Name: Zhao Peijin (赵培金)
Gender: Female
Age: 49
Address: Hanjiayuan. Daxinganling District, Heilongjiang Province(大兴安岭韩家园)
Occupation: Teacher
Date of Most Recent Arrest: July, 2008
Most recent place of detention: Heilongjiang Women's Prison
City: Harbin
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Detention, brutal beatings, forced labor, home ransacked, extortion, tortured during interrogation, insulted, sleep deprivation, hanging by handcuffed wrists, illegal trial, illegal sentencing, imprisonment, brainwashing, fired from workplace
(Minghui.org) Ms. Zhao Peijin was a teacher at Yuzhen Elementary School in Hanjiayuan in the Daxinganling District. She started to practice Falun Dafa in 1996. She worked diligently at school and was recognized by the Education Bureau as an outstanding teacher for three consecutive years in a row. She was much admired by her students and their parents. At home, she was a good wife and mother and she had a happy family.
After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to persecute Falun Gong in 1999, Zhao Peijin was illegally arrested three times by the Hanjiayuan Police Department and endured four years of misery in Harbin Women Prison because she wouldn't renounce Falun Dafa. In July 2012, she was released from prison and returned home. The local CCP personnel kept harassing her, so she had to leave home and move outside of her county to work. But the CCP personnel still kept harassing her family.
Unlawfully Detained Three Times
In January 2000, Ms. Zhao went to Beijing to call for justice for Falun Dafa and was arrested. She was brutally beaten by the deputy chief of the Hanjiayuan Police Department, Wang Yunlong, and other officers. They even pulled her hair out by the roots. The second time, she was arrested on June 15, 2000. Feng Lutong from the Hanjiayuan Police Station broke into her home to harass her. He asked if she would still go to Beijing. She said she would, so they arrested her again. At that time, her nine-year-old daughter had a nosebleed. She cried and tried to drag her mother away so the police would not take her away, but to no avail. After Ms. Zhao was arrested, her daughter was on her own, and no other kids would play with her anymore. The little girl went to the river in front of her home and cried her heart out.
Ms. Zhao Peijin was mentally and physically tortured during her four months of detention. The food was inedible, the bed was freezing cold. She was also forced to do dirty and arduous labor. The CCP Political and Legal Affairs Committee, 610 Office, her employer, and her relatives also kept coming to pressure her to give up cultivation and write the guarantee statement, promising to give up Falun Gong. She was under intense pressure and mentally exhausted.
Before the 2008 Olympic games, the CCP arrested many innocent Falun Gong practitioners to ensure the “security” of the games. One night in July 2008, Hanjiayuan Police Department deputy chief Ji Chunli, other officers, and Wang from the community broke into Zhao Peijin's home to arrest her and ransack her home. They turned the entire home upside down. They took her computer, cell phone, mp3 player, recorder, CDs, and tapes. They arrested her and took her to the police department. Ms. Zhao was tortured during their interrogation and then taken to the Shibazhan Detention Center in Tahe County at 1 a.m.
Ms. Zhao's Husband Could Not Bear the Pressure and Divorced Her
When Ms. Zhao was arrested, her husband witnessed the arrest and the confiscation of their belongings. He was traumatized and became severely ill and could not get up for two days. When his 80-year-old father heard the bad news about his daughter-in-law's arrest, his blood pressure went up and he died just a few days later. His brothers and sisters now all blame Ms. Zhao for her husband's illness and the death of their father.
During her trial, Ms. Zhao firmly stated that Falun Dafa is good and that cultivating Falun Dafa is legal. Due to the pressure from his employer, the police, and his relatives, her husband asked her for a divorce. In order to alleviate her husband's suffering, Ms. Zhao did not ask for anything by way of a settlement. After she was released, she did not have any money and had no place to go.
While Ms. Zhao was in the Heilongjiang Women's Prison, her husband wrote her a letter and said he really missed the good times they had had and missed their warm and happy home.
In June 2010, Ms. Zhao's husband went to visit her in prison twice. The prison authorities refused to let him see her, and he returned home in tears.
Illegally Sentenced to Five Years in Prison
On August 27, 2008, Ms. Zhao Peijin and other three Falun Gong practitioners were detained in the Hanjiayuan Detention Center in the Daxinganling District. The female instructor in the detention center insulted and yelled at her all the time. She was held there for eight months. She went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution for five days. She was interrogated with torture. The police did not let her sleep, handcuffed her, and hung her on a clothesline pole. The police also incited a female prisoner who was imprisoned for stealing a horse to verbally abuse and beat her.
