The Persecution in Heilongjiang Province: An Account of the Atrocities Committed Against Practitioners and their Families

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In his persecutory campaign against Falun Gong, former Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin ordered his corrupt gang of followers to "ruin their [Falun Gong's] reputation, bankrupt them financially, and destroy them physically."

Ruin their [Falun Gong's] Reputation
The persecutors defamed and spread rumours about Falun Gong's founder and the practitioners, and fabricated unwarranted charges against them such as murder and suicide. The persecutors committed crimes, and framed Falun Gong practitioners in order to instigate public hatred towards Falun Gong.

Financial Deprivation
Some Falun Gong practitioners were laid off from their jobs or fired. Some neighbourhood committees extorted large amounts of money from practitioners and even took away practitioners' belongings from their homes.

Physical Annihilation
1. Those who beat Falun Gong practitioners to death are not investigated and are not held accountable for such murders. Practitioners who were beaten to death are said to have committed suicide. Police officers are allowed to shoot Falun Gong practitioners who distribute materials that explain the truth about the persecution. They can also arrest Falun Gong practitioners and ransack their homes without a warrant. These police officers are given permission to beat, torture and abuse Falun Gong practitioners and to deprive them of all of their legal rights.

2. The persecutors have set up brainwashing classes with taxpayers' money in order to persecute Falun Gong. They also used government funds to pay the salaries and bonuses of the security officers and temporary workers required to staff the persecution operations. Additionally, they have purchased equipment for the persecution and allocated a great amount of manpower and resources. All local police and neighborhood committee officials are ordered to participate in the persecution. Falun Gong practitioners' phones have been tapped, and the practitioners are followed and abducted. The police ignore serious crimes taking place in society and devote their energy to the persecution of Falun Gong.

In March 2001, sixteen Falun Gong practitioners escaped from a detention centre within the Mining Bureau, and the police department used 300,000 Yuan (1) to arrest them.

Financial Deprivation

Between May 2 and May 3, 2002, nearly 80 Falun Gong practitioners were held at the Shuangyashan City Detention Centre. Falun Gong practitioners' families had large amounts of money extorted from them. Each practitioner had from 1,000 Yuan to over 10,000 Yuan extorted from their families, to "bail" them out. Fifteen female practitioners were sentenced to forced labour and the male practitioners' situation is unknown.

In addition to the extortion money, practitioners were also forced to pay large amounts for food and medical care.

Below are details of the situation of Falun Gong practitioners in the Lingdong District who were fined or fired from work, and an account of the hardships their families have suffered as a result of the persecution:


Mr. Hu Yinjun
Dafa practitioner Mr. Hu Yinjun, 72 years old, was arrested five times in the past four years and was fined 9,400 Yuan.

Ms. Yang Fengxiang
Dafa practitioner Ms. Yang Fengxiang, 58 years old, is the wife of Li Fengwen. They have little money and could not afford to pay medical bills. They lived in a household of five supported solely by her son, who makes 450 Yuan a month. In 1996, Yang Fengxiang and her husband began practising Falun Gong and became healthy. Police officer Cao Zhenzhuang reported the couple to the police department after the persecution began on July 20, 1999.

On May 3, 2002, Teng Yunlong, Zhongshan Police Department head, and police officer Zhao Yuying climbed into the backyard of Yang Fengxiang's home. They took a copy of the book Zhuan Falun (3) and arrested her husband. They sentenced the couple to three years of forced labour. Yang Fengxiang fled to a friend's home. They harassed her son and wouldn't leave the family any peace. The street committee cancelled their low monthly stipend and Committee Head Chen refused to pay the salary owed to Yang Fengxiang. Yu Jiaying, an official at the Lingdong Organization Department said, "Don't pay anything to Falun Gong practitioners!" Yu Jiaying pocketed Yang Fengxiang's salary.

