Practitioners Gao Dongdong and Liu Xinli from Pingshan County, Hebei Province Persecuted

Practitioners Gao Dongdong and Liu Xinli are a couple from Zhongbailou Village, Pingshan Town of Pingshan County, Hebei Province. On the morning of July 21st, 2008, just before the Beijing Summer Olympic Games, seven or eight people from the Pingshan County 610 Office¹, the Pingshan Town government and the radio and TV broadcasting bureau, broke into Ms. Liu Xinli's home. They confiscated a satellite receiver, Falun Gong books and other personal belongings. Ms. Liu was arrested and sent to the Pingshan County Detention Centre. On August 11th, 2008, she was sentenced to one and a half years of forced labour and taken to the Zhijiazhuang Forced Labour Camp.

The couple, Gao Dongdong and Liu Xinli, started to practise Falun Gong in the winter of 1997. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to persecute Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999, this couple and other fellow practitioners wanted to appeal for Falun Gong in Beijing. They rode their bikes to Beijing but were intercepted at Gaobeidian by local police officers. The next day, they were sent back to the Pingshan County Police Department. The police took away the money they carried with them and Ms. Liu's bike was confiscated as well. After the police extorted 300 yuan² from their family members, the couple was released.

On January 11th, 2000, Gao Dongdong, Liu Xinli and several other practitioners once again went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. They arrived at Tiananmen Square but were arrested and detained at the Tiananmen Police Station. Later, they were taken back at midnight by three policemen from the Pingshan Police Department, including Xiao Shuilong. They were handcuffed to the stairs for five hours. The next day, Wang Qengting, the head of the county 610 Office, interrogated the couple. Their money was taken away, and they were sent to the county detention centre. They were released after having 4000 yuan extorted from them.

On August 3rd, 2001, Liu Xinli and two other practitioners went to distribute leaflets exposing the persecution of Falun Gong in the Jingziyu Village of Beije Township. They were reported to the police and thus arrested. Later, police officers Feng Jingfang and Xiao Shuilong from the county police department sent Liu Xinli to a brainwashing centre for interrogation. They handcuffed her to a tree, both arms stretched around the tree, for three days and nights. Later, she was sent to the county detention centre. Liu Xinli was sentenced to four years in jail and detained in the No.2 Hebei Province Prison. She was released in August 2005.

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/2009/5/16/201003.html