Summary of Other Articles and News - January 24, 2004

(Clearwisdom)

News and Activities Around the World

Falun Gong practitioners in Chicago organized a Chinese New Year's party. They invited their relatives and friends to celebrate together. In addition to the entertainment, they played the video "The Whole Story of the Beatings in front of the Chinese Consulate in Chicago" to let their guests understand how the persecution against Falun Gong has been extended overseas, and in fact, to the very city they live in. One of the guests, Ms. Li said, "Not only the practitioners in China have been persecuted, but we as the family members of Falun Gong practitioners overseas have been under great pressure as well."

Facts of the Persecution

1) Mr. Chen Chunfeng, a Falun Dafa practitioner in Zhangjiabao Township, Yi County, Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province, was sent to the Jinzhou Forced Labor Camp for a two-year term after he went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong on September 23, 1999. In the labor camp, he was frequently abused, forced to work long hours, and forced to attend brainwashing sessions. After he was released, the policemen at the local police station assaulted him and searched his home many times. With righteous thoughts in mind, he managed to escape after being kidnapped to a township building. Chen has been forced to leave home and wander about to avoid further persecution ever since.

2) Police brutality in the Longshan Forced Labor Camp, Shenyang City, Liaoning Province:

After policemen in Longshan Forced Labor Camp shocked Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Zhang Xiufang with electric batons, she suffered incontinence of feces and urine. For over ten days, she was unable to eat or walk normally. Since then, she has become very emotional and she would sometimes suddenly cry or laugh. Ms. Yuan Zheqin, another Falun Gong practitioner, was brutally beaten and her ribs were so badly injured that she cannot walk anymore. Ms. Liu Shuqin was also beaten, and the left sides of her lips were split and became swollen. Ms. Qi Shifan was viciously beaten. Her head became swollen and disfigured, and her five senses were all distorted, indicating damage to the brain. In another case, Policeman Tang Yubao beat Ms. Sun Fengxin so badly that her face and mouth were injured.

3) The persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in the Second District of Deyang Prison, Sichuan Province, has been continuing:

The policemen there tortured four Falun Gong practitioners including Mr. Wu Zenghui continuously (day and night) for over fifty hours, using a torture method called "driving the motorcycle" (the detainee is forced to squat, with his heels off ground and two arms raised in front of him parallel to the ground; this is intended to cause excruciating pain even after a short time). After enduring this torture for a long time, Wu nearly lost consciousness and could not walk. Policeman Wen Ke violently punched Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Xu Renwu, an elderly man in his seventies. Xu's chest was injured as a result. Many practitioners in the prison tried to protest against the persecution, but they were locked up, handcuffed behind their backs, shocked with electric batons, and forced to stand in the burning sunshine. They were physically tortured during the day and forced to attend brainwashing sessions at night.

4) Ms. Yang Hualian, an engineer from the Farm Machinery Bureau, Guanghan City, Sichuan Province, has been upholding her belief in the principles of "Truth, Compassion, and Forbearance," and therefore, she has been persecuted since July of 1999. Local policemen have on many occasions searched her home; they have illegally kidnapped and beaten her, and extorted five thousand Yuan from her. Under the instruction and pressure from the Guanghan "610 Office," Wu Qimiao, the head of the Farm Machinery Bureau of Deyang City, and Liu Minxian, the head of the Guanghan Farm Machinery Bureau, forced Ms. Yang to leave her job. On April 26, 2001, she was once again abducted by policemen and taken to the Guanghan Police Department for interrogation. She was beaten, detained, and later sent to different forced labor camps for a period of almost two years. She was brutally tortured in the labor camps.

5) Ms. Sun Yafang, a Falun Gong practitioner from Wuchang City, Heilongjiang Province, once suffered from illnesses such as asthma, tracheitis, and even uterine cancer and ovarian cancer, among other health problems. All of her illnesses disappeared silently after she started practicing Falun Gong (Falun Dafa). In November 2000, she went to Tiananmen Square in Beijing to appeal for and to validate Dafa. She was arrested and detained. Her husband and son, who did not practice Falun Gong, also suffered. Both of them were suspended from their jobs several times because of her practice of Falun Gong. In July 2002, policemen abducted her to the Tuanjie Police Station, Wuchang City. They hung her up and beat her badly, shamefully targeting her breasts and vaginal area. Then they pushed her from the building's second story and she fell to the ground with the back of her head facing downward. She immediately lost consciousness. To cover up their crimes, policemen Yang Dapeng and Zhao Yantao attempted to claim that if Ms. Sun died, it would be because her husband had beaten her to death for her practice of Falun Gong. Fortunately, Ms. Sun survived the beatings and the fall and regained consciousness after eight days. Afraid that Sun's husband might expose their crimes, the police quickly detained him in the Second Detention Center of Wuchang City. Furthermore, they advised the authorities to sentence him to three years of forced labor in the name of practicing Falun Gong, despite the fact that he wasn't a practitioner. Ms. Sun's son tried very hard to secure the release of his parents by using all of his personal contacts and savings. His father was finally released after over three months of illegal imprisonment. In April of 2003, the Wuchang City Court went ahead to sentence Ms. Sun to three years in prison. She is now locked up in the Female Prison of Heilongjiang Province.

News from China

In 1999, Liaoning TV Station slandered Falun Gong by claiming that Mr. Li Jiuxiang's wife, from the Village of Shifobao, Shifobao Township, Yi County, Jinzhou City, died after refusing to take medicine after practicing Falun Gong. Lots of everyday people were deceived by this false story and started to harbor ill feelings toward Falun Gong. As a matter of fact, Li's wife was not a Falun Gong practitioner at all. Moreover, she was suffering from genetically inherited mental disease. To expose the false accusations and to clarify the truth, the local Falun Gong practitioners went to Beijing on September 22, 1999, appealing at the Central Appeal Office, the Central Government Office, and the Office of the State Council. However, they were all detained and had money extorted from them.