(Clearwisdom.net) The Chinese Communist Party has used the nation's resources to persecute Falun Gong practitioners since July 1999. Practitioners Mr. Liu Zhigang and his wife Gao Lihua are teachers in Linzhuang Middle School, Sangyuan Town, Wuqiao County, Hebei Province. They both strongly believe in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, and have tried their best to tell people the facts about Falun Gong and the persecution. Due to their strong belief, they were illegally detained by the local government. Ms. Gao died due to persecution in March 2004. Mr. Liu has been displaced from his home for nine years.

Liu Zhigang was originally from Chengguanmazhuang, Jing County, Hebei Province. He has lived his life according to the strict standards of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance since he started practicing Falun Gong in 1997, and does a good job at work. Every year he teaches the graduating class, the one with the greatest workload, and the classes he teaches are always ranked the highest. He was awarded "Outstanding Teacher" and "Model Worker" in 1997, 1998 and 1999. When he served as academic director, the ranking of Linzhuang Middle School moved up from close to last to almost first place.

In late December 2000, Mr. Liu went to Beijing to appeal for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong. He was arrested by the local police and detained in Wuqiao County Detention Center for four months. Mr. Liu went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. He was released in late April 2001. When he got back home, his workplace denied him work and refused to pay him a salary. The school intensified the persecution by sending people to watch him around the clock. Mr. Liu wrote to the local government and police complaining about the school's illegal actions, and the school stopped the surveillance within a week. But the school did not stop the persecution against him. They set up a brainwashing session for Mr. Liu, but he refused to attend it. During a telephone call made by Mr. Liu to headmaster Shao Yihe, he said, "I live my life according to 'Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance', which are the characteristics of being a good person. What do you want me to be then? To become a bad person engaging in excessive drinking and eating, gambling and prostituting?" The persecution scheme failed again this time, but the Wuqiao County Domestic Security Division sent twelve officers to arrest him and take him to a forced labor camp. They failed for the third time, but Mr. Liu had to leave his home to escape arrest.

Mr. Liu's wife Gao Lihua was originally from Qiuzhuang, Liuji Township, Jing County, Hebei Province. She worked in the Food Plant of the Wuqiao County Grain Bureau. She started practicing Falun Gong in 1998, and was regarded as a good person both at work and in the community. Mr. Liu and Ms. Gao volunteered to clean up trash in the community every year.

In September 2000, Ms. Gao was forced to pay four thousand yuan by the Wuqiao County Domestic Security Division, when she distributed flyers explaining the facts about Falun Gong and the persecution. After her husband was forced to leave home in June 2001, Ms. Gao was threatened, monitored, and imprisoned by the Domestic Security Division. She had no other choice than to leave her daughter, who was then in middle school, and become homeless.

From 2001 to 2003, Wuqiao County Domestic Security Division and Cangzhou Security Bureau searched for Mr. Liu and his wife. In order to catch them, they even persecuted the young child and other relatives of Mr. Liu and his wife. With the help of the Jing County police, officers from Wuqiao County constantly harassed their parents and siblings day and night (including on Chinese New Year's Eve). They employed all kinds of tactics to persecute them, including coaxing, deceiving, threatening, ambushing, abducting, and fining them.

In August 2001, the police arrested Mr. Liu's younger brother. They brutally beat him and forced him to sit on a tiger bench in order to get information on Mr. Liu. They released him only after receiving many bribes from his family. In September, they arrested the son of Mr. Liu's elder sister, and tortured him for information on Mr. Liu. He was released only after the police were given three thousand yuan.

In October 2002, they arrested Mr. Liu's elder brother, at whose place Mr. Liu's fifteen-year-old daughter stayed. His brother was fifty-seven years old. Due to the torture, he developed high blood pressure, dizziness, and vomited incessantly, so the police had to release him. They also planned to arrest Mr. Liu's younger brother, since his daughter had stayed at his place in the beginning.

Days before the new year of 2003, Mr. Liu's eighty-year-old mother died as a result of illness and constant harassment from the police. The police planned to arrest Mr. Liu and his wife during the funeral, but they did not succeed, so they broke into Mr. Liu's parents' and parents-in-law's home on Chinese New Year's Eve.

In June 2003, in order to get information on Mr. Liu, the Wuqiao County Domestic Security Police arrested his brother-in-law in Gaolaozhuang, Anling Town, and kept him as a hostage for almost a month while torturing him. They released him after extorting tens of thousands of yuan. For the same reason, they planned to arrest Mr. Liu's cousin. His cousin had to leave home to escape illegal arrest.

At the same time, together with the police from Jing County, the authorities planned another scheme to arrest Mr. Liu and his wife. It was during the crucial period of preparation for the High School Entrance Exams when they intentionally prevented Mr. Liu's daughter from going to school for more than ten days. His daughter's performance in the entrance exam was severely affected.

Years of constant threats from the police, harassment, illegal arrests and extortion of her relatives, together with the guilt from not being able to take care of aging parents and a young daughter, severely burdened Ms. Gao Lihua. She was previously very healthy from practicing Falun Gong, but in September 2003, she suddenly felt ill. She died at the age of forty-three in March 2004.

After Gao Lihua's death, the police imprisoned her parents and daughter for more than ten days, and interrogated them for the whereabouts of Mr. Liu. They also extorted five thousand yuan from Mr. Liu's elder brother.

Personnel involved in the persecution of Mr. Liu Zhigang and his wife:
Deputy director Li Liping, Department of Persecution of Falun Gong, Wuqiao County Police Station
Wang Changqiao, former head of Wuqiao County Domestic Security Division
Cui Jinghai, former head of Wuqiao County Domestic Security Division
Lu Boli, former deputy head of Wuqiao County Domestic Security Division
Shao Yihe, headmaster, Office of Education, Sangyuan Town, Wuqiao County