(Minghui.org) Over the past 13 years, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has carried out a most brutal persecution of Falun Gong, a peaceful cultivation practice. Hundreds of thousands of practitioners have been illegally arrested, and over 3,000 are known to have died as a direct result of persecution. Countless families have been broken up and their lives ruined as a result of the persecution. Below is the story of one such family.
It has been 13 years since brothers Dong Qinyu and Dong Qinfei, both Falun Gong practitioners, were first taken away from home by Chinese Communist Party authorities. We have no way of knowing what kind of persecution they have been subjected to during these years.
The family of Dong Qinyu and Dong Qinfei (an old photo)
In December 2004, Ms. Liu Yanfang, the wife of Dong Qinfei, returned home from two and a half years at Masanjia Forced Labor Camp. It was forlorn at home. Her parents-in-law had aged a lot. Her child had grown up and become very mature. He told his mother about an incident that happened when he was five. He went to his maternal grandfather's house and cried, asking, “Both my parents are not at home. Who is going to take care of me?” His grandfather cried after hearing his words and subsequently became ill and bedridden. Liu Yanfang was heartbroken. Scenes of the persecution suffered by her family appeared in front of her. She thought of her husband's long prison sentence and the injuries he sustained as a result of torture. Due to the persecution of Falun Gong, the family had been in terrible financial circumstances for a long time. When she woke up the next day her mouth was filled with ulcers, and there were some in her eyebrows too. Ms. Liu's health had deteriorated as a result of the abuse and torture she was subjected to in the labor camp. However, she could not take time to recover, and instead, several days later she had to drag herself and go to work because the family desperately needed money.
Falun Dafa Brought Happiness to the Family
In 1996, Falun Dafa spread to Dadianzi Town in Tieling County, Tieling City, Liaoning Province. Elderly Yang Lijuan and her family of six took up the practice one after another. Her eldest son Dong Qinyu and second son Dong Qinfei became fit and healthy soon after they started practicing.
Her eldest daughter-in-law Gao Jie, the wife of Dong Qinyu, went through the most obvious transformation. She is a doctor and she set up a clinic at home. Many villagers came to see her to seek treatment but she herself had a brain tumor. Despite seeking treatment from various doctors, no one could cure her. However, by practicing Falun Dafa, she recovered miraculously.
In today's society, medical fees are exorbitant and often people do not have sufficient money to seek treatment for their illnesses. However at Gao Jie's clinic, it was all right if patients owed medical fees. If they simply had no means to pay, she would treat them for free. This is because Falun Gong requires practitioners to follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and to be good people who consider others before themselves. Her selfless actions touched the villagers.
According to the villagers, Gao Jie treated all her patients equally, regardless of whether they were rich or poor. In other clinics, patients often had to be put on intravenous drips for seven days before they recovered, but at Gao Jie's clinic, it only took three to four days. Hence this clinic was highly regarded by neighboring villagers.
Yet in July 1999, this small clinic was shut down by the CCP and the simple and happy family underwent a huge change.
Four Arrested and Two Sentenced to Forced Labor Camp
When the persecution began on July 20, 1999, the CCP-controlled media began slandering Falun Gong, and all levels within the bureaucracy were mobilized to carry out its campaign of persecution. Dong Qinyu and his wife Gao Jie, and Dong Qinfei and his wife Liu Yanfang, all of whom had benefited so much from the practice, went to Beijing to appeal and seek justice for Falun Gong. However they received no justice, and were instead arrested by the Tieling County Police Department.
Brothers Dong Qinyu and Dong Qinfei
Dong Qinyu and Dong Qinfei were sent to labor camps and the family was extorted of 1,500 yuan by the Tieling County Police Department. Gao Jie and Liu Yanfang were detained and the family was extorted of 7,000 yuan for each of them.
At Tieling City Labor Re-education Institute, Dong Qinfei and Dong Qinyu were brutally tortured just like other detained Falun Gong practitioners. They were also often beaten by the guards and prison convicts.
