When practitioner Mr. Zhou Shuhai was sent to the emergency room of Daqing City No. 2 Hospital for emergency resuscitation on May 31, 2007, he was already dead. He was skin and bones when he died. The hospital could not resuscitate him. Mr. Zhou died at the young age of 35.

Zhou Shuhai's elder brother, Mr. Zhou Shuzhang, was arrested and sentenced to prison the same day that Shuhai was arrested, without legal process. He is still imprisoned in the 3rd Ward of Daqing Prison, suffering torture.

Mr. Zhou Shuhai, 35, was from Tieli City, Heilongjiang Province. He worked in the Government Policy Research Institute in Yichun City, Heilongjiang Province. On October 29, 2005, police officers from Tieli City, including Zheng Hongde and Sun Xu, and officers from the Tieli City 610 Office, including Fan Guangjun and Chen Tie, arrested Zhou Shuhai and his older brother, Zhou Shuzhang. The police took them to Tieli City Police Department's criminal investigation team. The police tried every way they could think of, including threats, to make the two brothers renounce Falun Gong. Finally, they hung the two brothers up in the air for many long hours.

On April 1, 2006, the Chinese Communist Party's Mid-Level Court in Yichun City illegally sentenced Mr. Zhou Shuhai to five-and-a-half years in prison--despite the Chinese Constitution granting Chinese citizens freedom of religion and spiritual belief. In June 2006, Zhou Shuhai was detained at Hulan Prison in Heilongjiang Province, where the "Intensive Training Team" inhumanly tortured him in an attempt to force him to renounce Falun Gong. The prison guards ordered prisoners Zheng Taiping and Wang Dengming to cruelly torture Mr. Zhou. In addition, Mr. Zhou was forced to stand still for long hours, was deprived of sleep, and was beaten with hard rubber tubes. Zheng Taiping and Wang Dengming also ordered new prisoners to torture Mr. Zhou. The tortures left a half-inch-long scar above his left eyebrow.

In July 2006, Zhou Shuhai was transferred to the 4th Ward of Daqing Prison. As a result of the ongoing physical and psychological tortures, he lost weight rapidly and had difficulty eating. When his family visited him in prison, he had to be carried to the visitors' room on the back of another prisoner. He was skin and bones and could barely speak.

On May 31, 2007, Mr. Zhou was taken to Daqing City 2nd Hospital for "emergency resuscitation," but he had already died by the time he reached the hospital. The prison authorities claimed that he died of tuberculosis. Mr. Zhou went on hunger strikes repeatedly in prison, as a non-violent way of protest. The hospital could not do anything for him because it was too late.

According to incomplete statistics, many Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured to death in Daqing Prison. Mr. Xu Jishan died there at the age of 41. On June 7, 2005, a captain named Li Fengjiang and a disciplinary staff member named Zhang Dezhi directed prisoners to carry Mr. Xu Jishan on a board to the bathroom where they tortured him. He died before arriving at the hospital's emergency room. Mr. Yuan Qingjiang died in Daqing Prison at the age of 40 on July 23, 2005, as a result of prison guards' repeated torture. He was skin and bones and had an unusually swollen abdomen when he died.

Mr. Chen Jinshu, 50, is a Falun Gong practitioner from Hong Kong. On April 16, 2007, several state security officers arrested Mr. Chen Jinshu in Shenzhen. According to a number of different sources, Mr. Chen is now imprisoned in the No. 153 area of District C in Baoan Detention Center in Xixiang District, Baoan, Shenzhen, China.

Arrested by the "610" Office While Visiting His Father and Friends

Mr. Chen Jinshu entered Shenzhen on April 16 to visit his father, who is almost 80 years old. That day Mr. Chen was treating his father to dim sum at Fulin Restaurant in Shenzhen when several state security officers suddenly charged into the restaurant and arrested him without a warrant. Afterwards, they searched his father's factory and home, again, without a warrant. It was not until April 17, the Baoan Branch of Shenzhen City Police Department issued Mr. Chen's family a criminal detention notification, stating that Chen practices Falun Gong. According to a reliable source, the police interrogated Mr. Chen in the detention center to find out if he had contacted practitioners in Shenzhen.

