner, and in November 2000, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials sentenced her to two years of forced labour, then added five months to her sentence, imprisoning her in the Sanshui Forced Labour Camp. In the spring of 2001, the Guangzhou Municipal Entry/Exit Administration Bureau authorized my wife and son to become residents of Hong Kong. At that time, my wife was detained, so my son arrived in Hong Kong and reunited with me. My wife's certificate of settlement in Hong Kong was cancelled. After she was detained for two years and five months, she was finally released in April 2003. My wife requested to return to Hong Kong and reunite with all our family members, but the Shitan Town Police Station officials told us that the higher authorities in the government state that practitioners who are in forced labour camps are not allowed to apply for the visiting or settlement card to Hong Kong within three years after completion of their sentence. In October 2003, my wife was again sentenced to three years of forced labour by the CCP officials and imprisoned at the Guangdong Provincial Women's Prison in the Baiyun District of Guangzhou City.

Under this extreme mental stress, my wife's grandmother and mother passed away in 2003 and 2005, respectively. On October 26th, 2006, my wife was finally released. However, the officials from the Zengcheng Municipal 610 Office, local police station and Comprehensive Administration Office continually called to harass and threaten my wife and her relatives, and monitored all of her activities and movements. They threatened her, and caused her enormous mental stress.

Since July 20th, 1999, my family has never been allowed a stable lifestyle. My wife is a very kind hearted person, does not return violence with violence, and only does peaceful activities.

On May 25th, 2007, my wife and I applied for entry into Hong Kong at the Entry/Exit Application Centre of Zengcheng Municipal Police Station (Tel: 86-20-82629963). Later, we also applied for a visiting pass to Hong Kong and Macao, which would allow her to travel to Hong Kong to visit me and our son. She has never done anything illegal. On June 23rd, my wife found out that her application for residency in Hong Kong had been approved online, but the Entry/Exit Administration Section of the Zengcheng Municipal Public Security Bureau did not inform her. Only after our relatives in Guangdoing checked with the Entry/Exit Administration Bureau staff (who later urged the Zengcheng Public Security Bureau to inform us), did we receive a confirmation phone call from them on July 22nd.

On July 23rd, my wife and I travelled from Hong Kong to the Entry/Exit Administration Section (Tel: 86-20-83115725) of Zengcheng Municipal Public Security Bureau to pick up the written notice, but the administration section staff refused to provide the documents, and said that the 610 Office officials wanted to talk with my wife. The deputy director of the Domestic Security Division, Lai Bosheng (86-13922381886(Mobile), and the instructor, Wen Xingqun (86-13809288373(Mobile), came out and insisted on talking with my wife alone in a room. My wife did not want to go. After several negotiations, they reluctantly allowed me to accompany her. They specifically asked my wife not to go to Beijing during the Olympic Games, or distribute any Falun Gong fliers. They also demanded that she periodically report her location to them. Wen Xingqun even pressured me to closely watch her or throw her out of our home if I found any Falun Gong materials. After the conversation, I accompanied my wife to the Guangzhou Municipal Entry Exit Administration Bureau to submit her picture for the certificate. The staff told us that the average time period to obtain the certificate was one month. I returned to Hong Kong on July 24th. My wife wanted to take some time to visit her father in Sichuan Province, so she bought a train ticket to Sichuan Province for July 25th. She contacted one of her friends in Guangzhou, Ms. Zeng Jinxiu (a native of Hunan) to go shopping with her to get some items for her father. Around 8:00 p.m. on July 24th, my wife and Ms. Zeng were arrested at the Dongpu Shopping Centre by police from the Chepi Station (86-20-82307575). The officers claimed that they gave retailers two DVDs exposing the persecution of Falun Gong. After detaining them for more than thirty hours at the Chepi Police Station, they were taken to the Tianhe Detention Centre. On the second day, after I received the news, I immediately went to the Shitan Police Station in Zengcheng to find out the situation. The people from the Zengcheng Municipal 610 Office and police station told me that they would be released after 15 days. At that time, I was extremely anxious. After the difficult 15-day waiting period, I received a call from the Zengcheng Municipal 610 Office, informing me that my wife had been taken to "the Law School" at 56 Xizhoubei Street, Chatou, Baiyun District, Guangzhou City (tel: 86-20-81730648). My wife told me that the CCP used the law school to persecute practitioners. She was detained there for three months.

On the morning of October 21st, 2008, the director of the Shitan Town Comprehensive Administration Office, Liang Haixiang (86-20-82920836(Office), 86-13509283218(Mobile)), who received instructions from the Zengcheng Municipal 610 Office, called me in Hong Kong and told me, "The certificate for settlement in Hong Kong for your wife will expire soon. You should come this afternoon to Shitan and stay in a hotel tonight. Your wife will be released on October 23rd. You will meet your wife with us and pick up the certificate to return to Hong Kong." I dropped all of my work and travelled to Shitan immediately. In the afternoon, Liang Haixiang found me in the hotel and said, "There are some problems with your wife's certificate, so you can't meet her tomorrow." These people represent China's governmental officials; their behaviour is completely untrustworthy.

When it was close to noon on October 23rd, they released my wife and took her to the Shitan Comprehensive Administration Office. My wife told me that the police in the "Law School" and Wang Jianlai, the deputy director of the 610 Office (86-20-82723610(Office), 86-20-82622833(Home)) continually lied to her and said, "You will obtain the certificate in a little while and return to Hong Kong." After they arrived at the Shitan Comprehensive Administration Office, they told us that they would not give her the certificate. When my wife asked them to return her passport and pass card to Hong Kong and Macao that they held, they refused. They told my wife that they were concerned that she would meet with other practitioners after returning to Hong Kong, which was against the state requirements. They also requested her future address in China after being released, along with telephone and cellphone numbers. They also requested that she report her location to them twice a month.

