Despite his status as a scientific researcher, Dr. Jiafeng has been repeatedly arrested, tortured and imprisoned.

Eight Years of Persecution Endured by Dr. Jiafeng Zeng

The police once again arrested Falun Gong practitioner Dr. Zeng Jiafeng from Shanghai on February 10, 2008. The illegal arrest happened when Dr. Zeng visited his hometown in Rudong County, Jiangsu Province during the 2008 Chinese New Year. This is his sixth arrest since the Chinese Communist regime launched the persecution of Falun Gong in July 1999.

Zeng Jiafeng began practicing Falun Gong in 1996 while he was a Ph.D. candidate at the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica (SIMM) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. While pursuing his studies at SIMM, the academy awarded him the "Di'ao Scholarship" for his excellent academic performance. After earning his Ph.D. degree in 1998, Zeng worked as a researcher at SIMM.

In the course of work at SIMM, Zeng Jiafeng conducted his life according to the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance. He won many favorable comments from his supervisor and colleagues.

However, during the more than eight years of persecution, Zeng Jiafeng has been arrested six times in complete violation of the Constitution. He has been illegally detained and brutally tortured over and over.

First Arrest and Detention

When Zeng Jiafeng heard about the ban of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, he went to the Shanghai municipal government's Office of Letters and Appeals, to petition for Falun Gong. He went with his wife Tang Chunping and another practitioner, Jiang Desheng, a Ph.D. candidate from the Shanghai Brain Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The officials didn't reply to their requests for justice and instead alerted a large contingent of riot police to force them and other practitioners into several buses. They were sent to Taiping Police Station and were not released until late at night. At about 3 o'clock in the morning, several policemen broke into Zeng Jiafeng's home and took him to Fenglin Police Station where he was interrogated and detained until 10 o'clock that morning. This was Zeng Jiafeng's first arrest.

Second Arrest and Detention

On July 24, 1999, Zeng Jiafeng, his wife, Jiang Desheng and Gang Peng went out to practice the Falun Gong exercises at their local practice site. The police arrested them again. Zeng Jiafeng and his wife were taken to Fenglin Police Station. The police attempted to force them to renounce their belief and sign a guarantee that they wouldn't do the Falun Gong exercises outside. But the practitioners didn't give in. The police then interrogated and tortured them for nearly 20 hours before setting them free.

Third Arrest and Detention

In October 1999, Zeng Jiafen and his wife went to the appeals office in Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. They were arrested by police and taken to the Shanghai Government Liaison Office in Beijing. Officials there notified officials at their research institute - SIMM - and they were subsequently returned to Shanghai. Once they arrived at SIMM, they were held in two different offices for a couple of days, during which time they were not allowed to work or go home.

Fourth Arrest and Detention

On April 24, 2000, Zeng Jiafeng went to the appeals office in Beijing for the second time to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. Tiananmen Square police arrested him on April 25, 2000 and took him back to Shanghai the next day. This time he was incarcerated in the 1st Detention Center of Shanghai for 30 days, where he suffered all kinds of humiliation and abuse. A month later he was released and returned to his research institute. But officials there laid him off, saying that his work contract had expired. Therefore, Dr. Zeng lost his job and the couple had to rely on his wife's income to make ends meet. Life was very difficult for them. 

Fifth Arrest and Detention

Zeng Jiafeng's fifth arrest and detention came in mid-October 2000. At that time, he and his wife, as well as two other practitioners - Cui Yuming and Jiang Desheng, had distributed brochures clarifying the truth about Falun Gong to people. All four of them were followed and arrested by Communist agents.

Zeng Jiafeng was first held in Xietu Road Police Station where he was tied to a metal chair for interrogation, and deprived of sleep and food. He was beaten, tortured, and insulted for three days. Then he was transferred to Xuhui District Detention Center where his wife was also locked up. This was the time that the staged "Tiananmen Self-immolation" incident occurred, and he and other detained practitioners were attacked by brainwashing with radio and TV programs, and they were abused by criminal inmates as well. The guards failed to change the practitioners' mind, so they forced them to do hard labor. After an 11-month detention, Dr. Zeng was sentenced to two years of forced labor.

In September 2001, Zeng Jiafeng was transferred to the 1st Forced Labor Camp of Shanghai located in Dafeng City, Jiangsu Province, where he was subjected to a variety of inhumane treatments including long-term sitting on a hard bench and being forbidden to move, corporal punishment, military drills, brainwashing, forced labor, verbal insults, and other abuses.

Six months later, he was taken to the 3rd Forced Labor Camp of Shanghai, where he was persecuted for more than six months. He was finally released in mid-October 2002 after two years of vicious treatment.

After returning home, Zeng Jiafeng and his wife borrowed money and bought a house in Pudong District, Shanghai. However, the local police station officials didn't allow them to live there because they were Falun Gong practitioners. Following several negotiations, although they got permission to live in their new house, their daily life was filled with disturbance. The police and the security people often went to his work place to find him or his leaders to harass them, which disrupted his normal work and life.

Sixth Arrest and Detention

On February 10, 2008, Xu Xiaohua, a member of the Domestic Security Team from Rudong County, Jiangsu Province, arrested Zeng Jiafeng when he visited his hometown to celebrate the Chinese New Year with his family.

For most Chinese families, Chinese New Year is a traditional festival when families reunite to celebrate together. However, this New Year was tantamount to a disaster for Zeng Jiafeng's family. His innocent four-year-old daughter's joyful family time was ruined, and she cried, asking daily for her daddy. Zeng's parents could not conceal their desolation and cried frequently because of their son's sixth arrest.