Review of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners in Early 2012: Arrests, Torture, Deaths

The communist regime was still forcing the entire police force, procuratorate and legal system to persecute Falun Gong practitioners in January and February 2012. This included arrests, sending to labour camps, sentencing to prison, physical torture, and even killing. As in previous years, the persecution was heightened prior to the annual National Congress and Political Consultative Congress in March.

Arrests and home ransacking

There were about 150 arrests in January and February at the hands of 610 Office agents (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong). Among various provinces, Hebei, Shandong, Heilongjiang, Sichuan, Liaoning, and Jilin Provinces were the worst affected. For example, in Hebei Province alone, at least 50 practitioners were arrested. In Shandong Province, more than 40 practitioners were arrested, and in Heilongjiang Province 30 practitioners were arrested.

On the afternoon of January 3rd, 2012, Ms. Song Lijie from Tumen City, Jilin Province, distributed Falun Gong materials in a residential area. The police followed her to a store, slapped her face, kicked and hit her. Ms. Song lost consciousness. At the same time the police took the store managers, sales people, and several customers in the market to the police station and released them the next day. The police also arrested Ms. Song's mother, Ms. Zhang Guiying, and held both of them in a detention centre. (See article: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/1/16/130771.html )

On December 9th, 2011, local plainclothes agents arrested practitioner Ms. Ren Juling from Laiyang City. Ms. Ren was very weak after about 15 days of abuse at a detention centre. She did not pass the physical examination for Shandong Province Women's Forced Labour Camp, so the camp refused to accept her. She was thus released. She hired a lawyer and sued the 610 Office and the police. 610 Office agents started a revenge campaign and had arrested more than 10 practitioners as of the evening of February 16th. (See article: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/3/10/132002.html )

On February 14th, 2012, plainclothes agents from Fengqing County in Yunnan Province went to the home of Mr. Li Quan. They took away several bags of personal belongings and arrested him. (See article: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/3/14/132084.html )

There were also incidents in which police arrested practitioners at various locations at the same time, based on a list of names. Between 5:00 and 8:00 a.m. on February 25th, Domestic Security Division agents and police arrested more than 30 practitioners in Shijiazhuang, Baoding, Tangshan, Cangzhou, Botou, Zhangjiakou, Handan, Xuanhua and other cities in Hebei Province and Huludao City in Liaoning Province.

Sentencing to prison

In many cases, 610 Office agents determined prison terms on the arrested practitioners without trial; here are some examples.

Practitioners Shi Xiuqing, Lu Guifen, Zhu Guotian (father), and Zhu Ping (daughter) from Liujiazi Township in Chaoyang County, Liaoning Province were arrested on May 23rd, 2011. The arresting individuals were Zhao Qiang, head of the Chaoyang County Domestic Security Division, and other officers. Zhao Qiang later collaborated with the county procuratorate and court to fabricate information in order to bring charges against the practitioners. As a result, the practitioners were sentenced to imprisonment. Ms. Lu Guifen was given eight years; Zhu Ping, five years; Shi Xiuqing, four years; and Mr. Zhu Guotian, three years. (See article: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/2/7/131317.html )

Mr. Tong Ruiqing, a practitioner from Nanle County in Henan Province, had a second hearing on the morning of February 14th. Court officials worked with the county procuratorate and police, attempting to sentence Mr. Tong to prison. Their so-called evidence includes a computer and a printer, both confiscated from his home, and money taken from his home, with which he planned to buy a house. (See article: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/1/11/130631.html )

Dongxiao Police Station officers in Shenzen City Luohu District arrested Ms. Dai Meilan from Changpai Village on May 20th, 2011. She was recently sentenced to three years of imprisonment. Her family kept appealing, but the Luohu Police Department and court officials shirked their responsibilities. (See article: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/1/30/131048.html )

After practitioners Li Jianmin, Zhang Wei, and Teng Shuyuan were arrested, the Dehui City Court issued a court date for March 1st. Hearing they had hired a lawyer, the Dehui City Political and Judicial Committee and Dehui City Court cancelled the original court date to stop the lawyer from helping the practitioners.

