Yu Lianchun was a 49-year-old retired employee from the Huaneng Electricity Works in the City of Dezhou (Shandong Province). Due to her continual strong commitment to Falun Dafa, she was forcibly sent to the Shangdong Province Women's Second Labour Camp for 3 years. All this occurred just before the Chinese Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) 2000, under the scheming plot of the Electricity Works' Director, Mr Guo (also holding the position of the Works' Party Committee Secretary) and Vice Secretary, Mr Gao, along with a few members of the police department.
On 22 December 2000, the labor camp notified Yu Lianchun's family of her death. (Actually, she had already been tortured to death on 18 December 2000).
Yu Lianchun was a kind-hearted person who always found pleasure in helping others. Everyone who knew her said that she had the utmost good character. She was perfectly healthy, yet in not more than a year, she had died in the labor camp after undergoing severe torture.
Yu Lianchun started to practice Falun Dafa in May 1998. After practicing, she benefited enormously in both mind and body. Ever since 22 July 1999, after Jiang Zeming's brutal repression and persecution of Falun Dafa, she put much effort into clarifying the truth about Falun Dafa to others. In October 1999 she went to Beijing along with her daughter to protest against the ban on Falun Dafa. On the 26th of October she was arrested and brought back to Shandong. Both she and her daughter were detained by Yu Lianchun's factory; their actions were monitored for almost a month and it was only following their persistent requests that they were allowed to go home.
For three months, police were posted in front of Yu Lianchun's home. She was forbidden to leave her house, or allowed to have any visitors. During this period, Guo and Gao persistently tried to send her away to labor camps. They achieved this with the assistance of a few officers from the police department. Just before the Chinese Spring Festival in Yr 2000, Yu Lianchun was sent to the Labor Camp in Jinan City (Shandong Province) for 3 years on the grounds that she was "disturbing social order". Her daughter was left alone at home. The labor camp forbade her to see her mother and it was only allowed after strong requests from her relative. Within the whole year, mother and daughter only saw each other twice and exchanges were not allowed. When Yu Lianchun's daughter visited her at the beginning of November 2000, she witnessed clearly the changes in her mother resulting from the inhumane torment of the labor camp. Yu Lianchun had become so skinny that she looked emaciated; her speech was not clear and she could not fully extend her fingers. She could barely lift her arms and was limping; it took her great effort to walk.
The torture that Yu Lianchun went through were cruel and heartbreaking. During mid-December her daughter decided to go to Beijing once more by herself to tell the government the truth about Falun Dafa, and hope that justice would finally triumph and that the rule of law would be restored. Her silent protest incited a torrent of blows from the police; her cotton-padded clothes were torn to pieces and her shoes were missing. She was dragged back to the City of Dezhou and put into a Detention Centre.
Inside the Detention Centre, she neither had any warm clothes nor blankets. It was the middle of winter so practitioners who knew about her arrest rushed over, bringing clothes and cotton blankets. Although the Detention Centre knew about the tragic death of her mother, they still heartlessly transferred her to the Detention Centre in Wang Village (City of De) on 23 December 2000. Until today, she still has no knowledge of her mother's passing.
The Jinan Labour Camp claims that relatives can only see Yu's body. However, to this date her relatives have not yet seen the body. The head of the Electricity Works is also deceiving the public, withholding the information about Yu Lianchun's death and the suffering that she went through.
Yu Lianchun used her own life to awaken the conscience of the people. She died for justice and for upholding the truth. Although she has left us, her strength and integrity will shine forever in our hearts. Justice will finally be restored.
Mr. Guo and Mr. Gao of the Electricity Works are the main reason for Yu's tragic death; the hatchet men in the labor camp are the executors.
We feel pain in losing a practitioner who was fearless in the face of immoral torture, but we also feel proud of her unyielding strength and bravery.