Three Family Members Die Due to Persecution; Elementary School Teacher Ms. Xu Shufeng Arrested Again

Ms. Xu Shufeng, about 48 years old, is an elementary school teacher at the Daqing Petro-Chemical First Elementary School. Longfeng Police Station officials arrested her and ransacked her home on April 24th, 2011 because she explained the facts about Falun Gong in public. She is now being held at the Longfeng Detention Centre.

Ms. Xu started practising Falun Gong in 1996 and follows the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. She was selected as one of the best teachers amongst middle school and elementary teachers in Daqing City.

Prior to practising Falun Gong, Ms. Xu’s husband, Li Xiaorong, suffered from kidney disease and chronic rhinitis. Her son had not been healthy either since he was very young. He had to take medicine and injections frequently and was hospitalized for seizures. Ms. Xu had low blood pressure, tuberculosis, heart disease, cervical vertebra bone hyperplasia and migraines when she was young.

The couple started practising Falun Gong in early 1996. They followed the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and improved their character.

The persecution of Falun Gong by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took three of Ms. Xu's family members away: her father, husband and son. Ms. Xu herself has been arrested four times, and she is currently being detained at Longfeng Detention Centre.

1. Husband Mr. Li Xiaorong Died as a Result of Persecution

Mr. Li Xiaorong was a deputy shop supervisor of the Oil Refinery Factory in the Daqing Petro-Chemical Corporation. He died at the Daqing Second Hospital on December 14th, 2001 at the age of 41.

Mr. Li was forced to attend a brainwashing session held by the Daqing Petro-Chemical Corporation on March 8th, 2000. The session lasted for 18 days. Ten practitioners were arrested and forced to attend. After the session ended, Mr. Li was demoted. He was only paid an allowance of 350 yuan¹ per month.

Mr. Li went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong on December 1st, 2000. He reached Tiananmen Square on December 4th. After he shouted, “Falun Gong is good,” he was arrested, taken back to his hometown, and detained for over 100 days. Prior to his arrest, he weighed about 165 lbs. When he was released on March 21st, 2001, his weight had dropped to about 66 lbs.

When Mr. Li was released, he was covered in scabies, suffered from lung disease and had to be hospitalized. Because the family did not have enough money to keep him in the hospital, his mother had to bring Mr. Li to her house since his wife was still in a forced labour camp. Perpetrators from his workplace and from the police substation harassed them at home. They often called to check on him, to make sure he was not practicing Falun Gong. Due to physical and mental pressure, he was hospitalized again and died at the Daqing Second Hospital on December 14th, 2001.

2. Son Li Huayi Died in Fear over His Parents’ Persecution

After the persecution started on July 20th, 1999, the elementary school’s leader locked Ms. Xu Shufeng in the school for two days in order to prevent her from going to Beijing to appeal. Her husband's workplace officials did not let him go home, either. Their son Li Huayi was only in fifth grade at the time and was left home alone, causing him extreme fear.

Because the parents were repeatedly persecuted, the elderly grandparents had to take care of Li Huayi. He was scared of police cars. While his mother was detained, he did not speak or play with anyone.

Xu Shufeng eventually went back to work, but CCP officials often monitored her. During holidays, there were always people checking on the family and demanding to know where they were going. Li Huayi was a tall, skinny high school pupil. Once, students he did not know beat him up. After that his health deteriorated.

At the end of 2003, when Ms. Xu was released for the second time from the Harbin Drug Rehabilitation Centre, she saw black spots on the floor of their home and she asked her son what it was. He said, “It is blood that I spat up.” Ms. Xu took him to the hospital for a physical exam, where they discovered a problem with one of his lungs.

When the news about organ harvesting of living Falun Gong practitioners from Sujiatun in Shenyang was exposed at the beginning of 2006, Li Huayi told his mother, “Mum, I’m scared.” After that, he could not eat anything. At first, half of his body felt numb and he suffered from foot pain. The diagnosis was tuberculosis.

Li Huayi, 18, died at the Daqing Second Hospital on June 9th, 2006 from malnutrition, leukemia and tuberculosis.

3. Father Mr. Xu Dianhong Died in 2001

Ms. Xu Shufeng’s father, Mr. Xu Dianhong, started practising Falun Gong in 1998. The 70-year-old man was illiterate. After practising for a while, he was able to read the Falun Gong book, Zhuan Falun, on his own. He recovered from arthritis, as well.

After the persecution started on July 20th, 1999, Mr. Xu went to appeal for Falun Gong at the provincial government office. He was taken back in a bus and dropped off at an outdoor field. Later on, his identification card was taken from him. He died in June 2001.

4. The Severe Persecution of Ms. Xu Shufeng

Ms. Xu was practising the Falun Gong exercises in the Longfeng District Central Park on June 20th, 2000 and was arrested by Longfeng Police Department agents. She was held at the Daqing City Detention Centre for 46 days. She had a 10,000-yuan "deposit" extorted from her by Ma Yunfeng from the Political and Security Section of the police department (in 2002 she got it back). Later on, Geng Zhaofeng from the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) and Education Division at the Daqing Petro-Chemical Factory subjected her to an administrative penalty and monitored her in the factory for one year. The school refused to give her work to do.

Ms. Xu went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong on December 19th, 2000 and was arrested at Tiananmen Square. School Party secretary Kong Lingchao, deputy principal Wang Jie, and Qi Zhong, Section Chief of the Education Centre Security Section at the Daqing Petro-Chemical Corporation, took her back on December 21st. They held her at a police substation and then sent her to a forced labour camp for one year. She was sent to the Harbin Drug Rehabilitation Centre on December 23rd, 2000 and was not released until February 22nd, 2002 (2 months over her term).

After she returned to school, she was forbidden to teach and was only allowed to work in the mail room. She was only paid an allowance of 340 yuan.

Ms. Xu wrote a letter on December 20th, 2002 to try to persuade Yang Yushan, Harbin Drug Rehabilitation Centre section chief, to uphold justice. Subsequently, Bai Xiuli, National Security Section chief from the Longfeng Police Department, along with Zhang Lin from the Longan police substation, went to Ms. Xu’s home and ransacked it. They confiscated at least 10,000 yuan from her and held her at the Daqing Detention Centre. She was sentenced to one year in a forced labour camp and held at the Harbin Drug Rehabilitation Centre Women's Ward.

A year later, she returned home and went back to work in the mail room. After three years and four months of earning only a layoff allowance, the school once again paid her the original salary and bonus, but they still did not let her teach.

While at the Harbin Drug Rehabilitation Centre, team leader Zhang Yushu urged male guard Shi Yanjiang to handcuff Ms. Xu and force her to squat. She was deprived of sleep for seven days and nights. After that, she was again deprived of sleep for six days. The captors urged the inmates to kick her. Her ankles and the bottom of her feet were covered in bruises. They did not allow her to wash her face or hands, and only gave her two meals a day and limited her toilet use. Her feet and legs became swollen. They also forced her to take on heavy work.

During her first time at a forced labour camp, in June 2001, her father died. Her sister-in-law requested the labour camp officials allow Ms. Xu to see her father one last time. The officials refused the request. Ms. Xu's husband died on December 14th, 2001. Ms. Xu was taken to the morgue to see her husband’s body. After the death of her father and her husband, no one was looking after her son. Still, the labour camp officials detained her for two more months.

Ms. Xu Shufeng was arrested and detained again on April 24th, 2011.

We hope to get people’s support to stop the persecution and help Ms. Xu get her freedom back.

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/2011/5/6/240184.html