Yang Fengxiang was forced to work as a nanny and her daughter-in-law and two-month-old grandson had to move back and live with their maternal family. In September 2003, after 16 months of detention, Ms. Yang's husband, Li Fengwen, suffered a mental collapse and couldn't speak. The perpetrators charged the family 350 Yuan for medical expenses and the family also had to pay over 5,000 Yuan for food and medications. Cao Zhenzhuang of the police station took away Yang Fengxiang's ID card, and in April 2003, when she needed the ID card to receive labor insurance, her daughter-in-law went to the police station ask for it. However, not only did they refuse to give it back, they even verbally abused her daughter-in-law. A once happy family has suffered tremendous pain and financial loss because of the persecution.


Ms. Chen Suyun, 54 years old, had health problems but had no money to see a doctor. She became extremely thin and weak and lost the courage to live. In 1998 she learned Falun Gong and all her illnesses were cured. Since practising Falun Gong, she was able to do any kind of work. She followed Master Li's (4) teaching and always thought of others first and did not fight with others when mistreated. All the neighbours were happy for her.

Since July 22, 1999, after the persecution of Falun Gong started, studying the Fa (5) and doing the exercises was forbidden. Chen Suyun simply could not understand. How could it be wrong to cultivate "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" and to be a good person? In May 2000, Zhou Jingfang and Chen Suyun went to Beijing to appeal. Upon arriving at Tiananmen Square, they saw three practitioners standing under the national flag not far from them holding a banner with the words, "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance." They immediately joined them and started to do the second set of the exercises, the "Falun Standing Stance." Police quickly arrested them. They suffered a brutal beating during their detention. Zhou Jingfang was beaten with a heavy wooden club and had dark bruises all over her upper legs and buttocks. Zhen Suyun was forced to pay 61 Yuan. Then they were sent to their local liaison office in Beijing, where they were strip-searched. The perpetrators took 270 Yuan away from Zhou Jingfang and 360 Yuan from Chen Suyun. The authorities detained them for over ten days. Later, they were handcuffed and were escorted to their hometown by police officer Han Yongtao from Changshen Township and Zhang Fu from the Lingdong Police Department and were then detained for two weeks at the city's detention centre. They were finally released after paying 150 Yuan.

Fearing Exposure of their Shameless Behaviour

Wang Zhencun from the Jianshan Police Department was in charge of persecuting Falun Gong as a member of the "610 Office." He tried to deceive detained practitioners. In April 2001, practitioner Zhao Yali was arrested. In her purse was 700 Yuan cash, one bank deposit book and a mobile phone. But Wang Zhencun said there was only 200 Yuan cash. While Ms. Zhao's family members were present, he still refused to return her bankbook and the mobile phone. Several days later, around 9:00 p.m., Wang came to the cell that Zhao Yali was detained in, smelling of alcohol. He started saying, in a hypocritical manner, how he had worked hard on her case and then in the end asked her for the password for her bankbook. Ms. Zhao didn't tell him. He left awkwardly. Soon after, Ms. Zhao was sent to forced labour in Jiamusi City. Her family finally got her mobile phone back several months later after they repeatedly demanded that the police department return it.

After brutally beating practitioners in a detention centre or police station, the police would turn around and ask, "Who has beaten you? Who saw the beating?" The prosecuting attorney at court would not listen to practitioner's complaints and would say that they were making trouble. The practitioners would suffer immediate retaliation afterwards for calling attention to the abuse they were suffering.

Practitioners suffered inhuman tortures, such as beating the bottom of the feet with heavy wooden clubs, and being hung up by the arms with both hands shackled behind them and their legs and back forced to form a 90-degree angle.


Practitioner Deng Cunying was tortured to disability by this torture. There were also other tortures, including stomping on practitioner's feet or spine, covering up their face and head with plastic bags or a plastic bucket and brutally beating practitioners, shocking the sensitive body parts, such as the genital area, with electric batons, and freezing practitioners with cold water or making them stand outdoors in the winter.

