Ten Years of Persecution in Jiaozhou City, Shandong Province

The persecution of Falun Gong has lasted ten years, causing Falun Gong practitioners in China to suffer tremendously under Jiang Zemin, [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] policy of "Destroy their reputations, bankrupt them financially and annihilate them physically." Judicial and police organs in China have sentenced many innocent people to forced labour camps without any legal procedures, resulting in injuries and even deaths.

Jiaozhou, a city in Shandong Province, is one example that exposes the crimes the Chinese Communist Party has committed against Falun Gong practitioners.

Inhumane Psychological Persecution

In the first two years of the persecution, then Jiaozhou City Politics and Law Committee head Liu Xuedong and deputy head Xu Fatian masterminded the arrest, detention and abuse of local practitioners. Together with Jiaozhou City Appeals Office Head Yang Wenfu, they established a brainwashing centre in Nantan Village, with Gao Liangyi appointed as its head. Over the next two years, around 70-80 practitioners were detained at the brainwashing center, because they went to Beijing to appeal. They included Han Xiuting, Wei Huayu, Lu Lian, Wan Ailing, Li Hua, Liu Meiqin, Xian Yezhi, Guan Fengbao, Di Xinming, Wang Weihe, Liu Fuxi, Zhang Xiulan, Gao Zhen, Sun Xihong, Zhang Lei, Zhao Congyi and others. The persecutors promised to release whoever wrote statements promising to give up Falun Gong practice, and also threatened to continue detention of those determined in their belief. While in detention, practitioners were each allotted only a small steamed bun at every meal, yet they had to pay a 50 yuan¹ meal fee.

After failing to make anyone succumb to the pressure at the brainwashing centre, the local authorities began sending more and more practitioners to mental hospitals. They put Ms. Tan Guihua in a mental hospital as early as September 1999. Xu Yanzhong and Kuang Bencui were also among the dozen or so practitioners forced to receive harmful drugs and injections at mental hospitals in the first several years of the persecution. These practitioners were held there for a period ranging from three months to an entire year. While they were suffering at the hospitals, their families had to pay 1,500 -1,800 yuan for medical and living expenses for each of them.

Back then, the Minghui/Clearwisdom website published many detailed reports of mistreatment and abuse of Falun Gong practitioners at mental hospitals. Two former United Nations Special Rapporteurs on Torture, Sir Nigel Rodley and Mr. Theodoor Cornelis van Boven, once sharply criticized the Communist regime's practice of torturing Falun Gong practitioners. One of Sir Nigel Rodley's reports specifically mentioned the following three practitioners from Jiaozhou.

"255. Xu Yanzhong, from Jiaozhou city, Shandong Province was reportedly sent to Jiaozhou city's mental hospital on April 25th, 2000, for practising Falun Gong. He was said to have been tied up and forced to take medicine and injections in the 10 days that followed. Mr. Xu allegedly suffered physical and mental mistreatment. The injections resulted in him experiencing all-over weakness, nervousness, depression and difficulty opening his eyes.

256. Kuang Bencui, from Jiaozhou city, Shandong Province, reportedly went to Beijing. Officials arrested her on her way to Tiananmen Square. She was sent to the Jiaozhou Liaison Office in Beijing and then to the Jiaozhou city mental hospital. While there, she was reportedly forced to take medicine and injections. When she refused, two men allegedly seized her arms, pinched her nose and drove a chopstick between her teeth, to force-feed her with unknown substances. She was reportedly force-fed three times a day, the dosage being increased from one tablet at a time to six tablets at a time.

257. Tan Guihua, was reportedly arrested by officers from her work unit and those from the Politics and Law Commission in her home on 12th September 1999 and taken to a mental hospital. There, she was given an injection. As a result she reportedly felt faint and sick and her heart-beat accelerated rapidly. She allegedly lost consciousness. Ms. Tan received electric shocks on seven occasions. After one injection her period reportedly stopped; she could not move her eyes and her reactions slowed down. A few days later another medicine was said to have been added to the injection. Tan Guihua's body shook violently. This was said to have lasted 20 days. At the time of her release she reportedly suffered from memory loss, had problems speaking, and her eyes were dull and her reactions slowed down."

