(Minghui.org) Mr. Zhang Xian, a former police officer from Xianghe County, Hebei Province, was arrested on September 28, 2022, for his faith in Falun Gong, an ancient Chinese mind and body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since 1999. He has been indicted and is now facing trial in the Xianghe County Court.
Mr. Zhang, 50, took up Falun Gong in the summer of 1995, right after he graduated from Hebei Province Police Academy. He strove to live by the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and was recognized as an excellent police officer in 1998.
Because he held firm to his faith after the persecution started, he was detained in brainwashing centers four times, given three forced labor terms, forced to pay two huge fines, and subjected to frequent vilification by the authorities. At one point, their lies even deceived his wife, who asked if he might one day kill her and their son.
Fired and Displaced
About 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners from across the country gathered outside of the State Council’s Appeals Office in Beijing on April 25, 1999, asking to be able to practice their faith without having to worry about being arrested or harassed. Soon afterward, the Ministry of Public Security issued an order that no one in law enforcement could practice Falun Gong. The chief of the police station where Mr. Zhang worked went to his parents’ home and ordered them to force him to renounce his faith.
Having lived through the horror of the Cultural Revolution, Mr. Zhang’s parents, two lifelong farmers, were terrified of the CCP. Knowing to what extreme lengths the CCP could go in its political campaigns, Mr. Zhang’s parents knelt in front of him, begging him to give up Falun Gong.
On July 20, 1999, the day the persecution started, Mr. Zhang was arrested at work and detained. His supervisors and coworkers all tried to persuade him to give up his faith. He was under tremendous pressure.
To justify the persecution, the CCP manufactured waves of propaganda to smear Falun Gong, accusing its practitioners of going crazy, committing suicide, or killing their family members. Even Mr. Zhang’s wife believed it and asked him if he was going to kill her and their son.
Denied the Right to Work
Mr. Zhang was demoted at the end of 2000, having failed the subject of political ideology, and was sent back to the police academy to study further.
During the 2001 New Year holiday, he went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong and was fired from the police force in April 2001.
Mr. Zhang found a job with the Pingan Insurance Company in May 2001. Just as he was about to start training for the new job, the police pressured the company to fire him. A friend later offered him a job at his factory, only to be harassed shortly after the police found out. When Mr. Zhang was forced to live away from home to hide from the police, they harassed his family and attempted to force them to reveal his whereabouts.
At one of the places he worked after he was fired from the police force, one coworker later confessed to him, “When you first came, we were so afraid that you would kill us all.”
Four Brainwashing Center Detentions
At the end of 2001, after six months of displacement, Mr. Zhang returned home, only to be reported to the authorities and taken to a brainwashing center operated by the Xianghe County 610 Office.
Mr. Zhang was detained in the county brainwashing center again before the 2003 Chinese New Year for printing Falun Gong materials. He had 5,000 yuan extorted from him.
Retaliating against him for exposing the persecution, the police arrested Mr. Zhang again in June 2004 and took him to the Langfang Brainwashing Center, where he was detained for a month. Han Zhiguang, the head of the brainwashing center, and officers from the Xianghe Domestic Security Office coerced him out of 5,000 yuan. They also seized the 2,000 yuan in cash that he had with him.
The front gate of Langfang Brainwashing Center
Xianghe County Police Department officers arrested 12 practitioners on October 22, 2011, including Mr. Zhang. After a few days in the Langfang Brainwashing Center, he managed to escape and became displaced again to avoid being persecuted.
Three Forced Labor Terms
Mr. Zhang was also given three labor camp terms.
Following an arrest on October 28, 2005, he was sent to Shijiazhuang Forced Labor Camp for two years. The guards put him in a solitary confinement cell. The inmates were instructed to monitor him around the clock. Except for six hours of sleep from midnight to 6 a.m., he was ordered to sit on a small stool facing the wall all the time.
The small stool Falun Gong practitioners were forced to sit on
On the evening of December 14, 2005, guards Zhang Li and Dong Xinguo and several inmates tortured Mr. Zhang. They first forced him to sit in the lotus position for two hours. When Mr. Zhang wanted to put his legs down, guard Dong punched him in the mouth. The inmates beat him until his mouth bled. Then several inmates held him between two bed frames and forced him to sit in the lotus position. His arms were placed on the bed frames. One person sat in front of him and stood on his legs to prevent him from moving. Another stood behind him and held his head.
Mr. Zhang went on a hunger strike twice totaling 10 days to protest the torture. The guards retaliated by forcing him to squat for long hours. He was released in January 2007.
On May 29, 2008, while Mr. Zhang was distributing DVDs with information about Falun Gong, a police officer seized him. He was given another two-year term at the Shijiazhuang Forced Labor Camp.
Because Mr. Zhang tried to stop the guards from beating other practitioners in early 2009, the guards retaliated by holding him in a solitary confinement cell for more than 20 days, during which time he was forced to read and write articles slandering Falun Gong.
Mr. Zhang was forced to make bags using toxic glues in the labor camp, which made him dizzy and cough. He was released in February 2010.
Mr. Zhang was arrested again on July 5, 2012, while working in Sanhe City, Hebei Province. His laptop and 3,000 yuan in cash were confiscated. Later, he was given another term in Kaiping Forced Labor Camp in Tangshan City, Hebei Province.
He went on a hunger strike to protest and was brutally force-fed.
He was forced to do hard labor from July 2012 to June 2013 and paid five to seven yuan per month.
Mr. Zhang was released on medical parole for severe high blood pressure on November 7, 2013, only to learn that his mother had passed away from poor health due to being so depressed about his third labor camp term.
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Respected Police Officer Thrown into Labor Camp
Perpetrators’ contact information:
Yu Jianquan (于健全), secretary, Xianghe County Political and Legal Affairs Committee: +86-13703167749Ding Fucai (丁福才), judge, Xianghe County Court: +86-13483607666Yang Guoxue (杨国学), president, Xianghe County Procuratorate: +86-15603167336
(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original article.)
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