Honest and Diligent Associate County Magistrate Shang Kunfeng Persecuted and Illegally Sentenced to Prison

By practitioner from Hebei Province, China

(Clearwisdom.net) Mr. Shang Kunfeng, a Dafa practitioner from Zhengding County, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province was illegally sentenced in 2002 by the Intermediate Court of Shijiazhuang to seven years in prison. He is now illegally detained in the Fourth Prison of Hebei Province. News of his imprisonment spread widely and evoked great repercussions all over the cities and counties of Shijiazhuang. Those who were familiar with Shang Kunfeng said to each other, "To sentence such a good person as Shang Kunfeng with such a heavy punishment makes it look like the Chinese Communist Party will be perishing soon."

After graduating with a bachelor's degree, Shang Kunfeng started practicing Falun Gong in 1996. In Zhengding County, he assumed the position of minister of an organizational department, deputy head of the county in charge of day-to-day business, as well as deputy chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. After obtaining Dafa, Shang Kunfeng cultivated himself according to Dafa's principles of "Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance." At work and in all other activities, he showed people the high xinxing standard of a practitioner and was an exceptional worker.

During the time that Mr. Shang assumed the position of minister of the organizational department, his work had been rated as first rate three times for three years in succession within the Shijiazhuang City area, as the best among all the counties. When he assumed the position of deputy head of the county in charge of day-to-day business, the department under his leadership was chosen as a "model unit" in the city or province where it was located every year. As an honest and diligent model citizen during that time, Shang Kunfeng assumed many leadership roles, while refusing more than 200 thousand yuan in gift money and almost one million yuan in bribes. (Because of multi-layered corruption within the government, it has become a common practice to give officials gifts or money.) During holidays or festivals, he refused all the gifts and money that invariably came his way. With regard to those gifts he could not return, Mr. Shang sent all of them to the department of civil administration, and delivered others under the name of the county government to local old folks' homes. As for the gift money he could not return, he sent it under the name of the county government to poor farms, mailed it to old folks' homes in Shijiazhuang City, or mailed it to poor farmers in some mountainous areas outside of the province.

Shang Kunfeng became indifferent to fame and personal gain, devoting himself wholeheartedly to the service of the people. He never went to any officers of higher rank to ask for a promotion, never misused his power in the lower-level public security organs, procuratorial organs, people's courts, and other departments of the government. In Zhengding County, people called Shang Kunfeng the "Nine-no" county head: no smoking, no alcohol, no mahjong (a Chinese gambling game similar to cards), no dancing, no car driving, no undeserved promotions, no sexual relationships outside marriage, no gifts or gift money, and no favors done to anybody in resolving a case.

However, because of his practice of Falun Gong, Shang Kunfeng was illegally removed from the office of deputy head of the county at the end of 1999. This resulted in many complaints from people all over the county.

In 2001, an upsurge of persecuting Falun Gong was set off in Zhengding County. More than 20 Dafa practitioners were illegally arrested. Shang Kunfeng could no longer tolerate it and left the county in anger, protesting the persecution. This caused a panic within the local government. To find and arrest Shang Kunfeng, the police department of Zhengding County harassed his relatives and drivers one by one, and sent many people to Beijing, Baoding, Shijiazhuang, Taiyuan, and Handan to watch his every move. This illegal persecution of Shang Kunfeng wasted over a million yuan and squandered a large amount of the people's labor and money.

On Chinese New Year's Eve of 2002, a number of officers from the 610 Office of Zhengding County arrested Mr. Shang's wife Sun Shuqin and detained her secretly for more than one month in order to force her to tell them Shang Kunfeng's whereabouts. In October 2002, Shang Kunfeng was illegally arrested in Lincheng County, and detained in Lincheng first, then Shenze, Luquan and other places. After suffering brutal torture, he was sentenced to a heavy prison term and is now detained in the Fourth Prison of Hebei Province.

When the news spread far and wide that the Shijiazhuang Intermediate Court illegally sentenced Shang Kunfeng, strong repercussions were evoked all over the counties of Shijiazhuang City. Flustered and exasperated, those persons who persecuted him wanted to find some supporting evidence for the arrest. They made an investigation, which lasted for more than three months, on Shang Kunfeng's economic and social dealings during the time he assumed administrative positions. What they wanted was to find some sort of financial problems so that they could further frame Dafa practitioners and smear the reputation of Dafa. However, much to their dismay, the result of the investigation was that during the 8-year period when Shang Kunfeng assumed those positions of leadership, he was perfectly clean.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/7/24/106804.html

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