Chinese Special Agents Outside China Collect Information on Practitioners: Japanese practitioner Interrogated and Threatened While Visiting China

My name is Cai Yingzi, a female Falun Gong practitioner from Japan. On January 24th, 2003, I went back to Dalian City, China with my two year and five month old child to spend the Chinese New Year with my husband's family. The trip lasted three weeks. Except for shopping with my in-laws, I stayed at home most of the time. Two days before I was going to go back to Japan, at about 2 p.m. on February 12th, one woman and three men knocked on the door and said they were from the Dalian City Police Department, and wanted me to go with them to talk so they could learn some information about outside of China. They promised that I could return soon, and asked me to bring my passport. I trusted them and went with them.

The car stopped in front of a two-story building in the vicinity of Changshen Street in Dalian City. After entering a steel door, I realised things were going wrong. They took me to the second floor where four men were sitting in front of a desk, postured to interrogate me. They asked me to sit down less than three meters away from them, and they took away my passport. Then the woman took me to a small room which could be viewed by others and body searched me. This was the beginning of the mistreatment. After the search, they interrogated me for 36 hours continuously in a dark room with one single bright light shining into eyes.

One man in his forties said he worked for the National Security Bureau of the Wuzhou City, Guangxi Province, which is my parents' hometown, and had come to Dalian to look for me. While taking a break to use the restroom, I found out that over ten other staff members were on the first floor. I really could not understand why they exerted so much effort on a mother with a two year-old child. The only possible reason could be that I am a Falun Dafa practitioner and that I had taken Dafa truth clarifying materials to my relatives and friends. How much taxpayer's money did they waste doing these kinds of silly things!

The first question they asked was: "When did you start practicing Falun Gong?" I told them how had I begun the practice of Falun Dafa and how I had learned to be a good person by following "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance." But they really wanted to know how I obtained the Falun Dafa books, and who I had contact with, etc. I told them that at that time Falun Gong practitioners could be found anywhere in China and in the parks of Dalian City. Dafa books could be bought easily at many places. Since they did not have much evidence, they stopped asking such questions.

Then they asked me what Falun Dafa truth-clarifying materials I had mailed to China in 2001, as well as what and how many materials I had brought to China during the 2002 Chinese New Year. They also asked whom I had sent the materials to. I said that "I did all of this, but I did nothing illegal, I just hope my friends and relatives will know the facts, and not be deceived by lies."

They said: "Do not think that if you keep quiet we will not know what you've done. We know all the details about what you have done in Dalian, how many days you stayed in Guangzhou, how many days you were with your parents in Guangxi, when you left..." I said: "Since you know everything, then what would you like me to say." They insisted that it was illegal to bring Falun Dafa materials to China, and threatened to search my mother-in-law's home. I told them the doubtful points of the "Tiananmen Square Immolation Event" and the truth of the so-called "Big House" issue. But their minds had been deceived by the government's long-term brainwashing, and they did not believe what I said.

At supper time, they did not show any signs of releasing me. I refused to eat, to protest my detainment. They left me sitting on a chair for a whole night. The next morning, the woman who was supervising me threatened: "We have lots of time; you won't be able to compete with us. Your child is so young. Why don't you think of what's best for her? You have a good family; don't you care about your future? Cast away illusions. Without answering my questions, it's unlikely you will be released. We may send you back to Guangxi, to a forced labor camp. Then even your child won't be able to see you. You will not be treated there like you are here. If we turn you over to the police department, you'll have a hard time."

I said with smile, "You tricked me into coming here, it's you who do not allow me to go home, and I am not surprised that you can do what you said."

The next morning they tried to persuade me to eat; I refused and told them that I am not a criminal so I will not eat their food, and asked them to release me. They denied this and said, "You are not cooperating with the government and will not be released. If we send you back to the Guangxi Police Deparment, they will not be as tolerant as we are. It will be easy to find an excuse to sentence you to one year in a forced labor camp. But here with us, just tell us the details and you will be released."

