Remembering the Arrest of Practitioner Wang Lixuan and Her Baby Boy, Who Were Both Tortured to Death

On October 26th 2000, I went to Tiananmen Square to appeal for Falun Dafa with about one hundred fellow Dafa practitioners. Some of us unfurled banners, others distributed truth-clarifying materials, and all of us shouted, "Falun Dafa is Good". Minutes later, we were dragged into cars by plain-clothes policemen and sent to the Tiananmen Police substation. At the police station, there were already hundreds of practitioners detained in the hallway at the back of the building. Between four and five o'clock in the afternoon, several buses arrived to transfer all the practitioners to the Huairou Detention Centre. During the ride, I noticed a young lady who held a very quiet infant in her arms. During the trip, the baby neither cried nor made any noises. Many of the other people did not even realise that there was a several-month-old baby on the bus. He remained very quiet throughout the trip, as if he knew that his mother was doing something sacred.

Upon arriving at the detention centre, the sky darkened, the winds blew strongly, and the temperature grew cold. The policemen gave each practitioner an identification number. The practitioners were ordered to form two lines and then they sat on the ground. Sitting in front of me was the lady who I saw on the bus holding the baby. Next to her sat two elderly practitioners. One of them looked like the baby's grandma. The baby had large gleaming eyes, a round face, a light complexion, and he wore a light yellow cotton outfit. On his head was a yellow cap, and he was loosely wrapped in a colourful blanket. I casually asked, "How old is the baby?" One of the grandparents replied, "7 months". From her accent, I figured that they were from Shandong Province. Seeing such a cute and lovely baby, I somehow knew that she would raise her child to become a good, truthful person.

Soon the baby became hungry and started to cry, so the mother breast-fed him. After a bit, the baby started to cry again. The child's mother changed her position and continued feeding. However, the baby cried again because he could not get enough milk. He continued to cry to the point that his face had turned red. His grandma took him from his mum and took out a roll of bread and put it in her mouth to chew. She tried to give the regurgitated food to the baby to eat. But the baby was too little to eat it, so his grandma took out a bottle of water and gave the baby a few sips. Shortly afterwards, the baby once again started to cry.

Many of the Dafa practitioners nearby started to worry. At the time, none of the practitioners had much food; somebody took out some fruit, while others took out some crackers. Because the baby was too small, everybody tried to persuade the mother to eat more so that she could produce enough milk to feed the baby. They gave her the only food they had.

As night fell, the environment grew worse. The policemen endlessly roared at the Dafa practitioners, forcing them to write down their names and addresses, and they searched practitioners' bodies. Any practitioners who refused were brutally punched and kicked, and punished with "flying an airplane". [Note: This torture involves the head being bent down until it can no longer go down any further, while the hands are pulled up and held up to the highest point. The hips have to point up. One is forced to be in this position for a long time. The body in this position looks like the shape of an airplane]. They were forced to stand for a long time out in the cold. The baby's crying irritated the policemen and they yelled, "What are you crying about!" I replied, "The baby is hungry. He hasn't eaten anything the whole day. Could you please get some milk for him?" The policemen did not pay attention to me and went on cursing. The practitioners were sent to their cells one after another. Then the policemen told the mother to write down her name and address, and searched her body. She firmly refused all of their requests and did not reply or cooperate with the police. Consequently, she was brutally beaten. Her blouse was even torn. At the same time, the baby started to cry louder than before. His cry resonated throughout the yard and pierced our hearts. Still, the heartless policemen repeatedly beat them.

After hearing the baby cry, I could not sleep that night. I was very concerned about that family. Later, I was transferred into a different cell, and I never saw them again. I always tried to find them, though I figured that they probably had already left Beijing for their local area. Not long afterwards, I received the terrible news that both the mother and baby had been tortured to death in the Beijing Tuanhe Forced Labour Camp, and saw the pictures of them. I was appalled. I couldn't believe that it was true. It was then that I finally learned that her name was Wang Lixuan, from Xixia in Shandong Province. Her whole family was arrested because they are Dafa practitioners. Wang Lixuan had gone to Beijing eight times to appeal for Falun Dafa.

What crimes did the mother and the baby commit? Is it because that they wanted to speak the truth? As I think of this tragedy, my eyes are filled with tears. All kindhearted people in the world, do not keep silent any longer. Do not turn a blind eye towards this, and do not allow this tragedy to continue any longer! Many more people could lose their lives and lose their rights as human beings. Jiang's regime has carried out violent torture methods to deal with peaceful Dafa practitioners. These evil deeds will not go unnoticed and the evil fears that these acts will be exposed in the public.

We ask all kindhearted people in the world to pay more attention to the tragedy that is happening in China. We ask all the people in the world to immediately act together and stop this vicious persecution against Falun Gong practitioners.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2003/3/24/46817.html