Retired Senior Engineer from Handan Steel Company Arrested Again

Retired senior engineer Qin Zhongke and his wife were arrested on July 15th, 2008 at 11 a.m. by officers from Luochengtou Police Station of Handan City. Their home was ransacked, and their TV, DVD player, computer, printer and cash are all missing. Mr. Qin Zhongke is being detained in the No. 1 Detention Centre in Handan City. His wife has been released.

Mr. Qin Zhongke is 65 years old and lives in the Luoyi Family Residential Area. He began to practise Falun Gong in August 1997. He has tried to live by the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and has benefited enormously mentally and physically.

On July 20th, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime began persecuting Falun Gong. Falun Gong practitioners became targets overnight, and the CCP currently spends a quarter of its financial resources on the continuing persecution. The CCP has used its monopolized media to slander practitioners and deceive Chinese citizens, instigating hate campaigns against Falun Gong, and operating outside the law. Untold numbers of people have been taken into custody, their homes were raided, and they were suspended from school or work, fined, arrested, detained, sentenced to labour camps, sentenced to jails, tortured, and even beaten to death. This has caused countless shattered families, lost lives, and so many forced to become homeless.

Mr. Qin Zhongke went to Beijing on October 1st, 1999 to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. He was arrested and detained in Handan Detention Centre, and then sentenced to a labour camp because he refused to give up his belief. While imprisoned at Handan Labour Camp, he again refused to be "transformed¹," so he was transferred to Dalian Correction Centre and the persecution intensified.

For two months, the guards took turns brainwashing him and depriving him of sleep. One guard, Jing Dianke, took him to an office and attempted to "transform" him with an electric baton. When the guard found out that nothing could change Mr. Qin's mind, he openly told him: "You only have three ways out: be 'transformed,' die, or lose your mind."

Mr. Qin refused to write a repentance statement² and still wouldn't give up his belief. He was transferred to a brickyard in October 2000, and forced to carry out heavy labour. But nothing could change Mr. Qin, so he was again transferred, this time to the notorious Wujiabao Correction Centre in Fushun.

Once there, Mr. Qin was brutally tortured. When he was covered in blood and lying on the concrete floor unconscious, team leader Wu Wei, Jiang Yongfeng and two other guards still beat him with clubs. Mr. Qin was later transferred to Weiningying Correction Centre, which is directly controlled by the Benxi City 610 Office³. He suffered more inhuman torture there.

After he was released from the labour camp, he learned that his wife had been arrested and sentenced to a labour camp. In 2002, before he could see her, he was arrested again while at home, and his eighty-year-old father was left behind with no one to take care of him.

Mr. Qin Zhongke was again detained in Handan Labour Camp. In order to "transform" Falun Gong practitioners, the guards used the most brutal methods. From July 2nd to 23rd, 2002, Mr. Qin was deprived of sleep, was forced to stand for long periods of time under the baking sun, and was forced to stand day and night. His legs and feet became extremely swollen, he could not walk and he became very weak.

In order to stop the brutal persecution, he began a hunger strike. He was force-fed several times, and his family had to pay the bill. Finally, because the guards were afraid of cases like that of Yang Baochun (this practitioner was brutally tortured in Handan Labour Camp and his legs had to be amputated), he was allowed to sit down. The guards shouted: "Even if you pretend to be 'transformed,' you still have to write the 'repentance statement' before you can go to sleep." No matter how many methods the CCP thugs used, they could not "transform" Mr. Qin. He was transferred to the notorious Gaoyang Labour Camp, where he suffered even more torture.

After he was released the second time, he found that his father could not handle the constant persecution. Because of grief from missing his son and daughter-in-law, he became disoriented and could not take care of himself.

Mr. Qin tried to take care of his father after he came home, but he was arrested again on July 15th, 2008, and is still being held in a detention centre.

Note

1. "Reform or Transform" Implementation of brainwashing and torture in order to force a practitioner to renounce Falun Gong. (Variations: "reform", "transform", "reformed", "reforming", "transformed", "transforming", and "transformation")

2. Repentance Statement: In this statement the practitioner is forced to admit remorse for practising Falun Gong, promise to give up Falun Gong, and never again associate with other practitioners or go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.

3. "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://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/7/28/182938.html