(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Zhang Cuiping, a Chinese Medicine doctor in her 40s in Maiji, Tianshui City, started practicing Falun Gong in 1996. Ever since 1999, Ms. Zhang has endured countless incidents of persecution.
Ms. Zhang went to Beijing to appeal in January 1999, along with her co-worker, fellow practitioner Ms. Wang; Ms. Wang's two sisters; and an elderly practitioner, Ms. Han. When they got there, the group was detained in a hostel by representatives from the local liaison office in Beijing. They were forced to turn over their money and other valuables.
After being detained for four days in Beijing, they were transferred back to the Maiji District Police Department in Tianshui City. Local police officers Zhou Jizhu, Feng Jitang, and Ma Jianxi beat, kicked, and cursed them. They were then handcuffed to the heating pipes.
Ms. Zhang and several others started a hunger strike in protest. Five days later they were released and returned home. However, what was waiting for them was repeated incidents of persecution. Ms. Zhang and Ms. Wang were put on leave by the hospital they worked for and had their salaries suspended.
Ten days later, Ms. Zhang, Ms. Wang, and others (including a senior engineer who was later tortured to death, Mr. Wang Yongmin, and his wife) were first decoyed to a police station and then imprisoned in a detention center.
They were ordered to recite the prison regulations. When they refused to, they were made to stand for long periods of time. Ms. Zhang and another two practitioners (including one who later became disabled) clarified the truth to other prisoners. As a result, the guards handcuffed their hands behind them. Throughout the entire night, they were unable to sleep or even go to the bathroom. Their hands were so numb that they lost feeling.
After being imprisoned for more than three weeks, they were each fined several thousand yuan and finally released via guarantor pending trial. Mr. Wang Yongmin, however, was sent to a labor camp. He was arrested multiple times afterwards and sentenced to 11 years in prison.
The released practitioners were often harassed by the local police. Feng Jitang, head of the Domestic Security Division, and his gangs even broke into practitioners' homes at night to threaten, monitor, and illegally arrest them.
Mr. Wang Yongmin, born in 1966 in Tianshui City, started working for the Maiji District Telecommunications Office as an engineer in 1988. He was fired in 2000 and sent to a labor camp, endured much torture, and was detained multiple times. Qinchen District Court secretly sentenced him to 11 years on December 6, 2002. He is now detained in the 3rd Prison in Tianshui City. Mr. Wang's wife used to teach in a middle school in the Maiji District. She was forced to leave their home in 2006 due to the persecution and has now lost contact with her family. Their daughter has been a victim of this persecution ever since she was eight years old. She now lives with her grandmother.
