Have I Lost Mom Too?

Left photo: Zou Rongfa, 

Right photo: Rongfa’s father (Zou Songtao) and mother (Zhang Yunhe)

Zou Rongfa (female) was born in November 1999. At that time, her father, Zou Songtao, was held in a detention center because he had gone to Beijing to appeal to the government to stop persecuting Falun Gong. Mr. Zou was not released until the end of December 1999. He had been in and out of jail many times because he was a Falun Gong practitioner. The director of the Taixi Police Station, Gong Guoquan, once handcuffed Mr. Zou to an iron chair. The director beat him with the sole of his shoe, causing his head to bleed and swell to twice its size, beyond the point of recognition. He was unconscious for more than 20 minutes.

In July of 2000, Mr. Zou was sent to the Qingdao City Forced Labor Camp. Later, at the end of September 2000, he was transferred to the Wangcun Forced Labor Camp in Zibo City. On the morning of November 3, 2000, policemen Zheng Wanxin, Shao Zhenghua, and others took Mr. Zou into an interrogation room, shocked him with electric batons, and killed him within two hours. Rongfa lost her father.

After the death of Mr. Zou, the police kept harassing and closely watching Rongfa’s mother, Zhang Yunhe. In February 2002, the police arrested Ms. Zhang Yunhe and detained her at the Dashan Detention Center, Qingdao City. The police refused to release any information about her to her family. Zou Rongfa thus was separated from her mother.

Rongfa had to stay with her grandmother, who was over 60 years old. However, her grandmother became ill and died in August 2001 from the pain of losing her son-in-law and being separated from her daughter.

Rongfa has lost her father, her mother, and her grandmother, the three people she loved the most. Whenever she misses her family, she steps up on a little stool, reaches up and kisses her Daddy’s box of ashes.

A Teenager Force-Fed a Harmful Drug and                                        Sentenced to Seven Years in Prison

Li Mingwei (male) was a middle school student at the Experimental Middle School, Anqiu City, Shandong Province.

One morning in early March 2001, while Mingwei was still sleeping, eight city officials and policemen broke into his home and arrested him and his mother, leaving his 12-year-old sister home alone. They were detained in Anqiu City. The Anqiu city official, Song Baojie, had allocated two houses there for the purpose of detaining and brainwashing Falun Gong practitioners.

Li Mingwei started a hunger strike to protest the illegal detention. Five days later he was sent back to school, where he was detained in a small room. Under orders from Wei, an Anqiu city official, and as punishment, the school sent him to the Anqiu City People’s Hospital for force-feeding. They injected him with an unknown drug that made his whole body numb. They tried to insert a tube into his nose and down to his stomach, but failed because the tube was too thick. They then used some equipment to force open his mouth so they could insert the tube into his stomach. His mouth bled profusely due to this torture.

The school officials tried to force Li Mingwei to write a statement saying he was not going to appeal to the government to stop persecuting Falun Gong. The told him that if he refused to write it, they would lock him up and not allow him to go back to class. A teacher closely watched him during the day while two students watched him at night. He was forced to watch brainwashing materials defaming and lying about Falun Gong.

In July 2001, Li Mingwei went to Beijing again to appeal to the government to stop the persecution. He was arrested and sent back to school, where he was detained for the

whole summer. Li Mingwei started another hunger strike and was again released.

One day, he was called from his class to the school office. Several teachers surrounded him and attacked him verbally. One of the school directors, Jiang Dongpo, slapped him on his face more than ten times.

To avoid further persecution, he had to leave home and school, wandering about so that he could not be located. The latest information about Li Mingwei revealed that the police found and detained him in a forced brainwashing center in Anqiu. He was later sentenced to seven years in prison.

Wang Lixuan and Her Eight-Month-Old Son

Tortured to Death in Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp

Mother Wang Lixuan and son Meng Hao

Ms. Wang Lixuan was a 27-year-old resident of Nangou Village, Qixiasikou Town, Yantai City, Shandong Province. Her son Meng Hao was 8 months old.

On October 21, 2000, Ms. Wang Lixuan and her eight-month-old son, Meng Hao, were arrested by officials from the local Shandong government’s liaison office and detained at Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp in Beijing. They were on their way to Beijing to appeal to the central government to end the persecution of Falun Gong.

On November 7, 2000, Ms. Wang and her son were tortured to death at Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp, Beijing. When her family received the death notice and arrived in Beijing, they found the frozen corpses of Ms. Wang and her son. According to the coroner’s exam, her neck and knucklebones were broken, her skull was sunken and there was a needle stuck in her body. There were two deep bruises on her son’s ankles. Moreover, there were two black and blue spots on his head and blood in his nose. The bruises may have been caused when the guards of the labor camp shackled little Meng Hao’s ankles and hung him upside down.

Family members of Ms. Wang have also been persecuted. Her sister, Ms. Wang Lihui, was sent to a labor camp because she practiced Falun Gong at Yantai University. Her brother was also sent to a labor camp for practicing Falun Gong at Jinan Industrial College.

Two-Year-Old Child Deprived of His Parents’ Care

Hu Ming (male) turned two on June 30, 2002. However, he was without his parents on his birthday. His father, Mr. Hu Qianfeng was detained at Beijing’s Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp and his mother, Ms. Ma Li, was being held at Beijing’s Xin’an Women’s Forced Labor Camp.

The family lived in Beijing. Mr. Hu Qianfeng is around 30 years old and worked for the Capital Steel Factory of Beijing. Ms. Ma Li was an employee of the Special Steel Division of Beijing’s Capital Steel Factory.

Hu Ming has rarely seen his father. Two weeks before he was born, a group of policemen broke into his parents’ home. They took his mother for interrogation from 11 p.m. to 1 p.m. the next day. Despite her late-term pregnancy, Ms. Ma was forced to sit on a small round stool with no back support. She was not given any food or water and was not allowed to sleep. The police also arrested Mr. Hu, shocked him all over his body with an electric baton, and then sentenced him to one year in a forced labor camp.

Ms. Ma was released only because she was so close to giving birth. She was without her husband at her side. She did not even know where her husband was being detained. Worried about her husband and feeling helpless to raise a child all by herself, Ms. Ma spent many days in tears.

The authorities still would not leave little Hu Ming and his mother alone. One day, the authorities arrested Ms. Ma and her toddler and took them to a brainwashing center. In June 2001, when Hu Ming was almost a year old, his father was released. After severe torture and against his will, Mr. Hu consented to the demand to give up practicing Falun Gong. However, fearing that his consent was gained only through coercion and not a genuine renouncement against Falun Gong, the officials in the “610 Office” forced Mr. Hu and his wife to continue attending the brainwashing sessions. The couple was not even allowed to be at home with Hu Ming on his first birthday. Hu Ming has been left in the custody of his grandparents. After his parents were released from the brainwashing center, they had to leave their home to avoid recapture and further persecution.

