Police Officer Li Liping from Wuqiao County, Hebei Province, Persecutes Liu Zhigang and Family

Li Liping, deputy secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) committee of the Quqiao County Police Department in Hebei Province, is in charge of persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. Since 2001, he has persecuted most of the practitioners living in Wuqiao County. In early June 2010, he started looking for practitioner Liu Zhigang, who had been forced to be homeless for over ten years.

The Persecution of Mr. Liu Zhigang and His Wife

Mr. Liu Zhigang was the academic director of Lizhuang Middle School, in Sangyuan Town, Wuqiao County, Hebei Province.

In late December 2000, Mr. Liu went to Beijing to speak out for Falun Gong and was arrested by the local police and detained at the Wuqiao County Detention Centre for four months. He was released in late April 2010. After the incident, his employer refused to pay his wages, banished him from the premises, and assigned personnel to closely watch him around the clock. Furthermore, his workplace had arranged to send him to a brainwashing centre to force him to give up his practice of Falun Gong. Mr. Liu refused to go, and the Wuqiao County Police Department National Security Team deployed three vehicles and twelve officers to arrest Mr. Liu. He managed to elude the arrest, and has been homeless for the past ten years.

Ms. Gao Lihua, Mr. Liu Zhigang's wife, was an employee at the Wuqiao County Food Bureau Factory. She started practising Falun Gong in 1998.

In September 2000, Ms. Gao Lihua distributed Falun Gong flyers. For these actions, the Wuqiao County Police Department National Security Team extorted 4,000 yuan¹ from her. After Mr. Liu became homeless in June 2001, she was placed under house arrest and surveillance, and was violently threatened to cooperate with the authorities, against her will, to find and arrest her husband. She had no choice but to abandon her home with her husband, leaving behind their young daughter who was in her first year of middle school. Through years of living a homeless life, in constant danger of being arrested, Ms. Gao suffered a heavy toll in her mental and physical health. She fell victim to a sudden illness in September 2002 and died at the age of 43, in March 2004.

The Persecution of Mr. Liu's Relatives and Friends

Officers from the Wuqiao County Police Department National Security Team carried out a large-scale search for the couple. With the help of the Jing County police, they constantly harassed the couple's parents and siblings who live in Jing County, day and night, and even on Chinese New Year's Eve. The underhanded methods used included cajoling, deceit, coercion, surveillance, arrest, and fines.

In August 2001, officers from the Wuqiao County Police Department National Security Team arrested Mr. Liu Zhigang's brother-in-law in Qiuzhuang Village of Jing County. They beat and tortured him on a tiger bench², and interrogated him about Mr. Liu's whereabouts. In September, the authorities arrested Mr. Liu Zhigang's nephew and his elder sister's son from the Caochang Village of Duqiao Town, Jing County, and interrogated him about Mr. Liu's whereabouts before extorting 3,000 yuan from him.

Officers from the Wuqiao County Police Department National Security Team arrested and interrogated Mr. Liu's second eldest brother from the Ma Township of Jing County in October 2002. As the brother, 57, had symptoms including hypertension, dizziness and constant vomiting, the authorities had to release him that same day.

Mr. Liu's 80-year-old mother passed away a few days prior to the 2003 Chinese New Year's Day as a result of constant harassment from police and her existing illnesses. Even on the eve of the Chinese New Year, the police intruded upon the home of Mr. Liu's father-in-law.

In June 2003, officers from the Wuqiao County Police Department National Security Team arrested Mr. Liu's brother-in-law (married to his third-eldest sister and living in the Gaolao Township of Gaoling Town) and detained him for a month in an attempt to find out Mr. Liu's whereabouts by using interrogation with force. His family paid over 10,000 yuan for his release. For the same reason, the police tried to arrest Mr. Liu's cousin, who fled and was forced to become homeless.

At the same time, officers from the Wuqiao County Police Department National Security Team, with the help from Jing County Police, prevented Mr. Liu's daughter from going to her classes for over ten days right before the high school entrance exam, for which his daughter had been preparing diligently. The forced interruption negatively impacted his daughter's performance.

In March 2004, after Ms. Gao Lihua passed away, officers came from the Wuqiao County Police Department National Security Team to the home of her parents, and arrested both her parents and daughter. They were held for over ten days and interrogated about Ms. Liu's whereabouts. The police extorted 5,000 yuan from Ms. Gao's second eldest brother.

Wuqiao County police arrested practitioner Ms. Du Hongyue, an elementary school teacher from Jiangheliu Township in Jing County, on April 2nd, 2004, in an attempt to find Mr. Liu's whereabouts. The police detained Ms. Du for four days, during which time the officers slapped her face, dragged her by the hair, poured freezing-cold water on her body, and tortured her on the tiger bench.

Li Liping, deputy CCP committee secretary, Wuqiao County Police Department: 86-317-7367589 (Home), 86-317-5276906 (Office), 86-13930775888 (Mobile)
Liang Yonggang, Wuqiao County National Security Team: 86-317-7346716, 86-13582477800
Jiao Haiquan, director of Wuqiao County Comprehensive Office (formerly known as "610 Office"): 86-317-7272166, 86-13700372166

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

2. "Tiger Bench": Prisoners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead without movement for long periods of time.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2010/6/14/225374.html