The arrest of Mr. Chen Jinshu was a blow to his family. Chen's father repeatedly passed out after he heard the news. Nevertheless, he insisted on going to the police department in person to demand the release of his son. Staff from the Baoan Branch of the city police department claimed that they did not have any jurisdiction over the issue because staff from the 610 Office in Shenzhen City arrested Mr. Chen. Baoan Detention Center claimed that they did not make the arrest and that Chen's case had been turned over to the prosecutor's office. But the prosecutor's office claimed that they knew nothing about Chen's case. To this day, Chen's family does not know which justice or law enforcement department is responsible for Chen's arrest.

Mr. Chen Jinshu is the only person that provides for his family. Now that he is imprisoned in China, his family does not have any income. Mrs. Chen feels scared and lost. She lost more than 10 lbs in just a week and could not stop herself from crying. On May 1, Mrs. Chen went to the Hong Kong Entry-Exit Office to seek help from the Hong Kong government to bring her husband back to Hong Kong. Mrs. Chen said, "My husband is a good man and a law-abiding citizen. Is it a crime to visit his father and friends in China and conduct business meetings? Some practitioners in Hong Kong are also businessmen, so are some practitioners in China. How can it constitute a crime to have a business meeting?"

Mr. Chen Jinshu has been languishing in the Shenzhen prison since May 28, 2007. Hong Kong's legislators and representatives in Chen's district have begun to pay attention to his case. His family and friends urge more people to pay attention to the persecution of Mr. Chen Jinshu.

It appears that nearly ten Falun Gong practitioners in Shenzhen were arrested the day of Mr. Chen's arrest, including Ms. Huang Ruhong, Mr. Wei Ruihua, Ms. Chen Shaoqin, Ms. Chen Ailan, Ms. Yang Huimei, Mr. Chen Mushun, Mr. Zhou Jinsong, and Mr. Ma Yujiang.

Every Falun Gong practitioner in the 2nd Women's Prison of Yunnan Province is forced to write a so-called "thought report" every month. The CCP authorities torture practitioners in order to try to force them to give up their beliefs.

According to practitioners recently released from the 2nd Prison, once detained inside, every practitioner is required to write the so-called Three Statements (a Repentance Statement, a Guarantee Statement, and a "Dissociation Statement"). Otherwise, one is not allowed to purchase even basic necessities such as toilet paper, toothpaste, a toothbrush, a comb, and so on. Practitioners are given five minutes to use the restroom just three times a day. For the rest of the time, they are detained in prison cells. Two criminal prisoners are assigned as "personal cangues" to monitor each practitioner. They are either murderers on death row or criminals imprisoned for life. Practitioners are forced to sit on a small stool from morning till evening and are not allowed to stretch their arms or legs. This torture can cause practitioners' bottoms to fester. Guards also often make practitioners stand straight for long hours. They are not allowed to speak or move during these long durations of standing. Some are detained in solitary compartments. All day long they are subject to verbal abuse and brainwashing.

There are many mosquitoes and insects in the summer. Among 20 inmates in a cell, only practitioners are not allowed to have mosquito nets. The "personal cangues" often verbally abuse practitioners, and they use all kinds of deceitful ways to persecute them. One of the most insidious ways is to not allow practitioners to keep toilet paper or sanitary pads. A practitioner had her period when she was detained in solitary confinement and was not allowed to use pads. She had to wear her blood soaked pants for a long time.

Practitioners are forced to recite the prison rules and are forced to consume drugs that contain nerve damaging ingredients. Sometimes the guards secretly shock practitioners with electric batons. Some practitioners from Yuxi, including Ms. Shen Yueping, were prohibited from having family members visit them for several months.

The authorities at the Harbin City Women's Jail in Heilongjiang Province employed what they call "drill practice" as their primary means of torture in persecuting incarcerated Falun Gong practitioners in 2003. Falun Gong practitioner Lu Yingchun has been illegally detained in this jail for five years, and has often experienced this "drill practice."

Head of the 3^rd Ward (formerly the 5^th Ward) Wu Yanjie and Tao Shuping directed the corrections officers to drag Falun Gong practitioners outside and force them to squat in the freezing cold every morning from 5:30 to 6 a.m. After breakfast every practitioner was dragged to the top floor of the main jail. There they were subjected to many torture methods for extended periods of time. Practitioners were handcuffed to a steel column and shocked with electric batons set to maximum voltage. Tao Shuping cuffed and kicked Lu Yingchun. They commanded prisoner Wang Yubo to shave the practitioners' hair in what they called the "ghost hair style."