Details About How Police in the Shuangyashan Detention Centre Abuse and Humiliate Practitioners and Conduct Punitive Force-feeding

Four or five male inmates and prison doctor Xu Enjiang formed a force-feeding team. The tools they used were a rubber tube of 0.8 inches in diameter and 5.2 feet in length, and a hard plastic bottle that was cut across the middle. The top of the bottle was used to open the practitioner's mouth. The items for feeding were corn meal or powered milk mixed with highly concentrated saline solution.

The thugs would enter the practitioner's cell and get on the bed. They dragged the practitioners who were on a hunger strike and couldn't move, pulled them out of the cell and threw them down onto the hallway floor. For the practitioners who could still walk, they would be pulled out by two criminal inmates, knocked down to the ground, and then they were pulled up against wall and their legs and arms were immobilized. One thug would hold the practitioner's head and another would use a fork or similar tool to pry the teeth apart, or they just directly and forcefully squeezed the head of the hard plastic bottle into the practitioner's mouth. Sometimes the practitioner's teeth would be pushed so hard that they would become loose or broken. Once the practitioner's mouth was forced open, they would immediately insert the rubber tube through the bottle into the mouth and push it deep down into the throat. The feeling at that moment was as if all inner organs would be vomited out. They would repeatedly push until the tube fit all the way down into the throat. Then, using a funnel, they would fill the tube from the other end with the food mixture. When the mixture entered the stomach, it made the stomach feel like it was on fire. The reaction was a vomiting reflex, forcing the liquid out instantly. The tormenters would collect this material that was now mixed with blood and tears and pour it back into the practitioner's mouth again. Sometimes they did this repeatedly. Practitioner Zhao Xiangping had suffered such force-feeding daily for 28 days. The excruciating pain would make the practitioners urgently struggle to try to pull out the tube immediately.

Dafa practitioner Lou Weiming had been on a hunger strike for over 40 days. One time she was force-fed three whole liters of material, three times more than the customary amount, in order to make her suffer more. While her tears and nasal mucus came pouring out involuntarily, the guards shouted at her, "If you die, you will reach consummation, right? [Editor's note: This is a mean-spirited distortion of the teachings of Falun Dafa.] Li Jinshan didn't eat a bite of food, so I let him die. He reached consummation, hasn't he? You say that evil is returned with evil? Look at me! Nothing happen to me, so shut up ..." Some of the perpetrators scolded Master Li and Dafa, "I hurt you. Why didn't your master help you?"

They would use the same dirty feeding tube on the other practitioners they were force-feeding.

Words from Vicious Police Officers Who Threatened Dafa Practitioners that Dared to Protest Against the Persecution:

Bai Shuwen (to a female practitioner): "I have all the means to deal with you. If nothing works I will put you into male cells, and let you ..." -- followed by a series of crude verbal abuse.

Xu Enjiang (while force-feeding): "You won't let me [do it] easily--I will force the food in you until you are dead! What can you do to me? ..." Then he forces the food she spit out back into her mouth again and says, "You are opposing the Party; Let's see...Who can prove that I beat you? Where are the bruises?"

Ling Dawei: "Why don't you jump [out of the window]? If you are dead it would be easier for us... No matter how tough one is, he has to endure submissively here..."

Lin Qingfan (to the family members of a practitioner who had died and was cremated without his family being notified): "He deserved to die and we will not even give you his ashes. The big chimney has blown his ashes away... you can go anywhere you want to make an accusation ... Be careful ... Hmm, Falun Gong ... How many of them have died? What does this one matter?"

Du Zhanyi: "It is you that we want to beat ..."

Liu Weiguo: "If you don't tell me the information, I will torture you to death ..."

Words From a Police Officer Who Understands the Truth:

"Having come into contact with you [practitioners] for the past several years, I see that you are not like what the propaganda tells us. It is just the opposite -- you are the genuinely good people. I support you! Please persist in your belief. I believe that Falun Gong will be redressed. Your Teacher is really great. He can teach people of various backgrounds and from various social classes to become such good people. If it were not for Jiang paying money to buy the support from those thugs... how else could he get anyone to work themselves to the bone for him?"

