(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Zhang Xiucun is a Falun Gong practitioner living in Beishijiawu Township, Langfang City, Hebei Province. The Chinese Communist regime persecuted her repeatedly for her strong belief in Falun Gong. In 2002, Ms. Zhang found some lost items and turned them into the police. Instead of praising her unselfish behavior, the police detained her. She was illegally arrested again in 2004 and sent to the Kaiping Forced Labor Camp in Tangshan City, where she spent one and a half years. In February 2006, Zhang Xiucun was arrested again for her efforts to expose the persecution. When she eventually returned home, she found that Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Secretary Wang Hongfei from Beishijiawu Village had shut off the electricity to her home. The power outage has lasted more than two years so far.
Ms. Zhang Xiucun suffered from congenital asthma prior to 1998, when she began her Falun Gong practice. Numerous hospital visits and medical treatments did not help cure the ailment. Her condition was so bad that she could not take care of her daily needs. She regained her health soon after beginning the practice of Falun Gong and also became a highly principled person. Zhang Xiucun knew that Falun Gong was the best thing that ever happened to her. After the CCP started to persecute Falun Gong, she wanted to expose the CCP's lies with her own experience. She wrote letters to government agencies and officials, telling them not to persecute Falun Gong, using her real name and address on these letters. Soon, Beishijiawu Township police came and arrested her.
In 2002, her husband found some items worth several hundred yuan. Not knowing who the owner was, Zhang Xiucun turned these items into the Beishijiawu Township police. When the police found out she was a Falun Gong practitioner, they detained her and immediately searched her home. The police seized Falun Gong books, two VCRs and some videotapes. They also took her husband in. The police handcuffed Zhang Xiucun to a metal chair for a whole night and then sent her to the Anci District Brainwashing Center located in the Langfang Second Guest House. Former practitioners who betrayed Falun Gong under intense physical pressure and brainwashing took turns daily to brainwash her, leaving little time for her to sleep. Collaborator Huang held Ms. Zhang's hand forcibly to get her fingerprint on a prepared statement, and then released her after 17 days of brainwashing. Once she was home, Yang Baoyin from Beishijawu Township General Office ordered her to pay a 1,500-yuan "reformation fee." Local officials frequently came to her house from then on to harass her. In order to avoid further persecution, Zhang Xiucun left home and went into hiding.
In 2004, Zhang Xiucun published an account of the persecution she suffered on the Internet. She also wrote letters to various CCP agencies to expose the persecution she experienced. As a result, agents from the Anci Police Precinct in Langfang City arrested her again. They also searched her home and confiscated her Falun Gong books, a cassette recorder, a TV antenna and VCDs.
The police first took Ms. Zhang to a detention center and then moved her to the Langfang City 610 Office brainwashing center located at the Leyuan Hotel in Langfang. She was not even allowed to step out of her room. Collaborators Li Shuxiang, Zhang Jingxin, Guo Ling and Wang Li took turns to brainwash her. She refused to listen to them and started a hunger strike in protest. Brainwashing center head Han Zhiguang was furious to see Ms. Zhang's determination and threatened to send her to a labor camp. At the same time, Beishijiawu Township official Liu Shuxue and several others met with Zhang Xiucun's husband and demanded money to spare his wife a labor camp sentence. Facing such pressure, her husband managed to borrow 2,500 yuan from several friends and paid the extortion money. Despite the payoff, the Anci District police still sent Zhang Xiucun to Tangshan's Kaiping Forced Labor Camp to serve a one-and-a-half-year term.
Zhang Xiucun was subjected to three stints in the strict confinement room, a place without any light. In the winter, there was no heat, and in the summer, mosquitoes were everywhere. Despite the violent brainwashing and torture, Zhang Xiucun refused to compromise her belief in Dafa. One day, Team two deputy head Wang Yanhua slapped her in the face over 20 times and then told her to stand up, but she refused. An angry Wang called several criminal inmates over to tie Ms. Zhang's hands and feet to a chair, where she was confined for 16 hours. They would not let her sleep or use the restroom for the next four days. The floor was her toilet. Shijiazhuang City policewoman Liu Junling was a vicious person, although she frequently tried to appear friendly. She often verbally abused Zhang Xiucun and threatened, "China's population is immense, and you don't really count. No one cares if you die. The labor camp is right next to an crematorium!" Later on, Liu Junling grabbed Ms. Zhang's hand to force her to write a guarantee statement to give up Falun Gong. After holding Ms. Zhang's hand to provide a fingerprint, she declared Zhang Xiucun "reformed." The labor camp officials used this way to "reform" other practitioners.
