Inside China Today

Calligrapher Liu Xi-Tong groundlessly detained for persecution.

In May 2008 famous calligrapher, Liu Xi-Tong from Qingdao, Shandong Province, was sentenced, for no reason, to four-year imprisonment by the Chinese authorities in the name of Olympics. At present, Liu Xi-Tong is being held in the Shandong Provincial Jail.

Mr. Liu Xi-Tong aged 56, is a renowned calligrapher in Qingdao and also a member of the China Association of Calligraphers. In 1996, Liu Xi-Tong together with his wife Liu Ai-Fang began practicing Falun Gong. Because of this he has been illegally held in detention twice and tortured while in prison.

According to sources, for promoting traditional Chinese culture, Liu Xi-Tong successfully held a six-day calligraphy exhibition. This was held at the Qingdao City Publication Museum of Art from 3rd to 8th November in 2007. It attracted over a thousand visitors and was widely covered by media. After hearing the news, the “610 Office” in Qingdao City, an organization specifically formed to persecute Falun Gong; along with other departments, ordered the Qingdao Public Security Bureau and Cultural Bureau to threaten Liu and his sponsors, to withdraw the calligraphy exhibition. They refused. During the exhibition, many special agents and plain-clothes policemen were keeping close surveillance at the exhibition site.

On the morning of November 12, police from Xiang Tan Road Police Station broke into the homes of Liu Xi-Tong and Liu Ai-Fang took them away and confiscated many of the calligraphy works while ransacking their homes. Later the wife was arrested.

Liu Xi-Tong had been savagely beaten and tortured mentally and physically by the police for refusing to denounce his belief in Falun Gong and refusing to be “transformed”.