Due to her persistence in her practice of Falun Gong, the calligrapher has been been arrested and detained nine times during last ten years. She is currently paralyzed in the detention center.
Ms. Guo Zhaoqing of Yiyang City Paralyzed by Torture
Ms. Guo Zhaoqing, 37 years old, was a calligrapher working as a cadre in the Mass Art Center of Yiyang City, Hunan Province. She had been given awards for being an outstanding worker many times. In 1996, Guo Zhaoqing started to practice Falun Gong. After the persecution started in July 1999, as she persisted in her practice of Falun Gong, she was fired from her position as secretary general of the city Calligraphers' Association.
Guo Zhaoqing
In 2000, Ms. Guo went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong and was arrested. She was illegally incarcerated in Tianjin City. On January 15, 2001, the local CCP officials took Guo to the Baimalong Forced Labor Camp in Zhuzhou City for two years of forced labor. During this period, she was brutally tortured with electric batons, hung up by handcuffs, physically assaulted to the brink of death before her family was allowed to take her home.
Later Guo's residence was ransacked many times and she was harassed repeatedly. On December 20, 2004, Guo and her parents were arrested by local personnel Wang Yongkang, Wu Xiyong, Huang Junhua from Wuling District, Changde City. Their savings of twenty three thousand yuan was confiscated. Her parents were aged and had heart problems and a relapse of high blood pressure (as high as 210 mhg) but they were still incarcerated for three months before being released. Guo was incarcerated alone at Linli County Detention Center in Changde City and later escaped.
During the last ten years, Ms. Guo has been arrested and detained nine times. She suffered from extensive torture until her whole body was covered with cuts and bruises. According to her persecutors, she went on a hunger strike for 300 days and regardless of the severe torture, she did not sign any documents renouncing her faith in Falun Gong. When they tried to "transform her" she refuted them and left them speechless.
On April 21, 2009, a dozen policemen barged into Ms. Guo's residence in Beihu District, Chenzhou City, Hunan Province. The police beat and kicked her so badly that she lost consciousness after losing a lot of blood. To hide their crimes, the police quickly cleaned up all the blood before taking pictures of the scene.
Ms. Guo was incarcerated in Chenzhou City for nine days. She did not cooperate with the police, so she was tortured black and blue. On April 29, she was transferred to Linli County Detention Center. She is currently paralyzed, but the detention center doest not allow her family to visit her. Ms. Guo's aged parents have no one to take care of them.