My wife and I went to the Guangzhou City Entry/Exit Administration Bureau (86-20-83115725 (office)). We inquired about the permit several times, patiently, and finally the staff told us that they withheld my wife's Hong Kong residence permit under the request of the Zengcheng City 610 Office. They told us that if we wanted to get the permit, we needed to go back to talk to the Zengcheng City 610 Office. My wife returned to the Zengcheng City 610 Office, and spoke to the Deputy Secretary Zhong Baochao (86-13809283208(mobile), 86-20-82638678(home)) of the Zengcheng City Political and Legal Committee, and Deputy Director Wang Jianlai of the 610 Office. They kept denying their involvement in delaying her residence permit. Instead, they said that she needed to go to the Zengcheng City Public Security Bureau Entry/Exit Administration Section. My wife went to the Entry/Exit Administration Section and talked to the Section Chiefs Chen and Lin 86-20-82629871(office). Section Chief Lin said, "I will issue you the notification to pick up your permit if the 610 Office instructs me to do so. If they don't instruct me, I definitely will not issue you the notification. You need to talk to the people from the 610 Office." My wife then went back to the 610 Office. This time, the officials of the 610 Office locked their door, and did not answer her phone calls.

Although my wife's Chinese Residence Card lists her residence as Shitan, Zengcheng City, she has never worked or lived in Zengcheng City. She only knew a retired lady in Zengcheng. The officials of the 610 Office were also aware of this. They brought Director Xiao Shuqi and Liang Haiyang of the Shitan Comprehensive Management Office together to talk to this person, and warned her not to host my wife when she traveled to Zengcheng.

To control my wife's every movement, the officials of the 610 Office said to her, "You can stay in Shitan. We'll arrange a job for you." My wife said, "You go home every day to be with your family. Why don't you let me go home to be with my husband and child? You claim that practitioners do not care about their family and relatives, but what really happened here is that you broke apart my family and won't allow me to be with them. You are not letting me have a normal life." The fact is, my wife has never done anything to violate the law, but the officials from the 610 Office withheld her Hong Kong residence permit illegally. When my wife kept asking them for the permit, they were rude and treated her terribly.

On October 30th, 2008, the 610 Office officials instructed policeman Zhou Zhiquan (86-13902339895 (mobile) from the Shitan Police Station to call me. He asked me to go with my wife to the Zengcheng City Public Security Bureau Entry/Exit Administration Section to pick up "the Notification to Pick up Hong Kong Residence Permit" and also cancel her residency in Zengcheng. They also pressured me to go to the 610 Office to write a guarantee statement that my wife would not participate in any Falun Gong activities or contact any practitioners in Hong Kong. They also asked my wife to write this statement. I went with my her to the Entry/Exit Administration Section on the morning of October 31st, to ask for the Hong Kong residence permit, but the Section Chief Lin said that he needed to get the approval from the 610 Office first. My wife called the 610 Office many times. When they finally picked up the phone, my wife criticized them for continually delaying the process of her case and creating many unnecessary troubles for us. Under her insistence, the staff of the 610 Office called Section Chief Lin. We finally received the "Notification to Pick up Hong Kong Residence Permit."

To be safe, we immediately asked our friend in Guangzhou to go to the Guangzhou City Entry/Exit Administration Bureau to verify whether her Hong Kong residence permit was still valid. The staff at the Document Review Section on the third floor told him that it was still good and that we needed to process it quickly. My friend was then told to check at the Inquiry Office at the fifth floor. At the fifth floor, without even looking at her permit number, the staff there told my friend that the Zengcheng person's permit had expired. This meant that this staff knew about this case in advance. Why were the answers from the third floor and the fifth floors different? The officials of the Zengcheng 610 Office and the police of the Shitan Station tricked us into cancelling my wife's residence at Shitan and then gave us an expired residence permit. The 610 Office officials purposely delayed the issuance of the residence permit to my wife and instructed the Zengcheng City Public Security Bureau Entry/Exit Administration Section and Guangzhou City Entry/Exit Administration Bureau to withhold her permit which she was previously granted legally. On Monday, November 3rd, 2008, my wife went to the Acceptance Section, Guangzhou City Entry/Exit Administration Bureau, to check her status. The policeman on duty (police ID number 017438), looked up her case and said: "The Zengcheng City 610 Office has instructed us not to issue a permit to Yang Yaolan to go outside of China."

The CCP officials have created countless problems for my family, again and again. My parents and I lived in the United Kingdom for many years. Whenever there was a natural disaster in China, we donated generously to our country and our fellow countrymen. We love our country very much. However my wife's painful experiences made my parents and me very disappointed with the government. My beloved and forever-safeguarded country has been ruined terribly by a small group of rotten people. I have refrained from complaining for so long, but I can't hold back any more. I must stand up and shout for my country, for my wife, and for all the kind people in China. Stop this persecution! Stop these crimes to innocent Chinese people! My wife is not a bad person, but now she has no place to go and no protection. The officials of the Zengcheng 610 Office are such big villains and liars! I am appealing to the whole world. I hope that just organizations and kind people around the world will pay attention to my family's painful experiences. My wife is still under detention. The officials from the Zengcheng 610 Office and Shitan Comprehensive Management Office and Police Station are still torturing her physically and mentally. I hope that this kind of inhuman torture is eliminated soon so that my wife can return home. I hereby denounce the CCP staff of the Zengcheng 610 Office, Shitan Comprehensive Management Office and Police Station. Stop the harassment and persecution of my family! Stop the brainwashing attempts and persecution of my wife! Stop all these illegal acts! Give me back my happy family!

Claimant: Mr. Chen Yingtian, Hong Kong Resident

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.ca/mh/articles/2008/11/13/189629.html