Investigative Report on the Persecution of Falun Gong by Li Meishan

Captain of the National Security Brigade of the Public Security Bureau, Jinzhou city, Liaoning province

December 31, 2020

Full Name of Perpetrator: Li (last name) Meishan (first name) (李嵋珊)

Gender: Male

Country: China

Date/Year of Birth: November 24, 1967

Place of Birth: China

Title or Position:

Captain of the National Security Brigade of the Public Security Bureau, Jinzhou city, Liaoning province.[1],[2]

The National Security Brigade (also called the anti-cult branch) is a section of the 610 Office, the commanding agency that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) specifically established to persecute Falun Gong. As the head of the National Security Brigade at the Jinzhou Public Security Bureau, Li Meishan is the person responsible for the persecution that originated from the Jinzhou Public Security Bureau during his tenure.

Li Meishan was awarded the “Political and Legal Police Officer Satisfied by the People of Jinzhou City” by the Jinzhou Municipal Political & Legal Affairs Committee in 2012 due to his active involvement in the persecution of Falun Gong.[3]

Main Crimes

Since Li Meishan took office in 2011, he has been closely following Jiang Zemin’s policy of persecuting Falun Gong, namely, to “ruin their reputation, bankrupt them financially, and destroy them physically.” Li Meishan directly participated in the abductions of over 200 Falun Gong practitioners in Jinzhou city and neighboring counties. In the process of kidnapping and illegal ransacking, Li Meishan often beat Falun Gong practitioners. Among the Falun Gong practitioners arrested under the direct command of Li Meishan, many have been persecuted to death, including Liu Li, Qu Wei, Wang Yanqiu, Shao Mingxi, and Gao Fengqin.[4],[5]

Li Meishan and the police officers of the Jinzhou National Security Brigade were not only directly involved in kidnapping and ransacking, but also extorted, blackmailed, and economically persecuted Falun Gong practitioners. Every time Li Meishan abducted a Falun Gong practitioner, he would claim that the upcoming sentence of imprisonment would be severe and hint that the practitioner’s family could spend money to “smooth” it over. Since a lot of panicked family members wanted their loved ones back, they would borrow money from everywhere to satisfy Li Meishan’s demands. For the families who could not find enough money, Li Meishan would “tear the ticket” and send the “hostage” for procuratorate prosecution and court sentencing.[6]

Over the past eight years, the amount of money Li Meishan extorted has soared from an initial 10,000 yuan to 50,000 yuan, 100,000 yuan, and even as much as 150,000 yuan. Li Meishan’s economic plundering has caused many Falun Gong practitioners’ families to be ruthlessly exploited. Some of them have huge debts; some must work to earn money to pay off the debts even though they are very elderly. Those who have been illegally sentenced and imprisoned are in an even more miserable situation. According to incomplete statistics, between 2011 and 2017, Li Meishan and others have extorted at least 2.8 million yuan (approx. USD 399,500) from Falun Gong practitioners’ families.[7]

Some Persecution Cases Li Meishan was Directly Involved In

In September 2012, under the order of Li Meishan, Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Liu Li was abducted. During the detention, Ms. Liu was persecuted and developed severe symptoms of diabetes, blurred vision, and a swollen body, and was then released on bail. Under these circumstances, Ms. Liu was sentenced to three years of house arrest. However, Li Meishan’s National Security Brigade policemen often went to Ms. Liu’s home to harass and intimidate her. Ms. Liu Li was persecuted to death in February 2016, at the age of 58.[8]

In July 2013, Falun Gong practitioners Ms. Qu Wei, Ms. Zhou Yuxi and Ms. Wang Yanqiu were abducted by Jinzhou police, headed by Li Meishan. Police officer Li Yushan beat Ms. Zhou Yuzhen in the detention center. Ms. Qu Wei was persecuted and developed symptoms of diabetes at the detention center and died in August 2014.[9] Ms. Zhou Yuzhen and Ms. Wang Yanqiu were both sentenced to four years in prison. Ms. Wang Yanqiu was persecuted to death in December 2017, at the age of 56.[10]

On March 4, 2016, Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Shao Minggang was abducted by Jinzhou City Police and was persecuted, causing his blood pressure to spike to 240. Despite his physical weakness, the court sentenced Mr. Shao to six years in prison on March 28. Mr. Shao was repeatedly persecuted in prison, which left him in a weakened state. Mr. Shao was later put under house arrest, but he was often harassed and intimidated by the police. Mr. Shao died due to persecution in February 2019, at the age of 62.[11]