In September 2001, a security guard arrested Ms. Ma while she was handing out flyers clarifying the truth about Falun Gong. She was sentenced without trial to one year in a forced labor camp. Hu Ming’s father was arrested again in November 2001 and was sent to a forced labor camp, where he has been severely tortured with electric batons and deprived of sleep for extended periods of time. The persecution of Falun Gong has ripped apart this otherwise very happy family.

Statement from Chen Ying’s Mother

Chen Ying

On August 19, 1999, CCTV broadcast a report about Chen Ying, a first-year female student at Shuren High School in Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province. The report stated that Chen Ying, after attempting suicide a few times, had died from jumping off a train. This report did not tell the true story.

Chen Ying had practiced Falun Gong since May 1996. She was healthy both physically and mentally. She was an intelligent student with an excellent character and was always willing to help others. At school, she was vice-president of her class and active in extracurricular activities. She was an honor student because of her excellence in academics, sports, and morality, and had received many awards. Her teachers and classmates also spoke highly of her. At home, she was a good helper to her mother and her neighbors were quite fond of her.

On July 22, 1999, CCTV announced the ban on Falun Gong. That evening, Chen Ying went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. On July 29, a relative found her at Tiananmen Square in Beijing and took her back to Jiamusi City by train. When the train stopped at Qinhuangdao City, Chen Ying left when the relatives stopped at a store. The relative contacted the Qinhuangdao Railway Station for help, but they were unable to find her. Chen Ying was later arrested in Beijing and put on a train with a train crew officer assigned to watch her. During a two-hour break at a station, Chen Ying escaped while left unattended. On August 2, Chen Ying was arrested in Beijing again and sent to Jiamusi City’s Liaison Office in Beijing; however, she managed to escape the next day.

 On August 4, Chen Ying’s father, her school principal, and a school security officer arrived in Beijing to take her home. They searched for her for a week but could not find her. A person in charge of the Liaison Office promised to inform Chen Ying’s family members and the school principal as soon as she was found. On August 15, Chen Ying was again arrested in Beijing, but no one notified either the school or her family members. On August 16, Chen Ying was escorted back towards Jiamusi City. On the way to Jiamusi City, at around 2:34 p.m., Chen Ying went to the washroom and jumped off the train from the washroom window. The train ran about another 10 km before it fully stopped. The head of the train crew and Officer Li rushed to find Chen Ying and sent her to the Fengrun Hospital in Fengrun City.

At about 5:00 p.m. on August 16, one police officer took me from my workplace to a police station. I was told that I would not be allowed to see my daughter if I still practiced Falun Gong. Because I wanted to see my daughter, I lied and told them that I no longer practiced Falun Gong. They did not tell me that my daughter was already dead. When we arrived at the Fengrun Hotel in Fengrun City after 9:00 p.m. on August 17, Officer Li told us that they had discontinued her oxygen supply on the evening of August 16 when she could not be revived. They had then sent her body to the Fengrun Crematory for freezing.

On August 18, in order to see my daughter’s body, I was forced to lie again, on a TV interview conducted by the Tianjin TV station on behalf of CCTV, by saying that I had completely stopped practicing Falun Gong. Then, on the same day, I was accompanied by police officers and taken to the crematorium to see my daughter’s body. However, I was not allowed to see the cremation, and was forced to leave Fengrun City after 2:00 p.m.

Now, I must tell the truth. What I said to the police and media reporters were all lies, including the story that was published in the “Sanjiang Evening Newspaper.

On March 29, 2000, I went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong as my daughter had done before. I was arrested on the train from Shenyang City to Beijing and sent to a detention center. On April 3, 2000, I was escorted back to Jiamusi City by staff from both my workplace and the police station. I was detained at a detention center for 47 days.

High School Student Forced to Leave Home to Avoid Torture

I am a 17-year-old high school student. In June 2001, before an important examination at school, my teachers and the school authorities called me into their offices several times to tell me not to give the true answer to the Falun Gong questions in the examination. However I did not want to lie, so I wrote down the truth about Falun Gong for the questions on the examination. The city education administrator, Yao, and teacher, Zheng, twice threatened me for this and wanted to send me to a forced labor camp.

When they came to my house, I managed to escape and thus avoid being captured and tortured. The authorities and the policemen of Sanjie Town threatened my parents. They told my parents that if they did not turn me in, they would arrest my parents and confiscate our land. The authorities, Dong Xiquan and Wang Jiubing, also beat my parents. On September 3, 2001, to prevent further torture, my parents left home. We are all wandering on the streets. I have not been able to attend school since we became homeless.

Where Is Mom?

                      (Ms. Luo Zhixiang)                                  (Ms. Luo Zhixiang’s daughter,  

                                                                                         Kaixin.When she  misses Mom,                                           

                                                                                          she will kiss her photo)

        (Kaixin as a baby with her grandfather)            (A corner of the room where Kaixin lives)

Huang Kaixin is three years old and misses her mother, Ms. Luo Zhixiang, very much.

Ms. Luo was tortured to death in the Huangpu Drug Rehabilitation Center in Guangzhou City, and her father, Mr. Huang Guohua is homeless, trying to avoid being captured and tortured for his belief.

Ms. Luo lived in Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province. After graduating from a university in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, she worked as an engineer. She started to practice Falun Gong in 1996. In her workplace, she was known as a kind and hard-working person. After the central government banned the practice of Falun Gong, she and her husband, Mr. Huang Guohua, went to Beijing to appeal to the government for the right to practice. Since then they have been arrested, detained, and tortured many times. 

In May 2001, Ms. Luo gave birth to their daughter. To avoid recapture and persecution, she was forced to leave her three-month-old infant in the care of her mother-in-law and become homeless. Local authorities put her name on a wanted list and posted a reward of 30,000 Yuan for her capture. After her husband was released from the Huadu Labor Camp Guangzhou City, he joined Ms. Luo and became homeless too.

On November 22, 2002, local police found the couple and arrested them. Ms. Luo's husband was sentenced to forced labor again at the Huadu Labor Camp. She was released after an examination revealed that she was three months pregnant. However, the authorities from the Tianhe District's "610 Office" arrested her again and sent her for forced brainwashing at the Huangpu Drug Rehabilitation Center in Guangzhou City. She started her hunger strike again and was subsequently tortured. On November 30, 2002, while still in police custody, her head was injured when she fell from the third floor of a building under very suspicious circumstances. She was sent to a hospital for treatment.

On December 1, 2002, Ms. Luo’s family was notified that she was on the verge of death. Her mother-in-law brought little Kaixin to Guangzhou City on December 5, but Ms. Luo was already dead. She had passed away, along with her unborn child, at the young age of 29. Her family members saw that her face was badly deformed. The local authorities tried to conceal the torture, claiming that she had committed suicide by jumping from a building. Before Ms. Luo’s death, she had been on a hunger strike for seven days; she was too weak to walk. There were three persons who monitored her every day, and even followed her to the restroom; it would have been impossible for her to find a chance to jump from a building. After her death, only her head was injured. This is not what one would expect if she had actually jumped from a building.

