On the morning of April, 23rd, 2009, Ms. Tao Wei, a Falun Gong practitioner from Jixian County, Heilongjiang Province and another practitioner were reported to the local police station while they were talking to people about Falun Gong. As a result, they were arrested by the local 610 Office1 and then detained at the Jixian County Detention Centre.
Ms. Tao Wei, 53 years old, lives in Jixian County, Heilongjiang Province. She started practising Falun Gong in 1997, and she has benefited both physically and mentally. Since July 20th, 1999, when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began publicly persecuting Falun Gong, Ms. Tao Wei had been brutally persecuted numerous times for her firmly held beliefs. She has been arrested five times and detained at a forced labour camp twice. Once she almost lost her life when she was punitively force-fed.
In 1999, Ms. Tao was fired from her job. When the CCP started to persecute Falun Gong, the head of her former work place kept harassing her husband, and they even went to their home. Yu Zhanbo from her former workplace, Deputy Secretary of CCP at Jixian County Wang Hongwu, and Sun Yongxiang, the manager of her former workplace, forced her to turn in all her Falun Gong books and to write a "guarantee letter" to give up Falun Gong.
In October 1999, Ms. Tao Wei went to Beijing's National Appeals Office to speak in defence of Falun Gong. As a result, she was arrested and taken to the Shuangyashan City Government's Liaison Office in Beijing by two policemen, and 600 yuan2 in cash was taken away from her. There was another Falun Gong practitioner who went to Beijing with Ms. Tao, and the two of them were detained for four days. Agents at the Liaison Office deducted 400 yuan from that 600 yuan in cash as their accommodation fees, and the remaining 200 yuan was kept by the Deputy Head of Fuli Town. He promised to return their money after they came back to Jixian County. However, when they came back, he disappeared with the money. Ms. Tao was detained at Jixian County Detention Centre when she came back from Beijing. Zhang Jingliang, the head of security at the police station, interrogated and threatened her. Later on, agents from the "610 Office" at Shuangyashan City also participated in the interrogation. They took videotapes of the interrogation and played the tapes on TV as a tool to slander Falun Gong. They accused her of "illegally appealing to supreme authority," even though her actions were perfectly legal. Wu Beiqing, Head of the Jixian County Detention Centre at that time, placed her in shackles. Together with Geng Zhendong, the Political Commissioner of Jixian County Police Station, Wu Beiqing forcibly took away her Falun Gong books and injured her arms in the process.
During the period of Ms. Tao's detention, Ms. Tao's husband paid 200 yuan in cash to the guards for better meals. Ms. Tao told the guards there that she did not want her family to be financially burdened by this, and asked them to cancel the accommodation and give the money back. The guards agreed, but never returned the money to the family. When her family came back later to visit Ms. Tao at the detention centre, Wu Beiqing asked them to submit another 300 yuan in cash for her meals. They didn't bring that much money, and they worried that she was going to be punished because of it. They then borrowed from friends who had come with them and gave the detention centre guards the money. After Ms. Tao was sent to the forced labour camp, the guards asked her husband for another 150 yuan in cash for her meals. Each time, the guards did not give the family a receipt.
On November 1st, 1999, Ms. Tao Wei was detained at Jiamusi Forced Labour Camp. She was forced to do heavy labour along with other Falun Gong practitioners for more than twelve hours a day. They were forced to load and unload trucks and to carry heavy bags, which weighed more than 100 pounds. They were only allowed to have chickenfeed for their meals. They were forced to start their work at 5:00 am and end at 9:00 pm. If someone couldn't finish her work, all the people from her cell were not allowed to go to sleep and were forced by the guards to do the remaining work together with her until they finished her quota. Sometimes, they stayed up working until midnight. The guards verbally abused and beat them. They subjected Ms. Tao to brainwashing. Ms. Tao Wei was released on November, 11th, 2000.
On January 22nd, 2001, police based in Ms. Tao's community deceived her into coming to the Fuli Police Station in Jixian County. Upon her arrival, they forced her to write a "guarantee letter" to give up Falun Gong. They interrogated her and wanted to know whom she had kept in touch with. Ms. Tao refused to tell them. Later on, the head of the police station with the last name Li tried to force her to swear at Falun Gong, and Ms. Tao refused to do so. The policemen then sent her to the detention centre and held her there, including the period of the new year holidays. Ms. Tao started a hunger strike to protest the persecution, but the policemen wouldn't release her until she had been on a hunger strike for eight days. This time, they detained her for 24 days and took more than 300 yuan in cash from her.
