Investigative Report on the Persecution of Falun Gong by Li Hong

Deputy Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee and Director of the “610 Office” of Shanghai

December 31, 2020

Full Name of Perpetrator: Li (last name) Hong (first name) (李红)

Gender: Female

Country: China

Date/Year of Birth: April 1958

Place of Birth: Dantu District, Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province

Title or Position[1],[2]

2012 – 2017: Deputy Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC) of Shanghai, Director of the “610 Office” of Shanghai

2017 – Present: Deputy Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee of Shanghai

The Political and Legal Affairs Committee and the “610 Office” are the commanding organizations through which the persecution of Falun Gong is carried out. As the Deputy Secretary of Shanghai’s Political and Legal Affairs Committee and the Director of the Shanghai “610 Office,” Li Hong is mainly responsible for the severe persecution, torture, disability, deaths, and other crimes committed against Falun Gong practitioners in Shanghai during her tenure. The following are some severe persecution cases from 2012 to 2019.

Main Crimes

As the Deputy Secretary of the PLAC and the director of the “610 Office” in Shanghai, Li Hong personally meted out the systematic persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in Shanghai, such as kidnapping, ransacking, detention, sentencing for imprisonment, and brainwashing. She actively promoted the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) policies of persecution. According to incomplete statistics, during Li Hong’s tenure, at least six Falun Gong practitioners, Zhao Bin, Ma Dongquan, Bai Gendi, Li Yuqin, Weng Ping, and Yang Xuezhen, were persecuted to death. Li Xiaoying became mentally incapacitated due to the persecution. Hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners were kidnapped, and their homes were ransacked. They were also detained, sentenced to imprisonment, and sent to brainwashing classes for persecution.

Persecution Causing Deaths

Case 1: Mr. Zhao Bin from Shandong Province was arrested on April 27, 2013, by police from the Jiangsu Road Police Station in Changning District, Shanghai and was taken to the Changning District Detention Center. Zhao Bin was illegally sentenced to four years in prison on July 11, 2013. Mr. Zhao was subsequently abducted and sent to Shanghai Tilanqiao Prison where he died as a result of torture and abuse on October 19, 2013; he was only 58 years old. On October 24, the prison authorities hurriedly cremated Zhao Bin’s body.[3]

Case 2: Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Bai Gendi had been illegally arrested six times and persecuted in prison for nearly 14 years because she did not give up her faith. On September 10, 2012, Ms. Bai was kidnapped on the street by the police. On May 3, 2013, she was illegally sentenced to 6.5 years in prison and was taken to Shanghai Women's Prison in June 2013. After being imprisoned, Ms. Bai was kept inside a small cell for persecution. On the afternoon of August 24, 2016, Ms. Bai was rushed to the ER and hospitalized for several days. The prison authorities claimed that she fell off a chair which gave her a gash on her head. Her family noticed the cut appeared more like a surgical incision than an accidental wound. They asked to see surveillance video but were denied. Ms. Bai told her family what happened to her after she was released on medical parole. The day before her ER visit, the guards moved all her cellmates to another location. She ate breakfast alone the next morning. She soon felt dizzy and lost consciousness. By the time she came to that evening, she was already in the hospital. Ms. Bai had no doubt that she had been drugged in the prison. Ms. Bai fell into a coma in January 2017 and died on June 15, 2017.[4]

Case 3: At 10 o'clock on the morning of January 19, 2016, Shanghai police went to Mr. Li Yuqin's home, claiming to summon his daughter-in-law and ransacked the house. Li Yuqin’s family did not cooperate with the police officers’ demands and refused to open the door. After the police unsuccessfully broke into the house, they cut off the family’s water and power supply, forcing them to surrender. The authorities also arranged people to keep guard outside their front door. Mr. Li Yuqin became so frightened that he had fainting spells that afternoon. The family implored the police outside the door to restore their water and power supply so they could help Mr. Li, but the police declined their request. When an ambulance arrived, the family requested the immediate restoration of the power supply for lighting and emergency rescue equipment, but they were until rejected. At 3 a.m. on the following day, Li Yuqin passed away—he was 68 years old. The police outside the door did not leave until the morning of January 20. [5]

Case 4: Police broke into Ms. Weng Ping’s home and kidnapped her and illegally searched her home on June 2, 2015. Ms. Weng was sent to Changning Detention Center and was sentenced to prison on September 18, 2016. While Ms. Weng was at Changning Detention Center, due to persecution, she developed severe health problems, including high blood pressure and gallstones. Her family requested that she be released on medical parole, but the local authorities kept her detained. By the time she was released, she had lost a third of her body weight. Ms. Weng died on April 30, 2017. [6]

Persecution in a Mental Hospital

Ms. Tang Weimin, an artist who worked at the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center, did not practice Falun Gong until the persecution began. Between 1999 and 2017, Ms. Tang was arrested and detained seven times for her faith. Her seventh arrest took place on May 14, 2016, in which she was kept at a detention center for 30 days, followed by illegal detention in a mental hospital for 20 months. During the hospitalization, Ms. Tang was forced to take harmful medications three times a day for a week, causing her to lose teeth and hallucinate. The damage to her body was very severe. Ms. Tang was originally petite and thin with a full head of hair. As a result of being forced to take the unknown drugs, Ms. Teng’s hair turned almost completely white, and her body weight increased, indicating long-term use of hormones. [7]