(Source: The United Nations Special Rapporteur's report, page 61, from the U.N. Commission on Human Rights website, http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/0/90826bb67fa905b1c1256a2300464476/$FILE/G0110682.pdf)

According to incomplete statistics, 57 other practitioners were sent to mental hospitals, including practitioners Wei Huayu, Liu Fuxi, Li Xue, An Xianqin, Zhou Caixia, Gao Fen, Liu Zhaohong, Song Xinjian, Lv Yi, Wang Yongping, Xiao Zhiduan (former deputy chief justice), Wang Yumei, Liu Zhongzhi, Song Yuling, Jin Lanxiang, Qiu Yan'e, Ji Xiuling, Sun Qijie, Li Jun, Sun Linfang, Liu Yan, Wang Weihe and his three family members.

Zhangjiatun of Xinan Township, located about 32 miles from Jiaozhou City, is the farthest subordinate village from the city area. Jiaozhou City 610 Office² agents set up the notorious Zhangjiatun Brainwashing Center in this remote village. After the center's establishment, approximately 230 practitioners were eventually detained there, including Duan Guiyou, Yu Xiuxiang, Yan Mingxia, Liu Zaixian, Chen Rui'e, Han Fengyan, Xu Xiangzhi, Li Cuihua, Liu Ranggu, Gao Zhen, Feng Fang, Gao Xufang and Song Guihua.

Since the Zhangjiatun Brainwashing Centre was less noticeable to locals because of its remote location, Jiaozhou City 610 Office agents hired local villains to brutally beat the detained practitioners. These henchmen not only physically abused practitioners but also extorted money from practitioners' families from time to time. They kept every penny of the collected money for themselves.

Liu Ranggu, in his fifties, is from Puji Town of Jiaozhou City. Since he refused to give up his belief, the thugs stripped him of his clothes and hung him up before taking turns beating his entire body with rubber clubs. He was covered in blood and lost consciousness several times during the beatings. The gang then dragged him to the courtyard to expose him to the freezing cold. They pulled out his beard and moustache, one hair after another. In their words, they wanted him to feel that living was worse than dying.

Gao Zhen was a kindergarten teacher from Ducun Village. The persecutors beat her ruthlessly because she refused to attend brainwashing sessions. They tortured her an entire night for her hunger strike. After two months of the hunger strike, Ms. Gao was in grave danger. Only then did the captors agree to release her. When her family came to pick her up, they saw that she was merely skin and bones, and very close to death.

Almost every detained practitioner experienced similar mistreatment and had severe physical injuries.

Shocking Physical Abuse of Practitioners

In Jiaozhou City alone, more than ten practitioners have directly or indirectly died as a result of persecution in the past ten years.

Ms. Zhu Meijuan from the Shizhong Residential Area died in the prime of her life, at age 43. During that era, 610 Office head Song Shoujian led a group of policemen and attempted to break into her house. Ms. Zhu slid down the water pipe outside the window of her apartment on the sixth floor, attempting to escape, but her hand slipped. She fell onto the concrete below and died instantly. While this happened, her practitioner husband Zhou Zhaohua was incarcerated at the Weibei Prison in Shandong Province. Ms. Zhu's mother eventually took in the couple's 10-year-old daughter, Zhou Yingjie.

Liu Liang was a 24-year-old practitioner from Daheliu Village, Zhangying Town. One night on his way home he found himself intercepted and surrounded by a group of 610 Office agents. In a hurry to get away from the gang, he fell into a big well and lost his life. These 610 Office agents later led a truckload of armed policemen to his home and forced his family to give up their right to sue them. They never gave the family even a penny of compensation.

