Ms. Zhu Xianzhi is 43 years old and a mother of three; she lives at Tangsengsi Village in Houshi Township, Yanshi City, Henan Province. On June 28, 2000, Ms. Zhu brought two appeal letters to Beijing to appeal to the government to stop the persecution of Falun Gong. The next day, she was arrested and escorted back to her hometown. Since then, she has been arrested and detained five times. On July 31, 2001, she was arrested and detained in Yanshi City, where she was deprived of sleep for three days. During that time, she was handcuffed with her hands behind her back for two nights. As a result her right arm was injured. While in detention, Ms. Zhu wrote a description of the inhuman treatment she received from Houshi Township officials and police since the persecution of Falun Gong began. She gave it to other Falun Gong practitioners to publicize on the Internet. When the township officials heard about it, they were furious.

On March 6, 2003, she was forcibly taken to a brainwashing center. She started a hunger strike right away and she managed to escape on March 10, 2003. To avoid further persecution, she became homeless. To try to find out where Ms. Zhu was, the Houshi Township officials arrested her husband and her 15-year old daughter. They detained her husband for seven days and deprived him of sleep. They handcuffed her daughter to a table leg for 24 hours, and she was not allowed to eat or sleep. They also went to many Ms. Zhu’s relatives’ homes to search for her.