Internet Survelliance in the Persecution of Falun Gong
A 2003 Reporters Without Borders (RSF) report indicated that the number of people in China who have been incarcerated as a result of Internet publishing ranked first in the world.
According to incomplete statistics, WOIPFG has found that as of the end of April 2004, as a result of Internet-related activities, 108 Falun Gong practitioners have been incarcerated, illegally sent to labor camps, and tortured. Three identified Falun Gong practitioners arrested for Internet-related activities were tortured to death. Among the Falun Gong practitioners who have been arrested and persecuted as a result of Internet surveillance, those with advanced degrees constitute a relatively high percentage.
It has been confirmed that among these 108 practitioners, at least eight are university professors and teachers from Qinghua University, Southwest University, Southwest College of Petroleum, Shenyang University of University Industry, Beijing University of Chemical Engineering, and the China Academy of Science.
In addition, more than 20 other victims of Internet surveillance have bachelor’s degrees or more advanced degrees. More than 12 have master’s degrees and Ph.D. degrees. Around 90% of these 108 Falun Gong practitioners are under 40 years old. The majority had good and stable jobs such as bank employees, company professionals, and governmental staff. Some of them were college students. These statistics are provided to show that the people who are being persecuted, vilified, and tortured by China’s suppression of freedom of information and belief are exemplary and law-abiding citizens.
A January 28, 2003, Amnesty International report indicated that the number of people in China who have been arrested and incarcerated as a result of publishing dissent or exchanging information over the Internet has been rising sharply. During the year 2003, the number of people arrested increased 60% from past years. Those who have been arrested include students, dissidents, Falun Gong practitioners, blue-collar workers, writers, lawyers, educators, public servants, former government officials, engineers, and businessmen. The reasons for their arrests include signing Internet petitions, calling for an end to corruption, planning to establish pro-democracy groups, exposing the truth about SARS, communicating with overseas organizations, objecting to the persecution of Falun Gong, and demanding a redress of the government's suppression of the 1989 pro-democracy movement.
An important factor behind these arrests and persecutions is the Golden Shield System—Internet monitoring and Internet police have played an insidious role. Those who are unfamiliar with the Golden Shield System can reference the thirty-nine-page report by Canada's International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development: “China's security apparatus announced an ambitious plan: to build a nationwide digital surveillance network, lining national, regional and local security agencies with a panoptic web of surveillance.” (http://go.openflows.org/CGS_ENG.PDF) This Golden Shield security communication system demonstrates how Chinese police and security bureaus have used technologies developed by international corporations for commercial purposes to track and suppress China’s dissidents. This system gives China’s current regime unprecedented power to monitor and follow human rights activists and pro-democracy activists.
During the process of confirming these persecution cases, the investigators from WOIPFG found out that none of the communications or information exchanges by these Falun Gong practitioners involved any hint of anti-Chinese Communist Party, subversion of the Chinese government, or any sort of illegal content. Almost all the information they posted on the Internet is related to their personal beliefs and exposing how local Falun Gong practitioners were arrested and persecuted. However, these innocent people were treated as “enemies” by the Chinese authorities and police (including Internet police) and were suppressed and persecuted. Many Chinese policemen tried to justify their illegal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners by claiming they are only “following Jiang Zemin’s orders.” However, those who follow inhumane orders will also be held responsible for their crime. For example, all officers and soldiers who followed the illegal orders of Hitler to kill Jews were eventually brought to justice in the international courts. We hope all officials, policemen, and Internet police who follow Jiang’s illegal orders to persecute Falun Gong will stop immediately. We at WOIPFG will continue to accomplish our mission to investigate the criminal conduct of all institutions, organizations, and individuals involved in the persecution of Falun Gong to full closure.
This article is one part of a systematic exposure of the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners via Golden Shield System and Internet monitoring. For more information, please take note of WOIPFG's latest report at www.upholdjustice.org. If you would like to supply WOIPFG with more information, please email it to media@upholdjustice.org.
Three Falun Gong Practitioners with Known Identity Persecuted to Death as a Result of Internet-Related Activities
According to WOIPFG’s incomplete statistics, from July 1999 to April 2004, ninety-seven Falun gong practitioners have been incarcerated, illegally sent to labor camps, and tortured as a result of Internet-related activities, and three Falun Gong practitioners with known identity have been persecuted to death.
On June 27, 2001, Li Changjun was tortured to death at a police detention center. It was verified by Hong Kong's Human Rights and Democracy Information Center that Li Changjun, 33 years old, worked at the Tax Bureau of Wuhan City in Hubei Province (central China), was arrested several times because of not giving up the practice of Falun Gong. Li Changjun’s mother said that her son’s body was covered with scars and bruises, his face and neck had turned a black and purple color, and he looked terribly thin.
The following deaths have been verified by WOIPFG:
Li Changjun, male, unmarried, was born in 1968 in Suizhou City, Hubei Province. He graduated in July 1991 from Gezhouba Water and Electricity Engineering College and became an electrician at the Zaoyang City Cigarette Factory. He then took a course in computer technology at Central China Science and Engineering University and received a master’s degree. Upon graduating from the university in July 1999, he was assigned to work at the Tax Bureau of Wuhan City. However, he was fired because he persisted in practicing Falun Dafa. Afterward, he was illegally detained several times at Beijing, Suizhou, Wuhan, and several other places.
On May 16, 2001, Li Changjun and six other Falun Gong practitioners were arrested by policemen when they were downloading Falun Gong materials that exposed the persecution. (The seven of them all have at least a master’s degree.) They were illegally detained at Wuhan City Public Security Bureau and suffered inhuman torture and persecution. They started hunger strike to protest. After 40 days of suffering, Li Changjun died on June 27 10:08 p.m. Later, his relatives saw his body: he was very thin, his face and neck had turned black and purple in color. His fists were clenched, his teeth and face were distorted, and his back was terribly burned.
