[Lanzhou City, Shanxi Province] The police round up local practitioners before the Chinese New Year As the Chinese New Year approached, the Lanzhou police began to round up practitioners. During the night of January 18th alone, about 100 practitioners were arrested and taken away from their homes. Their whereabouts are currently unknown. Many practitioners were forced to flee from their homes and made their way to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. The police started a sequestered "Falun Gong transformation class" at the Taoshu Ping Detention Center on January 16th. They coerced several dozen practitioners into the "class," which was scheduled for three months. Anyone who refuses to write pledges promising to give up Falun Gong will not be released. Those "stubborn" practitioners will be directly sent to the labor camps. Practitioner He Jianzhong, male and in his 40s, went to Beijing around January 8th to visit a friend. The Lanzhou police followed him all the way to Beijing and arrested him at his friend's home. At the time of his arrest, He Jianzhong had no Falun Gong-related material in his possession. In order to search for "evidence," the police conducted a midnight raid of his home in Lanzhou. His wife and his 3-years-old child were asleep at the time. Like bandits, the police broke into their house with no warning. Even though they still came up empty-handed, He Jianzhong remains jailed and is currently being held at the Bei Guoyuan Detention Center in Lanzhou. Practitioner Wang Youjiang, 32, was a lieutenant colonel at the logistics department of the Lanzhou Army. He was discharged from the army at the end of December for being a Falun Gong practitioner. Around January 10th, he was arrested in broad daylight on a busy Lanzhou street. The police supposedly suspected that he had been responsible for printing and distributing Falun Gong material. They forced the title of "Falun Gong Second Tier Leader" on him, and they are holding him at the Bei Guoyuan Detentin Center (4th Squad, Jail #4). [Helongjiang Province] Helongjiang ranks first in the number of practitioners going to Beijing to appeal At a recent leadership council meeting, Xu Youfang (the head of the Helongjiang Province Communist Party) said, "recently more than 300 Helongjiang practitioners have gone to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong (not counting those who were caught and arrested on the way to Beijing). That number is the highest among all the Chinese provinces." Seven practitioners from the Harbin City Railroad Commission were arrested and brought back when they went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. On the way back, two practitioners were forced to jump out of the train. One practitioner passed away, while the other practitioner was injured. The details of what had happened are currently unknown. In mid-December of 2000, two policemen at the Beijing Tiananmen Police Station with the ID numbers of 150561 and 150579, and another policeman at the Pinggu County Detention Center with the ID number of 062186 brutally beat Falun Gong practitioners. They behaved as if they have lost all traces of humanity. [Helongjiang Province] The local authorities step up persecution of Falun Gong practitioners The Harbin Railroad Commission recently published a list of 6 regulations to "deal" with Falun Gong. It attempted to force practitioners into writing pledges promising to give up Falun Gong and imposed heavy fines on those who refused. The regulations state that "Falun Gong practitioners are forbidden to visit each other, distribute Falun Gong flyers, or go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. Anyone who breaks the rules will be sentenced to 3 years at the labor camps." In addition, it states that "all the practitioners have to be transformed by the end of March." Based on the six regulations, the Harbin Railroad Commission started a "transformation class" on January 16th. No time limit was placed on the class. The practitioners are to be locked up there until they are "transformed." The railroad department in the city of Suihua began to enforce the same 6 regulations and started a similar transformation class on January 16th as well. Those who agree to be "transformed" will be released by the Chinese New Year, while others will remain locked up indefinitely. In the end, the remaining practitioners who refuse to be "transformed" will be sent to the Xiangfang Detention Center in the city of Harbin or other labor camps. A number of practitioners from the Harbin Railroad Commission went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong between last October and last December. After they were arrested and sent back, some of them were detained for more than a month. During that time, they were the targets of a great deal of torture and abuse. Only those who wrote pledges promising to give up Falun Gong, statements of remorse, and statements attacking Falun Gong and then paid fines ranging from 5000 Yuan to 10,000 Yuan (5 to 10 months of an average monthly salary) would be released. Many practitioners are still being detained to this day. In addition, based on decrees sent from their superiors, the city of Suihua stepped up persecution of local practitioners. They began to