Retired Teacher from Jilin Province Suffers Years of Persecution

Name: Shao Lihong
Gender: Female
Age: unknown
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Elementary School Teacher
Date of Most Recent Arrest: November 8th, 2005
Most Recent Place of Detention: Jilin Women's Labour Camp
City: Jiaohe
Province: Jilin
Persecution Suffered: Electric shock, forced labour, brainwashing, forced injections/drug administration, beatings, force-feedings, extortion, physical restraint, home ransacked, interrogation, repeated detention

Ms. Shao Lihong is a retired teacher from the Jiaohe City Experimental Elementary School of Jilin Province. After she began to practise Falun Gong in 1996, all her chronic illnesses were cured, and she became a healthy and happy person. As a steadfast practitioner, she appealed for Falun Gong after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched a persecution campaign against it in 1999. She was arrested repeatedly, and sent to forced labour camps twice. Due to severe mistreatment and torture, her health sharply declined during her second labour camp term. All of her old diseases came back, leaving her in critical condition.

The following is her account of persecution.

I am a retired teacher from the Jiaohe Experimental Elementary School. Before I became a Falun Gong practitioner in 1996, I lived in misery. I was the only wage-earner in a family of seven. Four elderly parents lived with me and my husband. We could hardly make ends meet, and I had little time to rest. I suffered from rheumatoid arthritis and muscle pain, among other diseases. After I became a Falun Gong practitioner, all my health issues were resolved and I began a new life.

After the persecution began in 1999, the school leaders brought me to the office every day to compel me to give up my belief. I told them: "My belief is perfectly legal, and the persecution is against the law. Whoever helps the persecution will face eventual retribution.

I went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong on the 14th day after the Chinese New Year in 2000. The police intercepted me, and I was sent to Jiaohe City Detention Centre. They later transferred me to an ice cold temporary detention house. Several practitioners and I continued to do the exercises. Policeman Wang Yuzhu and several others whipped us with a plastic hose. The also slapped us in the face. They used foot shackles to chain us in pairs, and forced us to kneel on the concrete floor for six hours. After several days of torture, the shackles cut into my flesh at the ankles; walking caused great pain. I had to cut back on my trips to the bathroom and canteen. After fifteen days, they gave me another fifteen day extension. When my parents (in their 80's) came, the police denied their request to visit me. Finally, our family was forced to pay them 5,000 yuan¹. In addition, policeman Li Jinzhe personally extorted 400 yuan from us, and he has never returned the money.

Li Jinzhe came to our house to harass me again in late April 2000. I told him why I chose to become a good person by following Truth-Compassion-Forbearance. Later, he used this conversation as "evidence" to arrest me, and two others (Liu Guamei and Li Desheng). I was sent to a temporary detention centre for fifteen days.

On July 20th, 2000, the police came again. This time they forced me into a brainwashing centre. I had to report there every morning and return home in the evening. One day my grandson was sick, and I did not go. Li Jinzhe and a few other policemen immediately came to my house, attempting to force me to go back to the brainwashing centre. After my neighbours expressed sympathy for me, the police reluctantly left.

The police organised another brainwashing session at the beginning of October. I was held there for twenty days. All practitioners, regardless of their age and gender, were locked in one room day and night. When family members demanded to the release or their relatives, the police confessed that they "Worried about them visiting Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong."

In November, some Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution were found in town. The police suspected that I was involved and arrested me. At the police department, they tortured and interrogated me for five hours.

In the following year, on the 16th day after the Chinese New Year 2001, the police searched my house for truth clarification materials. They took me to the police department. Mr. Jin, deputy chief in the political security section, kicked and slapped me repeatedly, even grabbing my hair and hitting my head against the wall. Later they sent me to Jilin Women's Forced Labour Camp to serve a one year term. During my term, I suffered from tremendous torture and hard labour. The mistreatment took a heavy toll on my health. I had an abnormally low heart rate and low blood pressure.

In 2003, practitioners in Jiahe City held a cultivation experience sharing conference. This event stirred-up panic among the evildoers. Policeman Wu Shengli and his partner came to search my house. When my husband and daughter reasoned with them, Wu grabbed my daughter by her hair, and punched and kicked her. When my husband tried to protect our daughter, Wu took a club and hit him. The police charged that my family "interfered with his official duty." After they took me in, my husband went to the police station asking for my release. But no one bothered to meet with him.

Then on October 12th, 2005, policeman Yu Shuhuai came to search my home again. I almost suffered a heart attack. But that did not stop them from taking me to Jiaohe Detention Centre. Even some criminal inmates found this hard to believe, "They arrest people with no concern for their well being."

After they sent me to Jilin Women's Labour Camp on November 8th, 2005, my health deteriorated. I suffered from heart disease and trouble with my digestive organs. I had difficulty eating. The police thought I was on hunger strike. Head Tian, team leader Hou Zhihong, and guard Wang Lihua, called in others to do force-feeding. For more than twenty days, they forcefully fed liquid into my stomach through a hose in my nostrils. My nostrils were bleeding. When several practitioners protested their brutality, Yang Shujuan, and five other policewomen, used electric batons on us. Wang Lihua grabbed me at my collar, and dragged me through the snow. My underwear was worn through, and my hip was scraped. When she took me into the medical clinic, she slapped my face twice.

The long-term mistreatment seriously jeopardised my health. Finally, the labour camp police sent me to the provincial police hospital on February 21st, 2006. The diagnosis showed that I had atrophic gastritis, myocardial strain, intestinal infarction and a few other diseases. They injected some unknown drugs into my body, and sent me to Heizuizi Women's Labour Camp.

After serving one year in the camp, I returned home in frail condition. My skin was yellowish and I was skin and bones. After reading Falun Gong books and doing the exercises for a while, I gradually recovered. But both my parents passed away while I was in the camp, so I was not able to say goodbye to them.

The persecution did not stop there. On September 2nd, 2008 (at about 4:00 a.m.), Party Secretary Sun from Jiaohe Education Commission, and policeman Dai came to my home while my husband was out grocery shopping. My grandson was so frightened that he began to cry. Before I could put my coat on, they took me to a brainwashing session at Changle Nursing Home.

During this closed session, the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) of Jiaohe City, the Police and several companies sent their representatives to help brainwash the practitioners. They coerced me with threats of taking away my children's jobs and my pension. They also forced me to write a guarantee statement to renounce practising Falun Gong. I was kept there for more than ten days.

In addition to the above, I was harassed on a number of occasions by the Jiaohe Education Administration and the police.

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/2010/4/23/222046.html