Wei Changfeng Persecuted for Interrupting Chinese TV with Broadcasts with Programming About Falun Gong

Mr. Wei Changfeng, Ms. Xia Xiuwen and Ms. Cui Guifeng from Morin Dawa Banner, Inner Mongolia broadcast informational video programmes about Falun Gong, including the staged Tiananmen Square self-immolation¹, by tapping into a television network in Nehe City, Heilongjiang Province. They were sentenced by the Nehe City Court in 2003. Mr. Wei Changfeng is still in prison. Ms. Xia Xiuwen and Ms. Cui Guifeng were sentenced to four years in prison. The following are some accounts of the persecution that they have suffered.

Arrested, Home Ransacked and Confession Extracted by Torture

At around 7:00 p.m. on October 23rd, 2003, Mr. Wei Changfeng, Ms. Xia Xiuwen and Ms. Cui Guifeng broadcast more than 40 minutes of informational video programmes about Falun Gong by tapping into a television network in Nehe. The Nehe City police subsequently initiated a large-scale round-up of local Falun Gong practitioners, who were then subjected to ruthless beatings, detention, extortion and other means of persecution. Luo Gan, who had been in charge of the nationwide persecution since its beginning in 1999, was personally involved in the investigation. Zhang Zuoji, Governor of Heilongjiang Province, and Wang Donghua, head of the Heilongjiang Provincial Police Department, went to the Nehe City Detention Centre to get involved.

On October 29th, 2003, Nehe City 610 Office agents (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) arrested Mr. Liu Mingdang, who had provided the funds and the circuit diagram, Mr. Wei Changfeng and his wife (who was not a practitioner), Ms. Xia Xiuwen and Ms. Cui Guifeng, and ransacked their homes. The five practitioners were taken to Nehe City Criminal Police Division. The police officers took Mr. Liu Mingkang's computer, as well as 800 yuan² cash from Ms. Xia Xiuwen's pocket, her son's English learning disks and tapes, and electrical equipment belonging to her former husband (the divorce happened while she was in jail).

Mr. Wei Changfeng and his wife were tortured during the interrogation. They were placed on a tiger bench³, hung up, shocked with electric batons, and mercilessly beaten and subjected to other methods of torture. As soon as Ms. Xia Xiuwen walked through the gate of the criminal police division, she heard the blood-curdling scream from Mr. Wei's wife. Mr. Wei was tied onto a tiger bench for nearly two days and one night before being taken to Nehe City Detention Centre. His wife was released on October 30th. Fu Libin, an officer from the Nehe City 610 Office, and a few other officers carried out the torture.

Ms. Cui Guifeng was shocked with electric batons, severely beaten and placed on a tiger bench for nearly 24 hours before being transferred to Nehe City Detention Centre. Mr. Liu Mingkang was also placed on a tiger bench for two days and one night, and then detained at Nehe City Detention Centre for three months. He was released after having 80,000 yuan extorted from him.

Sentenced and Imprisoned

The Nehe City Court sentenced the three practitioners in late November 2003. Mr. Wei was sentenced to 13 years in prison for twice interrupting TV broadcasts. Mr. Wei was detained at the Nehe City Detention Centre for nearly three months and then transferred to Beian Prison in Heilongjiang Province. He has been imprisoned for more than 8 years and five months. He is still detained and is being subjected to persecution. Ms. Xia and Ms. Cui were each given 4 years. They were held in the Nehe City Detention Centre for five and a half months and were beaten by a female guard named Li Ying. The two practitioners were transferred to Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison on April 14th, 2004.

During the afternoon of April 14th, 2004, Ms. Xia Xiuwen was badly beaten for not reciting slogans required by the Intensive Training Centre of the Heilongjiang Women's Prison. Female guard Wang Weili punched and kicked her, hit her head and slapped her face. When her hand was sore from the beating, she began to use a book binder to continue to beat Ms. Xia. Later, she called in two inmates to watch Ms. Xia, who was handcuffed behind her back. The two inmates watched her all the time, including when she was having meals, was asleep or going to the toilet. They did not allow Ms. Xia to talk to other Falun Gong practitioners. The inmates and the former practitioners who were now cooperating with the guards read books and played DVD programmes that slandered the founder of Falun Gong and the Falun Gong books. Inmate He Lihui from Harbin beat Ms. Xia badly, hit her in the head and slapped her in the face for three consecutive days because she refused to listen and watch. As a result, her face was swollen and she suffered headaches and had ringing in the ears. Ms. Xia began a hunger strike to protest the violation of human rights and the denial of her right to freedom of belief.