Persecution Leading to Disability

Ms. Dong Yuying, 65-years-old, was kidnapped on the evening of February 18, 2013 by police at a house she was renting in Shanghai. She was illegally sentenced to 3.5 years and was taken to Shanghai Women's Prison on March 6, 2014. Ms. Dong was severely incarcerated and persecuted. Due to the persecution, her blood pressure went as high as 210/140. Ms. Dong was subjected to a method of torture called the “tightening belt” in which the two hands are tied behind the body. The more one moves, the tighter the belt will be. In extreme cases, the tightening belt can lead to incontinence, difficulty breathing, and death, but would not leave any evidence of trauma. In early June 2015, in order to achieve a 100 percent conversion rate, a prison guard announced the prison’s decision to Ms. Dong: “The prison decided to transform you (Dong Yuying) with the use of torture. If you continue to insist on your things, you will be killed in secret.” From June 2015 to the end of February 2016, Ms. Dong Yuying suffered devastating torture at the hands of fellow inmates who were instigated by the prison guards. Ms. Dong’s whole body was covered with wounds, bloody stains were on her underwear, and new injuries were added to old wounds every day. Ms. Dong’s two arms and two legs were left unhealed. Her ligaments were so badly injured that it became very difficult for her to walk.[8]

Kidnapping and Illegally Detaining Falun Gong Practitioners at Brainwashing Classes or Black Jails

The “Shanghai Legal Education School,” directly operated by the Shanghai Political and Legal Affairs Committee and the Shanghai “610 Office” is the headquarters for persecuting Falun Gong practitioners in the form of brainwashing classes. The Shanghai “610 Office” ordered the police, neighborhood communities and company personnel to take Falun Gong practitioners to brainwashing classes through deception or kidnaping, or directly transporting Falun Gong practitioners to brainwashing classes from the detention centers, labor camps, prisons, etc., in all districts.

The brainwashing classes use deception and violence to have practitioners give up their faith. Some Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted until they became mentally incapacitated and others have suffered serious health damage. For example, in August 2012, Ms. Yu Jingyan was taken to a brainwashing class and was sent home at the end of the year. At that time symptoms of cerebral thrombosis appeared, so Ms. Yu was hospitalized for half a month. After that, half of her body was paralyzed.[9]

Ms. Zhou Xianwen from the Yangpu District of Shanghai was arrested on September 26, 2012. After being held in custody for a month, she was taken to a brainwashing center and held for 24 days. A physical exam revealed that she suffered from a heart condition. [10] In April 2010, after 87 days of torture at the brainwashing center, Ms. Wang Yijin suffered a heart attack, which had never happened before in her life, and was sent to the Qingpu Central Hospital for emergency treatment.[11]

In order to achieve the so-called “conversion rate”, the brainwashing class also carried out pharmacological torture against Falun Gong practitioners who resisted brainwashing. In October 2012, Shanghai brainwashing class members added unknown drugs to Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Wu Liyou's meals to make Wu Liyou's memory slowly decline and to force him to abandon or change his faith. The “610 Office” head of Hongkou District often asked Wu Li to “chat.” After the “610” head found that because Mr. Wu persisted in his faith, the amount of poison was to be increased. A month later, when Mr. Wu Li came out of the brainwashing class, his demeanor became silly, and there were many red dots on his body, which was very itchy.[12]

By May 2014, 17 Shanghai Falun Gong practitioners were kidnapped and taken to a brainwashing class. Mr. Du Zhilong, 74, was one of them. Mr. Du was arrested on March 26 and was detained at Pudong Detention Center for one month and then transferred to a brainwashing center on April 25. In less than a month Mr. Du developed significant memory, hearing and vision loss, as well as losing the ability to think and communicate. His family believes that the authorities gave him nerve-damaging drugs. Before Mr. Du was arrested, he was robust and healthy despite his age.[13]

Illegal Arrest

According to incomplete statistics, during Li Hong’s tenure, hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners were kidnapped and illegally detained and sent to brainwashing classes for persecution. In the first half of 2014 alone, around 100 practitioners from Shanghai were kidnapped. Around May 10, 2014, Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Cai Yufang went to visit relatives and friends with her family and was kidnapped by the police at Shanghai Railway Station. On the way to the detention center, the policemen beat Cai Yufang, the sixth time she was abducted.[14]

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Reference

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20120422135310/http://leaders.people.com.cn/GB/17661519.html

[2] https://web.archive.org/web/20191112175048/http://www.zhuichaguoji.org/media/2019/11/10.pdf

[3] http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2013/11/1/-282059.html#131031235359-1
English: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2013/11/13/143156.html

[4] http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2017/6/18/-349813.html
English: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2017/6/19/164322.html

[5] http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2016/5/20/-328990.html

[6] http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2018/3/6/-362560.html

English: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2018/3/10/169005.html

[7] http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2018/10/14/375777.html
English: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2018/10/19/172920.html

[8] http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2016/11/6/-337265.html

[9] http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2013/4/20/-272303.html
English: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2013/6/5/140305.html