65-Year-old Woman Persecuted Numerous Times and Now Unable to Return Home

Ms. Xiang Maohua, 65, is a Falun Gong practitioner who lived in Jitian Town, Shuangliu County, Sichuan Province. During the past ten years, the police pursued and later arrested and detained her five times. Below is her story as she recounted it to other practitioners.

I took up the practice of Falun Gong in June 1996 as a sick woman and soon became healthy.

After the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999, the local Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members closely followed Jiang Zemin's, [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] regime and used villainous means to persecute local practitioners. All the companies and rural communities within Jitian Town were ordered to hold meetings to make sure their employees or villagers stayed away from Falun Gong. People were encouraged to report Falun Gong practitioners to the authorities, who posted a cash reward of 1,500 yuan¹ for anyone who reported a practitioner.

I was deemed a primary target. Agents from the local government and police station designated several people specifically to monitor me. My personal freedom was greatly compromised. I decided to go to Beijing to appeal on behalf of Falun Gong.

First Time

At around 8:00 a.m. on December 6th, 1999, twelve practitioners and I from Shuangliu County unfurled a banner in Tiananmen Square. We were arrested and taken to the Tiananmen Police Station. One day later, personnel from Sichuan Province Liaison Office in Beijing took us to the Shuangliu County Detention Centre. County head Jin ordered the local police to persecute us, in accordance with Jiang's policy of bankrupting practitioners economically and defaming them and annihilating them. For three days the guards deprived us of sleep. Of the 13 of us, three were subsequently sentenced to three and a half years, and one person to one and a half years. Two people (including me) were detained on criminal charges. Four were fired from their jobs.

I was detained for 45 days and ordered to pay a fine of 5,000 yuan. Jitian Town Party Committee deputy head Yan Jingzhi, street committee head Li Shijun, and printing company head Lu Tianguo plotted an employee's meeting at which they removed me from my job. County Police Department officer Hu Yuezhong led Jitian Police Station agents to ransack my home, without producing a warrant. In addition to Yan, Li, Lu, and Hu mentioned above, Jitian Town head Ying Huaping, Jitian Police Station head Liu Shugen, and deputy head Liu Bing also participated in persecuting me.

Second Time

On July 14th, 2000, Jitian Police Station officials and the Yongan Police Station dispatched officers to arrest me. I was held in the Yongan Police Station for 24 hours before being transferred to the Jitian Police Station, where I was detained for 16 days. I refused to give up Falun Gong, no matter what.

Shuangliu County Police Department official Hu Yuezhong, Yongan Police Station Chief Wen, and Jitian Police Station officer Song Goutao were the people that plotted my arrest and detention.

Third Time

Personnel from the local government and police station kept harassing and monitoring me. They often came to my home or called me to check on my whereabouts. They also dispatched people to follow me everywhere and ordered me to report to them twice every day. To maintain my personal safety, I decided to leave home and live elsewhere.

On June 12th, 2001, I was arrested while distributing distributing leaflets exposing the persecution and telling people the facts about Falun Gong in Yutang Town, Dujiangyan City. The police handcuffed me behind my back and hung me up for an entire night in the Yutang Town Police Station. The second morning a policewoman saw that the handcuffs had cut deeply into my flesh and removed them. By then my hands had turned purple, and there was a big lump on one hand that didn't disappear for a long time. A day later, officers Song Guotao and Liu Bing from the Jitian Police Station came to pick me up and took me straight to the Shuangliu Detention Centre, where I was held for one month.

While I was gone, local government and police station officials sent people to my home every day and forced my husband to rent a car and take them everywhere to look for me. On top of this, my husband had to pay for their meals each day. My husband wept day in and day out. In order to end this ordeal, my husband published an announcement in the local newspaper seeking a divorce from me. Two months later I was still not home, so the court granted his divorce petition. Later, after I was released from the detention centre, the police still attempted to make me report to them every day. This time I firmly refused to cooperate with them.

Jitian Town deputy party head Yan Jingzhi, Jitian Town head Ying Huaping, and Jitian Police Station officers Song Guotao and Liu Bing were responsible for persecuting me this time.

Fourth Time

On February 25th, 2004, Jitian Town Armed Security section head Su Wenhua came with eight others to take me from my home. Su won my family's trust through deceit, and they cooperated with him. I was arrested and taken to the Zhengxing Brainwashing Centre. I was forbidden to use the toilet or drink water. They slapped me in the face and grabbed my hair and knocked my head against a wall. They also forced me to stand for long periods of time. For twelve days in a row, they subjected me to various tortures, non-stop. My blood pressure suddenly shot up to 180 over 220 and I spat out blood. I couldn't eat anything for six days and was in grave danger. Only then did they send me home. Nonetheless, brainwashing centre head Liu Jiansheng forced my family to write a "guarantee statement", saying they would not let any Falun Gong practitioner visit me and would send me back to the brainwashing centre once I recovered.

This time those involved in my mistreatment included: Jitian Town Armed Security Section head Su Wenhua, persons from the Jitian Town Legal and Law Section Zhu Yong and Chen Zimou, security people Gao Shimin and Lei Wa, brainwashing center head Liu Jiansheng, Shuangliu County Police Department official Zhao Guopei, and Judicial Bureau official Xiao Liu.

Fifth Time

This time the abuse occurred when I stayed at my oldest son's home in Panshihua City. Shuangliu County 610 Office² personnel informed the Panshihua City 610 Office about me and ordered them to help "reform³" me. They even sent their fabricated documents dealing with me to Panzhihua, so that they could continue persecuting me.

Twenty people from the Panzhihua City 610 Office and from Bingcao Police Station showed up to order my son to turn me over to them. My son said, "My mother almost lost her life at the hands of Shuangliu County 610 Office personnel. She came to my home to rest. You can't persecute her anymore. I can't send my mother to her death." To find me, they tried to deceive my son by saying, "As long as you turn your mother over, we can offer you a promotion and a big pay raise." My son refused to cooperate with them, no matter what. In the end they resorted to a devious ruse. They had two security people pretend to be a couple looking for their missing child. They knocked on the door, but I wasn't fooled by their tactics.

At around midnight on January 20th, 2005, a group of officers from the Bingcao Police Station surrounded the nine-story apartment building where my son lives on the top floor. Police were on every floor of the building. I had already left Panzhihua, but my younger sister, who is also a practitioner, happened to be staying at my son's home. Shuangliu County 610 Office agents were looking for her everywhere. To protect my sister, my son firmly refused to open the door for the police. Later, with help from his friends, he managed to take my sister to a safe place.

Note

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

2. "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.

3. "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")

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/6/17/202897.html