(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Zhang Yichao, a young woman from Huolinguole City, Inner Mongolia, and her parents practiced Falun Gong. The police arrested her parents and Yichao was persecuted by the political thugs in her school. To avoid further persecution, she left home. Yichao became ill working in places far away from home. She later returned home but died on April 6, 2005. Zhang Yichao was only 18 years old.

Zhang Yichao started practicing Falun Gong in 1998. She was a vivacious and open-minded girl and was deeply loved by her parents, relatives and friends. Her mother, Ms. Fu Guiying, went to Beijing to validate Falun Dafa in September 1999 and was sentenced to forced labor in December 1999. When her school started an anti-Falun Gong campaign and forced the students to sign a petition attacking Dafa, Yichao refused to cooperate. The party secretary of her school, Meng Xianmin, called her in for a conversation, and both the city 610 Office and the police department pressured the school and requested many times that she write and sign the Guarantee Statement. They threatened that Yichao would be deprived of her education if she did not sign. At that time Yichao was only 13 years old. When she returned home, she secretly cried and dared not let her parents know what she was going through. She feared that letting her parents know might lead to more severe punishment from her teacher, school principal and the party secretary.

In June 2000, Yichao's father Zhang Jianlong was arrested. Yichao suffered pressure that children of her age should not suffer, and she became quiet and withdrawn. On March 1, 2002, the Huolinguole City No. 4 Middle School would not allow her to attend school because both her parents practiced Falun Gong. After intervention from her parents' company, the school agreed to let her return. However, the school party secretary Meng Xianmin called her in for a conversation every week. They demanded that she write a report each week and disengage herself from Dafa and her parents. In May 2002, her parents were illegally detained and Yichao was left alone at home. The Huolinguole City 610 Office, along with over ten people from the South Square Police Station, including Qin Baoku, Zhao Xiufa, Zhai Tuo, Wu Liji and others, came to her home to collect "evidence" for the persecution of her parents. They dismantled the beds and sofa, searched everywhere in the home and made a mess of the house, but they could not find anything. On the night of May 29, 2002, a group of children who bore hatred towards Dafa and Dafa practitioners due to the propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party came to her home and broke the door, as well as several windows. This made young Yichao feel extremely fearful. The persecution from the school leaders and the discrimination from some of her classmates, as well as people in society, caused her to suffer great mental and physical trauma.

In September 2002, both of Yichao's parents were sent to forced labor. Her mother Fu Guiying was sentenced to three years of forced labor. Due to the persecution, Ms. Fu's weight was reduced to about 30-35 kilos (66 - 77 lbs.) from 75 kilos (approximately 165 lbs.), and she was sent out of the forced labor camp for medical treatment at that point. This made Zhang Yichao more fearful about the persecution of her family. She was forced to leave home and go from place to place in order to avoid the constant harassment from the authorities. She was only 15 at the time. Yichao made a living by doing miscellaneous labor in Shenyang City, Dalian City and other places. She did not have regular accommodations to stay in. Sometimes she got a meal but sometimes she could not. As her parents had been persecuted so many times, she dared not go home. Even on the occasions when she did go home, she left again shortly. While Zhang Yichao was out doing labor, she contracted tuberculosis. She did not have money for medical treatment and was unwilling to go home. She fainted several times. Finally, she had to return home. On the morning of April 6, 2005 she died in a hospital at only 18 years of age

Posting date: 4/20/2005
Original article date: 4/19/2005
Category: Eyewitness Accounts
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/4/10/99320.html

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