On October 18, 2005, a renowned Beijing human rights lawyer, Gao Zhisheng said in an open letter to Hu Jingtao, the Chinese leader, and Wen Jiabao, China’s Premier, “The atrocity of a new wave of continuous, systematic, large scale, and organized persecution of our countrymen believing in Falun Gong is an ongoing fact.”
The new wave of persecution by the Chinese Communist Party has already resulted in illegal arrests of nearly 100 Falun Gong practitioners in Heilongjiang Province and at least two deaths. A few days before October 1, at least 80 Falun Gong practitioners were captured in Beijing. In Beijing’s Haidian District alone, 28 Falun Gong practitioners were seized the night of September 28. Since September, large scale arrests have also been occurring in Guangdong and Hebei Province. Several hundred people have been illegally arrested.
Nearly 100 kidnapped and 2 killed in Heilongjiang
According to Minghui Net (minghui.ca), nearly 100 Falun Gong practitioners have been kidnapped in the cities of Harbin, Daqing, and Hegang in Heilongjiang Province since September. Among them, Lv Lihua from Harbin and Xu Zhicheng from Hegang have already been tortured to death.
Lv Lihua was born in August 1962. On September 23, 2005, she was kidnapped from her home at around 6 a.m. and sent to the Harbin Second Detention Center. On October 2, she was taken to a hospital in the evening at approximately 7:20 p.m. and was already dead. People who saw Lv said that her face, chest, back, as well as many other places on her body were bruised from beating.
Xu Zhicheng, around 40 years old, worked in the general affairs office in the Nanshan Mine in Hegang City, Helongjiang Province. Police abducted Xu from his home on September 26, 2005. On October 2, he died in the Hegang Second Detention Center. Xu’s face and many parts of his body were covered with blood and injuries. His nose and mouth had blood.
Over 20 people go on a hunger strike and their lives are in danger
In this new wave of persecution, over 50 Falun Gong practitioners in Hegang City were abducted. At present, over 20 practitioners being held in the Second Detention Center are on a hunger strike. Several people in the First Detention Center, including Yang Yongying, are on the verge of death.
The first and second detention centers in Hegang had provincial order to use force on the practitioners and without having to worry about being liable for the practitioners’ death. Local police said that they cannot release practitioners even if that meant they have to die. Authorities are trying to secretly send practitioners to forced labor camps.
In addition, on September 23, 2005, a large number of police in Daqing City seized over 30 Falun Gong practitioners. Women were all send to the Daqing Detention Center and most of them were tortured. Tang Zengye was forced to sit on a metal chair with both hands and feet handcuffed. Tang was brutally force-fed and vomited blood.
At least 80 people arrested in Beijing
In Beijing, in late September, at least 80 Falun Gong practitioners were captured, including Bai Shaohua, Liu Haihong, and Liu Yujian. In the Haidian District alone, 28 practitioners were arrested on the night of September 28. Several practitioners’ coworkers, relatives, and friends were subpoenaed and harassed.
In order to capture Liu Yujian, police found his wife (a non-practitioner) at work and intimidated her into bringing them into her house. The police confiscated their property and kidnapped Liu after he came home from work.
Ji Lei, Bai Shaohua’s wife, a general manager at the Beijing Langwey Visual-Telecommunication Electronic Technology Company, was abducted by authorities. The next day, the police arrived at her workplace and conducted a large-scale confiscation. At least five computers were confiscated and sent to the municipal public security bureau for “inspection.” The police opened the company’s safe, searched all 30 of the company’s employees and took them to the Haidian District Wanshousi Police Department.
Liu Yongwang was abducted a second time and has been on hunger strike up until today [the time this article was written]. The police brutally force-fed him every day. Now Liu needs assistance walking as he suffers from excruciating pain in both of his legs.
