Falun Gong Practitioner Zhao Xianghai Detained in the Xiangtan Psychiatric Hospital for Four Years

Name: Zhao Xianghai
Gender: Male
Age: Unknown
Address: Xiangtan, Hunan Province
Occupation: Crane operator
Date of Most Recent Arrest: 2006
Most Recent Place of Detention: Fifth People's Hospital in Xiangtan
City: Xiangtan
Province: Hunan
Persecution Suffered: Detention, forced labour reform, fired from workplace, forced injections/drug administration, electric shock, handcuffed and shackled

Zhao Xianghai was a crane operator at the Coal Preparation Plant, Jiaohua Factory, Xiangtan Steel Company in Hunan Province. He started practising Falun Gong in 1998, and experienced many physical and mental benefits. He became a kind, responsible, and helpful person.

After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began persecuting Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999, Mr. Zhao went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practise Falun Gong in 2000. He was arrested at the Jinshui Bridge in front of Tiananmen Square, and then was held at the Xiangtan Detention Centre. He went on a hunger strike at the detention centre to protest his persecution. A few days later, he lost consciousness and was taken to a hospital. He was clear-minded after he regained consciousness in the hospital, so he pulled out the IV needle and walked out. He stayed away from his home for a while, then he went to appeal again. He was arrested and sentenced to one year of forced labour. His employer then fired him.

He went to Guangzhou in 2006 to find work. He was observed reading Falun Gong books on the train by the railway police. He was sentenced to one year and six months of forced labour and detained at the Xinkaipu Forced Labour Camp in Changsha. He was brutally tortured physically and emotionally during his ten months of imprisonment, becoming very weak and emaciated.

On August 6th, 2007, the Xiangtan 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) encouraged the Public Security Department in Xiangtan Steel Company and the Jiaohua Factory to bail out Mr. Zhao in order for him to receive medical treatment. Since his mother was in the hospital at that time, the police claimed that nobody from his family consented, so they took him to the Fifth People's Hospital in Xiangtan (also called the psychiatric hospital). He has been detained there for nearly four years.

During his detention in the psychiatric hospital, he strongly protested the brutal persecution imposed on him. A hospital doctor injected him with unknown drugs, then used an electric baton to shock him, causing severe injuries and making him even weaker than before. He tried to jump out of the hospital from the second floor in order to escape, but, unfortunately, his legs were severely injured. In extreme pain, he walked slowly down the road, but was caught again and taken back to the psychiatric hospital. After that, his hands and feet were bound. He has now been detained for four years.

Zhao Xianghai’s mother, Li Aihua, made several requests for her son's release to his employer, and to resume his employment. She went to the psychiatric hospital to pick up her son, but the hospital officials told her that she had to pay 38,000 yuan¹ for medical expenses as a condition for his release. That is a huge amount for a farmer. Her everyday living depended on her son’s very limited income. Since he was dismissed from his job and suffered from constant persecution, she was impoverished and couldn't acquire such a huge amount of money. The local CCP personnel knew her situation well. Actually, the Xiangtan 610 Office and head of the Xiangtan Steel Company planned this trap for her and made an old farmer so destitute that she had to give up. The CCP authorities achieved their goal of continuing to brutally persecute Mr. Zhao and his family.

Actually, those who had Mr. Zhao sent to the psychiatric hospital should have been held responsible for all his medical expenses. This is solid evidence that the Xiangtan government and business leaders intentionally persecuted Mr. Zhao.

Last year, Xiangtan Steel Company Union officials went to the psychiatric hospital to visit him and informed him, “If you want to come back to work, you must agree to two conditions. First, you can't believe in Falun Gong. Second, you must be in good health.” Mr. Zhao responded, “I was both mentally and physically healthy. You treated me as a mentally disturbed patient and detained me here. You injected me with unknown drugs, which have weakened my body. The constitution clearly states that citizens have the freedom of belief. I follow Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance in order to cultivate myself. What’s wrong with that? Let me be clear: I am an innocent Falun Gong practitioner who has been brutally persecuted. I am a physically and mentally healthy man. You have to release me and restore my reputation. You detain me here and deprive me of my freedom and right to appeal. You threatened my mother. You torture me in this facility and destroy my life in an extremely painful way. You've committed these crimes and are murderers!”

We request help from the international community, human rights professionals, and other just people. Please help to rescue Falun Gong practitioner Zhao Xianghai, who is innocent but still being illegally detained at the psychiatric hospital.

Individuals participating in this persecution and contact information:

Zip code for Xiangtan: 11100
Zhou Haibin, CEO, Xiangtan Steel Company, Hunan Province
Yi Zuo, CCP Party secretary, Xiangtan Steel Company
Xu, CCP Party secretary, Security and Protection Division of Xiangtan Steel Company
Li Wanzhong, CCP Party secretary, Jiaohua Factory, Xiangtan Steel Company
Hou Wei, acting manager, Jiaohua Factory, Xiangtan Steel Company
Long Quansheng, dean and doctor in charge of the Fifth People Hospital (psychiatric hospital), Xiangtan: 86-732-2875002 (office)
Liu Jun, assistant dean, Fifth People's Hospital (psychiatric hospital), Xiangtan
Li Shuchun, business dean, Fifth People's Hospital (psychiatric hospital), Xiangtan
Wang Weide, assistant business dean, Fifth People's Hospital (psychiatric hospital), Xiangtan

Related article:
http://clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2007/10/31/90984.html

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/2011/6/19/242704.html