Retired Teacher Lei Zhengxia Forcibly Taken Away, the Elderly Couple He Supported Requests His Release

Because he practised Falun Gong and would not give up his faith in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, Mr. Lei Zhengxia from Chongqing City was forcibly taken away from his home by police from Xinqiao Police Station on April 7th, 2009. Four or five days later, Mr. Liu and Ms. Chen, an elderly couple in their seventies, came to the police station and asked the station to immediately release Lei Zhengxia.

The police asked in a menacing way, "What's your family relationship with him (Lei Zhengxia)?" They answered, "We are not his family members." The police continued to question them about the relationship. They answered that they were not related. Then the police and the head of the police station yelled: "If today you cannot explain why he should be released, you are not allowed to leave here." Ms. Chen, who is blind, said, "Because Lei Zhengxia is a good person. He saved a life and did great deeds. The person who arrests a good person must be a bad person. Bad people have no right to lock up good people, and you must immediately release him."

Then Mr. Liu and Ms. Chen spoke about how they met Lei Zhengxia ten years ago. Liu and Chen are poor farmers in a village at Changshou County, Chongqing City. They have no children. One day at the beginning of 1999, they picked up a small girl (just over two years old) who was sick and deserted. They searched many places and nobody claimed the girl. They had no choice but to adopt the girl. They were already poor and now they had to support an extra person, in addition to getting medical treatment for the girl. After half a year, the girl became sicker. Her body became distorted, and her life hung by a thread. The old couple sought help from a series of government organizations with no result. They also looked many places to find a family to adopt the girl, but they failed. At that time, they met Lei Zhengxia, who told them, "Give the girl to me and I will bring her up. I practise Falun Gong. Falun Gong teaches me to become a good person who is unselfish and to care for others before caring for oneself. From now on, not only will I bring her up well, I will also often care about you and help you."

For many years, Lei Zhengxia kept his words. He helped the elderly couple financially and helped with their lives as well. Around the time of the Chinese new year of 2009, Lei Zhengxia went to elderly couple's house at Changshou and wanted to buy them something for the Chinese new year. When he got there, he found that their house at the mid-section of a mountain was very dilapidated. The roof leaked, and wind could blow through the walls as well. The house might collapse at any moment. He asked about it and learned that Mr. Liu had gone to the village government, township government and county civilian affairs department, etc. many times, but did not get any help. Besides this, Mr. Liu took out the certificate of "Household Enjoying Five Guarantees" [For childless and infirm old persons who are guaranteed food, clothing, medical care, housing and burial expenses] issued by the government and said that their allowance had diminished since January 2009. It had fallen from 170 yuan¹ per month in 2008 to 140 yuan per month right now. They could hardly maintain their basic lives, let alone see a doctor or repair their house. Lei Zhengxia then picked up Liu and Chen and let them live with him in his house in Xinqiao, Chongqing City. He took care of them every day. After being well taken care of by Lei Zhengxia for several months, although blind, Ms. Chen's physical condition greatly improved. While the elderly couple were finally able to enjoy life, Lei Zhengxia suddenly disappeared. Only after several days did they find out that their benefactor was forcibly taken away by the Xinqiao Police. Then they then went to the police station to demand his release.

After listening to what the elderly couple said, the police knew that they were in the wrong, so they made an excuse, saying that they were about to have a meeting, and tried to make elderly couple leave. The elderly couple tightly held onto the legs of the head of the police station and begged hard, continuing to beg for two days. But as of the night of April 14th, 2009, Lei Zhengxia has still not been released.

Lei Zhengxia is a retired senior teacher of a middle school in Shapingba District, Chongqing City. He is sixty-three years old. In 1996, after a divorce from his wife, his health was not good and he temporarily lived alone at the university. Other teachers introduced Falun Gong to him, and since then he has been walking on the path of cultivating in Falun Gong. Both of his mind and body improved a lot. His body became healthy, and he became happy too. In 1999, his school reported a list of names of Falun Gong practitioners to the Shapingba District Regulating Department. Subsequently, he was forcibly imprisoned for no reason again and again. In the past seven or eight years, he was forcibly taken away, locked up and forced to attend brainwashing sessions many times.