Ms. Luo’s family refused to cremate her body and requested an autopsy. However, the local authorities threatened them, and tricked her husband into signing papers allowing the cremation. Since her parents-in-law had no income, they filed an application for living benefits, but were denied. Her parents-in-law and little Kaixin were forced to wander homeless on the streets for more than four months.

Ms. Luo’s husband was released several months after her death. He became homeless again to avoid recapture and further persecution. Ms. Luo’s parents-in-law, who are also Falun Gong practitioners, were also detained and tortured. The police released them after torturing them for one month and confiscating the only cash they had.

Kaixin, who is less than three years old, now lives with her grandparents in Rujia Village, Wujing Town, Linqu County, Shandong Province, where their living conditions are so poor that the house is made of mud bricks and there is a one-meter-long crack in the ceiling. She misses her mom, and often kisses her mom’s picture. She frequently tells her grandparents, "I saw Mom. She is so beautiful, Mom often comes to see me."

"Mom and Dad, Please Come Back Home Soon"

- An Open Letter from Two Young Sisters in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province Calling for the Rescue of Their Parents on December 11, 2003

A family photo

Dear Grandmothers, Grandfathers, Uncles, Aunts, Big Brothers and Sisters, 

How are you? My name is Yang Xinyu, and I am 11 years old. I am a 5th grade student in elementary school. My little sister is Fang Nanjie. She is nine years old and in the 3rd grade. We live in Longzhou Subdivision, Section #4, Building #3, Unit 2, Apartment #1, Longzhounanxiang Road, Jingjiang District, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province. We are both students of Longzhoulu Elementary School in Chengdu City.

We once had a happy family of five - grandfather, father, mother, sister, and me. My parents were both laid-off and to support our family, they took to peddling vegetables. They worked very hard and endured a lot of pressure. My mom's health was poor, and she had many chronic illnesses. In 1995, my mother started to practice Falun Gong, and her illnesses disappeared almost overnight. Thus, our whole family began to practice Falun Gong. Dad, mom and grandpa paid close attention to my sister's and my schoolwork even though they were very busy. They patiently taught us to draw, paint, write, and do calligraphy. I loved that happy family of five. I love my dad and mom.

Since July 20, 1999, however, just like thousands of other Falun Gong practitioners, the officials tried to persuade my mom to stop the practice. My mom was firm in her belief and so was detained for 15 days.  After her release, mom spent all her savings on airplane tickets and with my little sister flew to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. My grandpa and dad stayed home because I was just starting the first grade in elementary school. Soon after mom came back, police broke into our home and arrested my mom for going to Tiananmen Square. My family was so sad and depressed. One month later, we received a notice that my mom would be sentenced to one and a half years of forced labor. My sister and I started sobbing when we saw the notice. On the day she was arrested, my mom did not want to cooperate with the police, but four policemen put handcuffs on her, and carried her away. Every time I recall that scene, I always regret that I did not grab Mom's hands and stop the police.

Mom left us. So my grandma came from the village to take care of my sister and me. My mom was detained in the Nanmusi Women's Labor Camp in Zizhong City, Sichuan Province. The living conditions in the labor camp were miserable. In trying to force the practitioners to give up practicing, the labor camp forced my mom and other practitioners to sit straight, in a fixed position, with both legs tightly together. If anybody moved even a little, the guards and criminals would beat, kick, and humiliate them. They were not allowed to take showers and only had 5 minutes in the morning and at night for brushing their teeth and washing. However, my mom never gave up her belief.

After mom was released in July 2001, my whole family took the train to Beijing to appeal again.  A short while after we arrived at Tiananmen Square, a group of policemen came to us. They forcibly pushed my dad into the police vehicle. Then they wound the yellow banner twice around my mother's neck and pulled it tight. Mom almost couldn't breathe. After a while, they released mom. My sister and I again witnessed the policemen's atrocious behavior, this time at the special location of Tiananmen Square in the light of day.  We couldn't hold back our tears. Later we left Beijing with our mom.

After dad came home, in a very few months, my parents were detained again for exposing the persecution of Falun Gong. Our grandma had to come from her village to take care of us again. During these four years, our family experienced separations like this many times. Soon we received the notice of my parents' sentences: Mom was illegally sentenced to three years in a labor camp, and Dad was sentenced to two years of forced labor. My grandpa's health deteriorated day by day, both from grief and his advanced age, and he passed away in February 2003. Once my parents learned this tragic news, they would have been so sad. We couldn't help crying out in sorrow. We were all deeply shocked. Grandpa had loved us dearly when he was alive. When we were in difficulty, he used his meager income to support the family. Before his death, he still had a lot that he wanted to tell my parents.

I hope the governments and authorities stop the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners and allow all children to grow up in warm sunshine with the love of their fathers, mothers, and families.

Mom and Dad please don't worry about us.  We are all doing fine. Please do take care of yourselves when you are detained.  To the policemen in the prison, please treat my parents nicely.  To those kind people who know about this case, help us so that together we can rescue our parents and they can come home early.

Your loving daughters:

Yang Xinyu (writer)

Fang Nanjie

Note:

Father: Mr. Yang Zhu, currently detained in the Xinhua Labor Camp in Mianyang City, Sichuan Province

Mother: Ms. Fang Jing, currently detained in the Dabao Village Women's Labor Camp Section #42, Dabao Village, Luodaiwen'an Town, Longquanyi District, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province

Family Shattered by the Persecution: Wife Tortured to Death, Husband Missing, Child Placed in Orphanage

        Wang Xiaodong, a 34-year-              Liu Xifeng, Ms. Wang’s                  Their son, Liu Xiang, is 

        old middle school teacher,                 husband, is missing.                        11 years old and currently

        was tortured to death.                                                                                 living at the Shenzhen

                                                                                                                            Orphanage.

Falun Gong practitioners Mr. Liu Xifeng and Ms. Wang Xiaodong were originally from northeastern China. They were both teachers at Shenzhen Nantou Middle School, and they had a son named Liu Xiang, who is now 11 years old.

After the persecution of Falun Gong started on July 20, 1999, Mr. Liu went to Beijing to appeal for an end to the injustice thrust upon Falun Gong practitioners. In order to avoid the police who were attempting to stop practitioners from appealing, he walked to Beijing, which took him 45 days. He suffered much from the trip. His feet became swollen from walking and he could not wear shoes.

In 2000, police detained Mr. Liu’s wife, Ms. Wang, and sentenced her to two years in a forced labor camp for appealing for Falun Gong in Beijing. She underwent extreme torture in the Nanshan Detention Center and later in the Sanshui Forced Labor Camp. She suffered a mental breakdown from the torture and was released for treatment. After her release, she resumed practicing Falun Gong and healed quickly.

