• 68 Practitioners on Hunger Strike in a Drug-stopping Center [Beijing]
  • "The higher authorities have declared Falun Gong as a counter-revolutionary organization" [You-tian]
  • Local Practitioners Detained For Appealing to National People's Congress [Chengdu]
  • Police said, "It is a crime for Falun Gong practitioners to get together." [Chengdu]
  • An Experience-Sharing Conference [Chengdu]
  • Practitioners under Intense Surveillance during the "Two Sessions" [Mi-yun]

[Beijing] 68 Practitioners on Hunger Strike in a Drug-stopping Center

The 68 practitioners detained in the Huang-shan-dian drug-stopping center of Fang-shan district started hunger strike on March 3, the day when they were illegally arrested. Among them, there are aged people in 70s. They have written a petition letter to the officials of Fang-shan district.

[You-tian City, Si-chuan Province] "The higher authorities have declared Falun Gong as a counter-revolutionary organization"á

6 practitioners from the Fourth Factory of the Great Wall Steel Company in You-tian City, including Wang Shao-chun, her husband and Zhang Qi-zhong, were arrested for having gone to Beijing to petition the National People's Congress to correct the government's mistake on the Falun Gong issue.á

The director of the Residential Committee of the Fourth Factory announced to all Falun Gong practitioners of the factory, "The higher authorities have issued a document declaring Falun Gong as a counter-revolutionary organization. Anyone who practices Falun Gong is deemed counter-revolutionary. Those who continue to practice Falun Gong or to appeal for Falun Gong will have their salaries suspended, and their children will also be dismissed from their work."

Facing the great pressures, practitioners said that their determination about Falun Dafa would not change; their heart of defending Falun Dafa would not change either. They would prove Falun Dafa to police officers, officials of the residential committees and officials of public security etc with their heart of great benevolence and forbearance.á

[Chengdu City] Local Practitioners Detained For Appealing to National People's Congress

Chengdu City is a big city in Western China. Recently, Chengdu City police have started to arrest practitioners who signed the "open letter to the National People's Congress (NPC)". Many practitioners have been arrested. In Yu-lin small district alone, 4 practitioners including Liu Shi-hua got arrested and were given administrative detention of 15 days. They are now being detained in the Jiu-ru Village detention center.

Practitioner Chen Tao, female, an official from the Wu-hou district of Chengdu City, was sent to the Lian-hua Village detention center for criminal detention because of copying the "open letter to the National People's Congress".

[Chengdu City] Police said, "It is a crime for Falun Gong practitioners to get together."

On February 7, seven practitioners from the Nuclear Industrial Department of Chengdu got arrested when they were watching the videotape "Story of Guanyin" at a practitioner's home. They were sent to the Jiu-ru village detention center for 15 days of administrative detention.á

Some of their family members went to question the police why they were arrested whileá watching a legal videotape. The police said, "it is a crime for Falun Gong practitioners to get together."

[Mian-yang City, Si-chuan Province]á The Post Office Refused to Deliver Practitioners' Letters To National People's Congress (NPC)

Recently, 113 practitioners from Mian-yang City and 102 practitioners from Shui-ning City signed an open letter to the NPC to express their opinions. However, they had to email the signatures to the NPC because the local post office refused to deliver the letters to NPC.á

They hope that computer staff of NPC will report their letters to NPC.á

[Chengdu]á An Experience-Sharing Conference

On February 27, 96 practitioners from Chengdu City, Ya-an City, Shui-ning City and Zhi-yang City etc gathered together and held an experience-sharing conference. Among them, the youngest one was only 9 years old. The oldest one was 84 years old. Over a dozen of practitioners talked about their experience of cultivating Falun Dafa after July 22, 1999.á

In order to defend Falun Dafa and teacher Li's innocence and dignity, they went to the Tiananmen square and were detained in police station and detention center. Up to now, many practitioners are still being monitored by police. However, their determination about Falun Dafa has never wavered.á A practitioner told other practitioners during the conference that when she was asked to sign the pledge by the police, she wrote "I am already 84 years old. I am determined to practice Falun Gong."

[Mi-yun, Beijing] Practitioners under Intense Surveillance during the "Two Sessions"

During the "Two Sessions",á in order to prevent practitioners from going to appeal to the NPC, the police set many roadblocks on the road leading to Beijing to check the passing-by vehicles. Each village police station has detained some practitioners. For those practitioners who were not detained,á they were monitored by the security officers of their villages. Some couples were arrested and their children were left home with no one taking care of them.á

Category: Accounts of Persecution