The Experiences of 55 Year Old Dafa Practitioner Ms Liu Xing from Hebei Province, Who Died in 2004 as a Result of Persecution

Falun Dafa practitioner Ms. Liu Xing was a 55-year-old worker in the Fourth Cotton Manufactory, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province. She went to Beijing three times to explain to the authorities the truth about Falun Gong and was detained four times. In 2000, she was illegally sentenced to 3 years of reeducation through labour. She was tortured so severely that she developed a serious liver illness. After she went home in October 2001, she was kept under constant surveillance and harassment. Ms. Liu passed away on January 26, 2004, uncleared of a false charge.

The following is Liu Xing's experience, as told in her own words.

My name is Liu Xing. I am 55 years old. I am a worker in the Fourth Cotton Factory, in the city of Shijiazhuang. I was an advanced producer for 6 consecutive years.

My husband and I began to practise Falun Gong in 1996. After the Communist Party and Jiang Zemin started to persecute Dafa in 1999, I experienced severe persecution.

1. In October 1999, I went to Beijing to peacefully appeal for a stop to the persecution against Falun Dafa. I was arrested and handcuffed to a pillar for three days and three nights by police from the local police station in Shenglibeijie. After that, I was detained for 15 days, and then I was imprisoned for another ten days by my company.

2. In February 2000, I practised the Falun Gong exercises in Hebei Theatre on the evening of the Chinese Spring Festival. I was detained for 15 days. During this period, I went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. I was given another 15 days of detention.

3. In May 2000, I went to Beijing to appeal again. At Shijiazhuang Train Station, I was taken back and imprisoned in Shenglibeijie's police station. There, a policeman ordered me to kneel down in front of him. He handcuffed me to a pillar and hit my face many times. He grabbed my hair and pulled my head forward so that I hit a safe cabinet. The policemen also used the punishment called "flying an airplane" to torture me. He ordered me to smoke his cigarette butt [ed. note: Falun Dafa practitioners do not smoke]. I refused, so he verbally abused me. He continued torturing me and I fell down to the ground. Later on, he locked me in a small cage. Around 7 to 8 o'clock in the evening, my son came to visit me. He did not even recognise me because I had been beaten beyond recognition. It was only when I called my son's name that he knew it was me.

Chief Zheng took me out from the small cage around 2 or 3 o'clock the next morning. He forced me to take off my coat and used an electric baton to hit my face and both sides of my mouth. By daytime, my face was bruised and swollen. Several of my teeth had fallen out and my face was twice its normal size. Later on, I was detained for another 15 days. There were two people there who also practised Falun Gong. Because we were detained in the same room, I talked to them. They recognised me, and they both cried. It took a month for my face to gradually recover. After my facial swelling went down, I still could not eat solid food, as four of my teeth had become so loose I had no choice but to have them removed and to put in four artificial teeth. My home was ransacked two or three times by the Shenglibeijie local police station. My company detained me for 6-7 days.

4. In July 2000, I went to Beijing to appeal again. I was handcuffed for more than 20 hours by the Hebei Liaison Office in Beijing. In the daytime, I was exposed to the hot sun. I was also detained for 36 days at the First Lockup of Shijiazhuang.

5. In September 2000, while I was at home, a police officer from the Fourth Criminal Brigade deceived me into going to the police station by telling me there was a meeting I had to attend. He said I would be sent back right after the meeting. However, I was arrested as soon as I got there. I was subjected to reeducation through labour for three years. My company fined me 2,000 yuan (the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China) in cash and did not give me my retirement allowance.

6. My husband Liu Yueyun, 60 years old, is a retired worker from the Shijiazhuang Municipal Water Pump Factory. He also served in the army, was an excellent soldier and a Communist Party member. He practised Falun Gong with me. In October 1999, he went to Beijing to appeal. He was handcuffed for 3 days and 3 nights by the Shenglibeijie local police station and detained for 30 days. In the Chinese Spring Festival in February 2000, because he practised the exercises at Hebei Theatre, he was sentenced to 4 years in prison. At the beginning of 2004, he was released. My husband's and my retired allowance have still not been returned to us.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/1/14/93474.html