(Clearwisdom.net) Since June 2010, the 610 Office and Domestic Security Division in Baoding City, Hebei Province have escalated the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. New 610 Office head Wang Heli has actively carried out the Communist regime's "sharp sword" campaign and arrested Falun Gong practitioners on a large scale.
Prior to each arrest, Communist Party authorities dispatched secret agents to spy on the targeted practitioners, and determined the practitioners' daily schedules. The 610 Office, the police department, and the Domestic Security Division in Baoding City then dispatched a large number of police vehicles and officers to five counties in northern Baoding on June 12, 2010 following orders from Wang Heli. The counties were Yixian County, Dingxing County, Gaobeidian County, Laishui County, and Zhuoxian County. The officers collaborated with the local 610 Offices, police stations, and agents from the Domestic Security Divisions in each county to illegally arrest and harass Falun Gong practitioners. The police officers broke into practitioners' homes. They kicked in doors, pried locks open, and confiscated cash and private property. The arrests of more than 60 practitioners were confirmed in June. Most were imprisoned in a forced labor camp. More than 100 families were harassed during this period.
A similar campaign was carried out again in August. On orders from Wang Heli, Wang Hong'en from the Domestic Security Division in Baoding collaborated with the local police departments, Domestic Security Divisions, and local police stations in Tangxian County, Fuping County, Quyang County, and Mancheng County. They arrested 57 practitioners between August 12 and 16, 2010. Some of the practitioners have been sent to a forced labor camp.
1. Details on the Arrests of Practitioners in Several Areas
More than a dozen agents arrived in three police vehicles to arrest Mr. Zhou Shuhong and Ms. Wang Lixia in Zhuozhou City. The vehicles already held more than a dozen practitioners who had been arrested earlier.
In some villages, the police had people create and put up drawings to help publicly defame Falun Gong.
Villagers in Daijiazhuang of Wangcun Village, Laishui County, observed village Party head Dai Wenyi with five policemen searching practitioners' homes. A similar scene took place in Dakanxia Village, Bailong Township, Mancheng County, where village head Wang Qiao and treasurer Yin Daqi were leading a group of police vehicles to make arrests in the village.
Domestic Security Division officials posted an announcement in the Xinshi District, promising a reward for anyone turning in Falun Gong practitioners.
2. Police Arrest Practitioners at Will
Two men in police uniforms broke into the home of practitioner Ms. Rong around 3:00 p.m. on June 12. When her son asked what they wanted, they told him they were checking on out-of-town visitors. No one was visiting the family at the time. The police continued by asking, "So, is your mother home these days?" Ms. Rong's son didn't give a thought to this seemingly casual question, so he said yes.
Soon after the first two men left, three police cars showed up at Ms. Rong's home. A person named Zu Liancai from the Youyilu Police Station in Baigou Township led a group of policemen in and demanded to see Ms. Rong. Her son said that he didn't know when his mother had left home. They were not satisfied and began to search inside. Suspecting that Ms. Rong might be hiding in her daughter-in-law's locked bedroom, they began to break in. When her family objected, the police called in a locksmith. Her family didn't want an outsider to damage their door, so they opened it. Ms. Rong was not in the bedroom. The whole process lasted nearly three hours.
When agents from the Shuangta Police Station came to arrest Ms. Zhang Chunfang, a 56-year-old practitioner from Yongle Village, Shuangta District, Zhuozhou City around 8:00 p.m. on June 12, they claimed they were conducting a routine check of local residents. As soon as Ms. Zhang opened the door, they rushed in and ransacked her home. They sent Ms. Zhang to the Zhuozhou Detention Center and threatened to sentence her to one year of forced labor. Ms. Zhang had been arrested numerous times before.
Chicken farmer Ms. Liu Lan from Bailong Village, Mancheng County was preparing to feed her chickens the afternoon of August 16, when two black cars showed up at the farm. Several policemen jumped out and grabbed her. Before they left, they also stole her husband's cell phone since they didn't want him to spread information of her arrest to others. Rather than drive through the village, the police took a detour to get back to the County Criminal Police No. 3 Team, where they detained Ms. Liu before transferring her to the Hebei Province Women's Labor Camp in Shijiazhuang City on August 18.
Ms. Yin Fenglan, a practitioner in her 60s from Dakanxia Village, Bailong Township, Mancheng County was also arrested on August 16. When she was about to take her granddaughter for a walk, the police suddenly appeared and arrested her, frightening the little girl. Ms. Yin's sick husband came out, begging the police not to take his wife away, but they turned a deaf ear and drove away with her.
No search or arrest warrants were produced during each arrest. If no one was home, the police simply broke in and searched. If the family was around, they simply made up an excuse.
3. Police Ransack Practitioners' Homes
A group of agents from the Yi County Domestic Security Division and from the Tanghu Town Police Station arrested 63-year-old Ms. Yao Xiuzhi in Beihebei Village, Tanghu Town on June 12, 2010. They turned her home upside down. The crop piles in her yard were forcibly disbursed, leaving her harvested wheat and corn scattered everywhere. The police sent Ms. Yao to the Hebei Province Women's Labor Camp the next day, and sentenced her to one year of forced labor.