In order to protest the illegal detention, Zhang Xiucun refused to perform any labor camp duties, including work, indoctrination and team training. She believed she had not done anything wrong and did not deserve to be in detention. Cultivating Falun Gong and believing in "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" are perfectly good things to do. In fact, the labor camp officials violated the law when they tried to force her to "reform". In order to punish her for her defiance, team leader Yan Hongli verbally abused her, and slapped, punched and kicked her repeatedly. She also made her stand for 20 hours a day. She could only sleep for less than four hours. The standing torture lasted 15 days. Her feet, feeling numb and cold, were swollen so badly that she could not wear shoes. Zhang Xiucun's health declined steadily after long-term mistreatment at the labor camp, and her old illness relapsed once she was home again.
Police agents from the Beishijiawu Station and from the Anci District Domestic Security Team arrested Ms. Zhang again in 2006 during a visit to her mother's home. Police chief Wang Jianyong confiscated 100 yuan and two Pingan insurance cards from her. She was sent to the Beishijiawu Township Police Station. When she got there, policeman Dong Hui from the Anci District Domestic Security Team slapped her twice in the face before forcing her to provide her fingerprint. Wang Jianyong told people to handcuff Ms. Zhang for two hours while waiting outside. The next day, she was sent to a detention center. In order to protest the ruthless, unconstitutional treatment, Zhang Xiucun, coughing violently, began a hunger strike. Women's section head Xiao and policewomen Tian ordered several criminal inmates to grab Ms. Zhang's hands and feet while someone injected an unknown substance into her arm. Ten days later, agents from the Anci Domestic Security Team and from Beishijiawu Township sent her to Kaiping Forced Labor Camp in Tangshan City, but camp officials refused to accept her due to her feeble condition. She was returned to the Langfang Detention Center. Fifteen days later, Zhang Xiucun's condition turned critical and she had difficulty breathing. Detention center officials had to release her. After she returned home, Beishijiawu Township Party Secretary Wang Hongfei, pressured by the police, told Zhang Xiucun's family to move. When they refused, they cut off their electrical power. Their power outage has lasted for more than two years.
On May 19, 2008, policemen Liu Wei and Dong Hui from the Anci Domestic Security Team and Li Wei from Beishijiawu Township, along with three other police officers, came to Ms. Zhang's home and confiscated a tape recorder, some cassettes, Falun Gong books and other personal belongings. They took Zhang Xiucun to the Legal Education Center inside the Langfang City Detention Center, which is essentially the Langfang 610 Office Brainwashing Center. Zhang Xiucun went on a protest hunger strike. Ten days later she suffered from bleeding in her stomach, and the brutal force-feeding procedure could not continue. Anci District Domestic Security Team police officers ordered her husband to pay 1,500 yuan and released her.
Zhang Xiucun has remained strongly committed to her belief in "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" for the past several years. As a result, she was repeatedly harassed and arrested, her home was ransacked, and money was extorted from her family. Right now she suffers from a relapse of her old illness and is too weak to look after herself. Because of the persecution, her family life was turned upside down, and their financial situation is precarious. Zhang Xiucun and her family have suffered tremendous hardship over a long period of time, and they can barely make ends meet. Even the most basic daily needs cannot be met. They suffer from most unfair treatment but could not get any help from any of the regime's agencies. We call on people with a sense of justice inside and outside of China to give them a hand. We must put a stop to the persecution.
Agencies and personnel responsible:
Beishijiawu Police Station: 86-3162684842
Police chief Wang Jianyong: 86-1378558885 (Cell)
Deputy chiefs Liu Jianguo, Su Dongfeng, Liu Weihua
Gaomeng Village party secretary, Beishijiawu Township, Anci District of Langfang City, Bai Zhenzhong: 86-316-2664927 (Home)
Beishijiawu Township party political and judicial committee secretary, Yang Baoyin (this person has actively persecuted Falun Gong in the past few years): 86-316-2122121 (Home), 86-13082043958 (Cell), 86-316-2682298 (Office)
Gaomeng Village head, Geng Huaizhong: 86-13831688701 (Cell)
Village security chief, Chen Futian: 86-316-2664881(Home), 86-13011948710 (Cell)
Lianzhuangzi Village Party Secretary, Beishijiawu Township, Guo Wanling: 86-316-2666343 (Home)
Lianzhuangzi Village head, Guo Furui: 86-316-2662264 (Home)
Village security chief, Guo Fusheng: 86-316-2665657 (Home)
Beichang North Village, Beishijiawu Township, Anci District, Langfang City,
Party secretary and village head, Li Chaoyi: 86-316-212221
Village security chief, Shi Jinlei
Anci District Police: 86-316-2192678