Ms. Liu Ronghua, a former Dalian Fishery College associate professor, was arrested in September 2009 and sent to the Masanjia Labour Camp for a term of two years. When her term expired in September 2011, Dalian City 610 Office agents took her from the labour camp to a detention centre. They attempted to sentence her to prison on January 9th, 2012. (See article: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/2/7/131319.html )

Mistreating practitioners with harmful drugs and physical torture

Ziyang City police in Sichuan City sent elderly practitioner Mr. Li Huabin to the Er'ehu Brainwashing Centre in late December 2011. After his release more than 10 days later, Mr. Li was in a coma and died on January 12th, 2012. His situation is similar to that of Mr. Wu Yihua, a physician who died in October 2010 after detention at the same brainwashing centre. It was speculated that the brainwashing centre officials forced them to take harmful drugs. (See article: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/2/9/131351.html )

Mr. Tian Shichen was a former employee of the Futian Automobile Trading Co., Ltd. in Beijing. Because he told people the facts during his business trip in Nigeria, Chinese Embassy employees in Nigeria monitored him. As soon as he returned to Beijing in late December 2011, agents took him from the airport directly to the Futian Automobile Trading Co. and forced him to resign his position. He died suddenly 16th days after arriving home. It was suspected that the agents had poisoned him. (Full story: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/3/6/131922.html )

Guards at the Beijing Women's Labour Camp forced Huairou District practitioners Ms. Wen Yuhong and Ms. Sun Guiqing to ingest a large amount of “medicine” every day. Ms. Wen now has very poor eyesight. She has difficulty walking and hurts all over. (See article: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/2/28/131799.html )

Sichuan Women's Prison guards sent 76-year-old Ms. Huang Xiuying to the prison hospital for so-called medicine therapy for both eyes. After merely 14 days Ms. Huang became blind. The prison doctor shirked his responsibility and said it was due to her eyes ageing. (See article: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/1/18/130816.html)

In addition to forcing poisonous drugs on practitioners, CCP officials have brainwashed and tortured practitioners and others brutally in the past more than 10 years. Tongdao County police agents in Hunan Province sent Ms. Zhang Changying, a retired retail store employee, to the Huaihua Brainwashing Centre on November 17th, 2011. The agents forced her to watch DVDs that slander Falun Gong daily, cuffed her hands behind her back and hung her up to beat her. The hanging lasted nine days - from December 2nd to December 10th, 2011. Her wrist bones were exposed, and the wounded areas were constantly bleeding and seeping yellow fluid. (See article: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/3/9/131981.html)

Xiangtan City 610 Office agents, together with those from the Xiangtan Iron and Steel Company, sent Mr. Zhao Xianghai to the Xiangtan Mental Hospital in August 2007. More than four years have passed. Every day his hands have been handcuffed and shackled onto a metal bed. Staff injected him with unknown substances year-round. Mr. Zhao has not yet been released. (See article: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/1/27/130991.html)

Deaths due to prison brutality

Heilongjiang Women's Prison guards forced Ms. Liu Deqing, a 60-year-old physician from the Hailun Health Centre, to sit still on a small stool all day long, from 5:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Inmates pricked her with toothpicks and beat her hard with planks or brushes. After more than two years of brutality, she had all-over oedema. Her abdomen had swelled, like someone who is seven months pregnant. Ms. Liu died on November 27th, 2011. (See article: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/2/16/131531.html)

Plainclothes police arrested 66-year-old Ms. Zhao Bixu in 2008. She was eventually sentenced to three and a half years of imprisonment and was sent to Heilongjiang Women's Prison. Because of torture, her physical condition deteriorated. She died on January 14th, 2012. (See article: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/1/26/130973.html)

Mr. Li Xinliang from Donggang City in Liaoning Province was electrically shocked in Shenyang City's Dabei Prison, kept in solitary confinement, and abused on the Stretching Bed. As a result of physical and mental torture, he died on January 25th, 2012.