Chen Qiulan, female, 47 years old, was a Falun Gong practitioner in Daqing, Heilongjiang Province. Chen was arrested in July 2001 for posting Falun Gong material on the Internet. Chen Qiulan was persecuted to death on August 14, 2001, at a detention center in Daqing, Heilongjiang Province, in the northeast of China.
Associated Press (AP) reported that a Chinese policeman named Li from the detention center said Chen Qiulan suffered from a heart attack. Li also is reported to have said that Chen Qiulan, who was 47 years old, was arrested in July because of posting Falun Gong news on the Internet. However, a Hong Kong Falun Gong spokeswoman, Sophie Yang, told CNN that Chen Qiulan was beaten to death after two months’ torture, and that Chen was not allowed to see a doctor.
Bai Xiuhua, female, age unknown, was a Falun Gong practitioner in a city in Ahcheng, Heilongjiang Province. Bai worked as a policeman in charge of household registration in Haerbing Jiancheng Factory in Ahcheng. Bai Xiuhua was arrested in July 2002 for preparing Falun Gong material on the Internet. Bai was detained at The Second Detention Center and was sent to Wanjia Labor Camp in Haerbing City. Bai Xiuhua was persecuted to death on August 28, 2002. The family didn’t know about Bai’s death until after the cremation.
Falun Gong Practitioners Who are Well Versed in Internet Technology Become the Major Target of Persecution
As is evident from the illegal sentences, the terms of imprisonment, and the persecutory actions against Falun Gong practitioners in Mainland China, those practitioners who disclose the truth about the persecution to other countries through channels such as the Internet or by tapping into local TV signals to disclose the truth about the persecution to the people in Mainland China have all been persecuted and suppressed more brutally.
Falun Gong practitioners who used the Internet were sentenced to up to 14 years imprisonment, whereas those who tapped into TV signals were given sentences as long as 20 years (an example is Liu Chengjun, who was tortured to death for participating in the Changchun Cable TV interception event). This sort of treatment directly reflects Jiang’s apprehensions and his subsequent efforts to prevent information about the persecution from reaching the public. It indicates that the persecution is based on fabrications and not only deprives Falun Gong practitioners of their basic rights to freedom of belief, but also deprives people of their right to freely obtain information and to know the true facts.
Listed below are verified cases in which Falun Gong practitioners were persecuted with priority for using the Internet.
Yao Yue, graduate student of Microelectronics, Qinghua University, Beijing. Because of posting “materials” about Falun Gong on the Internet, Yao was sentenced to 12 years on December 13, 2001.
Meng Jun, lecturer at Qinghua University. Because of posting “materials” about Falun Gong on the Internet, Professor Meng was sentenced to 10 years on December 13, 2001.
Wang Xing, academic staff at Qinghua University. Because of posting “materials” about Falun Gong on the Internet, Professor Wang was sentenced to 9 years on December 13, 2001.
Dong Yanhong, female, 30, Beijing Falun Gong practitioner, winner of the National Calligraphy Contest. Ms. Dong was listed as a “focus” by the Qinghua Southwest Building Residents’ Committee, and was jailed in January 2001. On December 13, 2001, she was illegally sentenced to 5 years imprisonment by the Beijing Intermediate People’s Court for using the Internet to spread information about the persecution of Falun Gong and for distributing Falun Gong flyers.
Li Wenyu, husband of Dong Yanhong, employee of Qinghua University, Beijing. Because of posting “materials” about Falun Gong on the Internet, Li was sentenced to 3 years on December 13, 2001.
Wang Xuefei, Shanghai student. Because of posting “materials” about Falun Gong on the Internet, Wang was sentenced to 11 years on December 13, 2001.
According to a Hong Kong human rights organization, six students from Qinghua University were tried by Zhuhai Court in Guangdong Province for “sabotaging the implementation of law with cult activity.” These students are Lin Yang (male), Huang Kui (male), Ma Yan (female), Li Chunyan (female), Jiang Yuxia (female), and Li Yanfang (female). All are enrolled in master’s or Ph.D. programs in the departments of Hydroelectric Engineering, Architecture, or Applied Physics. Lu Siqing, a member of the Hong Kong Democratic and Human Rights Center, revealed that these students had been posting articles to expose the persecution of Falun Gong on the Internet since July 2000. In November 2000, they were arrested in the city of Zhuhai in Guangdong Province.
On February 19, 2004, Reporters Without Borders headquartered in Paris publicly condemned China for recently sentencing five Falun Gong practitioners to imprisonment. The five practitioners are Chen Zhemin, Yuan Qiuyan, Li Jian, Ying Yan, and Lu Zhengqi. Because they used the Internet to expose the fact that female graduate student Wei Xingyan of Chongqing University was raped by police, they were sentenced by the authorities to 5 to 14 years imprisonment for “blemishing government’s image.”
Reporters Without Borders said in the statement, “it is completely without grounds to suppress members of this spiritual movement.” They also urged the release of those Falun Gong practitioners who were jailed for posting information on the Internet.
According to a report dated March 2, 2001, from the China Center Press, Falun Gong practitioners Xue Hairong, An Lizhu, Li Fengqin, Feng Xiuchun, and Hao Funing were brought to trial at the No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court in Beijing for using a computer, printer, copier, and scanner at Xue Hairong’s apartment to download materials related to “Falun Gong” from the Internet. Xue Hairong was sentenced to seven years in prison. Li Fengqin and others were sentenced to five to six years in prison.