Even more practitioners died indirectly as a result of the persecution. Ms. Tan Huihua, one of the three practitioners mentioned in the U.N. report, remained disoriented following her release from a mental hospital. She died at the age of 52.

While detained at Zhangjiatun Brainwashing Centre, Wang Chongbai, an engineer at the Jiaozhou Branch of Sinopetro Group, suffered enormously at the hands of then 610 Office head Wang Qiang. He died shortly after his release.

Li Yuansheng from Baiguoshu Village, Jiulong Town, and Zhao Yuezhen from Zhaojiadian Village, Jiaoxi Town, died after suffering long-term mistreatment while in police custody.

Then Political and Legal Committee Head Liu Xuedong authorized his subordinates to abuse Falun Gong practitioners in the brainwashing centre, to force them to stop practising. Political and Legal Committee chief of staff Yu Xiliang, 610 Office deputy chief of staff Wang Qiang, staff members Xue Yubin, Jiang Pinyang and Lu Tao were involved in abusing the practitioners. Some practitioners were deprived of sleep for more than 20 days, some were tied to a tree in the cold winter to be frozen and to be exposed to mosquito bites in the summer, and some were chained to the tree during the rain. The persecutors also hit the practitioners with wooden clubs and metal rods. Some practitioners were forced to drink alcohol, which is against their beliefs. The abusers even spread human excrement on practitioners' lips. When Falun Gong practitioners resisted, they pried their mouths open and insert a piece of brick into their mouth. Two practitioners died shortly after their release from the facility as a result of such abuse.

Wang Qiang, the 610 Office deputy chief of staff, a vicious man, had served in the military. He beat almost every practitioner detained there. Section chief Xue Yubin covered practitioners' mouths, inserted two cigarettes into their nostrils and forced them to inhale. He also made practitioners drink alcohol, painted their faces with ink, and slapped their faces with dirty shoes. Xue Yubin, Jiang Pinyang and Lu Tao used a torture routine on every newly-arrived practitioner. They handcuffed the practitioner and beat him (her), then made the practitioner sit on the floor, with arms and legs extended, and whipped him (her) repeatedly. They beat newly-arrived Ms. Ji Xiuling's leg so hard with a club that her leg was disabled. Additionally, these abusers deprived practitioners of sleep and stabbed them with needles to keep them awake.

Practitioner Liu Zhaohong, a driver from the Jiaozhou City Water Resource Bureau, was arrested in Jiaoxi Town on May 12th, 2003. Policeman Wang Wenlong and others tortured him for five days. They hung him up and tortured him with a number of techniques. Mr. Liu lost consciousness several times. 610 Office agents later took him to the Zibo Forced Labour Camp. Because of his poor physical condition the labour camp refused to accept him. 610 Office agents had to take him back to Jiaozhou Detention Centre. Mr. Liu went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. The guards handcuffed and shackled him, and force-fed him, in addition to various other gross abuses. The tortures almost killed him. Mr. Liu's family's applications to visit him were repeatedly denied. His condition was so bad that the detention centre staff though he might die at any time, but the 610 Office agents still refused to release him. Instead, they transferred him to Zhangjiatun Brainwashing Centre. Later he was handed a five-year prison sentence and transferred to the Weibei Prison.

610 Office personnel arrested more than ten practitioners in Jiaozhou City in October 2007. Policemen Wang Wenlong, Wan Xiaoning and Zhang hit 50-year-old Ms. Li Shiying's head with shoe soles, causing several lumps on the back of her head. They also put her in handcuffs and dragged her around. The handcuffs cut into her wrists and bloodied her hands. They also dragged her by her hair and slammed her head against a wall. Her hair and a section of scalp were pulled out. They also held her feet firmly to the floor and used a wooden club to beat her legs.