Liu Zhiqiang, the head of the Heilongjiang Women's Prison, Xiao Lin, section leader, Lu Jinghua, and Wang Xiaoli, deputy head of the Intensive Training Centre as well as Tao Dandan, the guard are the main people responsible for carrying out the persecution. At the Intensive Training Center each practitioner had at least two inmates watching them. These inmates bullied the practitioners, physically and verbally abusing them. The practitioners were forced to sit together with one's chest pressed up against the back of the person in front of them. The eyes have to focus on the person's head in front of them, and the legs have to be spread apart. They were placed in this position in a big “classroom” from early morning until bed time. They had to sit for more than ten hours. Their buttocks were aching, their legs were swollen and numb, and they could not sleep on their backs. Ms. Xia was forced to sit at the western side of the “classroom”, which was drafty. She was shivering from the cold. Three months later when she was held at the 5th floor of the centre's 5th Division, Ms. Xia went on a hunger strike several times to protest the persecution.

Ms. Xia refused to wear the prison uniform on October 29th, 2005. Lu Jinghua, the division head, ordered the inmates to cuff her hands behind her back from 9:00 a.m. to midnight before letting her go back to the cell. Practitioners Ms. Kong Fanying and Ms. Yan Chunling, who did Falun Gong exercises together with Ms. Xia, were locked up in small cells. Practitioner Ms. Hu Aiyun from Harbin was locked up in the small cell for a long time.

Ms. Xia Xiuwen was transferred to the No. 6 Ward of the Heilongjiang Women's Prison in the spring of 2006. The inmates there were extremely cruel. Ms. Xia was forced to sit on a small plastic stool for more than seven hours every day under the surveillance of the inmates. All the practitioners held in the division suffered from similar persecution. Guard Liu Chang often searched the cells (a simple search every three days and a thorough search every seven days). Their undergarments were thrown all over the cell and on some of them was written the word “prison”. They also search the practitioners for new articles exposing the CCP. Guard Liu Chang, in particular, seriously violated the prison regulations.

Ms. Xia Liuwen was transferred to the No. 1 Ward of Heilongjiang Women's Prison in the autumn of 2006. She was watched by the inmates. They swore at and beat the practitioners at random. She had to sit on a small plastic stool for seven hours a day facing the surveillance cameras and sound controllers. Inmates Li Yanping, a murderer from Qiqihar, Chen Hongmei and Zhang Xiuyuan often beat and swore at the practitioners. Guard Zou Ying supported them in doing so. Chen Hongmei hit practitioner Li in the head, but Zhou Ying simply turned a blind eye to what had happened.

On September 28th, 2007, seven or eight people, headed by inmate Li Yanping, forced their way into the cell and pushed Ms. Xia to the ground. They punched and kicked her, pulled her hair, choked her, slapped her in the face, pinched her arms, and dragged her in and out of her cell.

Ms. Xia was subjected to torture in prison for three years and six months. She witnessed the persecution of practitioners by the guards and inmates. Ms. Kongfaying, a practitioner from Harbin, was severely beaten for not wearing the prison uniform when she was released from prison. As a result, she was carried out of the prison gate. On sensitive days head of the prison Liu Zhiqiang and section head Xiao Lin led the guards to intensify the persecution of the practitioners. They searched the cells and looked for new articles, and they targeted the practitioners who refused to denounce Falun Gong.

In 2006, the practitioners who refused to be “transformed” faced another round of persecution. The prison set up the so-called Intensive Assault Unit and Intensive Assault Ward. The crimes of the guards against the practitioners there were monstrous.

Ms. Xia Xiuwen was released on October 28th, 2007. The officers from the No. 2 Police Station of Morin Dawa Banner continued to keep her under surveillance.

Note

1. The "Tiananmen Self-Immolation" an incident on Tiananmen Square in January 2001 whereby four people set themselves alight and the Chinese Communist claimed they were Falun Gong practitioners, yet there was video evidence to strongly disprove this claim.

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

3. "Tiger Bench": Prisoners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead without movement for long periods of time.