The Facts of the Persecution of Falun Gong -- August 5, 2005

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Ji Fengqin from Mulan County, Heilongjiang Province was brutally tortured at the Wanjia Labor Camp located in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province. She died on July 30, 2005, only three days after being released to her family. We have confirmed at least 24 torture-related deaths at the Wanjia Labor Camp.

On the afternoon of July 27, 2005, when Ms. Ji Fengqin was picked up by her family at the Harbin City Armed Police Hospital, she was so thin that she looked like a skeleton. She was unconscious and dying. The rescue effort failed, and Ms. Ji Fengqin died at 5:40 p.m. on July 30, 2005, in the Mulan County Chinese Medicine Hospital. Her family has already had the body cremated.

Because the Wanjia Labor Camp Administration and the Hospital have sealed all medical records in regard to Ms. Ji's case, and because her family did not want to talk about it, we are unsure as to the exact cause of Ms. Ji's death cause or as to how she was tortured.

On the morning of March 3, 2005, policemen Xiao Guofeng (male) and Jiang Pengfei (male) from Mulan County Second Station arrested Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Ji Fengqin after harassing some other practitioners at their homes. Later the Station Director Yang Hailin (male) and additional policemen searched her home and then detained her.

Ms. Ji Fengqin was sentenced to one year of forced labor and sent to the Wanjia Labor Camp. The Mulan County 610 Office has been active in the persecution campaign against Falun Gong since 1999, with hundreds Falun Gong practitioners detained, sent to labor camps, sentenced to prison terms, and forced to pay large fines to the police.

In the past six years since Jiang and the CCP regime established the persecution of Falun Gong, more than a thousand Falun Gong practitioners have suffered unspeakable tortures, beatings, starvation, and heavy forced labor in the Wanjia Forced Labor Camp.

On the morning of July 18, 2005, a memorial service for deceased Falun Gong practitioner Zhao Chunying was held at the Jixi City Funeral Home.

Zhao Chunying was 56 years old. She lived in the residential area of Xiaohengshan Coalmine in Jixi City, Heilongjiang Province. Because she clarified the truth about Falun Gong, she was arrested and sent to Jixi City Second Detention Center on April 27, 2003. On May 10, 2003, her family was informed about her death. When they went to see the body, they saw that it was covered with bruises and wounds.

Zhao Chunying started to practice Falun Gong in 1998. Before she started practicing, she suffered from thighbone necrosis and vertigo. As a result, she walked with a limp. However, she became a completely healthy woman after she took up the practice of Falun Gong. She walked lightly and benefited tremendously both physically and mentally. After the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999, Zhao Chunying appealed to the government, calling for an end to the persecution. She was arrested and sent to Wanjia Labor Camp in Harbin, where she was put through mental and physical torment. After she was released, she used the Internet to expose the torture that she experienced in the labor camp. For this, she was taken away from home by four policemen led by the Hengshan Police Station Chief Yu Baoshan between 7 and 8 p.m. on April 15, 2003. On April 17, 2003, she was sent to Jixi City Second Detention Center. On May 2003, her family was informed of her death.

Her body was placed in the Jixi Funeral Home. Her family was shocked when they saw her body. There were countless wounds and bruises all over her body and her eyes were slightly open. Her face was blue and purple, a big cut was found on the back of her head and two of her ribs were broken. Her family decided to take some pictures of the body for future use in case they wanted to file a lawsuit against relevant parties. Seeing this, the morgue guard tried to stop them from taking pictures, citing the order from the police that no photos were allowed. Her family demanded their rights and they were finally allowed to take several pictures. The legal medical expert examined the body, but under pressure from the police, he claimed that the death was due to an illness.

In the two years that followed, her family kept appealing to the government, hoping to find justice for Zhao Chunying. However, all the relevant departments followed the so-called policy of "not accepting, hearing or handling any Falun Gong related case." In the end, Zhao's family had no choice but to accept the fabricated conclusion that Zhao Chunying's death was due to the delay of medical treatment and that Jixi City Second Detention Center was "indirectly" responsible for the death. Together with the Jixi City Procuratorate, the detention center paid Zhao's family fifty-five thousand yuan as compensation.

