The Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioner Wei Liping in Hailin, Heilongjiang Province

Name: Wei Liping
Gender: Female
Age:Unknown
Address: Hengdao Town, Hailin, Heilongjiang Province
Occupation: Unknown

Date of Most Recent Arrest: Late 2007
Most recent place of detention: Hailin Detention Centre
City: Hailin
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Detention, extortion, living under surveillance, beatings, interrogation, force-feedings, torture, solitary confinement, brainwashing.

During the past ten years of persecution against Falun Gong practitioners by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Wei Liping has been repeatedly arrested and detained. She was sentenced to five years in Harbin Prison. During this time, she was repeatedly beaten and tortured, and was in critical condition several times. The following is a summary of the persecution suffered by Wei Liping.

Becoming healthy after practising Falun Gong

I had many diseases when I was young and I suffered physically as well as mentally. One time, my sister-in-law and a neighbour were sharing their experiences about cultivation and said that Falun Gong was miraculously effective in healing diseases. I borrowed a copy of the Falun Gong book, Zhuan Falun, from them, and after reading the book I understood that the vast and profound aspect of Falun Gong not only manifested in a healing effect but also that it is a high-level cultivation practice. Since practising Falun Gong, I studied the Falun Gong teachings and practised the exercises according to the requirements of Falun Gong. Several days later, my body was purified and all my diseases disappeared.

Because I explained the facts about Falun Gong I was repeatedly arrested and harassedThe CCP began to persecute Falun Gong in China on July 20th, 1999. The local police often visited or monitored me, asking me, "Do you still practise Falun Gong?" "Will you go to Beijing to appeal?"

At the end of October 1999, I was followed by policemen from Hengdao police station. I was retrieving cash from my bank account and the policemen expected that I was going to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. The deputy director of the police station Zhao Yu and others coerced me into the police station. The director, Wen Cheng, tried to force me to promise not to appeal for or practise Falun Gong. I refused to comply and I was arrested and detained at Hailin Detention Centre for two months. After the police extorted two thousand yuan¹ from my family members, I was bailed out.

On New Year's day of 2000, the township party secretary, mayor and policeman Wang Yuntang, and a female police officer named Chen sent by the Director of the Police Station Wen Cheng, came to my home. They told me to stay at the town government building for a few days, at which time I was actually placed under house arrest. Another Falun Gong practitioner was also detained at that time, and we were monitored by three to four people in shifts. We were told that we should not go to Beijing to appeal. I did not co-operate and seven days later I was released.

Around New Year of 2000, the local police repeatedly came to harass my family and forced me to make statements. Under this circumstance, some practitioners and I went to Beijing to appeal and report the situation to the government. After arriving in Beijing, we found out that this persecution was widespread across the country and the government did not accept petitions; rather it was busy arresting practitioners. We were staying at a hotel in a suburb of Beijing, and we did not know how to deliver our request to the central leadership in Beijing. We were then arrested by police from the police station at Songyu alley. Because I did not want my loved ones involved, I did not give my name. Two other practitioners were beaten and one of them was deceived and gave our addresses. Wen Cheng and Gao Tingguang flew to Beijing and escorted us back to our town. All the costs were deducted from the salary of one of the practitioners. Wen Cheng took six hundred yuan from us and we were handcuffed in the train and detained at Hailin Detention Centre on our return.

Guo Tingguang abused Falun Gong practitioners because he believed that they brought him trouble, and he encouraged family members of Falun Gong practitioners to use any method to persuade us to give up the practice. At the detention centre, a fellow practitioner wrote a petition letter, which I handed to Lu Lihai, the deputy head of the National Security Division of the Hailin Police Bureau. Lu Lihai asked me who wrote it. I did not tell him. I was then sentenced to two years of forced labour by the Hailin Police Bureau. Another practitioner was sentenced to one year of forced labour. Song Yumin, head of the National Security Division, forced me to make statements that I would not appeal for Falun Gong or practise any more. Seven months later, after my family members gave Wen Cheng one thousand yuan, Song Yumin two thousand yuan and other gifts, I was released.

