75 Year Old Ms. Wang Guimin Jailed 10 Times for Practising Falun Gong

Ms. Wang Guimin is a retired worker from Kuangshan Machinery Plant in Jining City, Shandong Province. She is seventy-five years old. I met this gentle, elderly lady quite by chance. She related to me the great changes she had experienced both physically and mentally after she started practising Falun Gong. She also told me about the persecution she suffered since July 20, 1999. She showed no bitterness or regret. I was quite moved by her attitude, welling up with tears. Although I do not know much about Falun Gong, her steadfast belief in "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance" should tell people that we need to wake up as soon as possible and uphold truth and justice.

Before she started practising Falun Gong, Ms. Wang suffered from a host of ailments and had to take large amounts of medicine year round. The government had to foot several hundred Yuan medical expenses each month for her. Her skin from head to toe was afflicted with an inflammatory condition, accompanied by intense and unbearable itching. It was diagnosed as eczema by Chinese medicine doctors. She also suffered from pharyngo-laryngitis, trigeminal neuralgia, anxiety neurosis, Meniere's disease, severe gastritis, palpitations, and chronic glossitis. She had a sickly yellowish complexion, and her lips were bluish due to not enough oxygen in her bloodstream. She relied entirely on medication to keep her alive and had endured a great deal of pain. In February 1996, she was fortunate enough to come across Falun Dafa. After just a few days of practice, her glossitis was healed. Within a year, most of her other illnesses gradually improved as well, and she was in good shape and good spirits. Friends and family members all felt that it was a miracle, and Ms. Wang was so happy she would tell whomever she met that Falun Dafa is great.

On July 20, 1999, Jiang's regime began the campaign to suppress Falun Gong. Ms. Wang could not understand it and began her protracted journey to appeal for Falun Gong in Beijing, to seek justice for and validate Dafa with her own experience. In her mind, a "People's Republic" is for the people, so she should be able to find justice.

The first time she went to appeal was in February 2000. She was arrested as soon as she arrived in Beijing, and was brought back by the police from Jining City Central District Police Station. They searched her body and took all the money she had on her. Moreover, they ransacked her home and fined her heavily. Then they kept her in the police department detention centre, sharing cold and damp cells with prostitutes and drug addicts for 15 days. From then on, Ms. Wang became a key person that the police department monitored. Her work unit also deducted most of her salary for four years, giving her only 180 Yuan a month as living expenses (average monthly salary is about 500 yuan).

But Ms. Wang's belief in "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance" and in Falun Dafa could not be shaken. She went to Tiananmen Square three times to tell people that "Falun Dafa is good," risking being arrested, beaten, imprisoned, and even her life. From 2001 to 2002, Ms. Wang was sent to Jining Security Jail four times, jailed in Jining Detention Centre three times, and sent to Jinan Female Labour Camp three times for brainwashing. The shortest detention was in Xincun Police Station, where she was detained for eight days.

The three times that she was taken to Jinan brainwashing centre was the most brutal. The first time she was abducted by Captain Gao Luyang of Jining City Central District Police Department and his assistants. Ms. Wang calmly told her abductors that she only had an undershirt and a pair of worn out pants on, and no shoes. They dragged her into the car like thugs anyway. The second time she was caught posting flyers by police from Jiyang Police Station in Jining City and sent to Wulitun Detention Centre. She went on a hunger strike for 4 days in protest and was brought back by her work unit. Afterwards, the head of the security department at work took her to Jinan. The third time she was caught when she was posting flyers of "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance" in Rencheng District in Jining City. She escaped from the police station and went home at 4 am. But the police went to her home at around 8 am and broke into her house by breaking the window and then smashing the lock. They arrested her and sent her to Jinan for brainwashing.

At the end of 2001, to escape the unrelenting harassment by the police, she was forced to leave home and go from place to place for nearly five months. When she returned, she was arrested again by the police and sent to jail.

During the detention, she, a lady in her 70's, went through all kinds of cruel, inhuman tortures. The police dragged her in and out by her feet, and once they dragged her by her hair and threw her against the wall. She had to put up with the humiliation of body searches by the police, and she was fined for inexplicably large sums of money, from several thousand to tens of thousands of Yuan. (1)

After listening to Ms. Wang calmly telling me all this, I wanted to cry out loud: "My good comrades, for heaven's sake, everyone has parents. Everyone has a conscience. A seventy-five year old lady's only wish is the right to her belief, 'Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance,' and the freedom to practise Falun Gong for her health and to become a better person. What is the crime in that?!"

Government officials and law enforcement agents, "Serving the people" cannot be just empty words. Have you considered that your persecution of Falun Gong is the same as indulging in evil, and wrecking the tradition of Chinese morality. Please give back the 75 year-old lady her living environment, and stop harassing her. Let her spend the remainder of her life in peace. Give back the money that she toiled all her life for, and return the Dafa practitioners their inalienable freedom of belief. This is a right granted to all citizens by the constitution.

(1) *Yuan is the Chinese currency. The average monthly salary of an urban worker in China is 500 Yuan.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/4/1/71373.html