The couple was fired from their school because of their appeals. To avoid harassment from police, they went into hiding. Their son's education, therefore, was greatly disrupted.

Around January 2002, Mr. Liu and fellow practitioners fell into a trap set by the Chinese National Security Bureau. The police arrested them in Buji, Shenzhen. The section chief of Shenzhen National Safety Bureau, Xiao Shizhong, ordered police to torture Mr. Liu. He was later brought to Shenzhen City Armed Police Hospital (also known as Guangdong Province Border Patrol Armed Police Hospital), which is the designated medical institution for the Shenzhen “610 Office.”[1]  For more than one year, dozens of Falun Gong practitioners who had been on hunger strikes to protest the persecution were kidnapped to this place, forcibly given injections, and force-fed.

At around noon on March 22, 2002, Mr. Liu, who was on hunger strike, was taken to room 301 of the first section of the Internal Medicine Department to be force-fed. The section chief, Xiao Shizhong, shouted in the corridor, "Let's puncture this pig to death. Let's do a human body experiment. Whoever wants to learn can come!" Thus, the tube insertion was performed by security guards Zhang and Tang Jianfeng, who were non-medical personnel, from Shenzhen City Longgang Security Firm. The improper procedures caused Mr. Liu to have trouble breathing; his whole body twitched and his life appeared to be in danger. As a result, the officers put him on a cardiac monitor for emergency treatment. A doctor on duty, Dr. Liu (female, over 40 years old), prescribed an intravenous drip in each arm. At this critical moment, rather than allowing a trained nurse to administer the intravenous infusions, security guards Zhang and Tang Jianfeng insisted on learning to insert the needle. Head nurse Liu Min approved and instructed on-duty nurse Geng Jie to teach them how to do the insertion. These two security guards punctured Mr. Liu’s hands and arms over twenty times, breaking blood vessels in many places. This went on for more than ten minutes. Mr. Liu started to show severe, irregular heartbeats and difficulty breathing, and his whole body went into seizure.

Mr. Liu suffered another round of torture at about 1:30 p.m. on March 30, 2002, in room 329 of the Internal Medicine Department. The police force-fed him high-proof alcohol through a nasal tube twice in order to torture him. He had not been eating or drinking for 16 days. Police officer Wang Wei took out four sets of handcuffs, cuffed Mr. Liu's hands and feet to a bed, and injected a full syringe of alcohol into the nasal feeding tube. Later, security guard Song Shichao and another person from the Longgang Security Firm injected twice the amount of alcohol they had forced into him the first time. In less than one hour, they inserted the tube through his nose twice and injected alcohol twice. After the second time, the tube was covered with blood when they pulled it out.

Mr. Liu successfully walked out of the hospital and regained his freedom when the prison guards who monitored him fell asleep.

On September 22, 2002, Mr. Liu and his wife, Ms. Wang, were arrested again.

Currently, no one knows the whereabouts of Mr. Liu. The police tortured Ms. Wang to death after she was on  hunger strike for four months in the Shenzhen Nanshan Detention Center. It is said that the police sent their 11-year-old son to the Shenzhen Orphanage.

An Eight-Year-Old Girl Died from the Persecution

Gao Jingyu was the 8-year-old granddaughter of Mr. Gao, a 59-year-old man living in Jiuxian Village, Changping County, Beijing.

Mr. Gao had three major operations in his life because of poor health, but his illnesses were never cured. In June 1999, Mr. Gao started to practice Falun Gong. Since then, both his physical and mental health greatly improved. On March 5, 2000, because Mr. Gao refused to give up practicing Falun Gong, the village officials sent him to the nearby Gaoyakou Military Training Center and forced him to be brainwashed.

During Mr. Gao’s detention in the military training center, he learned that his granddaughter, Gao Jingyu, had been hospitalized with leukemia. The training center had to release Mr. Gao to allow him to take care of his granddaughter. After staying in the hospital for thirteen days, doctors sent Jingyu home with some medicine. A month later, she was hospitalized again because her situation worsened. After being admitted to the hospital for the second time, her situation continually became worse. Finally her doctors said that they would not be able to cure her illness. Jingyu was sent back home again. This saddened everybody in Mr. Gao’s family.

Because of this desperate situation, Mr. Gao said to his family “Let Jingyu practice Falun Gong with me. Falun Gong has cured so many illnesses in my body. I think Falun Gong can save her.” From that day on, Mr. Gao started teaching his granddaughter the Falun Gong exercises. Miracles happened soon. Jingyu, who had been so weak and unable to stand, started to recover and even walk. Soon, she wanted a bike, and could ride a fair distance. The whole family was very happy to see the changes in the little girl. Following her recovery, the girl’s grandmother, father, and mother started practicing Falun Gong one after another. Gao Jingyu’s father would carry her on his back, and they did the exercises together in a public place. A few days later, she was able to walk from home to the practice site by herself. Everybody in the village witnessed her incredible recovery.

On July 20, 2000, Mr. Gao and other practitioners in the village went to do the exercises as usual. When they reached the practice site, they saw that the village and town officials, the head of the town’s military department, and the town’s police officers were waiting there with three cars.

The police officers rudely ordered all the practitioners to form a line and forced Jingyu’s father to run while carrying her on his back. After he ran to the gas station which is about 400 meters away from the practice site, the officers forced Mr. Gao the grandpa, Jingyu, and the other practitioners to get into the car, but made Jingyu’s father run in front of the car while the officers were driving. Jingyu was so scared watching her father run. She asked her grandfather “Why do the police make father run in front of the car? What will happen if the car hits my father?” Her father had to keep running all the way until he reached the town’s police station, three kilometers away. Yet he still could not rest.

The officers forced him to jump up and down in front of his daughter and they even hit him. The police then detained all the practitioners, including little Jingyu. She weakly lay down on the concrete slab, anxious, scared, and confused. She was released and her mother took her back home after being kept in the cell for more than six hours. Mr. Gao and ten other practitioners were later sent to the Gaoyakou Training Center, and were closely watched. On July 23, they were released.

On the morning of July 24, 2000, grandpa Gao locked the gate to their yard, and did the exercises with four other family members. A little while later the village official and police officers came and arrested all five of them, including Jingyu. She was released an hour later. The others were detained in the police station for more than 30 hours. After coming back from the police station, Jingyu’s situation quickly became worse. She began to vomit blood. On August 18, 2000, Jingyu closed her innocent and confused eyes for the last time and left this world.

An eight-year-old child, diagnosed with an incurable disease by the hospital, had gained a little hope by practicing Falun Gong, but finally lost her life after the inhuman treatment received from the police who blindly followed the irrational demands of Jiang Zemin and the 610 Office.

A 16-Year-Old Girl Tortured in the Police Station

I am 16 years old, and was expelled from school because I am a Falun Gong practitioner. The local police station had orders to watch my family closely, day and night.

