Denmark: Testimony - A Sixteen Year Old Boy Forced into Exile After his Parents are Persecuted to Death Because of their Belief in Falun Gong

Among Danish Falun Gong practitioners there is a new practitioner named Liu Xiaotian who has just begun his cultivation. His parents were persecuted to death because they were Falun Gong practitioners in China. At the time he was only sixteen years old.

Liu Xiaotian was born in December 1985 in Yongzhou City, Hunan Province. His father Liu Qing worked as a local government official, while his mother Yang Yuyan was a textile factory worker. Prior to 2001 he lived in a happy family, harmonious and warm despite not having much money. After trying to start a family for some time, Mr. and Ms. Liu finally had a son and devoted all their love to their only child. Xiaotian studied in a local high school and lived a carefree life.

One day, in the very beginning of 1999, Liu Qing came back from a business trip to Wuhan and told his family that he saw many people practising Falun Gong in a city square. Soon after that, Xiaotian’s parents began to practise Falun Gong. They lived their lives by the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance, requiring themselves to be good, upgrading their morality and thinking of others first. In the latter half of 1999, the textile factory where Xiaotian’s mother worked planned to lay off some of the staff. To secure job opportunities for those with more financial difficulties, Xiaotian’s mother gave up her job in October.

On July the 2nd 1999, China launched the crackdown on Falun Gong. The Chinese government's propaganda machine forged deceitful lies to criminalise and slander Falun Gong. The brutality of the persecution of Falun Gong was continuously pushed to higher levels. Though they had only practised Falun Gong for less than one year, Xiaotian’s parents still took to the streets according to their own conscience to tell people the truth about Falun Gong. Xiaotian studied at boarding school and returned home every weekend. Though he had seen his parents practising exercises, he had no further understanding of Falun Gong, and he even did not know or care about the persecution. He had never been aware of the danger that was awaiting his parents. Perhaps because the couple were already aware of the brutality of the persecution, they told their son nothing about Falun Gong nor about what they were doing.

When Xiaotian was sixteen years old, ultimately a bloody tragedy descended on his family. On the afternoon of, November 23rd 2001, when Xiaotian was at school, the police told his teacher that his parents had been arrested and the police were looking for him. The classmate beside the teacher heard the news and rushed to tell him that his parents were in trouble and the police were looking for him. Xiaotian was scared by the news, his whole body shaking with fear. Taking nothing with him, he escaped from the school and hid himself in a neighbour’s storehouse for the night. At midnight he crept to the opposite side of street from his parents’ house and saw that its windows were smashed, as was the furniture inside. A kind-hearted neighbour found him and let him stay at their house. But two or three days later, seven or eight policemen visited the neighbour and threatened to punish him if he sheltered Xiaotian and did not report him to the police. The kind neighbour had no other choice but to give him some money and advise him to ask his only remaining relative, a farmer in Fuchien Province, for help.

On the long, exhausting journey, Xiaotian's legs were wounded and his neck cut by wire netting, leaving a deep scar. Finally he came to his uncle’s house in Fuchien Province. Five or six months later, in May, 2002, the police visited his uncle. Xiaotian hid and did not hear the dialogue between the police and his uncle. After the police left, his uncle became very quiet. That night his uncle pleaded with a friend to send Xiaotian to Shenzhen, a city near Hong Kong in Guangdong Province. Xiaotian hid himself in a big storehouse, fearful of talking to people. He spent an entire year in the storehouse where only fear, anxiety and grief kept him company. He missed his parents, but his uncle always told him that there was no news of them. There was no one to talk to, to comfort him and to take care of him. Each long night he spent there was one of loneliness and grief. Due to his mental state and isolation, his intelligence deteriorated. He arrived in Denmark thereafter and found himself unable to express himself fluently and to study as usual. He was usually in tears and was awakened by nightmares every night, wondering why his happy life was gone overnight.

In June 2003, his uncle borrowed a large sum of money to pay a smuggler to take Xiaotian out of the country. On July the 1st, Xiaotian arrived in Denmark. A few hours later he was left at the train station in Copenhagen. Because of his experiences he shook with fear, particularly when he saw the police. An old Chinese lady at the station took him to a refugee camp. Overcome with fear, he could neither express himself nor fill in the application forms accurately. What he feared most was that he might be deported back to China and into the hands of the police.

With the help of the refugee camp staff, Xiaotian soon made contact with Danish Falun Gong practitioners. He burst out crying. His first sentence was to ask practitioners to help him find his parents, who he missed very much.

His mental trauma prevented Xiaotian from expressing himself fluently. It took the Danish Falun Gong practitioners one year to fully understand the whole event, his pain and suffering.

With the help of practitioners, Xiaotian started to think about why his parents were subjected to such brutal persecution, and he started to practise Falun Gong. Because of his mental damage he stammered when reading the Dafa books, unable to finish one whole sentence. But he still kept reading with determination. Gradually he improved through his study he came to understand the origin of all suffering and hardships, the choice his parents made, and also the truth of life. After having experienced tribulations, he treasured the rebirth that Dafa gave him. Now he wears a smile on his face, his heart feels happiness, and his mental wounds are being healed.

Recovering from the mental damage done to him, Xiaotian started to think about the whereabouts of his parents. Could his uncle send him to a foreign country without the agreement of his parents? Was there anything that his uncle did not tell him? His mind was filled up with doubts.

On July 28th 2004, Xiaotian's uncle told him by phone that his parents were persecuted to death in April, 2002, that is, five months after their arrest. Nobody knows the exact details of his parents’ deaths and in which prison they died. In May 2002, the police visited his uncle to notify him about the deaths but did not reveal any specific details. His uncle was stunned into silence when the cause of death was announced as suicide. The police forced his uncle to sign a statement drawing a clear line between him and his dead relatives. The uncle was ordered with threats to report Xiaotian to the police if he knew of his whereabouts, or his family would be punished. Being scared to death by the threats, Xiaotian’s uncle dare not keep him at home and thus sent him to the storehouse in Shenzhen City on that very day. In China there was no place for Xiaotian to take shelter nor was there any bright future for him. There seemed to be no way out. There was no alternative but to borrow an astronomical amount of money to send Xiaotian overseas. So far his uncle still has no money to pay the debt. The uncle told Xiaotian that a kind-hearted neighbour had sent him a photo of his parents’ house. At first the door of the house was sealed with a strip of official paper. Then the house was torn down. The uncle said helplessly on the phone, “I was scared. I could do nothing about it.” He told the practitioners, “Xiaotian was mentally twisted. His school performance used to be very good. But now he can not speak as fluently as before.”

This is just one of the thousands of cases of persecuted Falun Gong practitioners in the "best period of time in Chinese history for human rights.” The ruthless elimination of entire families is a typical feature of genocide.

Two years after their murder, the news of Xiaotian's deaths was revealed. Numerous innocent and kind Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured to death but so far their deaths remain undisclosed.

Photos: Xiaotian played a role in an Anti-Torture Exhibition in Northern Europe. His performance was vivid and shocking. He said that through his performance he wanted to let people know the suffering experienced by his parents.