Ms. Wang Shumei, female, is a resident of Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province.

Since China’s government started persecuting Falun Gong in 1999, Ms. Wang’s husband, Mr. Dong Junming, has been arbitrarily detained many times for practicing Falun Gong. In the summer of 2002, Mr. Dong had no choice but to leave his home to avoid further persecution. In an attempt to arrest Mr. Dong, on September 30, 2002, the city’s “610 Office” and the head of the First Division of the City Police Station, Wang Xianzeng, broke into Ms. Wang’s home. Ms. Wang was holding her three-year-old daughter, so Wang Xianzeng snatched the frightened child away from her. While the child watched, the police grabbed hold of Ms. Wang’s hair, verbally abused her, and handcuffed her from behind. They dragged her to the living room and stuffed a towel in her mouth to silence her. She spit the towel out, then Wang Xianzeng stuffed it into her mouth again, using a stainless steel soup ladle. They ripped out a lot of her hair, and blood dripped onto her clothes. Ms. Wang was then sent to the Changli brainwashing center in Qinhuangdao City, where she was held hostage because the police could not find her husband. She was not released until August 29, 2003, eleven months later.

During her detention, she went on hunger strikes to protest the detention, and was force-fed as a result. Because of the rough insertion of the force-feeding tubes through her nose, her nose bled profusely.

Since Ms. Wang’s three-year-old daughter witnessed her mother’s violent arrest, she suffered severe emotional trauma. She often screamed in her sleep and awoke from nightmares. She had live with her grandparents during her mother’s detention.

In June 2003, Ms. Wang’s husband was found, arrested again, and sent to the Hehuakeng Labor Camp in Tangshan City, Hebei Province.