In the detention centre, one time when I was found doing the Falun Gong exercises, I was beaten by guard Yang Hengyou with a plastic tube, and shackled for half a month. After I was released, to avoid the harassment, my family moved to Shandong. Later, we returned to our hometown and opened a noodle restaurant. Policeman Wang Yuntang was often sent by Wen Cheng to harass us.

After being beaten and force-fed, I was unable to move

In April 2002, I was arrested by Xiao Song and Liu Xin of the Hailin Political Security Division, and police officers Qin Haitao, Song, director Li Shuwei, Sun Lianhui, and Li Qiang. At the police station, I was interrogated by one officer after another. At 3 a.m., I was taken to Hailin Political Security Division and the next day I was interrogated by police officers Jiang Yuntao, Jin Haizhu, and Lu Lihai. They asked me for the source of the Falun Gong material, and tried to deceive me by saying that if I co-operated I would be released immediately. The police interrogated me continuously during the morning, afternoon, evening and midnight shifts. In the afternoon of the fifth day, I escaped from the fifth floor. On the sixth day, I was found and was then taken to the political security division. Lu Lihai punched me hard on the left side of my head and my ear was badly injured. I fainted and a doctor was called to revive me. After I regained consciousness, the police again ordered me to write down the source of the materials; however, I did not co-operate with them. They then sent me to Hailin Detention Centre and I was taken to the Economic Investigation Division. Police officer Lu Hongwei and director Liu Guobin interrogated me at the detention centre. Liu Guobin had a white plastic tube and used it to beat me. After they failed to get my co-operation, they sent me back to the detention centre and back to Political Security Division.

In 2002, guard Liu Qing beat Falun Gong practitioners at the detention centre, and when we tried to stop him, he kicked and hit us. We went on a hunger strike to plead our innocence and request our release. We wrote a letter to the deputy directors of the detention centre, Jiang Xinrui and Zhao Zhe. On the fourth day of our hunger strike, we were force-fed with gruel mixed with a large amount of salt by officer Jin Haizhu and some prisoners, which caused me to cough profusely. I coughed up blood for several months afterwards. I could not move for a week after the force feeding.

Sentenced to five years of imprisonment and tortured

In July 2002, I was sentenced to five years imprisonment by Hailin City Court. At the end of 2002, I was detained at Harbin Prison, but I was not accepted because of my poor health. I was shackled for four to five days by Zhu Ming, director of the detention centre, team head Shan Chengqiang, vice director Jiang Xingrui, and the prison doctor, Ren Hongjie. I went on a hunger strike to protest my persecution. They removed the shackles because I had blood in my stools and I was vomiting blood. On another occasion, at the beginning of 2003, another Falun Gong practitioner went on a hunger strike and I talked to her for a while. Because of this, I was forced to wear handcuffs. The cuffs stuck into my arm muscles but the guard did not loosen them. On the second day, the cuffs were removed as the deputy director became afraid that I would be seriously injured.

In September 2003, eight practitioners and I were transferred to Harbin Prison. The police in the Intensive Training Team tried to force a 22-year-old girl to give up practising Falun Gong; however, she refused, even after being tortured for several days. I was suspected of encouraging her and was handcuffed with my arms behind me for a day and also beaten by Wang Fengying.

I was assigned to the 7th area. We saw that the guards had taken a copy of a Falun Gong lecture from one of the Falun Gong practitioners, so several practitioners and I went on a hunger strike to protest. We also refused to wear the prison uniform. Over a dozen Falun Gong practitioners participated. All of us were handcuffed to the upper layer of double beds; our arms felt like they were broken.

At the end of 2006, each Falun Gong practitioner was locked in a small cell. We were monitored by two prisoners every day. Our freedom was deprived. We were forced to read books by people who had been "transformed" [forcibly renounce Falun Gong]. They attempted to brainwash us by forcing us to listen to the radio and songs by the CCP. Four months later, at the end of my prison term, I was released. The local police station searched everywhere for my whereabouts.

I was framed when I was distributing leaflets exposing the persecution at the end of 2007. A policeman from the second police station in Hailin, and Jin Haizhu, Guang Jingwei, and Song Yumin came to my grocery store. They confiscated my Falun Gong books and sent me to the second police station, after which I was detained at Hailin Detention Centre for five days.

Related article:

http://clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2006/7/7/75177.html

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/2010/11/6/232054.html