Persecution victim: Mr. Cao Kai

Age: 32

Place of Detention: Jingshan Railway Chadian Station 106-12 (Zip code: 300481)

Cao Kai graduated from Lanzhou University. He was my classmate and fellow practitioner and was also my schoolmate and a colleague at the Graduate School of China Academy of Sciences. He is a Ph.D. candidate in the Growth and Biology Institute of the Academy.

In May 1995, Cao Kai started to practice Falun Dafa. Prior to practicing Falun Dafa he suffered from serious eye disease. His eyes bled two to three times every month, at worst once a week. The retina was at risk of becoming detached at any moment, and he had to be on medication every day. This disease kept him away from his studies and from leading a normal life. Whenever the eyes bled, he could only lie still on the bed without any movement at all. That was the reason the university gave him two years off for treatment. The doctor suggested he discontinue his studies and have surgery. If his eyes had bled one more time, he would have become entirely blind. Having no choice, he looked for help in Western medicine and also Chinese traditional medicine. He even tried many kinds of Qigong practice, but nothing had any significant effect. After he practiced Falun Dafa, all his symptoms went away. He felt energetic. Sometimes there was no problem even working continuously for 48 hours.

After such physical and spiritual benefit, Cao Kai was very firm in his practice of Falun Dafa. During his studies at Lanzhou University, the graduate school of China Academy of Sciences and the Growth and Biology Institute, he was always an assistant for the practice of Falun Gong. He often organized us to study the Fa, practice and hold activities to spread Dafa. After April 25^th, 1999 Cao Kai was under special surveillance at the Growth and Biology Institute, and from the Zhichunli Police Station and the Zhongguancun Police Station in Beijing. He was required to "report his activities and tell the person behind the scene." On July 20, 1999, Cao Kai was secretly taken from home to the Base of the China Academy of Sciences and illegally detained. After that he was monitored around the clock for about one month and forced to tell where Dafa materials came from.

In September 1999, Cao Kai was put into administrative detention for 15 days because of practicing Falun Dafa publicly and his study was suspended. The Party committee from the Growth and Biology Institute forcibly took back the apartment leased to Cao Kai's family, in spite of his newborn baby having multiple genetic diseases. This led this couple to become destitute and homeless for a long time and was the underlying cause of their child's early death.

On October 28, 1999, the couple went for an appeal to National People's Congress, and were illegally detained at Haidian District Detention Center. During the detention period he went on a hunger strike for nine days, using his life to voice the grievances related to Dafa. On the ninth day he was sent to a hospital because of bleeding from his eyes. On the 21st day he was bailed out. In December 1999, before the illegal sentencing of the members of former Falun Gong Research Association, the police were afraid that Cao Kai might audit the hearing and tricked him into a one-day detention at the Zhongguancun Police Station. In March 2000, police officers from Beijing Police Department broke into Cao Kai's rented house and arrested him. Cao Kai protested with a hunger strike. Five days later he had the symptom of tachycardia (abnormally fast heart beat). Afraid he might die, the police released him.

On May 12, 2000, the police again intruded into Cao Kai's rented house and tried to take him away. His pregnant wife Zhang Wenfang succeeded in blocking the police car and he wasn't taken away. In June 2000, Cao Kai was arrested while sharing experiences at a practitioner's home in Hainan Province. After being detained locally for half a month, he was taken back to the detention center of Beijing Police Department 7^th Section and Haidian District Detention Center, respectively. He was illegally detained at two detention centers for almost a hundred days. He was on a hunger strike over 90 days and suffered force-feeding for a long time. To avoid the trouble of re-inserting the feeding tube on a daily basis, the guards kept the feeding tube inserted in his stomach. Due to the long-term, excruciating mistreatment, he was tortured to the last gasp. Toward the end of September 2000, he was released from Haidian District Detention Center due to his deteriorated health condition. In February 2001, he was arrested again at a fellow Dafa practitioner's home. We then had no more messages about him, until just recently.

It has now been verified that Cao Kai is unlawfully detained at the Qinghe Farm of the Chadian Station on the Jingshan Railway in Tianjin City. The length of the detention term is not clear. Cao Kai's parents are very old and live outside Beijing. His wife Zhang Wenfang was fired by her work unit after going to appeal at the National People's Congress and being illegally detained for one month. She has no income. There has been no word from her, either.

Falun Dafa saved Cao Kai from the agony of disease. This good man suffered inhumane torture only because he believed in "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance." Jiang's regime almost tortured him to death. We sincerely appeal to all kind-hearted people to help rescue Cao Kai and thousands of other Falun Gong practitioners who, like him, are suffering unspeakable horrors under this tyranny.

Appellant: Luu Gang, Northwestern University in the USA