In Memory of My Father, Zhang Baicheng, Who Was Tortured to Death Two Years Ago

By Zhang Lixin

My family and I live in Meihekou City in Jilin Province. It has been exactly two years since my father Zhang Baicheng passed away. I often cry when I think of him. He was a very good father. At work he was diligent and earnest and would do any assignments the boss gave him without complaint. He was also very healthy.

In July 1997, my father was fortunate enough to get a copy of the book, "Zhuan Falun". He wouldn't let go of the book after he started reading. As soon as I got home, he eagerly recommended the book to me. Half-believing, half-doubting, I opened "Zhuan Falun". I was also convinced and moved by the principles taught in the book. We both thought this was what we had looked for all our lives. We then started our Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) cultivation practice and our whole family experienced its goodness.

In July 1999, out of personal resentment and jealousy, Jiang started to openly suppress Falun Gong. He attributed all kinds of faults to Falun Gong. Proclamations the government had previously issued to Falun Gong and the praises seen on TV suddenly vanished. I was at a loss before the slander now being constantly displayed in the media. What was going on? I am a practitioner of Falun Gong and I have personally benefited from the practice. Falun Gong teaches us to consider others first, to think of others in all circumstances and to look into ourselves during conflicts so as to improve our moral standards, purify our minds and improve our health. All Falun Gong activities are free of charge and open to the public.

If one is even deprived of the basic right to follow the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance," to be a good person, what else can we believe in? In which direction is our society headed?

As a person with a conscience, I have the responsibility to clarify the true situation to the government. In accord with the constitutional right to appeal, I started to clarify the truth to people in the Chinese government and to the Chinese people, in order to let them know that the media reports were false rumours and fabrications. During the Cultural Revolution, even the Chinese president Liu Shaoqi was charged with ten crimes with "conclusive evidence," but none of the "evidence" was true. When Liu was persecuted, many people had the clear conscience and courage to hold on to the truth and speak out for the truth. In those ten years of the Cultural Revolution, our nation suffered from tragic upheaval as a result of the political manipulation of a handful of people. For our nation and our people, however, the real trauma from the Cultural Revolution exceeds well beyond those ten years. It has become my genuine wish to clarify the truth about Falun Gong to the Chinese government, so that they will give back to the people the basic right to know the truth.

In December 2000 I went to Beijing to appeal but was arrested and sent to a labour camp for one year of forced labour. Around the same time, my father was also sentenced to one year in a forced labour camp for posting Dafa truth-clarifying materials.

When I went home in December 2001, to my surprise I found that my father had come home ten days ahead of me. He was sent home because he had been brutally tortured! It was too horrible to look at him! In that den of evil, my father suffered extreme torture, both physically and mentally. He used to be very healthy, but after his detention he had scabies all over his body. It pained him even to straighten his back when he walked. The flesh on his legs had rotted, and there were deep sores that went all the way down to the bone. Even in this kind of physical condition, my father was forced to go up and down the stairs every day for work at the labour camp. Every day, the staff in the forced labour camp also attempted to force him to give up his belief in Falun Gong.

During my father's stay at home, he constantly remained in bed. Even so, the staff from the labour camp and the police station still came to torment him and robbed us of 400 Yuan (1) as a "visiting fee."

My father could not bear the inhumane persecution any more and fell ill. On February 19, 2002, the eighth day of Chinese New Year, my father passed away, two months after he came back home. He was only 66 years old when he left us. My poor father lost his life after only six months' persecution in a police station, jail and forced labour camp.

After my father passed away, my mother and I were left behind without any income. I went out to work as an hourly worker to make a living. While I was away from home, my mother also became the victim of the persecution. The officers from the police station interrogated my mother frequently. Once they tried to force my mother to sign a "renunciation statement" on my behalf. My mother refused and they forcibly took my mother's hand to take her fingerprint. Later, they shouted at my mother, "If we can't find your daughter, we'll take you away and interrogate you every day." They even charged at her, threatening to attack my mother physically. My mother was 63 years old. She was so frightened that she suffered a heart attack as the result of the intimidation. Upon seeing this, the police said to each other, "If we come a few more times, the old woman will probably die."

The only reason that the police persecuted us was because my father and I practise Falun Gong and we told people that Falun Dafa is good.

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(1) Yuan: Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income for an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/5/31/76036.html