In the evening on September 9, 2001, my younger brother and I went out to post some Falun Gong leaflets. After that, we spent the night at a friend’s house. Early the next morning, when I got home, I found that the director of the police station was interrogating my mother, trying to find out where I was. Later, they arrested me and took me to a room on the second floor of the local police station.

I was forced to sit on a small stool. There were two iron rings on the floor, one meter apart. I felt strange. I just tried to stand up and leave the room. However the policeman pushed me back to the stool. Half an hour later, a policeman came in to interrogate me. He ordered me to lift my head. When I refused, he pulled my hair. He shouted, “You and your brother posted some leaflets, is that right?”

I said, “It has nothing to do with my brother. I did it by myself.”

He asked, “Where did you get the leaflets?”

I did not answer him. When he didn’t get an answer, he got very angry. He slapped my face. I fell to the ground, and tears started rolling down my cheeks. He pulled my hair and kept on asking.

He said, “Someone reported that you posted more than 10 leaflets. If you tell me who gave the leaflets to you, I will release you.” I told myself that I would never betray other Falun Gong practitioners.

He slapped me many times, and left. Soon, another tall policeman came in with some shackles. He pushed me to the two iron rings on the floor and shackled my right hand to one of them. He sat down in front of me and kicked my chin and head with his leather boots. He kept asking questions. Then he stood up and slammed my head into the wall. He left without getting any answer from me.

Next, two policemen came in, one with an electric baton, and the other with pen and paper. They shackled my left hand to the other ring so that I could not move at all. They shocked me with an electric baton, and repeatedly slapped me, as they kept questioning me. To prevent others from hearing my screams, they locked the door. They shocked my hand, head, and even my neck. The shock was so intense that I lost control of my bladder. I was menstruating at the time. Both urine and blood streamed down from my pants. The shackles cut deep into the flesh of my hands. I started crying from the pain.

At last they asked me to stand up. I was too weak to stand. My head felt dizzy, my body kept shaking, and I could not even open my eyes.

I told them, “Before, when I watched TV, I learned that shackles and electric batons are only for bad people. I am just 16 year old and haven’t done anything wrong. Yet you use them on me like I’m a criminal.”

“You spread leaflets,” one policeman said.

                                                                                                                                                           I told them, “I just tried to tell people the facts about 277 Falun Gong practitioners being tortured to death. I didn’t commit any crime.” They were speechless. In the evening, I was taken to a detention center.

Family Broken Apart, 14-Year-Old Child Left Home Alone

Qu Yao (male) was 14 years old. He lived with his parents in Liaoyang City, Liaoning Province. His father, Mr. Qu Yongjiu, was a salesman at Xinfeng Corporation in Liaoyang City.

At approximately 6a.m. on July 4, 2002, Mr. Qu Yongjiu left his house to buy breakfast for his son Qu Yao, but the police from the Liaoyang County Public Security Bureau forcefully arrested him. Five policemen then broke into Mr. Qu’s house. Qu Yao, was the only one at home. The police ransacked the house and arrested him. The police did not release the teenager until several hours later. He suffered severe mental stress from the incident.

The police arrested Qu Yao’s father to get information about his wife, Ms. Yao Mei, who had left home to escape police persecution because she practices Falun Gong. Currently, only Qu Yao is left at home, and he has no one to take care of him. He does not know how to cook and often goes hungry. At the time of his father’s arrest, he was preparing for his final exams. There was much stress from school. What he needed most was his parents’ care and support. Yet, he even had difficulty finding food to eat. His mother could not come home because she would be arrested if the police saw her.

The police from the Political Security Department in Liaoyang County Public Security Bureau sent Mr. Qu to the Shoushan Detention Center. He was ruthlessly beaten there, and, without any legal reason, sentenced to labor reeducation for two and a half years.

16-Year-Old Driven to Homelessness to Avoid Forced Brainwashing

I am a 16-year-old high school student and I have practiced Falun Gong for more than six years. Falun Gong has benefited me in so many ways. It has taught me true responsibility, to always be considerate of others, and to conduct myself by the principles of “Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance” in my daily life.

On April 25, 1999, my mother and I participated in the peaceful petition to the Chinese government for Falun Gong. Since then, our lives have been turned upside down. The personnel from my local residence office and the police station have harassed me many times at my school and at home. Since I had done nothing wrong, I did not give up practicing Falun Gong. However, I feel pain from the forced break-up of my family. My parents have been detained illegally many times. My mother was forced to leave home to avoid recapture and further persecution. Although I miss her very much, I cannot see her, because it is too dangerous.

Once when the police detained my mother, they also came to my school, took me to the principal’s office, and surrounded me in an intimidating manner. At the beginning, they told me that I could see my parents as long as I agreed to persuade them to renounce Falun Gong. When I rejected this, they started to scold and threaten me. They shouted at me one after another. This happened many times, and once I was so scared that I cried. Fortunately, many teachers at my school encouraged and helped me during these difficult times.

On April 30, 2001, they came to my school again and took me to the local residence committee office. There they handed me a phone. My mother was on the other end. I sensed that my mother had agreed to give up practicing Falun Gong. Eager to find out what happened to her, I agreed to go with the police to see my mother, who had been detained at a forced brainwashing center in Hulufa in the Fangshan District. On the way, I heard from a policeman that this place had once held more than 1,000 Falun Gong practitioners.

I did see my mother, and asked her what happened and why she gave up her belief. She did not answer me. I felt sad for her, but quickly found that I myself had been deceived and abducted by the police, who then tried to force me to write a statement renouncing Falun Gong. They took me to a room and threatened to keep me in the room until I complied. To threaten me, they also pointed to a man who was being forced to run nonstop as a way to torture him.

I felt both angry and strange. I was angry because there could be no reason for them to take away my personal freedom. I did not violate any law! I felt strange not understanding why that man was running nonstop, and why my mother would give up her belief.

That evening, just before going to sleep, when I saw the awful black and blue bruises on my mother’s back, shoulders, and arms, I simply burst into tears. These bruises were clearly marks of torture. I suddenly understood how my mother was forced to give in. In the brainwashing center, the torturers took turns brainwashing and threatening her and did not allow her to sleep for several days. They tortured her by various means, including making her stand facing the wall, kicking her, punching her, and forcing her to run around the courtyard for six hours, just like that man I saw running. They even threatened to have a dog bite her. My mom was finally coerced into acting against her conscience.

I was shocked by the bloody and cruel facts. During the days that followed, the police took turns bombarding and threatening me. I could not even think clearly. I was forced to write notes to “repent” and to renounce Falun Gong.

Once we were released from the brainwashing center, my mother came to her senses and resumed her practice of Falun Gong. To avoid recapture and further torture, she fled from our home. She would rather lead a vagrant’s life than to live against her conscience. The evil officials then came after my father and me. On one evening in September 2002, several women from my local residence office and policemen from the local police station took my father and me to the Hulufa brainwashing center again. There, the police forced me to give my fingerprints and forced me to write 8 pages of lies about Falun Gong. I did it against my will. I just wanted the nightmare to end.

