Retired Teacher Mr. Zhao Yong and his Wife were Arrested in Baotou City: His Life Is in Danger

Mr. Zhao Yong is a retired teacher of the Railroad Workers School in Baotou City, Inner Mongolia. Both Mr. Zhao and his wife Cao Huifang are Falun Gong practitioners. They were both sentenced to prison after their third abduction by the police in May 2003. Ms. Cao is being held at the Hohhot Women's Prison. Mr. Zhao is in critical condition at the Donghe District Detention Centre.

The married couple used to live in the family quarters of the Railroad Workers School. In 2000, Ms. Cao was abducted and taken to the Women's Prison, while her husband Mr. Zhao was taken into custody at the District Detention Centre. After serving ten months past his term, Mr. Zhao was transferred to the Wuyuan Forced Labour Camp on December 13, 2000. Because he suffered from high blood pressure he was denied admission and was taken back to the detention centre. He was further diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver in addition to high blood pressure at the city's Hospital. According to the law, he should have been released on medical parole. However, a police officer and members of the 610 Office (1) forcibly sent him again to the Forced Labour Camp. The law means nothing to the authorities when they are dealing with practitioners.

In the Forced Labour Camp, Falun Dafa Practitioners who refused to renounce their beliefs were forced to stand up, with arms handcuffed behind their back, for as many as 72 hours. Some were handcuffed for ten days. Steadfast practitioners were stripped naked and brutally beaten. Some were forced to stand up for two or three months, until their legs were so swollen that they could not put their trousers back on. The officers even stuck electric batons into a practitioner's mouth and rectum during torture.

On May 29, 2001, Mr. Zhao was taken to a military training facility with a dozen or so other practitioners. Yu Wei of the Donghe District Political and Judiciary Committee and 610 Office, Li Suhua, an officer from the Political Security Section of the Donghe Police Department, and officers from the Bayan Police Station--a total of about forty officers--carried out the abduction.

In May 2002, Ms. Cao went to Changchun to take care of her second daughter, whose baby was due. On July 18, 2002, an officer from the Political Security Section in the Donghe Police Department, and two other officers, travelled all the way from Dalian City, Liaoning Province to Changchun City, Jilin Province, and they eventually located her. They told her to go back to Inner Mongolia while the Party central committee was allegedly having a meeting. Her daughter was traumatised and delivered the baby prematurely. Currently, the baby is unable to speak, and has a right hand that is not quite normal. Monthly medical treatment in a hospital costs as much as 15,000 yuan (2). One month after the baby’s birth, the officers showed up again. Ms. Cao's daughter and son-in-law begged them not to take their mother away, but to no avail. Officers, obeying the orders of the 610 Office and police department, abducted Ms. Cao and took her back to Baotou. She was sentenced to one year of house arrest.

On May 16, 2003, the couple were abducted for the third time by the state security unit of the Police Department. Their home was ransacked, and Ms. Cao was handcuffed and deprived of sleep for a long period of time.

Ms. Cao used to suffer from several illnesses, and she regained her health after practising Falun Gong. Under the harsh conditions in prison, all of her ailments returned. She was taken to the hospital for treatment, which cost her over 10,000 Yuan. She was subsequently taken to the Detention Centre for further persecution.

Ms. Cao Huifang has been sentenced to five years in prison and Mr. Zhao Yong to three years. Ms. Cao is at the Hohhot Women's Prison. Mr. Zhao remains at the Donghe District Detention Centre. He is in critical condition. Under orders of the District Political and Judiciary Committee and the 610 Office, the police refuse to release him.

Under Jiang Zemin's orders to "destroy their reputation, bankrupt them financially, and destroy them physically," lawless officials implicated Ms. Cao's entire family during the persecution. Her 80-year-old mother was distressed by the plight of her daughter and son-in-law. Even their relatives were under pressure. Officials at the workplace, neighbourhood administration offices, and the residential committee were also forced to carry out policies against their conscience, and none dared to voice their anger.

Over a dozen practitioners in the Donghe District were sent to forced labour camps for appealing peacefully for Falun Gong. Six were sentenced to prison. All the arrests were carried out by Li Shuhua and Zhang Shufang, both from the Political Security Section of the Donghe Police Department. The police followed the practitioners, tapped their telephones, and caused misery among practitioners and their relatives and friends. Ms. Shang Huiying was sentenced to one year of forced labour for writing to the People's Congress to expose the persecution in 2000. In 2001, Ms. Shang was again forced to leave town and stay with a relative. Authorities ordered the head of the Minhang Police Station, to go to her home to threaten her child, and subsequently pressured her parents at their home. Ms. Shang's mother passed out during the harassment. The officers also threatened her child at school. Ms. Shang Huiying is now at the Hohhot Women's Prison, serving a five-year term.

Notes:
1: "The 610 office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.
2: "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/12/26/92221.html