(Clearwisdom.net) On December 17, 2004, the Department of Personnel of Hubei Province issued a public notice regarding the promotion of four officials to the level of provincial ministers. One of them is Zhao Zhifei, who was found guilty of "Wrongful Death, Torture, False Imprisonment, and Crimes Against Humanity" on December 21, 2001 by United States District Court Judge Denise Cote.
- Zhao Fled Back to China and Countered the Lawsuit With a Large-Scale Manhunt and Propaganda Campaign
Zhao Zhifei, a man born in 1954 in Hanchuan, Hubei Province, China, is currently a member of the Chinese Communist Party Committee and the Associate Director of the Police Department of Hubei Province. The most prominent position that Zhao has ever held, however, is the second-in-command of the 610 Office in Hubei Province, whose role is dedicated to persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. United States District Court Judge Denise Cote entered a default judgment against Zhao on December 12, 2001. The lawsuit charged Zhao with wrongful death, torture, false imprisonment, crimes against humanity, and other violations (of international human rights law) carried out against Falun Dafa practitioners in his home province of Hubei. Zhao was served with a legal summons in New York City in July 2001 when he was visiting there.
The day after Zhao Zhifei was served in New York City, it is believed that he boarded a plane for China and has not returned to the U.S. since. According to reliable sources, soon after Zhao's return to China, a massive hunt for Peng Liang, a key plaintiff in the suit, and other Falun Gong practitioners in Hubei Province ensued. Those believed to have assisted Peng Liang to "transmit information over the internet" were specifically targeted. Many Falun Gong practitioners in Wuchang District, whom the police thought to be associated with Peng Liang, were arrested and tortured. Mr. Peng Liang himself was arrested on August 30, 2001, but then disappeared.
- Exposing the facts became the cause of death. Both Peng Liang's mother and brother were tortured to death and defamed after their deaths
On July 18, 2001, Peng Liang had entrusted Falun Gong practitioners in the United States to sue Zhao Zhifei after police in Zhao's Hubei Province tortured both his brother and mother to death. Numerous eyewitnesses confirmed that the police beat Peng Liang 's younger brother, Peng Min, on January 9, 2001, causing a fracture of his fifth vertebra and a compression fracture in his neck vertebra, resulting in complete paralysis. He died in a hospital on April 6, 2001. Peng Liang's mother Li Yingxiu died in the same hospital on April 29, 2001. Her husband Peng Weisheng discovered numerous injuries on his wife's head and dried blood in her mouth while inspecting her body. The police told him that Li Yingxiu died because she "talked too much" after her son's death.
Dr. Terri Marsh, one of the attorneys working on this case, noted, "Instead of contesting these charges directly, the response from Zhao has been twofold: 1) To instigate a manhunt for Peng Liang and all those who are suspected of helping him, and 2) launching a media campaign of propaganda and lies to distort the truth. They tried to produce the 'truth' by using state-controlled media and terrorist-propaganda machines to turn black into white."
Using the same base means, Xinhua News Agency, the CCP's mouthpiece, recently attacked and slandered Falun Gong practitioners in response to the articles on Clearwisdom.net, including "Cruel Torture of Falun Gong Practitioner Liao Yuanhua in the Prison of Fanjiatai, Shayang, Hubei Province" and "Torture Demonstrations for Hubei Falun Gong Practitioner Liao Yuanhua in Fanjiatai Prison."
As Clearwisdom.net points out in one article, "When a person accuses another person by blocking his voice and preventing him from talking, the accuser must be lying."
- Attorney: the plaintiff did not have the courage to face the trial in a free country
After United States District Court Judge Denise Cote entered a default judgment against Zhao Zhifei, the plantiffs' attorney commented, "The default judgment proves that all the cruel crimes alleged in the lawsuit are true. The defendant and China's government did not have the courage to face trial in a free country. The judgment will be sent to the United States State Department. We will discuss the appropriate diplomatic reactions to the judgment with the State Department."
The lawsuit against Zhao Zhifei was the first case that Falun Gong practitioners brought to United States courts to sue Chinese officials for persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. As was shown in the CCP's massive propaganda campaign to defame Falun Gong after Zhao returned to China, the CCP regime led by Jiang Zemin certainly knew that Zhao was heavily involved in the killings of Falun Gong practitioners, but they continued to fabricate lies to deceive the public. Now, after five years of persecution, the fact that the CCP is promoting persecutors such as Zhao only demonstrates that the CCP is a scoundrel organization by nature that is willing to protect the interests of a few officials at the expense of the interests of the country and its citizens, by lying and killing.
- Prior examples of persecutors similar to Zhao
To Zhao, the promotion is a hot potato. Anyone who has read the Clearwidom.net report, "Ruining Minds and Destroying Morality in Masanjia Forced Labor Camp," must remember the name Su Jing, who, as the head of the Second Branch of the notorious Masanjia Forced Labor Camp, continually tortured and persecuted Falun Gong practitioners. While Su was widely condemned both domestically and internationally for her brutality, Jiang's regime issued an order to reward Su as a "First Class Heroine" with 50,000 yuan.
As more and more people were trying to change jobs or move to avoid getting involved in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners, due to the rapid spread of the truth about the Falun Gong persecution, Su Jing lost the opportunity to choose a new path. Instead, she was forced to follow the evil path that Jiang and Lu Gan had arranged for her.
- Time will tell for whom the hotlines exist
The public announcement from the CCP's Department of Personnel in Hubei Province states that public comments are welcomed before December 24 with regard to the promotions of the four people. The hotlines are open during business hours at 86-27-12380, 86-27-7234749, 86-27-87821139. They also have a special email address of 12380hb@vip.sina.com that has been set up to facilitate public reports on these people. The public can also write to the following mailing address:
CCP's Department of Personnel of Hubei Province,
Wuhan City, Hubei Province, 430071
Given Zhao's notorious persecution record, it remains to be seen if the hotlines, the special email, and the mailing address are merely symbolic or not.
In addition to Zhao Zhifei, the following people were also promoted: Zhou Houzhen, born in 1953 in Xiantao, Hubei, who is currently the Associate Director and CCP committee member of the Police Department of Hubei Province; Shang Wu, born in Beijing in 1957, who is currently also an Associate Director and CCP committee member of the Police Department of Hubei Province; Dai Guizhou, born in 1957 in Jingmen, Hubei Province, who is currently the Associate Secretary of the CCP of Enshi District, Hubei Province.