[Minghui 05/04/2001]

"Validate the Fa with reason, clarify the truth with wisdom, spread the Fa and offer people salvation with benevolence" (Rationality)


Latest News from China [04/27/01]

[Minghui Net]

[Wuhan City, Hubei Province] Authorities Detain the Family of Practitioner Peng Min, Who Was Persecuted to Death

Practitioner Peng Min, who lived in the Wuchang district of Wuhan City, died on April 6, 2001 after enduring a tremendous amount of pain and suffering. The Wuchang Police Department, the local 610 Office (an organization created to solve the "Falun Gong Problem"), and the Liangdaojie Police Station cremated his body secretly on April 7th. In an attempt to prevent the outside world from finding out about his death, the authorities have arrested Peng's mother Li Yingxiu and his brother Peng Liang, and are forcing them to attend a "transformation class" at Hongxia, Qinlin. His sister is being detained at the Dongxihu Detention Center, and his father has been detained at the Hewan Labor Camp for more than one year.

[Wuhan City, Hubei Province] Episodes During a Family Visitation Day for Former Falun Gong Practitioners Detained in the Hewan Labor Camp

Among the Falun Gong practitioners who are being detained in the Hewan Labor Camp, some have been "transformed (i.e. they promised to give up practicing Falun Gong). As a reward for their "transformation," they are allowed to have visits with their family members on the 15th day of every month (those practitioners who have refused to be "transformed" are denied visitation privileges altogether). The following are a few scenes that were played out during such a visitation day:

  1. Many people who were there to visit their loved ones personally witnessed the incarceration of a 13-year-old little girl at the labor camp. They were shocked by what they saw and said, "How could they send a minor to the labor camp for practicing Falun Gong? It is an indication of how much the Communist Party is afraid of Falun Gong!"
  2. A practitioner who is being detained at the labor camp has taken a wrong path in her understanding of the Fa. When a member of her family went to visit her, she told him what her current train of thought was. Even though the family member was not a practitioner himself, he still truthfully replied, "If you had never practiced Falun Gong, you would have died a long time ago." The former practitioner could not think of anything to say when confronted with this simple truth. She had been suffering from a terminal illness affecting her immune system, which was cured after she began to practice Falun Gong. When her family member saw her after she had been "transformed," he was saddened to see that she had once again started to show symptoms of her previous illness. For one thing, there were numerous spots on her face due to the decrease of her blood platelets.
  3. When she was first sent to the labor camp, an elderly lady (who has since been "transformed") was in perfect health. Now her hair has turned completely white, and she is extremely thin. In addition, due to the backbreaking manual labor that she has to perform everyday, the poor diet, and the mental anguish, she began to suffer from a number of illnesses, including glaucoma and gastrointestinal diseases. When her family members saw her, she whispered to them that her life has been extremely difficult, even after she promised to give up practicing Falun Gong. On top of suffering from several diseases, she has begun to notice traces of blood in her feces. Her family asked the labor camp officials to release her on medical parole. The reply was, "No, we are not going to release her! If she dies, we are not going to release her body until after her original term ends!" Her family complained bitterly, "Now we finally know that you people never live up to your promises. We have given you so much money! Now it looks as if the money would have been better spent if we fed it to dogs. Didn't you tell us that her situation would improve a great deal if she were 'transformed?' Otherwise we would not have gone along with you and signed the so-called 'cooperation for transformation agreement.' If this is the way that you want to treat her, then why do you go through the charade of allowing family visits? Why don't you just wait until she dies and tell us to get her body? Isn't that the way that you people treat Falun Gong practitioners anyway, claiming 'any death will be a suicide?' Don't you have any shred of conscience left? Haven't you done enough evil deeds? How could you treat an old lady this way? Aren't you afraid that there will be dire consequences for your viciousness?"

[Beijing] Suspicious Circumstances Around the Tiananmen "Self-Immolation" Incident

According to a practitioner who was present at Tiananmen Square when the "self-immolation" took place, the policemen stationed around the square showed no reaction whatsoever when the fire started. It appears that they were sent there to guard the scene, and had been instructed not to get involved with the incident directly.