The suffering didn’t stop there. Every day thereafter I was forced go to the brainwashing center. These people also forced me to provide information to them so they could track down my mother. I resisted, but the pressure was so great. I was on the brink of mental collapse. In those awful days, I often wondered: if they did not want me to be truthful to my conscience, then what kind of person did they want me to become?

I was released in early October 2002. I felt humiliated in my heart that I had betrayed my conscience. I wanted to persist in my belief in “Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance.” To avoid being sent back to the brainwashing center, I have now left my home and the school that I liked so much. I’ve been forced into homelessness, just like my mom.

The Persecution of a 14-Year-Old and Her Family

On September 16, 1999, at approximately 9 p.m., the police broke into the home of fifty-two-year-old Mr. Wang Guihe in Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province, and arrested him, his wife Ms. Zhong Yu (37-year-old), his 83-year-old mother Ms. Li Guozhen and the couple’s fourteen-year-old daughter Wang Yuli. They were arrested because they practiced Falun Gong. Yuli and her grandmother were released the next day. When they returned home, they found that not only had all of the Falun Gong books and materials been confiscated, but also all the money they kept in the house had been taken.  Yuli’s mother was kept in police custody for more than 20 days.

Her father, Wang Guihe, was detained in the Nanchang Forced Labor camp.

Due to pressure from the government, his company fired him on the second day of his arrest. He was sentenced to one year in a forced labor camp.  On December 25, 1999, when Yuli and her family were allowed to see her father, they were shocked at how frail he looked because of the brutal torture and up to 18 hours a day of hard labor he had endured.

In February 2000, her mother was arrested again for making two phone calls to her overseas relatives (who are also Falun Gong practitioners). Yuli and her 83-year-old grandmother were left at home again with no money. Her mother was released after more than two months of torture. Her father, Mr. Wang, was not released until July 2000.

On December 16, 2000, Yuli, her mother, grandmother, and father went to Beijing to tell the truth about Falun Gong to the government. They were arrested on December 19 in Tiananmen Square. They were beaten very badly while being detained.

Yuli was returned to her home in Nanchang City. She had to live alone because the rest of her family was being held in custody. Her grandmother was released on January 10, 2001. Later, Yuli and her grandmother were arrested again and sent to Nanchang No. 27 North Road Detention Center. They were to be kept there for three months. The police said that they would not be released until they paid a fine of 40,000 Yuan. Yuli’s mother and father have been sentenced to a forced labor camp and the police will not tell the family where they are being detained.

Mother Detained, Three Children Left without Care

Ms. Dong Peilan has three daughters ages 8, 10, and 13.

Both Ms. Dong Peilan and her husband, Mr. Zhao Lanzhou, are Falun Gong practitioners. In January 2000, Ms. Dong Peilan was arrested because she appealed to the government in Beijing to stop the persecution of Falun Gong. She was then detained in the First Forced Labor Camp in Gansu Province for one year. After her release on August 25, 2002, she was again arrested while in a local store. Her husband had been forced to leave home the prior year to avoid arrest and torture and has been missing ever since. Now, their three little girls have been left alone with no one to take care of them.

The three children went to Tianshui Police Station three days in a row, crying for the release of their mother. The police refused to free her. The oldest daughter, who was 13, could not bear this tragic situation and ran away from home. She has been missing ever since. The other two daughters, 10 and 8 years old, are having a hard time living by themselves without anyone to care for them.

A Teenager Sent to a Brainwashing Center

Li Zhongwen (male) was a 17-year-old teenager when this report was written. He and his parents, Mr. Li Dongliang and Ms. Bai Yuzhi, lived at Jingxing County, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province. His mother worked in the Jingxing County Industry and Business Council.

On July 20, 1999, when Li Zhongwen was 14 years old, his mother, Bai Yuzhi, was illegally arrested and sentenced to three years of forced labor for practicing Falun Gong. In 2000, his father, Li Dongliang, was also illegally sentenced to three years of forced labor for practicing Falun Gong. Li Zhongwen, also a Falun Gong practitioner, has had to live by himself ever since. The police have ransacked Zhongwen’s home several times. He has not seen his parents in over two years. Once when Zhongwen went to visit his father, the guards demanded that he first write a letter renouncing Falun Gong. Zhongwen left with tears in his eyes.

In May 2002, the Jingxing police arrested Zhongwen and put him in a forced brainwashing center. In the brainwashing center, much physical and mental abuse was exerted to force Zhongwen to give up his belief in Falun Gong. He was also expelled from school.

Child Left Unattended while Mother Detained in Forced Labor Camp

Ms. Fang Siyi is a 28-year-old hairdresser in Jilin City, Jilin Province. After the persecution started on July 20, 1999, Ms. Fang Siyi was arrested and detained several times because she went to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. Her husband, who always had a good relationship with her in the past, divorced her due to the pressure and the propaganda spread by the government. He also refused to pay child support for their newborn child and even helped the police to arrest Ms. Fang.

In May and June 2001, Ms. Fang was detained in the No. 3 Detention Center, Jilin City. In order to regain her freedom, she started a hunger strike. In fear that her death might cause them problems, the policemen released her. However, the police came to rearrest her before she had a chance to fully recover from the previous torture. To avoid the persecution, she jumped from a second-floor window. Although she broke her left foot, she managed to escape arrest. Ms. Fang was arrested again in mid-September 2002. The police ransacked her house and took away 810 yuan (Chinese currency) in cash, and other valuables. She was detained in No. 3 Detention Center in Jilin City. Under the order of Jilin City’s “610 Office” and Jilin Police Department, she was soon transferred to Jilin Women’s Forced Labor Camp in Changchun City, where she was almost tortured to death. This labor camp is also where quite a few Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured to death.

Ms. Fang’s three-year-old son is not able to see her.  Her friends and relatives have taken turns caring for him.

A 12-Year-Old’s Predicament

Yuan Yuan is a 12-year-old boy. Yuan Yuan’s mother was given custody of him when she divorced her husband a few years ago. In 1998, Yuan Yuan and his mother began to practice Falun Gong. They benefited both mentally and physically.

In April 2000, Yuan Yuan’s mother was illegally detained for practicing Falun Gong. To punish her, the court changed Yuan Yuan’s custody to his father. Yuan Yuan’s mother was later released, but was rearrested in 2001. After her release, Yuan Yuan requested that his custody be returned to his mother. His father always used violence to control him and often vented his anger at Yuan Yuan. One time he injured YuanYuan’s head, and the boy could not lay his head on a pillow for more than 10 days. His grades in school also declined.

In October 2001, Yuan Yuan filed a petition to the court to return custody to his mother. According to the law, if a child is over ten years of age, the court should consider the child’s wish. Yuan Yuan had the right to choose to be with his mother. Yet the court used the fact that his mother practices Falun Gong as an excuse and ruled that custody should be given to the father. This 12-year-old boy’s appeal to be with his mother was rejected.

