Practitioner from Hebei Province Persecuted --Over 50,000 Yuan Extorted from Her Family

Name: Yang Zenghua
Gender: Female
Age: 54
Address: Xiaoba Village, Chengguan Town, Fuping County, Hebei Province
Occupation: Farmer
Date of Most Recent Arrest: December 22nd, 2005
Most Recent Place of Detention: Balizhuang Forced Labour Camp in Baoding City
City: Fuping County
Province: Hebei
Persecution Suffered: Forced labour, brainwashing, beatings, torture, extortion, home ransacked, interrogation, detention

Ms. Yang Zenghua had heart disease, nervous headaches, and fear of cold and wind prior to practising Falun Gong. In August 1998, she began the practice, and in just over a month, all of her illnesses disappeared. She has since become a good person. However, she has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for ten years because she practises Falun Gong. The CCP police and officers have frequently harassed her, ransacked her home, arrested her, detained her at a detention centre, sentenced her one and a half years' forced labour, and extorted 55,500 yuan¹ in cash from her.

1. Home Ransacked, Arrested, and Money Extort from Her Family

On July 20th, 1999, the CCP and Jiang Zemin's, [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] regime started the brutal persecution of Falun Gong. Ms. Yang went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong on December 31st, 1999. In 2001, officers Ma Baozhong, Wang Shunhai, and others from the Fuping County Police Department broke into her house to arrest her and raid her home. They searched everywhere but did not find her. They confiscated all of her Falun Gong books and leaflets exposing the persecution of Falun Gong. Ms. Yang had to become destitute and homeless for two months to avoid arrest.

Police officers Ma Baozhong, Wang Shunhai, and Geng Yubin later went to her home frequently to harass her family and arrest her. They extorted money from her husband, saying, "If you give us some money, we will leave you alone." Her family was frightened and gave 8,000 yuan to Zhou Qiulai, the CCP police department disciplinary inspection secretary, and policemen Ma Baozhong and Wang Shunhai. But after the incident, the whole family still lived in terror and fear, and Yang Zenghua still could not go home. The police later threatened her husband again and extorted another 6,000 yuan from him.

2. Home Broken into and Relatives Persecuted

In 2003, Ms. Yang and another practitioner went to a mine to speak out for justice for Falun Gong to the workers and were reported to the police by a person who did not know the truth about the persecution. At about 10:00 p.m., the chief of the Chengguan Town Police Station and a few policemen went to Yang Zenghua's home. They ransacked it and confiscated her personal belongings, including a double tape recorder worth 600 yuan and the tapes that go with it. The police also deceived her husband (not a practitioner) into going to the police station. Zhang Jinhui, captain of the National Security Team, handcuffed her husband to the radiator for an entire night.

3. Arrested and Detained

In October 2005, Ms. Yang Zenghua met another practitioner in public. While they were talking, police officer Fan Zhenhua and another officer rode by on a motorcycle, and suddenly stopped in front of them. The police took her bag, searched it, and then handcuffed her and arrested her. She was taken to the National Security Team. Zhang Jinhui, captain of the National Security Team, and police officer Fan Zhenhua interrogated her. After the interrogation, Zhang Jinhui grabbed her hand and tried to get her hand print. Ms. Yang resisted, so Zhang Jinhui brutally dragged her to the police vehicle and drove her to the police station. In the police station, she vomited repeatedly. Zhang Jinhui ordered four officers to drag her by the arms and legs and put her inside the police vehicle. She was taken to the Fuping Detention Centre.

While at the National Security Team, she was ill due to the abuse. She vomited and had diarrhoea. Police officer Fan Zhenhua handcuffed her to the radiator in the toilet. The next day, she had a fever and lumps all over her body. The police doctor examined her and said that she had an infectious disease, and had to be isolated. Zhang Jinhui didn't want to take any responsibility, so he extorted 1,500 yuan from her family and then released her.

4. Arrested Late at Night and Sentenced to Eighteen Months of Forced Labour

On December 22nd, 2005, at about 10:00 p.m., police officers Zhang Jinhui and Fan Zhenhua broke into Ms. Yang's home and arrested her. Fan Zhenhua dragged her into the police vehicle and drove her directly to the Fuping County Detention Centre. In the detention centre, a prison police officer slapped her on her face so hard that it knocked some of her teeth loose and caused them to bleed a lot. The next morning at about 7:00 a.m., the police dragged her onto a police vehicle, drove her to the police station, and then switched her to another police vehicle. There were two other practitioners in that vehicle, and the police planned to send all three practitioners to a forced labor camp. At that time, Yang Zenghua's mother rushed to the police station. She held onto her daughter's leg to keep the police from taking her daughter away. Two officers pulled her arms away and twisted them behind her back. The 70-year-old woman could not lift her arms for six months after that incident. Finally the police pushed Ms. Yang into the police vehicle and took her to the Balizhuang Forced Labour Camp in Baoding City. She was sentenced to eighteen months of forced labour.

In the forced labour camp, the prison doctors used all kinds of methods to try to "transform" [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] her. One time a guard asked if she wanted to be "transformed," but she refused to cooperate. The guard then kicked her so hard that she fell down and instantly fainted. The prison doctor had to order a few prisoners to carry her to the prison clinic to revive her. In the forced labour camp, she was forced to do very intense hard labour. She was once so tired that she fainted. The prisoners supported her by her arms and took her to the prison clinic. A prison doctor by the name of Du said that Ms. Yang had pretended to faint, and then kicked her very hard. If she could not finish the forced labour quota on time, the camp authorities threatened to extend her forced labour term. She fainted many times due to the intensely hard work. The prison guards handcuffed her and took her to the 502 Hospital twice for physical exams. The doctor found that she had neurosis and her blood pressure had reached 180. After her family learned this, they applied for her release on bail for medical treatment. The camp officials extorted 40,000 yuan from her family, and Ms. Yang was released after having been imprisoned for ten months.

5. Frequent Harassement

During the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, the Nanjie Community Committee sent people to monitor Ms. Yang Zenghua, which violated her personal freedom, and harassed the other residents. Around October 1st, 2009, six to seven people from the Chengguan Police Station and the Nanjie Community Committee went to her home to harass her. They forced her to turn in her ID, searched her home, and confiscated her photos.

During the past ten years, Ms. Yang has suffered from frequent harassment, arrests, home invasions, and thefts. She was held in the Fuping Detention Centre and imprisoned in Baoding Forced Labour Camp for eighteen months. She has had 55,500 yuan in cash extorted from her family and had personal belongings worth 600 yuan taken from her, for a total of 56,100 yuan.

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/2010/1/15/216293.html