[Jining City, Shandong Province] The Police Hang Practitioner Li Shuliang in the Air for Eight Days

Practitioner Li Shuliang was arrested while passing out Falun Gong truth-clarifying flyers. His home was ransacked, and he was subjected to inhumane torture. No matter how the police tortured him, his reply was always, "Follow Teacher closely, steadfastly cultivating Dafa. No evil will have a chance to touch my heart!" The vicious policemen put heavy iron chains around his legs and arms, and hung him up in the air so that the tips of his feet barely touched the ground. Master Li's words "To endure completely without anger or grievance is the forbearance of a cultivator" came to his mind, and his determination grew. Time passed by slowly--one day, two days, three days passed... On the eighth day, the police finally gave in and took him down.

Li Shuliang is supposedly being detained somewhere in the city of Jinan, but the authorities have refused to allow his family to visit him. Nobody knows if he is still alive.

[Northern China] Falun Gong Messages Cover a Certain Northern Chinese City on April 25th

On the evening of April 24th, practitioners in a certain northern Chinese city spray-painted the message, "the Central Chinese TV Station Makes Up Lies to Slander Falun Gong" on all the major streets and overpass bridges in the city. The local residents saw the message on April 25th. Hopefully the kind-hearted people will benefit from our effort.

[Mainland China] The Mighty Virtue of a Falun Gong Practitioner

A practitioner was turned in and arrested while distributing Falun Gong truth-clarifying material. Even after she was locked into the police van, she was completely at ease with herself. She just kept on reciting Master Li's poems from Hongyin (collection of Teacher's poems) and "Lunyu" silently. At the police station, a policeman asked her, "Why are you distributing Falun Gong flyers?" She said, "Falun Dafa is good! I am a Dafa disciple, and it is my duty to speak up on behalf of the Dafa. Everything on the flyer is the truth. Is it a crime to let people find out the truth?" The policeman then asked her where the flyers came from. She said that she had found them somewhere. The policeman finally asked her if she had passed out any flyers in the past. She truthfully replied that she had done that twice before.

The "surprising" thing is that the policeman released her right away. When they ran into each other in the local market later on, the policeman actually bought some fruit as a gift to her and said, "I want to apologize for causing you any trouble!"

[Shandong Province] Beijing Police Hold a Shandong Police Chief Hostage to Force a Practitioner to Pay a Heavy Fine for Going to Beijing to Appeal for Falun Gong

Before he began to practice Falun Gong, a Shandong practitioner was nicknamed "the Little Mute." He could only utter a couple of simple words. Falun Gong brought a lot of miraculous changes to his life. For one thing, he now has the ability to carry on a normal conversation with fellow practitioners. When the Chinese government began to persecute Falun Gong and slander Master Li, the first thing that came to his mind was, "If we change the situation in human society and reverse the general climate, then let's see who still says that Dafa is good and who changes his mind (from "Huge Exposure"). He thought to himself, "I have the courage to come forward and defend the reputation of Master Li. I have the courage to come forward and say that Falun Dafa is good." In the process of validating the Fa and eliminating evil, he was arrested a total of seven times and released each time. When he was arrested the 8th time, he lost all of his material possessions. The policemen at the Tiananmen Police Station in Beijing told the local police chief and police captain from the practitioner's hometown to come to Beijing to take him back. Once the two policemen got there, the greedy Beijing policemen informed them that they had to pay 5000 Yuan first. The Beijing policemen actually detained the Shandong police chief until the local police department could come up with the money.

[Hebei Province] A Practitioner's Personal Experience: The Chinese TV Programs are Filled with Lies

More than a dozen policemen broke into the home of a practitioner in Nangong, Hebei Province recently. They tried to intimidate him on one hand, and promised rich rewards on the other hand in an attempt to persuade him to "transform" himself (i.e. promise to give up Falun Gong). They also tried to force him to appear on a TV program to describe how Falun Gong supposedly deceived him. From this incident, it is not difficult to imagine how the Chinese Central TV Station came up with all the "news" programs attacking Falun Gong.

[Dalian City, Liaoning Province] Staff Members at the Dalian Labor Camp Torture Falun Gong Practitioners

Starting on March 20th, the guards at the Dalian Labor Camp began a 3-day marathon torture session, targeting more than 130 male practitioners. They tried to force the practitioners to curse Falun Gong and Master Li. When the practitioners refused to do so, the guards used rubber batons to whip the practitioners, stripped them naked, doused them with water, and then used high-voltage electric batons to shock them.

Even after one practitioner fell unconscious from the abuse, the guards still would not stop torturing him. They tied him to a bed and then used electric batons to shock them. Any practitioner who refused to give up Falun Gong would be tortured at any given moment. We urge all the kind-hearted people from all over the world to look into the cruel persecution against Falun Gong practitioners at the labor camp.

