Falun Gong Practitioner Tortured to Death, His Sister's Household Registration Record Changed Without Consent

When the persecution of Falun Gong started in 1999, many practitioners were arrested, incarcerated, and tortured. Many became disabled, and some even died. The following is about one such practitioner.

Mr. Tan Yanjun from Hegang City, Heilongjiang Province, was detained three times for practising Falun Gong. He was tortured so often and so brutally that he became paralysed. When his condition became critical in the middle of November 2004, he was released on medical parole. On February 27th, 2005, he died as a result of his injuries. He is survived by two young children.

His father, Tan Guoyi, died earlier, on July 3rd, 2004, as a result of constant Chinese Communist Party (CCP) harassment. In addition, Tan Yanjun's younger sister, Tan Yanwei, had her residence registration changed by the police without her authorisation. As of today, the authorities have still not resolved this injustice.

Torture Leads to Paralysis and Death

On January 9th, 2002, officers Zhang Jun, Liu Bing, and Jiang Jinsheng arrested Mr. Tan Yanjun at his home in the Gongnong District of Hegang City and took him to the Xinnan Police Station. His home was ransacked. Li Shujiang, the deputy chief of the Gongnong Police Branch, interrogated Mr. Tan using brutal torture. Mr. Tan was then taken to the Hegang First Detention Centre, where he was tortured further.

Once when Li Shujiang was interrogating Mr. Tan, a prison doctor told Li, "You can't beat him again. He already has a perforated eardrum and heart problems." Li ignored the doctor and tortured Tan again for an entire day. While torturing him, Li snarled, "If you don't say anything, we will beat and break all the 206 bones in your body, one by one. We have a quota to meet. If we can't beat you to death, it's OK if you are just near death." He even forced Mr. Tan's fingerprint on documents that Li wrote with fabricated charges while Mr. Tan was unconscious.

On May 5th, 2002, Li Enhou from the domestic security division interrogated Mr. Tan. During the interrogation, Li said, “Zhang Xingfu, the CCP party secretary of Hegang City, said we should treat Falun Gong practitioners as criminals. We have a quota and it is ok if we beat you to death. Our superiors will bear the responsibility for everything that happens.” Then he started to torture Tan Yanjun to try to force him to acknowledge what the police had fabricated.

The Hegang City Police Department doctor confirmed that Mr. Tan not only had a heart attack and a perforated eardrum, he also had ankylosing spondylitis and was completely paralysed. He had to remain on the floor of the detention centre. Needless to say, he was not able to take care of himself. The prison doctor told Mr. Tan's family members to visit the police department to get him released on medical parole.

Mr. Tan's family went to the police department, but Dai Duohua, the head of the law division, refused to process the paperwork for a medical parole because Tan Yanjun was a Falun Gong practitioner.

Mr. Tan was not released until he had been brutally tortured by Li Shujiang and others and his life was in great danger. He died soon after his release. Police officers Xiao Chunquan, Yang Maolin and Wang Caican often went to his father's home in the middle of the night to harass the family. When the family refused to open the door, the police pulled out guns and threatened them.

Since the Jiang Zemin [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] regime launched the brutal persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, many practitioners from Hegang City have been frequently harassed, threatened, arrested, or even tortured to death. Former Party secretary Zhang Xingfu in Hegang City (a very corrupt official) and Zhang Chunqing, the former deputy chief of the police department, closely followed Jiang's policy to persecute Falun Gong. After Dai Duohua became the law division head of the Hegang City Police Department and chief of police, he actively participated in the persecution and personally approved many arrest warrants.

On April 20th, 2002, Falun Gong practitioners in Hegang City tapped into the cable TV and broadcast a video of the Tiananmen Square Self-Immolation [an incident on Tiananmen Square in January 2001 whereby four people set themselves alight and the Chinese Communist claimed they were Falun Gong practitioners, yet there was video evidence to strongly disprove this claim] in order to let the public see for themselves how the CCP fabricated the self-immolation to deceive them. The CCP rules through lies and violence and does all it can to keep the public from finding out the truth about the crimes it commits. Under Zhang Xingfu's direct control, the Hegang City Police Department and all other police stations launched a mass arrest of Falun Gong practitioners that took place over the course of a week. Over 100 practitioners were taken to a forced labor camp or imprisoned. Many families were broken up.

Younger Sister's Household Registration Record Changed Without Her Consent

After Mr. Tan Yanjun was tortured to death, he was survived by two young children and an elderly mother. His family members are still being persecuted and harassed by the officers that arrested him.

On September 8th, 2008, Mr. Tan's sister, Falun Gong practitioner Tan Yanwei, was arrested at home by officer Zhang Zulin from the Xinyi Police Station, Dongshan Police Branch. At the station, Zhang Zulin forced Ms. Tan to sign a forced labour notification. He warned her, “If you do not sign it, I will send you to a forced labour camp, but if you sign it, we will only put you on probation outside of the forced labour camp.” Under pressure, Ms. Tan signed the letter, but Zhang Zulin did not give it to her.

Then Zhang Zulin and officer Meng Lingjun from the Xiyi Police Station ransacked her home. They searched the personal property of her father, Tan Guoyi, piece by piece, but could not find any Falun Gong materials that they could use as evidence. They also took Ms. Tan's mobile phone and kept it for over two months, but could not find any evidence on it either. Then Zhang went to her home and lied to her mother, saying that he could process her low income benefits, but she needed to go to the police station and change Ms. Tan Yanwei's residence registration record to show Yanwei didn't live in the household any more.