While her family was appealing, Zhao Chunying's body was stored in the funeral home. On the surface, the Jixi City Second Detention Center paid all the expenses when in fact the public security bureau in Jixi City provided funding.

At the memorial service, the public security bureau stationed a large number of plainclothes policemen inside and around the funeral home. Some patrolled inside the hall, while others stayed in cars. The police even disguised themselves as funeral home workers. Several minutes after the service began, even before some of the relatives and friends had entered the hall, the plainclothes policemen hastily took Zhao Chunying's body away to be cremated. The Zhao family and relatives were extremely upset by this.

That day, there were about a hundred of Falun Gong practitioners from all parts of Jixi City who came to the funeral home to bid farewell to Zhao Chunying.

The following is a description of the persecution I experienced or witnessed during 2003 and 2004 in the ninth Supervision Area of Heilongjiang Women's Prison. At the time, group leader of the ninth Supervision Area Zheng Jie and guard Zhang Chunhua forced the Falun Gong practitioners to do slave labor to intensify the persecution.

We, over twenty Falun Gong practitioners, refused the slave labor to protest the persecution. On April 16, 2003, guards called me to the office for a talk, but actually there was not a talk at all. They incited a bunch of criminals to beat me very brutally. While they were beating me, they asked me whether I would now do the slave labor. I said no. They tied me up and left me on the concrete floor until nine o'clock in the evening.

On April 17, police asked me to "talk" again. I refused to go. They tried to take me to the Prison Section. Twenty-seven Falun Gong practitioners encircled me to protect me. Two guards came in and started to brutally beat the practitioners. Some were hit on the face, leaving them swollen. Some practitioners were bleeding from the eyes and their clothes were torn up. The scenes were very sad and heroic. I was forced down onto the floor while prisoner Wang Dan dragged me, pulling me by my legs, downstairs. My shoes came off and the skin on my back was torn away. I was held in the office until midnight.

Three other practitioners, Yang Baozhu, Jiang Minshan and Liu Kun, had their mouths taped shut and were detained in a storage room until four o'clock in the afternoon. Later they were sent to small cells for further persecution. In the small cells, they were punished, with their wrists shackled to their ankles and their hands cuffed behind the back. They were tortured in the small cells until May 9th. Liu Kun and Jiang Minshan walked out the small cells barefoot because their feet were too gummy to wear shoes.

The violent punishment did not satisfy the guards. They used another torture. They forced practitioners to sit on the cold concrete floor until midnight and forbade them to sleep. Practitioners were only given half of a bun per meal, and weren't allowed to have other things to eat. They also assigned people to monitor us. One time, a kind-hearted prisoner gave a practitioner more congee, and was reported by the prisoner Yang Jing. The kind-hearted prisoner was later punished. The guards use this method to threaten the prisoners who have a conscience so that they do not dare to help practitioners.

On February 9, 2004, 50 Falun Gong practitioners refused to squat and answer the roll call. Guards Yan Yuhua, and Zhang Xiuli secretly directed convicted murderer Long Juan to beat practitioner Cai Mi. She was in a "forced backbend" position (This is a very painful form of torture in which one arm is reaching down the back behind the head and the other hand meets it from the lower back. The two hands are cuffed together to cause unbearable pain), and she was left at an empty, open air place between a men's prison building and a women's prison building in very cold weather. Cai Mi's face was disfigured. Guards secretly put her into a small cell to hide the torture. We started a hunger strike to rescue her.

Guard Zhang Xiulin directed prisoners Zhao Xueling, Hou Guiqin, Wang Lili, and Pang Hongyan to force-feed us. They also took our money away in the name of paying for the forced feeding. These people persecuted us economically and physically.

Group leader Zhang Xiuli and chief of the ninth Supervision Area Jia Wenjun are the ringleaders of those who persecute Falun Gong practitioners. They force practitioners to "transform". I would like to appeal for all practitioners who are illegally detained in Heilongjiang Women's Prison.