[Dongwan City, Guangdong Province] The Local Police Department Pays Salaries to Those People Who Have Been "Transformed"

The authorities in Dongwan City are forcing local practitioners to attend a "transformation class" in Taihu Resort. They brought several people who have been "transformed" to talk to the practitioners. Those people told the practitioners that they are now on the payroll of the local police department.

[Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province] News from the Wanjia Labor Camp in the City of Harbin

Practitioners being held in the Wanjia Labor Camp began a group hunger strike on April 6th to protest their illegal detention and demanded to be released immediately. Even though many practitioners have been rushed to the emergency room, they were still continuing their hunger strike at the time that this article was written. Despite their weakened state, the guards still forced them to run laps every morning, causing two practitioners to fall unconscious in the courtyard. The guards are also force-feeding the practitioners. A practitioner with the surname of Yang began to vomit blood after being force-fed.

The Wanjia Labor Camp took away the visitation rights of the practitioners after the hunger strike began. The families of the practitioners are now only allowed to talk to them over the phone with a glass window between them on the 26th of every month.

The guards said, "It is not up to us to decide who gets released. Even the leaders of the city and the province cannot make the call. The only person who can make that call is Jiang Zemin!"

The telephone number of the Wanjia Labor Camp is 86-451-4101454-3471. The heads of the 7th Squadron of the labor camp are two people with the surnames of Lin and Wu.

[Xinxiang City, Henan Province] Local Police Forces Dafa Practitioners to Crawl Into Doghouses

Since July of 1999, many practitioners from Xinxiang City have made the trip to Beijing to validate the Fa. The local police have mobilized a force of more than 50 policemen to go to Beijing to arrest these practitioners. All of their expenses, even including fees for using public restrooms, are paid out of the pockets of the practitioners that they arrest. If they confiscate money from practitioners, the policemen are allowed to keep it for themselves. On December 8th of 2000, these policemen arrested practitioners Ren Xiu and Li Zhifen. The policemen beat them until they passed out for an entire day, separating Li Zhifen's shoulder in the process. Practitioner Zhao Yuxia has been to Beijing to appeal multiple times, and as a result she was detained by her workplace. She went on a hunger strike for 5 days in protest, causing her health to deteriorate rapidly. Her workplace feared for her life and allowed her to go home for two days. During this time, she took the opportunity to go to Beijing again to validate the Fa. There, she was beaten severely by the police, who bruised her face beyond the point of recognition. After she was sent back to Xinxiang, she was illegally sentenced to a labor camp, where she continues to be persecuted.

Regardless of whether a practitioner was returned from Beijing or caught on the way there, the city police department fines each practitioner 30,000 to 35,000 Yuan. According to regulations, the most the city police are allowed to fine anyone is 2000 Yuan. They have even found excuses to fine those practitioners who never went to Beijing 35,000 Yuan. In addition, they often force the families to pay a "deposit" of up to 10,000 Yuan. The local policemen have gotten rich through their extortion; in one meal, their bill was 1,300 Yuan. In Xiwang Village, one family spent nearly 30,000 Yuan, yet was still unable to secure a practitioner's release. The local officials are extremely creative in devising ways to impose fines on the local practitioners, extorting nearly 3 million Yuan in the past year. They repeatedly harass the family members of the practitioners, even detaining them at times. The time of the detention has ranged from 2 days to 100 days. They also have resorted to cutting off practitioners' families' electricity in order to disrupt their lives. The Chinese officials spoke about how they "care for" the daily lives of the practitioners in front of the United Nations Human Rights Council. Apparently, they were telling lies.

The local police officers often order male inmates to beat the practitioners. They also force female practitioners to crawl into doghouses, where it is impossible to stand or lie down. Furthermore, they have even forced the female practitioners to wear shackles intended for death row inmates. These shackles weigh over 50 pounds, and the practitioners are forced to walk laps around the courtyard while wearing them. On March 9th, female practitioner Qiao Mei was forced to sit in the frigid courtyard barefoot, while wearing handcuffs and shackles.

The city police department has arrested more than 100 practitioners since December 2000. Many are still in jail, despite the regulation that limits detainment without a hearing to 15 days. Among these practitioners, more than 30 have been sent to labor camps.

