Mr. Wu Wenfeng, a blind Falun Gong practitioner, was arrested in June 2008 at an elderly people's centre by police from the Xinjieji Police Station on June 5th, 2008. Since the Chinese Communist Party launched the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, Mr. Wu has also been often persecuted. On September 22nd, 2003, Mr. Wu was transferred to Dongsheng elderly people's centre where he was detained and closely monitored. One policeman from the 610 Office told him, "We will lock you up here until you die."

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Bai Ruixian, 48, distributed leaflets exposing the persecution of Falun Gong to people at the train station. Police arrested her and tried to force her to make a so-called "confession" to get Ms. Bai to tell them the source of the leaflets. When she refused some of the police officers beat her about the face and shocked the rest of her body using electric batons. She was also forced to sit on an "iron chair". At night, police officers put a mask on her head and put her in a car. After driving a long distance, they pulled her out off the car and pulled the mask off. They placed her in front of a pit and threatened her, "Even if we bury you alive today, no one will ever know."

Xie Yuntong, a 45-year-old male and chief of the Politics and Security Section of the Police Department in Baoqing Country, Shuangyashan City, Heilongjiang Province, has been actively involved in extorting huge sums of money from Falun Gong practitioners since he took office. He has also been actively persecuting practitioners. On September 6th, 2006, practitioner couple Mr. Zhang Zhaohua and Ms. Yuan Meirong, were arrested by police and taken to the detention centre. Mr. Zhang was detained for nearly seven weeks. A prison guard severely beat him with a plastic tube about one inch in diameter. Inmates forcibly bathed him with cold water. He had 15,000 yuan extorted from him before he was released. Ms. Yuan was detained for six days and had 1300 yuan extorted from her before she was released.

On August 1st, 2007, police from the Lingyuan City Department, arrested 42 Falun Dafa practitioners in Beilu Towship, Lingyuan City. Ms. Hu Yanrong died during the process of being arrested. Ms. Li Cuizhi was tortured so badly she developed a mental disorder. Nine of these practitioners were sentenced. Five practitioners were taken to the notorious Masanjia Forced Labour Camp. Among these practitioners, a great amount of money was extorted from twenty four of them and their families.

In November 2006, more than 20 police officers raided a house and arrested three practitioners. The police confiscated four notebook computers, printers, a CD copying machine, printing materials, 40,000 yuan in cash, and a bank passbook worth over 100,000 yuan. They kept the computers and cash for themselves. They also attempted to force the practitioners to reveal the code for the bank passbook, but failed. Following Ms. Ding Yuerong and Mr. Zeng Geping's arrest, the police feared exposure of their crimes. They hid the practitioners in a secret location in Huarong City for a long time. They also did this to try to extort a confession. Recently, Guangan City officials secretly sentenced Mr. Zeng Geping and Xiang Lin to seven years in prison and Ms. Ding Yuerong to six years in prison.

On October 31st, 2007, several local officials and four or five policemen broke down the door and handcuffed Ms. Zhou Lianzhang, a 74-year-old Falun Gong practitioner. They ransacked boxes and chests, willfully causing damage to things and making a mess. According to incomplete figures, they confiscated Ms. Zhou's treasured Falun Gong books, more than two thousand yuan cash, and some gold jewellery. These items were worth ten thousand yuan (almost 700 British pounds), and the invaders did not issue a list of items they took away

In October 2000, Mr. Shi Jujun and another practitioner went to Shangyi County to distribute leaflets explaining the truth about Falun Gong so that the Chinese people could understand the unreasonable persecution and what Falun Gong is really about. They were arrested by five police officers. After Mr. Shi was detained for two days, he was taken to a detention centre. The police ordered a prisoner to beat Mr. Shi, and then they extorted 400 yuan from him. They planned to sentence him to two years of forced labour. Mr. Shi refused to cooperate with the police and was brutally beaten. His leg was broken during the beating. Then he was taken to Shangyi County and detained there for a year. In 2001, Mr. Xue was taken to Gaoyang County and sentenced to one year of forced labour.