threaten and follow practitioners around, installed surveillance devices on their telephones, and placed practitioners under house arrest. Many practitioners were arrested and sent to the detention centers, labor camps or prisons. The authorities also gathered 120 security officers from various local companies to form a special squad to persecute local practitioners. At this time, several dozen practitioners still are being held in the Suihua City Prison and forced to endure inhumane treatment. Helongjiang Province is planning to build a new prison on the north side of Suihua City to hold those practitioners who insist on practicing Falun Gong in spite of the torture and persecution. [Chengdu City, Sichuan Province] The local authorities arrest a large number of practitioners before the Chinese New Year In the late evening of January 18th, the police from the city of Chengdu broke into the homes of many local practitioners. They ransacked these homes, trying to find excuses to arrest the practitioners. The police took away practitioners Tang Hongmei, Liao Xiaoping, Zhao Zhufeng and Liu Xiaojun, among others. It is difficult to estimate how many practitioners were arrested. Supposedly the Lianhua Cun Detention Center was holding 98 practitioners. Because it was filled to capacity, practitioners like Liao Xiaoping were directly sent to the Ningxia Street Transition Center. The Honghua Yan Detention Center is holding a number of practitioners as well. Most practitioners who have not been arrested yet were placed under house arrest. Some practitioners were left with no choice but to leave their homes. The Chinese New Year was about to arrive, and the secretary general of the United Nations, Mr. Anan, was scheduled to visit China on January 23rd and 24th. Because of these two reasons, the government led by Jiang Zemin has started a new wave of persecution of Falun Gong practitioners to cover up their dirty deeds. Many practitioners could not spend Chinese New Year, the biggest Chinese holiday, with their loved ones. In addition, practitioner Chen Mingyong (a graduate student at the Sichuan Industrial Institute) was arrested for writing a letter to Mr. Anan during his visit to China in 1999. He has been jailed for more than a year now, and nobody knows where he is. We urge United Nations to pay close attention to the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong in China. [Wuhan City, Hubei Province] A large number of local practitioners are sent to prisons or labor camps In the past few days, several practitioners were directly sent to the labor camps from their "transformation class." Their names are as follows: Chen Changsheng, Chen Youyu, Yang Qinghua, Liu Guangzhen, Zhou Xinchun, Zhou Xinwen, and Mao Airong. They were sent to the labor camps by the Zhonghua Street Police Station in the Wuhan district of Wuchang. Its phone number is (86) 27-888-71-407. The person most directly responsible for this miscarriage of justice is the deputy head of the police station Wang Jinpu. He is personally responsible for the detention, interrogation, and jailing of more than 100 practitioners. Many practitioners are being persecuted at another "transformation class" located on Qingling street in the Wuhan district of Wuchang. Those practitioners who insist on practicing Falun Gong are being held there indefinitely, but they are running out of room to hold all the practitioners. They kept moving those steadfast practitioners back and forth from the site of the transformation class to the detention centers in the city (some practitioners have been held at the detention centers for more than six times). Because of the information blockade imposed by the authorities, it is impossible to know who are being held there. Only three names are known at this time Gao Bizhen, Wu Keyan, and Liu Fang. Their average age is over 50 years old. The treatment of practitioners go from bad to worse when they are moved to the detention centers, where they are routinely beaten and abused. Just because they performed the Falun Gong exercises, kind-hearted old ladies were cruelly tortured. They were forced to wear specially designed handcuffs for two days and two nights. The handcuffs bring so much pain that anybody who wears them quickly loses consciousness. In some cases, it results in permanent injury to the hands. In spite of it all, the old ladies continued to follow the principle of truthfulness-benevolence-forbearance in their hearts and made no complaint at all. They simply tried to let all the prisoners and guards know the powerful message of Falun Gong. The following practitioners from the Wuhan district of Caidian are serving time in prisons or labor camps: Xu Guanglin (3 years in prison); Xu Lihua (Xu Guanglin's sister, 2 years at the labor camps); Wu Chunfang (2 years at the labor camps); Mei Aiping (1 year at the labor camps, still being detained even after she finished serving the term of her sentence); Yang Ping (18 months at the labor camps); Lin Jianpin (1 year at the labor camps); Zhu Hui (1 year at the labor camps); Ding Bing (18 months at the labor camps). The Caidian Police Station in the city of Wuhan sent them to the labor camps. The person most directly responsible for this miscarriage of justice is Ma Guokai, the deputy