On July 19, 2012 at 4:30 a.m., Li Meishan and his cohorts broke into the home of Ms. Xu Huiping through a window, abducted Ms. Xu and took away her personal items, such as computers, money, and bank cards. When Ms. Xu Huiping was taken to the hospital for physical examination, it showed that Ms. Xu developed high blood pressure and body convulsions. But Li Meishan ordered the doctor to write “normal” down on the result sheets. During Li Meishan’s interrogation of Xu Huiping, he said he’d lock her up for at least five to seven years if she didn’t write a guarantee that she’d give up practicing Falun Gong. After 16 days, Ms. Xu was released after being extorted for a huge amount of money. After Ms. Xu Huiping was released, she exposed the extortion on the Minghui website. Li Meishan got angry and searched for Ms. Xu Huiping everywhere; Ms. Xu was forced to flee her home to escape persecution. In January 2013, Ms. Xu Huiping was again abducted by Li Meishan and his accomplices. In September of the same year, Xu Huiping was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail. The 120,000 yuan that Ms. Xu was previously extorted has not been returned to her.[12],[13]

On December 19, 2011, Li Meishan and other police officers broke into the home of Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Zhao Guihua, confiscating computers, printers, and a car, and abducted Ms. Zhao and her family members. Later, Zhao’s family members were released. Ms. Zhao was illegally detained for over four months and became ill. After being extorted for 50,000 yuan in cash, Ms. Zhao could go for outside medical treatment. During this period, Li Meishan and others extorted more than 130,000 yuan from Ms. Zhao’s family, plus a car, and other items worth at least 30,000 yuan. In March 2012, Li Meishan and others abducted Zhao Guihua again and sentenced her to seven years.[14]

On July 12, 2012, Li Meishan led police into the home of Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Yang Zhiping. At the time, two other Falun Gong practitioners, Li Guang and Zhang Zhizhong, were at Ms. Yang’s home. All three Falun Gong practitioners were abducted. Ms. Yang was released 26 days after being detained. During that time, Li Meishan and other policemen went to Ms. Yang’s mother’s house, threatened her mother and sister, took away her mother’s computer, and extorted 40,000 yuan from her family.[15]

On the evening of September 25, 2012, Li Meishan and his policemen ransacked the home of Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Bai Mingfang and took away a lot of her personal belongings. At that time, Ms. Bai was at a neighbor’s home. The police searched every unit of the whole apartment building with the intent to abduct Ms. Bai. Finally, the police climbed in from the bathroom window on the second floor of the neighbor’s home and abducted Ms. Bai and her neighbor (who is not a Falun Gong practitioner). After that, Ms. Bai Mingfang was sentenced to seven years.[16]

On December 8, 2012, Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Lu Suping and her son, Jiang Nan, her brother-in-law, Ms. Li Yajie, her elder sister, Ms. Lu Suying, and Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Wang Hongli drove to Jinzhou city, where they were intercepted and abducted by Li Meishan and others. Ms. Wang Hongli could go home because she was unwell at the time, but she was abducted again at home by Li Meishan that night. Later, Ms. Lu Suping’s brother-in-law, Lu Suying, and Wang Hongli were extorted for more than 200,000 yuan before being released home; Ms. Lu Suping and her son, Jiang Nan, were sentenced to three-and-a-half years and three years, respectively. [17]

In August 2013, Ms. Miao Xiaokun, a lecturer at Liaoning Industrial University, was abducted and taken to a detention center by Li Meishan and others for discussing the persecution of Falun Gong on the internet. At the end of the detention, in order to extort money, Li Meishan and others transferred Ms. Miao to another detention center. Li Meishan threatened Ms. Miao’s family and demanded 120,000 yuan; Ms. Miao’s family did not give them the money. The Jinzhou municipal procuratorate said that the evidence was insufficient to arrest Ms. Miao. Additionally, thanks to Liaoning Industrial University’s help, Ms. Miao was released after being illegally detained for more than 20 days. When his efforts of extortion failed, Li Meishan sent the case to the Guta District Procuratorate for a new prosecution and instructed the court to have a trial. Li Meishan personally went to the court to “supervise the war.” The court gave Ms. Miao a suspended sentence. On July 7, 2014, Ms. Miao was once again abducted by Li Meishan and taken to the detention center. On the third day at the detention center, Li Meishan instructed the court to decide on a verdict for Ms. Miao. She was sentenced to three years. A month later, Ms. Miao Xiaokun was imprisoned. [18]