Case List of Mainland Falun Gong Practitioners Who Were Jailed, Beaten, or Persecuted as a Result of Internet Surveillance
Among the Falun Gong practitioners who have been arrested and persecuted as a result of Internet surveillance, many have advanced degrees. It has been confirmed that at least eight practitioners victimized by the persecution are university professors and teachers, as mentioned earlier, including:
· Meng Jun and Wang Xin from Tsinghua University
· Wang Zhenyong, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Southwest
University
· Lu Guoxiang, associate professor at Southwest College of Petroleum
· Liu Shujun, associate professor in the Department of Automatic Control at Shenyang
University of Aviation Industry
· Chen Haifeng, lecturer at Beijing University of Chemical Engineering
· Li Baoqing, a research fellow at the Geology Institute of the China Academy of Science
More than 20 other victims of internet surveillance have bachelor’s degrees or more advanced degrees. More than 12 have master’s degrees and Ph.D. degrees. Approximately 90% of the 108 Falun Gong practitioners that WOIPFG has confirmed are below 40 years old. The majority had good and stable jobs such as bank employees, company professionals and governmental staff. Some of them were college students. These statistics are provided to show that the people who are being persecuted, vilified and tortured by China’s suppression of freedom of information and belief are exemplary and law-abiding citizens.
1. Persecuted for Distributing Information About Falun Gong via Email
Name |
Timeof Arrest |
Placeof Arrest |
Persecution Facts |
Jiang Zhong |
July 1999 |
Shandong Province |
Jiang Zhong, Male, 27 years old, was an office manager of Weifang division at the company of Tsingdao Beer. In July 1999, because he sent an email to Hongkong about Falun Gong, he was incarcerated in Hanting detention center. At there, he was chained to heavy shackles because of doing Falun Gong exercise one time. He was forced to do labor work and was not given food as the punishement if he could not finish the assignment, did not recite detention regulations, or did Falun Gong exercise. The food given to the prisonsers were salt water boiled radish and cold steam bread, and no one could have enough food either. Jiang was detained for 8 months and lost 30Kg. His mother was also a Falun Gong, and among her numerous efforts of visiting him, she was never allowed to see him once. Jiang Zhong was sent to Weibei Farming Camp in April 2000. The sentence was 3 years. |
Jiang Xunliang |
Year of 2000 |
Longkou City, Shandong Province |
In 2000, after Shandong Public Security Burear tracked down Jiang’s Internet Protocal (IP) address, Jiang Xunliang was arrested, and his computer was confiscated. |
He Ping |
July 20, 2000 |
Beijing |
He Ping, male, 32 years old, hold the degree of Master of Science. He was an egineer at the National Center of Earthquake Bureau. July 20, 2000, he sent an email to China Central Television (CCTV) about Falun Gong. The public security traced the email to He Ping’s working place and then the Beijing Wanshou Station House arrested He Ping from his work and detented him in Beijing Haidian detention center. Then after his release, at 1am of July 22nd, 2000, he was again taken away from his home by Wanshou Station House. At then his new born baby boy was only 18 days old. |
A practitioner in Beijing |
September 2000 |
Beijing |
Male, 22 years old. He was admitted to Beijing Institute of Technology in 1999. He was ordered quit school after he went to appeal for Falun Gong. In Septemeber 2000, he was arrested because he was suspected to send emails to a website. |
Yang Fengyun |
Nov 12, 2000 |
Xingtai City, Hebei Province |
Yang Fengyun, 29 years old, was a section cadre in the Bank of China, Xingtai Division. On Nov 12, 2000, 2pm, he was arrested when he was sending emails to places outside Beijing. He sent Falun Gong emails to the bank system at Zhejiang, Qinghai, Yunnan, Xizang, Tianjin, Shanghai, etc. 9 provinces. At the special force team, he was continuosly beaten for six days that he was out of conscious for several times. |
Wang Zhenyong |
Decemeber 2000 |
|
Wang Zhenyong was a professor in Psychology at Southeast University. In Dec 2000, Wang downloaded 4 Falun Gong articles from an oversea website and sent his friend through emails. He was arrested because of this. |
Wu Yujin |
March 2001 |
North Oil Field |
Wu Yujin was arrested by Police at the Internet Café due to sending emails. |
Wang Yang |
June 2001 |
Zhengzhou City, Henan Province |
Wang Yang worked at Zhengzhou Julong Information Science Institute. He used his own phone to dial-up internet and sent Falun Gong emails. The police was then tracked down his number and address. As a result, he was called to the station, and all his place was searched. His two laptops and all Falun Gong materials were confiscated. |
Dong Caiyong |
Decemeber 2003 |
Anda City, Heilongjiang Province |
Dong Caiyong was a college graduate and an employee at Longxin Company in Anda City, Heilongjiang Province. He was sentenced for 3 year labor camps because of sending emails in an Internet Café. His father could not bear that his only son was arrested and he himself was diagonsed with cancer. His father committed suicide. |
2. Practitioners that were persecuted because of posting news on internet
Name |
Time |
Place |
Persecution Facts |
|
Xu Yinquan, Zhang Haitao |
October 1999 |
Changchun, Jilin Province |
Xu Yinquan and Zhang Haitao have been jailed in the Tiebei Prison in Changchun, Jilin province for nearly one year. Nobody knows if they are still alive or not. Xu was at one time a contact person for the Falun Gong Assistance Center in Changchun. Zhang was arrested in October 1999 for allegedly“disrupting social orders" because he posted a “Urgent Appeal Letter by the Changchun (Dafa) Website” on the Falun Dafa Chuangchun website. Both Xu and Zhang had been detained (but not yet formally arrested) since July 1999 in Tiebei detention center. Nobody was allowed to visit them, not even their family members. |
|
Li Fujun |
October 1999 |
Henan Province |
