Beijing municipal authorities have intensified their crackdown against Falun Dafa practitioners right before the Chinese Spring Festival is scheduled to begin. Orders have been given to cadres at every level to prevent any possible incidents. For example, if there is an instance of a practitioner going to Tiananmen Square, the District Chief will be dismissed from his or her post, and the chief of the police substation will be replaced. As a result, some police substations carry out joint "all-out surveillance" projects in collaboration with street offices and neighborhood watch groups. As soon as a practitioner steps out of the door, some one will follow him and watch where he goes or what he does. Street offices have even approached the work units of practitioners to sign "agreements" to monitor practitioners around the clock during sensitive dates.
[Beijing] The Situation of Practitioners at Qinghua University
Meng Jun, Chen Zhixiang, Qin Peng, and Qin's spouse Wang Wen from Qinghua University, as well as 8 practitioners who were from out of town, were arrested together with Yao Yue and Liu Wenyu on January 1, 2001, stated a reliable source.
Around 11 PM on December 31, on duty police from Zhongguancun substation caught Meng Jun as he was putting up small posters saying, "Falun Dafa is good," "Restore the innocence of Falun Dafa" with transparent tape. Police searched him and took away rent payment receipts and the keys to his home. He was beaten and tortured with electric shocks for over two hours by police in an attempt to extract information. Police then went straight to his home at one in the morning, let themselves in, only to find Qin Peng, Wang Wen, and other 8 practitioners from out of town who were temporarily staying there. They were all taken to the Zhongguancun substation. At around 5 AM on January 1, police broke down the door and raided Yao Yue's home. Yao Yue along with, Liu Wenyu and his spouse as well as Chen Zhixiang who were temporarily staying there, were all taken into police custody.
In Zhongguancun substation, Meng Jun and others were subjected to inhumane treatment. Meng Jun was shocked with electric batons. Police beat both his knees, the inside of his legs, both his arms with spade handles and wooden sofa armrests. The cut on his knee alone was over 2 inches long. One particular policeman, Gao Feng, threatened, "Do you confess or not? If not, I will break both your legs, throw you down the stairs, and all I need to say is that you jumped in a suicide attempt."
Police handcuffed Yao Yue to the bed poles and shocked his wrist with electric batons. They also shocked Liu Wenyu's head, trying to force Liu to explain why he had a deposit receipt of US$2,000.
When demanding the names and addresses of the out of town practitioners, police incessantly shocked both their hands, hit their knees and ankles with wooden planks. These practitioners' buttocks turned black and purple as a result of the beating.
Haidian Police Substation has detained nine of the practitioners, including Meng Jun, Liu Wenyu, Qin Peng, Chen Zhixiang, Yao Yue. They are still in custody to this day.
[Changchun City, Jilin Province] New Round of Arrests
Beginning on January 14, a new round of arrests have been carried out in Changchun City. Practitioners who had already been to Beijing were forced to write "guarantees" renouncing their practice of Falun Gong, and to pay a minimum pledge of 3,000 Yuan cash (translator's note: average monthly salary in urban cities is around 500 Yuan, where 8.30 Yuan is equivalent to US$1) to be able to go home for the Chinese Lunar New Year's day. Prejudice police officers can, on a whim, force practitioners to attend "study sessions," which is in actuality a form of 24-hour surveillance while in custody. This is a new round of severe human rights violations by Chinese officials. For simply having practiced Falun Gong in the past, an average Chinese citizen is now restricted from going home to attend the Spring Festival. In the end, who is the true cause behind social instability?
Recently, the State Department has sent out official documents ordering all organizations of the judicial system to send out "ultimatums" to their employees, who are also practitioners, asking the practitioners to either write "renouncing statements" or be sent to "transformation classes." If practitioners do not comply, they will be immediately dismissed from their job or possibly even sent to detention centers or forced labor camps. Today, certain cities held meetings in the morning to discuss plans, and in the afternoon executed those plans. Practitioners will be called into the main office for a few minutes, and if in that few minutes cannot be persuaded to give up their practice, those orders will be carried out by force. Several practitioners have already been taken away.
Events in Changchun city, detailed by other sources, report that street offices have forced work units who employ practitioners to write 'guarantees.' These 'guarantees' state that during the Spring Festival season, the work unit 'guarantees' that none of its employees will "go to Beijing to file appeals, and will not cause disturbances," etc. At the same time, the work unit will have to pay a 3,000 Yuan cash deposit, otherwise the practitioners employed there will be sent to "transformation bases" in the suburbs to be "educated," in the end preventing them from going home to attend Spring Festival activities. These events are also happening in other cities. One good-hearted manager of a work unit said angrily, "This is an insult to our human dignity! An insult to our work place!"
[Across the Country] Belated Reports
Suffocating the Evil
Around the midnight hour of May 12, 2000 (a very sensitive time of year), police launched a large scale round up. However, the next morning, all government organizations, civil groups, businesses and institutions had received newspapers saying: "True Story of Falun Gong." This shocked police officials. That afternoon, the municipal police bureau sent out various crime investigation teams across the city. However, thanks to the collaborated effort of Dafa practitioners, thousands of letters were also mailed out at this time, giving police officials no time to breath.
Veteran practitioner Wang Guanghui of Xinchang, Zhejiang Province has been sentenced to 3 years of forced labor.
Another Instance of Retributions on Evil-Doing
The public security section chief of Liwan Police Sub-bureau Zhou Zuoping, over 40 years old, was in charge of the suppression of Falun Gong in that area. He committed suicide by shooting himself in his office in September 2000, while under suspicion for corruption.