The first time that Lei Zhengxia was forcibly taken was during the Chinese new year of 2001. He and his wife were handcuffed and taken away. Later, after inquiring in many places, his family learned that they were locked up in a teachers' dorm in Chongqing City Tibetan Middle School at Gele Mountain. They were monitored and brainwashed twenty-four hours a day by multiple people who demanded that they write guarantee statements² and imposed psychological pressure on them. Lei Zhengxia was firm in his faith and did not write a single word. Once, a guard let him go to the cafeteria to have a meal. Lei Zhengxia used this chance to break out of the brainwashing centre. After that, he was homeless. After learning of his situation, the head of the Shapingba District Education Bureau wrote a note in person promising not to forcibly take him away any longer and asked his family to find him and bring him back. Several months later, his family picked him up, and he came back home. But in April 2002, with the excuse that the world AAP conference was going to be held in the Yuzhou Hotel in Chongqing City, four or five people came to his home, locked him up again, searched his home and confiscated his property. They locked him up upstairs in a hotel on a street in Gele Mountain. Only after 10 months was he released.

In the autumn of 2005, Chongqing City was going to hold a mayor's summit conference. Leading up to it, Lei Zhengxia was forcibly taken away by a group of people and locked up in a room in Banbianjie Instrument Factory, Jinkou, Shapingba District. He was later moved to a farm behind Nanshan Park in Nanan. Only after two months was he released.

On January 4th, 2008, for no reason Lei Zhengxia was taken away again. In thirteen days, the he was tortured so much he was near death. They took him to a hospital and then left him to his family. Only after the medical personnel's emergency treatment and his family's great care of him, was his life rescued. He survived. But Chongqing City Medical Insurance would not pay for his medical treatment, using the excuse that he did not suffer from any disease (he suffered from trauma which caused two of his ribs to be broken). He had no choice but to leave the hospital. Now, although just recovered from the injuries, he has again been locked up by Communist Party agents and abused with inhuman means. His family is exhausted and cannot get any results from appealing to government organizations.

At about 2:00 p.m,. January 14th, 2009, having some stomach problems, Lei Zhengxia was resting in bed. Suddenly, people from Shapingba District National Security Bureau broke into his home and took him away. They beat and kicked him, and they searched his home and confiscated his property. After thirteen days, he was dying. On the night of January 27th, when his family rushed to the hospital, the doctor was operating on him. At midnight when the operation was over, he was brought back to the ward. A wide bandage wrapped around his chest covered it totally. Four holes were cut in his stomach and inserted with four tubes for liquids. He was unconscious, and his face was thin and pale. The doctor asked his family to stay with him at his bedside and constantly call him and stimulate his nerves. Otherwise, the doctor was afraid that he would never wake up. The doctor said that he suffered from gastric perforation, and since the treatment was delayed, this caused severe infection and shock. All his organs were injured. His family stayed with him for the whole night. The next morning, the numbers on the instruments for examining his body still implied that he was in great danger. Upon the request of his family, doctors took him to the intensive care unit and did their best to resuscitate him. After seven days, they managed to stabilize his vital signs, and they brought him back to the regular ward. His family had no money left and contacted the admissions office of the medical insurance division for his medical treatment. After learning of his situation, the medical insurance division said that he was not entitled to reimbursement and refused to pay his medical expenses. Since his account did not have any money left, the hospital stopped his medical treatment. His family had no choice but to bring him home.

In the past several years, Lei Zhengxia and his family experienced pressure and persecution that an most people could not endure. Now at his home, he still needs to support his adopted thirteen-year-old daughter and the daughter's grandma and grandpa.

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.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/4/19/199236.html