(Minghui.org) Recently, using the excuse of the 18th Congress, the communist regime in China has escalated the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. In Wuhan, Hubei Province, several university professors were arrested, detained, and sentenced to prison. The whereabouts of some of them are still unknown. Their families are worried about them, and their work at school was disrupted. Compiled below are several cases of persecution involving university professors in Wuhan.
Dr. Zhang Wei Arrested and Taken to Hubei Brainwashing Center
Dr. Zhang Wei, a 38-year-old Associate Professor at the School of Art and Design of Wuhan University of Technology, was arrested by police officers from the Domestic Security Division in Wuhan and the Wuchang District 610 Office on November 5. Since then, she has been detained at the “Legal Education Center of Hubei Province,” a brainwashing facility.
This is the fifth time Ms. Zhang has been arrested. She has been brutally tortured and held at detention centers and brainwashing centers.
Dr. Zhang was arrested and detained twice in Beijing. She was also detained by the university for almost 40 days. Because she distributed Falun Gong related materials, she was held and tortured at the Wuhan First Detention Center for 10 months and 19 days. She was hung up, handcuffed, forced to stand for long periods of time, severely beaten, deprived of sleep, and more. Guards in the detention center did not give her water or food. In the winter, they poured cold soda into her clothes or locked her up in a small room where the door and windows were kept open. In the summer, she was either exposed to swarms of mosquitoes or put into a confined small room, with both the door and windows closed.
Last year her husband, Mr. Xiong Weiming, was arrested and taken to the “Legal Education Center of Hubei Province” and endured brainwashing tactics there for six months. After that, he was sentenced to prison for three years and another suspended four-year sentence.
University Professor Mr. Chen Gang's Whereabouts Unknown after His Arrest in Wuhan
Mr. Chen Gang, a 40-year-old teacher at Wuhan Technological University, was arrested at work by officers from the Wuhan Police Department First Division on September 4, 2012. His current whereabouts are unknown.
Since the communist regime started to persecute Falun Gong in 1999, Mr. Chen has been persecuted many times in brainwashing centers and wasn't allowed to teach because he was not willing to give up practicing Falun Gong. He was arrested and taken to the “Legal Education Center of Hubei Province” in Miaoshan, Wuhan, on September 2, 2004, and subjected to brainwashing.
University Professor Mr. Shen Xuewu Arrested, His Whereabouts Unknown
Mr. Shen Xuewu from Wuhan has taught in several colleges and universities. He was previously sentenced to three years in prison and has been recently arrested again by officers from the Wuhan City Police Department. The police ransacked his home on November 13, 2012. This is the fourth time that Mr. Shen has been arrested. His current whereabouts are unknown. His family and friends are very worried about him.
Mr. Shen used to teach at Xiaogan City College, Wuchang Military Finance Institute, and Huazhong Normal University. He has been severely persecuted over the past 13 years. He was forced to undergo brainwashing sessions, illegally detained, placed in solitary confinement, beaten, hung up, force-fed, deprived of sleep, and subjected to various other forms of torture. In 2000, he was sentenced to three years and held in Fanjiatai Prison in Hubei Province. He was placed in a solitary cell where guards handcuffed his hands behind his back and put shackles on his feet. Criminal inmates were assigned to monitor him day and night and brutally torture him. He became disabled as a result of the beatings and walked with a limp, but the guards still forced him to do hard labor loading bricks.
Medical School Teacher Mr. Zhao Hu Arrested and Detained at a Brainwashing Center in Wuhan
Mr. Zhao Hu was arrested in Guangzhou City on October 26, 2012, by officers from the Wuhan City Domestic Security Division, Guangzhou 610 Office, and Huanghuagang Police Station. Police officers from the Wuhan Domestic Security Division secretly took him back to Wuhan. Now he is in a brainwashing center somewhere in Wuhan.
Mr. Zhao, age 40, was admitted to the graduate school of Wuhan University. He taught first at the Tongji Medical School of Huazhong University of Science and Technology and then at a university in Guangzhou. He was also the chief editor of Business Management, a college textbook.
Mr. Zhao started practicing Falun Gong in 1996 when he was still in graduate school. He was repeatedly arrested and detained after the Chinese regime started the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999. While he was teaching at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, he was detained in the Etouwan Brainwashing Center and then transferred to a detention center. After that, he served a two-year term in Hewan Forced Labor Camp in Wuhan before he was fired from the university.
Retired Teacher Ms. Fang Yunbao Arrested in Beijing and Sentenced to Forced Labor
Ms. Fang Yunbao, 63, was a teacher at Wuhan College of Finance and Economics. After retirement, she went to Beijing to help her daughter take care of her children. In the evening on November 2, 2012, Zhang Wupeng, Zhao Sicheng, and other officers from Xisanqi Police Station in the Haidian District broke into her home and confiscated her belongings. The head of the Xisanqi Police Station, Zang Yucheng, arrested her.
On November 27, 2012, she was sentenced to prison for two years and six months by the Beijing Police Department. Ms. Fang is still being held in the Haidian Detention Center. Her children went to the detention center several times to ask them to release her, but their requests were denied.
Ms. Fang retired from the Wuhan College of Finance and Economics. Because she practiced Falun Gong, she was sent to Hewan Forced Labor Camp for one-and-a-half years. She was also persecuted twice in the Tangxunhu Brainwashing Center in Hubei, where she was persecuted until she became paralyzed and developed hemiplegia.
This time after she was arrested, her husband was so upset that he fell unconscious. He has been in a coma since November 4.