Mr. Hu Zhiming, male, 28, from Yujia Village in the Yuanbao District of Dandong City, Liaoning Province, was a member of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force and director of the computer lab of the Beijing Air Force Research Institute of Training Equipment.

In March 2000, under direct orders from Chinese Chairman Jiang Zemin, the PLA Air Force ordered all units to put all Falun Gong practitioners under house arrest and coerce them to renounce their belief in Falun Gong. Upon learning of Jiang’s order, Mr. Hu hid in the home of another Falun Gong practitioner in Wenquan Garden, Changping District of Beijing. However, he was tracked down by secret agents, arrested, and detained incommunicado for the next two months at the Xishan Air Force Base in Beijing. At the base, he was put in a room guarded by armed soldiers twenty-four hours a day; he was held in this room for the duration of his detention. Air Force personnel constantly threatened Mr. Hu and tried to force him to give up Falun Gong practice, but he refused.  As a punishment for not renouncing Falun Gong, he was discharged from military service, stripped of his job, and escorted back to his hometown by armed soldiers.

In May 2000, Mr. Hu returned to Beijing to find a new job. In an attempt to track him down for further persecution, the local government of his hometown continuously sent agents to his home and threatened his elderly parents, demanding to know his whereabouts in Beijing.

In September 2000, Mr. Hu was arrested in Shanghai for meeting with other Falun Gong practitioners. He has been in detention ever since. His family was not notified of his arrest until November 2000.

type=Case, Religious Intolarance; location=Beijing; location= Liaoning, Dandong