15 Year Old Recounts Experiences of Suffering Persecution under the Jiang regime

I started practising Falun Dafa in December 1997. In February 2002, my mum and I (my only relative) went to Beijing to clarify the facts about Dafa. This resulted in our being illegally taken to the Chengdu Province Agency in Beijing. As soon as we arrived we were illegally body-searched and held there for the next 8 days. It was winter and the temporary shed where we were being detained was very cold with no bed, blankets, or bathrooms. The living conditions were very inhumane. We were forced to pay for food rations at 25 Yuan per day [Yuan is Chinese currency, the monthly salary for an average Chinese urban worker is about 500 Yuan]. What we got were leftovers from the government staff workers. We had to ask permission if we wanted go to the toilet, and even then they would refuse us and we had to relieve ourselves in empty pots when we couldn't hold it any longer, so it smelled very bad in the shed. We slept on a bench or on the ground and in our clothes. More often than not we were woken up by the cold. At this time I was only 14 years old.

Eight days later, my mum and I were illegally taken back to Chengdu by the police of Chengdu Province. My mum had been illegally detained several times after we came back from Beijing and each time they kept her for about 15 days. I had to stay at home by myself. My mum's company didn't care about us at all when this happened.

In April 2000, we appealed to the higher authorities for Falun Gong and my mum was detained for another 41 days. At that time, I was still under age and once more I had to stay at home by myself.

We were being watched at home 24 hours a day by the authorities before the Chinese Spring Holiday in January 2001. One day, while the guard wasn't paying attention to us my mum and I escaped from our house and went shopping for the holidays. After we came back home from shopping my mum was illegally detained for another 15 days in accordance with the government's policy of maintaining "public security." I will never forget that Chinese Spring Holiday that I spent alone. During those holidays, I didn't even have one meal with my mum like other kids did and I only wished she could come home soon.

In July 2001, when I was 15 years old, I decided that after I had graduated from middle school I would go in to preschool education teacher training. I couldn't go because I was a Falun Gong practitioner and it was explicitly forbidden by notice of the Student Recruiting Office. Instead, I went to high school. As soon as they realized that I was a practitioner, the school's staff tried different ways (including brainwashing) to stop me from practising Falun Gong. They didn't allow me to clarify the truth of Falun Gong. They also threatened to expel me from school if I kept doing this. They also pressured me not to clarify the truth when I saw attempts to slander Falun Gong in my homework assignments and examinations. They also threatened my mother because of this. So far, our house has been watched all the time by the guards and our mental and physical wellbeing has suffered tremendously.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/3/25/47098.html