Mr. Hong Baojia of Shuangcheng City, Heilongjiang Province Endures Years of Persecution

Name: Hong Baojia
Gender: Male
Age: Unknown
Address: Xinxing, Shuangcheng, Heilongjiang Province
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: May 14th, 2003
Most recent place of detention: Changlinzi Forced Labour Camp
City: Shuangcheng
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Detention, extortion, beatings, forced labour, electric shock.

Falun Gong practitioner Hong Baojia was arrested, became homeless, and was sent to a forced labour camp because he remained steadfast in his belief in Falun Gong. His narration follows.

1. Arrested During Appeal in Beijing, Becoming Homeless for Two and a Half Years

I started to practise Falun Gong in 1996 and soon all my illnesses disappeared. I became healthy and was very grateful to Falun Gong. Since July 20th, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been persecuting Falun Gong. Many Falun Gong practitioners in my area and myself travelled to Beijing to ask for justice.

On December 12th 2000, I went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. I was arrested and taken back to Shuangcheng City by Liu Qingyu, director of the Xinxing Police Station, and Zhang Yunlong, secretary of the Politics and Law Committee. I was detained in the Shuangcheng Detention Centre until December 27th. Soon after, I became aware that I was about to be taken into custody again and sent to a brainwashing centre, so I went to other cities to work and became homeless for two and a half years.

Whenever I went out, authorities from the CCP in our village would not let me pass, and they demanded that my family pay a fine; otherwise our farmland would be confiscated. Life became very difficult for my wife and two children when we lost our land, as my wife could not find another job. Their lives became very difficult, as we had to survive on my low salary. In the end, we had to pay 2,000 yuan¹ to get our farm land back.

2. Arrested and Persecuted When I Went Back Home to Visit

In May 2003, since I had not been home for a long time and my son was getting married, I returned home. However, after several days, on May 14th, Wang Guangzhong and Li Yunlong and others from the Rural Police Station arrested me.

Zhang Yunlong is the secretary of the Politics and Law Committee in my township. In 2000, when I went to Beijing to appeal and was arrested, he said at the time that my actions affected his standing in politics and he would punish me, but because I left town at that time, he did not have the opportunity. Now he was determined to get his revenge.

Zhang Yunlong arranged for police cars, policemen, and many people to surround my home. I was able to run out of my house among the police cars and escape. When I could not run any further, I hid in an empty shack. Not to be deterred, Zhang Yunlong spread rumours that I had contracted SARS and he asked people to report me. The villagers believed him and I was arrested.

I was detained at the Xinxing Police Station. Police slashed the bottom of my feet by hitting them repeatedly with white plastic pipe embedded with steel wire. It was extremely painful and I fainted. They forced me to sign a repentance statement to denounce Falun Gong while I was not fully conscious. Police then hit me with a hammer, and I was then handcuffed onto an iron pipe in a dark room. I was sent to Shuangcheng Detention Centre, where I was detained without legal procedure. After 32 days, I was sent to a forced labour camp for three years. I was first taken to an “intensive training group” in Wanjia Forced Labour camp for 11 days and then to the fifth team in Changlinzi Forced Labour Camp, where I was severely tortured. I was released in March 2006.

3. Persecuted in Forced Labour Camp for Three Years

On June 27th, 2003, I was taken to the fifth team of the Changlinzi Forced Labour Camp. The leader was named Zhao Shuang. He said he had 28 methods by which he tortured Falun Gong practitioners. I was beaten and shocked with an electric baton, handcuffed to an iron chair and had water poured over my head, and then shocked again with an electric baton. My arms were pulled back and lifted up to move my joints. I also suffered sexual torture.

Upon my arrival at Changlinzi Forced Labour Camp, two policemen pressed my head down, pulled my hands back and shocked me with an electric baton. They used the heels of their shoes to hit me in the spine. They shocked my head with an electric baton, and punched me in the throat so hard that I couldn’t breathe at one point, and my throat also bled. I felt great pain. They also used a lighter to burn my nails and tried to force me to sign a repentance statement to give up Falun Gong. I refused and was tied to a bed. I was watched continuously and was not allowed to close my eyes. If I did, they would beat me and punch me on the chest. I was continually tortured. It felt like I was in hell.

Later, I was taken to another ward to work from 5 a.m. until the next morning. I was forced to work continuously packing toothpicks and chopsticks.

I was tortured terribly at the forced labour camp, had no freedom, and I was not allowed to speak to others for years. There would be people watching over me even when I went to the toilet or slept. My hands were not allowed to go under the bedcovers. There were no rest days at all.

In the fifth team, guards and criminals beat Falun Gong practitioners freely and without fear of punishment. One criminal hit me in the back for no reason, and I was not able to get any treatment for it. My back hurt for many days, but I was still forced to work. One criminal named Heizi would ask for money from Falun Gong practitioners. If they refused, he would tell Liu Shuang, and then Liu would persecute the practitioners accordingly. Some criminals became accomplices to the guards. They physically assaulted Falun Gong practitioners regularly.

From December 2000 to March 2006, I was arrested, beaten, detained, became homeless, and was sentenced to forced labour. All of this persecution was due only to my cultivation in Falun Gong.

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/2011/2/7/235954.html