[Laiyang City, Shandong Province] Wicked "Transformation Classes" Held at XX Party School

The local XX Party School has been turned into a venue for persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. There, many practitioners are being beaten and held against their will for long periods of time. They have also become targets of extortion.

In early March of 2001, the Shandong provincial government sent a "transformation team" to the Laiyang XX School. They conducted a so-called "transformation class," which was co-sponsored by the local Political Committee, the city council, and the police department.

Many practitioners were at home performing chores or at work when they were visited by the local police or officials from their workplace. They were then either forcibly taken away or deceived into going to the police station. Without any legal proceedings, they have been held at the school and forced to undergo "transformation." Currently, there are approximately 20 practitioners being held at the school, and "officials" can be seen guarding the door to the school.

[Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province] Dafa Practitioners Suffer Inhuman Persecution

On April 11th, the Xinghua Street Police Department arrested practitioners Long Dehao, Ye Weixiong, Li Hechong. They are currently being illegally detained at the Guangzhou City Police Department Tianhe Branch Detention Center, the same place where practitioner Gao Xianmin was persecuted to death. The address is: Tianhe District Tangxiashangshe No. 5 Courtyard, Tianhe Detention Center.

According to sources, the police already knew the names and pseudonyms of the practitioners before arresting them. On the 11th and 12th, when the police was interrogating Ye Weixiong, they used a 2-inch thick iron rod to strike his body. They kicked and slapped his face countless times, and burned off a portion of his hair. The sounds of the torture could be heard from quite a distance away. The situation after the 12th is unknown at this time.

[Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province] Northeastern Light Metallurgy Incorporated Persecutes Dafa Practitioners

Harbin Northeastern Light Metallurgy Incorporated has utilized various methods to intimidate, deceive, and harass practitioners. They attempted to "transform" practitioners by applying pressure to their families. Some family members could not withstand the relentless pressure, and they had to file for divorce to save themselves. Those practitioners who refused to be transformed were sent to Wanjia Labor Camp for brutal persecution. So far, two practitioners have been forced to flee from their homes. The reaction from the community to this sort of persecution has been extremely negative.

[Wuhan City, Hubei Province] News Items

Before the Spring Festival, practitioners Wang Guodong and Sun Youxiang went to the police department to take back their "guarantees" to not practice Falun Gong. The couple from Ziyang Street of Wuchang District declared that they would nullify the guarantee they wrote previously under pressure. They were immediately arrested and sent to the Hongxia transformation class, where they were told that they would be sent to the labor camp if they did not give up their practice of Falun Gong. Their current whereabouts are unknown.

There are more than 40 practitioners in the "transformation class," including a new group of practitioners: Li Zhixiu, Xu Daoxiu, Li Dayun, Zhang Xiaoling (sentenced to 1 year), Shen Shengying (sentenced to 1 year), Wu Haiying (sentenced to 1 year), Wang Jing (sentenced to 1 ½ years).

Retired university worker Xu Jiangong went to Beijing to appeal in early December of 2000. After he was arrested and brought back to Wuhan, Xu was detained and then transferred to Yatai Mental Hospital at Wuhan University. More than 2 months later, he is still being held there.

[Wuhan City, Hubei Province] Hewan Labor Camp Attempts to Forcefully "Transform" Dafa Practitioners

Among the 400 Wuhan Dafa practitioners sentenced to labor camps, the majority are being held at the Hewan Labor Camp or the City Drug Rehabilitation Center. The rehabilitation center is normally used for detaining drug addicts, but now it holds Dafa practitioners also. The Hewan Labor Camp currently has assigned the more than 100 male practitioners to group 2, while the female practitioners were assigned to groups 4,6, and 8. The labor camp officials have decreed that only those who have been "transformed" and have written "remorse essays" can be visited by friends and relatives. When a practitioner's term is up, if he refuses to write "remorse essays," then his term will be extended by one to three months. There was a particular practitioner whose term was extended by four months just because he once said the words "use the Fa as the teacher," even though he had reached the end of his term, and the paperwork for his release had been finished. Moreover, he was denied his right to appeal the decision.

[Shengyang City, Liaoning Province] The City Organizes Four "Transformation Squads" to Disrupt Dafa

Shengyang's Zhangshi Labor Camp has organized four "transformation squads." Their plan is to begin a new wave of "transformation classes" around May 1st.

(Translated on April 30th from an edited version of http://minghui.cc/mh/articles/2001/4/27/10388.html)