Practitioner Ms. Zhang Lianrong from Hebei Province Suffered Mental Collapse After Repeated Torture and Died in Accident

Dafa Practitioner Zhang Lianrong from Dingxing County, Hebei Province recovered from all her illnesses after she began practising Falun Dafa. She obtained both mental and physical health. Since the persecution began in 1999, Zhang and her family members have been constantly harassed and threatened by local Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government officials and police. In spring of 2001, Zhang was abducted to the police station where she was tortured to the extent that she became mentally unstable and physically ruined. A few days after she returned home, she was found dead beside the Juma River near the village. More details follow:

Ms. Zhang Lianrong, 42 years old, began cultivating Falun Gong in 1997 after being stricken with headaches and heart problems. After she began cultivation, she obtained both physical and mental health, was able to treat everyone with compassion, and lived blissfully.

However, former Chinese president Jiang Zemin and the CCP began persecuting and defaming Falun Gong and its founder nationwide using television, newspaper and other media channels. Zhang travelled to Beijing to appeal for Dafa. Authorities abducted her from there. She was detained for fifteen days and released after being blackmailed and fined by Zhang Weixing and Duan Pingde, Secretary and Deputy Secretary of the village Political and Judicial Committee.

In October 2000, Zhang Lianrong was once again abducted to the village government's judicial buildings where the Judicial Committee Chief Zhang Changliang and Secretary of the Political and Judicial Committee Ren Jintian, together with criminals Wang Hua and Geng Changjun beat her brutally. Zhang was slapped ruthlessly and made to stand for prolonged periods of time. She was also pressured to defame Falun Gong's founder or suffer beatings using military batons and a whip made from thick twisted metal wires. She was not allowed to eat, drink, urinate, move or sleep. In addition, she was forced to participate in physically demanding slave labour during the day.

After being tortured for approximately ten days she was blackmailed to pay 650 yuan¹, including 150 yuan said to be for subscription fees for a newspaper. In fact, this money ended up in the officials' own pockets. As Secretary of the Political and Judicial Committee Ren Jintian described it, "Our superiors are bad and have forced all of us to subscribe to a bunch of useless newspapers. None of us are willing. But now that you're here it makes it much easier for us. We'll just force you to pay for us. In any case, Jiang Zemin had instructions: the policy towards Falun Gong is to "bankrupt them financially, destroy them physically, and defame their reputation ......" Yet, Zhang was only one of the sixty to seventy practitioners imprisoned here. About sixteen to seventeen other practitioners were fined amounts ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 yuan. Even when Ren's child became dangerously sick and had been hospitalised for several days, instead of visiting the hospital, he used these ill gotten gains blackmailed from Dafa practitioners to spend days enjoying himself with prostitutes in brothels and restaurants with his gang of criminals.

After returning home, Zhang remained firm in her belief in "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance", and practised Dafa diligently. In spring 2001, Chiefs of the Yangcun Township Police Station, Guo Dingquan, and Yang Jianmin broke into her house, confiscated her Dafa books and audio/video materials, and abducted her to the police station. Yang Jianmin beat her up brutally and threatened her. A few days later he blackmailed 2,000 yuan from Zhang's family members. However, after trying many ways, Zhang's family was unable to raise the stipulated amount and Zhang was severely beaten, humiliated and abused by the criminals. In the end, seeing that Zhang's poor family really could not raise 2,000 yuan, they forced them to give the 1,000 yuan they had barely raised.

Even under such circumstances, the Chief of the Township Political and Judicial Committee as well as henchmen from the 610 Office² and the local police station released her home only after they harshly threatened her family members that they must monitor Zhang.

However, Zhang had already become mentally unstable from the torture when she was brought back home. After returning home, she lost all rights as a human being. She was prohibited from practising the exercises, and suffered constant beatings and verbal abuse from her husband and mother-in-law. In summer of the same year, her family members suddenly announced that she had left home by herself. However, several days later, her body was found by the Juma River near the village.

Some people said that she had fallen into the river and drowned herself after becoming mentally unstable from the persecution. However, the CCP members took her story and fabricated their own version: she had committed suicide after losing her sanity from qigong psychosis due to practising Falun Gong. Zhang's family members were also threatened not to reveal how Zhang had been persecuted which made them fearful of telling the truth.

After Falun Gong came under persecution on July 20th, 1999, Yangchun Village CCP members and governmental officials have abducted practitioners, confiscated and destroyed Dafa books, stopped practitioners from going out to work, and confiscated practitioners' personal identification. Practitioners are even restricted from visiting family and friends, and are constantly abducted for no reason. Members of the judicial committee have publicly declared that, "Jiang Zemin has laid out his orders, when we persecute you practitioners of 'Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance', 'when we torture you to death we will publicly announce it as suicide, we would not check where you're from and cremate you immediately.' We would also 'destroy you physically, bankrupt you financially, and defame your reputation', etc." Ren Jintian used to beat up and whip Dafa practitioners ruthlessly himself. He has also forced other people to read Dafa-defaming books or reports every night and forced people to report on others. Those who disobeyed would be dragged into small rooms and tortured in this way: with hands cuffed behind the back, he or she would be brutally beaten using military batons or yard-long whips twisted from thick electrical wires. This would go on until all the perpetrators exhausted themselves.

Government of the Yangcun Township, Dingxing County: 86-312-6974508, 86-312-6974510, 86-312-6974726

Township Chief, Fan Chungu (from Laoli Village):86-312-6975108

Secretary of the Political and Judicial Committee in 1999, Zhang Weixing from Hongshu Village in Beihe Town, Dingxing County.

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

2. "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.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/8/28/136563.html