Persecution of a 69-Year-Old Man from Tangshan City

Name: Guan Zhenzhu
Gender: Male
Age: 69
Address: Geziyu Village, Hanerzhuang Township, Qianxi County, Tangshan City, Hebei Province
Occupation: Unknown

Date of Most Recent Arrest: Autumn 2006
Most Recent Place of Detention: County Guest House
City: Tangshan
Province: Hebei
Persecution Suffered: Detention, extortion, home ransacked, paraded through the streets, brainwashing, and sleep deprivation.

Mr. Guan Zhenzhu, 69, is from Geziyu Village, Hanerzhuang Township, Qianxi County, Tangshan City, Hebei Province. The following, in his own words, is just part of what he has suffered due to persecution.

In 1995, my younger daughter gave me a copy of the Falun Gong book Zhuan Falun. After reading it for the very first time, I found that it was something that I had been searching for for many years. I went to see a local practice site assistant and learned the five exercises from her.

In 1998, I went to visit my relatives in Pianlingzi Village, Erdaohe Township, Xinglong County, and met two people who had read Zhuan Falun but had not yet learned the exercises, so I taught them the exercises. Not long after that, their copies of Zhuan Falun were confiscated by the village Party secretary and handed in to the Erdaohe Township Government. To get their books back and to continue practising Falun Gong, they came to see me, because they knew that the village Party secretary was my distant relative, so they hoped that I could get their books back. I went to Pianlingzi Village and found the Party secretary, Zhang Yinfeng. At the time, I began arguing with him. He phoned the Erdaohe Township Police Station and called in the police. I was taken to the police station and the head of the station locked me in an iron cage.

Three days later, a deputy secretary of the Xinglong County Police Department and member of the Chengde Prefecture Political and Judicial Committee interrogated me. He asked me why I practised Falun Gong. I said it was permitted by the Constitution and I was free to believe as I chose. (In 1998, the persecution of Falun Gong had not openly started yet.) He said, "The central government has said that no one is allowed to practise Falun Gong any longer." When I asked to see that government document, they did not have it. Instead they showed me a magazine, which was produced by the Hong Kong Buddhist Association and contained articles with distorted facts and pure fabrications. I accused them of trying to deceive me and told them that it was not a central government document.

However, they still argued, "We are the ones who are enforcing the law. If we want to teach you a lesson, what can you do?" Zhang Quyang from the station tried to slap my face but failed to touch me. On the contrary, he twisted his arm. A guy from the Chengde Prefecture kicked me and as a result he twisted his ankle. At that point, none of them dared to touch me anymore. They said, "You disturbed public order, and we are fining you 200 yuan¹. We will release you when the money is paid." I said there was no reason for them to fine me and I did not have any money with me. They then brought in two practitioners whom I knew and ordered each of them to lend me 100 yuan. They were also fined 100 yuan each. When the money was paid, we were pushed out of the station and not given any receipts, nor did the officials go through any formalities.

In 1999, Jiang Zemin, [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] used the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to begin openly persecuting Falun Gong. The officials from the township government ransacked my home and confiscated several Falun Gong books. One day at the end of the year, my second son wanted to buy a motorbike, so he made a dozen phone calls to a relative who resided in the county proper. The county police department noticed the record of the phone calls and thought they had discovered something new. They informed the Hanerzhuang Township Police Station and summoned me to the station for questioning. Shi Wenyi, the head of the station, tried to force me to "confess." I said that I had never made that many calls in one day, however the police continued to ask me if I still practised Falun Gong. I told them how I had benefited both physically and mentally and I also told them that Falun Gong is righteous and it is wrong for the government to prevent people from practising Falun Gong. The township leaders that were present reported to the county police department that I had admitted to practising Falun Gong. The county police department informed my local police station and ordered them to escort me to the police department. Zhu Zhengang from the then Political Investigation Section (now changed to the National Security Division) took me to the county detention centre. I was locked up in No. 5 cell. The reason they put me in this particular cell was because all the inmates there were suffering from scabies.

When I entered the cell, Gao, who was being held for a capital crime, forced me down on my knees and told a young criminal to pour cold water over me. At the time it was January and bitter cold.