The following are the re-enactment photos that display the tortures Falun Gong practitioners suffer in Heilongjiang Women's Prison.

Ms. Fang Qiaoying, 34 years old, was a Falun Gong practitioner from Tunchangsheng Village, Hainan Province. On May 2001, while passing out Falun Gong truth-clarifying materials in Qiongshan City, Ms Qiaoying was arrested by the authorities. While at Qiongshan Detention Center, Ms. Fang was tortured until she was emaciated, lost all her hair, and had two holes appear on her lung. Only then was she was released, almost on her last gasp of breath when she got home. After a little while, when her body just began to recover, the authorities came to harass and threaten Ms. Fang again. Ms. Fang Qiaoying passed away in 2004 as a result of the persecution.

Mr. Wang Xuejin, around 60 years old, a Falun Gong practitioner from Tipobian, Xinzhou Town, Jinshi City, Hunan Province, went to Beijing in 1999 to appeal for Falun Gong. He has been illegally detained and persecuted many times. In 2003, when he was giving out Falun Gong truth clarification material in Li County, Mr. Wang was arrested by officials and detained in Changde Liling Prison. He was given toxic injections and eventually died in June 2005.

Mr. Wang Daoyi, about 70 years old, was a practitioner from Le County, Hunan Province. After practicing Falun Gong, he experienced great health. After the persecution started in 1999, Mr. Wang was subjected to continuous persecution and harassment from the authorities and the 610 Office. He was persecuted until he died in 2004. Before he died, Mr. Wang said he wanted to do the exercises, and he put on his exercise outfit.

Ms. Ning Peihua, 70 years old, was a Falun Gong practitioner from Pukou, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province. In November 2000, she went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong and was arrested. After she was released and came back home, Ms. Ning was constantly harassed by the authorities. This brought about a recurrence of her previous lung cancer, and Ms. Ning died in April 2003.

Ms. Li Jingfang was about 70 years old, from Siping City, Jilin Province. After she started practicing Falun Gong, her mind and body both reached a very healthy state. She had a car accident and though she was frightened, she was not badly injured at all and only took few days to recover. Her whole family saw what had happened and how she recovered so quickly. After the persecution began on July 20, 1999, police department officials and local residential district staff members constantly harassed her family and threatened Ms. Li. Her family did not understand the facts and thus stopped her from practicing Falun Gong. As a result, Ms. Li suffered tremendous mental pressure, causing her old sickness to return. Not long after this, she passed away.

Mr. Ma Jisheng, 60 years old, was a retired worker from the transportation department of the Third Division, Shengli Oil Field in Shandong Province, who began practicing Falun Gong in 1992. After he started practicing, many of his previous illnesses were healed. Nonetheless, because he was a local practice site coordinator, on July 20, 1999, Mr. Ma was taken away by officials from a local police station under the jurisdiction of the Binzhou City Public Security Bureau. He was arrested and locked up in a detention center. When Mr. Ma returned home, he was often harassed by staff from his former work unit. Under such huge mental pressure, and because he could no long practice Falun Gong, Mr. Ma's old illness recurred. He died in 2001.

Mr. Yang Shouping, about 43 years old, was a resident of Yuekou Town, Tianmen City in Hubei Province. Before 1997 when he started to practice Falun Gong, serious illness had tormented his body and he had failed in finding any medical cure. After practicing Falun Gong for less than two months, Mr. Yang's illnesses disappeared. Nevertheless, after July 20, 1999 when the evil started to persecute Falun Gong, local officials tried to force Mr. Yang to give up the practice many times. They confiscated a lot of his Falun Gong books and caused him so much trouble that he could not practice anymore. As a result, his old illness recurred and Yang Shouping died in 2004.

Mr. Liang Wenbing, 72 years old, was a practitioner from Yuekou Town, Tianmen City, Hubei Province. Ever since he obtained the Fa in the spring of 1999, he firmly believed in Falun Gong and Teacher. However, after July 20, 1999 the authorities started to persecute and monitor Mr. Liang. As a result of the persecution, Liang Wenbing died in February 2004.

