I am Zhang Jingyan, a practitioner from Shuangcheng City, Heilongjiang Province. In observance of the Chinese New Year season, I wish village elders, fellow countrymen and friends a happy New Year, and I wish you joy and good health! The New Year holiday is a good time for the whole family to be together, but because of the persecution, I am forced to live a homeless life even though I have a home, just because I practise Falun Gong and follow "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" in order to be a good person. Every holiday season I miss my relatives, friends and fellow villagers even more. For the past five years I have been imprisoned and sentenced to jail, my family's property was confiscated, and now I live the life of an itinerant. To put that in perspective, this situation has lasted for nearly 2,000 days and nights, with each day and night seeming to last an eternity for me and my family. It is unbearable to recall the past! When I think of my frail old mother-in-law, my lonely husband and our underage child longing for maternal love, when I think of the physical and emotional suffering of my innocent family members and their economic distress, it wounds my heart.
I used to have a bad temper and placed a high priority on my own personal gain. I have a large family. I often fought with my father-in-law, causing my relatives and neighbours a lot of stress. Additionally, because I had lived a hard life, since my youth I'd suffered from myocarditis, stomachache, pain in my legs and back, and my hands and feet were cold all the time. I felt that life was very bitter and I blamed others. Since 1996 when I started practising Falun Gong, my diseases were completely cured, and for the past 9 years I haven't suffer any illnesses. Furthermore my outlook has changed, and I've come to understand many truths concerning how a person should live; I have become broad-minded and I exercise forbearance when I encounter conflicts. Since I started practising I haven't scolded or fought with anyone in our family and we are extremely harmonious.
On July 20, 1999 Jiang Zemin's regime unexpectedly started the brutal persecution of Falun Gong. While watching the fabricated lies on television, I said to my husband, "I will appeal for help according to the law. In the ancient times there was a saying: If the son won't stand up when his kind father is slandered, then people will call him unworthy. I have benefited a lot from Falun Dafa, I must speak out for my Teacher and Falun Dafa."
On July 24, 1999 I went to the Beijing to appeal for help, but I was sent back under guard by the officials of Shuangcheng Town and imprisoned in the Shuangcheng City Detention Centre. I was imprisoned for more than 20 days, and the police of Patrol Union forcefully ransacked my home. From then on the town and village officials frequently harassed my family and me, and they also tried to force my husband to write the Guarantee Statement. A few days before October 1, 1999, Zhang Xiaoyan, Director of the Union of Village Women, observed the reform-through-labour rule and forced me to do cleaning work, similar to dealing with people in "the five black categories" in the Cultural Revolution.
On the eve of the lunar New Year in 2,000, I went again to Beijing to appeal on behalf of Falun Gong, and I was again imprisoned in Shuangcheng City Detention Centre, this time for more than 50 days. I was stuffed in a small cell with more than 30 other people, which was befouled with faeces and urine. We were fed two black steamed buns a day, and a little soup with dirt in it. Later I was sent to the 2nd Harbin Detention Centre, where I was imprisoned for more than 40 days. There I was subjected to the "Sitting Board" continuously from 6 am to 10 pm. Other people there were out of breath because of it and we were all crowded together when we slept. After that I was sent to a brainwashing class, where I suffered mental persecution. I resisted the persecution with a hunger strike. All of this transpired during the New Year holiday season, and when my elderly father-in-law heard about my situation, his illness got worse rapidly and our relatives had to take care of him for more than half a month. My kind husband was under so much pressure that he got a little absent minded one day and fell, breaking a bone in his foot. Without notifying me, they extorted 6,300 yuan (1) from my family but still they wouldn't release me. Only after I firmly resisted them with a hunger strike did they release me.
In July 2000, I again went to Beijing to appeal. The police on the train required that each passenger curse Falun Gong. Because I refused to slander Dafa, they forcefully detained me in the Shanhaiguan 2nd Criminal Investigation Unit. There the police beat me ruthlessly and swore at me, and I had a big lump on my head when they were done. Then I was sent by police officers from the railway station and village officials to the Shuangcheng Detention Centre. In the Detention Centre police slapped my face, force-fed me concentrated salt water, and threatened to send me to a forced labour camp. After being imprisoned for more than 80 days and having 2,800 yuan extorted from my family, I was finally released.
A few days before the Chinese New Year in 2001, the village officials sent five Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members to my home to take turns watching me. Mr. Hu, a village official, said, "You're getting off easy. If this was the Cultural Revolution, you would have been treated like someone from 'the five black categories' by the militiaman."