On February 3rd, 2000, it was extremely cold. All the practitioners detained at the detention centres or brainwashing centres, as well as the criminals, were paraded through the streets on trucks. Finally, when we reached the central square of Qianxi County, a public rally billed as "Public Arrest and Sentencing" was held. All the practitioners from the detention centres were tied neck and heels, and the practitioners held at the brainwashing centres were handcuffed. Behind each practitioner were two officers. They were afraid that the practitioners might shout messages, so one of the officers had a rope in his hand. Not long after the car left the detention centre, practitioner Ms. Zhang Ruiying, who is in her fifties, shouted to the onlookers, "Falun Gong is good!" The officer behind her pulled her backwards by her hair and used the rope around her mouth, like curbing a horse and they let her go only after arriving at the square. Those who attended the meeting included Luo Baohe, the Party secretary of the Political and Judiciary Commission of the county government; Wu Xiang, head of the county 610 Office; and Yuan Kaiyi, deputy head of the police department. Yuan Kaiyi read out the charges against each practitioner as the officer behind the practitioner kicked the practitioner to his knees. After the public rally, the practitioners were escorted back to the detention centre.

In the spring of 2000, the county 610 Office sent ten detained practitioners and me to a militia training base in Xihenan Village, where they had set up a brainwashing centre. In the morning, Jin Guangyi, head of the centre (and also the deputy head of the Judiciary and Legal Department), forced us to do military drills. During the day, Yu Guixin, deputy head of the centre (and head of the county Women's Federation) taught classes that slandered Falun Gong. In the evening, people from the centre forced practitioners to watch video programs that slandered Falun Gong and sing songs that praised the wicked CCP. Every practitioner was told to renounce Falun Gong. At night, evildoers were on duty to ensure that no one practised the exercises. We were locked up in the brainwashing centre for twenty days before being released.

In the spring of 2001, people from the County Political and Judiciary Commission summoned me to the Township government and asked if I still practised Falun Gong, and wanted me to make comments about Teacher. I said that I still practised Falun Gong. Then they told me to go home and await further notice. About two weeks later, Xu Zhigang, an officer from the county police department, came to my home with a search warrant. However, he failed to find anything except one phone book, several medical books, and two pieces of paper with some quotations from Falun Gong works. He took me to the county police department, where officers said that I had not been fully "transformed," [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] so they gave me an administrative detention of fifteen days. However, after fifteen days they refused to release me, and my detention was extended indefinitely. I was not released until August 2002.

On the first day after my arrival at the detention centre, I saw Mr. Liu Yong, who was also detained there. Mr. Liu was from Tongkuang, Sahe Township, Qianxi County. He was a second year student at the Beijing Science and Technical University. He was detained for writing a letter to the county Party committee, offering a kind word of advice. Liu Chun, the head of the detention centre, used the most cruel methods to torture him. Mr. Liu was handcuffed behind his back and his legs were shackled. They attached his handcuffs to his shackles and inserted a pole underneath. They then ordered inmates to carry the pole in a circle in the detention centre courtyard four times. The handcuffs cut into his flesh and caused serious bleeding. However, Mr. Liu did not make a sound. After that he was forced to remain on his knees for more than five hours. Once detention centre head Liu Chun found out that Mr. Liu was doing the Falun Gong exercises, he gave orders for Mr. Liu to be tortured the same way two times. Mr. Liu was also forced to stand still with his hands cuffed behind his back for two nights. One day when Mr. Wei Chunqi, Mr. Liang Ruilu, Mr. Liu Yong, and I were practising the exercises, prison guard Gao Ji discovered us. He handcuffed the three practitioners behind their backs and then attached them to a metal window frame. He told me to look at them to torture me mentally. We were held in the county detention centre for more than eight months. We were taken out individually to undergo brainwashing and were forced to write the three statements to renounce Falun Gong. Only when the county's 610 Office believed that we had met their requirements were we released.

In 2004 when the CCP officials discovered materials exposing the persecution of Falun Gong in Mr. Chai Jinyin's home in Sahe Township, they ransacked his home and ordered him to tell them where he got the publications. Mr. Cai Yinxuan and I were implicated. The Sahe Township government contacted the county government and detained Chai Jinyin and his wife, as well as Cai Yinxuan and his wife and me, and we were taken to the county detention centre for eight days.

In 2006, officials from the Tangshan City 610 Office set up a brainwashing centre at a legal school. Under the unified leadership of the Tangshan City 610 Office, all the counties and townships were told to send the practitioners under their jurisdiction to the brainwashing centre. Long Lihua, head of the 610 Office, dispatched legal personnel from Hanerzhuang Township to drag me into a car. It was autumn harvest time, the busiest season for farmers, but they took me to the brainwashing centre anyway. Actually, at that time the brainwashing centre was closed, so they took me to the county guest house and locked me up there. They dispatched legal personnel and officials from the 610 Office in an attempt to force me to renounce Falun Gong. They deprived me of sleep and forced me to read books that slandered Falun Gong and watch CCP propaganda video programmes. Since I refused to co-operate with them, they had no choice but to have the head of my village take me home after six days in detention.

Note

1. "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://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2009/11/19/212893.html