Older Practitioner Ms. Liu Chunling from Tangshan Iron and Steel Group Twice Taken to Forced Labour Camps

Name: Liu Chunling
Gender: Female
Age: 60
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Retired from Tangshan Iron and Steel Group Co., Ltd.
Date of Most Recent Arrest: October 2008
Most Recent Place of Detention: Shuiwuzhuang Village Police Station
City: Tangshan
Province: Hebei
Persecution Suffered: Sleep deprivation, brainwashing, beatings, imprisonment, extortion, physical restraint, home ransacked, detention

When she retired from Tangshan Iron and Steel Group, Ms. Liu Chunling suffered from several diseases, and she was a frequent visitor to hospitals. After she began practising Falun Gong, in less than two months, her health problems, including refractory skin disease on her head, psoriasis on her legs, gynaecological problems, hyperthyroidism, and rhinitis, were all gone.

During the past ten years however, Ms. Liu has been put into brainwashing centres twice and taken to a forced labour camp twice.

In 2004, Ms. Liu was reported to the police. Officers from Yuehe County Police Station in Tangshan City, Hebei Province, arrested her and took her to the Yuehe Detention Centre. In the detention centre, Ms. Liu was beaten, slapped across her face, and forced to sleep on a cold floor. A month later, she was taken to Kaiping Forced Labour Camp in Tangshan City. There, female guard Yan Hongli ordered inmates to watch Ms. Liu, forced her to stand for extended periods without wearing winter clothing and deprived her of sleep.

In 2008, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intensified its persecution of Falun Gong, using the excuse of "safety" for the Olympic Games. In October, four police officers took Ms. Liu Chunling to Shuiwuzhuang Village Police Station and ransacked her home. They took a few Falun Gong DVDs and materials from her home. The police said that they would sentence her to one year of forced labour. Ms. Liu refused to sign the police form. When she was taken to the Kaiping Detention Centre, the Kaiping County Police Department officers threatened, "If you don't sign, you will be sentenced for three years." In late October 2008, Ms. Liu was taken to Kaiping Forced Labour Camp for a year of forced labour, but the forced labour camp didn't accept her because she didn't pass the health exam. She was taken back to the police station and coerced into paying three thousand yuan¹ before she was allowed to go home.

Ms. Liu has been persecuted ever since the CCP started persecuting Falun Gong in July 1999. At first, her company sent people to her home, demanding she not go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. Her residential committee also pressured her family. She was frequently ordered to report to the police station and her regular life was interrupted. She was also forced to do community service, told to stop cultivation, and later taken to a brainwashing centre.

In 2001, a Shuigang community worker took Ms. Liu Chunling to a brainwashing centre. She was forced to pay living expenses of fifteen hundred yuan each month. She was locked in a single room, not allowed to talk to others, and deprived of all personal freedoms. She was beaten by two brainwashing centre workers, Zhang A'ning and Zhang Shi, for opening the door for other people to use bathroom. She was forced to watch videos that slandered Falun Gong. When a news reporter came to interview her, Ms. Liu told the reporters that what said on TV was all false. After she went home, she was frequently harassed by the residential committee staff. Her company also pressured her family to prevent her from doing the exercises.

Among the evildoers was officer Jin Tao from Shuiwuzhuang Village Police Station. He was transferred from Yuehe Police Station Shuiwuzhuang Village Police Station. He has often persecuted Falun Gong practitioners.

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://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2010/2/7/217679.html