Mr. Cao Jiwei and his wife from Zhaogezhuang Town, Laishui County were at work, when they received a phone call from a friend, telling them that the police were surrounding their home. The friend suggested they not return home. That day, many practitioners in the same town were harassed to varying degrees. Fully armed policemen filled Cao Jiwei's yard. When they ransacked his home, they left nothing unopened and tossed the family's personal belongings everywhere. The looting and intimidation made Cao's 74-year-old mother shake non-stop. Even today she still panics at the sound of a car approaching and a door opening.
4. Police Arrests Break Up Many Families
A group of agents from the Laishui County Domestic Security Division and local police station broke into the home of Ms. Yu Fengyun in the afternoon of June 12. After ransacking her home, they took Ms. Yu to the Shiting Town Police Station. When she had not returned home by midnight, her husband Yang Xifang went to the police station to ask for her release. To his shock, the police arrested him as well. The husband and wife were sent to a labor camp the next day. All of this happened without the knowledge of their family. When the couple's daughter, who is attending college in a different region, returned during school break, she found her 19-year-old younger brother home alone. Needing tuition money, she checked her parents' safe, only to find that the police had stolen the only savings her family had.
Ms. Liu Binglan from Gaobeidian City was sentenced to one and a half years of forced labor in 2008. Pressured by the police, her husband divorced her while she was suffering from brutal torture at a forced labor camp. She remarried following her release in 2010, but merely two weeks after her wedding, the police arrested her and again sent her to a forced labor camp.
Mr. Li Zhenfang is from Anyang Village, Lou Township, Laishui County. He was once stripped down and whipped with a water-soaked rope in April 2000. Mr. Li was arrested again in 2002 and incarcerated at the Laishui County Detention Center for five months and 25 days. In the winter he was forced to sleep on the ice and snow-covered concrete cement floor. At times he also had to do hard labor without any sleep. The torture left his lower body paralyzed. His son had to push him home in a small cart the day of his release. He and his wife Li Zhenxian led a very hard life. After arresting his wife on the afternoon of June 12, 2010, the police also attempted to detain the disabled Mr. Li. In order to avoid the arrest, he had to leave home and move from place to place in his poor physical condition.
5. The Police Arrest Non-Practitioner Family Members and Extort Money
The police broke into the home of Ms. Liu Gairong from Fuping County at 11:00 a.m. on August 12, 2010. They attempted to arrest her without showing an arrest warrant. She suddenly showed appeared to suffer a seizure, foaming from the mouth. Her teenage daughter cried out for her mom and tried to block the police from taking her. They handcuffed the girl and carried her unconscious mother into a police vehicle. Because Ms. Liu was in critical condition, they had to send her to the hospital. Even though they released her daughter later that day, they transferred Ms. Liu and a dozen arrested practitioners to the Hebei Province Women's Prison the next afternoon.
Agents from the Laishui County Police Department and from the Mingyi Township Police Station arrested Ms. Zhang Shufen in the morning and released her that afternoon. Later they received orders and returned around 10:00 p.m. that same night to arrest her again. Ms. Zhang sprained her ankle severely during the arrest. After being placed in a cast, she had difficulty moving around. Despite her condition, the police sent Ms. Zhang to the Shijiazhuang Forced Labor Camp to serve a one-year term. When her family asked for her release, camp officials refused and told them they had spent a lot of money on treating her ankle.
When a group of agents came to arrest Ms. Wei Chunlan from Laishui County, her mother-in-law, in her 80s, and her eldest daughter tried to reason with the police, but the police got angry and arrested them both. Ms. Wei's family protested, and the police reluctantly released all three women. But the next early morning they arrested Ms. Wei again.
Domestic Security Division agents and those from the Xishanbei Airport Police Station in Yi County arrested Chen Fengzhen from Xishanbei Village and sent her to the Yi County Detention Center. They released her after 15 days of detention and after extorting 8,000 yuan from her family.
The police in Zhuozhou demanded Zang Xian's family pay 100,000 yuan and cooperate with them to arrest more people, but the family firmly refused.
6. Brainwashing Centers Are Being Setup in an Attempt to "Reform" Arrested Practitioners
Wang Heli, a 610 Office head, is now demanding that each county hold its own brainwashing sessions. She has also covertly sent officers to each county to investigate practitioners, without notifying the local offices. At least three brainwashing centers, two in Baoding City and one in Zhuozhou City, are already up and running in their attempts to "reform" arrested practitioners. The Xiaobailou Brainwashing Center is located in the former public bathhouse of the Baoding Wool Factory on 11 Longquan Rd, whereas the Xiangyang Brainwashing Center is in the Movie District in Baoding. The Nanmaxiang Brainwashing Center is located in Zhuozhou.
According to incomplete statistics, during the past 11 years, at least 95 practitioners in Baoding have died as a result of persecution; 1,177 people were injured, paralyzed or suffered mental collapse; 103 people were sentenced to prison; 545 people were sent to labor camps; 24 people were incarcerated in mental hospitals; 1,063 people were arrested; and 1,501 people had their homes ransacked. The total amount of money extorted from practitioners and their families is a staggering 15.48 million yuan.