One day Mr. Hu ordered me to go to the village, but I refused. Zhu Wangfu, Secretary of the village branch of the CCP, led four or five people from the local police station and drove a car to my home to arrest me. I had to hide in my relative's house. The third day they tracked me to my relative's home and forcefully ransacked the greenhouse. Thus I was forced to leave home and go from place to place, but that didn't stop them from coming to my home daily to intimidate and harass my family. At that time my husband was working away from home, and only my elderly mother-in-law and my youngest son were there. Still they wouldn't give up and kept threatening my family members. Zhang Xiaoyan, Director of the Women's Union, angrily rebuked my family members, and my son was so frightened that he would run back home the moment he saw the police vehicle and shout before entering the door, "Are they here to arrest my mother?" My elderly mother-in-law was so worried and frightened that she became ill and bedridden. In May 2001, police officers and village officials returned to my home to arrest me while I was helping my father work the land. I was forced to leave home and came back in June.
In 2002, I had hoped to be reunited with my relatives for the New Year's holiday, but on December 28 of the lunar calendar, Zhu Wangfu led four or five police from the local police station and broke into my home at around 11 pm to arrest me. They confiscated my family's newly bought VCD machine. The next day, Zhang Guofu, the Director of the Police Department, led a group of police in three vehicles to break into my home. They searched my house from top to bottom and threw everything on the floor. Windows in one room were broken, the door lock was pried open and things were tossed everywhere. They also kept my family members under surveillance, following them everywhere they went, and extorted 1,400 yuan from them without giving them a receipt. When my relative asked for a receipt, they threatened to start arresting people. On New Year's Eve around 9 pm and again early the next morning, the village official Mr. Zhang came to arrest me. I was again forced to leave home. Other families were happily reunited and celebrating the Chinese New Year, while I was forced to leave my family and hide wherever I could.
On April 19, 2002, several hundred riot police came to Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province. The entire city was placed under martial law. I was taken to the Police Department of Shuangcheng City. Three middle-aged police officers gathered around and began to beat me. They lifted my chin and punched my throat; they dragged me around by my hair, while at the same time another officer brutally trampled on my feet and legs; they also handcuffed my hands and twisted my hands ruthlessly. Another officer slapped me again and again. After they finished beating me, they sent me to the 1st Criminal Investigation Unit. When I arrived there I could see that the building was still brightly illuminated and I could hear the sounds of people being beaten. They handcuffed me to a radiator and beat my legs with a hard plastic tube until they were covered with bruises.
On April 21, 2002 I was illegally sent to the 2nd Harbin Detention Centre. I was subjected to brutal mental and physical torture. The police there slapped my face, beat my back with a wooden board, shocked me with electric batons, and hung me more than a meter from the ground with handcuffs. One of the policemen told me, "Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin has ordered us to do this to you, I don't like doing it, but if I show you kindness, who will take care of my wife and child?" The prison cell measured about 20 square meters, but it was stuffed with more than 40 people. Sanitary conditions were extremely poor. I had scabies all over my body. During this period of time my mother-in-law knew I had been caught, and she was ever restless and often looked out the window murmuring my name. She fell and broke her wrist during this time.
On October 30, 2002, I was returned under guard to Shuangcheng City and sentenced to ten years in prison. Even the police were surprised at how harsh the sentence was.
On July 12, 2003 and August 14, 2003 I decided to go on a hunger strike to protest the sentence and illegal imprisonment. Doctor Dong Deguang from the 3rd Clinic swore at me. They attempted to forcefully insert a feeding tube eight or nine times without success. The tube was roughly the size of a finger. They pushed more than a meter of tube into me and repeatedly pulled it back and forth; my life was in danger at every turn. They forcefully opened my mouth and pinched my nose to force-feed me. Director Zhu Xiaobo and Doctor Liu said, "Two have already died from force-feeding. You're number three!"
Zhu pried my mouth open with chopsticks and maliciously said, "If you don't eat, we will force-feed you twice a day. I have plenty of time to play. Hasn't Wang Wenrong given in now?" As a result of their barbaric persecution, I convulsed and lost consciousness. The inmates in the same cell wept at my plight.
Director Liu Qingyu and instructor Xu Jize threatened, "You'll die for nothing! Who can do anything to us?"
Instructor Sun Shiyou clamored, "Force-feed her if she won't eat! Force-feed her till she dies!"
Police officer Huang Yanchung swore at me continuously. I once said to them, "No matter how you treat me, I don't hate you and I won't complain. I sincerely hope you recognize the truth and will stop being a scapegoat of Jiang's regime. Do the right thing, and you will have a good future." Some police officers sympathized with Falun Gong practitioners after learning the truth.
When I was persecuted to the brink of death, they sent me the first-aid centre. One day I managed to escape from the centre, so the police arrested my younger sister (who didn't practise Falun Gong), keeping her as a hostage and holding her for more than 10 hours. They went methodically through my relatives' telephone numbers, calling each of them and threatening them repeatedly, including those who lived far away. I was forced to be homeless and deprived of my family. I had to go from place to place.
From ancient times to this very day, what goes around, comes around. Please distinguish clearly between right and wrong, good and evil, and make the right choice for the sake of your own future.
Note:
(1) "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/2/7/95023.html
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