(Minghui.org) An acupuncturist from the Nanchang City First Hospital was fired from her job in March 2016 for her belief in Falun Gong.
Ms. Wu Fengzhen, 51, and her young daughter now face financial difficulties and eviction from their company housing. Since the start of the persecution of Falun Gong back in 1999, Ms. Wu has been arrested three times and sent to forced labor camp twice.
Details of her case follow.
Ms. Wu Fengzhen
Unreasonably Fired
On December 4, 2015, the hospital assigned security guards to monitor Ms. Wu's movements and tried to force her to sign a guarantee statement. They threatened to fire her and have her medical license revoked if she refused, and said that she would also be thrown out of her company housing. She was informed that these were orders from higher authorities.
The human resources department told Ms. Wu verbally on January 13, 2016, that she had been fired and no longer needed to come to work. She requested official documentation of her termination of employment, but was refused.
The hospital prohibited her from working on January 20, 2016, and had her prescription rights removed.
The hospital stopped paying her salary in February, and she was also informed that if she insisted on continuing work, her medical license would be revoked.
Previous Arrests and Detentions
Ms. Wu was arrested three times and sent to forced labor camp twice between 2000 to 2007.
After the persecution started in 1999, Ms. Wu first went to Beijing in April 2000 to appeal, and was taken back to Nanchang and detained at a detention center. She went on a hunger strike for 15 days and was released after her family paid 3,000 yuan. Her home was ransacked during her detention.
Upon returning home, the authorities forced her second husband to stay home and monitor her movements. She was also forced to sign a guarantee statement saying that she would not go to Beijing again. If she did, she would be fired.
Ms. Wu went to Beijing again two months later. She was arrested and sent to the detention center. While there, she insisted on doing the exercises and the police put chained fetters on her ankles for two weeks.
She was pregnant and developed symptoms of early labor. The chains were taken off after strong protests from her family and other Falun Gong practitioners who were locked in the same cell as her.
She was sentenced to two years of forced labor camp in July 2000 and allowed to serve her term outside the camp.
Three years later, her second husband divorced her due to frequent harassment from the authorities, leaving Ms. Wu in custody of their child.
In September 2003, the security department head took her away when she was treating patients. She was later taken to the brainwashing center. She refused to renounce her belief while there and was locked in a small room. Her workplace was also penalized.
Ms. Wu was sentenced to two years of forced labor camp in July 2005 and was persecuted brutally. She had to stand at attention under the hot sun for extended periods of time. Prisoners would stab her with needles, and she was forced to perform hard labor. Her term was extended by 41 days when she helped deliver Falun Gong articles in the cell. She was released on August 21, 2007.
On August 25, 2007, her workplace and the local police tried to coerce Ms. Wu into writing a guarantee statement and threatened to send her to the labor camp again if she did not comply. She refused, and her movements were monitored. She was also made ineligible for promotion at work.
How Falun Gong Benefited Ms. Wu
Before practicing Falun Gong, Ms. Wu had a rough life. She married her first husband in November of 1990 and had a daughter with him. They divorced six years later, with the ex-husband taking the daughter.
In September 1998, the ex-husband became mentally unstable and stabbed their daughter to death.
Ms. Wu almost collapsed mentally when she saw the bloody scene.
Everything changed one month later, when a college friend of Ms. Wu visited her and recommended Falun Gong to her. She finally understood the meaning of life and became kindhearted, giving up her hatred for her ex-husband.
Related reports:The Persecution in Nanchang City: Chen Meili Loses Her Eyesight Due to Persecution, Wu Fengzhen is Arrested
