Married for Eleven Years, but Together Only 13 Months because of Persecution

Yuanyuan was six years old when she finally met her father. She vividly remembers that day in late 2007. At that time, he had just been released from imprisonment. With grey hair and a wrinkled face, her father looked very different from the young and handsome man in her treasured photo. However, the happy family reunion did not last long. Two years later, her beloved father was arrested again.

Yuanyuan’s parents, Mr. Li Zheng and Ms. Wu Chunxia, are from Huangshi City of Hubei Province. The communist regime officials detained them numerous times because they remained steadfast in practising their belief. Although the couple has been married for over 11 years, they have only been able to be together less than 13 months.

Couple is detained numerous times

Mr. Li Zheng, an employee of a pharmaceutical company in Huangshi City, was born in 1970. Ms. Wu, an employee of a state-owned enterprise in Huangshi City, was born in 1973. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to persecute Falun Gong, both of them were fired by their employers.

This couple was persecuted many times over the past 13 years. Right now, Mr. Li is still detained in Zhejiang Province Fourth Prison. This is the fourth detention he has been subjected to. In the past more than 10 years, he has spent more than 8 years in prison.

Mr. Li was persecuted the first time in October 1999. After the persecution started, many practitioners went to Beijing to appeal. The couple decided to delay their wedding and instead went to Beijing. Since many police were arranged to block practitioners, Mr. Li decided to go to Macheng City first and travel to Beijing from there. However, police stopped him in Macheng City and sent him to one year of forced labour after he returned to Huangshi City. He was kept for more than one year in a dark and damp cell in the Qingtangwan Detention Centre of Huangshi City.

Mr. Li and Ms. Mu had a simple wedding in late 2000. Within two months, Zhou Xianjun, Xisaishan Domestic Security Division head in Huangshi City and other agents arrested Mr. Li and took him to the Baguazui Detention Centre. When his wife went to the police station to ask for Mr. Li's release, police learned she was also a practitioner and held her at the Baguazui Detention Centre as well.

Not long after they were released from the one-month detention, many brainwashing centres were set up in various districts of Huangshi City. Mr. Li was sent to the Yueliangshan Brainwashing Centre held by the Xisaishan Police Department. Similarly, his wife was sent to a brainwashing centre held by Huangshigang District Police Department.

Due to relentless harassment from local police and neighbourhood office staff, the couple was forced to stay away from home in March 2001. However, Jiang’an Police Department officials in Wuhan City sentenced Mr. Li to three years of imprisonment in 2002, and kept him in the Qinduankou Prison. This was the second time he was persecuted. Due to the abuse and torture, his health deteriorated and in late 2002 he coughed blood. When he was sent to the Hongshan Prison Hospital for emergency rescue, he was diagnosed with acute tuberculosis.

Mr. Li returned home at the end of 2004, but he did not see his wife. Ms Wu had already been sent to the Wuhan Women’s Prison with a term of three years on April 20, 2003.

During Ms. Wu’s detention, officials of the Huangshi City 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) sent her to the Jiang’an Brainwashing Centre on April 20th, 2006. In addition, Huangshigang Police Department officials paid Tangxunhu Brainwashing Centre 3,000 yuan¹ to participate in mistreating her.

In October 2005, Mr. Li was once again sent to the Wangyang Labour Camp. This was the third time he was persecuted. Ms. Wu could not see him when she was released from prison. When his forced labour term expired on October 13th, 2007, Xisaishan Domestic Security head Zhou Xianjun transferred him to the Jiang’an District Brainwashing Centre. As a form of torture, the agents forced him to sit still on a small stool for prolonged periods of time. He was not allowed to move his head, talk, take a nap, or use the toilet. As a result, Mr. Li’s bottom became injured and festered. After he was tortured for 48 days and his family repeatedly requested his release, he returned home in December.

To avoid further persecution, Mr. Li went to Zhejiang Province in March 2008 and began to work there. However, Longwan District police in Wenzhou City arrested him on the evening on February 2nd, 2010, and held him at the Wenzhou City Detention Centre. For quite a long time, Huangshi 610 Office agents monitored Mr. Li's conversation with his family, including online chatting records. At that time, Mr. Li returned returned home once a year and he told his wife that he would return on February 4th. Under instructions from Huangshi 610 office officials, Longwan police arrested him and held him at the Wenzhou Detention Centre. When his family traveled a long way to visit him, they were not allowed to see him. When Mr. Li's 80-year-old father, young daughter, and wife travelled to see him in July 2010, they were told that Longwan District Court officials in Wenzhou City had sentenced him to three years and six months of imprisonment. His family went to the detention centre and saw him once before he was transferred to Zhejiang Province Fourth Prison. More than two years and five months have passed. This is the fourth time he has been persecuted.

Family members

When Yuanyuan was born in 2001, Ms. Wu was forced to stay away from home and could not go to a hospital for a normal delivery. An elderly lady helped her and fortunately both mother and baby were fine. When Ms. Wu was sent to prison in 2003, Yuanyuan was sent to live with her elderly grandparents. Mr. Li's mother did the household chores. Because she is elderly, she lost her step, fell down in the kitchen and lost consciousness. She was later sent to a hospital for rescue and was diagnosed with hemiplegia. Mr. Li's father, although over 70 years old, had to carry Yuanyuan and was very busy, going between the hospital and home and taking care of the baby. The mother stayed in bed, worrying about her detained son and daughter-in-law. She died several months later and did not see her son once before she died.

A good person

Before the persecution started in 1999, Mr. Li was a volunteer assistant at a practice site. Most of the practitioners then were elderly ladies over 60 years old who could not read. He helped them read word by word, and line by line. He did this for several months, and then the massive persecution started.

Mr. Li was later arrested and detained, but he was always considerate of others regardless of whether he was in a detention centre or prison. During 2008 and early 2010, he worked at a construction site in Wenzhou City. His kindness and attentiveness soon earned the respect of other workers.

The above is an account of the mistreatment that the couple have been subjected to. They have been married for over 11 years but have been together less than 13 months.

Note

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