division leader of the Caidian Police Station 1st Division. He is personally responsible for the detention, interrogation, and jailing of more than 60practitioners. His phone number is (86) 27-849-40-195. [Beijing] Beijing practitioner Cao Dong missing for two months Cao Dong (male, 30) disappeared in the evening of November 20th, 2000 and has not been heard from since. On October 1st, the police went to harass him at his workplace (he was a tour guide for overseas visitors). The local police in his district and agents from the Public Security Bureau then went to the home of his boss asking how his job had been going and whether he had contact with foreigners. They then ordered his boss not to let any Falun Gong practitioners hold any jobs where they could come in contact with foreigners. Still, Cao devoted himself to clarifying the truth about Falun Gong to the Chinese people. His family is extremely worried about his safety after his sudden disappearance. [Beijing] Three Beijing practitioners disappear without a trace The police took practitioners Yu Hongbin and Chu Jianjun away from their homes around the Christmas of 2000, and no one has heard from them since. In the past, the local police routinely took them away around all the dates with "major significance" and released them a few days later, but the situation appeared to be different this time. The police who took them away work for the Beijing City Police Department directly. All their family members, friends, colleagues and fellow practitioners are extremely worried about them. In addition, Beijing practitioner Qi Xinping vanished after he went to the Beijing suburb of Daxi to distribute Falun Gong truth-clarifying material. His whereabouts are known at this time. [Mainland] A conversation between a practitioner and a Taxi driver in a certain northern Chinese city The following is a partial excerpt of their conversation: Taxi Driver: I am a member of the Communist Party. Nowadays, the media reports contain so many outrageous lies. I used to be a forest policeman. In 1998, when the big flood occurred, I was temporarily transferred to the city of Zhaoyuan and worked as a ship pilot. I saw it with my own eyes that so many people had died. They were using rubber boats to rescue them. When the boats became too full, the soldiers began to literally kick people off the boats. Many soldiers who took part in the rescue effort also died. What happened was totally different from the media reports. Practitioner: Do we not have a saying going around that the only TV program that contains any truth is the nature show "Animal's World," and all the other TV programs are all just lies? I have a pretty good understanding of Falun Gong. The truth about Falun Gong is completely different from the media propaganda. Taxi Driver: Isn't that the truth?! Who could believe that a bunch of senior citizens have any political ambition? They were just performing a traditional Chinese exercise. Several days, someone taped a piece of clothes with the words of "Falun Dafa is good" on the bumper of my car. I did not see it, and dragged it everywhere in the city. Practitioner: The banners with the words of "Falun Dafa is good" and Falun Gong truth-clarifying flyers are now everywhere. Taxi Driver: Right now the government is the only one that can speak up. The media also provides biased and untrue coverage. Faced with this kind of unfair treatment, this is the only way for them to speak up. [Beijing] Police from the Beijing district of Fengtai torture Falun Gong practitioners On January 9th, 2001, the local police arrested close to 30 practitioners and detained them at the Liuliqiao Police Station in the Beijing district of Fengtai. The practitioners demanded to be released and declared that they would inform their illegal detention to the outside world. It was then that the police decided to tie up the practitioners. The practitioners continued to talk to the policemen and told them that there would be consequences for both good deeds and bad deeds. The police then stuffed dirty rags into their mouths and began to beat one practitioner. As a result, that practitioner was gravely injured. They then moved 10 practitioners to the Taipingqiao Police Station in the district of Fengtai. When the practitioners refused to reveal their names and addresses, the police began to brutally beat the practitioners. Some of them were beaten so severely that their eyes and mouths looked totally distorted, and their feet and hands were purple and black. The police then tied them up, took off their shoes, stripped most of their clothes off, and left them standing outside in the snow for a whole night. One vicious policewoman said, "Even if you were my mother, I will still treat you like this!" The police beat one practitioner so brutally that he lost consciousness and began to cough uncontrollably. He started to vomit bile, and the police did nothing at all to help and just left him on the cold concrete floor. Three days later, after seeing that he was still unconscious, the police took him away and nobody has heard from him since then. Several practitioners held a group hunger strike in protest and refused to give any of their personal information to the police. They were transferred to the Fengtai