At noon, I became uneasy because of hunger, and asked them once again to let me go. I thought of the freedom to practice and study Falun Dafa in Japan, I thought of the plane ticket for tomorrow noon, and I thought of the two-month old baby in my stomach. I became sad in my mind. I thought of the misery experienced by Falun Dafa practitioners who were detained in the forced labor camps. Fear appeared in my mind. I really wanted to go home...

In the afternoon, a person who looked like a cadre came by and started a new round of brainwashing. He coerced me with patriotism arguments and instigated extreme nationalism by raising many examples. He tried to convince me to hate Japanese and American people.

Later I was coerced by their hypocrisy. My mind was occupied by the desire to go home, to go back to Japan. I gave up and told them some names of my former classmates and answered some of their questions. But they did not stop, and then asked me who I am usually in contact with, and where I deliver the newspapers. They also asked me about Falun Dafa experience sharing conferences, etc. They even raised several Japanese Falun Dafa practitioners' names and asked me if I knew them. I took the chance to tell them how Falun Dafa has been spread in Japan and in the world. Seeing that I was not interested in this information, they stopped asking. From 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. I was left alone in a room. While alone, I realised I had done wrong things. I had let fellow practitioners and former classmates down, and was unworthy of Teacher who offered me good health and told me how to be a good person.

Those seven hours of "peace" were actually mental torture for me. The noise of TV music and laughter from downstairs made me feel like the evil people were celebrating a victory. I felt ashamed. I really did not know how to face the fellow practitioners in Japan who have done their best to stop the persecution of Falun Gong in China. I became very tired mentally. At midnight, they came again to interrogate me, and asked me to write a guarantee that I would not break the Chinese law. I signed without much feeling, and they returned my passport to me. During those two days, I signed six interrogation records and one guarantee.

When they saw me off, they gave me their phone numbers and internet site, and asked for my phone and address. They repeatedly asked me to contact them after I went back to Japan. They threatened me not to tell anything of my interrogation to any one, including my husband, otherwise the results would be serious. I knew they wanted me to supply information to them but they are afraid that what they have done would be exposed. I told them that I knew what to do, and they sent me home.

Peace did not come after I went back home. My mother-in-law started convincing me to stop practicing Dafa, and said that if I did not stop, for the sake of her son's future, she would force my husband to divorce me, and I would lose my child and husband. In front of this old couple who suffered a lot during the Cultural Revolution period (1966-1976), who were scared for 36 hours because of me, my heart was broken. The propaganda in China had instigated them to hate Dafa to such an extent, which was beyond my imagination. To protect themselves and their family, they were cheated again, and did wrong things again. I could not say one word.

Because of the above experience, after I went back to Japan, my husband did not allow me to contact any Falun Dafa practitioners. He did not allow me to say that I am a Falun Gong practitioner, threatened to divorce me, and even asked me to have an abortion. Under the threats of the Chinese government, and owing to the fear of being involved in political movements, my husband and his parents become cold-hearted. I am facing the bitterness of a broken family. It's so hard to understand why. I cannot imagine how Falun Dafa practitioners inside China have suffered.

From the day I left Dalian and returned to Japan, I knew that I would not be able to go back to China as long as the persecution of Falun Gong continues. Thinking about how they threatened me not to mention the interrogation to any one, asked me to keep in contact with them, and encouraged me to keep taking part in the Dafa activities in Japan, one could easily see their wicked intentions. They wanted me to be a spy. If I refuse to supply the information as they hoped, what reaction would they have? I will not become a spy and a tool even though I may not be able to go back to my beloved homeland, and not be able to see my elderly parents.

I hereby declare that all the records and the guarantee I signed in Dalian City while being interrogated by the agents from the National Security Bureau of Wuzhou City, Guangxi Province between the afternoon on February 12, 2003 to 0:30am on February 14, 2003 are null and void.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/5/16/50449.html