According to a report by Reuters from Beijing on January 3, 2000, Li Fujun was sentenced to four years imprisonment for being a contact person for Falun Gong, which was banned in China. More than one hundred practitioners were arrested in the first few days of the year 2000. Li Fujun, 37 years old, was an associate professor at Xinxiang Medical College in central Henan province. He was the 19th Falun Gong practitioner sentenced to imprisonment since Jiang’s regime banned Falun Gong in July 1999. The report from Reuters also said that Li Fujun was arrested in October 1999. The court accused Li Fujun of posting an article on internet and trying to create “very bad” influence. The article was about how Falun Gong had cured many people’s health problems. |
|
Ying Xia, Song Weixing |
March 2000 |
Shandong Province |
Ying Xia, 31 years old, was someone who witnessed how Chen Zixiu was tortured to death. In March 2000 she wrote a testimony about how Chen Zixiu died from torture. Her husband, Song Weixing, gave it to another practitioner who later posted it on the internet. Ying Xia and Song Weixing were both detained for one month because of this. Then Song Weixing was sentenced to three years in a labor camp, and Ying Xia was illegally detained in the Nanguan Neighborhood Administration Office. During the Weifang International Kite Conference in April 2000, many foreign reporters came to Weifang city, and wanted to interview Ying Xia. Zhu Qingli, who was the Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party at Nanguan Neighborhood Administration Office refused to admit the existence of Ying Xia. In June 2000, Ying Xia walked to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong to Premier Zhu Rongji. She was abducted by the plain-clothed policemen who have been waiting for her outside The Premier's official residence. After being arrested, she went on a hunger strike for thirteen days before finally being released. In July 2000, she went to Beijing again to appeal. The police station in her hometown issued a wanted notice for her, and Ying Xia had to wander outside without being able to go back home. On October 1, 2000, she went to Beijing to appeal and was forcibly arrested. She was sent to Jinan Labor Camp for three-years. Song Xin, Ying Xia and Song Weixing’s seven-year-old daughter is currently living with the old grandparents. |
|
Zhang Xu |
March 2000 |
Shenzhen, Guangdong Province |
Zhang Xu is a Falun Gong practitioner in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. In March 2000, he was arrested because he helped Yu Hui, a practitioner who was imprisoned, to post his appealing letter to the procuratorate on the Minghui website. Zhang Xu was a deputy CEO in a financial company in Shenzhen. He is a honest person, always works hard and enjoys helping others. |
|
Zhang Xueyong |
March 12, 2000 |
Langfang, Hebei Province |
Zhang Xueyong was an employee of the Langfang division of the Oil Science Research Institute, China Oil and Natural Gas Corporation. The Langfang City Police Department, Hebei Province arrested him on March 12, 2000 on the grounds that he showed other people a picture of the founder of Falun Gong, which was downloaded from internet. The police brutally beat Mr. Zhang in the police station, and then illegally detained him in Langfang Detention Center. On June 30, 2000, Mr. Zhang was illegally sentenced to one year in a labor camp. |
|
Lin Yang, Huang Kui, Ma Yan, Li Chunyan, Jiang Yuxia and Li Yanfang |
November 2000 |
Zhuhai, Guangdong Province |
According to a Hong Kong human rights organization, six students from Tsinghua University were tried by Zhuhai Court in Guangdong Province for “sabotaging the implementation of law with cult activity”. These students are Lin Yang (male) , Huang Kui (male), Ma Yan (female), Li Chunyan (female), Jiang Yuxia (female) and Li Yanfang (female). All are enrolled in the Masters or Ph.D. programs in the departments of Hydroelectric Engineering, Architecture or Applied Physics. Lu Siqing, a member of the Hong Kong Democratic and Human Rights Center, revealed that these students had been posting articles to expose the persecution of Falun Gong on the Internet since July 2000. In November, 2000, they were arrested in the city of Zhuhai in Guangdong province. |
|
Lin Yongxu |
February 8, 2001 |
Zhuhai, Guangdong Province |
Lin Yongxu is a practitioner in Zhuhai, Guangdong province. He wrote an article entitled “Eradicate Rumors and Clarify the Truth (of Falun Gong)” and posted it on the internal website at his work place, Zhuhai Geli Corporation. He was arrested by police soon after, and was sentenced to two years of imprisonment. |
|
Li Changjun |
June 27, 2001 |
Wuhan, Hubei Province |
Li Changjun, 33 years old, died of torture on June 27, 2001, during his detention. He was arrested on May 16, 2001, for acessing the internet and printing Falun Gong (truth-clarification) materials. He worked in Wuhan Tax Bureau and had been detained many times because he practiced Falun Gong. |
|
Li Baoqing |
June 2001 |
Changping, Beijing |
Li Baoqing is a research fellow at the Geology Institute of the China Academy of Science. He posted an article on the Internet describing how Chinese government offices and departments have persecuted their employees who practice Falun Gong by sending them to brainwashing classes and denying them their personal freedom. Because of this, in the brainwashing class named “the third phase deep education class for central government organizations”, Li Peijing, Vice Party Secretary in charge of the Beijing branch of the China Academy of Science, swore at Mr. Li and called him "an anti-revolutionary" (an insult, or "crime," typical to this political party, which in China's history has been many times punished by execution). Later, Mr. Li was sent to a so-called “Law Education Class” in Changping County that started on June 21, 2001,and was subsequently brainwashed. |
|
Chen Qiulan |
August 14, 2001 |
Daqing, Helongjiang Province |
Chen Qiulan, died on August 14, 2001 in a detention center in Daqing, Helongjiang province. She was arrested in July 2001 for posting Falun Gong material on the internet. |
|
Ke Xingguo |
2001 |
Beijing |
Ke Xingguo is a Falun Gong practitioner in Beijing. After he escaped from a brainwashing class, he told of his experiences in the brainwashing class on the Internet. He exposed the malicious assault, slander and incrimnation of Falun Gong by Jiang Zemin's regime. Mr. Ke also exposed the inhumane tortures suffered by Falun Gong practitioners. Mr. Ke became a hunted man and he had to wander about as a homeless person. Even so, Mr. Ke told people the truth about Falun Gong to people everywehere he went , disregarding his own safety. He was unfortunately arrested and illegally detained in Shenzhou City Detention Center in Hebei Province. Mr. Ke was beaten to the point of vomiting blood, and his lips turned purple. However, he refused to give up his belief. Mr. Ke went on a hunger strike to protest the inhuman torture. |