When the brothers finished their sentences and were allowed to return home, agents from the County 610 Office kept harassing them. Zhang Lei and Liu Gang from the County Police Department, as well as Su Yucheng, director of the Political Security Department, and others ransacked their homes and looked for opportunities to arrest them. Gao Jie's clinic was deliberately shut down so that the whole family's source of income would be cut off. Consequently both families were thrown into great financial difficulty. To avoid persecution, both couples were forced to leave home and live a homeless life, always having to keep on the move. Dong Qinfei had to leave his four-year-old son at home in the care of his parents.
Brothers Tortured and Sentenced to Long Prison Terms
In March 2002, Dong Qinfei was arrested by officers from the Fushun City Police Department while he was away from home. His back was broken, he sustained comminuted fractures to both legs, and one arm was fractured as a result of the torture he was subjected to. When he was sent to the hospital for treatment, police officers lied, saying that he was a murder convict to cover up the truth. Police officer Guan Yong from the Fushun Police Department viciously hit Dong Xinfei's legs with a beer bottle even though his legs were still broken and in plaster casts. Guan Yong also stuffed his mouth with feces and tried to strangle him to death. During his one-year detention in the Fushun Detention Center, prison guards refused to allow Dong Qinfei's family to visit him in order to cover up evidence of their crimes.
Dong Qinfei was sentenced to 13 years of imprisonment and is still detained at Shenyang First Prison. While there, he was subjected to even more severe persecution including sleep deprivation, being force-fed chili water, bound to a tiger bench, and shocked with electric batons. His hands and legs were shackled while he was subjected to the torture of being burned by intensely bright and very hot lights. At one point, Dong Qinfei was tortured to the brink of death.
On May 12, 2002, Liu Yanfang was reported by villagers while talking to people about Falun Gong and the persecution. She was arrested and taken to the Tieling County Detention Center. While she was detained, Yun Ping, head of the Domestic Security Division, along with police officers Zhang Lei, Liu Gang, Dadianzi Party secretary Liu Fengqi and others, interrogated her. As soon as she entered the interrogation room, Yun Ping ordered Liu Gang and Zhang Lei to handcuff Liu Yanfang's hands behind her back to the tiger bench. Her legs were stretched out and they started to torture her. Her hair was pulled back and she was viciously beaten to force her to give up her belief in Falun Gong. They also tried to force her to reveal the source of the truth-clarification materials. Liu Yanfang refused to comply and Yun Ping stepped on her knee caps, grinding on the bones back and forth. Liu Yanfang was in extreme pain. Finally they fabricated evidence and sentenced her to three years of forced labor. She was taken to the notorious Masanjia Forced Labor Camp where she was persecuted further.
On November 13, 2007, Gao Jie was arrested by police from the Tieling City Domestic Security Division at the clinic where she worked. Police officer Xie Xiangjun and others then went to her rented place to confiscate her Dafa books, computer, and other belongings. Her husband, Dong Qinyu, was also implicated and the couple were taken to the detention center. Dong Qinyu had already been detained once and sentenced to two years and seven months in a forced labor camp as well as three years of imprisonment. This time he was sentenced to five years in prison and is still detained at Panjin Prison.
Disabled as a Result of Torture--Guilty Judge and Police Escape Justice
During her detention, Gao Jie's blood pressure suddenly increased as a result of the torture and she developed stroke symptoms. Her life was in danger. At that time, Li Zhong from Yinzhou District Court in Tieling City who was in charge of her case asked Gao Jie's family to bring her home for treatment, fearing that he would be held responsible if she died while in detention. While recuperating at home, Gao Jie was forced to leave home and move from place to place to avoid further persecution. In May 2010, she had a stroke as a result of living in fear and tremendous mental pressure for so long.
