Falun Dafa Cured My Illnesses, but the Jiang Regime Has Relentlessly Persecuted Me for My Firm Belief

I started practising Falun Dafa in March 1998. Prior to that, I had suffered from arthritis in my shoulder, gall bladder trouble and stomach disease. Pills after pills and injections after injections, which cost me my wealth, had not healed the root causes of my illnesses. Everyday I suffered and took medicines to prolong my life. I was not able to do heavy tasks, nor could I cope with mental stress. Once I began practising Falun Gong, all of my illnesses quickly disappeared.

Unfortunately, beginning on July 20,1999, Jiang and his regime pervasively suppressed Falun Gong, distorting facts and fabricating lies to poison the public. The following is an account of the persecution I have endured:

On the morning of July 20,1999, I was practising the Falun Gong exercises at home. Suddenly, county government personnel and local police officers abducted me and took me to one of their offices. With the threat of beatings, they tried to force me and other practitioners to abandon Falun Gong. The police station director said that he was an expert at torturing Falun Gong practitioners. He made us squat, and as we sweated, he battered, kicked and slapped us for more than one hour; he pulled the hair of those who could not remain still. The torture lasted for three days and three nights. Then, we were pressured to write the "Guarantee Letter" [promising not to practise Falun Gong] before we got released.

In early December 2000, three other practitioners and I journeyed to Beijing, exercising our right to appeal to the central government. However, "Appeal Bureau" was a sham name, and its doors were not open to us. Then, we had no other option but to go to Tiananmen Square to appeal for Falun Dafa. Facing many uniformed policemen and plain-clothes detectives, we remained calm and exclaimed these words from the bottom of our hearts: "Falun Dafa is good," "Falun Dafa is righteous", and "Restore the good name of our Teacher!" Meanwhile, fellow practitioners unfurled many Falun Gong banners of various sizes. Instantly, the police and detectives attacked, hitting us and the other practitioners. They pulled our hair, twisted our arms and dragged us into the police vans. They drove the full load of us to the Tiananmen Square Police Station. We were imprisoned there for three days and three nights, and then police officers from our village drove us back to our hometown.

On the return journey, the car carrying us was damaged in a traffic accident, so we had to stay overnight in a roadside hotel. After getting drunk, the policemen started to beat us. One policeman slapped a practitioner 30 times, and the practitioner's face immediately swelled up. Then the policeman hit the practitioner with a beer bottle and knocked him unconscious. Next, he beat me, slapping me at least 20 times while yelling at me. The wicked policeman tortured us until almost midnight, then cuffed our hands to something and left us sitting on the cement floor. We were not allowed to use the toilet. I had no choice but to urinate in my pants.

The next day, upon arriving at our local police station, we were "greeted" by the police chief's vicious slapping, hair pulling and chest punching. We were confined to a small room where we had to stand all day long, and we were not allowed to sleep at night. One night the police station's political instructor handcuffed me to a tree that was outside the room. My left hand was cuffed so tightly that it became numb and turned blue. Later, one of the officers pleaded that I be freed from the cuffs and be allowed back in the room. One week later, we were sent to a farm tractor station (for forced labour). At night, the police legal assistant and the director of the tractor station continuously beat, kicked, punched our chests, pulled our hair and whipped us, trying to force us to say that we would abandon Falun Gong. When we would not speak, they beat us some more and then sent us outside to suffer in the freezing cold. A policeman even hit our faces and bodies with metal tools used for stirring coal fires.

On the day of a farmer's market, the police legal assistant and the tractor station director took me to the police station and cuffed me to the front door of the station. Then, he viciously told me that I would serve as a warning to the market attendees: those who would go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong would know what to expect. They forced me to wear a big display board (slandering Falun Gong) in front of my chest. Thus, I was humiliated until they took me back to the farm, which was after 5.pm.

Near the end of the Chinese Lunar New Year, the police officers lost any remaining shred of human nature and started arbitrarily battering and torturing detained practitioners. The police legal assistant and the political instructor threatened not to release me for the New Year holiday unless I paid a 6,000 Yuan fine [More than one year's salary for an average Chinese urban worker] for both my wife and me. Most of us could not afford a sum that large, so those two evil men directed some officers and the police chief to go to the tractor station and torture us. One night they arrived with devilish, distorted faces, and without any reason, they nearly beat us to death. If we fell down, they forced us to stand so they could to kick us down again. This persecution lasted until almost midnight.

The police legal assistant forced the detained practitioners to sweep the snow. The practitioners did not get enough food and some were suffering from torture wounds. With our feeble bodies, we worked for three mornings, and a few of us were so hungry that we began to eat the snow. Finally, with the threat of more severe beatings, the police legal assistant and the political instructor forced us to denounce Teacher. Under the extreme pressure, and we could hardly endure further, we did what Falun Dafa practitioners should not do.

Then, we were told to send home for some money. I only had 600 Yuan, so I borrowed 400 Yuan and gave the police legal assistant 1,000 Yuan, and he did not give me a receipt. The political instructor asked the police chief to to extort more money from me. They searched my house and did not find anything valuable, so the police chief conspired with the party secretary general of the village and had the village credit union clerk loan me 5,000 Yuan. The police chief took this large sum of money, and again, I was not given a receipt. Finally, on the December 23 of the lunar calendar, I was released to go home for the Chinese New Year.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/5/9/49927.html