United Nations Refugee Zhang Xinyi Was Arrested Again by Changsha City 610 Office

Name: Zhang Xinyi
Gender: Female
Age: 55
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Teacher

Date of Most Recent Arrest: September 8th, 2009
Most recent place of detention: Changsha City Rule of Law Education Training Centre
City: Changsha City
Province: Hunan Province
Persecution Suffered: Imprisonment, Home Ransacked, Solitary Confinement

On September 8th, 2009, Ms. Zhang Xinyi, a Falun Gong practitioner and a retired teacher from Changsha City, and her friend, He Minna, went to the Hunan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine to try to persuade the school administrators and others to release a school employee, Tang Min, a Falun Gong practitioner. Tang Min is being detained at the No. 2 People's Hospital in Hunan Province (Hunan Province Mental Hospital, also know as the Provincial Neural Specialty Hospital). Ms. Zhang Xinyi and He Minna were seized by the school security section and reported to Hanpu Police Station. In the afternoon, the two practitioners were taken to the Changsha City Rule of Law Education Training Centre (a brainwashing centre) in Laodaohe Town, Kaifu District, Changsha City. This is the fourth time Ms. Zhang has been arrested.

Ms. Zhang, 55, was a math teacher at the Changsha City Aluminum Factory Affiliated Elementary School (renamed the Xintian Elementary School). She was a very conscientious and experienced teacher, and the students liked her very much.

In summer of 1998, Ms. Zhang and her husband went to teach at the Phnom Penh Chinese school in Cambodia. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began persecuting Falun Gong in July 1999, Ms. Zhang obtained United Nations refugee status. Article 3 of the Convention against Torture prohibits any signatory from repatriating anyone to a country that uses torture. China signed the UN Convention against Torture in 1988. However, the government violates the Convention against Torture. In August 2002, the CCP convinced the Cambodian government to arrest and repatriate Ms. Zhang Xinyi and her husband, Li Guojun. Right after she and her husband arrived in China, they were taken to the Hunan Province Changsha City Detention Centre. Ms. Zhang was released a month later. At that time, two more practitioners in Cambodia, Wang Minchun and her husband, Jiang Linzhong, were in danger of deportation. Fortunately, with help from people with a sense of justice, the couple successfully avoided that fate.

In April 2005, officers from the Hunan Province Police Department, the Changsha City Tianxin District Police Department, and the Changsha City Xinkaipu Police Station acted jointly to arrest Ms. Zhang. Her home was ransacked and her passport was confiscated. Without notifying her family, the Changsha City Tianxin District Court held a secret hearing and sentenced her to three years in prison. Ms. Zhang made an appeal that was rejected. In January 2006, she was sent to the Hunan Provincial Women's Prison.

Ms. Zhang went to visit a friend in Zhuzhou City on the morning of July 11th, 2009. Several State Security personnel arrested her when she arrived. A few hours later, the State Security personnel handed her over to the Shifeng District Public Security Sub-bureau in Zhuzou City. The guards tortured her in an effort to extort a confession from her. She went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. The police tried two times to have her transferred to the Baimalong Forced Labour Camp in Zhuzhou City, but the camp refused to admit her due to her physical condition. After spending two nights at the so-called Legal System Training Base, she was finally released on July 23rd. Two weeks later, she was arrested again.

Hunger Strike to Protest the Persecution

This time, Ms. Zhang was sent to the Changsha City 610 Office¹ Legal Education Training Centre, a brainwashing centre, and is being kept in a cell 10 metres square where she is monitored 24 hours a day. She has no freedom whatsoever. She is not allowed to leave the room. The training centre personnel have tried to force her to give up practising Falun Gong.

Ms. Zhang went on a hunger strike for over ten days to protest her detention and persecution. She only drank some milk and juice provided by her family and her students. She became very weak. However, the training center personnel refuse to release her, saying, "It is impossible to get out of here by going on a hunger strike."

From the end of June till the beginning of July, Ms. Peng Xiaomei, a Falun Gong practitioner retired from China Construction Bank in Hunan Province, was detained at this training centre. She suffered both physically and psychologically. She is still unable to eat normally.

Li Guojun, 60 years old, Ms. Zhang Xinyi's husband, is a retired teacher. He has many diseases and there is no one to care for him. Their son is studying at a university far away. Mr. Li has sent letters to the Hunan Province CCP Politics and Law Committee Secretary, the Tianxin District 610 Office, the Changsha City Legal Education Training Center, and the Yunan Avenue Subdistrict Office, asking for his wife's release. He has not received any response.

Persons and organizations who participated in the persecution:

Changsha City's Legal Education Training Centre:
Director Wu Kaiming: 86-13308408731 (Mobile)
Associate director Shi Jin: 86-13308476059

Hunan Province Mental Hospital:
Party Committee secretary Cai Guangxian
Party Committee deputy secretaries You Zhaoling, Huang Zhengde, Chen Hong
Vice principal Tan Daquan, in charge of 610 Office

Changsha City Tianxin District Yunan Avenue Subdistrict Office:
Director of Public Affairs Chao Aiping: 86-731-82418411

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.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/9/18/208569.html