On the third day of the "drill practice," November 26, 2003, officer Sun Lisong took off Zhu Xiumin's and Lu Yingchun's jackets and dragged them to the cold and drafty entrance to freeze them. Corrections officers and their criminal collaborators wore gloves and two insulated jackets each, but still some of their faces, hands, and feet were injured by the severe cold, yet the Falun Gong practitioners were allowed to wear only a shirt or a thin sweatshirt.

At the time there were seven Falun Gong practitioners held in solitary confinement. Police poured cold water on the cement floor and forced Falun Gong practitioner Du Guijie to stand barefoot. They told her she could put her shoes back on after the floor dried. There was no heater and most of the practitioners' clothes had been taken away, so they had very little to wear and were kept frozen and starving.

Officer Sun Lisong shoved Falun Gong practitioner Zhu Xiumin to the floor and stomped on both of her feet. Sun tied both of Ms. Zhu's hands and hit her fingernails, neck, and ankles with small sticks, breaking her nails. Her fingers were so swollen that she couldn't bend them. They had no water and very little food, and at 4 p.m. they were dragged to a jail cell and forced to squat in the hallway until 2 a.m. They were tortured this way every day for two to three weeks.

The first day two Falun Gong practitioners who were subjected to the "drill practice," Zhang Chunjie and Li Ping, were beaten by officers Wang Liang and Yang Zifeng until they blacked out with blood covering their faces.

Convicted murderer Liu Wenge kicked Falun Gong practitioner Li Bingqing and broke her rib.

Falun Gong practitioner Gu Yarong was confined in solitary for a long time and hung from her wrists handcuffed behind her back, causing numbness and loss of motor control in her right hand.

Convicted robber Wang Daiqun scrubbed Falun Gong practitioner Li Qingzhen's mouth with a bathroom brush.

While in "drill practice" Falun Gong practitioner Xu Xianping was tortured so badly that she suffered hemorrhaging, causing her to black out from the loss of blood. Her life was in such grave danger that she was sent to a hospital outside the jail, and her vital signs were so weak that she had to be given a transfusion. All the while the authorities at the jail blocked all news of her condition.

Wang Daiqun, Luan Shumei, Li Mei, Liu Yumei and several others tortured Falun Gong practitioner Yang Xiuhua. She was locked in a single small cell. Convict Wang Daiqun dug his fingers into Ms. Yang's eyes, boxed her in the ears, punched her in the chest, and kicked her in the lower body. While Ms. Yang was in "drill practice," Wang took off all her clothes, leaving her with only underwear and a single jail-issued garment. Yang was locked in a workshop bathroom on the fourth floor, where she was forced to squat for a long time. A criminal opened the windows to let the cold wind in to freeze her.

Jail authorities organized an "Assault Team" in order to force the practitioners to give up their beliefs. Practitioners weren't allowed to sleep for twenty-four hours. Eight criminals took turns attacking one Falun Gong practitioner at a time, beating and cursing them, using every torture method they could think of until they "transformed." They did this under orders from Xu Longjiang and Liu Zhiqiang.

The cruelest guards were: Tao Shuping, Li Xiaoyu, Qiao Lina, Sun Lisong, and Cheng Xiuyan, Jail Investigation Division Head Yang Libin, and male officers Yang Zifeng and Wang Liang and four or five other policewomen whose names are unknown.

The most ruthless inmates who participated in the persecution include: Wang Yubo, Wang Daiqun, Dan Guixiang, Luan Shumei, Li Mei, Liu Yumei, Liu Wen'ge, Lu Shuwen, Xin Shumei.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials at Sanshui Forced Labor Camp used excavators to destroy evidence in the spring of 2005. "Beautifying the Environment" they called it. They destroyed the "transformation" center specifically designed for persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. Some practitioners were crippled for life and some were driven insane as a result of what they suffered there. Now, the Transformation center is gone, but the persecution continues.

What follows is what I saw, heard and recall from being detained there. The camp guards confiscated nine written diaries and a pen. These are only a few samples of the persecution endured by practitioners in Sanshui Labor Camp, but they have not been revealed before.

On April 27, 2000, practitioner Mr. Lai Zhijun was escorted to the New Arrivals Team of Sanshui Farm (only later did it become the notorious Sanshui Forced Labor Camp). He was the first practitioner tortured to death there, only a few days after his arrival. Those in charge worked hard to conceal the news and details of his death. One year later, the details of his death were spread far and wide by the inmates on duty at the time.

