The Persecution of Middle School Teacher Ms. Liu Yanjun and Her Family from Donggang City, Liaoning Province

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Ms. Liu Yanjun was a teacher at Donggang No. 3 Middle School in Liaoning Province. She started practising Falun Gong in May 1997, and her whole family benefited. However, after the Communist regime started to persecute Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999, her life was destroyed, and her practitioner husband died as a result of persecution. She was fired from her teaching job and sentenced to prison, where she suffered gross abuse and almost lost her life. No one was left to take care of her child and parents at home.

When Ms. Liu went to Beijing to appeal in December 2000, officers from the Donggang City Police Department arrested her. Donggang City Educational Bureau and Donggang No. 3 Middle School officials fired her in March 2001. At the end of August 2001, Donggang City Court sentenced her to six years of imprisonment. She began her sentence in October 2001 at the Shenyang Women's Prison. In December 2002 she almost died from gross abuse and mistreatment but was released for medical treatment.

On May 13th, 2004, a dozen officers from Donggang Police Department and the Xinxing Police Station broke into her home, arrested her, and took her to Shenyang Women's Prison again. She was cruelly beaten while in custody, and her legs were disabled for two years and eight months. During that time she went into shock several times, and her life was greatly threatened. She was finally released when her sentence ended in December 2006.

Ms. Liu Yanjun and her husband began to practise in May 1997. Before practising Falun Gong, her husband, Mr. Wang Yuanjing, had severe stomach and liver problems. Ms. Liu had heart disease, cerebral ischemia, arthritis, uterine fibroid tumors, and many other health problems. After they started practising, Mr. Wang's stomach problems disappeared, and the growth of his liver hemangioma was inhibited. Six months after Ms. Liu started to practise, all her previous health problems disappeared. Even her daughter, who used to have frequent fever and colds, became much healthier. Her family benefited so much from the practice that they couldn't adequately express their gratitude toward Falun Gong.

After the Communist regime started the persecution, the couple were considered key targets. The following recounts the persecution of Ms. Liu and her family.

1. Her Husband Dies as a Result of Persecution

Mr. Wang Yuanjing was deputy director of the Taiwan Affairs Office in Donggang City. The Donggang Municipal Committee, the Political and Judiciary Committee, the police department, and other organizations pressured the couple to give up practising Falun Gong, otherwise they would be fired. Mr. Wang renounced his belief under pressure. Following that, all the heads from the different organizations continued pressuring him and ordered him to persuade Ms. Liu to give up cultivation. He was forbidden to work, became sick again, and was diagnosed with advanced gastric cancer.

On August 30th, 1999, Mr. Wang's friend recommended that he to go to Beijing No. 301 Hospital for treatment. When he checked in at the Dandong City Train Station, Donggang City Domestic Security Division head Wang Runlong seized him and didn't let him get on the train. The couple freed themselves from Wang Runlong and got on the train. After arriving in Beijing Mr. Wang learned that his friend had been caught and questioned and threatened by officers from the Donggang Police Department.

The next day Mr. Wang decided not to go to the No. 301 Hospital and bought a ticket to return to Donggang City. At the Beijing Train Station the couple were caught by Donggang City United Front Work Department deputy head Li Xishun and the head of general affairs of Donggang No. 3 Middle School, Wei Jingde. Each of them grabbed one of Mr. Wang's arms. By that time Mr. Wang's legs and arms were swollen, he was very weak, and it was difficult for him to walk or breathe.

The sudden attack gave Mr. Wang a terrible fright. He began to hyperventilate. Only then did officers Li and Wei let go of his arms. They helped him get onto the train. Mr. Wang fell into a seat. He looked pale, he stared straight ahead, and he breathed rapidly. Seeing that Mr. Wang's life was in danger, officers Li and Wei bought four berth tickets for the couple and themselves. The couple finally returned home.

Once at home again, Mr. Wang developed severe ascites, and his abdomen swelled. The fluid in his abdomen had to be taken out every few days. He knew he didn't have much time left to live. Before he died he realized that Falun Gong was the most important thing in his life, so he listened to Master's lectures every day. At first his abdomen was so swollen that he couldn't lie down. But after he listened to Falun Gong lectures, he started to have diarrhoea, and all the fluid in his abdomen dispersed. After that he could sit and lie down as usual. Once again he experienced the power of Falun Gong. However, not long after that, regime agents came back to harass him, and his health worsened. He died at the age of 36 on October 14th, 1999. His daughter was not even 13 years at the time.

