Mr. Cheng Wenxian from Shandong Province Imprisoned in Wangcun Forced Labour Camp

Mr. Cheng Wenxian, 56 years old, is from Qiansongyuan Village, Jiaonan City, Shandong Province. Because he remained firm in his belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, Mr. Cheng was repeatedly arrested. Jiaonan City 610 Office¹ agents had him sentenced to one year of forced labour and took him to Wangcun Forced Labour Camp.

After the persecution began on July 20th, 1999, Mr. Cheng went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. He was arrested and served three years of forced labour.

Three years later Mr. Cheng wrote a letter to the local Law and Politics Bureau officials, urging them to stop persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. He was again arrested and detained at Qingdao City Brainwashing Centre to be "reformed²."

Mr. Cheng firmly exposed the vicious lies fabricated against Falun Gong while in the brainwashing centre and warned the persecutors, "My life here is for Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. No matter how hard you try to 'reform' me, it's not going to work." He eventually escaped from the centre.

During the following years, officers from Boli Township and from the local police department in Jiaonan City frequently interrogated Mr. Chen. His residence was searched many times. As a result, he decided to leave home temporarily.

Officers from the Boli Township Police Station arrested Mr. Cheng in March 2008. While interrogating him, they attempted to handcuff him to a metal chair³. Mr. Cheng said, "I'm a good person. I won't sit on your chair." The policemen were outraged and beat and kicked him. Then they forcibly handcuffed him to the metal chair.

Mr. Cheng was released four days later. Nevertheless, those policemen still frequently went to his residence to harass him and kept track of his whereabouts. Mr. Cheng once again decided to leave home to avoid further persecution.

He travelled over 500 kilometres on his bike to tell people the facts about Falun Gong everywhere he went, until he reached one of his relatives' homes in Jilin City, Jilin Province. From there he went south, passed through Shandong Province, and arrived in Xuzhou City in Jiangsu Province. He was once again arrested in Xuzhou City while telling people the facts and eventually transferred back to Jiaonan City and held in a detention centre.

Mr. Cheng's brother tried to see him at the detention centre but was not allowed to visit him. His brother firmly pointed out to the guards, "The Chinese Constitution grants people the freedom of belief. My brother practises Falun Gong and does good deeds. What is wrong with that? Nowadays, do you know anyone who would return any money they unexpectedly found? He once saw 300 yuan⁴ on the ground. He waited for a whole day until he found the owner and returned it to him." The guards did not know what to say.

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")

3. Iron Chair: The "Iron chair" is made of iron pipes. Victims are restrained on the iron chairs with both arms and legs tied for a long period of time, see illustration at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/1/9/17577.html

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

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/2/14/195447.html