On the evening of October 18, 2013, Li Meishan and others abducted Falun Gong practitioners Wang Lin, Zhu Ying, Wang Guixia, Qin Jielan, Yang Yufan, Yan Mengli, Cao Yuhuan, and Sun Lijun. At midnight, the police ransacked the homes of these eight practitioners. The family of Ms. Qin Jielan was extorted for 2,000 yuan and had 1,500 yuan stolen from her home. The next day, the eight practitioners were sent to a detention center. When Ms. Qin Jielan was sent to the detention center, she was slapped in the face by Li Meishan. Later, Li Meishan began to intimidate and extort the practitioners’ family members. As a result, the families of Ms. Wang Guixia and Ms. Cao Yuhuan were extorted for 50,000 yuan, respectively; the family of Ms. Yang Yufan was extorted for 35,000 yuan; the families of Ms. Qin Jielan, Ms. Qi Mengli, and Ms. Sun Lijun were each extorted for 30,000 yuan. After the ransom was paid, Li Meishan released seven of the practitioners. Practitioner Wang Lin, who was unsuccessfully blackmailed by Li Meishan, was handed over to the procuratorate for illegal prosecution. Wang Lin was tortured for four months at the Jinzhou Detention Center and was sentenced to four years in prison. [19]

On July 13, 2014, Ms. Chen Guiying accidentally dropped her wallet at a railway station security checkpoint. Because there was a memory stick in the wallet with video of a song and dance program performed by Falun Gong practitioners, Ms. Chen was intercepted by the police when she went to the police station to retrieve her wallet. Later, Li Meishan and others took away the memory stick in Ms. Chen’s wallet and ransacked her home when no one was there. Li Meishan transferred electronic files containing Falun Gong contents onto Ms. Chen’s desktop computer and then took away the computer as “criminal evidence.” When the police took Ms. Chen Guiying to the public security bureau’s hospital to give her a checkup, they found she had some kind of heart issue, but Li Meishan insisted that Ms. Chen be sent to the Jinzhou Detention Center. During her time at the detention center, Ms. Chen Guiying suffered various inhuman forms of persecution, including being beaten, strapped to a “tiger chair,” being hanged on iron bars, and being locked on “death beds.” After that, Ms. Chen Guiying was sentenced to three years. [20]

On the evening of July 5, 2016, Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Li Yuanling was abducted and detained at the Jinzhou Detention Center. Li Meishan actively participated in the persecution and extorted 60,000 yuan from her. [21]

In 2017, Li Meishan continued to actively participate in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in various counties, and mainly targeted Falun Gong practitioners with a certain level of economic standing and financially extorted them. Eleven residents in Linghai City were arrested for refusing to renounce Falun Gong. Li Meishan and others in Jizhou City, which oversees Linghai City, were behind the arrests that took place between March 24 and April 19, 2017. Li Meishan and Zhang Yue led officers to raid practitioners’ homes. The value of items confiscated totaled around 300,000 yuan. The affected families were ordered to pay an exorbitant amount of money, ranging from several thousand, to tens of thousands of yuan, when they requested their loved ones’ release. Ten of the practitioners paid a total of 500,000 yuan and were later released. Falun Gong practitioners in Linghai City who were subjected to abduction and economic extortion were Jia Yongmei, Liu Jian, Wang Yuhong, Dai Yunqin, Fu Guoyan, Liu Xuemin, Li Xiuyun, Zhang Guijie, Li Dongmei, Zhang Guoyun, and Zhao Yue. Among them, Jia Yongmei was abducted and taken to Jinzhou, and after her family was extorted for 70,000 yuan, she was released in the evening. [22]

From May 4 to 10, 2017, Li Meishan and the police of the Heishan County Public Security Bureau abducted four Falun Gong practitioners in the Heishan area: Song Yanjuan, Ma Xiaohui, Zhan Zhigang, and Cui Yu. Li Meishan and others “tipped off” the family members of the four Falun Gong practitioners, asking for money for their release. Later, four people were illegally detained for half a month and one month later they were released. Among the four families, the least amount extorted was 60,000 yuan, and the most was 200,000 yuan. In total, Li Meishan and others extorted more than 400,000 yuan from the four families. [23]

On September 30, 2017, under the instruction of Li Meishan, Jinzhou Yixian TV Station publicly smeared Falun Gong and distributed booklets that defamed Falun Gong to the public. [24]

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Reference

[1] http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2019/9/9/392379.html

[2] https://web.archive.org/web/20191114034156/http://www.zhuichaguoji.org/media/2019/11/11.pdf

[3] http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2017/5/24/346384.html

English: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2017/5/27/164014.html

[4] http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2017/2/2/342582.html

[5] http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2019/9/9/392379.html

[6] http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2017/2/2/342582.html

[7] http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2019/9/9/392379.html

[8] http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2016/3/16/325403.html

[9] http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2014/9/3/296840.html
English: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2014/9/14/3244.html