Mr. Jin Shengfu, a resident from Yuekou Town, Tianmen City, Hubei Provience, started practicing Falun Gong in the spring of 1998. Teacher saved him from a deadly condition and he was steadfast and true in his practice. After July 20, 1999, Mr. Jin lost the environment for group study and exercise, and died in 2000.

Ms. Zhang Caihong, about 30 years old, lived in the Municipal Party Committee Center in Tianmen City, Hubei Province. She had one child. During a session of cancer chemotherapy treatment, a professor introduced her to the practice of Falun Gong. After she started practicing, her illness was cured. Her family regarded it as a miracle and they all experienced the wonder of Falun Gong. After the persecution started on July 20, 1999, Ms. Zhang went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, but she was blocked by 610 Office agents on the way and sent back. Because Ms. Zhang lost her normal practice environment, she lost her life to illness.

Mr. Shen Xinggui was 69 years old and came from Zhaoyang District. He previously suffered from high blood pressure. Since 1996, when he started to practice Falun Gong, his mind and body became healthy and normal. In the year 2000, because Mr. Shen did the Falun Gong exercises outdoors, he was arrested and detained for a day. In April 2001, he was once again arrested at home by officials. They confiscated his Falun Gong books. Since then, Mr. Shen continuously suffered from harassment and threats by the 610 officials and the residential committee. As a result of the ongoing persecution, Mr. Shen Xinggui died on November 3, 2002.

Ms. Zhao Fengqin was 73 years old and came from Liusan Village, Dongguowei Field, Panjin City, Liaoning Province. After July 20, 1999,  Ms. Zhao went to Beijing to appeal. She was arrested by police, but later was released because of her old age. After she returned home, Ms. Zhao was still involved in clarifying the truth of Falun Gong to others. She died in January 2004 as a result of illness.

Mr. Sun Shifeng, 51 years old, lived in Liusan Village, Dongguowei Field, Panjin City, Liaoning Province. After July 20, 1999, because of participating in clarifying the truth about Falun Gong, he was constantly harassed and threatened by police from the detention center. In April 2003, Mr. Sun died from a serious illness.

Ms. Dong Yulan was a 71-year-old Falun Gong practitioner from Qianshan District, Anshan City, Liaoning Province, who obtained the Fa in 2000. Due to her daughter being arrested and persecuted twice, she suffered from severe mental trauma. Ms. Dong died in December 2003.

Ms. Quan Shumei was 77 years old and came from Tiebei, Fengcheng City, Liaoning Province. She practiced Falun Gong before July 20, 1999. After the persecution started, Ms. Quan stopped practicing for a little while, but later on she started to practice again. Because her daughter also practiced Falun Gong and was persecuted many times by the authorities, Ms. Quan suffered severe mental distress. She fell ill and died in June 2005.

The director of Judicial Department of Liaoning Province Yu Fengsheng was ordered directly by Luo Gan to form a "Special Case Group" at the Xiaobailou Brainwashing Class of Zhangshi Reform Camp of Shenyang City after Gao Rongrong escaped for the first time. The group focused on re-arresting Gao Rongrong and the other Falun Gong practitioners who rescued Gao Rongrong.

Director of the Forced Labor Department of the Forced Labor Bureau for the Judicial Department of Liaoning Province named Yang called Masanjia Forced Labor Camp on the evening of March 6, 2005, right after Gao Rongrong was re-arrested, to ask Masanjia Forced Labor Camp to admit Gao Rongrong despite her poor state of health, which was due to having been disfigured and disabled from torture. The Commissioner of the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp Ms Wang, said, "The vehicle delivering Gao Rongrong stopped at the entrance of Masanjia for a while. Rather than coming in, they directly delivered Gao Rongrong to Dabei Prison Hospital of Liaoning Province. Masanjia Forced Labor Camp sent six women there to monitor Gao Rongrong. The orders for 'no release and no family visits' were also made by Director Yang."

