Older Falun Gong Practitioner Zhang Yingtang from Tianshui City, Gansu Province Persecuted

Name: Zhang Yingtang
Gender: Male
Age: Over 60
Address: Dianzi Village, Mapaoquan Town, Maiji District, Tianshui City, Gansu Province
Occupation: Farmer

Date of Most Recent Arrest: February, 2004
Most Recent Place of Detention: Tianshui City Detention Centre
City: Tianshui
Province: Gansu
Persecution Suffered: Detention, brainwashing, extortion, beatings, insults, interrogation, torture, hung up

Key Persecutors: Feng Jitang, Politics and Security section chief, team leader of the National Security Team

Zhang Yingtang started to practise Falun Gong in 1997. After beginning the practice, the health problems he had had for many years, such as chronic bronchitis, pain in his back and feet, and hypertension, quickly disappeared. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to persecute Falun Gong in 1999. Since then, Zhang Yingtang has been repeatedly persecuted by the CCP. They have extorted money from him, arrested him, and detained him many times.

On February 11th, 2000, over 50 Falun Gong practitioners from the Qinzhou District and the Maiji District in Tianshui City held a group Falun Gong study and experience sharing session. This was held at the orchard in Dianzi Village, Mapaoquan Town, the Maiji District. They were discovered by the police and were all arrested and taken to the basement of the Maiji District Public Security Bureau. Politics and Security Section chief Zhou Jizu (retired now), deputy chief Feng Jitang (later promoted to be the section chief and team leader of the national security team later for his role in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners) led the policemen to try to “transform” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] Falun Gong practitioners against their will. They ordered the practitioners to write a “guarantee statement,” claiming they would no longer practise Falun Gong. After 9:00 p.m., the police transferred practitioners Zhang Yingtang and others to the Mapaoquan Town Police Station and continued to try to “transform” them there. Mr. Zhang wrote, “I will cultivate Falun Gong forever.” Police said it was not acceptable. They called the director of Dianzi Village Community Office and Zhang Yingtang's son to take Mr. Zhang home. Just a few days later, however, the police arrested him again and took him to the Maiji District Detention Centre for two weeks. During Mr. Zhang's detention, police officers Zhou Jizu and Feng Jitang went to his home to extort money from his family. Mr. Zhang's wife said she did not have any money at home. The police ordered her to go out and borrow the money right away. Zhang Yingtang's wife then hid at a neighbour's home. Officers Zhou Jizhu and Feng Jitang followed her to her neighbour's home but did not find her. They then went back to the detention centre to extort money from Zhang Yingtang himself. Mr. Zhang was forced to borrow 200 yuan¹ and give it to the police. They then released him with the condition that he had to pay them the rest of the money after the autumn harvest. Although Mr. Zhang had been released, officers Feng Jitang and Zhou Jizu went to his home regularly to extort money from him. In August 2000, Mr. Zhang was forced to pay another 300 yuan.

In December 2000, Zhang Yingtang and his wife went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. They were arrested in Tiananmen Square and detained in the Tiananmen Square Police Station. He was transferred to Babaoshan Police Station, while his wife's whereabouts were unknown. Mr. Zhang was detained in an iron cage, in which he could not move at all. They grabbed his collar and punched and kicked him. They interrogated him and asked him where he lived. They tortured him for three days and nights but could not get anything from him. They then transferred him to the Shijingshan District Detention Centre and held him for over ten days. At that time, it was the middle of a cold winter in Beijing. They stripped off Mr. Zhang's clothes and forced him to sit on the frozen ground and did not allow him to move. They took his money and incited the prisoners to beat and insult him. The police interrogated him every day for over a hour. They threatened and beat him to try to force him to tell where he lived, but Mr. Zhang refused to cooperate.

After being persecuted for over ten days, Mr. Zhang demanded the right to appeal. The police said, “The appeals office is not accepting any appeals now, and they are not meeting with anyone. If you have something to appeal about, you can write it down and we can hand it in for you.” Then they brought a thick pile of appeal letters to show him, and brought him pen and paper. Zhang Yingtang did not realise it was a trick. He filled out the form and wrote down his home address.

Three days later, policeman Ma Jianxi from Maiji District Public Security Bureau in Tianshui City and chief Dong from Mapaoquan Town Police Station came to Beijing and took him back to the Tianshui City Beijing Office in the Haidian District, Beijing. Over 30 Falun Gong practitioners were detained there. Mr. Zhang's wife was also there. Police officer Ma Jianxi beat and insulted Mr. Zhang and also searched him. Ma Jianxi took 1,500 yuan from Mr. Zhang and put it into his pocket without giving him a receipt.

Two to three days later, policeman Ma Jianxi and others arrested the practitioners and took them back to Tianshui City. The practitioners shouted, “Falun Gong is good! Falun Gong is righteous!" The police beat them again.

