A Decade of Persecution for Ms. He Zhiwei

Name: He Zhiwei
Gender: Female
Age: 47
Address: Fenghuang Garden, Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province
Occupation: Unknown

Date of Most Recent Arrest: April 9th, 2009
Most Recent Place of Detention: Guangzhou Brainwashing Centre
City: Guangzhou
Province: Guangdong
Persecution Suffered: Detention, brainwashing, home ransacking, beatings, extortion, sleep deprivation, denial of toilet use, torture

Ms. He Zhiwei was arrested by 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) agents on the morning of April 9th, 2009, and has been held at a brainwashing facility for the past year. During this time she was transferred to Sanshui Brainwashing Centre, Zhanjiang Brainwashing Centre, and Guangzhou Brainwashing Centre. While at Zhanjiang Brainwashing Centre, a group of officials physically assaulted her until her neck was dislocated. Officials from Guangzhou Brainwashing Centre recently told her family that they would "punish her," and refused to let them see her.

He Zhiwei told a colleague about Falun Gong and the persecution in May 2005. The colleague became interested and later began practising Falun Gong. He Zhiwei was arrested and taken to a detention centre. One month following her release, she went to visit another practitioner and was again arrested and taken to a detention centre. She and many other practitioners have been arrested during so-called "sensitive dates."

Party officials deceived and pressured He Zhiwei's ex-husband to the point that he aided the police in ransacking his own home and also divorced He Zhiwei. She resigned from her job in order to prevent her superiors from being implicated and perhaps also persecuted. She went into exile.

Her home has been ransacked numerous times in the past, and on one occasion police and Administration Division officials broke into her home in her absence. They took Falun Gong books, her computer(s), more than 1,000 poems written by He Zhiwei's mother, a bank deposit certificate worth more than 200,000 yuan¹, and her driver's licence. The police presented no search warrant and refused to provide a list or receipt for the things they took. Furthermore, her 80-year-old mother and 13-year-old daughter were recently arrested at home and held in police custody. Her mother was sent back to her hometown of Nanhai ten days later.

Jieyang police broke into her residence early on the morning of May 1st, 2002, claiming to be inspecting rented apartments, and arrested He Zhiwei, Ms. Wu and several other practitioners who were living there at the time. Ms. He was in her pyjamas. The police kicked her when she tried to grab a pair of pants. The officials could not charge the practitioners with any crime, yet they took 7,000 yuan in cash and all their valuables. Ms. Wu was tortured to death after eleven days, and Ms. He was taken back to Zhuhai Brainwashing Centre in her sleepwear. She said during a conference at the brainwashing facility right before the 2003 Chinese New Year, "A lot of officials are here today. I just want all of you to remember that Falun Gong is good." For saying this, she was taken back to the detention centre and held for 15 days, then returned to the brainwashing facility. The officials brutally attacked her, resulting in her mouth filling with blood.

She was taken to Meixi No. 1 Detention Centre on the evening of April 16th, 2003. The captors attempted to coerce her into signing a "labour re-education notice," and even though she refused, several men held her hand and forced her fingerprint onto the document.

Sanshui Forced Labour Camp

Ms. He was taken to the Sanshui Forced Labour Camp on April 18th, 2003. She requested to use the toilet but was denied. At the medical office the labour camp head ordered her to squat, but she refused. The female head then told officials to lock her in solitary confinement--which is a small room with slanderous posters and banners on the wall. They later brought in three female drug addicts. Two guards ordered them to hold down Ms. He and force her to squat, and they tied her hands behind her back. They also purposely cut her hair asymmetrically, to humiliate her. They verbally attacked Mr. Li Hongzhi and Falun Gong. They forced her to stay in the squatting position with her hands tied behind her back for a very long time. When she tried to sit on the floor they shoved the founder of Falun Gong, Teacher Li Hongzhi's, picture into her underwear. When she again asked to use the toilet, the female guards said she would first have to read aloud the slanderous slogans. She refused. She was made to watch slanderous video programmes all night long. One drug addict pulled out a handful of He Zhiwei's hair and used the hair to poke Ms. He's ears, nose and eyes whenever she dozed off. Several days later, she could no longer stand the torture and wrote a guarantee statement to renounce practising Falun Gong. She was finally allowed to sleep and use the toilet.

Three months later she declared that everything she had said and done against Falun Gong was completely void, and she was determined to continue practising. She was subsequently targeted again and deprived of sleep for eight days. The divine power of Falun Gong again manifested. She grew even more energetic, despite the lack of sleep, and even the inmates who were assigned to watch her said, "Why have you gained more energy?" The officials gave up punishing her with sleep deprivation on the ninth day, after seeing it didn't work.

Ms. He's brother visited the labour camp six times within the year but was never allowed to see her. After more than one year in the labour camp, Ms. He was taken back to the Zhuhai Brainwashing Centre on April 29th, 2004, because she refused to "reform" [forcibly renounce Falun Gong], and was taken to the provincial brainwashing facility on December 1st, 2004. She relayed incidents of abuse at the labour camp to her sister when she visited her, and the officials firmly denied the facts. He Zhiwei wrote a petition in which she exposed the persecution, and higher officials later came to "investigate." Nevertheless, they treated He Zhiwei as a criminal. Her petition was ignored, and she was continually threatened.

Ms. He returned home on June 10th, 2005, but Zhuhai officials listed her as a major persecution target and frequently harassed her at home. They ordered her to write guarantee statements when she was trying to get her identification card, and her phone was tapped. She left Zhuhai City to avoid further persecution.

She returned to Zhuhai in 2009 to take care of her elderly mother, but was arrested one month later, on April 9th, 2009. Officials from the Guangzhou Brainwashing Centre refused to let her family see her, claiming that she shouted slogans and did the Falun Gong exercises. She told her family that Zhanjiang Brainwashing Centre officials had hired thugs to beat her and whacked her head with heavy books, which dislocated the bones in her neck. They also blasted Communist Party propaganda at a deafening volume. When officials from the provincial government went to Zhanjiang Brainwashing Centre for an inspection, the centre head would not let her expose their crimes.

Officials responsible for persecution:

Li Dan: 86-756-3311613, 86-756-2524610, 86-756-2516659 (Office), 86-13075603118 (Mobile)
Wu Yande, Zhuhai City 610 Office head: 86-13702729799 (Mobile)
Li Kaizhu, Zhuhai City Politics and Law Committee deputy head: 86-13702326099 (Mobile) , 86-756-2519620 (Home)
Wen Jie, 610 Office head
Lai Haizhong, Domestic Security Division deputy head: 86-756-6639129, 86-13809230229 (Mobile)

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/2010/4/10/221295.html