Perpetrators from the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp who were involved in this intentional murder of Gao Rongrong include:

The Director of Masanjia Forced Labor Camp Su Jing (female); Head Zhao Laixi; Deputy Director Wang (gender unknown, original Management Section Chief); Commissioner Wang (female); six women who monitored Gao Rongrong in Dabei Prison Hospital including Zhao, Zhang, Qiu, Zhou and two others (names unknown); six men who monitored Gao Rongrong in the emergency room of the Medical School Hospital including Wang, Wu, Chen, Yan, Li Jun, and Niu Hongxi; Deputy Director Ma of the Education Department, Laoxie, and Liu (a woman who collected and controlled the money while Gao Rongong was in the emergency room of the Medical School Hospital). The license plate number for the van that came from Masanjia Forced Labor Camp and parked in the parking lot of the emergency room: Liao A1085.

Zhangshi Reform Camp of Shenyang City: Director Zhu, and Shi Fengyou

National Security Section (original Politics and Security Section) of Heping Area Police Department of Shenyang City: Zheng

Xinxing Police Station in Heping Area of Shenyang City: Deputy Chief Li and Cao Gan

Science Education Department of Shenyang City: Deputy Director Lu. Before the lunar New Year of 2005, this person called from the Luxun Academy of Fine Arts, requesting the transfer of Gao Rongrong's files to the "Special Case Group," and ordered Luxun not to respond to any questions or requests from anyone.

Prison Examination Department of Liaoning Province Procurator: Head Qin Chuzhi constantly rejected the requests from Gao Rongrong's family for an injury report and threatened them.

Deputy Director Wang (originally the Management Section Chief) of Masanjia Forced Labor Camp of Liaoning Province: 86-24-89212261

Head of Masanjia Forced Labor Camp of Liaoning Province Zhao Laixi: 86-24-89210074-309

Zhangshi Reform Camp of Shenyang City, Shi Fengyou: 86-13309888036 (Cell), 86-24-86892116

At around 2:00 p.m. on May 27, 2005, personnel from the No. 26 Section of the Lanzhou City Police Department arrested Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Qian Shiguang, a senior engineer in the Northwestern Branch of the China Petroleum Exploration Research Institute. He had just stepped out to see a fellow practitioner surnamed Zhang. Officers took him to the police department, grabbed the key to Mr. Qian's home from him and went back his home. They confiscated many copies of Nine Commentaries on the Communist discs; Falun Gong books; truth clarifying materials; a notebook used to make truth-clarifying materials; a Canon printer, fax machine, and copier; and several MP3 players. They also confiscated his family's desktop computer, an Epson laser printer and an Epson copier. That evening they tortured Mr. Qian on a Tiger Bench to force him to tell them the names of all practitioners he has contact with. Mr. Qian pointed out the police's illegal behavior. Later, the police decided to put him into the Gongjiawan Brainwashing Class.

In June 2002, Mr. Qian went to Beijing for the third time and was held at the Beijing Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp where he suffered much torture. In November 2003 he was tortured so severely that one of his two lumbar vertebrae fractured and he was bedridden. The labor camp authorities agreed to let his son bail him out for hospitalization. After Mr. Qian returned from treatment, he was so weak that his family had to take care of him. He was in pain all over. Two months later he could get up and started practicing the Falun Gong exercises. In July 2004 he could walk by himself but had still not totally recovered. Later he kept on clarifying the truth, downloading Falun Gong information and distributing truth-clarifying materials until he was incarcerated in the Gongjiawan Brainwashing Class.

At 11:00 p.m. on May 23, 2005, personnel from the Chengdu City Caotang Police Station arrested practitioner Mr. Zhou Jianyu from his rented house on Baihuatan Fangling Street. His home was ransacked and a deposit check for 8,000 yuan was confiscated. His ill wife and five-year-old son were left without anyone to care for them. The same night, in collusion with five people from the Caotang Police Station including Liao Yonggui, Zheng Ping, the deputy director of the Fangling Road Community Committee, broke into practitioner Ms. Huang Fangping's home and took her away.

