Germany: Falun Gong Practitioner’s Speech during the 'Fields of Shame' Exhibition in Hamburg

For more information on the 'Fields of Shame' exhibition, please see
http://en.clearharmony.net/articles/200512/30155.html.

My name is Wang Zhen and I am from Shanghai. I have called Dresden my home since October 2004. In August of 2005 I applied for asylum, as I was persecuted in China for my belief in Falun Gong.

In September 1997, I began to practise Falun Gong, while a civil engineering student at the Tongji University in Shanghai. Falun Gong enjoyed a good reputation, which was a prerequisite for us to practise the Falun Gong exercises in the University grounds and read Zhuan Falun (the main book of Falun Gong) in the lounge.

Wang Zhen giving a speech

The beginning of the persecution

[The persecution against Falun Gong started in 1999.] I was imprisoned for two years in a slave labour camp because I refused to renounce Falun Gong. Falun Gong for me is a highly moralistic and effective practice. Nothing could make me renounce it.

I was forced into hard labour in the agricultural fields, a well as making products such as toys, bees, small monkeys out of plush material, pearl pendants for wallets, Christmas cards, electronic-connectors, and so on. Many of these products were earmarked for export. We were forced to work from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily and received no payment. Bullying and torture are commonplace in forced labour camps and Falun Gong practitioners’ area treated worse than criminals.

At times, the police forced us to watch re-education videos, the content of which was anti-Falun Gong propaganda. Afterwards, we were ordered to write down our “understanding” of what we had heard. Although I had personally experienced the benefit of Falun Gong, I was ordered to blindly believe the false propaganda. Besides, they forced me to read books about Communism.

On April 15th 2003, because I refused to renounce Falun Gong I was cruelly tortured. They twisted my fingers and then pressed a tooth brush between the twisted fingers, which hurt terribly. During the torture they did not stop cursing at me, screaming that I was screwed up in my head, that I was insane, that I was walking the wrong path and so on. They made me sit on the ground with my back to the wall, while two men fixed my hands against the wall. Another sat across from me and pushed with his legs against me, trying to force my legs apart. My muscles tore and even today my legs are severely disabled and I have problems walking. I have difficulties in bending or stretching my legs. Sports are out of the question for me, as I suffer tremendous pain the minute I attempt to exercise. They put me into a torture position that injured my back, burned my fingers with cigarette stubs and cursed Falun Gong wildly. They monitored me strictly to prevent me from saying “Falun Gong is Good”.

At a later date they tortured a Falun Gong practitioner to death in that camp. The perpetrators of the crime alleged that he had committed suicide. This is one of their preferred tactics, alleging that the victim had committed suicide. In reality, they were persecuted to death by the Chinese authorities, although they reported in the media some contrived story to malign us.

Once, I met my friend Ma Xinxing in the slave labour camp. He had the definite look of someone who had been tortured and was too afraid to say anything to me. Later, they murdered him. Another two of my friends were also murdered in the Qingpu-slave labour camp. Many others are still imprisoned there.

I was released on September 9th 2003. I had written down a lie. I had made up something bad about Falun Gong, because I no longer could bear the mental and physical torture. On February 2nd 2003, I began to work at Siemens High Voltage Switchgear Ltd, of Shanghai. As the authorities told them that I practised Falun Gong they fired me on March 16th 2003.

My grandfather and grandmother lived in constant fear during these two years. The neighbours cursed them as counter-revolutionaries. They suffered nightmares and they remembered again the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Both suffered minor heart attacks during my imprisonment and had to be hospitalised. My mother also spent two years in a slave labour camp. My entire family suffered under the persecution.

I had many good friends, but once they heard that I practised Falun Gong again, they ended our friendship. Also, many of my friends were arrested, including Fa Zhengping, Lü Jinlong und Lin Mingli. My career opportunities had disappeared into thin air. I lost my job, my health and my freedom.

I want to file charges against the criminal Jiang Zemin (former Chinese Communist Party leader) and his cronies from Shanghai in Germany. Jiang Zemin and his accomplices were already accused by a number of Falun Gong practitioners of genocide and crimes against humanity, in Karlsruhe.

Since I was released from the slave labour camp and am my life is no longer at risk, I have taken up the practice of Falun Gong again. I live by the Falun Gong principles, Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance. I want to be a good person who is tolerant. I neither can nor will ever give up Falun Gong.

You may know Shanghai is a flashy and modern city. Please be your own judge, after hearing that this city has slave labour camps for those of different faith. One must draw a big distinction between the view one has of Shanghai and what the Chinese Embassies, the media and Consulates tell the world.

Since the assumption of power by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), they have murdered and terrorised people. To date, around sixty to eighty million Chinese people have been murdered and this during peaceful times. Because the CCP is totally depraved, corrupt and bloodthirsty, more than five million people have renounced the Chinese Communist Party, including myself.

I hold the wish the more people in Germany will hear about the truth of what goes on behind the iron curtain in China, so many more people would be saved.

Thank you International Society for Human Rights for staging this event.

Zhen Wang

Originally published in German at http://www.clearharmony.de/articles/200511/27831.html