(Clearwisdom.net) Mr. Cheng Xiaobao, 50 years old, was a water and electricity section employee of the Xiangfan Railway Bureau in Hubei province. Cheng Xiaobao developed acute hepatitis in 1986. He always felt fatigued and was eventually hospitalized for three months in 1997 in Wuhan for acute tuberculosis. Additional physical exams revealed him to have hepatitis B, cholecystitis, and a herniated disc. Desperate to find a way to regain his health, he encountered Falun Gong in 1998. He began the practice, and all of his symptoms disappeared in less than ten days. He seemed to have changed into another person and had much energy. His co-workers, boss, friends and relatives all witnessed the miraculous recovery Falun Gong seemed to bring him.
On July 21, 1999, just as the persecution began, like millions of other practitioners, Cheng Xiaobao decided to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. He went to Wuhan City by train and returned that same day.
Risking personal safety, he went to Beijing in April 2000 to let more people know the truth about Falun Gong, clarify misunderstandings, and expose how Chinese Communist Party propaganda had wrongly tarnished Falun Gong's reputation. For this, he was arrested, sent back to Xiangfan, and detained for 15 days. Once back at work, he was detained an additional week.
In June 2000 he again wanted to expose the CCP's lies and went to Beijing again. Xiangfan Railway police officer Yang Xuan arrested him at the train station. Yang confiscated his and his fellow practitioner's train tickets and detained them one night at the Zhongyuan Police Station. The next day Mr. Cheng was taken to the Railway Detention Center. He refused to have the detention center guards search him. A cruel guard surnamed Ding smashed Cheng's wrist repeatedly with a set of pliers, torturing him. Three criminals attempted to coerce Cheng to "cooperate."
By the middle of July, Tian Guangfu, Xiangfan Railway Public Security Division deputy head, personally took over Cheng's mistreatment. He told a guard surnamed Luo to turn off the monitor, fearing exposure of what was about to happen. Tian supervised the torture through the door's peephole from the outside of the cell. He urged criminals to beat Cheng fiercely. Cheng Xiaobao's legs were swollen following the torture, and he was black and blue all over and had difficulty walking. Wang Xiang and Zhang Zhaobin incited criminal Li Guangzhi multiple times to torture Cheng Xiaobao physically and torment him mentally.
In August 2000 Cheng Xiaobao was kidnapped to the Xiangfan City Qilidian brainwashing center; about 70~80 practitioners from the Xiangfan region were detained there. That night, Cheng Xiaobao suffered beating and kicking at the hands of a policeman surnamed Wang. In November 2000, Cheng Xiaobao's name was added to a blacklist for the secondary session of the brainwashing center.
On December 9, 2000, workshop Party Branch head Luo Jianxiu, together with section manager Cai Lianxi, pushed Cheng into a vehicle. The car door crushed Cheng Xiaobao's hand and it bled. Although Cai asked anyone on spot to help, no one did. Cheng Xiaobao was tortured at the brainwashing center for one month, but nothing could change Cheng Xiaobao's belief.
On January 12, 2001, Cheng Xiaobao was put into the Railway Detention Center again. The officials incited criminal Li Jiabing (from Baihe County, Shaanxi Province) to beat Cheng, and he lost one of his front teeth. As soon as he was released in March, Public Security Division officials arrested him once more. Police officer Gao Yuan from the Public Security Division handcuffed him backward onto a chair and beat him ruthlessly. The persecution lasted till May. At his release, Cheng Xiao was skeleton-like; his salary was reduced by half from then on.
On June 21, 2001, Cheng Xiaobao was arrested again for his efforts to offer salvation to sentient beings. He went on a hunger strike to protest. A prison doctor surnamed Zhou opened the practitioner's mouth with an implement and force-fed Mr. Cheng with the help of five criminals. One month later Cheng's whole body was swollen and covered with scabies.
