Mr. Li Qinzhou, male, and his wife Zhang Chunmei were retired from the Hua County Steel Company of Shaanxi Province. The couple started to practice Falun Gong in 1997 and benefited tremendously. They were always ready to help others. Their high moral standards won respect from their neighbors.

On March 8, 2000, Mr. Li, Ms. Zhang, and some practitioners from the steel company went to Beijing to appeal to the government to stop persecuting Falun Gong. They were arrested and taken back to their work place. Later, Mr. Li was deceived into going to the Hua County Police Department where he was detained.  Police officers paraded him through the streets and gave him a public trial along with criminals. The police department even videotaped the parade and his trial. Then, they  sentenced him to one year of forced labor. Five months later, he was released on a medical parole.

After his release, the police asked Mr. Li and his wife to report to the police station every day. During the Chinese Spring Festival of 2001, the steel company detained them and several other practitioners who worked there. Zhou Qingfeng, former director of the local police station, and policeman Zhao Xinmin assisted in the arrest of these practitioners. When the elder couple's daughter, son, and son-in-law arrived from out of town to visit them, they were surprised to find out that their parents were detained. Their daughter could not handle the stress. After returning to her home in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, she became seriously ill and was admitted to a hospital.

Although the couple's daughter was very ill, Men Longxi, the head of the steel company, absolutely refused to let them visit her. The couple kept reasoning with him, so he finally agreed to allow Ms. Zhang to visit her daughter.  He sent two people to accompany her to Wuhan and also made her pay for their travel expenses. However, after she arrived, she was not allowed to see her daughter. Instead, she was asked to write a guarantee letter promising not to appeal for Falun Gong again. Worried about her daughter, Ms. Zhang wrote the guarantee. She was also forced to call her work place every week to report her activities. Later, Mr. Li managed to go to Wuhan. While the couple was away, their employer urged them, repeatedly, to return to Hua County. Policeman Zhao Xinmin and Mr. Liu Guozhen from the steel company even went to Wuhan to urge them to return. In order to avoid the continuing harassment, the couple decided to temporarily leave their daughter's home and become homeless.

On June 19, 2002, a group of policemen, without warning, broke into the daughter's home. At that time, the couple happened to be there. The police ransacked the home and took them away. Mr. Li was sent to the First Railroad Bureau Detention Center of Xi'an City and Ms. Zhang was sent to a Beiling District Detention Center of Xi'an City. A month later, Ms. Zhang was released, but her husband was sentenced to two years of forced labor. When Ms. Zhang and her son went to visit Mr. Li on November 25, 2002, they found he was in good condition. However, four days later they were notified of his death. Zhang Bingyan, director of the prison, alleged that Mr. Li had died of a heart attack. At present, Mr. Li’s death still remains a mystery.

type=Case, Death; type=Case, Family; type=Detention Center, First Railroad Bureau Detention Center of Xi'an City; location=Shannxi, Xi'an;