Mother and 15-Year-Old Son Tortured

Ms. Sui Cun, age 44, is a resident of Heijinhe Township, Tangyuan County, Heilongjiang Province. On the night of January 14, 2001, eight people from the local police station and the “610 Office” broke into Ms. Sui’s home and took her to the police station. At the police station, policemen Zhou Tiegang and Deng Jian beat Ms. Sui in an attempt to force her to give up practicing Falun Gong. Policeman Ren Changjun also used an electric baton to shock her head and body. When the policemen were exhausted from beating Ms. Sui, they brought in two inmates from the detention center to continue the torture.

The police threatened to beat Ms. Sui’s two sons and to send her whole family to jail. Later, they detained her elder son for 24 hours and slapped the fifteen-year-old boy on his face over thirty times, causing his face to swell horribly.

Ms. Sui was held in custody for 5 days and 4 nights. Every night policemen beat and tortured her. At the end of each beating, they handcuffed her to the heating pipes in a standing position, so she could not sleep. The police also handcuffed her to a door handle, forced her to open the door each time they went through, and spat on her face each time they walked through. In April 2001, Ms. Sui was sentenced to one year of forced labor in the Jiamusi Forced Labor Camp.

Teenage Boy Shocked with Electric Baton and Severely Beaten

Men Ying and Men Long are sister and brother. They are teenage Falun Gong practitioners from Shuangcheng City, Heilongjiang Province.

On November 16, 2000, they went to Tiananmen Square to appeal to the central government to stop persecuting Falun Gong. Several police officers grabbed their banner that read “Falun Gong Is Good,” and beat them.

The police officers dispersed the crowd that had gathered. Using extreme force, they dragged the practitioners to a police van and took them to the Tiananmen Police Station. At that time, 30 practitioners were detained there. At midnight, the practitioners were transferred to the Anshun Police Station. Men Long was sent alone to a secret room. Several police officers then took turns severely beating this teenage boy. They stripped off his clothes and forced him to stand on the cement floor, which was covered with cold water. They poured cold water down his body, exposed him to a cold wind, and beat him with a leather belt all over his body.

After beating him, the officers prepared another basin of cold water. They forced Men Long to put his hands in the water, and then put an electric baton in the water to shock him. When he took his hands out of the water, the officers handcuffed his hands behind his back and beat him viciously. The police officers even said, “If you still do not give up practicing Falun Gong, we will beat your penis until it is useless.”

Then these police officers forced an electric baton into Men Long’s mouth and shocked him, rendering him unable to speak for several days. Later, they transferred him to the Tongzhou Detention Center of Beijing. There, the police officers instigated two prisoners to beat his face with their shoes; they stopped only when they were exhausted. When the police officers took Men Long out of the detention center, a policeman stomped on his chest very hard. Finally, they handed him to police officers from Shuangcheng City. He had been beaten so severely that he could not walk and had to be carried by others.

In just two days, the police had turned a healthy young boy into an unrecognizable one who could not even walk on his own.

Elementary School Student and Her Father

 Become Homeless to Avoid Persecution

Xuan Xuemei is a 5th grade female student in class 4 at Xinqi Primary School in Boli County of Heilongjiang Province.

Xuemei and her mother are Falun Gong practitioners. After repeated arrests, Xuemei's mother was forced to leave her home to avoid recapture and further persecution. On March 5, 2001, the authorities of Boli County, Heilongjiang Province forced every teacher and student in the Xinqi Primary School to sign documents slandering Falun Gong.

To avoid signing the documents, Xuemei asked to leave. But two days later, the County again sent people to make videos of every teacher and student signing the anti-Falun Gong statements. Xuemei again asked to leave. Xuemei's mother is wanted by the police. They exerted pressure on the school to force Xuemei to sign the statements and aid them in tracking down her mother.

Teacher Yi Bo was assigned to coerce Xuemei into denouncing Falun Gong. She threatened the little girl for three hours. After returning to class, Xuemei was called to the principal’s office again. There were three or four police officers waiting for her. They asked her questions like “Is Falun Gong good?” and “Is Li Hongzhi good?” They also asked her about her mother's whereabouts.

Xuemei was finally allowed back to class, but the teacher again tried to pressure her to stop practicing Falun Gong. The teacher told her the only way she could attend school was to give up her practice. Eventually Xuemei had to leave school.

Because of these kinds of threats, Xuemei’s father decided to leave home with her, and they are now homeless.

Girls Forced to Listen while Mother is Tortured

Two teenage girls, one 13-years-old and one 11, from Xushui County, Hubei Province, were arrested along with their mother for participating in a group Falun Gong exercise session at the County Square. The policemen beat their mother from head to toe in order to find out who the organizers were for the group Falun Gong exercises. Some of them pulled her hair, others twisted her arms and still others punched her in the eyes. Her eyes became blurred and then she went blind. Blood gushed out of her mouth nonstop. While their mother was being severely beaten, the police were interrogating the girls in the next room. These two girls were forced to listen while their mother was being tortured. They heard all the kicking, shouting and violence.

Huang Chunlin, a Ten-Year-Old, Deprived of Schooling,                    

 and Forced into Homelessness

Huang Chunlin, a ten-year-old boy and resident of Tieling City, Liaoning Province, is now forced to share a life of homelessness with his mother, Ms. Jin Hongyu. Because she went to Beijing to appeal to the government to stop persecuting Falun Gong, Ms. Jin was detained four times by the Xicheng District Police Department in Beijing and the Yinzhou District Police Department in Tieling City. She was sentenced to one year of forced labor and then asked to pay a “fine” of 5,000 yuan to be allowed to serve her term outside the camp. In 1999, when Chunlin was six, his mother, aunt, and grandmother were all arrested for their practice of Falun Gong, leaving no one to take care of him or  his grandfather who was suffering from a serious illness. They had a very hard life.

In February 2002, Ma, the Chief of the Chaihe Street Police Station, Yingzhou District, Tieling City, along with several policemen, went to the home of Ms. Jin and her relatives to harass them. On several occasions they also drove away customers from the restaurant Ms. Jin owned. Then, without any permit, the police searched and closed the restaurant. As a result, Ms. Jin had to leave home to avoid further persecution, taking Chunlin with her. They have been destitute ever since then, and their hard life has become even harder.

In May 2002, policemen Yu Dehai, Sun Lizhong, and Yang Dongsheng, from the Yinzhou District Police Department in Tieling City, found and arrested young Chunlin. They interrogated him and tried to find out where his mother was, but he refused to tell them. Sun Lizhong then picked him up by the throat and threatened, “I won’t put you down if you refuse to talk. Don’t think I can’t deal with you because you are just a kid. You better speak, or I'll jail you here.” Yu Dehai told Chunlin, “If you tell us where your mother and aunt are right way, we assure you we won’t arrest them. But if you do not tell us we'll beat them if we capture them.” The police didn't allow the boy to sleep at night. Chunlin was in a state of utter exhaustion after three days of abuse.