2. Deprived of Freedom

After July 20th, 1999, officers from the Donggang Police Department and the Security Bureau, the Xinxing Police Station, and Donggang No. 3 Middle School began to monitor Ms. Liu Yanjun. Officers from the Xinxing Police Station stood by the stairs of her apartment 24 hours a day to monitor everyone that went into and out of that apartment.

Ms. Liu's daughter went to school every day, but the terrible expressions on the faces of the police officers frightened her. Her neighbors began to dislike the officers who followed and monitored Ms. Liu when she went to work.

After she arrived at the school to teach her classes, the officers designated others to watch her at school. When she went to the restroom, school deputy secretary Wang Chuanguang told other female employees to follow her. On weekends Wang Chuanguang ordered Ms. Liu to come to school and continue working without pay. Even when she went shopping Wang Chuanguang ordered a male and a female teacher to follow her.

Four days after Mr. Wang Yuanjing died, the previous police department head, Song Xiaohe, ordered officers to arrest Ms. Liu and interrogate her. Song Xiaohe detained Ms. Liu in a room inside the Xinxing Police Station. They released her at 8:00 p.m.

3. Arrested and Sentenced to Prison for Appealing in Beijing

In May 2000, officers from Donggang Educational Bureau and Donggang No. 3 Middle School constantly badgered Ms. Liu to give up Falun Gong practice. If they couldn't “reform” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] her, then none of the teachers would receive their year-end bonuses, and the school leaders would also be cited with disciplinary sanctions. Thus, principal Xu Weidong held a teachers' meeting and urged them to “reform” Ms. Liu together. Ms. Liu quit her job, but the school leaders said, “It won't work, even if you quit your job; our superiors have given orders that you must be 'reformed.'” In December 2000, Ms. Liu decided to leave her 14-year-old daughter and go to Beijing to appeal.

On December 26th, 2000, on her way to Tiananmen Square to appeal for Falun Gong with other practitioners, Song Xiaohe and other officers who had been hiding on the side of the road arrested Ms. Liu. They took her to a hotel, where Song Xiaohe ordered Lu Jieping and others to torture her.

Lu Jieping kicked her back, and she fell over. Then Lu Jieping sat on her back and handcuffed her. She couldn't bear Lu's weight and couldn't breathe. She felt her back was dislocated, and her heart beat rapidly. After several minutes she lost consciousness. The officers picked her off the concrete floor and carried her to a bed. Soon after she had a heart attack. It was difficult for her to breathe, and she lost feeling in her limbs. The handcuffs were so tight that they left an imprint on her wrists.

After returning from Beijing, all the practitioners were ordered to pay different amounts of money. Some practitioner paid more than ten thousand yuan1. Ms. Liu only had a 14-year-old daughter at home [who had no way to get any money], so the Xinxing Police Station officers extorted 800 yuan from her family members. Once back from Beijing, they held Ms. Liu at the Donggang Detention Centre. All the other practitioners were held at a detention centre where they were interrogated and forced to say that Ms. Liu was the one who had organized their trip to Beijing to appeal.

With false testimony the officers obtained from practitioners under duress, Politics and Law Section head Wang Runlong framed Ms. Liu, citing her with disturbing the public order.

In March 2001, Ms. Liu was arrested, and Donggang No. 3 Middle School officials and those from the Donggang Education Bureau fired her.

Donggang Political and Judiciary Committee head Yang Feng and the new police department heads, Liu Hua and Zhou Hengchen, went to the detention center many times to try to force Ms. Liu to give up Falun Gong practice.

At the end of August 2001, Donggang City Court tried Ms. Liu, but forbade her family members, friends, and other Falun Gong practitioners from attending.

While in court, Ms. Liu explained the facts about Falun Gong to everyone present. Presiding judge Liu Kaifang had to hit the gavel very hard to stop Ms. Liu from speaking. In the end, they sentenced her to six years of imprisonment. Ms. Liu was sent to Shenyang Dabei Prison on October 11th, 2001, leaving her then 15-year-old daughter home alone.

4. Ruthless Abuse and Mistreatment in Shenyang Women's Prison

Ms. Liu held a 28-day protest hunger strike. She was beaten, brainwashed, tied to the death bed2, force-fed food and unknown drugs, and confined in a solitary cell. In December 2002 she was tortured to the brink of death. Finally the prison agreed to release her on medical parole.

