Name: Mao Kun (毛坤)
Gender: Female
Age: 47
Address: Apt. 403, Building 81, Wulidun Road, Jinniu District, Chengdu City (成都市金牛区五里墩)
Occupation: Chartered Accountant (会计师)
Date of Most Recent Arrest: September 10, 2007
Most Recent Place of Detention: Yangmahe Women's Prison (简阳养马河女子监狱)
City: Chengdu
Province: Sichuan
Persecution Suffered: Shocked with electric batons, sleep deprivation, forced labor, brainwashing, illegal sentencing, beatings, hanging by handcuffs, imprisonment, solitary confinement, torture, force-feedings, physical restraint, detention

(Minghui.org) Ms. Mao Kun, a chartered accountant from Chengdu, was sentenced to five and a half years in prison. Since the end of last year, she has refused to eat the prison meals. It has been three months now and her physical condition is worrisome.

The reason Ms. Mao Kun is refusing to eat is because she was told that if she continued to refuse to give up her belief in Falun Gong, she would not be released, even after her prison term had been served, and instead she would continue to be jailed at the “Legal Education Class (a brainwashing center). Ms. Mao Kun said this meant that her jail term would become “indefinite,” and she would not be allowed to return home. She felt that her refusal to eat the prison meals was her only course of action to assert her right to be released at the prescribed time.

Under the law, not only is it illegal to sentence people to prison and forced labor terms simply for their belief in Falun Gong, but, from a legal standpoint, even a criminal has the right to be released after having served his sentence and has the right to become a lawful citizen, having all the freedom and rights granted to him by the law. No one should be deprived of his or her rights or freedom. Otherwise, it is as good as committing the crime of illegal detention.

The 610 Office staff instigate police to go to the prison or labor camp to take Falun Gong practitioners away without following any legal procedures and with no legal grounds. They either covertly work together with the prison or secretly take practitioners away, or even seize them in the presence of practitioners’ families.

In Chengdu, there have been many such instances, including the case of famous environmental protection expert and professor at Sichuan University, Construction and Environment Protection College, Ms. Yang Jingxia. Because Ms. Yang would not give up her belief in Falun Gong, she was put in the Xinjin Brainwashing Center by the Jinniu District 610 Office.

Ms. Liu Hui, a former teacher at Jinqinlu Elementary School in Chengdu, went on a hunger strike for three years to protest her treatment. As a result, she was perilously close to death. The brainwashing center was afraid to shoulder the responsibility and so released her.

Ms. Fan Yin from Shuangliu was transferred to a brainwashing center after her prison term ended. It has been more than three years and she is still incarcerated and being persecuted.

In persecuting Falun Gong, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) claims that it follows the law, intending to deceive the public that the persecution is “legal.” The facts, however, including the existence of the brainwashing centers (the so-called “Legal Education Classes”) are hard evidence that the CCP is actually violating the law and committing crimes against Falun Gong practitioners. Transferring practitioners directly from prison and labor camps to brainwashing centers is cruel, illegal, and inhumane.

Now, more and more lawyers are stepping forward to defend Falun Gong, telling everyone that it is absolutely legal for practitioners to have their belief and clarify the truth about Falun Gong to people. Not to mention that, in prison, when Falun Gong practitioners remain compassionate and truthful, and refuse to give up their belief, they are threatened, tortured, and humiliated for many years.

The 610 Office, which has the power to detain Falun Gong practitioners who have finished their prison terms, can direct the police and all kinds of social resources to illegally detain Falun Gong practitioners. The 610 Office can even give orders to the prisons and the neighborhood committees to violate Falun Gong practitioners’ rights.

In addition to the examples mentioned above, in the city of Chengdu alone, there are many other cases related to Falun Gong practitioners being transferred to the brainwashing centers:

On November 13, 2010, Ms. Huang Xiangling from the Xindu District was transferred to Xinjin Brainwashing Center from the Yangmahe Women's Prison in Jianyang City by the 610 Office head, Zhou Jiang. She remains there to this day.