District Detention Center. The brave action of the practitioners touched a few policemen. One said, "you should not be treated like this. It is too inhumane. I will never do such a thing. Even though I am a member of the law enforcement community, I still have my own code of honor to live by." [Beijing] The Daxing Labor Camp tortures Falun Gong practitioners The Daxing Labor Camp has two locations, Liantanghe and Tuanhe. It boasts a "Falun Gong transformation" rate of 99%, one of the highest in the country. One source states that among all the male and female practitioners being detained at the labor camp, all but four male practitioners have been "transformed." One method used to torture the practitioners was to lock them up with handcuffs and shackles in such a position that they could neither hold their back straight nor sit down, and were forced to hold a squatting position for weeks without being given any food or bathroom break. It is hard to imagine how painful that must have been. [Beijing] The police stations in the district of Fangshan brutalize Falun Gong practitioners The police at the Beiluyuan Police Station in the Beijing district of Fanshan routinely torture and abuse practitioners from out of town who refuse to reveal their names. Near the end of December 2000, they handcuffed a practitioner backward to a hot water pipe from 2 AM until 7 or 8 AM. Large blisters appeared on his wrists and the back of his hands. So much skin and tissue were burned off that a gaping hole (around 7.5 cm or 3 inches in diameter) was formed on one of his wrists. He and another practitioner were then moved to the Fangshan District Detention Center for refusing to reveal their identities. The police there hit them with electric batons so many times that their chests and heads were covered with huge blisters. The detention center has tortured many practitioners for simply performing the Falun Gong exercises while in detention. The police twisted the bodies of some practitioners and cuffed their hands and feet together over their backs. One practitioner was left in such a position for nine whole days and nights. When he was finally released, he had completely lost the feeling in his legs and had to be dragged back to his jail cell. Zhi Xuchuan and Zhang Xiulin, two policemen from the Chengguan Police Station, seem to enjoy beating Falun Gong practitioners. All the practitioners who fell into their hands were verbally and physically abused without exception. During one recent interrogation, they falsified the interrogation record, so they could throw a practitioner in jail. When the practitioner asked why they changed the date of his arrest, they had the audacity to say, "Do not worry about it. It is useful to us." They routinely tried to force practitioners to sign the interrogation records without letting them read them first. Anyone who refused to sign it would be repeatedly kicked around. They often used the dirtiest language to curse Master Li. The Lianxiang Police Station arrested many local practitioners without cause. They secretly followed the practitioners around and arrested them whenever they went to visit other practitioners. Practitioners Zhang Yulian and Hu Xiujuan were arrested when they went to visit each other in their homes right before the New Year. They are now being held at the Fangshan Detention Center as common criminals. [Beijing] Tiananmen Square has gone from being a hallowed landmark to the site of mass manhunt On December 31st, 2000, a friend of mine and I went to Tiananmen Square. Suddenly a policeman stopped us, and asked us, "Where are you from?" Then another policeman wearing a dark blue colored jacket came over and asked us, "Are you Falun Gong practitioners? Go ahead and curse Falun Gong!" I was shocked by their behavior. In this day and age when politeness and civility are considered high virtues, how could the people's police force tourists to curse people? I could not figure out why they were behaving that way, was it because of the corruption of the entire society or their own lack of education and manners? I noticed that the entire square was filled with policemen, and many police vans encircled the square. Every person in the square could be harassed, searched, and arrested at any moment. The hallowed landmark had been turned into a dangerous place. I asked the police, "Why are you forcing me to curse people?" One replied, "If you do not want to curse Falun Gong, get into the police van!" Before I had a chance to say anything, several policemen came and pushed me into the police van. At this time, a female practitioner ran out of the crowd and shouted, "Do not arrest people without cause!" The police became very angry. They jumped out of the van shouting curses and tried to push the female practitioner into the police van. She tried to resist, and they began to beat her. Eventually she was pushed face down to the carpet between the seats of the van. A policeman kept pressing her head down with his hands, two other policemen stomped her body with their feet, and another policeman went to sit on top of her. By the time she was brought to the Tiananmen Police Station, she could no longer stand on her two feet. She was rushed to the emergency room, and I have no idea how she is now.