(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Bai Shuqin was arrested on August 7, 2012, in Zhengding County, Hebei Province, for her involvement in helping to collect 700 signatures on a petition to rescue another Falun Gong practitioner, Mr. Li Lankui. She was recently sentenced to 15 months of forced labor. Her husband, Mr. Liu Shulin, also a practitioner, had to leave home to avoid being persecuted.
Mr. Liu was falsely charged by village officials and police officers in 2008 for the crime of “destroying the railway.” He was arrested and “confessed” under pressure. The police later found the real criminal who deliberately put boulders on the railway. However, the police did not restore Mr. Liu's reputation or compensate him for his financial loss. They released him on bail pending trial.
The following is Mr. Liu Shulin’s account of the persecution he suffered:
My name is Liu Shulin. I live in Xipingle Town, Zhengding County, Hebei Province. My wife, Bai Shuqin, and son, Liu Xiaobao, were arrested on August 7, 2012, by officers from the Zhengding County Domestic Security Team and Xipingle Police Station. The police charged my wife with the crime of collecting signatures for a petition to rescue Mr. Li Lankui. She was sentenced to 15 months of forced labor.
It is hard for people outside of China to imagine how dangerous it is inside of China just to have a belief, just to be steadfast in following the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, just to be a person with dignity, or just trying to acquire good physical health and a peaceful mind.
I had paralysis suddenly on one side of my body in March 1999, and I lost control of my legs. After many check-ups and treatments, the doctor told me that my condition was incurable. The muscles on my cervical vertebra, my left arm, and my left hand atrophied. I had neuralgia and could not sleep at night. I also had heart pain whenever I changed positions, due to the muscular atrophy, and I felt like I was dying. My parents were in their 70s. My daughter was 12 and my son was only 9. I was desperate.
I was fortunate to learn Falun Gong in March 1998. Someone told me that practicing Falun Gong could cure illnesses. I did not believe it, but he kept telling me to practice Falun Gong. I did not want to hurt his feelings so I started to practice. My health greatly improved after only one week of practice. I realized that Falun Gong was really good and was the righteous way.
From then on, I strove to be a good person and to follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. I became healthy and was free of illness for over ten years. I joined the family business of making and selling vinegar. We conducted our business honestly and won people’s trust.
However, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999. Our peaceful family life was destroyed. Fear and worry dominated our life.
Disaster hit in 2008. A train was forced to stop on October 27, 2008, because someone had put boulders on the Beijing-Guangzhou railway beside Dong’anfeng Village in Zhengding County. More than 100 officers from the Ministry of Police, Ministry of Railway, Beijing Railway Police Department, Shijiazhuang Railway Police Department, and local police departments came to investigate. Party secretary of Dong’anfeng Village Li Wenmin made up a false charge to present to his superior, saying that it was done by Falun Gong practitioners, and me, specifically.
Deputy director of the Shijiazhuang Railway Police Department Shi Peng, deputy chief of the Criminal Police Brigade Wang Weigang, and several officers broke into my home to investigate and obtain evidence. Wang Weigang and several officers came to my home again in the afternoon with a police dog. They took a pair of my shoes and took me to the village office to get my fingerprints. When I walked out of my house, Party secretary Li Wenmin and many villagers were outside.
In the village office, the police checked my left leg. Wang Weigang said, “Go to Shijiazhuang and get a judicial identification.” I got into a police car and they took me to a police dog base in the southern suburb of Shijiazhuang City. After I was taken away, about 30 officers ransacked my house without a search warrant. They did not find any criminal evidence and only filed a search warrant afterwards.
The Zhengding TV Station broadcast the false news that evening, saying that Falun Gong practitioners had put boulders on the rails and interfered with railway transportation. It defamed Falun Gong and deceived many people.
I was detained in the interrogation room that night. The medical examiner checked my left leg and my feet and took my fingerprints. I asked Wang Weigang, “Did you arrest me because I practice Falun Gong?” He said, “No, It was because someone put boulders on the railroad tracks. Your fingerprints and footprints are on the boulders.” I said, “Our teacher asks us to be good people based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. I wouldn’t put stones there. If I saw a stone there, I would move it away immediately. Not to mention that I did not go to the railway. Where did the fingerprints and footprints come from?”
The police wanted to get samples of my blood, but I refused to cooperate. They ordered several inmates to carry me to the interrogation room, pushed me to the ground, and forcibly took my blood. I did not understand why they needed a blood sample.
More than ten days later, Wang Weigang asked me if there was someone who could prove that I was at a certain place that night. I told him the name of the witness. Wang said, “If I let you out, how will you thank me?”
On November 14, 2008, Wang Weigang asked a village official and my wife to take me home. He said, “We are police officers, and you practice Falun Gong. If we let you out, we might lose our jobs. If we send you to the local police, you will be punished with one year of forced labor. I will release you on bail. You cannot leave Shijiazhuang for a year, or else we can arrest you at any time.”
After I returned home, I learned that the police had found the person who had put the boulders on the railway, and that I had been wrongfully accused. They did not restore my reputation or compensate me for my financial loss, or clear the false report on television. In the end, they released me on bail, and asked me to thank them. Is that how rule of law is supposed to work?
In August 2009, I went to Hebei Province Women's Forced Labor Camp to ask for the release of my relative, Ms. Wang Yuexia, also a practitioner, who had finished her term but had not yet been released. However, two police cars came and we were taken to the Tongye Town Police Department in Luquan City. We were detained and interrogated. We were released at 10:00 p.m. after having 500 yuan extorted from us.
The next afternoon, while I was working in the field, Zhengding County Police Department Political Security Section official Zhang Ruiyu, Xipingle Town Police Station director Zhao Zhenjing, and several officers broke into my home and ransacked it. I was taken to the Xipingle Town Police Station. I was deceived into signing the forced labor agreement.
I was held at the Zhengding Detention Center. One week later, I experienced a sharp pain in my stomach. The guards paid no attention to me, saying that I was pretending. I kept requesting help and they gave me some medicine. The medicine did not help. I kept telling them about my pain, and they gave me a shot. It did not help and then they gave me an intravenous infusion. At around 9:00 p.m. that night, after all the treatments proved to be ineffective, the guards handcuffed me and took me to the Zhengding Hospital of Chinese Medicine. I was diagnosed with an intestinal obstruction and acute appendicitis. I had a severe infection because I had not been treated immediately. I could not have surgery immediately—the inflammation had to be treated first. I left the hospital after the surgery. I then left home to avoid being taken to a forced labor camp.
In the past 13 years, many Falun Gong practitioners have been arrested, sentenced, brainwashed, injected with psychotropic drugs, and even had their organs harvested. The CCP has never followed the law then dealing with us. No legal procedures are followed when we are arrested, detained, and imprisoned. What happened to my family is just one example.