Ms. Zhao Fengxia from Shuangcheng City, Heilongjiang Province, Relentlessly Persecuted

Name: Zhao Fengxia
Gender: Female
Age: 57
Address: Shuiquan Village, Shuiquan Township, Shuangcheng City, Heilongjiang Province
Occupation: Farmer

Date of Most Recent Arrest: End of 2001
Most Recent Place of Detention: Wanjia Forced Labour Camp
City: Harbin
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Detention, extortion, surveillance, torture, forced labour, beatings, physical constraint, hung up, brainwashing

Ms. Zhao Fengxia started to practise Falun Gong in 1996 and became healthy as a result. Before practising, she had several diseases including gastroptosis, gastric ulcers, duodenal ulcers, protrusion of the lumbar vertebral disc, problems with her uterus, and hypertension.

She started to distribute leaflets exposing the persecution of Falun Gong after July 20th, 1999, when the persecution began, but she was persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Ms. Zhao was arrested when she was in Beijing in 1999 and detained at the Shuangcheng Detention Centre for 45 days. She ate only either steamed bread or corn and vegetable soup, for which she was forced to pay 450 yuan¹. After being released, she was detained in a home for the elderly. Even when she later went back home, there were people who spied on her.

Four months after she returned home, Ms. Zhao went to Beijing again to appeal against the persecution of Falun Gong. She unfurled a banner and shouted, “Falun Gong is good!” After she came back, she was detained at the Wanjia Forced Labour Camp in Harbin by Guan Wenliang, the Township Party secretary, and Wang Weidong from the Township Police Station. She was threatened in the labour camp and told that if she did not give up Falun Gong, her children would not be allowed to go to college.

After the guards realised they couldn’t break Ms. Zhao’s will, they started torturing her. They forced her to sit on a bench from 5:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. every day. They ordered her to ask permission before walking anywhere and said that, while she was walking, she had to lower her head. Ms. Zhao wouldn't follow their demands and was beaten until she was unconscious. After she came to, she was dragged to her room so that nobody else would know about the beating. Ms. Zhao had severe pain in her liver, but she was still kept tied up. At one point, she was taken to the hospital, where she threw up blood. A day later she did the Falun Gong exercises with the other practitioners and her health improved. On the fifth day, she was sent back to Wanjia Forced Labour Camp.

Ms. Zhao never admitted to committing a crime, nor did she agree to do manual labour, so she was beaten by Zhang Bo, the labour camp director. She was also tied to the head of a bed for five days. They wouldn't loosen her even for meals or to go to the toilet. Later on, they took her to a meeting room, tied her hands behind her back, and hung her from a pipe. Ms. Zhao still didn’t give in.

Because of the long-term persecution, Ms. Zhao Fengxia’s body became covered with pustules. She had fevers sometimes and couldn’t eat.

In the winter of 2000, Ms. Zhao’s 15-year-old son begged his father to go to Wanjia Forced Labour Camp to visit his mother. He knew that his mum was being persecuted and felt that the situation was hopeless. He could only cry when he saw her and could not say anything. He cried all the way home.

At the end of 2001, Wu Wenliang and Wang Weidong arrested her again and tried to send her back to the camp, but she wouldn't let them. After they went back to Shuangcheng, the CCP secretary from Shuiquan Township wouldn't let her go back to her home. Instead, they took her to Wanjia Forced Labour Camp for brainwashing. Shuangcheng officials also sent groups to spy on her. They sent four groups, with seven people in each, for weekly rotations. Ms. Zhao used the opportunity to describe her own experiences with Falun Gong to inform people about the true nature of Falun Gong.

During these years of persecution, her family has been under a lot of pressure, both mentally and financially. They have two children in school, and the tuition rates are high. Her husband has had to play the role of both parents. He works daytime in a brick factory and night time at a food factory. Village officials often take money from him and put pressure on him. The pressure finally got to him, as he now has a brain disease.

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/2010/12/21/233926.html