In the autumn of 2005, Ms. Feng Yuping was arrested at a market and taken to the Pingdu City 610 Office for brainwashing. Without any criminal evidence, she was admitted to the Zibo City Forced Labour Camp in Shandong Province for one and a half years. Ms. Feng Yuping's mind has become dazed due to the torture. Also in 2005, police from Mencun Town Police Station and the staff from the Pingdu City 610 Office arrested Ms. Guo Huisheng. She was tortured at the Pingdu City 610 Office for two months. Her family had several thousand yuan extorted from them in exchange for her release.

On the afternoon of November 8th, 2007, Mr. Yang Libing, a practitioner from Yicun City, was arrested by Jinshan Police Station officials and detained. Mr. Yang escaped and become destitute and homeless. His wife, Ms. Chen Guiqiu, was arrested on the street and is now held in Jinshantun Detention Centre. The couple's son, who needs to go to college, and the boy's grandmother now have no means of support. Since the persecution began in July 1999, Ms. Chen has been taken into custody six times and detained for over 300 days. In July 2000, Mr. Yang was jailed in Yichun Forced Labour Camp for one and a half years. Over ten thousand yuan was extorted from the family by the local police before the two were released.

On October 31st, 2007, several officials and police broke down the door and handcuffed 74-year-old Ms. Zhou Lianzhang. They ransacked boxes and chests, wilfully causing damage to things and making a mess. According to incomplete figures, they confiscated Ms. Zhou's treasured Falun Gong books, more than two thousand yuan cash, and some gold jewellery. These items were worth ten thousand yuan, and the invaders did not issue a list of items they took away. When her relatives reported the stolen property to the police and asked for the items' return, the police station clerk denied what had happened and berated the relatives, calling them liars.

Since August 2006, Lingyuan City Police Department have committed over 20 arrests, seizures of personal property, and extortions from Falun Gong practitioners. More than 70 practitioners were personally affected. More than 40 practitioners suffered direct losses of totalling over 346,000 Yuan in cash. Family members of the arrested and harassed Falun Gong practitioners were squeezed for money for their efforts to rescue their loved ones. They were forced to deplete their savings, and some were forced to borrow money. Wang Guilin was the most unscrupulous. He demanded money from and coerced practitioners and their family members directly.

Besides physical suffering, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is widely using another form of persecution: Economic persecution.The 610 Office, local police station, and other government bureaus have seized massive amounts of wealth in the name of persecuting Falun Gong. This is how they usually operate: Arrest the practitioners and ransack their homes. Grab everything of value, including personal property and belongings. Put the practitioners into a brainwashing centre, the local police station, or detention centre. They force family members to hand over huge amounts of money by taking advantage of their fear that their loved ones will suffer. If the penalty is not paid, they may keep the practitioner in detention, torture him, or send him to a forced labour camp or prison. The authorities don't give receipts for the paid penalty, not even an IOU. All the money goes into their own pockets.

Ji Yongxian is from Taoxu Town, Mengyin County, Shandong Province. His parents, younger brother, younger sister and himself are all Falun Gong practitioners. In the past eight years, the local Chinese Communist Party (CCP) faithfuls have never stopped harassing them, extorting money from them, and arresting them. The former CCP party secretary of Taoxu Town, Jiang Yongjian, fired Ji Yongxian from his teaching position of over 20 years. Ji Yongxian and his brother went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. Policemen from the County Police Department stationed in Beijing brought them back. As a result, Ji Yongshi was forced to leave home and become destitute and homeless.

Under the Chinese Communist Party's policy of bankrupting Falun Dafa practitioners financially, the police officers in China have turned arresting practitioners into a moneymaking operation. Not long ago, police officers in Shulan City, Liaoning Province arrested practitioner Mr. Zhang Xingju and his neighbour, an old lady who upholds justice, and fined them a total of 900 yuan after failing to extort 5,000 yuan from Mr. Zhang.

During the new wave of persecution led by Zhao Jincheng, director of the Mudanjiang Police Department, in Helongjiang Province on December 12th, 2006, many Falun Gong practitioners were arrested. Although most of them were released after large amounts of money were extorted from them, Mr. Gong Chengge, Mr. Zhu Xiucheng, and Ms. Hao Rong are still being detained. After money was extorted from Mr. Gong Chengge's family, his family went to the police department to ask for his release, but got no response.