Gao Jie before the persecution
Gao Jie in the emergency treatment ward
On the night of June 12, 2010, Gao Jie was arrested by Li Zhong, tribunal head of the Yinzhou District Court, while seeking treatment at Yinzhou District Hospital. Despite being diagnosed by the doctors as having a stroke and high blood pressure, Tieling City Detention Center illegally detained the severely ill Gao Jie.
Ms. Gao's family was extremely worried and kept asking the detention center and Li Zhong to release her so that she could be treated. However, the authorities ignored their pleas and continued to detain her in the terrible conditions of the detention center.
On August 13, Gao Jie's family phoned Tieling City Detention Center and asked to see her because they were worried that her life was in danger. Shi Yushan, the head of the center, told them they could see her but only on the condition that they first pay 850 yuan. He used the excuse that this was for her medical checkup fees. Gao Jie's 75-year-old father and mother, who has a heart disease, borrowed money so that they could see their daughter. When they finally saw their daughter, they realized that her health had deteriorated further. She looked terrible, her eyes were dull, and she could not speak clearly. She had completely lost her ability to talk or express herself normally.
On September 1, Ms. GaoJie's family went to the detention center again to ask for her release. This time Shi Yushan told them to pay 6,700 yuan. Through much effort, the family managed to borrow 2,000 yuan and sent it to the detention center, asking for Gao Jie's release. However Shi Yushan refused to release her because it was not the full amount. Her family told him that Gao Jie's parents were elderly and that her husband was still detained in Panjin Prison, so where were they going to get the money? They asked him to release Gao Jie first. Shi Yushan told them that even if they could pay the entire sum of money, he could not release her immediately, as her release needed the approval of respective departments.
Li Zhong and others from the Yinzhou District Court sentenced Gao Jie to four and a half years of imprisonment. They also tried to send her to Shenyang Prison three times, but the prison refused to accept her.
Gao Jie's physical condition kept deteriorating and her illness worsened while she was held in custody at the detention center. When the perpetrators saw that she was on the brink of death, they applied for her prison sentence to be carried out outside the prison for one year. Thus Gao Jie returned home on November 18. They also tried to extort 3,000 yuan from her family as a “security deposit,” but the family had no money.
For five months Gao Jie received no treatment while imprisoned. However, even though she was no longer detained, the perpetrators did not stop persecuting her. The night she was released, Li Zhong, accompanied by a police officer from the detention center and police officer Li Hongchang from Dadianzi Police Station, went to her home to harass her.
Due to the delay in treatment as well as the atmosphere of terror created by the continued threats from prison guards, Gao Jie had another stroke not long after she returned home. She was sent to Tieling City Hospital for emergency treatment. Although her life was sustained, she became paralyzed and could no longer speak nor remember anything.
Ms. Yang Lijuang, who is already 65 years old, now not only has to take care of her grandson and carry out the farming, she also has to look after her daughter-in-law who is paralyzed. From time to time, she also hears of news that her two sons have been tortured to the brink of death while in prison. Whenever she hears such terrible news, she rushes to the prison to see if her two sons are still alive. When she goes to the prison, whether she is allowed to see her sons or not depends on the whim of the prison guards.
Li Zhong, tribunal head of Yinzhou District Court: +86-13941029688
Shi Yushan, head of Tieling City Detention Center: +86-13841071234, +86-410-4563743
Yang Lixin, head of Tieling City Domestic Security Division First Team: +86-13904907890, +86-410-4841980
Xie Xiangjun, head of Tieling City Domestic Security Division Second Team: +86-13464170891, +86-410-6812000
Li Hongchang, police officer at Dadianzi Town Police Station: +86-410-8880223 (Office)
Liu Gang, head of Zhenxibao Police Station: +86-410-8722792 (Office), +86-410-4844388 (Home), +86-13304906599
Zhang Lei, head of Aji Police Station: +86-410-8790110 (Office), +86-410-4197730 (Home), +86-13700103657
Yun Ping, head of Tieling County Domestic Security Division: +86-410-4843018 (Office), +86-410-4842490 (Home), +86-13904105579
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