Mr. Lai Zhijun was the deputy supervisor of Fenggang Township, Dongguan City. He was in very good health. He said to other practitioners detained at Sanshui Farm, "If a practitioner cannot do the exercises, it would be meaningless to live on."

Uttering these words got him handcuffed, hung up, shocked with electric batons, and badly beaten. The beatings were done by on-duty inmates under orders from camp guard Chen Ruixiong of the New Arrivals Team. In the middle of the night several days later, the on-duty inmates found Mr. Lai near death. They reported this to the camp guards, who publicly stated, "Don't worry about him!" He died early the next morning. One year later, the camp's political commissar, Shi Shan, attributed Mr. Lai's death to refusing to take medicine.

About five months after Lai Zhijun's death, camp guard Chen Ruixiong was promoted from a team leader to a squadron staff specializing in persecuting practitioners. He became even more sadistic in persecuting practitioners.

2. Camp Guards Claim, "If You Die as a Result of Torture, You Are Just Like a Dead Dog"

Chen Ruixiong forced practitioner Mr. Ye Wenxin to work all night alone. This led to the vicious persecution case of May 27, 2001. Chen Ruixiong said to Mr. Ye, who was ill, "If you die as a result of torture, you are just like a dead pig or dog."

Mr. Ye strongly protested Chen's words. Chen hit Mr. Ye's head on the glass table top. It caused a disturbance in the on-duty office. I happened to be in the reception room next door talking to guard Qiu Jianwen. I witnessed the tragedy and there was blood everywhere. The guards ordered the on-duty inmates to wipe up the blood on the floor. Chen Ruixiong then left on holiday.

The authorities did not stop their persecution, but steadily intensified it. The camp guards put all the practitioners under strict control together and called in collaborators to torture them. They called it the "Demons' Intensive Training Group" and corporal punishment continued endlessly against the practitioners. They physically tortured practitioners all day long, yelling things like, "I will make you die!" They forced the practitioners to recite poems in the evenings. It was an excuse to keep the practitioners from going to bed. Some would have to recite the poems until early morning. Showers were not allowed in the summer.

The practitioners went on a hunger strike on June 3rd and were transferred to different teams. At that time, the strict control group included Zeng Ming from Zijin, Liu Shangli from Xingning, Liu Shaopeng from Jeyang, Wang Kang from Shunde, Xie Chunze from Chenghai, Wang Bin from Jiangmen, Xie Yujun from Xingning, Xie Hanzhu from Meizhou, Qin Zhiiping, a lecturer from Guangzhou Military Sports Institute, Chen Jianguo from Luoding, Lin Yongxu from Zhuhai, Zhou Xiaowei from Haifeng, Fang Weixiong from Huilai, Ning Zhenshi from Haifeng, Wen Chunru from Xingning, Chen Siguo from Huaiji, Xia Xianqiang from Meizhou, Lin Shatao from Jieyang, and Wang Shubin from Jieyang. Wang Shubin, who was in his 20's, was spitting up blood and unable to speak from being badly beaten. He was released before his term of forced labor expired. He died shortly after returning home.

The notorious unit for persecuting Falun Gong was set up in September 2000 in the current 2nd Group of the 3rd Branch. Inside the three-story building regular prisoners from the first and second floors were moved to the already crammed third floor. This made room on the first and second floors for practitioners. The second floor was equipped with bugging devices, closed circuit TV, and an audio system.

At the beginning the guards forced practitioners to work alone, often until midnight. Then the guards increased the workloads and tortured the practitioners day and night. They forced the practitioners to recite poems while squatting in small confinement or standing at military attention. The reciting of poems was up to five poems on the first day, 10 the second day, and 15 poems after that. Practitioners were made to squat on a single brick and not allowed to step off the brick. Sometimes the torture was carried out in the toilet and many practitioners became skin and bones as a result.

Practitioners who firmly held to their righteous beliefs were thrown into confinement cells by the camp guards for any excuse. In the confinement cells they used eight or ten electric batons to shock the practitioner. Practitioner Huang Yutian from Meizhou came out of confinement with burn marks all over his body. Some very visible red and black burn marks were on his neck. Later on, the guards constantly shocked Mr. Huang's hands and legs with electric batons from behind, but Huang Yutian had no reaction at all.