Ms. Cui Fengying, 56, has been arrested, detained and had large amounts of money extorted from her because she practises Falun Dafa and has spoken out for justice against the persecution. In 2000, her family was extorted for 4,000 yuan. In addition, a policeman tried to coerce Ms. Cui's husband into paying an additional 5,000 yuan, but her husband refused. Sun then went to her husband's company and forced the company to pay 5,000 yuan. As a result, the company withheld her husband's salary as a way to pay back the money taken by the police. The repeated persecution of her and her family has left the family highly stressed and in financial difficulty. She has left home to avoid persecution.

Falun Dafa practitioners Ms. Hu Xinyuan and her daughter-in-law, Ms. Gong Liya are imprisoned in Jin City Detention Centre and Changsha Women's Prison respectively. Ms. Hu is suffering from symptoms caused by pulmonary emphysema, heart disease, and pulmonary tuberculosis. Ms. Gong is suffering from the relapse of previous diseases. Both of them are in this condition due to persecution. The police are taking advantage of their ill health by extorting money from their families.

Li Zhuang, head of the Organisation Department of the Party Committee at the Jilin City Water Company, was in charge of persecuting Falun Gong. She actively cooperated with the Jilin City 610 Office to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. By October 2000 she had suspended my salary of a total amount of 16,355 yuan, and still hasn't paid me yet as of today. On November 7th, 2002, she cooperated with the Dongjuzi street committee of the Changyi District in Jilin City and deducted 2,000 yuan from my salary, and has not paid it back.

Since 2005, agents from the Xiangcheng National Security Bureau in Henan Province have frequently watched and harassed Dafa practitioners at their homes. Ma Zefeng extorted money and gifts from practitioners and their families, ranging from 500 yuan to 2,000 yuan. He also demanded an additional 3,000 yuan parole payment from the practitioners' families. Niu Hanqing told Dafa practitioners' families that unless they greased his palms and treated him to meals, they would not be seeing their loved ones.

Ms. Zhou Jianzhen used to make a comfortable living, but now, due to the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) persecution, her family's living conditions have become very difficult. As an excellent teacher at the city level, simply because she has faith in Truth-Compassion-Tolerance, she has been tortured and is now suffering from illegal detention, brainwashing, beating and cursing. Ms. Zhou has been held in a brainwashing centre for almost eight months. In the process of trying to rescue his wife, Ms. Zhou Jianzhen's husband had about 30,000 extorted from him by the local 610 Office and people from the Zhuolu Middle School.

Throughout these years of persecution, Xue Lianchun and Chen Yuezhi have led police officers to steal belongings and funds from Falun Dafa practitioners' family members, forcing them to pay fines totalling millions of yuan. They have never given a single receipt for money or items stolen. After the police arrested several practitioners, they extorted two to five thousand yuan from their families before releasing them. Some practitioners' family members were forced to give Chen Yuezhi "Three Gold" (referring to gold rings, gold earrings and gold bracelets), and also hand in 2,000 yuan in fines, without being given any receipts.

"Just as we were feeling extremely fortunate that Falun Dafa had saved my life, the township police arrived at our door. It was March 7th, 2002. They searched the house looking for Falun Dafa books and DVDs. I was taken to Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp. The year of illegal detention cost my family more than 7,800 yuan. Later I was detained again. This time, my husband figured out a way to pay someone 11,600 yuan and bailed me out. The two detentions combined cost us 19,400 yuan, all of which my husband had to borrow."

Corrupt officials colluded with unscrupulous merchants to sell television cable boxes to local residents, requiring every home to buy the boxes. They forced each homeowner to buy separate boxes for each television in the same house. Those who refused to buy the boxes but installed outdoor antenna on their own were threatened by the police department. Local residents compalined. Recently, the television station has been displaying a so-called "explanation" saying that some television stations were interrupted by Falun Dafa television programmes and that the reason for making every house buy the boxes was to prevent this from happening. They are trying to direct the complaints from the local residents towards Falun Dafa.

