Retired Teacher Liu Xiwen from Suihua City Passes Away After Prolonged Persecution

After July 20, 1999, Dafa practitioner Liu Xiwen has been the target of endless persecution from the Beilin District Education Committee and Zhenxing Elementary School. Especially after he appealed in Beijing in December 2000, the officials intensified their tactics. Mr. Liu Xiwen passed away on May 20, 2002 [April 9 according to Chinese lunar calendar]. Prior to the time of his death, Liu Xiwen had been living in the streets for 14 months to avoid illegal arrest and his pension had been suspended for 18 months.

Mr. Liu Xiwen, 60, was a retired elementary school teacher. Before he began cultivation in November 1997, 4/5 of his stomach had to be surgically removed. He was also afflicted with high blood pressure, heart disease, had suffered a stroke and other diseases. After practising Falun Gong, he recovered completely.

On July 22, 1999, the police officers from the local police ransacked Liu Xiwen's home and tried to force him to write a "guarantee statement" to give up practising Falun Gong and never to go to Beijing to appeal, but Liu refused. The police department then fined him 400 Yuan, nearly a month's salary for an average urban worker in China. In December 2000, the police brutally beat Liu Xiwen in Tiananmen Square in Beijing for appealing for Falun Gong. In Daxing Police Station of Beijing Liu Xiwen was brutally beaten a second time and sent to a local detention centre. Ma De, the former Party Committee Secretary of Suihua City, had implemented a policy of not releasing practitioners who refused to write the "guarantee statements, regardless of their health conditions. He also habitually sent practitioners to forced labour camps. Liu Xiwen's school tried to bail him out, but Yang Zhenbo, the director of Education Committee became furious after learning the news and prohibited anyone at school to visit Liu Xiwen or to bail him out, listing him as someone to be singled out for harsh persecution. Under these circumstances, Liu Xiwen wrote a guarantee statement against his will and was not released until he paid more than 5,000 Yuan to persons from the "610 Office." [The "610 Office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.] Without any proper legal procedure, Beilin District Education Committee then withheld Liu Xiwen's entire pension. Liu received nothing from his pension until the Chinese New Year of 2000, when the officials gave Liu Xiwen 2,000 Yuan for living expenses.

Yang Zhenbo and Yu Hongchen, director and party secretary of Beilin District Education Board, respectively, asserted pressure on the Zhenxing Elementary School and often harassed Liu Xiwen. These two unconscionable people also made life miserable for Liu's entire household for a long time for the sake of currying favor with their superiors. Yang Zhenbo also applied pressure on the Xinhua Elementary School, where Liu's younger daughter worked. Liu Zhenren, Party Secretary of the Xinhua Elementary School, often attacked Falun Gong during morning gatherings and applied pressure on Liu's daughter. One day in the middle of the night, the school principal Ren Shulan, along with Yang Zhenbo and others, went to Liu Xiwen daughter's home to harass her.

On January 26, 2000 [Chinese lunar calendar, right before the Chinese New Year], Yang Zhenbo and Li Yujie, the school principal of the Zhenxing Elementary School, tricked Liu Xiwen into coming to school and tried to force him to write the guarantee statement. In order to escape further persecution from the education committee, Liu Xiwen and his wife couldn't even spend their Chinese New Year at home.

One day in April 2001, the school officials again went to Liu's home and harassed him. When met with rejection, Yang Zhenbo sent more thugs and was again rejected. Liu Xiwen left home that day to avoid further persecution, which infuriated Yang Zhenbo. Yang Zhenbo brought over a dozen thugs from the local police station, the "610 Office" and from the politics and security section of the police department, and went to Liu's home and threatened his wife with detention. Yang Zhenbo was afraid that Liu Xiwen would go to Beijing to appeal and cause him to look bad, so he tried his best to find out Liu's whereabouts. When he learned that Liu was at his second daughter's home out of town, he publicly promised he would no longer harass Liu Xiwen and would give back his entire pension. He even asked Liu's daughter to go to the education committee to get the money. However, when Liu's daughter arrived, Yu Hongchen told her, "You'll be fired if your father makes trouble again." He also said, "If your father doesn't write the statement, then you can write it. We'll promote you to school principal if you behave well." When she refused, the officials refused to hand over Liu's pension. Later, when she was in the process of being considered for promotion, Yu Hongchen said to her, "Since your father is still practising Falun Gong, you won't be promoted as long as Director Yang and I work at the education committee."

After Liu Xiwen left home, Yang Zhenbo and other officials tried to bring him back but met with strong opposition from Liu's family. Liu's wife said, "My husband has high blood pressure and heart disease. You can go search for him but you must be held accountable for the consequences." Fearing to take responsibility, they sent two officials to hound Liu's daughter, but they got into an accident on the way.

In April 2002, the officials in Suihua City conducted a large-scale roundup of Falun Gong practitioners. Liu Xiwen, who was in Daqing City at the time, was arrested and abused. By this point, Liu's health had deteriorated greatly due to the prolonged persecution, and his daughter took him back to Suihua City on May 2nd. On May 20th, 2002, Liu Xiwen passed away.

For the past three years, Liu Xiwen's family has suffered great persecution. Officials from the residential office, work unit and police station took turns harassing them constantly. On her way to work, Liu's second daughter was kidnapped by officials from Daqing City People's Hospital and sent to a drug rehabilitation centre for forced brainwashing. Liu's youngest daughter has been denied promotion repeatedly because of her father's beliefs. After Liu passed away, Liu Xiwen's family asked for his pension for his wife's living expenses, by the request was flatly denied.

All of this happened because Liu Xiwen refused to give up his right to lead his life according to "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance." What does this say about the ruling regime, that a good person must choose between these three noble principles and his life?

http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/11/25/29064.html