(Minghui.org) A Qishan County, Shaanxi Province resident has been detained incommunicado after being arrested on September 27, 2020 for practicing Falun Gong, a mind-body discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Liu Hongshu’s parents, both in their 80s and living with Mr. Liu, were terrified by the police during the home raid, and upon witnessing the officers confiscating Mr. Liu’s many Falun Gong books and related materials.
As Mr. Liu has been supporting his parents and younger brother, who has a chronic ailment, for the past few yeas, his arrest and detention left the family in deep distress. His mother is quickly losing her eyesight and his father is in poor health, as he is still recovering from recent surgery.
Mr. Liu, in his 50s, took up Falun Gong in 1999. Not long after that, his brain injuries and other conditions that were sustained after a car accident on March 31, 1989, were cured.
He was working in a publishing company in Xinjiang Province when the persecution of Falun Gong started months later, in July 1999. He was soon arrested, fired from his job, and given a labor camp term, after the local police found him spreading information about Falun Gong.
Mr. Liu filed a complaint in July 2013 against the Xinjiang authorities for persecuting him, only to be arrested and sent to the Zaoshu Brainwashing Center in Hanzhong City, Shaanxi Province. The guards attempted to pressure him into giving up his faith. He held a hunger strike to protest the persecution and was then released.
Mr. Liu moved out of town on March 25, 2014 to find a job. During the time he wasn’t home, the local police harassed his parents and forced them to sign the confiscation list of Mr. Liu’s belongings. Both of his parents were terrified and frozen in fear. One of them fell seriously ill and didn’t recover for a long time. Mr. Liu filed a complaint against the officers upon hearing about the incident, but the authorities refused to accept it.
On his way to Zhejiang Province for a work opportunity on October 23, 2017, the bus Mr. Liu took was stopped at the Xixia County in Henan Province. The police checked the IDs of more than 100 passengers. After finding that Mr. Liu was a Falun Gong practitioner after scanning his ID, which was flagged, the officers searched his luggage, handcuffed him, and took him to the Xixia County Police Department overnight. He wasn’t allowed to use the restroom on the way.
Upon arriving at the Xixia County Police Department, the police body searched him again and beat him. He was locked and forced to sit on the ground overnight. Two officers were assigned to watch him. Mr. Liu was interrogated the next day and had his fingerprints and blood sample forcibly collected. He was sent to a detention center in the afternoon after being forced to undergo a physical examination.
Mr. Liu started a hunger strike on the day of his arrest and was force-fed three days later. His mouth was severely injured and kept bleeding. Only then did the officers stop the force feeding.
Police in his hometown in Qishan County arrived in Henan on October 28, 2017, after being informed of his arrest by the Henan police. The Qishan police returned him to Qishan, confiscated his three Falun Gong books, three cellphone storage cards, and the 1,000 yuan in cash he had with him.