Li Shuzhi and Xiao Gao have been sent to Harbin Drug Rehabilitation Forced Labour Camp and Lao Peng to Mudanjiang City Forced Labour Camp. None of their families were notified at the time they were sent. All these practitioners who were "illegally arrested" were cruelly tortured while held in detention. For example, Sun Shiwei, who is over 50, lost two teeth when he was force-fed. The guards smashed his mouth and teeth in the process and blood flew all over his clothes and stained his bedding.

Bai Shuwen is the prison director at Shuangyashan Detention Centre. He has tortured practitioners with instruments such as the "small white dragon." He also ruthlessly force-fed practitioners and tortured them while they were handcuffed. He forced practitioners to sit on an iron chair continuously for at least five days. He tortured practitioner Liu Jinshan to death through force-feeding.

On June 16th, 2005, officers from the Poxin Town Police Station, intending to avoid responsibility for their devious conduct, forced Dafa practitioner Zheng Meiquan to sign falsified documents. The papers stated that their police station had nothing to do with extorting more than 6,000 yuan from Zheng, and instead blamed the extortion on the Maoming 610 Office. They denied all responsibility for taking the money.

On September 22nd, a group of policemen arrested the 33-year-old Falun Dafa practitioner Ms. Cui at her workplace.They then went to her home, ransacked it and removed many items of value. The police used Cui's mobile phone to send out short messages: "Cui in trouble. Please come to her home immediately. Details later." Their apparent intention was to lure other practitioners to come over and then arrest them.

Li Jun, head of the National Security Division at the Huanan County Police Station in Heilongjiang Province, and his subordinates have been constantly and illegally arresting and sending Falun Gong practitioners to prisons and forced labour camps for several years. Between January and August 2005, eleven Dafa practitioners and their family members were arrested and subjected to extortion.

Since the persecution began on July 20th 1999 Falun Gong practitioners in Panjin City, Liaoning Province have suffered severe financial persecution in addition to physical and spiritual persecution. According to the statistics from Xinglongtai District and Dawa County, Falun Gong practitioners in these two areas suffered a direct loss of 1,343,000 yuan, 443,000 yuan of which were in the form of illegal fines, 320,000 in the form of money extorted by police, and 580,000 in the form of suspended salaries.

Officers ransacked homes of Falun Gong practitioners, confiscated valuables, and kept the cash found on the premises without issuing legal papers. When confronted about the articles taken, they simply deny taking them. "We don't issue receipts on anything confiscated from Falun Gong practitioners. It's no use asking us. The money will not be returned anyway. If we had given you a receipt, what would happen if you exposed us on the Internet?".

Ms. Su Baoli, 28, is a Dafa practitioner from Shandong Province. The police recently arrested her and her parents again following searches of their homes. Although the police extorted 10,000 yuan from the family, Ms. Su was still kept in the police detention centre for one month. The family had to borrow the money from friends and relatives in order to pay it to the police. On April 15, 2005, she was transferred to the Wangcun Forced Labour Camp for continued persecution. Her pre-school child was left at home without a mother's care.

On December 15, 2001, practitioner Ms. Cai Jinhua went to Beijing to appeal on behalf of Falun Dafa. Police arrested her and placed her in the Haidian District prison. Local officials forced her husband to pay 3,000 yuan for her release. Her husband could only borrow 1,000 "yuan" from his work place to pay them. On December 18, police again arrested Ms. Cai and put her in the county jail. The 610 Office threatened her husband, saying that she would be put into a forced labour camp. He was so afraid for her that he borrowed 5,200 yuan to pay the authorities.

Wuchang's "610 Office" personnel used various methods to detain more practitioners to reach their goal of extorting money. The officials' average monthly salary is about 1,000 Yuan, however, they would receive a monetary reward if they could make a practitioner give up his/her belief, and they took advantage of it. If a practitioner is sent to the 610 Office for brainwashing, his workplace has to pay 2,000 Yuan per month for the practitioner's stay there. In order to obtain the highest profit, they would keep them there for a longer time so that they could extort more money.

On November 19, 2004, about a dozen people barged into the home of Ms Zhao Fengxian, a Falun Dafa practitioner from Hebei Province. Police officers took away 2 computers, 3 mobile phones, as well as 3,600 yuan in cash. They handcuffed Ms. Zhao and her daughter, her younger son and his fiancee and forced them into a van, not giving them time to put on something proper. The police also imposed a fine of 10,000 yuan on her son's workplace for having employed someone that was involved with Falun Gong.

