Persecution Details of Falun Gong Practitioner Zhou Lianying

Name: Zhou Lianying
Gender: Female
Age: Unknown
Address: Xingfu Village, Qingshan Township, Boli County, Heilongjiang Province
Occupation: Farmer
Date of Most Recent Arrest: June 22nd, 2004
Most Recent Place of Detention: Heilongjiang Detox Centre
City: Haerbin
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Detention, sleep deprivation, beatings, insult, interrogation, home ransacked, electric shock, brainwashing, forced labour, extortion, forced labour reform, hanging by back handcuffs

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Zhou Lianying has been arrested five times during the past 12 year since the persecution launched by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began. Her home has been ransacked seven times, and her daughter was suspended from middle school due to her belief. Ms. Zhou has been subjected to beatings, slave labour, and three years in a forced labour camp. The health she regained after cultivation was ruined, and she was in critical condition when released.

After she was released from the labour camp, CCP agents continued to harass and threaten her, and attempted to take her to a brainwashing centre. During the winter of 2010, she was forced to leave home and become homeless to avoid further persecution.

The following is Ms. Zhou Lianying's personal account:

1. After practising Falun Gong, my daughter and I both regained our health.

My daughter and I depend on each other. We were previously both in poor health. I could not do heavy labour, and no one would hire me. I sold snacks for a living, but I did not earn enough even to pay my medical bills.

When my cough and leg pain recurred in April 1998, my friend introduced Falun Gong to me. Once I learned that Falun Gong cultivated both mind and body, I began practising. Abiding by the principle of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, I told myself that I would cultivate to the end, and gradually my daughter and I both regained our health.

2. Appealing for Falun Gong

The persecution began in July 1999, after I had practised for only a year. Without any hesitation, I took my 11-year-old daughter and went to the provincial government to appeal for Falun Gong. When we arrived, we saw police cars lined up, and police officers armed with guns lined up in a threatening manner. We heard that there were two busloads of Falun Gong practitioners who had been taken away the day before. We were taken to the Qitaihe affiliated office in Harbin. I handed them my appeal material and wanted to report the truth about Falun Gong. The staff member who interviewed me said, “You may practise as you wish when you go home” and sent us home.

3. Arrested Five Times

When we got home, staff from the local police station and the residential committee continually harassed us. The Qiezihe District police station took my exercise tapes, my Falun Gong book, sitting mat, and tape players. They even took my ID.

Arrested the first time

Everything was taken from us and everyone from the Falun Gong exercise site was arrested. The authorities would not even let off a child. They called my daughter's school and told them that she also practised Falun Gong. The principal forced my daughter and another girl to stand in the hallway for a long time. He said that unless they gave up the practice, they would not be allowed to go to classes. Later he shut them in a room with no windows or light, and they were forced to stand in the dark. They had to to stand from morning to lunch time, and then until school was over. For two weeks straight, they were not allowed in the classroom. The principal was very angry and said, “If you won't give up the practice, you will not be allowed to go home.” He was so furious that he shoved my daughter hard, and she hit a desk. Her eyes turned black and blue and swelled shut. My daughter was bedridden for several days before her eyes looked even a little better. The principal wanted me to make the choice. In order to go to school, we had to give up the practice, otherwise she would be suspended permanently. My daughter made good grades in school, and her friends had a hard time letting her go. We chose practice, so she was suspended from school. The principal was not satisfied and went to the local police station and reported me. The police station ordered me to check in with them on a daily basis. The TV showed endless propaganda slandering Falun Gong—we could not find peace anywhere.

Arrested the second time

From the TV station we learned that there was an organisation called the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) in every district. A fellow practitioner and I went to appeal. They not only would not listen to us but cursed at us. They picked up the phone and officers from Qitaihe City Qiezihe District Police Station took us to the station, stating that they were afraid we would go to Beijing. They also arrested and took all the Falun Gong practitioners to Qitaihe Detention Centre. There were 200 of us in all. They attempted to force us to curse Falun Gong. After the beating they were forced to stand in the hallway. Towards the end there were only about 30 of us left in the room. We were forced to sit in a straight line, military style. We were forced to sit overnight, no sleeping allowed.

One morning warden Zhang hung some handcuffs on the window of the female cell block and went into the cell block. We heard the beatings. After he finished he came to our cells carrying a belt with a metal tip. He used all his strength to hit us, particularly aiming at our faces and heads. After he finished with one of us he threw her on the ground. He threw a 17-year-old girl upside down with her head stuck in a water bucket, and water ran all over the ground. He could hardly catch his breath. He said that he had not beaten anyone like this in 20 years, not even common criminals. He said that the order for severe beatings came from the Public Security Bureau. We were all injured. Some of us had bleeding ears or mouths, most of our eyes and faces were swollen; my eyes were swollen shut. Male practitioners were in even worse condition. Their faces were covered with black and blue marks, swollen beyond recognition.

We were interrogated often. One night they interrogated us one by one, ransacked our cells, and used electric batons to shock us. A male practitioner was hung by his handcuffs and beaten in the basement.