At 8:00 a.m. on May 13th, 2004, several agents from the Xinxing Police Station and three female officers from Shenyang Women's Prison knocked on Ms. Liu's door. Her 80-year-old mother was so scared she had a heart attack. Ms. Liu opened the door. The Xinxing District Party head and ten police officers pushed her on the floor and beat her. Because Ms. Liu resisted, they only handcuffed one of her hands. The handcuff left an imprint on her wrist. The officers dragged her downstairs by the handcuff, from the 5th floor to the police car. Her hair was pulled out, her arm was bleeding, and her clothes were in disarray, exposing her upper body. The police officers didn't even give her time to put on shoes or a coat before taking her away. Her scalp was swollen, her legs numb, and her body black and blue.

When they arrived at the prison entrance Ms. Liu called out, “Falun Gong is good!” Police officers Jia Yingchun and Wu Yan had several prisoners carry Ms. Liu upstairs to their office. They put her on the concrete floor and kicked her. The prisoners taped her mouth shut. By that time Ms. Liu could not move her legs due to the beating. Three days later, Jia Yingchun ordered prisoners to carry her to the workshop and forced her to do slave labour.

On May 19th, 2004, Jia Yingchun transferred Ms. Liu to the prison hospital. Hospital head Wang Nina ordered the doctors and others to tie Ms. Liu to the “death bed” and then injected her with unknown substances. They force-fed her drugs and saline solution. Ms. Liu's limbs were severely swollen from being tied so tightly.

She was tortured in the hospital for three months. After they took her back to the cell, her legs were disabled, and she couldn't walk. Because she refused to wear the prison uniform, Jia Yingchun tortured her more. She wouldn't let other prisoners carry Ms. Liu on their backs to the toilet. Instead, she had two prisoners drag her down the hallway. Ms. Liu's arms and breasts swelled, and it hurt to even breathe. Because she held her urine for a long time, she eventually developed kidney problems.

On November 14th, 2004, Ms. Liu became critically ill. Guard Xu Quan and staff person Zhang Lei ordered a prisoner to carry her to the hospital. Prison head Fang Shuxia informed her family members and demanded ten thousand yuan from her brother for medical treatment. When her brother visited Ms. Liu, she had been so grossly abused and mistreated that she was skeleton-like and didn't have any strength to talk. She kept shaking, and she just stared straight ahead. Seeing this, her brother gave officers Wu Yan and Zhang Lei 4,700 yuan, which was all he had, so they would stop abusing his sister.

Jia Yingchun and Wang Nian force-fed Ms. Liu and continued to tie her on the “death bed.” Wang Nian ordered six prisoners to hold her by her hair and immobilize her head; Wang herself inserted the tube into Ms. Liu's nose. The thick tube severely injured Ms. Liu's throat, nose, and stomach. Her nose kept bleeding. They had not disinfected the tube prior to the procedure. This led to an infection in her lungs, and later on to an infection in her urinary tract. She had a very bad cough. Wang Nian ordered the prisoner who took care of Ms. Liu to force-feed her with 3 litres of liquid food three times every day. She would expel the liquid from her mouth. Her stomach eventually swelled up like a big ball.

Practitioners published Ms. Liu's horrid plight in Shenyang Women's Prison on the Minghui/Clearwisdom website. To rescue Ms. Liu, overseas practitioners made phone calls to the prison. Under great pressure, the prison let up a little on abusing and mistreating Ms. Liu. She couldn't speak clearly for five months and was finally released in December 2006.

5. Third Arrest in 2009

Ms. Liu was arrested for the third time on December 22nd, 2009. When she went downstairs at 6 a.m., five police officers who had been waiting on the stairs stopped her. They took away her keys, entered her home, pushed her back in, and ransacked it. This led to her instantly having a heart attack, and her legs became disabled. All her Falun Gong books, other materials, and an MP3 player were confiscated.

The officers took her to the Dadong District Police Department, then drove back to her apartment and ransacked her home again. That afternoon they released her. Domestic Security Division head Wang Runlong dispatched several police officers to guard the stairs to monitor Ms. Liu and anyone who went to Ms. Liu's home.

Since 2000, Ms. Liu has been fired from her job, and her ID card and Household Registration were taken away and never returned. Because of the persecution, she has been deprived of her basic human rights and a source of income.


Note

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

2. "Death Bed" torture: A practitioner is tied to a bed with his hands handcuffed above his head to the bed rails, and his legs tied with thin nylon ropes. The rope is then tightly wrapped around the practitioner's body and the bed, from his legs to his chest. The rope is wrapped so tightly that the practitioner has difficulty breathing and eventually loses consciousness.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2011/2/27/236851.html


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