Falun Dafa practitioner Mr. Sun Changde was not able to take care of himself after extensive torture and abuse at the Jilin No. 2 Prison. His weight dropped from 200 pounds to around 140 pounds. His family had asked the prison officials to release him on a medical parole. Zhang Yong, a prison officer, said, "There are only two ways to obtain a medical parole. One is that you have a lot of money. We can do it even if there is no illness. The other is that the prisoner has only a few days to live. These are the prerequisites for a medical parole."

Falun Dafa practitioner Mr. Ma Zhixin from Anqiu City lost the ability to take care of himself due to persecution. His wife, Zhang Zhenfang, was sentenced to five years in prison in 2002, because she practises Falun Gong. Currently she is being detained in Jinan Women's Prison. On top of that, in the past five years of persecution, Ma Zhixin and his family have had a total of 69,842 yuan extorted from them, by officials and police.

From July 30, 1999 to November 30, 2003, officials in Baoding City, Hebei Province extorted a total of 501,900 Yuan from Falun Gong practitioners. "610 Office" head often ordered Falun Gong practitioners to give him money, food, and other items. In addition, these officials organized many campaigns to search practitioners' homes and send practitioners to brainwashing classes. When they arrested any practitioners, they first questioned the practitioners about their financial circumstances, then extorted money from the wealthier practitioners and sent the poorer practitioners to a labour camp or long-term imprisonment.

Ms. Zhang Tongtong, 17 years old, is a Falun Dafa practitioner from Shandong Province. On July 20, 2003, she went to Beijing to appeal to the government on behalf of Falun Gong and was arrested and sent to a brainwashing centre. The police told her father to bring fifteen thousand yuan in exchange for her release; otherwise, Zhang Tongtong would be sent to Jinan Forced Labour Camp for two years. Her father managed to borrow the money and her family is now deeply in debt.

Mr. Li Jiangang of Shandong Province, was abducted a few days before his wedding. On April 24, 2004, while driving, he was suddenly stopped and apprehended by Weifang National Security agents. The next morning police attempted to abduct his fiancee and her mother. Fortunately they escaped. The wedding money that they had saved and put aside was taken when the National Security policemen ransacked the apartment.

The No. 1 Female Forced Labour Camp of Shandong Province not only mentally and physically tortures Falun Gong practitioners, but also uses many means to extort money from them. The following are some cases of the forced labour camp extorting Falun Gong practitioners' money. To "help and educate" (brainwash) one practitioner, he/she is charged 3,000 Yuan. This is not forced labour, but one who is "helped and educated" has no personal freedom. Usually, these brainwashing sessions last from twenty days to three months.

Zhu Pengde, 50 years old, is the captain of the political security brigade of Zhucheng City's Police Department in Weifang Region, Shandong Province. In order to be able to move up in his career, he has done all he can to initiate and participate in plans to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. Zhu Pengde made a specialty out of capturing and detaining Dafa practitioners in Weifang's liaison office in Beijing, he used his political power to extort large sums of money from practitioners' families for his own personal enrichment, ranging from 1,000 Yuan up to 10,000 Yuan. Zhu Pengde is also one of those officials who is directly responsible for deaths of practitioners in Weifang.

Detention centre guards in Wuhan, Hubei Province force detainees to do slave labour in their prison cells. For example, in Xiangfan City No. 1 Detention Centre, they force the detainees in their cells to produce medicine boxes, and to assemble elementary and preschool textbooks. The detention centre enforcers also collect tainted money. Not only do the slave labourers not get a single penny; but on top of that, some detainees are forced to pay 20 Yuan in "accommodation and meals fees" for each day they are locked up.

Zhao Zhenguo persecuted Dafa practitioner Ms. Wang Pengying cruelly. Wang Pengying's husband had died from an accident at work and she was leading a difficult life, supporting herself and her young son. Zhao Zhenguo knew that she was too poor to extort money from her, so he targeted her elder sister by telling her to deliver him 500 yuan as the condition for releasing Wang Pengying. On payment more money was demanded again and again until Wang Pengying was sent to the Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp in Changchun City because she could not afford to pay the so-called fines.