We were prevented from sleeping and the guards attempted to force us to give up Falun Gong. One guard said, “Even the real criminals are not able to walk the next day (indicating how hard they had beaten people)”

It took us a month to recover some from the beating. We were transferred to Qitaihe Detention Centre. The detention centre had just been built, and we were ordered to take down the old building. It was the middle of winter. The male practitioners were ordered to take down the building, and we were ordered to remove the bricks. After the New Year, we were forced to lay bricks for a pig farm. We had to move big bricks for the wall and load the small pieces in the yard. The intense forced labour wore us out, and we could hardly carry out our daily functions. My shoes didn't fit, and after four months of intense labour, I lost the nails on both my big toes.

The food we were given was awful. We had corn buns for three meals with some pickles on a daily basis. They extorted 900 yuan¹ a month from us. The Qitaihe Qiezihe District Police Station extorted 600 yuan from each of us.

When I was released, I took my daughter again to her school, but the principal refused to admit her. While I was in detention, she lived with her uncle. She was only 12.

Just because I went to appeal for Falun Gong, I was on the authorities' black list. When I returned to my hometown, the village ordered a young fellow to watch me for ten yuan per day, I was not allowed to make a phone call or leave the village. If I did, they would arrest or detain me. I had nothing to live on. Later my nephew brought me some firewood and my sister brought me a bag of flour. We were able to make one meal per day.

One night during the summer of 2000, the director of Qingshanxiang Police Station brought several people, including the village security director to my home. They jumped into my yard and woke me up, then searched my house. They did not find anything, and left.

After the persecution started, I was monitored day and night. I was harassed whenever there was some kind of holiday or sensitive day. They threatened the landlord of the house I was renting, attempting to force me to move.

Arrested the third time

In December of 2001, Qingshanxiang Police Station former director Fan Yiying and local police officer Chai Xianqi, led by a village Party secretary and security director, came to my home. They asked, “Do you still practice Falun Gong?” When I said I did, they dragged me to their car, totally disregarding my daughter's screams and cries. I was held in a county detention centre. Later they said that if I gave them 1,000 yuan they would release me. (The had arrested me for the money). I refused to comply. One month later the New Year was approaching. They told my sister if she gave them 300 yuan, they would release me. I still refused. They held me for four months, and released me only after I started a hunger strike. I later learned that they had still extorted 200 yuan from my sister.

After being back only a few days, officers from the Qingshanxiang Police Station began harassing and threatening me. Two months later, director Fang Yiying from Qingshanxiang Police Station, Chai Xianqi, and another official, led again by the village security director, came to my home. Three of them turned my home upside down looking for evidence but found nothing. They still took me and my daughter to the police station, but later released us.

Before October 2002, local police officer Chai Xianqi returned and again informed me that I was not allowed to leave home. He asked for my phone number. I said I did not have a phone. My daughter was crying the whole time and scared to death.

I could not live like this, so I left my home in the middle of the night. When I was out of town, I arranged for my daughter to live with a fellow practitioner, and I went out to look for work. The police began looking for me everywhere. I did not know how they found the fellow practitioner's home, but they interrogated her in the middle of the night demanding to know my whereabouts.

Arrested the fourth time

I moved back home with my daughter in 2003, and she returned to her school. In April 2004, when several fellow practitioners were doing the exercises at my home, director Fan Yiying of Qingshanxiang Police Station and policeman Chai Xianqi suddenly showed up, arrested the four of us, and took my tape player, Falun Gong books, and materials. They also took 50 yuan in cash and took us to the county detention centre. My daughter was left at home alone. When I was interrogated, my daughter happened to be visiting me, so they also threatened her. I began a hunger strike and they released me after six days. I was in critical condition.

Arrested the fifth time

On June 22nd, 2004, local police officer Chai Xiangqi ordered me to the station. As soon as I arrived, I was taken to the Boli County Detention Centre. The next day I was taken to Heilongjiang Detox Centre and sentenced me three years in a forced labour camp.

In the labour camp, they attempted to force me to “transform” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] and give up Falun Gong, but I refused. I was deprived of sleep and handcuffed behind my back and hung from the handcuffs, which injured my wrists. They also forced me to do slave labour. They kicked me since my wrists were injured and tried all sorts of ways to make me work.

On one occasion when I refused to work, guard Liu Zhujie grabbed my hair and hit my head hard against the wall. She was hitting my head against the wall and yelling, “I will send you to a mental hospital!” I asked her, “Why do you have to be so wicked? Look what you have done to me.” She grabbed three dirty rags and shoved them into my mouth with all her strength. Suffocating, I struggled with my arms and legs flailing. I passed out and don't know how long it took before I came to. When I regained consciousness I noticed foam around my mouth, my hands were numb and tingling, and my arms were still having spasms. I could not open my eyes, my head was heavy, and I was dizzy.

During those three years in the labour camp, each day felt like a year. My health was ruined, and I was not allow to study the Fa or do the exercises. Intense labour and severe persecution also produced a new condition, heart disease.

When I was released, my sister and daughter came and carried me out, as I could not walk. My sister took me home, and my relatives were all crying when they saw me. I could not open my eyes, and I could hardly talk. The next day, my sisters took me to the county hospital for tests, which showed heart disease and severe trauma to the brain. The hospital suggested I be transferred to a Harbin hospital for better treatment. Since we did not have the money, my sisters took me home.

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2011/8/5/244912.html