The Persecution Suffered by Police Officer Mei Xiongbing

Name: Mei Xiongbing
Gender: Male
Age: 46
Address: Caishan Town, Huangmei County, Hubei Province
Occupation: Policeman
Date of Most Recent Arrest: June 16th, 2000
Most Recent Place of Detention: Huangmei First Detention Centre
City: Huangmei County
Province: Hubei
Persecution Suffered: Detention, deprivation of food, extortion, interrogation, forced labour, brainwashing, beatings, fired from workplace

Mei Xiongbing, a policeman from the Caishan Town Police Station in Huangmei County, Hubei Province, has suffered brutal abuse and mistreatment during the 11 years of Chinese Communist Party (CCP)persecution of Falun Gong. He has been arrested, detained, imprisoned, threatened and blackmailed, tortured physically, defamed, and forced to live in away from home. His wife and children have both suffered from psychological trauma due to living in fear for long periods of time. Below is an account of the persecution suffered by Mr. Mei over the past years.

On July 18th, 1999, Mr. Mei and approximately 20 other practitioners went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong by renting a bus and driving to Wuhan City and then taking the train from Wuhan. However, they were intercepted on the Huangmei County Highway by police officer Dong Zhongxiong from Huangmei County. All of them were arrested and taken to the Hushibai Police Station in Huangmei County. Chief Wu Dengqi of the Caishan County Police Station and several other officers rushed to the Hushibai Police Station and transferred Mr. Mei and everyone else to the Caishan Town Police Station. Mr. Mei was able to escape.

On July 19th, Mr. Mei took a train from Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province, and arrived in Beijing's Tiananmen Square to appeal for Falun Gong. Upon returning home, he went to the Caishan Town Police Station for work, but was put under house arrest for more than ten days. Wu and educator Tao Dengjiu pressured him to write the “three statements” to renounce his belief in Falun Gong, but Mr. Mei refused. Later, he was transferred to work in a division responsible for public safety and financial transactions in the Hushibai District.

One night in December 1999, Mr. Mei travelled to another practitioner's house. Soon, several officers from the Caishan Town Police Station rushed in and arrested several practitioners. Mr. Mei was able to escape on a bicycle, but Wu and Tao got into a car and caught up to him. Mr. Mei was taken to the Caishan Town Police Station. Officer Wu instructed a junior officer to handcuff Mr. Mei in the corridor for two nights straight, refusing to give him water or food. Later, he was taken to the Second Detention Centre in Huangmei County and imprisoned there for 15 days. He was released only after being forced to pay 300 yuan¹.

After returning home, Wu arrested Mr. Mei and again brought him back to the police station. There were approximately 20 other practitioners detained in the same police station, and officers frequently interrogated them

From that point on, Mr. Mei was forced to stay in the Tiaonitu Town Police Station in Caishan Town during the day. At night, he had to participate in brainwashing sessions in the Hushibai District with other practitioners in an attempt to force him to give up his beliefs.

At the brainwashing sessions, practitioners were prohibited from going to the washroom, returning to their homes at night, or walking outside. Plus, they were not given any food. Female practitioners as well as very young children were also persecuted. Hu Tongyi, the deputy secretary of the Political Committee, was the main person in charge of the brainwashing sessions. He ordered police officers from the Caishan Town Police Station to "beat Falun Gong practitioners to death.” He also said, “If you kill them, it's like killing ants. The Public Security Bureau is actually the 'Beating Bureau.' If we don't beat people, we're not living up to our name."

Mr. Mei was imprisoned in the First Detention Center of Huangmei County. Immediately after he entered, other criminals brutally beat him for 30 minutes. They assaulted him with their feet, knees, fists, and elbows. Mr. Mei was imprisoned for over three weeks and was forced to pay over 800 yuan.

After returning home, Mr. Mei was fired from his job. The financial statements in his drawer at his workplace were all stolen. His workplace owed him more than 30,000 yuan in wages, as well as two checks for 10,000-yuan loans. To date, not a single penny of the 30,000 yuan has been paid to him.

On June 17th, 2000, Mr. Mei and approximately 20 other practitioners travelled to Beijing once again to appeal for Falun Gong. Wang from the Huangmei County Public Security Bureau, along with He Yajun, deputy chief of the Caishan Town Police Station, traveled to Beijing personally to deceive Mr. Mei and the other practitioners into going back to Jiujiang City. The entire Caishan Town Police Station's force was mobilized, and all of the practitioners, including Mr. Mei, were arrested and taken back to the Caishan Town Police Station. Wu instigated other officers to interrogate practitioners with torture. However, their scheme to send Mr. Mei to a forced labour camp failed.

Wu also instigated other police officers to imprison Mr. Mei in the First Detention Centre for further torture. Mr. Mei passed out three times due to the torture. None of the officers attempted to help him. The Political Protection Section of the Huangmei County Public Security Bureau and Hu Tongyi of the Caishan Town Political Committee put together a defamation event in which Mr. Mei and other practitioners were brought out and denounced publicly at Caishan Town Middle School. The weather was very cold at the time, and the audience could see that the Falun Gong practitioners were barefoot. They could also see that the practitioners were emaciated down to the bone from torture. Some in the audience wept in sympathy after seeing the practitioners' plight. This time, Mr. Mei was imprisoned at the First Detention Centre for three months and was forced to pay 2,800 yuan.

In 2001 Mr. Mei was passing by a practitioner's house when he encountered officer Wu. Claiming that Mr. Mei had been “organizing a gathering,” Wu applied for an arrest warrant from the Hubei Province Public Security Bureau. He stated publicly at a village meeting with thousands of people from the town in attendance, "If anyone sees Mei Xiongbing and lets us know, we'll give you 20,000 yuan as a reward." He then told all the police officers, "If you see Mei, arrest him on the spot. If he resists, you can shoot to kill." Mr. Mei was thus forced to live away from home for over five years. His personal identification document was withheld by the Caishan Town Police Station and has not yet been returned.

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/2011/3/8/237316.html