Mr. Zhang Yingtang and other practitioners were first detained at the Maiji District Public Security Bureau in Tianshui City and then transferred to the detention centre. In the detention centre, the prisoners beat and insulted him. Politics and Security Section chief Zhou Jizu and deputy chief Feng Jitang interrogated him many times and tried to force him to give up his faith. The police used all kinds of brutal ways to torture him, but still could not sway him. A month later, the police sent the practitioners to the brainwashing centre in the drug addiction treatment centre. Practitioners were forced to clean the floor, clean the toilets, and carry the water. They were also insulted by the drug addicts, but none of this could shake their faith. Policemen Feng Jitang and Zhou Jizu then started to falsify charges against Zhang Yingtang, Li Yikui (who has been brutally beaten many times, detained, and fined large amounts of money. He became destitute and homeless in 2003 and his whereabouts are still unknown), Liu Wenyu (who was persecuted to death), Zhai Fengci (who became severely disabled due to the persecution), Han Meiying, and other practitioners, and sentenced them to forced labour. The police also grabbed the practitioners' hands to “sign” the forced labour sentence papers and provide their fingerprints.

A few days later, Mr. Zhang Yingtang, Li Yikui, Liu Wenyu, Han Meiying, and Zhai Fengci were sent to the Pingantai Forced Labour Camp in Lanzhou City by policemen Feng Jitang and Ma Jianxi. During the physical examination, Mr. Zhang was found to have severe high blood pressure and myocardial infarction. Li Yikui also had high blood pressure. Both of them were refused admission to the forced labour camp. The other three practitioners were admitted to the camp. Policeman Feng Jitang had to take Mr. Zhang and Li Yikui back to Tianshui City to the Second People's Hospital in Tianshui City for another physical. The results were the same as at the forced labour camp. The doctor told the police that the two practitioners were severely ill, in critical condition, and needed to be hospitalised immediately. Officers Feng Jitang and Wu Hongxia ignored the doctor and took the two practitioners back to the drug addiction treatment centre. They also tried to extort money from them, saying the reason they were not accepted by the forced labour camp was because Ma Jianxi had called in a favour from a doctor she knew, so they owed the policemen for getting them out of forced labour.

After Mr. Zhang was detained for four months, Feng Jitang ordered his family to borrow money to bail him out. Finally Feng Jitang fined Mr. Zhang 3,000 yuan and released him. Mr. Zhang's wife was detained for one month and fined 1,000 yuan. Li Yikui was also fined large amounts of money, and he now has a lot of debts to repay the fine.

In February 2004, policemen Feng Jitang and Pei Junqing broke into Mr. Zhang Yingtang's home, arrested him, and took him to the public security bureau. They interrogated him and asked what he had done during the past few years. Mr. Zhang's answer did not satisfy the police, so Feng Jitang, Pei Junqing, and Wu Hongxia brutally beat Mr. Zhang. Because they were afraid of being seen, they covered the windows with newspaper and shut the door. Feng Jitang used a two-foot-long wooden stick and Pei Junqing used a rubber tube with steel wire to brutally beat Mr. Zhang. They hit him over 20 times and did not stop until the wooden stick was broken. Wu Hongxia punched and kicked Mr. Zhang and also slapped his face. Zhang Yingtang's whole body became swollen and bruised, including his face, neck, and hands. Then Feng Jitang twisted one of Mr. Zhang's arms behind his back from below and the other over the top of his shoulder, and then cuffed his hands together tightly. Zhang Yingtang was in great pain. He screamed, and his clothes were drenched with sweat. The police repeatedly tortured him, each time for over an hour. They also handcuffed and hung him from the water pipe, leaving his whole body hanging in the air. After an hour, they dragged him to a pole with a banner exposing the persecution of Falun Gong posted on it, which was on the road in Panjizhai, Mapaoquan Town. They did this to take photos in order to frame him. Later they dragged him around the villages to take more photos. After it started to snow, they had to stop, saying that they had enough “evidence” to sentence him. Later they dragged him to Mapaoquan Town to parade him through the streets to humiliate him. It happened to be market day, and a lot of people stopped to watch. The police also did not allow Zhang Yingtang's family to visit him initially. His family tried everything they could and finally were able to see him. When they saw his severe injuries, they questioned the police, but the police said that Zhang Yingtang deserved to be treated like that.

One week later, the police took Mr. Zhang Yingtang to the detention centre and continued to torture him. One month later, Mr. Zhang's family asked the police to release him. The police told his family to bring 2,000 yuan to release him. When Zhang's family borrowed 2,000 yuan in cash and sent it to the public security bureau, policeman Wu Hongxia collected the money but did not give a receipt, nor did he release Zhang Yingtang. After a few days passed, Mr. Zhang's family had to beg policemen Feng Jitang and Wu Hongxia. Finally, Zhang Yingtang was released.

In 2009, Feng Jitang, Bu Jianhui and Zhao Xiaojun broke into Mr. Zhang's home and told him to go to the public security bureau with them. Mr. Zhang resisted with righteous thoughts. In the end, the police got his phone number and left. They said they would call him later before they came again.

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/2010/12/12/233547.html