(Clearwisdom.net) Mr. Yang Shunfa, 44, was a Falun Gong practitioner from the No. 4 Community, Diansuo Village, Panlian Town, Miyi County, Panzhihua City, Sichuan Province. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to openly persecute Falun Gong and Falun Gong practitioners on July 20, 1999, Yang Shunfa was relentlessly persecuted.

In December 1999, Diansuo Village Secretary Fu Hongchun and Huang Xianyou from the Panlian Town government ransacked Yang Shunfa's home. They even pried open the ceiling to look for Mr. Yang's collection of Falun Gong books. They made a complete mess and left nothing unturned. They deceived his wife, Zhang Jiarong, into going to a brainwashing center and told Mr. Yang to bring her clothes to the center. Mr. Yang Shunfa was imprisoned as soon as he arrived. This was how they entrapped him at the brainwashing center.

Photo of Ms. Que Fazhi, taken before her death

Ms. Que Fazhi was another Falun Gong practitioner from Miyi County. She died as a result of torture on October 30, 2002. Around December 20, 1999, she was in detention. When she got up one night to practice the Falun Gong exercises, a guard nicknamed Li Laoer came downstairs during the Mahjong break and caught her. He told her to get out of the cell and started to curse her. Another guard, Chen Youjun, heard him and all the rest came downstairs to the cells. Dafa practitioners Ms. Que Faxiu, Mr. Yang Shunfa, and Mr. Gong Zhihui also heard the verbal insults and came out to see what was happening. When Chen Youjun saw them, he told them to come out and had them stand with Ms. Que Fazhi on the track field that belongs to the Miyi County government. They were forced to stand with their knees bent. Three young guards (nicknamed Li Laoer, Pu Jun and Xiao Liu) attacked each practitioner, one at a time. They kicked each one, placed a book blaspheming Teacher and Falun Gong on his or her head, and asked if he or she would read it. If the answer was no, they immediately started to beat and kick the practitioner. They punched their backs, kicked them, and punched their faces.

It is difficult to stand still with the knees bent. When the slanderous books slid off the practitioners' heads, the thugs would surround them and brutally beat them. They would ask each practitioner again, "Will you read the book?" All of them said, "No!" These thugs then started beating them again, starting with Mr. Yang Shunfa. Li Laoer kicked him to the ground and stepped on his back. He pulled Mr. Yang up only to kick him to the ground again. They tortured him like this repeatedly. Next, the five guards stood in two rows and had Mr. Yang stand in the center. They repeatedly kicked him back and forth like a soccer ball for about 30 minutes.

Then they went and got police nightsticks from the office and repeatedly beat the practitioners' legs and backs from 1:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. After the beating, Chen Youjun had the practitioners stand still from 7:00 to 8:00 a.m. Mr. Gong Zhihui's legs and back were injured. Mr. Yang Shunfa's back was so severely beaten that it turned purple and blue. Ms. Que Faxiu and Ms. Que Fazhi's backs and legs also turned blue and purple.

After three days, these practitioners still refused to write a guarantee statement not to practice Falun Gong, so Yan Jiqing summoned the four practitioners to his office. There were six guards in his office as well. Yan Jiqing asked the practitioners if they would obey the Public Security Bureau's new Six Regulations [to ban Falun Gong]. All of the practitioners declared that they would not obey the regulations because the regulations were wrong. Yan Jiqing was furious and signaled the guards with his eyes. He told them to "work out as usual," which meant beating the practitioners as they had done three days before. The thugs had the practitioners go down one flight of stairs. Chen Youjun had Mr. Gong Zhihui and Mr. Yang Shunfa enter his office and summoned two thugs, Pu Jun and An Qiang. Then he stepped out, closed the door, and brushed his teeth while watching for the two thugs. Pu Jun and An Qiang forced the two practitioners to stand still facing a wall. Using police nightsticks, An Qiang beat Mr. Gong's back and legs while Pu Jun beat Mr. Yang's back and legs. After beating them for a while, Pu Jun and An Qiang had the practitioners stand with their backs against the wall and started beating their arms, thighs and shins.

Later, Chen Youjun was afraid that the thugs might actually beat the practitioners to death, so he entered the room and told them to stop. Next, they had the two practitioners brought back to their rooms and took the sisters, Ms. Que Faxiu and Ms. Que Fazhi, up to Chen Youjun's office. Pu Jun and An Qiang beat them in the same way. Ms. Que Faxiu was beaten unconscious.

It was not until December 31, 1999, that they released all the imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners. Mr. Yang Shunfa's family saw that his hips, legs, groin, and back were purple and blue with bruises.

In 2000, the police attempted to arrest Mr. Yang Shunfa again. He had no choice but to flee from home to avoid additional torture. The police offered a 30,000-yuan reward to encourage people to turn him in. On April 15, 2002, a man from Binggu Town reported Mr. Yang to the police when he was distributing truth-clarification materials. He was arrested and taken to the Political and Security Division and then to a local detention center. Mr. Yang refused to tell the police who had given him the truth-clarification materials, so the police made him wear handcuffs and shackles for four straight weeks. A few days before he was transferred to Wumaping Prison, Mr. Yang's family went to visit him and saw that his front teeth had been knocked out. The police didn't notify his family until they had put Mr. Yang into Wumaping Prison. His family did not know about the transfer until they were told to pick up Yang Shunfa's clothes and quilt. His family went home and found the quilt full of bloodstains. They were overcome with grief.