The torture left Ms. Li Shiying with injuries. She could not even take off her shirt since the flesh, blood and clothes were stuck together. When her older sister visited her at the detention centre, Ms. Li Shiying was unconscious. Guards at the Dashan Prison in Qingdao City, where Ms. Li was eventually transferred, were surprised by the severity of her injuries and refused to accept her, saying, "Even condemned criminals don't deserve to be tortured like this." The four police officers who escorted Ms. Li did not dare to accept any responsibility and took her back to the detention centre. A few days later policeman Wang Wenlong escorted Li Shiying to Dashan Prison again. Officials still refused to take her in and asked, "Who is responsible if she dies?" Wang Wenlong said, "I am" and signed his name on the document.

Forced Labour and Prison Sentence

In addition to meting out prison sentences, the Chinese Communist Party also invented a unique forced labour system. This system does not exist in any democratic country. The police can send people to a labour camp without legal procedures or due process. All they do is fill out a form and put the police department chief's seal on it. The police chief alone has the authority to send anyone to a forced labour camp. Where Falun Gong is concerned, as long as the 610 Office wants to subject someone to forced labour, they need only inform the police department chief.

The regime uses both prison sentences and forced labor to abuse Falun Gong practitioners. Young practitioner Ms. Li Xue received a seven-year prison term because the police found 700 CD's containing Falun Gong information at her home. Zhaojiayuan Village resident Xu Hangzhong was sent to a forced labour camp for eighteen months because he displayed a poster on his door that says, "Falun Gong is good."

As of October 2000, a number of practitioners had been sent to forced labour camps. The first group included Liu Zhonzhi, Guan Fengbao, Wang Yihan, Zhuang Zejie, Kuang Bencui, Liu Wei, Mao Mingzhao, Zhang Fuyuan, Du Xide, Sun Qijie, Liu Xuewei, Liang Xisheng, Zhang Qijia, Pan Shiquan, Di Ximing, Zhao Yangfa, He Shuqin, Jin Lanxiang, Wang Qun, Zhang Lei and others, about fifty in all.

More than ninety practitioners in Jiaozhou City have been sent to forced labour camps during the past ten years.

Before anyone is sentenced, or sent to forced labour camps or brainwashing centres, the person first must go through a 15-day administrative detention. 280 practitioners in Jiaozhou have been through administrative detention during the past ten years, and thirty practitioners have received prison sentences. Most of the court trials were conducted in secrecy. Court officials did not give the verdict document to practitioners' families. Family and relatives were barred from the hearings. The court informed the families only after the practitioners went to prison.

Thirty Falun Gong practitioners who received prison sentences include:
2002: Qiu Yanjin, Zhao Xiuhua, Wang Guixiang, Zhou Zhaohua, Leng Songjia
2003: Yu Airong, Li Xia, Ji Xiuling, Liu Zhaohong, Sun Qijie
2004: Wang Mingjiang, Sun Jianwu, Wang Dezhi, Zhang Hongliang
2005: Gao Fen, Wang Yubao, Song Yuling (who escaped a month later)
2007: Li Xue, Li Shiying, Zhou Shenghua, Hei Jianfeng, Liu Jinmei, Wei Xiuju, Song Guier, Zhai Yongqiang, He Kunlin
2008: Wei Junfeng
2009: Jiang Junqi and Pang Manli (husband and wife)

17 practitioners from Jiaozhou City are still incarcerated in labour camps and prisons in Shandong Province.

Nine women practitioners remain at the Shandong Women's Prison:
Li Xue, Li Shiying, Zhou Shenghua, Hei Jianfeng, Liu Jinmei, Wei Xiuju, Song Guier, Wei Junfeng, and Pang Manli
Three male practitioners are incarcerated at the Shandong Men's Prison:
Zhai Yongqiang, He Kunlin, and Jiang Junqi
Five practitioners are persecuted at Wangcun Forced Labour Camp in Shandong:
Women: Wei Shuzhen, Liu Hong, and Cao Xiucheng
Men: Liu Baobin and Zhang Duncheng

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.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/7/15/204575.html