On September 10th, 2009, Ms. Tan Yanwei's mother went to the Xinyi Police Station to pick up her new ID card. Zhang Zulin got Ms. Tan's household registration booklet from her mother, took a stamp from registration officer Zhang Lili, and stamped the word “migrate” on the registration record, even though Ms. Tan Yanwei never gave her consent for such a change. [ Note: The Chinese government uses the household registration system to control the movement of people between urban and rural areas. People who work outside their authorised area do not qualify for many benefits based on geographical area, and there are controls on education, employment, marriage and so on. ]

In March 2012 when Ms. Tan Yanwei went to the Xinyi Police Station to process her household registration, officer Lu Yan said, “We have no household registration record on you.” Ms. Tan called Zhang Zulin and inquired why there was no record. Zhang cursed her and said, “Don't ask me, I no longer work there.” Ms. Tan replied, “You changed my registration record without my consent. You also cursed me. I will file a complaint against you.” Zhang Zulin then hung up. But after a while, he called Ms. Tan again, saying, “You need to give police officer Lu Yan some money so she can update your household registration.”

MS. Tan Yanwei's mother went to the Xinyi Police Station and talked to chief Chang Qizhi about the matter. Chang asked Ms. Tan to come to the station again and present her ID to update her residence registration. But the new registration did not contain her place of birth and current address. In the column that should have had the date she moved to the city, it stated that Tan Yanwei was released from the Heilongjiang Forced Labour Camp on September 8th, 2008. It was a fabricated residence registration that contained false information.

On April 20th, 2013, Ms. Tan's family called the complaint hotline of the Public Security Bureau of Heilongjiang Province and filed a complaint against officer Zhang Zulin concerning her registration situation. The Hegang City Police Department transferred her case to the Dongshan Police Branch. Yan Shouchuan, the political director of the discipline inspection committee; Zhang Lidong, chief of residence administration; Yao Weidong; and Gao Hongjia conspired to submit fabricated materials. They accused Ms. Tan of having been held in a forced labour camp for practising Falun Gong and thus refused to resolve her household registration issue.

On June 27th, 2013, Yan Shouren, Zhang Lidong, Yao Weidong, and Gao Hongjia, along with Wei Xuezhong and Cao Wushen from the Xinyi Police Station, went to Ms. Tan's home "to verify facts." Instead, they recorded a video, fabricated materials, and had her mother deny that family members had gone to appeal her situation. Then, the police ransacked the home and took Ms. Tan's Falun Gong books and recorders and other personal items belonging to her mother.

Afterwards, Ms. Tan's family members went to the appeals office at the Hegang City Police Department. Officers Lang Shaohui, Yan Shouren, and others said that, because Ms. Tan Yanwei practices Falun Gong and had been imprisoned in a forced labour camp, they would not handle the household registration problem. Her family then asked to visit Liu Renquan, the Party secretary of the police department's discipline inspection committee. But Liu did not want to see them and notified the guard not to let the family in. The family had to write an appeal letter to Liu Renquan, but Liu did not reply, nor resolve the issue.

Ms. Tan's family then appealed to Wang Zhijun, the chief of the household administration office at the police department. Wang believed the information on the fabricated materials from Lang Shaohui and did not resolve the issue either. Her family appealed to Jiang Guiyun from the appeals office, but Jiang also used those fabricated materials as evidence and did not resolve the issue, either.

Ms. Tan's family visited Dai Duohua, the law division head of the Hegang City Police Department and chief of the police branch. Dai pushed the issue back to Jiang Guiyun. Jiang also tried to avoid having to be responsible and did not accept the appeal, but prevented the family from appealing again.

Later, her family went to the discipline inspection committee of the Hegang City Police Department again. They were told to see Luo Diancheng, the political director of the Dongshan Police Branch. Luo refused to see them and did not want to resolve the issue. The family went back to Wang Zhijun and Dai Duohua many times, but were always turned away. Once when the family finally got into Dai Duohua's office, Dai told them to get out. They asked, “The police altered Tan Yanwei's household registration. If your police department won't resolve this issue, who will?” Dai said that he would hold a hearing and have all the parties involved attend.

During the hearing, Ms. Tan's family told the details of how Zhang Zulin from the Dongshan Police Branch changed Ms. Tan's household registration without her consent. Dai Duohua said, “Don't talk about these useless things.” The family asked, “If you do not hear the truth, how can you resolve this issue?”

After the family finished speaking, Dai Duohua asked Yan Shouren, Lan Shaohui, Jiang Guiyun, and Wang Zhijun to read the fabricated materials they had made. Every time Ms. Tan's family questioned something, Dai Duohua always stopped them and did not answer. The family argued, “Why do you keep us from asking questions and why don't you answer our questions?” Dai said, “I will only answer this time. Don't bother me ever again.” Ms. Tan's family said, “We are not done here today. The issue is not resolved and you cannot get away with it. All the materials you read are fabricated. Why don't you answer our questions regarding the fabricated material?”

Dai could not answer and said, “That's it for today. The problem is solved." Then he tried to leave, but Ms. Tan's family kept asking him, “Why don't you solve the problem? What's your name?” Dai did not answer and rushed back to his office.

Ms. Tan Yanwei is a legal citizen, and her household registration should be protected by law. But now a few years have passed and this issue is still not resolved. Her family has filed complaints with many government offices, but none of them want to resolve it.