Assistant Battalion Commander from Langfang City Is Persecuted for Practising Falun Gong

Mr. Li Baowei is 46 years old. He was an officer in the Armed Police Forces Academy of Langfang City, Hebei Province. His attained the level of Assistant Battalion Commander while in the military. In 1998, he discovered Falun Gong and was moved by its teachings of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. He discovered his true purpose and started practising.

At the end of 1998, his supervisor at the Academy told him he had to make a final decision. He had to choose to either give up practising Falun Gong or to resign from his current position and go home. Li Baowei had been promoted almost to battalion commander, yet instead of giving up Falun Gong, he decided to give up his position. Consequently, he was assigned to certain tasks within Wanzhuang Forced Labour Camp in Langfang City. A group of practitioners were jailed in the labour camp at the time. The director of the camp was afraid that Li Baowei would connect with the practitioners, so Li was assigned door guard duty. Short after that, around 2000, Mr. Li was transferred to Langfang City Judicial Bureau. On June 10th, 2000, he took his wife and his one-year-old child to Beijing to appeal on behalf of Falun Gong. He was arrested, sent back to Langfang City, and held in a detention centre for one month.

Shortly after he was released and resumed work, police ransacked his home. They took away his Falun Gong books, arrested him, and took him to a detention centre. Again, Mr. Li was detained for a month. After he came back, he was detained at the Judicial Bureau for a week. Without any reason or due process, he was sentenced to three years in Hehuakeng Forced Labour Camp in Tangshan City. In the camp, he was persecuted physically and mentally. He was slapped in the face, forced to sit on a bed for a long time, forced to perform difficult work, and brainwashed.

In the fall of 2002, after being released from the forced labour camp, Li Baowei asked the Judicial Bureau to reinstate his right to work. The director not only turned him down, but also ordered personnel from the 610 Office to arrest him. He was taken to the Yuecheng Brainwashing Centre. After several days, he escaped but became homeless.

While the family was out, the Armed Police Forces Academy of Langfang City took back the house which had been assigned to Mr. Li. They broke into the house and confiscated all Mr. Li's family's personal belongings. Recently, when his went to reclaim their property, she was turned away.

Because she was now homeless, Li Baowei's child could not attend school regularly. Therefore, the 11-year-old child is only in the second grade. Mr. Li worked part time jobs to support the whole family. Their lives were very difficult. Sometimes, they had to borrow from friends and relatives. He wanted to make a little more money, so he worked as a driver. He often had to stay in his vehicle for 24 hours a day.

On May 15th, 2009, when his vehicle passed the Yanqing Examination Station of Beijing, he was identified as being a "wanted" Falun Gong practitioner. Therefore, the workers at the station reported him to the police and he was arrested. After being detained in the Yanqing Detention Centre for less than a month, he was picked up by officers from the Langfang City Police Department. Currently, his whereabouts is unknown. His relatives and friends are worried about his safety and have been searching everywhere for him.

It has been a more than a month since Mr. Li Baowei was arrested. His family was not informed by any official organizations regarding his whereabouts. His relatives and friends are heavy hearted. Sometimes his child accompanies his mother to look for his father. Currently, mother and son do not have any income and their situation is very difficult.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/6/24/203314.html