The Persecution of Liu Chengjun

On March 5th, 2002, a programme about the true story of Falun Gong was successfully broadcast over the cable television network in Changchun and Songyuan. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
became enraged at this and began to arrest and persecute Falun Gong practitioners on a large scale. Falun Gong practitioner Liu Chengjun immediately thought of the safety of other practitioners. He sent a message from his mobile phone to the pager of a practitioner in another city who was also involved in the broadcasting and told him to go to a safe place. But this practitioner had already been arrested. Liu Chengjun's mobile phone was discovered and tapped.

At the time, Liu Chengjun was at a relative's home in Shenjingzi Village, Qiangguo County, Songyuan City, Jilin Province. He was hiding in piles of grass. When the police from Songyuan and Changchun realized where he was, they set fire to the grass. Liu came out. The police struck him with wooden batons and fired two bullets at him. One bullet hit his foot.

Mr. Liu was sent back to Changchun. The police tortured him by putting him on a tiger bench¹. They damaged his peritoneum, resulting in his suffering from a strangulated hernia. They tied him on a torture bed for more than fifty days.

In October 2002, Liu Chengjun was sentenced to nineteen years in jail. He was detained in the First Brigade at Jilin Prison. Prison leaders at that time included Li Qiang, the warden; Liu Changjiang, deputy warden in charge of re-education; Zhao Jing, leader of the First Brigade; Wang Jiankong, deputy leader of the First Brigade also in charge of re-education; and Cheng Xin, instructor of the team to which Liu Chengjun was assigned. These leaders instigated six hardened criminals including Li Gang, Guo Shutie, Jia Yubiao and Liu Mouhai to severely torture Mr. Liu.

They dragged Liu Chengjun to the utility room and beat him with thick bed planks. His hips and buttocks instantly became swollen and bled. His shorts were stained with blood and stuck to his skin and could not be removed. They broke several planks when hitting him. Inmate Jia Yubiao lashed him with a leather belt. The belt hit his face and eyes. He bled immediately from the face and eyes.

After beating him, they made Mr. Liu sit on a very narrow plank about three to four centimetres wide. The pain was excruciating.

Early next morning at four or five o'clock when other inmates were still asleep, Liu Chengjun was woken up and made to sit on that narrow plank again. When other inmates went out to work, the inmates in the room started to torture him again. They tortured him for several days in an attempt to force him to write the so-called "four statements" to give up Falun Gong.

At the end of August 2003, the prison reshuffled personnel. Some of the guards and inmates in the First Brigade were transferred to the Fifth Brigade. At the time Liu Chengjun was detained in the Fifth Brigade. The head of the Fifth Brigade was the previous head of the First Brigade, Zhao Jing. The deputy leader in charge of re-education was Lin Zhibin. Inmate Guo Shutie was still the head of inmates. They thought that Liu Chengjun was so determined in his belief that he could influence other practitioners. Therefore they set him as the main target and didn't allow practitioners to contact each other or talk to each other. They were very afraid when they saw him contact other practitioners.

One day inmate Guo Shutie reported to police that Liu Chengjun had talked to other practitioners. Guard Lin Zhibin came and threatened Liu Chengjun in an attempt to stop him from speaking to other practitioners. In order to protest the barbaric persecution in the jail, Mr. Liu went on a hunger strike on October 11th. Lei Ming (who would be persecuted to death), detained in another cell in another brigade, went on a hunger strike as well. Their actions encouraged all the other practitioners in this jail to go on hunger strikes to protest the persecution, and ask for the return of the "four statements" they were forced to write under torture.

Since he was sent to the prison, Liu Chengjun had refused to do forced labour and been in the cell instead of the workshop. He didn't eat anything or drink any water for ten days and became emaciated. On October 21st, inmate Guo Shutie thought that Mr. Liu was sick and reported it to the guard. Guard Dai Jun sent him to the prison clinic. He was transferred to the Jilin City Central Hospital the same day and later was transferred to Jilin Province Gongan Hospital.

At beginning of December, Liu Chengjun was sent back to the Jilin Prison. The guards locked him in solitary confinement directly instead of sending him to the cell. An inmate who monitored him said that he was so weak at the time that he couldn't stand up by himself and several inmates had to carry him to the prison clinic to have x-rays taken.

In solitary confinement Liu Chengjun continued his hunger strike to protest the persecution. He was sent to the prison clinic and was force-fed. According to an inmate who was there at the clinic, when the guards force-fed him, he resisted strenuously. They continued to brutally force-feed him until he was incontinent.

Liu Chengjun always thought of others first despite the severe persecution he endured. When he started the hunger strike, he gave away his prison canteen voucher which still contained several hundred yuan². He asked other practitioners to buy food for practitioners who were in solitary confinement and who needed nourishment.

One day when Mr. Liu had been on a hunger strike for quite a few days, he saw that a practitioner's clothes were torn. He found a needle and started to mend them. At the same time he sang the song, "Blessing" for everyone. This song was composed and written by an inmate. His singing was very moving and expressed his encouragement to other practitioners to continue practising Falun Gong. Practitioners at the scene were moved to tears.

Note

1. "Tiger Bench": Prisoners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead without movement for long periods of time.

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/2009/7/23/205143.html