When the Olympic Torch was traveling to Guizhou Province, CCP staff members in Guizhou Province organized a large police force to illegally arrest and beat practitioners.

Painter Ms. Xu Na Imprisoned in Beijing City Police Department

The case of Ms. Xu Na and her husband is one of the numerous persecution cases of Falun Gong practitioners' families by the CCP.

Mr. Yu Zhou and Ms. Xu Na

Ms. Xu Na

The case of Ms. Xu Na and her husband is one of the numerous persecution cases of Falun Gong practitioners' families by the CCP.

Ms. Xu Na was born in Changchun City, Jilin Province. Her father is a painter at China's Art and Literature Union and her mother is a professor at the Jilin College of Art. Following her parents, Ms. Xu also became an artist. In 1997, her award-winning paintings were exhibited at the Great Exhibition of Chinese Arts organized by the China Ministry of Culture. In 1998, her paintings won a prize at the China Youth Oil Painting Exhibition. Her paintings reflected the peacefulness and harmony of her mind after having practiced Falun Gong for three years.

Ms. Xu's husband, Mr. Yu Zhou, a Falun Gong practitioner, was born in northeastern China. He was a very talented artist. He was skilled in the four traditional Chinese arts, including musical instruments, the game of Go, Chinese calligraphy, and painting. In addition, he had a deep understanding of the Chinese Song poems. He was well regarded as a young artist. At one time, he was the drummer in a famous Chinese folk music band.

Since the CCP started persecuting Falun Gong in 1999, many practitioners have gone to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. Mr. Yu Zhou and Ms. Xu Na hosted many out-of-town practitioners at their home in Beijing, providing them free room and board. In 2001, the CCP arrested and sentenced Ms. Xu Na to five years in prison for lending her apartment to out-of-town practitioners.

At the Beijing Women's Prison, Ms. Xu was only allowed to sleep four hours per night because the guards wanted to force her to "transform." She was also forced to perform intensive labor during the day. On her first day in the prison, she was given a quota to make 600 pairs of slippers each day. It normally takes a full year of practice for an inmate to reach this quota.

In November 2002, Ms. Xu Na was taken to the prison's 3rd Ward for forced brainwashing. That ward is one of the most vicious places in Beijing, as it brutally persecutes Falun Gong practitioners. The CCP uses it to teach persecution techniques to other prisons throughout the country. To "transform" her, the guards totally deprived her of sleep by tying her up and forcing her to sit with both legs crossed for an extremely long time. They also physically abused her by forcing her to stay in the snow for a long time, and prohibited her from washing or taking showers for more than a month. To humiliate her, the guards forced her hands to put her fingerprints on materials criticizing Falun Gong.

In late 2002, the prison warden saw that instead of being "transformed," Ms. Xu Na instead made many people have a positive understanding of Falun Gong, so he put Ms. Xu in a solitary cell to isolate her.

The solitary cells are used to imprison steadfast Falun Gong practitioners. Ms. Dong Cuifang, also called Ms. Dong Cui, was in the cell beside Ms. Xu Na. Ms. Dong Cuifang was a 29-year-old doctor at the Xunyi District Obstetric and Gynecology Hospital in Beijing. She was taken to the Third Division of the Beijing Women's Prison on the morning of March 11, 2003. One day, Ms. Xu heard Ms. Dong being beaten in her cell, so she ran over and demanded, "Stop beating people!" The person who was assigned to monitor Ms. Xu came and dragged her out.

On March 18, 2003, director Tian Fengqing of the Third Division ordered guard Xi Xuehui to take Ms. Dong Cuifang to the shower room to be tortured. Guard Xi Xuehui and Dong Xiaoqing, also a guard in the Third Division, then led five "transformed" former Falun Gong practitioners, including Li Xiaobing and Li Xiaomei, to take Ms. Dong to the shower room. A few hours later, Ms. Xu Na saw them carrying Ms. Dong Cuifang's dead body out.

Later, the warden found out that Ms. Xu knew the truth about Ms. Dong Cuifang's death, so he put her back in solitary confinement to prevent her from telling others. Ms. Xu Na held a hunger strike to protest, but she was force-fed by the guards for a long time. Several months later, she was taken back to stay with other inmates, but she was still under close watch.

During March and April 2005, Ms. Xu Na was put in solitary confinement again. The guards tried the "moving and converting" strategy, but after three months, Ms. Xu Na was not "moved" or "converted" at all. The prison then sent three guards to play VCDs that slandered Falun Gong around the clock. They also ordered Ms. Xu Na to take notes from these VCDs. Again, the attempt to "transform" her failed.

In 2006, Ms. Xu Na was released after being illegally imprisoned and tortured for five years. Afterward however, she and her husband were frequently harassed by the police and their activities were monitored.

At around 10:00 p.m. on January 26, 2008, Mr. Yu Zhou was driving home with Ms. Xu Na after one of his performances. The police stopped their car for an "Olympics Search" in Yangzhuang Village, Beiyuan neighborhood, Tongzhou District in Beijing. When the police found that they were Falun Gong practitioners, they arrested them and took them to Tongzhou District Detention Center.

Beiyuan Police Station, Tongzhou District, Beijing, where Mr. Yu Zhou and Ms. Xu Na were arrested

At around 9:00 a.m. on January 27, 2008, four policemen from the Beiyuan Police Station, Tongzhou District Police Department, Xiangshan Police Station, and Haidian District Police Department ransacked Ms. Xu's parents' home. They did not find anything. Then, they ransacked Ms. Xu's sister's home. They stole the printer paper from the desk when they did not find a computer.