|
Dong Yanhong |
December 13 2001 |
Beijing |
Dong Yanhong, 30, female, winner of the National Calligraphy Tournament. She was identified as a “Key Target.” One day in January 2001, the local resident’s committee deceived her into a face-to-face meeting. She never returned after the meeting. On December 13, 2001 the Beijing City Intermediate People’s Court sentenced her to 5 years of prison on charges of “Distributing Falun Dafa material on the Internet and distributing Falun Dafa flyers.” |
|
Yao Yue |
December 13 2001 |
Beijing |
Yao Yue, a research fellow at the Beijing Qinghua University Microelectronics Department. She was sentenced to 12 years in prison on December 13, 2001, because she posted “materials” pertaining to Falun Gong on the Internet. |
|
Meng Jun |
December 13 2001 |
Beijing |
Meng Jun, a teacher at the Beijing Qinghua University, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on December 13 2001, and charged with posting Falun Gong materials on the Internet. |
|
Wang Xin |
December 13 2001 |
Beijing |
Wang Xin, a teacher at the Beijing Qinghua University, was sentenced to 9 years in prison on December 13 2001, and charged with posting Falun Gong materials on the Internet. |
|
Li Wenyu |
December 13 2001 |
Beijing |
Li Wenyu was the husband of Dong Yanhong. He was staff member at the Beijing Qinghua University. He was sentenced to 3 years in prison on December 13 2001, and charged with posting Falun Gong materials on the Internet. |
|
Wang Xuefei |
December 13 2001 |
|
Wang Xuefei, a student in Shanghai, was sentenced to 11 years in prison, and charged with posting Falun Gong materials on the Internet. |
|
|
May 2002 |
Zibo City, |
The Hongshan Township police station of the Zichuan District, Zibo City, Shandong Province sentenced a Falun Gong practitioner to a forced brainwashing class at the Wangcun Labor Camp. All this practitioner did was to expose her personal account of being persecuted on Clearwisdom.net. (She had two little children without anyone besides her to care for them, with the young one not even 2 years old.) |
|
Wu Dong sheng |
August 15 2002 |
Baoqing County, Heilongjiang Province |
Wu Dongsheng was from Baoqing County in Heilongjiang Province. She was 38. She was sentenced to 2 years in a Labor Camp on August 2001. After she published her account of being persecuted on the Internet, she was arrested again in August 15 2002. She was detained at Jiansanjiang Brainwashing class in the 3rd Women’s Prison at the Jiamusi Labor Camp. |
|
Wei Binglian |
2002 |
Baise |
This practitioner was arrested with the cooperation of his work unit in 2002 because he was suspected to be using the Internet (to distribute Falun Gong related material). He was sentenced to 5 years, 6 months in prison. The charge was uploading two articles to Clearwisdom.net. |
|
Cai Guirong, and 16 others. |
April 24 2003 |
Jidong County, Heilongjiang Province |
16 female Falun Gong practitioners, including Cai Guirong, Luo Wei, Kong Lingzhi, Wang Liqin, Wang Yulan, Li Yulan, Liu Lixiang, Li Yuzhen, Meng Qingrong, Yu Chunzhen, Li Shufen, Guan Fengying, Wang Shuxian, Xu Yunling, and others, were abducted by the police and taken to the Jidong County Detention Center. They were sentenced to forced hard labor for 1 to-3 years because they told the truth about the persecution of Falun Gong on the Internet. They were detained at the Drug Rehabilitation Center at Harbin City. |
|
Liu Hui, Li Shumin, Qian Jinsong |
October 2003 |
Baoding City, Hebei Province |
The “610” office and the police station in Baoding City, Hebei Province, abducted more than 30 Falun Gong practitioners at the Xinshi District in October 2003. They were detained at the Baoding Detention Center. A small information center was destroyed, and three practitioners who worked on the Internet site were abducted. These three practitioners were: Liu Hui, (a senior maintenance technician of the Hebei Baoding Mobile Communication Company), Li Shumin, (a senior technical personnel of the Daqinghe Command Center), Qian Jinsong (Clerk at the National Tax Bureau Beishi District branch in Baoding City). It was learned that a large batch of Internet material, Solemn Declarations, and Information to expose evil doings was confiscated. More than 70 Falun Gong practitioners were abducted. According to reliable sources, Liu Hui, Qian Jinsong and two other practitioners were sentenced to illegal forced labor in the evening of December 4. They were transferred from the Baoding Detention Center to the Baoding Labor Camp. The whereabouts of Li Shumin was unknown. |
|
Guan Yuqin |
December 25 2003 |
Fangzheng Forest Bureau in Heilongjiang Province |
Guan Yuqin was a Dafa practitioner working at the Fangzheng Forest Bureau in Heilongjiang Province. She was 36. Because she exposed her personal experience of being sentenced to a forced labor reeducation camp twice in the previous four years, being detained at various Penitentiaryl Centers, Drug Rehabilitation Centers, and the Xinglong Brainwashing Center; as well as the torture that she suffered both mentally and physically; she was listed as a key target by the “610” office in Heilongjiang Province. They offered 10,000-Yuan reward for her arrest. The police in the Fangzheng Forest Bureau region sent quite a few police to the Daqing City to abduct her in December 25, 2003, and brought her back to Fangzheng District police station for detention. She was in critical condition and had been hospitalized. |
|
Chen Shumin |
February 2004 |
Chongqing City |
Sentenced to 14 years in prison because of exposing the incident of Wei Xingyan. Wei Xingyan was a Chongqing University student raped by the police. Chen posted the incident on the Internet. |
|
Lu Zhengqi, Yuan Qiuyan |
February 2004 |
Chongqing City |
Sentenced to 10 years in prison because of exposing the incident of Wei Xingyan, a Chongqing University student raped by the police. They helped post the incident on the Internet. |
|
Li Jian |
February 2004 |
Chongqing City |
Sentenced to 13 years in prison because of exposing the incident of Wei Xingyan, a Chongqing University student raped by the police. He helped post the incident on the Internet. |
|
Yin Yan |
February 2004 |
Chongqing City |