On July 20th, 2001, Ms. Tao again went to Beijing to peacefully appeal for Falun Gong. She arrived at Tiananmen Square and unfurled a banner, speaking out loudly that "Falun Gong is righteous!" and "Restore the reputation of our Teacher!" A crowd of policemen from Tienanmen Square rushed over to her, beat her and dragged her brutally to a police vehicle. They sent her to Qianmen Police Station and later on that evening, they transferred her to the Xicheng Detention Centre. At the detention centre, they slapped her on the face violently and searched her body. They first tried to force her to reveal her name and address by threatening her. When that did not work, they began to shock her with electric batons. They kept torturing her like this, so Ms. Tao began a hunger strike in protest. On the second day of her hunger strike, the policemen implemented force-feeding to torture her. Once they violently inserted a tube into her trachea. Ms. Tao couldn't breathe and was on the edge of death due to suffocation. The guards also instigated criminals to beat her.
On September 2001, Ms. Tao was transferred to the Beijing Liaison Office. The guards tried to force her to give up her belief. When she refused to do so, the guards forcefully pulled her hair and dragged her from the front gate all the way down to the Women's Section. They held her head down and didn't allow her to raise it. They tore off all her clothes and searched her body. They cut off her hair and forced her to shout "report!" Since Ms. Tao wouldn't follow their orders, the guards directed the criminals around her to beat her for a very long time. As a result of their violence, the her ribs were knocked out of place, and even today they visibly protrude from her skin.
Later on, the guards detained her alone in a small storeroom, and they covered the windows with newspapers so that people couldn't see anything from outside. Four criminals and one policeman tied her up with rope and pressed her fingerprints onto a "guarantee letter."
The policemen forced her to do heavy labour for more than twelve hours a day, ordered criminals to monitor her and forbade her to talk with other Falun Gong practitioners. In the evening, two criminals were ordered to monitor each practitioner. One night, Ms. Liu Chunhua, a Falun Gong practitioner from Beijing, got up and practised Falun Gong, and she was reported to the guards by the criminals who were monitoring her. As a result, she was taken away. Three days later, she was sent back with her limbs swollen and covered with bruises. She couldn't even stand up by herself. She was also mentally confused at that point.
On September 21st, 2001, Ms. Tao was again detained at the Beijing Women's Forced Labour Camp. At her arrival, a group of former practitioners that had given up Falun Gong under duress were forced to argue with her and to try to confuse her. Ms. Tao wasn't allowed to sleep for 24 hours, and when she dozed off, they poured cold water on her or tore her clothing. They even ordered her to walk naked back and forth. They forced her to watch videotapes slandering Falun Gong, to sing songs, and to read books slandering Falun Gong. In addition, Ms. Tao was forced to work on a sewing machine everyday till midnight. Normally, prisoners weren't allowed to go outside their cells. Once, the guards suddenly called them to go outside to play a game. They did so, but they found that someone was recording them on video. Later on, after Ms. Tao was released, she found out they used the video tapes in a TV series named "Innocent Lives" to slander Falun Gong. Ms. Tao was detained for a total of 16 months.
On April 10th, 2007, more than 20 agents from the 610 Office of Jixian County and Shuangyashan City broke into Ms. Tao Wei's home and took her away. They ransacked her home and took away all her books on Falun Gong and her personal computer. The reason for this arrest was that Ms. Tao Wei wrote an article to expose the brutal persecution that was published on the Internet.
Recently, Ms. Tao Wei was arrested again
Jixian County, Heilongjiang Province
Qi Weidong from 610 Office: 86-469-4676615, 86-15846834555(Mobile)
Zhai Shenli from Jixian County Police Station: 86-469-4676155, 86-13904685999(Mobile)
Hu Xianzhong from State Security Section of Jixian County Police Station: 86-469-4662640, 86-13946615688(Mobile)
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. "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/2009/4/29/199911.html
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