(Minghui.org)
Numerous recent reports have shown that the communist regime has intensified the persecution of Falun Gong by offering lucrative rewards to informants, sentencing practitioners to long-term detention, and brutal torture. As the persecution winds down, those responsible know that they will be brought to justice and are attempting to forestall the inevitable by artificially prolonging the persecution.
Rewards to Informants, Extortion and Threats
According to one recent report, Mishan City Political and Legal Committee officers promised to “transform” 10 Falun Gong practitioners in 2013. Officials from the higher agency, the Heilongjiang Province Political and Legal Committee, then granted 200,000 yuan as a reward. Motivated by this incentive, Mishan City officers launched another cycle of intense persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.
For example, Ms. Ma Xiuqin’s husband was detained at a brainwashing center. Officials requested his former workplace, Mishan Seed Multiplication Farm, to pay them 4,000 yuan per month. Farm officials forced his son to sign a document declaring that he owed this money to the farm and giving approval for them to deduct the money from his father's pension. In the end, Ms. Ma’s husband had no choice but to pay the money to the farm. In addition, brainwashing center personnel extorted 4,000 yuan from practitioner Ms. Hou Baohu. Because Ms. Hou was poor and had no money to pay, the brainwashing center took 4,000 yuan from the township government.
There was an even more extreme case. Officers at Mishan Brainwashing Center tried to force Ms. Wei Jun to stop practicing Falun Gong, but she refused. To intimidate her they threatened, “If you do not yield, we will harvest your organs and sell them.” They then deprived Ms. Wei of sleep for three days.
Sentencing to Long-term Detention
A Lufeng County Court held a trial against four Kunming City practitioners on May 31, 2013. The practitioners were Ms. Liu Xiaoping, Ms. Liu Cuixian, Ms. Peng Xueping, and Ms. Ran Xiaoman. Although these practitioners were sentenced from 7-and-a-half to 10 years, the charges against them were merely based on distributing Shen Yun DVDs to village residents, which promotes traditional Chinese culture.
Severe Torture
Tangshan City Model Teacher Mr. Bian Lichao was detained in Shijiazhuang Prison. When his wife visited him in the afternoon on April 22, 2013, he told her, “Xiaozhen, every time you visit me could be the last time.” When guards transferred Mr. Bian to Unit 8 to do heavy labor, he refused. Seven inmates then tortured him the next day. Mr. Bian fainted and the left side of his body became numb. At night, guards shined a flashlight into his eyes once an hour, so he could not sleep. As soon as his eyes closed, they forced them open. The guards then moved Mr. Bian to the Intensive Control unit where he was the only Falun Gong practitioner. The guards assigned 26 inmates to watch and torture him.
Ms. Wang Shuhua, 64 years old, was from Bohai Petroleum Company in Tanggu District of Tianjin City. Because she told others about Falun Gong, she was arrested and sent to Tianjin Women’s Prison for five years. When her family visited her in September, they saw that her body and head were all covered, with only part of face exposed. Ms. Wang said this place was several times worse than previous prisons where she had been detained in the past. It was so brutal that at one point she felt she was about to die.
The above stories are representative of the persecution suffered by Falun Gong practitioners in the Mishan City area. To incite local officials to mistreat practitioners, the communist regime often uses various types of rewards. In addition, brainwashing centers and other agencies make profits by extorting money from practitioners. In addition to local funds, Heilongjiang Province was granted a large sum of state money to sustain the persecution, indicating that officials already saw the diminishing trend of the mistreatment.
Obstruction of Justice
Regarding the case where practitioners were sentenced to long-term detention for distributing Shen Yun DVDs, Shen Yun is well known for its top quality and is very popular around the world. Distributing Shen Yun DVDs is promoting traditional Chinese culture and is in fact a noble act. How could a person be arrested and even sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment for doing this? The families of the four practitioners arrested for distributing Shen Yun DVDs hired attorneys from Beijing to defend them. On 14 occasions between early January and late May, county police department officials denied permission for the attorneys to meet with their clients. During the court trial, witnesses proved the innocence of these practitioners but the practitioners were still sentenced to long prison terms.
From these cases, we can see that Chinese Communist Party officials know that the persecution cannot last much longer, and that they will soon be brought to justice. As high officials are facing court trials, from Wang Lijun to Bo Xilai, others also are recognizing an increasing sense of insecurity. They have become frantic and are attempting to maintain the persecution with financial incentives, longer detention, and brutal torture. In fact, these efforts are part of these officials' criminal activities and will lead to more severe consequences when they are brought to justice.
