Ms. Yu Mei of Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province Arrested; Her Daughter Now Home Alone

Name: Yu Mei
Gender: Female
Age: 40
Address: Cunjin Road, Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province
Occupation: unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: March 9th, 2012
Most Recent Place of Detention: Brainwashing Centre
City: Zhanjiang
Province: Guangdong
Persecution Suffered: Forced labour, brainwashing, beatings, extortion, home ransacked

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Yu Mei from Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province was arrested at her home by officers from the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) and a sub-district office on March 9th. Her teenage daughter is now home alone with no help.

Ms. Yu is around 40 years old, and she is now detained at a brainwashing centre. She is very weak and her daughter is worried about her health. Officers from the local police station and sub-district office claimed that they do not care if people take drugs, sell drugs, murder, or steal; they only care if someone practises Falun Gong. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) encourages the police to arrest Falun Gong practitioners; if an officer arrests three Falun Gong practitioners, he will be rewarded 5,000 yuan¹.

Ms. Yu lives in the residential area of a medical equipment repair station next to the preventive health department of Zhenjiang City. Before she began practising Falun Gong, she had many health problems, and her family life was affected by her illnesses. Since she began practising Falun Gong, her health problems have disappeared, and she is a healthy and happy person. In her daily life, she tries to follow Falun Gong's principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. She began treating people with kindness, and her overall condition improved significantly.

Because she continued to practise after July 20th, 1999, when the persecution began, she was frequently harassed by the local police. At least three times she was tortured so badly that her life was in danger. The authorities released her just because the prison did not want to take responsibility for her death.

The police also extorted 16,000 yuan from her husband. Police officers often call her family after midnight, and they even tapped her phone and ransacked her home. For a while, they came to knock on their door every night. Her husband and her daughter were so scared that they did not dare to turn on a light, and for a period of time they even had to spend some nights with their relatives.

In 2004, Yu was taken to a brainwashing centre, but she refused to give up practising Falun Gong. A man from the 610 Office constantly beat her in the head using a book and caused her to lose consciousness; she was unable to stand up for several days. The man told her to give up so that she could return home. After she went home, her brothers were so angry about what the guards had done to her that they asked her to have a medical examination at the hospital in order to keep a record for a future lawsuit against the authorities. Later on that year, she was taken into custody by police when she was on her way to her brother’s home. They then detained her in the Sanshui Women’s Forced Labour Camp of Guangdong Province for two years.

Ms. Yu’s husband was constantly threatened by the police. During the two years of her absence, her husband had to take care of their young daughter while also working full-time. In 2006, he became very ill after many years of suffering both physically and mentally. He died at a young age (less than 40) in June of 2006.

After her husband passed away, Ms. Yu had to work as a janitor with a very low salary while also taking care of her daughter by herself.

Chen Jun, head of Zhanjiang City 610 Office: +86-13326508610 (Mobile)
Huang Wei, member of Zhanjiang City 610 Office: +86-13828268181 (Mobile)

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.