Sentenced to 5 years in prison because of exposing the incident of Wei Xingyan, a Chongqing University student raped by the police. Also helped to post the incident on the Internet. |
|
Mother of Li Zhigang |
March 2004 |
Changsha City |
The “610” office in Henan Province and the Police in Changsha City had information that Li’s mother was responsible for exposing the tortures against her son in overseas news media. They tried to coerce Li’s mother to reveal the channel by which the information was sent overseas. They violated the constitution and legal procedures, and forcefully established a court case for Li’s mother. On February 25 2004 she was summoned by the Changsha Kaifu district court, using the fact that the torture of her son, Li Zhigang, was posted on the Internet as a reason to summon her. |
|
He Zhihong |
March 2004 |
Daqing City |
He Zhihong was abducted because she was suspected of exposing the tortures against her husband Zhang Zhong, (also a Dafa practitioner) in the Daqing Prison. |
|
Wang Renjing, |
April 2004 |
Shenzhen City |
They were sentenced to three and half years and four years, respectively, because they uploaded the appeal and complaint written by Falun Gong practitioner Yu Hui, who was detained at the Shenzhen district detention center. |
|
Fang Guokun |
|
Baise |
Fang Guokun was abducted and sentenced to prison because he wrote the article “Persecution of Falun Gong practitioners by unlawful officials at the Liuzhou City Railroad Bureau in Guangxi Province. |
3. Persecuted for using Internet
Name |
Time |
Place |
Persecution Facts |
|
Zhen Hanfei |
May 2000 |
Tianjin City |
The police abducted Singapore Falun Gong practitioner Zhen Hanfei when she went back to China for vacation and to visit her relative in May 2000. Her residence was ransacked because officials found out that she had been keeping in touch with Chinese Falun Gong practitioners, and was sending them the latest information via Internet. She was detained for a month at the Nankai Detention Center in Tianjin City. |
|
A Falun Gong practitioner who was the deputy chief of the Shuangya City Telecom Center and deputy chief of the Telecom Bureau in Shuangya city |
July 19 2000 |
Shuangya City, Heilongjiang Province |
A secret telegram from the Heilongjiang Province Public Security Bureau, notified the Shuangya City police station that a Falun Gong practitioner was the deputy chief of the Shuangya City Telecom Center and deputy chief of the Telecom Bureau in Shuangya city. This practitioner was abducted, and taken to the Shuangya police station detention center for one month. |
|
Peng Chong |
October 2000 |
Wuhan City, Hubei Province |
Peng Chong was a 25 years old Falun Gong practitioner. He was sentenced to 7 years in prison because he visited a Falun Gong web site on the Internet. |
|
Lu Guoxiang |
October 2000 |
Sichuan Province |
Lu was an associate professor at the Southwest College of Petroleum which is located in the center region of Sichuan Province. He was held in jail for 23 days for browsing the internet. Later, he was laid off, and his monthly income was only 100 Yuan each month. |
|
Li Ming |
October 2, 2000 |
Sichuan University |
Li Ming,male,a college graduate in his twenties. His home was located inside the campus of Sichuan University. On October 2, 2000, while he was browsing the internet in one of the Internet Cafes in Sichuan University, staff from the department of security at Sichuan University arrested him. The security staff had the cafe under surveilance beforehand. He was later sent to a forced labor camp for one and half years of forced hard labor. |
|
Liu Haichao |
November 2000 |
Xi’an Jiaotong University |
Liu Haichao,male, Ph.D. student at Xi’an Jiaotong University, was sent to a forced labor camp for one year of forced hard labor because he persevered in his practice of Falun Gong and because he downloaded material from internet. |
|
Wang Shichuang |
November |
Chengdu City of Sichuan Province |
Wang Shichuang,male, in his thirties,an employee of Chengda Chemical Engineering Co. in Chengdu. On August 14, 2000, he was held in jail for one month under “suspicion of having downloaded material from internet.” The police searched his house and confisticated his computer. When Wang was released from the jail, he returened to work and continued to work diligently at his company. On November 9, 2000, two policemen came to his house and arrested him. They sent him to a forced labor camp for two years of forced hard labor on the same charge he had been jailed for the first time. |
|
Liu Hong |
November |
Weifang city of Shandong Province |
Liu Hong, female, in her forties. On November, 2000,someone reported her to the police when she was reading online with another Falun Gong practitioner. The police station in Kuiwen District of Weifang city, Shandong Province and security staff from her former work unit (Weifang Sign Co.) took her to the reception room,and handcuffed her to the chair. Three policemen interrogated her in turn about the source of the material,and attempted to extort a confession by torture. They hit her on the head and about her face. In the evening, the police hung her up with handcuffs over her head, only allowing one of her feet to touch the ground. In the middle of the night, the police tore off her jacket and pushed her outside to punish her in the freezing cold weather. Liu Hong endured this cruel torture for over 10 days. She didn’t utter a word from the beginning to the end. Later, Liu Hong was sent to Kuiwen jail, to be punished as a criminal. |
|
Zhang Jun |
2000 |
Dalian Development |
Zhang Jun, a Falun Gong practitioner in Dalian Development District, was reported to the police by a spy for using the internet. The police searched his house and confiscated his property. He was held in a jail in the development district. His wife had just given birth to their child, and was unable to support the family without Zhang. |
|
Liang Zhaohui |
November 24, 2000 |
|
On November 24, Liang Zhaohui was sentenced to seven years in prison for using the internet. |
|
Liu Shujun |
The end of November, 2000 |
Shenyang |
Liu Shujun was an associate professor in the Department of Automatic Control at Shenyang University of Aviation Industry. At the end of November, 2000, he was arrested by police from Heping District, Shenyang City. On February 17, 2001, he was sent to a forced labor camp for two and half years of hard labor. The charge was suspicion of using the internet and printing some materials. |
|