Later, his father's sister came to take him home to live with her. She registered him for school, but policemen Sun Lizhong and Yang Dongsheng continued to persecute him. They went to the school and followed him home every day. Meanwhile, they tapped his aunt's telephone. Eventually the school, under pressure from the police, refused to let Chunlin come to class. Unable to bear the pressure, his aunt became ill, and other relatives dared not take him in. Chunlin has now joined his mother, and they are both homeless and destitute.

Three-Year-Old Child Detained in Fushun City Brainwashing Center

At around 9 p.m. on September 1, 2003, several policemen from the Public Security Bureau in Fushun City, Liaoning Province broke into the home of Ms. Luo Jingyu in Qiandian Village, Shuncheng District. They arrested Ms. Luo and her three-year-old daughter, Chi Xing, and took them to the local forced brainwashing center.

The staff at the brainwashing center told her family, "They are all right in the class and they will be released as long as she writes a 'pledge' to renounce Falun Gong.” In ordered to force the practitioners to renounce their belief, the authorities tortured them. Three-year-old Chi Xing witnessed practitioners’ bodies covered with electric baton welts and bruises. She was forced to listen to the policemen shouting, and to the painful moaning of practitioners being tortured. She has been suffering from severe mental trauma ever since.

Parents Illegally Jailed, Children Expelled From School

On July 4, 2003, Yang Yong and a group of people from the “610 Office,” broke into the home of Falun Gong practitioners Mr. Zhao Baozhuang (husband) and Ms. Li Ying (wife), arrested them, and detained them at the Maling Prison in Mianchi County, Henan Province. The “610 Office” and staff from the Industrial and Commercial Bureau shut down the shoe store that the Zhao family ran. The County’s Education Bureau also expelled Mr. Zhao's two children from school. In addition to being deprived of parental care, the two children are not allowed to go to a school of any kind.

The Police Break Family Apart                                                         Grandmother Died and Children Left Alone

Mr. Xin Baodong, male, 33, and his wife Ms. Gao Shuying, are both from Nanguan Village, Juyang Town, Sanhe City, Hebei Province. In the spring of 2000, because they practice Falun Gong, more than ten local policemen arrested the couple, and detained them for more than ten days. At the end of 2000, Mr. Xin still refused to renounce Falun Gong, so he was sentenced to one year of forced labor, during which he was brutally tortured, both physically and mentally. Over the next two years, Ms. Gao was also detained many times, because she refused to give up the practice of Falun Gong.

In the spring of 2002, not long after Mr. Xin was released from the labor camp, he was arrested again and detained at the Sanhe City Police Bureau Detention Center. The police encouraged the inmates there to beat him badly every day. On the ninth day of his detention, Mr. Xin was severely wounded, and sent to a hospital for emergency treatment. His body was black and blue all over, and eight of his ribs were broken. When his wife, Ms. Gao, went to the hospital to document the torture, and to take a picture of him, the police forced her to destroy the film. In February 2003, the couple fled from their home and became homeless to avoid further arrest and torture. Mr. Xin’s eighty-year-old mother was ill, had no one to take care of her and, in July 2003, passed away, leaving the couple’s two young children at home without anyone to care for them.

The Persecution of  Zang Yinyun and His Family

Mr. Zang Yinyun, male, in his 30s, is from Lishu County, Jilin Province. At the end of 2000, Mr. Zang went to Beijing to appeal to the government to stop the persecution of Falun Gong. He was arrested and detained at Lishu County’s forced labor camp until June 2001. In January 2002, he was again arrested and detained in the Lishu County Detention Center where he was brutally beaten. Several months later, Mr. Zang was sentenced to three years of forced labor and transferred to the Chaoyanggou Labor Camp in Changchun City. In August 2002, the local police removed him from the labor camp, took him into their own custody, and subjected him to further torture. Mr. Zang is now back in detention at the Chaoyanggou Labor Camp. In early 2002, his wife, who was pregnant at the time, was the only one left to take care of their elderly parents and young child.

Mr. Zang’s family members were also persecuted for practicing Falun Gong. In 2001, Mr. Zang’s brother and sister-in-law were detained for one year for going to Beijing to appeal for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong. While they were detained, their farm was pilfered, and their home was frequently ransacked. In September 2002, the Chief policemen of the Liaohe Police Sub-Bureau and the Santa Police Station at Lishu County detained Mr. Zang’s brother for three days and charged him 2,000 yuan for refusing to slander the founder of Falun Gong. Mr. Zang’s younger sister, an elementary school teacher, was fired and sent to a forced labor camp for going to Beijing to appeal to the government to stop persecuting Falun Gong. Later, under pressure from the local police, her husband was forced to divorce her, and she was subsequently forced to leave her home and her young child, and become homeless in order to avoid recapture and further persecution.

An Outstanding Student Expelled from School, Left Homeless

Yin Xiaotian (male) was a 15-year-old middle school student, resident of Changchun City, Jilin Province.

Since July 20, 1999, because Xiaotian went to Beijing twice with his parents to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong, the Anmin Elementary School in Changchun City stripped him of his right to participate in the activities for honor students. He was punished with open criticism in front of the entire school. They also wrote on Xiaotian’s record “Went to appeal in Beijing twice and will not give up Falun Gong even after much coaching. As such, he has caused a lot of damage to the school.”

In the summer of 2001, Xiaotian was accepted at the Chaoyang No.1 Middle School in the Chaoyang District, Changchun City due to his outstanding scores. When the principal of the No.1 Middle School got his record from the Anmin elementary school, he found out that Xiaotian was a Falun Gong practitioner. Therefore, Xiaotian was asked to renounce Falun Gong, or he would not be allowed to attend the school. Since Xiaotian refused to give up Falun Gong, he was sent to the No. 69 Middle School, the lowest ranking middle school in Changchun City.

On the first day of school, Xiaotian was again asked to renounce Falun Gong, or else not be allowed to attend class. He was also threatened with being sent to the police station if he refused to give up Falun Gong. Therefore, Xiaotian was stripped of his right to attend any school and obtain an education because he refused to renounce Falun Gong.

Starting in July 1999, Xiaotian’s father, Mr. Yin Xueqing, was detained at the Chaoyanggou Forced Labor Camp in Changchun City for a year because he went to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. His mother, Ms. Chen Yanmei, was detained at the Heizuizi Women’s Forced Labor Camp in Changchun City for one year, and then her term was extended for more than half a year without reason. During that year, Xiaotian did not have anybody to take care of him, and he had to live in other people’s homes. After being released, his father was again sentenced to two years of forced labor because he practices Falun Gong.

While Xiaotian’s father was detained at the Chaoyanggou Forced Labor Camp, his mother became homeless to avoid recapture and further persecution. Xiaotian again became a child with no one to take care of him.