Name: Yao Yupu (姚玉璞)
Gender: Female
Age: 66
Address: Li County, Hebei Province
Occupation: Teacher
Date of Most Recent Arrest: 2000
Most Recent Place of Detention: Brainwashing center in Li County
City: Li County
Province: Hebei
Persecution Suffered: Detention, wages withheld, brainwashing, harassment, home surveillance

(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Yao Yupu has been honored with the title of “Outstanding Teacher” at the provincial level and is well known in the education circles of Li County in Hebei Province. She is married and has a son and daughter. The family lived a happy life. However, she was diagnosed with cancer in 1994 and was eventually admitted to the 301 Hospital in Beijing. After having surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, she was very weak and in critical condition. Her family feared the worst and clearly understood that she was dying. The specialists told her that she was full of cancer and that there was nothing else they could do for her. She became paralyzed within two months of leaving the hospital and could not take care of herself.

In the spring of 1997, Ms. Yao's cousin brought her a copy of Zhuan Falun to read and told her that if she studied the Fa well, Master would purify her body. She was eager to give it a try and started to read the book as soon as her cousin left. Within a short time of studying the Fa, she was able to to do the exercises. She was overjoyed at being able to walk again and burst into tears, as Master had cured her.

When the persecution of Falun Gong started on July 20, 1999, Ms. Yao became a target of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), because the villagers knew that she practiced Falun Gong. The authorities used all kinds of approaches to get her to write a guarantee statement to give up the practice. However, Ms. Yao never gave in and told them that she would have died a long time ago if she had not practiced Falun Gong. The authorities constantly harassed her and sent people to hide near her home and monitor her. In the winter, she was detained in a cold room with dead mice on the floor and left there for the night. She was detained twice in the county hostel and was forced to pay for the costs.

Ms. Yao was preparing food for the New Year festivities on January 28, 2000, when officials from her school came to her home and told her that she had to go to the principal's office. She reluctantly went. The local Party secretary, Zhu Yuguo, was there and told her that they would prevent practitioners from going to Beijing to appeal. From that moment on, she was determined to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.

On January 30, 2000, Ms. Yao went to Beijing alone and held up a banner on Tiananmen Square that read, “Truth-Compassion-Forbearance.” She also shouted “Falun Dafa is good! My master is innocent!” A plainclothes police officer ran over, grabbed her banner, and started kicking her until she fell down. Ms. Yao was dragged to a police car and taken to Tiananmen Police Station. That evening, Zhu Yuguo and her school principal went to Beijing to collect her. On the way back, they shouted at her and said that she had made a lot trouble for them. They took her to the county police department. Ms. Yao continually told them the facts about Falun Gong and was eventually allowed to return home.

Ms. Yao was arrested again the next day and taken to a detention center. She was held there for 77 days, and her school stopped paying her wages. Guards in the detention center ordered her to memorize the prison rules and she had to constantly report her inmate number to the guards. She was also denied the use of the restroom for long periods of time. She lost a lot of weight, her hair turned gray, and she became very ill. Official at the detention center did not want to be held responsible if she died there, so they allowed her son to take her home.

Her son later told her that her salary had been stopped and they were in a very difficult financial situation. However, he was able to find a job and made enough to support the family. Ms. Yao's health slowly started to recover a little.

One day after dinner, the authorities from her school broke in and forced her to go to their office again. She said, “I have no conflict with you, nor did I do anything wrong. Why do you harass me?” The deputy head of the police department, Xia Guoping, then ordered four men to carry her to the car. She was taken to the office of the committee of education and then transferred to the local brainwashing center.

Officials at the brainwashing center extorted 5,000 yuan from her. She was constantly monitored and was forced to watch programs that slandered Falun Gong. Various people came to talk to her throughout the day in an attempt to get her to renounce her belief. At night, Zhu Yuguo and the head of Li County came to interrogate her. Due to the long term mental and physical abuse she endured, her condition became critical. Ms. Yao was later allowed to return home.