Ms. Pei Yongmei Dies as a Result of Persecution in Jilin City

Name: Pei Yongmei
Gender: Female
Age: Unknown
Address: Jilin City, Jilin Province
Occupation: Accountant
Date of Death: September 13th, 2011
Date of Most Recent Arrest: May 2010
Most recent place of detention: Songjiang Police Station
City: Jilin
Province: Jilin
Persecution Suffered: Detention, riding an airplane, harassment, brainwashing, extortion, handcuffed and shackled, electric shock, forced labour, interrogation by torture, force-feedings, suspending her job and wages.

Ms. Pei Yongmei from Jilin City began practising Falun Gong in 1999, and her illnesses such as diabetes soon abated. Ms. Pei has constantly been targeted since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began its irrational persecution of Falun Gong in 1999. In May 2010 plainclothes police arrested Ms. Pei while she was distributing flyers explaining the facts about the persecution of Falun Gong. Due to intense persecution Ms. Pei passed away on the second day of the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2011.

The following is a brief description of the persecution Ms. Pei endured.

Ms. Pei was an account clerk at the Jilin City Blower Factory. In July 1999 the CCP started persecuting Falun Gong and Ms. Pei believed that such a good practice should not be persecuted. She went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong and there she was arrested and detained for a month in Daxing Detention Centre. The daily food was spoiled corn flour pancakes, which could only be swallowed with water. Being made to stand for over ten hours every day, Ms. Pei's legs turned black and blue, and she could not walk. When the police realised she was disabled they sent her back to Jilin City. Police at the Jilin City Detention Centre were shocked when they saw her swollen, black and blue legs. She was released after fifteen days of detention at the Jilin City Detention Centre.

After she got home the local CCP residential committee often came to harass her. At the end of October 1999 she was sent to the Changyi District Brainwashing centre and detained for one month. She was released only after her family was forced to pay over 1000 yuan¹.

On October 1st, 2000 many Falun Gong practitioners went to Tiananmen Square to appeal for Falun Gong. Ms. Pei also went there again. The police arrested her and sent her back to Jilin City for detention. On October 7th, the Ministry of Public Security ordered Jilin City to send the practitioners who went to Tiananmen Square on October 1 to labour camps for two-year terms. On the second day, she was transferred to the Jilin City Detention Centre and detained for fifty days. In the detention centre they forced Falun Gong practitioners to memorise the prison regulations. Ms. Pei refused to do that and said, "We are not wrong. We are not criminals." She refused to be treated as or called an inmate. She was handcuffed and put in shackles that were connected together, so that she could not straighten her back. She required assistance from fellow practitioners to help take off her trousers to use the trousers. When Ms. Pei did not submit, a week later the police put her in another cell, and removed her shackles. (At that time, there were over 160 female Falun Gong practitioners detained there. They had to sleep on their side to fit everyone in the room. There were also close to 100 male Falun Gong practitioners detained there.) Her peaceful demeanour touched many people's hearts. When Ms. Pei was at the detention centre they did not force Falun Gong practitioners to memorise the prison regulations. She also changed cells many times, so she was able pass the most recent Falun Gong article to practitioners in their cells. This greatly encouraged practitioners.

On November 26th, 2000 she was sent to the Heizuizi Women's Forced Labour Camp in Changchun, where Falun Gong practitioners are brutally persecuted.

Right at the start she was beaten with electric batons and was forced to work over 17 hours a day. Sometimes she had to work overtime. There was no break. Even specific times to use the restroom were arranged. The brutal torture caused her diabetes to relapse and she was weak and thirsty. Ms. Pei was very thin, and often fainted while working. In spring of 2001 she was released on medical bail. Her family was forced to pay another 2000 yuan to get her back.

After she went home and started to practise again, she recovered quickly. Soon she went out to explain the facts about Falun Gong. One day in June 2001, a young man reported her when she was clarifying the truth to him. She was arrested and sent to a police station that in turn sent her to a detention centre. Since she was still very weak, and showing symptoms of illness, the detention centre was afraid something would happen to her. They asked the police to take her back and because the police had no other choice they had to release her.

In the first week of the Chinese New Year of 2002, the Changyi 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) sent police to spy on her at her home. They arrested her, and sent her to the detention centre. Du Xingze, National Security Team leader of the Changyi Police Department interrogated her and asked her where the Falun Gong DVDs came from. She refused to answer, and protested with a hunger strike. She was sent to a mental hospital where they force-fed her every day during the New Year period. Her nose was damaged by the force-feeding. Ten days later she was released. Her nosed had stopped bleeding, but the scars under the nose were still visible.

Soon after she started to expose the persecution of Falun Gong and on May 13th, 2002 a police vehicle forced her bike off the road and arrested her.

On the second day Jilin City Domestic Security Division sent her back to the Heizuizi Women's Forced Labour Camp, where she suffered intensified persecution this time. Her diabetes became worse. She was very weak and fainted several times in the workshops as police kicked her while she was on the floor. She was so thirsty that she had to drink the water from the toilet tank at night. She could not rest and did not receive any treatment. She was forced to work. Her weight went down from about 110 lbs to 70 lbs. She often could not stand up and she was on the verge of death. Police were afraid she would die there, and notified her family to come take her away. Her husband carried her all the way back to a hospital. Fellow practitioners saw that she had lost so much weight that her clothes did not fit her at all.

At that time Ms. Pei's family was in financial difficulty as her daughter was still in school. Ms. Pei's company fired her and she had no salary coming in since 1999. Her husband's salary was low, but he borrowed a lot of money to save her life. Once she was a little better she went home but the persecution hurt her badly and she had been very weak since then.

Ms. Pei firmly believed in Falun Gong. She suffered several more arrests later.

In autumn 2009 she was reported by three students and arrested by Changyi District Dongjuzi Police Branch Station while she was explaining the facts of Falun Gong to them. She was later released.

In May 2010, plainclothes police arrested her and took her to the Songjiang Police Branch Station. She was very weak, but they did not feed her. She began fainting, so the Police were forced to release her.

After her last detention her health deteriorated further and she died on September 13th, 2011.

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/2011/11/8/248854.html