(Clearwisdom.net) Falun Gong practitioners Mr. Wu Renliang, 54, and his wife Ms. Zhao Meiluan, 51, are employed at the Longganhu Plant of the Huanggang District Phosphorus Chemical Factory.
The couple had previously suffered from various illnesses. Mr. Wu Renliang had a gastric ulcer and rheumatoid arthritis, and often had difficulty walking. The long-term gastric ulcer made him very thin and weak. His wife suffered from stomach problems, bronchitis, colitis and schizophrenia. She sometimes could suffer a total loss of self-control and could not take care of herself. When this happened, Wu Renliang had to stay home to take care of her. Medical expenses and tuition for their two sons presented a heavy financial burden for the family. When the older son turned 16 he stopped attending school without letting his parents know and started working in Shenzhen, to earn money for the family.
In 1998, the couple started practicing Falun Gong and their health gradually improved.
On July 20, 1999, Jiang Zemin's regime started the persecution of Falun Gong. During this time of intense pressure, agents from the Political and Legal Committee of Longganhu, agents from the 610 Office and from the couple's employer attempted to collect their Dafa books and force them give up their belief. But the couple refused. From then on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) persecutors kept them under surveillance and harassed them constantly, disrupting their normal living routine. They were dismissed from their jobs and forced to find temporary farm work to make a living.
One day, their employers' management presented them with a document, deciving them into believing that they had not been laid off. They were told that as long as they signed the paper, they could return to work and get all their benefits. The couple believed this and signed the paper. However, the plant management immediately sent this paper to the local police station to be used as "evidence" to justify continued persecution of Mr. Wu and Ms. Zhao.
The couple went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong, and on October 26, 2000 they went to Tiananmen Square. Wu Renliang held up a banner with the words, "Falun Dafa is Good." Police immediately nabbed him and threw him into a van. He was unable to move for a while. Many practitioners were already in the van. Mr. Wu witnessed the police on Tiananmen Square brutally beating practitioners with electric batons and punching and kicking them. Many practitioners were bleeding. Some police officers threw practitioners against a metal door, causing them to immediately lose consciousness.
The couple and other practitioners were taken to an empty military base where they were photographed. If practitioners refused to cooperate, they were beaten. Mr. Wu Renliang refused to be photographed. A policeman kicked him down with intense force. Two soldiers then held him up for a picture. Practitioners were not given food or water and were taken to another room at night for individual interrogations. The interrogators demanded to know the address and name of each practitioner. If they refused to tell, they would be ruthlessly tortured.
Mr. Wu told his address after the police cruelly beat him, but his wife refused to tell. The police then pulled her hair and pushed her to the floor, then kicked and stepped on her. They also pulled her by the hair and slammed her head against a wall until she lost consciousness, then left her lying on the hallway floor for the entire night. It was very cold in Beijing. The next morning the police called a soldier to approach her and he deceived her into divulging her name and address.
The next day, Longganhu Police Department officials sent three police officers to take the couple back to Longganhu to continue the outrageous abuse. Ms. Zhao shouted, "Falun Dafa is good," and said that Falun Gong was innocent and her husband was innocent. Police officer Liu Hua, along with two other people, hung her up by handcuffs and shackles. The handcuffs and shackles cut Ms. Zhao's wrists and ankles, causing them to bleed. Mr. Wu Renliang asked Liu Hua, "How could you treat a woman so barbarically, who cultivates to become a better person? Why are you so inhuman?" Liu Hua knew what he had done.
The next morning the Wu couple was taken to the Huangmei County First Detention Center, where Mr. Wu Renliang was cruelly tortured. He was released after a month. Ms. Zhao Meiluan was shackled and handcuffed because she shouted, "Falun Dafa is good." The shackles prevented her from standing. The police still made her walk back and forth and they brutally hit her about the head when she stopped walking. Because she refused to give up her belief, they did not release her until two months later.
During that time, the couple's older son came from Shenzhen to see his parents. Detention center head Liu extorted 500 yuan from the son, saying it was a "visiting fee." Prior to the couple's release, the captors extorted 1,600 yuan from them. Longganhu Police Department head Wang Yulian also extorted 6,000 yuan from Mr. Wu Renliang. The costs for the son's return home, added to the bribes demanded by the corrupt officials, added up to over 20,000 yuan for this one detention. The son's income from Shenzhen was completely gone, spent on unlawful fines, extortion and bribes.
With nowhere to appeal and nowhere to reason, the Wu couple exposed the truth of the persecution to the local people. In July 2000, local police precinct agents again illegally arrested the Wu Renliang couple and searched their home. The police beat them and interrogated them. Mr. Wu Renliang lost two teeth, and his mouth was filled with blood. The police also brutally beat Ms. Zhao Meiluan and pulled her by the hair to slam her head into a wall. Her face was swollen and bruised, and her nose bled.
The next day the abusers sent the couple to the Huangmei County Detention Center and incarcerated them for eight months. There they were subjected to heart-wrenching torture. The guards also urged the criminal inmates to torture the couple.
The moment Ms. Zhao entered the prison cell, the female inmates beat and tortured her. Nonetheless she still continued practicing the Falun Gong exercises. One time a guard saw her practicing and called a group of male inmates to pull her out of the cell and tie her up. Then they beat her using a wooden stick and a bamboo board. She was bruised and bleeding, and couldn't move. Several days later guard Fei Jinshui tortured Ms. Zhao again for practicing the exercises.
Ms. Zhao held a hunger strike to protest the persecution. As a result the guards force-fed her, knowing she was already weak. The force-feeding caused stomach bleeding, and she vomited blood and had blood in her stool. Guard Fei Jinshui did not let her go home until she was at the brink of death. Once at home, she continued studying the Fa and practicing the exercises, and thus recovered.
In November 2004, agents from Longganhu Police Department arrested Wu Renliang again and sent him to the Huanggang District Detention Center. This time, the mistreatment lasted 37 days.
On April 18, 2005, the same people from the police precinct arrested Wu Renliang again. Following an illegal interrogation the persecutors sent him to the Shayang Forced Labor Camp for 15 months.
Ms. Zhao Meiluan suffered a mental collapse from the many years of abuse and mistreatment. She was raped several times, including by Yu Xinchao, a manager from Ms. Zhao's work place. He said he was her guardian. The Wu couple suffered for years of physical abuse and mental torment and lost over 40,000 yuan.