On May 1, 2011, Mr. Yin Sirong, an employee of the Chengdu Metallurgy Factory, had nine days added to his one-year-and-nine month forced labor camp term. Later, he was deceived by Zhang Xiaochu of the Chenghua District 610 Office and taken directly to the Xinjin Brainwashing Center, where Wang Mingrong had been tortured to death. Since those in charge were afraid of making more trouble, they had to release Mr. Yin.

The following practitioners were also transferred directly from prison to the brainwashing center: Luo Huishun, Fan Haidong, Xie Zhiyuan, Deng Qixiang, Du Peiyang, Xie Hongmin, Deng Weijian, Zheng Bin, Zhang Yixiang, Chen Xiangzhi, Li Ming, Qing Mingzhen, Ding Zhongbin, Zheng Bin, and Lin Xiaoquan.

Practitioners Whose Prison Terms Recently Ended

Besides Ms. Mao Kun, another example is Ms. Li Xiaoyu, a teacher from Xiebei Primary School in Chengdu who has been jailed for ten years and is due to be released in April. However, recent information indicates that at the beginning of this year, Longquan Prison has made things difficult for Ms. Li, demanding that she sign a guarantee statement. Her mother was also harassed and threatened by the 610 Office director, Jiang Dongtao.

Ms. Li Xiaoyu’s mother and family are very worried, because so many Falun Gong practitioners have been transferred directly from prison to the brainwashing center. They cannot bear to think that this might happen to someone in their own family.

Ms. Li Xiaoyu was an excellent teacher at Xiebei Primary School at the Jinniu District. She has been persecuted for a time for believing in Falun Gong and has been arrested several times by the Jinniu District Police, deprived of her basic human rights to work and live.

In 2003, Ms. Li was sentenced to ten years in prison and incarcerated in Chuanxi Women's Prison in Longquanyi. She has been severely persecuted. Chuanxi Prison treats Falun Gong practitioners brutally, and several practitioners have even been been tortured to death, earning benefits for prison employees.

In order to force Ms. Li Xiaoyu to give up her belief, Chuanxi Prison guards have had other prisoners torture her. As a result of the beatings, her face was swollen and several of her teeth were broken. For some time, she was physically very weak and could not take care of herself. She became mentally unstable. After being treated, her health eventually improved.

In 2007, when she was 30 years old, her mother went to visit her. The torture had reduced her to a skeleton, and she was very pale. She closed her eyes, lowered her head, and could hardly recognize her own family. She could hardly move her shaky, skeletal body.

As Ms. Li Xiaoyu approaches the end of her prison term, her mother and family members have appealed to the society to pay attention to her situation, urging Jiang Dongtao from the Simaqiao 610 Office of the Jinniu District in Chengdu and Chuanxi Women's Prison to stop persecuting her so that she may return home safely.

Besides Li Xiaoyu, there are other Falun Gong practitioners from Chengdu who are soon to finish their prison terms. They are: Zhang Zhigang, who is in District 6 at Deyang Prison; Yu Kaixin and his wife, Tan Shunbi; and also Xu Weidong, who is in Leshan Wumaping Prison.

Contact details:

Long Xingyu, Party secretary general of Chengdu City Political and Judicial Committee: +86-28-86266390, +86-13808060117 (Cell)
Wu Shiquan, Party secretary general: +86-13980538333, +86-28-87510717 (Home), +86-28-87705983 (Office)
Li Yong, Jinniu District 610 Office, Chengdu City, deputy director: +86-28-87705681, +86-13-668292609, +86-28-87526973 (Office)
Li Xingming, former director: +86-13808003823, +86-28-87500394 (Home)

Related articles:

“The Persecution of Ms. Mao Kun in Chengdu City”

http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2009/3/8/105384.html#.T4goW47Bp7w

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2009/2/20/195787.html

“Ms. Mao Kun from Chengdu City on a Hunger Strike for Nearly Seven Weeks to Protest Her Illegal Imprisonment”

http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/2/26/131759.html#.T4goO47Bp7w

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2012/2/5/成都会计师狱中绝食抗议迫害数十天-252727.html

“Ms. Mao Kun on Hunger Strike to Protest Extended Sentence in Chengdu City”
http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/3/11/132020.html#.T4gn147Bp7w

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2012/2/19/冤狱期满不能回家-成都女会计师拒吃牢饭抗议-253269.html