(Minghui.org) Fifteen police officers broke into Mr. Li Muduo's stationary shop on May 28, 2018, and arrested him. Students who shopped at his store had reported him for talking to them about Falun Gong.
The police took Mr. Li, who practices Falun Gong, to the detention center, but he failed the physical exam to be admitted: his systolic blood pressure was over 200, meaning he had a high risk of stroke or heart attack. Although the detention center refused to accept him, the police didn't release him. They took him to the military's No. 198 Hospital and held him in custody there.
When seeking Mr. Li's whereabouts, his wife Ms. Zhou Huizhen was given the run-around between the police station and the detention center. It took her four days to find out that Mr. Li was in the military hospital. While Ms. Zhou was working to seek her husband's release, the police arrested her on June 8, 2018, and detained her in the Xinquan Brainwashing Center.
Reported to the Police by Students
One week before Mr. Li's arrest, the Political and Legal Affairs Committee and 610 Office in Chenzhou City, Hunan Province, ordered the local schools to distribute propaganda materials that slandered Falun Gong to the students and teachers.
No. 8 Middle School officials gathered the students and repeated slanderous lies about Falun Gong. Shortly after, the students reported Mr. Li to their teachers, who then reported him to the police, resulting in Mr. Li's latest arrest and detention.
This is the fourth time that Mr. Li has been arrested for practicing Falun Gong since the persecution began in 1999. He also spent a year in a forced labor camp for appealing in Beijing for the right to practice Falun Gong. He was tortured regularly in attempts to force him to renounce his faith.
He became emaciated and very weak after being tortured and wasn't able to walk up a flight of stairs. An inmate in the labor camp once hit Mr. Li in the heart with his elbow and he lost consciousness. Despite the years that have passed since he left the camp, he still suffers from occasional chest pain and stomach bleeding.
Implicated as a result of the persecution, Mr. Li's parents' and uncle's homes were ransacked by the police. They also held his uncle hostage in the detention center and extorted 2,000 yuan from him before releasing him. Meanwhile, the police ordered Mr. Li's father to report to the village neighborhood committee every day, rain or snow. The persecution caused his father so much stress that he often vomited blood and eventually passed away in 2005.
Financial Devastation
When Jiang Zemin, the former Chinese Communist Party leader, launched the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, he gave orders to “ruin their reputations, bankrupt them financially, and destroy them physically.” The police certainly devastated Mr. Li financially.
In 2000, while Mr. Li was detained in the Chenzhou Detention Center for appealing for Falun Gong, the police ransacked his home twice. They confiscated all of his Falun Gong books, all of his cash, and his bank deposit note worth 30,000 yuan. The deposit was password-protected, but the police took photos of Mr. Li and his wife, forged their IDs and withdrew all the money.
After Mr. Li was released, his employer was pressured by the authorities and fired him. Without an income and the police having seized all of their savings, he was destitute.
In order to support his family, Mr. Li opened a small stationary shop near a school in 2017. That school had many difficult students who often fought, skipped classes, and stole from nearby shops. He often talked to the students about the principles of Falun Gong, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, and encouraged them to be good. One student gave up the idea of running away from her parents after talking with him.