Several times in this labor camp I witnessed bloody scenes that were too horrible to imagine. I saw an unconscious practitioner, his head all bloody, dragged from a confinement area by the guards. I heard screams and howls while electric batons sizzled. I could see seven extremely low-ceilinged confinement cells about ten meters away through the abandoned canteen window or a toilet window. That was the notorious "transformation" base. It was turned into a two-story building in the winter of 2002. A great number of practitioners were tortured there. Some were rushed to hospital emergency rooms, some were crippled for life, and others went insane as a result of inhuman torture.

Since the "Nut Cracking Base" was located beside the confinement cells, it was very covert and isolated from the outside world. There were all sorts of instruments of torture of both Chinese and foreign origin. On the first floor four or five guards and dozens of inmates tortured the practitioners. These inmates had to obey very strict rules and regulations. They were not allowed to talk to the practitioners and not allowed to discuss anything among themselves. They were under the absolute authority of the camp guards and had to follow any orders given by the guards. Their job was to watch the movements of the practitioners.

Practitioner Lin Fengchi from Foshan was among the first group of practitioners escorted secretly to this "base" in the winter of 2002. A banner hanging low on the exercise yard read, "Obsessed Falun Gong Practitioners Have No Way Out But Going on the Road to Ruin." The new arrivals were forced to squat on the ground endlessly, a punishment called the "Crucifixion of Jesus." In the torture chamber there were two one-meter square columns made of quilts folded into squares. Four to eight inmates were on-duty by turn. They would pull the victim's arms apart, forming a line with the shoulders. The victims hands were handcuffed to the pillars one meter above the ground. Then the inmates pulled the victim's body out straight. In this way, the victim could not stand up or sit down. The victim would become numb very quickly in this awkward position. Some even lost consciousness. The victim had no drinking water and was not allowed to use the toilet until they had feces and urine in their pants. After the victims "passed this test," they would suffer another torture called, "levitating during daylight." The victim's hands were cuffed. Then they were hung like planes in the air. Lin Fengchi suffered from these tortures. In winter, the camp guards ordered the inmates to strip off Mr. Lin's clothes and pour scalding water down his back. He instantly had blisters all over his back. However, they failed to make Mr. Lin submit. The camp guards ordered the inmates to brush the blisters with toothbrushes. Mr. Lin gritted his teeth and resolved to hold out.

Mr. Lin Fengchi's term of forced labor was gradually extended. He was still there when SARS was rampant in China. Still, the camp did not stop persecuting him. On occasion Mr. Lin was deprived of sleep for more than 40 days at a time. This base was dissolved by September 13, because of international pressure. The camp authorities transferred all the practitioners out of there overnight to avoid being investigated.

On September 11, I saw Mr. Lin, who was only about ten meters away from me. The on-duty inmate told me that the stool that Mr. Lin used was wet. After having scalding water poured down his back, his back was festering. Only shortly before the "base" was disbanded, the camp authorities allowed him to have a few hours of sleep, some times from 4 to 6 and sometimes from 2 to 6 early in the morning. The on-duty inmate said that Mr. Lin had had his term of forced labor extended for over eight months. Normally he seldom talked to anyone. The inmate said if they talked to him about the things that had nothing to do with cultivation, he would never answer. If the inmates helped him he would thank them.

Even during the time when SARS was rampant, practitioners Lin Fengchi, Huang Zhufeng, Li Yuandong, Chen Jingping, Zeng Liuming, Zeng Guangxing, Liu Qinming and Xie Chunfeng were still suffering from the inhuman torture. Among these practitioners, Huang Zhufeng was crippled for life as a result of the torture. Li Yuandong was a former government cadre. He was deprived of sleep for one month. The camp guards ordered the on-duty inmates to slap Mr. Li's face with slippers if he closed his eyes. His face was swollen as a result of the torture, and Li's younger brother could not even recognize him. The on-duty inmates said that Mr. Li would close his eyes if they stopped slapping his face for barely two seconds. He was finally sent to the hospital for emergency treatment.

Mr. Chen Jingping from Huizhou became mentally disordered as a result of torture. He would always say that he saw a big hole in the sole of his foot and saw his hair all over the floor. As a result, he kept himself busy picking up the invisible hair from the floor and filing up the hole that did not exist. This was the consequence of more than 20 days of sleep deprivation.

Zeng Liuming from Zijin was a high school teacher. Mr. Zeng was kept in confinement for 17 days and shocked twice daily. Each time they shocked Mr. Zeng with at least four electric batons until he passed out.

