Ms. Yang Yufeng, Chinese Medicine Doctor from Macheng, Hubei Province, Suffers 12 Years of Persecution

Name: Yang Yufeng
Gender: Female
Age: 48
Address: Baiguo Town, Macheng City, Hubei Province
Occupation: Chinese Medicine Doctor
Date of Most Recent Arrest: May 12th, 2010
Most recent place of detention: Macheng Detention Centre
City: Macheng
Province: Hubei
Persecution Suffered: Detention, extortion, beatings, electric shock, torture, food, water and sleep deprivation, home ransacked, paraded through street, military training torture, interrogation, forced labour, long-term standing, living under surveillance, brainwashing.

Ms. Yang Yufeng is a Chinese medicine doctor who operated a clinic in the town of Baiguo. She started to cultivate Falun Gong in 1994 and followed the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance to be a good person, and she greatly benefited from Falun Gong, both physically and mentally. She treated patients with care and only charged them a minimal fee. Her treatments usually had good results and the patients felt the practitioner’s sincerity and kindness. But since 1999, when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to persecute Falun Gong, Yang Yufeng has been arrested, detained, sent to a forced labour camp, physically tortured, subjected to brainwashing, and has had money extorted. She was also forced by CCP authorities to divorce her husband.

Yang Yufeng was persecuted most recently in May 2010 when she went to Guangzhou City to visit her son. On the train, she spoke to other passengers about Falun Gong. She was arrested by the Xuzhou Railroad Police and taken to the Xuzhou Public Security Bureau. The police there forcibly took her Falun Gong books, CDs exposing the persecution of Falun Gong, fliers, mobile phone, 4,000 yuan¹ in cash and 30,000 yuan in bank savings. The police then sent her to the Xuzhou Detention Centre; however, she was rejected because a test revealed that she had high blood pressure. She was then taken to the Xuzhou Hospital where she was hospitalised for two days, and then taken to the Macheng Detention Centre where she was detained for 15 days. She was released on June 4th, 2010.

During her detention, police officers Xiong Wenji and Wan Gang from the Baiguo Police Station forcibly took her home key and then confiscated her home. They also forcibly took away her computer, and her Falun Gong books. Yang Yufeng went to Baiguo on three occasions, and to the Macheng Political and Law Committee, and the Macheng 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) four times to ask for the return of her personal belongings. The Baiguo Police returned her bank savings, but refused to return the Falun Gong books, mobile phone, computer and over 4,000 yuan in cash.

Yang Yufeng Suffered Many Forms of Persecution

On January 26th, 2000, three Falun Gong practitioners went to Yang Yufeng's clinic to visit her. Police officers Peng Honghui and Xiong Wenji from the Baiguo Police Station arrested the three practitioners and Yang Yufeng and detained them at the Macheng City Detention Centre for nine days on the charge of gathering in a group. They extorted a so-called “security deposit” of 5,000 yuan from Yang Yufeng's family.
On the evening of February 21st, 2000 at around seven o’clock, police from the Baiguo Police Station arrested Yang Yufeng and other practitioners and took them to the local home for senior citizens. A group of police pushed Yang Yufeng to the ground and forced her to kneel down. Police chief Qiu Yuanqing and Liu Shifa beat and kicked her, and slapped her, which caused her nose to bleed. Her legs were kicked until they were black and blue. They forced Yang Yufeng to kneel down with bare feet and then they poured cold water over her neck. Yang Yufang's whole body started to shake uncontrollably because of the cold. They also used electric batons to shock her and she was interrogated until the next morning in order to obtain information from her and get her to reveal other practitioners’ names. Police officer Liu Shifa then handcuffed her to a cement pillar for the whole day without giving her food or water. She was also not allowed to sleep. Police officer Ding Pencheng from the Macheng National Security Team twice kicked her to the ground. Her hands were badly swollen and it was very painful to be handcuffed.

Later, Yang Yufeng was sent to the First Detention Centre and imprisoned for almost eight months. During her detention, she was interrogated, paraded through the streets, and forced to do military style training. During the night, the police shone a very bright light on her until morning. The police also walked around the steel hallway on the roof of the prison room continuously. The prison food was extremely bad, not even fit for animals. The cabbage buns had big caterpillars inside, the black and smelly pickles had white maggots in them, the cauliflower had toilet paper and spider webs inside it, and the half cooked rice was mixed with sand. Even so, the detention centre charged her 15 yuan per day for such horrible food.

The Baiguo Police Station told Yang Yufeng's family that if she did not write the guarantee statement to renounce her belief in Falun Gong, the police would seize her house. Her husband was terrified. He went to the detention centre and threatened to divorce Yang Yufeng if she did not write the guarantee statement. In this way, Yang Yufeng was forced to divorce her husband, and her clinic and house then all belonged to him. She was also forced to relinquish custody of her child, to her husband. Thus, Yang Yufeng lost her family as well as her ability to work. She didn’t even have a place to live.

In prison, Yang Yufeng suffered from absentmindedness, hair loss, and her hands and feet became numb. She could not even lift a bucket of water. In June, 2000, the numbness in her hands and feet turned to extreme pain, which felt like being stung by needles. Her whole body trembled with pain. When she heard the food delivery car coming, she almost vomited. Later, she couldn’t even twist a towel when washing her face and could not hold a comb while combing her hair. She once weighed 79 kilogram, but now was extremely thin and she walked very unsteadily. Her face was full of wrinkles and her hair was half white.

Imprisoned Again at Shizishan Drug Rehabilitation Centre and Shayang Forced Labour Camp for Over a Year

During the two-month period after Yang Yufeng was released, police officers Qiu Yuanqing and Peng Honghui took turns monitoring her. In November 2000, when they saw that her physical condition had improved a little, they arrested her and took her to the Shizishan Drug Rehabilitation Centre. Ten days later, she was transferred to the Shayang Forced Labour Camp and imprisoned there for over a year.
In the Shayang Forced Labour Camp, the prison guards and the convicted drug addicts verbally abused and tortured Yang Yufeng and other Falun Gong practitioners. Once, Section Chief Gong forcibly tried to brainwash Yang Yufeng. She immediately felt nauseous, vomited and almost stopped breathing. She was sent to hospital for emergency rescue. The doctors extracted blood from her a few times, which immediately coagulated. She had to receive oxygen therapy the whole night before she was finally out of danger. On another occasion, the forced labour camp used military training techniques to torture practitioners. Yang Yufeng was forced to stand under the hot sun for a long period of time until she fainted.
The drug addicts poured cold water on her and she eventually regained consciousness.

One day, when it was raining, Yang Yufeng was forced to lift soil and bricks. Because her legs were numb and she could only move with difficultly, she fell down. The drug addicts abused her, saying that she had pretended to fall down and they forced her to run faster. She had to stay in her wet clothes until the evening. She was also verbally abused by the guards because they said she did not finish her work quota. After a long and difficult time, Yang Yufeng was released in February 2002.

In June 2004, police officer Ding Pengcheng from the National Security Team of the Macheng Public Security Bureau and police officer Liu Shifa from the Baiguo Police Station arrested Yang Yufeng. They took her to the Tangxunhu Brainwashing Centre near Hongshan Prison and tried to brainwash her into giving up her practice of 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://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2011/3/8/23731.html