Responsible units and people:

Qingyang District Political and Judiciary Committee, Hanjiang Street, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, Zipcode 610031
Caotang Street Community Office, Qingyangzheng Street, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, Zipcode 610072
Liu Chun, deputy chief of the Caotang Police Station, 43 Qingyangheng Street, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, 86-28-87775437
Fangling Road Community Committee: Head Zheng Ping, Secretary Zhang Hua
8 Baihuatan Road, Caotang Street, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province
Tian Jinhua: 86-28-87769244

At 8:00 a.m. on July 19, 2005, personnel from the Dehui City Zhenxing Police Station broke into practitioner Pu Xiangjie's home on Toudao Street and said, "You can practice Falun Gong at home, but you need to write a statement proclaiming that you give up the practice. Are you still going to practice?" Pu refused to write the statement and the officers took Pu to the police station.

Practitioner Ms. Li Chunxiang is in the No.2 Team of the Changchun City Heizuizi Women's Forced Labor Camp. Because of forced overwork, her right arm turned black and blue and became numb. The prison doctor said she might become disabled, but the forced labor camp authorities still forced her to work. Her family called and petitioned to bail her out, but the female police who answered the phone said they had no such system in place. Her family later went to the 610 Office in Siping City, the Political and Judiciary Committee, and also the Lishu County Police Department's 610 Office to request posting bail for her, but each 610 Office blamed the other for not handling this matter. Finally, personnel from the Lishu County 610 Office told her family to discuss this with its affiliates, the Yehe Town Police Station and National Security Team.

Relevant phone numbers: (Country code: 86, area code: 431)

No.2 Team, the Changchun City Heizuizi Women's Forced Labor Camp: 5384312, Ext. 6102
Siping City Political and Judiciary Committee 610 Office: 3630610
Lishu County Police Department 610 Office: 5234610
Yehe Town Police Station in Lishu County: 5496377

Someone reported that practitioner Mr. Huang Yonghui from Changsha City has been put into the Changsha City Laodaohe Brainwashing Center.

Practitioner Ms. Li Lianying lives on West Guye Street in the Guye District of Tangshan City. At about 10:00 a.m. on July 17, 2005, when she was distributing Falun Gong truth-clarifying materials at the Guye Market, personnel from the Xijiatao Township Police Station arrested her.

Ms. Cui Zhenhuan, 60 years old, lives at the Tieling City Chengnan Agricultural Science Institute. Toward the end of 2000 she was arrested and sent to the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp for two years for her determination to practice Falun Gong. Due to the inhuman physical torture and mental torment inflicted on her, she suffered a mental collapse.

At 10:00 p.m. on July 16, 2005, Mr. Wang Hao and Ms. Peng Qingqing were posting materials about quitting the Chinese Communist Party at the Yuehu Bridge in Wuhan City. Two plainclothes officers under the bridge, disguised as a couple in love, discovered them. Later, more than twenty police officers arrived and arrested them. They took them to the Qiaokou Police Department, where the two practitioners were stripped of their clothes, hung up and beaten. Because Mr. Wang Hao's ID showed he was from the Hongshan District, police sent them to the Guanshan Police Station in the Hongshan District that same night. At 2:00 a.m. they searched Wang Hao's home without a search warrant. Ms. Peng was later released but Mr. Wang's whereabouts are unknown.

Ms. Jie Guangfu, a practitioner from Huangshan City, over 50 years old, was the person in charge of Huangshan City's Falun Gong materials production center. She had been monitored since 2004. In September 2004 policemen of National Security team arrested her from home and searched the house.

At noon on July 7, 2005, Mr. Sun Jinming was repairing his bicycle at home. Suddenly several policemen broke into and asked, "Do you practice Falun Gong?" Mr. Sun replied "Yes" and then clarified the truth to the policemen. The policemen asked, "Where did you learn Falun Gong?" Mr. Sun refused to answer, so the policemen arrested him. He is currently being held at the Wuyi County Detention Center. When Mr. Sun's son went to the detention center the policemen did not allow him to see his father. They said, "The old man is quite stubborn and will never say he will not practice (Falun Gong)." The son tried to bribe the policemen so that his father could be released, but the policemen said this time money would not work.