Shanxi Province's Jinzhong Prison guards and inmates swore at and physically abused Houma City engineer Mr. Lu Haixing 24 hours a day. This included forced standing, beating, deprivation of sleep, shackling, solitary confinement, forced labour, etc. He died at 45 on January 10th, 2012. Ms. Liu Zhi from Shenyang City in Liaoning Province was sent to the Liaoning Women's Prison in July 2011. She was healthy beforehand, but when her family visited her in September 2011 they found her head trembling and Ms. Liu unable to speak clearly. She could barely walk and even had difficulty sitting still in a chair due to swelling limbs. When her family visited her again on November 28th, 2011, Ms. Liu had completely lost all sensation in her legs, she was incontinent and her knuckles were swelling. Her family suspected she had been physically abused, but prison officials refused to release her on medical parole. (See article: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/2/14/131461.html)

Cleaning up slogans that defamed Falun Gong got 59-year-old Guanghan City practitioner Mr. Zhang Rongyue arrested in March 2011. He was later sentenced to four years of imprisonment and incarcerated at the Wumaping Prison in Sichuan Province. Within several days of his arrival, Mr. Zhang was already in a life-threatening condition due to physical torture. Guards contacted his family, claiming he wanted to “commit suicide.” When they arrived at the prison, they found Mr. Zhang extremely weak and unable to speak. (See article: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/2/23/131656.html)

Deaths caused by lengthy and repeated physical torture

Mr. Fu Xinli was a 47-year-old practitioner from Daqinjia Village in Zhaoyuan City, Shandong Province. In the past 12 years of persecution, he had decided to stay away from home for four years. After his arrest in June 2005 he was severely tortured. He jumped down from the fifth floor, was gravely injured and in a life-threatening condition. Officials did not release him, even during his hospitalisation. Only after his physical condition was beyond therapy did he return home. But he was arrested and tortured again in 2008. This worsened his health and led to his death on October 25th, 2011. (See article: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/3/4/131888.html)

Ms. Huang Yonggui, a practitioner from the Wanzhou District in Sichuan Province, was sent to a brainwashing centre in December 2001 for one year and nine months. She was forced to stand on a foot-long stool for 10 days and was beaten with a bamboo stick. In 2004, she was sent to the brainwashing centre again for one year. Then, in May 2009, she was sent to the Chongqing Women's Labour Camp with a term of one year and three months. After being arrested and detained again on January 8th, 2011, she was physically abused until she lost consciousness. She died on January 25th, 2012, at the age of 60, after years of torture. (See article: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/2/20/131606.html)

Mr. Liu Ruxing, an employee of the Chalco Northwest Aluminium Branch, was locked up in the Gansu Province First Labour Camp for two years, from July 2003. He was sentenced to three years of imprisonment in August 2007 and mistreated in the Tianshui Prison. He died at home at age 60 on December 25th, 2011, we assume as a result of physical abuse and mental torment. (See article: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/1/13/130689.html)

Ms. Jiang Jingping was a practitioner from Jiamusi City in Heilongjiang Province. She was arrested in October 2004 and tortured in a metal chair consecutively for 37 hours while handcuffed. Then she was sent to a detention centre for 20 days. When being taken to the Jiamusi Labour Camp in November 2004 for a term of three years, she had hepatitis symptoms. Officials extorted 30,000 yuan from her family and released her. At the end of 2010, Ms. Jiang was arrested again and sent to the Heilongjiang Province Drug Rehabilitation Labour Camp where she was physically abused for one year. She died on November 30th, 2011, one month after her release. (See article: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/1/10/130623.html)

Dalian City practitioner Mr. Zhao Fei was sent to labour camps three times, sent to detention centres five times, and held in a brainwashing centre one time. He was tortured into a life-threatening condition at the Masanjia Labour Camp. After his release he was still harassed and decided to stay away from home in September 2010. Mr. Zhao died on December 31st, 2011 at the age of 54.