"If I am alone and run into Falun Gong practitioner(s), I do not arrest them."

Recognizing the Evil Nature of the Criminal Regime from the Behaviour of Those Who Have Been Brainwashed and "Transformed"

Zou Guizhen, a female in her 40s: Before she had practised Falun Gong she was rude and unreasonable. She fought with her mother-in-law and with her sisters-in-law, and the family was in discord. Because of Zou Guizhen's curses and verbal abuses, her mother-in-law was afraid of coming out of her room or even stayed away from home. Zou Guizhen's sister-in-law was afraid of visiting her mother. Zou Guizhen was also afflicted with many illnesses.

After Zou Guizhen started to practise Falun Gong, the cultivation of her mind and body changed her completely and made her like a new person. She did not fight back when mistreated, she did her job well and was willing to help others. Since the beginning of the persecution in July 1999, she went to Beijing several times to appeal for Falun Dafa. Ms. Zou was brainwashed in 2001 in the Jiamusi Forced Labour Camp and since then has started to persecute practitioners. She became personally involved in "reforming" others and became a key person in the brainwashing of others. She, together with Yang Shufen, Gao Yuxia and others forced all the "repentant" former practitioners to write a joint letter to falsely accuse Teacher Li.

The labour camp used Zou Guizhen, trying to raise the quota of the number of people being "reformed." When her mother died and her family members tried to find her, the labour camp even did not allow her to go to the funeral. After she was released, she and several other collaborators (8) went everywhere to disrupt those practitioners who had not learned the teachings of Falun Dafa well enough, to deceive these practitioners, trying to "reform" them. She destroyed Dafa books and forced others to write repentance letters. If others refused to write, she would tell the police station to abduct them. Zou Guizhen did many evil deeds and she cheated people out of money with the excuse of "borrowing" money. The "610 Office" financially supported these collaborators. Her mother-in-law advised her not to do these evil deeds that harm others, and said she would eventually bring harm to herself. Her husband said, "Why not? They ["610 Office"] pay us money."

Falun Gong changed Zou Guizhen from a rude and unreasonable person into a person who treated others kindly; but the evil regime pushed her into harming others and destroying her own future.


The depth and scope of this persecution is unprecedented. The cruelty and shamelessness of the methods used in this persecution are a collection of the worst atrocities ever committed in the world, from ancient times to today. The persecution has caused immeasurable damage to people's morals, which is essential to the very existence of human beings.

The support and the help from all kind-hearted people, from the governments of every country and from international organizations have helped to rescue many practitioners from danger. We sincerely thank you! Every honest and self-respecting judge and attorney: please uphold justice, and together, let us stop this persecution. We should not allow the atrocities to continue. Let the forces of justice throughout the whole world bring Jiang Zemin and his accomplices to trial as soon as possible!

Notes

(1) Yuan is the unit of currency in China, where the average monthly salary of an urban worker is 500 Yuan.

(2) "Guarantee money" is said to be a deposit ensuring that the money will be returned at a later date providing that the practitioner does not appeal for Falun Gong again. In many cases, the money is never returned.

(3) The book, Zhuan Falun, comprises the principal teachings of Falun Dafa.

(4) Master Li Hongzhi founded the practice of Falun Dafa.

(5) Fa: Law and principles; the teachings of Falun Dafa.

(6) April 25: On this day in 1999, over 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners peacefully appealed for the rights of Falun Gong practitioners, in an orderly fashion at Zhongnanhai, the Chinese Central Government in Beijing.

(7) July 20: On this day in 1999, Jiang started the brutal persecution of Falun Gong.

(8) "Collaborator": A person whose minds had gone astray due to brainwashing and torture by Jiang Zemin's regime.


Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/5/27/75681.html

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