On February 6, one day before the Chinese Near Year, Mr. Yu Zhou was tortured to death, at the age of 42. His family demanded an autopsy, but the result was never given to them. The detention center authorities did not allow Ms. Xu Na to attend his funeral, so she was not able to see him one last time.

Qinghe Emergency Treatment Center, where Mr. Yu Zhou's parents saw his body

Ms. Xu Na was taken to the infamous Beijing City Detention Center, or the Seventh Section of the Beijing City Police Department, where the political prisoners and dangerous criminals are imprisoned.

The attorney hired by Ms. Xu Na's parents informed Ms. Xu of the death of her husband. Ms. Xu Na has now filed an appeal with the Procuratorate for the death of Mr. Yu Zhou. She is demanding an investigation to determine who is legally responsible, and is requesting the rights to the funeral matters for Mr. Yu Zhou.

Ms. Song Yulian and Ms. Gao Guofeng Tortured in Heilongjiang Province

Ms. Song Yulian is a Falun Gong practitioner who lives in Weijiatun Group, Wanchun Village, Shengli Town, Bin County, Heilongjiang Province. She is currently detained at Qianjin Forced Labor Camp in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province. On May 8, 2008, First Warden Zhang Bo (male), led a group of guards to torture Ms. Song with the "big hang up," (1) but were unable to force Ms. Song to write the three statements or succumb to the brainwashing.

On the evening of May 10, 2008, guard Cui Jianmei (female) pulled Ms. Song's hair and slammed her head against the bed frame, because she found out that Ms. Song did the Falun Gong exercises. Cui dragged Ms. Song to the warden's office, and did not allow her to sleep for the night.

On May 11, 2008, Warden Zhang Bo and three other guards (all female), including Cong Zhixiu, Zhou Muqi, and Zhou Lifan, sealed Ms. Song' mouth with tape, cuffed her, and tortured her for more than two hours. During this time they used the "big hang up" and shocked her with electric batons, but they still failed to make her betray her faith. Feeling exhausted, the guards wrote the three statements, then pressed Ms. Song's finger onto the piece of paper. By then, Ms. Song's neck was covered with blisters due to electric baton shocks, and was swollen so badly that it looked deformed.

Another Falun Gong practitioner, Ms. Gao Guofeng, is detained in the Second Ward of Qianjin Forced Labor Camp. Her tail bone is fractured due to brutal beatings by the guards, and she suffers from starvation. Warden Zhai Shuping (male) locked her in the small cell (2), and tortured her inhumanly.

Notes:

1. Big hang up - There are two forms in this torture: (1) With both hands cuffed behind the back and only the toes touching the ground, one is hung by a rope that is tied to the metal window frames; (2) One hand of a practitioner is cuffed to one bunk bed and the other hand to another bed, and the two beds are then pulled in opposite directions. One feels extreme pain as the body is pulled. Illustration available at /emh/articles/2004/11/17/54624.html

2. Small cell - The detainee is locked up in a very small cell by themselves. The guards handcuff the practitioner behind their back in a fixed position, in which the practitioner can neither move nor lie down. The small cell is very damp and no sunshine comes in. Detainees have to urinate and defecate in the cell. Only half of a regular meal is served to detainees locked up in a small cell during the daytime. During the night rats run rampant inside the cell. The stench in the small cell is so bad that it is difficult to breathe.

Mr. Song Bangfu and Other Practitioners in Guizhou Province Brutally Tortured

In line with their plans for the upcoming Olympics, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has recently launched an intensified and vicious persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in multiple locations. 

On April 10, 2008, Guiyang Court was planning to "illegally sentence" three practitioners, including Xu Qihua, Li Donghong, and Jia Li'an. Xu Qihua's mother left her husband, who could not take care of himself, and four young grandsons at home to go to the 610 Office in Guiyang City to express her grievance to members of the court. She was hoping that they would quickly release Xu Qihua.

On May 8, 2008, Xu Qihua's mother Ms. He Meixian was arrested by officers from the city police department and Touqiao Police Station. They ransacked her home. Su Xueli, a practitioner from Xishui, who was living there since going to the capital city of Guizhou to look for a job, was viciously beaten by the police and then arrested.

On May 8-9, when several practitioners, including Li Donghong's younger brother, Li Hongyu, Song Bangfu, and Li Zhengxiu--a total of about eight people--went to visit Ms. He Meixian, they were arrested by plainclothes police who were monitoring the area. The police brutally beat several of them. Mr. Song Bangfu, the shortest one in the group, was beaten by seven or eight officers from Qiaotou Police Station and the 1st division of the city police department. The police then dragged him away. The onlookers said his face was a mess from the beating. His whole body was covered with injuries. His belt was used to tie his hands behind his back. Besides his belt, the police also used some ropes and handcuffs to tie his hands. The handcuffs were so tight that they cut into his flesh and his wrists were bleeding, and his pants were pulled down. The police dragged him and beat him at the same time. Young Mr. Song said in a loud voice, "Falun Gong is good." He also tried to persuade the police not to commit this wrongdoing. The police ignored him and continued beating him after they put him in the vehicle. Mr. Song Bangfu has still not been released. The 1st division of the city police department and staff members from the 610 Office continue to interrogate him around the clock.

Those who participated in beating practitioners include most of the personnel from Touqiaoa Police Station and the city police department: Ji Lin, Shen Yulin, Huang Boping, Zhang Hongqin, etc.