On May 10, 2000, because of distributing truth-clarification flyers, Falun Dafa practitioner Mr. Zen Fanchun was arrested by Chief Officer Zheng Aimin. Zheng Aimin lied to the surrounding people, saying, "Zen Fanchun prints anti-revolutionary flyers." When Mr. Zen's father, sister-in-law and wife came to the police station to bring food to him, some practitioners were about to be sent to the county detention centre, and they protested against this. Zen's father was thrown to the floor and badly beaten.

On the third day, they took the sisters to a jail where Zhang Liang interrogated them. In front of another policeman Zhang said to them: "Your living or dying depends on what I say. As long as you are willing to pay, I can let you go with my one word." But how could they have any money? The 4,750 Yuan that Zhang took away was Fu Ruxian's retirement savings. Because they had no money, Zhang detained them for another 36 days.

All six members of Mr. Tian Fujin's family from Tongliao City, Inner Mongolia, cultivate Falun Dafa and have become the main targets of persecution from the local lawless police. All six have been detained and sent to labour camps many times. Tian's wife, Liu Xiurong, filed an appeal against policeman Shao Jun for extorting money and harassment. Recently, Tian Fang, the eldest daughter of Mr. Tian, was arrested again when she went to prison to see her third sister and her father.

Liu Shijie, of Gaoxin district police sub-bureau, Mianyang City, is an insidious and cruel person of about 50 years old....As soon as the persecution started, Liu Shijie immediately made arrangements to collect the names of Falun Gong practitioners, and forced them to be fingerprinted and photographed. He...instigated hatred in people who did not know the truth about Falun Gong, fabricated crimes to frame Falun Gong practitioners, and unjustly detained them.

Practitioners Ms. Zhao Huanzhen of Shanhaiguan and Ms. Yang Yuzhu of Qinhuangdao had to have limbs amputated due to this cruel torture. Many Falun Gong practitioners in Qinlong County have also lost their lives as a result. Among those who have died as a result of this senseless persecution are Mr. Hu Hexiang and Mr. Song Youchun. Practitioners in Shanhaiguan that have also lost their lives include Ms. Pi Jinghui of the Shanhaiguan Bulb Company and 45-year-old Ms. Hou Guimin of the Shanhaiguan dockyard.

"Medical parole" from Dabei Prison Administration Bureau is, in fact, the excuse that the prison has used to extort money from Falun Gong practitioners' family members when the detained practitioners, during the persecution, lost significant body weight and were on the verge of death. They were threatened that if they did not cooperate, they would recall the Falun Gong practitioners and send the family members to prison.

In April 2002, Luo Gan issued orders to the political and judiciary departments of Heilongjiang, ordering the arrest of 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners to be carried out within a period of three months. The police were told, "Don't bother with those that committed crimes, such as murder, arson or any other criminal offence." Practitioners released on medical parole, practitioners released after going on hunger strike, practitioners who refused to write pledges or who once went to Beijing to appeal again became the targets of arrest.

For more than four years now, Liu Guansheng has served Jiang's regime in persecuting kind and innocent Falun Gong practitioners in Shanhaiguan, and he detained many Qinhangdao City practitioners in his Shanhaiguan Detention Centre. According to incomplete statistics only accounting for the Shanhaiguan District, Qinhangdao City, between 170 and 180 practitioners were illegally detained, brutally tortured and interrogated under torture as a result of his direct and indirect instructions.

As a matter of fact, "release on bail for medical treatment" is not what it appears. The so-called "release on bail for medical treatment" is in reality extortion from family members of practitioners who have been tortured to near death to pay large sums of money as "medical expenses" in exchange for the practitioners' release. If the family members cannot pay the required sums of money, there is no way for them to see their loved ones.

Zhang questioned him, "Who gave you permission to ransack my home?" Li Yaoguo said, "Go ask those above. They told us to come here." After that, they ransacked practitioner Mr. Wang Youzhong's home. Wang's wife asked Li Yaoguo, "Do you have a search warrant?" Li Yaoguo threatened, "I'll break down your doors and windows this time."....As it turned out, a passer-by saw it and shouted, "How can you torture her like that? Are you still human?"