(Clearwisdom.net)
Chaoyang and Lingyuan are neighboring regions in Liaoning Province. Because Master had previously conducted classes at the Lingyuan Steel Factory, there are many local practitioners. A couple of days before July 20, 1999, several unscrupulous police assigned by the Ministry of Public Security from Beijing came here and arrested a few practitioners who, at the time, were in charge of Dafa assistance centers. Those practitioners were beaten brutally and forced to give up Falun Gong. The police published false statements in the newspapers to deceive the common people. They also put practitioners who are firm in Dafa into Chaoyang City Labor Camp and persecuted them brutally. After July 20th, 1999 the authorities marked this area as a key place in eradicating Falun Gong.
To resist the illegal persecution, practitioners held hunger strikes in the labor camp. Wang Lixia was tortured to death during a barbaric attempt to force feed her while she was on a hunger strike. Practitioner Jia Qingui, a senior engineer from Lingyuan Steel Factory, once went on hunger strike for over 50 consecutive days; his great compassion and endurance had the guards and criminals who still had kind minds moved to tears. Later on Jia Qingui was transferred to Fushun. No one knows his whereabouts.
The Chaoyang theatrical troupe, spurred on by the local government, performed a modern drama to slander Falun Gong. It was the first drama slandering Falun Gong in the nation to perform in Beijing.
After attending one of Master Li's classes, Lingyuan Steel Factory's Party secretary, Yuan Chengde's health improved. After July 20th, he committed heartless acts against Dafa and against his better judgment. Practitioners from Lingyuan Steel Factory wrote a letter to try and persuade him and some other officials to stop persecuting Falun Gong. This open letter was delivered to Yuan Chengde's office and other offices. Unexpectedly this only incited Yuan Chengde to behave more maliciously. He personally organized a broadcast van to slander Dafa while driving around the streets near Lingyuan Steel Factory. He fabricated any excuse to layoff practitioners who would not give up Falun Gong.
However, in Lingyuan Steel Factory, many people benefited from Dafa because Teacher personally had been here to teach Dafa. How could the poisonous rumors deceive local people? The people even saw the truth more clearly from the authorities' disgusting show in persecuting Dafa. In the so-called "Million Signature" event, less than half of the people in Lingyuan Steel Factory's main office building signed. The signature activity ended abruptly. At the beginning of this year, ten brainwashing classes were scheduled to take place. They encountered resistance from practitioners. Practitioners in the first class were not converted, so they were put into the second class. They didn't compromise their beliefs, so they were transferred to the third class. One official asked: "You are uncompromising; how many classes do you want to attend?" The practitioner replied: "How many useless classes are you willing to run? We won't compromise!" In the end only three brainwashing classes were held.
Zhou Zhongxuan, the mayor of Chaoyang City, committed many crimes against Dafa. Several times he personally went to Beijing to seize practitioners. A college classmate, and a practitioner with great compassion, tried to awaken him from the abyss, by sending him a CD with information telling the truth about Dafa. The mayor not only didn't repent for what he was doing, but also sent the classmate into custody and illegally detained her for 7--8 days. Where is his conscience? How can he treat a kind classmate like that? Here we advise this mayor: please think calmly. If your classmate were only selfish, why would she dare to clarify the truth to you and risk being arrested, beaten, jailed and even losing her life? Wake up!