Xue Hairong, An Lizhu, Li Fengqin, Feng Xiuchun and Hao Funing |
March 2, 2001 |
Beijing |
According to a report dated March 2, 2001, from the China Center Press, Falun Gong practitioners Xue Hairong, An Lizhu, Li Fengqin, Feng Xiuchun and Hao Funing were brought to trial at the No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court in Beijing for using a computer, printer, copier and scanner at Xue Hairong’s apartment to download materials related to “Falun Gong” from the Internet. Xue Hairong was sentenced to seven years in prison. Li Fengqin and others were sentenced to five to six years in prison. |
|
Han Songwei |
2000 |
Harbin |
Han Songwei is a Ph.D student in Harbin Industrial University. It was simply because he used the internet that staff from the department of security reported him to the Nangang branch police station. Police lured him to the police station under the guise of “having a talk” with him. He was then held at the jail for 50 days until his parents paid for his release. |
|
Jiang Yonghong |
January 2001 |
Chengdu |
Jiang Yonghong, male, 30 years old, a former employee of Chengdu Air Compressor Company. He was arrested in January 2001 for using the internet at an Internet Café. Shortly after his arrest, he was sent to a forced labor camp for three years of forced hard labor. |
|
Xiao Yuan |
April 2001 |
Wuhu |
Xiao Yuan is a Falun Gong practitioner in Wuhu. He was illegally arrested by police for being suspected of using the internet. Later, he was illegally held in Wuhu Jail. |
|
Unknown Practitioner |
April 2001 |
Wuhan |
A thirty-year-old practitioner in Wuhan was forced to leave his home and wander about. One day he went to an Internet Café to learn to use internet, but never returned. So far, his whereabouts are unknown. |
|
Wang Zhehao |
April 2001 |
Dalian |
Wang Zhehao，male，26 years old. He has a junior college diploma and is an undergraduate student at Dalian University of Science and Technology. He used to work on computer art and design at Dalian Chemical Engineering Development Institute. In April 2001, he was sent to a forced labor camp for three years of forced hard labor for using the internet. He was initially held at Dalian Zhoushuizi labor camp; later he was secretly transferred to Guanshan labor camp, then to Benxi labor camp in Liaoning Province. He suffered from inhumane torture during his detainment in these labor camps. He was frequently confined in a small, solitary compartment. His family members were forced to pay “deposits” and “penalties,” as punishment for his incarceration. The total amount is as high as 13,000 Yuan; receipts are available as evidence. |
|
Four Falun Gong practitioners in Dehui City |
July 2001 |
Dehui City of Jilin Province |
In the beginning of July 2001, four Falun Gong practitioners in Dehui city were arrested for using the internet and printing some materials. According to credible information source, it was Changchun Municipal Police station which was mainly responsible for the arrest. Dehui Municipal Police station collaborated with the Changchun Municipal Police on the arrests. Those who were present for the arrest revealed that these four practitioners (two male and two female) were taken away completely bound and gagged. Before abducting them, police stripped one of the male practitioners and beat him fiercely. They were detained in Changchun from that point on. |
|
Jin Fuzhang |
2001 |
Yingkou District |
Jin Fuzhang is a Falun Gong practitioner in Yingkou District. In 2001, when he was chatting with other Falun Gong practitioners over the internet, he was located by the police and was arrested. |
|
Meng Jian |
December 5, 2001 |
Liaohe |
Meng Jian is an English teacher at Shiyan high school in Liaoning oil-field. On December 5, 2001, about eight policemen from the”610 Office” in Panjin city, Liaoning province came to the school and broke into the classroom without contacting the school authorities. Meng Jian was arrested as she was giving a lecture to her students. The police kidnapped her and forcibly searched her house. Her son, Zhang Ce, asked the police why they kidnapped his mother. He was told it was because she downloaded Falun Gong material from the web. Meng Jian was illegally held in the jail of another city and was informed that she would suffer a heavy punishment. Meng Jian and her husband are both Falun Gong practitioners. Their son Zhang Ce became an orphan, and was left in the family's home alone. |
|
Wei Wei |
January 23, 2002 |
Longkou city |
Wei Wei is a Falun Gong practitioner in Long Kou City. Because the police department of Shandong Province found out his IP address when he was online, the officials issued a warrant for him over the whole city and directly ordered police in Yantai city to kidnap him. |
|
A Falun Gong practitioner in Zibo City |
Early March, 2002 |
Zibo City of |
One afternoon in early March in 2002, a Falun Gong practitioner in Zichuan District, Zibo city of Shandong province was reading “Minghui” web at his brother’s home. (Minghui is a Falun Gong website.) The internet police located him and broke into his brother’s house, kiddnaping him for reading the outlawed website. Later, the police sent him to a brainwashing class in Wangcun forced labor camp. Police also searched his brother’s house and confisticated the computer, printer and copier, which amounted to 10,000 Yuan altogether. His sister-in-law is also a practitioner. She was kidnapped by the police as well, and no one knows her whereabouts to date. (This person’s brother is a practitioner too. Because he went to Beijing to appeal and tell people about the true situation of Falun Gong, he was sent to Wangcun forced labor camp for two years of forced labor.) |
|
Tian Miao |
April 2004 |
Mongolia, Inner Mongolia |
