Ms. Tian Yuan, a Disabled Practitioner, Recounts the Persecution She Has Suffered by Police in Changchun City

My name is Tian Yuan. I live in the Shuangyang District, Changchun City. I used to be a doctor at the Jilin Provincial Children's Hospital. In early 1994, a policeman who was carrying a gun illegally opened fire when he was arguing with someone over personal issues. The bullet hit my spinal column, and I became paralysed from the chest down.

I've been confined to a wheelchair since that day 11 years ago. Since I was bound to the wheelchair, I was very weak. I frequently had colds and lung infections. I often had difficulty breathing and had to sit up all night long. Due to bladder atrophy, I often wet my pants. My bowel movement was not normal, either. I would get constipation, and then diarrhoea. Sometimes I couldn't help but defecate in my pants, on sitting mats or on the bed. In addition, my lower legs had oedema, followed by atrophy. I suffered from other illnesses such as problems with my cervical vertebra, stiff shoulders, chronic pharyngitis, and chilitis. My lips were always dry, chapped and bleeding. I couldn't bear the physical and mental suffering any more, and in the fall of 1998, I tried to commit suicide. Although I was saved, I remained very depressed. I lived in despair and pain every day and felt that death would be better than life.

While I was struggling, my mother started to practise Falun Gong. She had endured a lot of hardships physically and mentally since my accident, and she was in ill health too. She had gastritis, cholecystitus and severe neurasthenia that kept her from eating and sleeping. Later, she also developed heart problems and sciatica. She would suddenly pass out while doing something ordinary like walking. She often suffered from toothaches, hot hands and feet and constipation. Shortly after she started practising Falun Gong, her symptoms of illness all went away. She slept and ate well. She could walk briskly, and she looked younger. She also quit smoking, and she became more cheerful in general.

Seeing my mother's changes, I started to practise Falun Gong in May 1999. Very soon after that, miracles happened. I regained bowel and bladder control. My bladder could hold more. My legs stopped suffering from oedema and atrophy. Headaches, shoulder numbness and aches, dry and chapped lips and other symptoms caused by cervical vertebra problems, stiff shoulders and the chronic pharyngitis all disappeared. My complexion became rosy and healthy-looking. Nobody could tell that I had to use a wheelchair. They were surprised to see how healthy I was.

What happened to my mother and me was witnessed by many people, and they supported our decision to practice Falun Gong. At that time, Falun Gong also received a lot of awards and praise in China.

After the persecution of Falun Gong started in July 1999, everything changed. Policemen came to our home many times to monitor us and search for Falun Gong books. They also tried to force us to give up Falun Gong by threatening to arrest us.

If a person benefits from Falun Gong but does not speak up for it when it is being slandered, is that person a good person? In order not to go back to our miserable state and in order to have a legal environment to practise, my mother and I went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong in late February 2000. We thought that our right to appeal was protected by the Constitution. To our surprise, before we even had a chance to talk to anyone from the Appeals Bureau, we were stopped by people from the liaison office in Beijing. They asked us whether we were Falun Gong practitioners. Once we said yes, we were arrested. Three days later, we were sent back to Shuangyang District and detained for 10 days.

Everybody has the right to speak up for themselves if they are treated unfairly. Since we were not allowed to appeal or sue, we had to tell people directly or write down our experience so more people could know the truth. But the government would not allow these things, either. The government uses lies to suppress people because they are afraid that people will learn the truth. Policemen often came to our home to harass us. They ransacked our home at will. If they found anything related to Falun Gong, they would arrest us. My mother was illegally detained three times because of this.

The first time was in April 2002. My mother was detained for 45 days, more than the legally allowed detention period. She was then sentenced to two years of forced labour. Due to ill health, the labour camp didn't take her in. The second detention happened during the Chinese New Year in 2004. My mother spent her New Year's Eve at the detention centre. One month after she was released, she was detained for the third time.

Two days after my mother was detained for the third time on March 8, 2004, over twenty policemen arrested me and took me to the detention centre also. My elderly father, who was suffering from dementia, was left at home by himself. Seeing my mother and me arrested, he was so worried that he developed signs of heart failure and had to be sent to the emergency room that night.

At the detention centre, I followed the legal procedures and requested a lawyer and an administrative re-examination of my case. Both of my requests were turned down. In order to protect my rights, I went on a hunger strike. Five days later, they released me. They knew very clearly that both my father and I needed my mother's care, but they still didn't release her until fifteen days later. After her release, my mother told me that at the detention centre, the policemen used various ways to pressure her to give up her belief in Falun Gong. She passed out several times under the abuse.

In the past several years, the policemen have never left us alone. Whenever the so-called "sensitive days", whether holidays or political events, approached, they would send someone to monitor us. If they found out that other practitioners came to our home, they would arrest that person. One practitioner who came to our home was sentenced to forced labour. Her child was only five years old when she was taken away.

On March 14, 2005, the Procuratorate sent someone to my home and wanted to take me, even though I could not walk or take care of myself, to the court for sentencing. This act was against the Constitution and disability legislation.

I practice Falun Gong, and I have never hurt anybody. The practice has brought benefits to me, and it is also beneficial to society. Since I started the practice, I didn't spend any more of my workplace's money on medical costs (95% of my medical costs are reimbursable). Since I couldn't go to work, I opened a private clinic. Although I was not making a lot of money, I still tried my best to pay taxes (normally people who are severely disabled like me are exempt from taxation). I always think of my patients first. I never charged money for measuring their blood pressure or treating minor things. The reason I could do all of these things is because I practise Falun Gong. Our Teacher taught us to be good people. He taught us to be even better than what's considered a good person by society. Falun Gong is being persecuted for no reason. As a beneficiary of Falun Gong, I wanted to speak up for it so that it can be treated fairly. What's wrong with that? Why should I be sentenced?

List of Perpetrators:

Changchun City Police Department Shuangyang Branch
Police Head: Pu Shuguang, 864314257666 (office), 8613504412222 (mobile phone), 864315202619 (home)

Changchun City Police Department Shuangyang Branch National Security Bureau
Head: Zhang Jianping, 864314220785 (office), 8613904391196 (mobile), 864314254233 (home)

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/3/22/97821.html