Former Tangshan Iron & Steel Company Employee Repeatedly Abused at Brainwashing Centres and Mental Hospital

Name: Zhao Xihua
Gender: Male
Age: Unknown
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Technician
Date of Most Recent Arrest: July 2003
Most recent place of detention: Nanliutun Psychiatric Hospital
City: Tangshan
Province: Hebei
Persecution Suffered: Detention, beatings, brainwashing, extortion, torture, incarceration in a mental hospital, fired from workplace

Mr. Zhao Xihua, a Falun Gong practitioner, used to work at the Tangshan Iron & Steel Company in Hebei Province. He was sent to brainwashing centres five times for his belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and carried on hunger strikes to the point of being hospitalised five times. In addition, he was twice sent to a mental hospital. His employer fired him for his belief the end of 2003.

Between July 20th, 1999 (when the communist regime launched the persecution of Falun Gong) and the end of 2003, Mr. Zhao was detained for 13 months, including at his workplace, brainwashing centres, detention centres, hospitals, and a mental hospital. While detained, regime personnel used all kinds of persecution methods trying to make him give up his belief.

Mr. Zhao used to be group leader at the Tangshan Iron & Steel Company's High Speed Wire Rod finishing mill. Since he was in charge of machinery maintenance, he often had to work overtime. Arthritis and hyperosteogeny often plagued him due to the demanding work, as did night sweats from stress.

Mr. Zhao read the Falun Gong book, Zhuan Falun, in October 1998 and was convinced by the profound principles in the book. He followed the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance in his daily conduct, and his health greatly improved. All his illnesses disappeared without his realising it.

When Mr. Zhao heard the news on July 20th, 1999, that the regime was going to ban Falun Gong, he went to Beijing to appeal, but Fengrun County police arrested and took him back to his hometown. His workshop's Party secretary, Li Yuejie, took him to the factory and detained him in the conference room for 20 days. During that time, he forced Mr. Zhao and seven other practitioners to watch slanderous TV programs and had them monitored 24 hours a day. He refused to let them shower despite the hot weather.

Factory authorities conducted another round of persecution in December 2000. Workshop chief Yuan Xuejun called Mr. Zhao, who was at home, to come to the factory and kept him and several other practitioners in an unheated storage room. Factory Party secretary Zhu Lianxi and every workshop manager took turns talking to the practitioners, trying to make them give up Falun Gong, and did not release them until close to the 2001 Chinese New Year in late January. On Chinese New Year's day Zhu Lianxi, Wu Guolian (a workshop Party branch head), and his brother, an officer from the Fengrun County Police Department Legal Section, harassed Mr. Zhao's elderly parents at their home, suspended Mr. Zhao's salary and bonuses, except for 400 yuan¹ a month for basic living expenses.

A the end of September 2001, one of "sensitive dates" for the communist regime, the authorities ordered Mr. Zhao to work overtime throughout the holidays, but he refused. Zhu Lianxi had security personnel take him to the brainwashing centre at Tangshan City Textile University. Mr. Zhao held a persecution protest hunger strike. Staff member Wang Zhijie hit his face with a TV remote control until his mouth filled with blood. Mr. Zhao was released six days later.

While at work the end of 2001, Zhu Lianxi tricked Mr. Zhao and six other practitioners into going to a conference room. He and security personnel tried to compel them to either sign a document to give up their belief or be sent to a brainwashing centre. Mr. Zhao was sent to a brainwashing centre and kept there for three months.

While on his way home on December 27, 2002, Dongyao Police Station agents stopped him and found Falun Gong flyers on him. They took him to the station, handcuffed him to metal bars, and beat him for three days and nights. They transferred him to the Lubei Branch Police Department on the fourth day and continued beating him. Then they took him to the Tangshan City First Detention Centre and held him for four months. Mr. Zhao refused to write his so-called "thoughts" during detention and was forced to sit on a metal chair for seven days.

The day of Mr. Zhao's return from the detention centre, Zhu Lianxi ganged up with armed force section head Mao Bo and again took Mr. Zhao to a brainwashing centre. Mr. Zhao held another hunger strike. Thug Wang Xiaohu slapped him in the face. A speaker was installed on every floor of the building, broadcasting slanderous information all day long. Mr. Zhao and others cut the wire. Several thugs led by Zhang Shi beat him. Mr. Zhao never stopped his hunger strike. He was hospitalised at the company's hospital twice during his three months' incarceration.

Mr. Zhao returned to work in July 2003, but officials kept him from going home after work and arranged personnel to watch him. Someone reported him for getting in contact with other practitioners in the factory, so Zhu Lianxi and Mao Bo searched all the practitioners and confiscated all the Falun Gong books they found and then again took Mr. Zhao and another practitioner to a brainwashing centre. Mr. Zhao held another persecution protest hunger strike and was hospitalised twice at the company's hospital and at the Kailuan Hospital.

Mr. Zhao refused to do submit to exams or intravenous procedures during his third Kailuan Hospital stay and demanded his release. Mao Bo ordered the doctor to declare Mr. Zhao mentally incompetent and write a transfer statement to a mental hospital, but the doctor refused. Mao Bo then contacted Zhu Lianxi and took Mr. Zhao to the Nanliutun Mental Hospital after all. A week later they took him back to the brainwashing centre.

Mr. Zhao persisted with his hunger strike, demanding his unconditional release, until he vomited blood. They once again took him to the Nanliutun Mental Hospital for "treatment." Because Mr. Zhao never gave in, they had to call his sister to get the very weak Mr. Zhao out of the mental hospital and sign the papers to take responsibility for whatever happened to him.

Soon after Mr. Zhao's release, Zhu Lianxi and Mao Bo harassed him at home three times, trying to force him to sign statements to give up Falun Gong and threatening to end his medical leave, but Mr. Zhao refused to co-operate.

Zhu Lianxi and Mao Bo fired Mr. Zhao Xihua at the end of 2003.

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/2010/1/21/216630.html