Tian Miao was reported to the police for reading Minghui at an Internet Café. He was immediately arrested. The police at Tongliao security division extorted a confession by torture. He was not allowed to sleep for three days and nights and the police used a torture method known as “tying the ropes” (The police tie up the practitioner with a thin rope, circle the rope around his neck, and tie his hands behind his back. Then the police use all the strength they have to tighten the rope. The rope becomes tighter and tighter around the body of the practitioner, and makes it more and more difficult for him to breathe. The pain is so intense that the practitioner sometimes loses control of his bladder. There have been instances when the rope was tight enough to break a practitioner's arm.) During the time when Tian was held in Guanhexi jail, several jailors beat and kicked him heavily, and forced him into handcuffs with chains that weighed more than 20 pounds because he refused to wear prisoners’ clothes. Two days later, he was tied to “a dead person’s bed” for four days as a means of torture (The four limbs of the practitioner are stretched out and tied to the four corners of an icy-cold metal bed. The practitioner cannot move at all and the whole body is pressed against the metal crossbars. He is not allowed to get up to eat, to drink, or go to the bathroom. This treatment lasts from several hours up to more than a dozen days. This type of cruel torture causes severe damage to the practitioner both mentally and physically.) |
|
Bai Xiuhua |
July 8, 2002 |
Acheng City in Heilongjiang Province |
Bai Xiuhua is a Falun Gong practitioner in Heilongjiang province. She was formerly a household register (an occupation in China) at the police station of Haerbin Jiancheng Co. in Acheng city. After she was forced to be homeless in order to escape from the police, Bai Xiuhua began compiling and editing Falun Gong truth clarification materials. In July 2002, police arrested her for learning to use the internet, etc. She was held at the 7th Division of Harerbin police station. She went on hunger strike for more than one month. Later, Acheng police sent her back to the 2nd jail in Acheng. Because she had been on hunger strike for a long time, she could not walk or stand up straight. She needed assistance to get into a car. However, the police still sent her to Wanjia forced labor camp. She didn’t pass the physical examination at the forced labor camp; the hospital in the labor camp force-fed her and it wasn't until she was dying that the labor camp notified her work unit to take her back. But both her work unit and local police station refused to take her. Bai Xiuhua was persecuted to death on August 28, 2002. Her family members were not notified of her death until after her body was incinerated. |
|
Chen Dan |
November 2002 |
Urumqi, Xinjiang province |
Chen Dan was illegally sentenced to nine years in prison for downloading truth clarification material from the internet. |
|
Shan Feng, |
|
|
These two practitioners were illegally sentenced to seven years in prison for downloading truth clarification material from the internet. |
|
Wang Xiaoli, Wang Jing |
|
|
These two practitioners were illegally sentenced to seven years in prison for downloading truth clarification material from the internet. |
|
Xiaole |
February 2004 |
Su’ning County, Hebei province |
Xiaole was kidnapped for using the internet. |
|
Han Xudong |
|
Dalian |
Han Xudong, 25 years old, was working and studying at a college in Dalian. Because he clarified the truth about Falun Gong, he was expelled from school and also discharged from the school as an employee. It’s not known where he is incarcerated at present |
4．Being Persecuted for Publishing a “Solemn Declaration” on the Falun Gong Website
(Falun Gong practitioners who want to revoke the “renunciation statement” that they were forced to write or sign against their will under extreme pressure usually publish a “Solemn Declaration” on the Falun Gong website.)
Name |
Time |
Place |
Persecution Facts |
|
Wang Lijuan |
|
Shijingshan District, Beijing |
Wang Lijuan is a Falun Gong practitioner in Shijingshan District in Beijing. She published a “Solemn Declaration” on the internet to revoke all the promises she made against Falun Dafa under extreme torture. Police arrested her from her home. No one knows her whereabouts since then. |
|
|
February 2001 |
Zhongguancun HighTech District, Beijing |
Some Falun Gong practitioners in Zhongguancun HighTech District in Beijing who were known by police to have published a “Solemn Declaration” on the internet. Several of them were jailed, the others were forced to become homeless. |
|
Liu Guifu |
February 2001 |
Haidian District, |
Liu Guifu, a Falun Gong practitioner in Haidian District were arrested in Mid-February 2001 for publishing a “Solemn Declaration” on the internet. On the day she was arrested, some policemen came to her home and took her away under the guise that they would like to learn about some information from her, especially about how to use the internet. She never has returned since then. |
|
Chen Haifeng |
August 2001 |
Beijing Univeristy of Chemical Engineering |
Chen Haifeng is a teacher at the Beijing University of Chemical Engineering. He was sent to a forced labor camp for publishing a “Solemn Declaration” on the internet. |
|
Yan Baofen |
|
Qinhuangdao, Hebei Province |
Yan Bofen was illegally jailed for publishing a statement on the internet that states she will persevere in practicing Falun Gong. |
During the process of confirming these persecution cases, the investigators from WOIPFG found out that none of the communications or information exchanges by these Falun Gong practitioners involved any hint of anti-Chinese Communist Party, subversion of the Chinese government or any sort of illegal content. Almost all the information they posted on the Internet is related to their personal beliefs and exposing how local Falun Gong practitioners were arrested and persecuted. However, these innocent people were treated as “enemies” by the Chinese authorities and police (including Internet police) and were suppressed and persecuted. Many Chinese policemen tried to justify their illegal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners by claiming they are only “following Jiang Zemin’s orders”. However, those who follow inhumane orders will also be held responsible for their crime. All officers and soldiers who followed the illegal orders of Hitler to kill Jews were eventually brought to justice in the international courts. We hope all those officials, policemen and Internet police who have followed, and are still following, Jiang”s illegal orders to persecute Falun Gong will stop their wrongdoings immediately. We at WOIPFG will continue to accomplish our mission: “to investigate the criminal conduct of all institutions, organizations, and individuals involved in the persecution of Falun Gong to full closure.”
World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong
Tel：1-347-448-5790；Fax：1-347-402-1444；
Mail Address：P.O. Box 84， New york, NY 10116
Website： http://www.upholdjustice.org/, http://www.zhuichaguoji.org/