Liu Qinming from Shaoguan was an employee at the Mengzhou Power Plant. The tortures he suffered were too horrible to describe. Normally, there were 40 to 50 guards and inmates on duty to torture several practitioners day and night at the base. The torture chamber was totally sealed off. All the walls and the floor were covered with thick layers of cardboard. In this way, even if the victim wanted to commit suicide, it would be impossible to do so. The mattresses in the torture chamber were covered with feces stains, traces of blood, and scratches.

On the morning of May 26, 2007, Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Song Huijuan, 43, from South Vegetable Garden in Yanqing County, Beijing, was arrested and her home was searched.

In the past month, many practitioners in Yanqing County have been arrested, persecuted, and detained. These practitioners include Ms. Fang Jinzhi, who lost her job as a worker at the original Sixth Factory; Ms. Chen Zhonglian of Little Creek Village; Ms. Sun Shufeng of Si Jiaying Village; Ms. Li Ruihua and Mr. Shi Yinjie from the West Village; and others.

On May 18, 2007, the CCP Court of Yanqing County sentenced practitioner Mr. Shi Yinjie to six years in prison in a secret trial, in which the court fabricated evidence and restricted Mr. Shi's right to an attorney. Before the decision, to keep the truth from Mr. Shi's family, the court made a false report to the family, stating that the case had been sent to the High Court for trial. Consequently, the family was unaware of the trial until the public announcement on May 19. After the decision, Mr. Shi refused to accept the sentence and was preparing to appeal.

On May 15, 2007, practitioner Ms. Wang Yanfang from Xiangyin Township was arrested again. On May 16, she was taken to the Mental Health Care Hospital of Yanqing County to be tortured. In April, when Ms. Wang was clarifying the truth, she was followed by the security guards, who reported her to the authorities. She was arrested. Her legs were injured by the police so severely that she could not walk for several days.

On the evening of May 17, Ms. Wang Shuping, a doctor at the Women and Children's Health Care Hospital of Yanqing County, clarified the truth in front of Yanqing First Middle School. She was arrested after she was noticed by security. Because she had extremely high blood pressure, she was released.

A few days ago, the residences of practitioners Ms. Guo Chunxian and Ms. Xu Ruier from the West Village were searched by local police.

Practitioners Ms. Zhou Qiong, Ms. Wu Guiyuan, and Ms. Wu Pingan were arrested on May 10, 2007, by officers from Jinshan Police Station in Fuquan City, Guizhou Province, The women were distributing truth-clarification materials in the local area at the time. The officers beat them and held them at Fuquan City Detention Center.

The police ransacked Ms. Wu Guiyuan's home later in the evening and took 4,000 yuan in cash and personal belongings worth about 15,000 yuan.

The officials went to Fuquan City Middle School at 9:30 p.m. and arrested Ms. Wu Guiyuan's 17-year-old son, who was studying in a classroom during the evening study session. They took him to the police station and interrogated him. They held him overnight and released him at 7:00 a.m. the next day.

Ms. Zhou Qiong's husband, Mr. Yang Yi, was an engineer with a bachelor's degree but died as a result of persecution on November 15, 2001. For more details on Mr. Yang Yi's death, please visit

/emh/articles/2001/12/19/16931.html

[Note: The following is a shortened version of a longer and more detailed article that appeared on the Minghui website (Chinese version of Clearwisdom.net).]

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Xu Xifa from Majin Township, Fushun City, Liaoning Province, was spraying his crops with pesticide the morning of May 15, 2007, when a group of CCP officials and police officers came out of nowhere and ran up to him. They attempted to drag him into a car parked by the side of the road. Mr. Xu resisted with all of his strength. His 85-year-old father tried to free him from the police. About 100 farmers gathered at the scene. In the end, the officials shoved both Mr. Xu and his father into the police car.

Xu Xifa is a 47-year-old farmer. He had been sentenced to three years in prison in March 2003 and was held at Xihu Prison in Benxi City. He went into exile in May 2006 to avoid persecution. His elderly father was left at home alone. Mr. Xu felt bad that his father had to cultivate the land by himself, so he returned home to help in the fields. Both father and son were arrested soon afterwards. It has been learned that Xu Xifa's father was released later in the evening on May 15, 2007, while Mr. Xu was taken to a brainwashing center at Luotai Inn in Fushun City.