On August 29, 2008, Ms. Zhao and seven other practitioners—Li Yaru, Wang Yuhong, Yu Zhongzhu, Li Yajuan, Sun Lijuan, Zuo Weiyan, and Se Guirong—were prosecuted by the Hanjiayuan Police Department. Zhang Zhigang from the Huma County Procuratorate had it in for Zhao Peijin, since she had disagreed with him many times in court. He had her sentenced to another five years in prison. Ms. Zhao and the other seven practitioners refused to accept the judgment and appealed to the middle level court in the Daxinganling District. Three months later, their appeal was dismissed and the original sentence was upheld.
On the night of April 27, 2009, a dozen officers from the Hanjiayuan Police Department led by Han Zhao secretly took Ms. Zhao and the other practitioners to Heilongjiang Women's Prison and Tailai Prison in Qiqihar.
Subjected to Brainwashing and Brutally Persecuted
In Heilongjiang Women's Prison, Ms. Zhao Peijin was brutally persecuted. She was assigned at the 11th Prison District, which was called the “strict team,” set up especially to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. She was locked in a small room, subjected to brainwashing, and pressured to “transform.” A group of collaborators and prisoners took turns trying to brainwash her all day and night. They deceived her with lies and used the “good cop, bad cop” technique to try to break down her will. Prisoner Cui Xiang threatened that she would twist her head off if she refused to be “transformed.” The prisoners who were sent to monitor her followed her all the time. They did not allow her to sit, close her eyes, or even look out the windows. They made her watch the videos and materials that slandered Master Li and Dafa. The police pressured her to write the three statements. If she refused to, they would blame the prisoners who were in the same group as she. They incited all the other prisoners to hate Falun Gong practitioners. They prohibited practitioners from doing many things allowed to other prisoners and incited the inmates to hate Falun Gong. It was a living hell to very difficult survive in such an oppressive environment.
Forced to Do Slave Labor
Later on, Zhao Peijin was forced to do slave labor every day. She had to get up very early and go to bed very late. After she finished the work during the daytime and came back to the prison, she was still forced to work at night such as packing toothpicks; sorting ice cream bar sticks, cards, and card bags; weaving small cushions; and knitting Chinese knots. Her fingers cracked and her hands were full of calluses. The skin on her hands peeled off layer by layer, but she still had to work despite the pain.
Insulted and Tortured in Prison
Heilongjiang Women's Prison made money off its inmates. They persecuted the Falun Gong practitioners mentally by sending prisoners to watch them and separating them from each other. The police used murderers, thieves, swindlers, and drug dealers to monitor the practitioners and restrict their personal freedom. Many of the prisoners either had postponed death sentences or life sentences. Usually, two prisoners were sent to watch one practitioner. In addition, some prisoners secretly watched the prisoners who were sent to watch the practitioners. The practitioners were verbally abused by the prisoners constantly as soon as they did not cooperate with the unreasonable restrictions and brainwashing attempts. The prisoners would report any “infractions” to the guards, and have the practitioners locked in solitary confinement, tortured, and subjected to further brainwashing. If the practitioners did not cooperate with the prisoners, the police would subtract points from the prisoners' performance scores, and the prisoners would antagonize the practitioners even more.
Falun Gong practitioners in Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison had it worse than the murderers and the prisoners on death row, who were allowed to use the restroom, bathe, and wash their clothes. But the practitioners were not allowed these basic rights. They were isolated in a specific zone, and all the practitioners in one group were only allowed to go together to the restroom and bathe, always followed by prisoners. For example, the prisoners could wash their clothes any time they wanted. But the practitioners were only allowed to do their laundry on Saturdays at a specified hour. Practitioners from the same group were not allowed to see each other. They had to wait and go one at a time. After they finished washing their clothes, there was no place to dry them, so they had to dry them in the restroom. Because there weren’t any clotheslines, it would take days for their clothes to dry.
After finishing a meal, the practitioners had to wait until the prisoners who watched them finished eating. Ms. Zhao resisted the prisoners' constant intervention, so the prisoners frequently insulted her.