In August 2002, Cheng Xiaobao who had already suffered all kinds of miseries was sentenced four years in prison. Fancheng district court officials pronounced the sentence. Officials from the Utility Division of the Railway Bureau, from the 610 Office, and from the local police station colluded and did not inform any family members. On August 21, 2002, Cheng was taken secretly to the notorious Fanjiatai Prison in Shayang City.
That night, ward head Xiao Tianbo and several guards interrogated Mr. Cheng. Xiao also urged criminal Ma Jiayuan (from Yingcheng, Xiaogan City) and Li Yuxing (from Wuhan city) to monitor Cheng. Several days later, when Xiao Tianbo saw no sign of change in Cheng's belief, he sent Mr. Cheng to a hospital for further persecution and told outsiders that Mr. Cheng had tuberculosis. After Mr. Cheng was hospitalized, he was injected with medicine. He was video taped a few days later. The monitoring prison guard told Mr. Cheng, "I'll give you a few days; you have to "reform"!"
In the following months, criminals Ma Jiayuan and Li Yuxing beat and verbally abused Mr. Cheng frequently. They would grab his hair and hit his head against a wall.
On August 21, 2004, Xiao Tianbo sent Cheng Xiaobao go to the Fanjiatai Prison brickyard, where prisoners are forced to make bricks. The brickyard is very large, about 1,000 meters in perimeter. Xiao Tianbo waited in the shadows at the starting point. Zhu Shengwen and several wicked criminals beat Cheng while pulling him around the brickyard. After one round, Mr. Cheng Xiaobao could barely stand steady. They dragged Mr. Cheng inside the brick kiln at noon. Cheng was prevented from eating lunch. At 3:00 p.m. they dragged him for another beating in the 40 0C heat. They used a more violent method. Led by team leader Zhang, they pulled Mr. Cheng into the scorchingly hot brick kiln.
Mr. Cheng was exhausted and almost lost consciousness. Baked in the brick kiln for a while, and then dragged along the brickyard while suffering beating again and again, his tormentors continued until they were exhausted. No one remembered how many times they did it. At last, Mr. Cheng was abandoned to the road of delivering the bricks, half dead. Then an overloaded cart full of bricks rolled over his ankle, flesh mingled with blood.
After the 2005 New Year's Day, Cheng Xiaobao went on another hunger strike to protest the misery he suffered. He also petitioned to withdraw the "five statements" that he had given when his mind was not clear. Xiao Tianbo incited someone to cuff Cheng Xiaobao's arms and legs to a metal bed frame for five days.
In June 2005 Cheng Xiaobao finally escaped and returned to his family.
For six years, Cheng Xiaobao's family had been penniless. As a father he had to make a living. With the injury, he approached Power Supply Division head Zhang Jun and requested to resume work. While Mr. Cheng was detained the former utility division was dissolved so that his employee information was kept in the power supply section. Zhang Jun did not accommodate Mr. Cheng's request, but called Security Section head Liu Youyuan, who intimidated Mr. Cheng, "We have a strong policy on Falun Gong that we will not assign any practitioner a job."
On October 24, 2006, March 16, 2007, April 26, 2007, June 15, 2007, June 19, 2007, September 3, 2007, and another day in 2007, Cheng Xiaobao went to speak with division head Zhang Jun, Party office head Gao, human resource section Wang, division office head Xiao Xuegui - again and again. He narrated the difficulties the whole family is faced with and told them the facts about Falun Gong. He was rejected again and again. He was threatened, verbally abused, even dragged away by Wu Ping, Xu Laoer, and Liu Youyuan of the Security Section.
On September 24, 2007 at 5:00 p.m., Zhongyuan Police Station officer Li Wenhua, together with Jiang and a policewoman, intruded into Cheng Xiaobao's home. Without showing any papers, they rummaged through chests and cupboards, confiscated Falun Gong books and Falun Gong materials. Li Wenhua and Jiang seized Cheng Xiaobao in public. At the police station, wicked police officer Li Fuhuai fiercely slapped Cheng Xiaobao in the face with his leather shoes more than twenty times. Several days later Cheng Xiaobao was sentenced to two years of forced labor, but his admittance was rejected because of his poor health.