Warden Shi Genghui and Bai Yingxian often ordered the police to search the practitioners. They would often conduct surprise searches of the practitioners' room in order to find Falun Gong articles, especially at the time of the CCP holidays. They first strip searched the practitioners, and also searched their beds and other areas. As soon as they found an article, they immediately took the practitioners to a confinement room. The guards twice found a small piece of paper with one of Master Li's new articles written on it in Ms. Zhang Jiqiu's bed. She was put the confinement room twice and tortured.
At 6 a.m. one morning, some prisoners had just gotten up and hadn't folded their blankets yet when a group of armed police arrived in the prison yard. They quickly went through all the districts and floors. All the practitioners and prisoners were gathered in the hall. The atmosphere was oppressive. Some prisoners had heart palpitations and some experienced high blood pressure.
The practitioners on the second floor often shouted, “Falun Dafa is good!” Then the guards started to beat them and torture them. Once, a young practitioner who was forced to wear a red vest (the practitioners who did not give up their belief were forced to wear red vests) did not feel well. The prisoners grabbed her wrist and pulled her to the hospital. A 30-year-old female officer slapped the practitioner's face hard in front of the others. On November 22, 2011, practitioner Ms. Yang Xiaolin was locked in a cold solitary room without heat during the freezing winter because the prisoners had discovered she did the meditation in the middle of the night. She suffered from a heart attack due to the cold and was sent to the hospital.
Older Falun Gong practitioners were forced to do slave labor every day, although they were already exhausted. Ms. Wang Xianglan, 70, was persecuted so badly that she had a stroke and could barely walk. The local detention center was afraid to accept her, but the police arrested her directly from her home and took her to Heilongjiang Women's Prison. In the prison, Ms. Wang could not squat down to use the toilet and often soiled her self.
The practitioners who went on hunger strikes to protest the persecution were brutally force-fed. The prisoners used the leftover buns, crushed them, and force-fed the practitioners. The police also forced the practitioners to wear the prison uniform.
Many practitioners collapsed due to the inhuman persecution, and a number of practitioners died before they were released. Ms. Li Yaru, who was arrested and sentenced at the same time as Zhao Peijin, became very sick. Her family finally bailed her out for medical treatment, but she died soon after she returned home. Ms. Li Yaru was very young and talented, but was persecuted to death just because she cultivated Falun Gong and wanted to be good person.
Mr. Yu Zhongzhu was also sentenced at the same time as Ms. Zhao. He was persecuted to death in Tailai Prison in Qiqihar. Ms. Wang Yuhong is still held in Heilongjiang Women's Prison and suffering brutal tortures. Her health deteriorated and she underwent two major surgeries. Her blood pressure reached 240 and she was in a daze every day. In August 2011, Ms. Wang was hospitalized in the prison hospital for over a month.
Zhao Peijin and Her Family Continually Monitored and Harassed
Ms. Zhao Peijin also got sick inside Heilongjiang Women's Prison and had surgery in the hospital. On July 26, 2012, she was released. Nie Shoujiang from the Hanjiayuan 610 Office waited at the prison reception room and ordered her to write the guarantee statement to no longer practice Falun Gong. Ms. Zhao refused. Then the 610 Office forced her daughter to write the statement without letting Ms. Zhao know.
During Ms. Zhao's imprisonment, she was illegally fired by her employer. When she got out of prison, she had no place to go. She thought of going to Beijing with her daughter, but Nie Shoujiang from the 610 Office tried every way he could to stop her. When Ms. Zhao tried to get a job at the Hanjiayuan Forestry Bureau, Hanjiayuan District Party secretary Zhou Kuiwei and deputy secretary Ha Xueping pushed her out. When she tried to find the head of the Hanjiayuan Forestry bureau, Bai Yongqing, the Political and Legal Affairs Committee stopped her from visiting the head manager.
Zhao Peijin had to do hard labor in order to survive, even though she was in poor health. The Hanjiayuan Police Department, police station, Political and Legal Affairs Committee, and 610 Office kept harassing her and her family. The police not only made Zhao Peijin's life extremely difficult, but they also harassed her younger sister and daughter. They monitored their cell phones and home phones, called them to threaten them, and broke into Zhao Peijin's sister's home to harass her. The police also hide near Ms. Zhao's friends and other Falun Gong practitioners' homes to monitor them. They have destroyed an innocent family and harmed the social stability.
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