My name is Su Baoli. I was born in 1971 and lived in Lijia Gucheng Village, Wangjiazhuang Town, Anqiu City, Shandong Province. I started practising Falun Gong in 1997 and benefited tremendously from the practice, both physically and mentally. My character improved, and my relationship with my family became very harmonious. My husband and parents-in-law supported my belief, and we lived in peace and joy. We deeply enjoyed the wonderful life Falun Dafa brought us.
On July 20th, 1999, the wicked Chinese Communist Party started persecuting Falun Gong. That date marked the end of our peaceful life. In the past six years, hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners, including myself, have experienced unprecedented cruel persecution only because we persisted in our belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and being good people. Our families were broken up, and many of us were thrown into prison. I was detained 18 times in violation of the Chinese constitution, and my family was fined 43,500 yuan1. I recently broke free from the latest incarceration and cannot put into words the amount of suffering I have gone through.
Summary of the persecution my family has endured
My older sister, practitioner Su Baolan, was tortured to death for her belief. Her home was ransacked many times. She was arrested, detained, tortured, and subjected to brainwashing. In October 2001, Communist regime agents from the Anqiu City 610 Office2 transported her to a brainwashing center. In early November her body was found near a river. This has been reported several times on the Minghui/Clearwisdom, website.
My father Su Xiaoyou and my other sister Su Baoyun were each sentenced to three years of forced labour. Their homes were ransacked many times for their belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. They were arrested, detained, tortured, and subjected to brainwashing. In October 2000, my father and sister were sentenced to three years of forced labor.
My mother Zhou Shufen was arrested and detained many times, also because of her belief. She lived in exile for a long time to avoid persecution.
While my father and sister were detained, agents from the Wangjiazhuang Town Communist regime and the town police station, as well as village Party secretary Su Zhaosheng from Xingshan Village, Wangjiazhuangzi Town, went to my parents' home many times. They broke the lock and took bank deposit book(s), motorcycle(s), VHS player(s), radio(s), a small metal cart and a platform scale, among other things. They also tried to cut down the trees in my parent's yard in addition to taking away their food, but some conscientious people stopped them.
In the spring of 2001 the police climbed over the wall and entered my parents' yard in an attempt to arrest my mother. They cut off the electricity and removed the electric line to my parents' home in October 1999 and never re-connected it.
Officers from the Wangjiazhuang Town Police Station arrested my father and me.
In October 1999, officers from the Wangjiazhuang Town Police Station in Anqiu City broke into my parents' home again. Without showing their IDs or a warrant, they ransacked the home and took Falun Dafa books. They took my father and me to the police station and held us there for eight days.
At this time I had no choice but to abruptly wean my infant daughter from breastfeeding. My family brought food to my father and me at the police station. We slept on chairs. The police extorted a 20 yuan "living fee" from each of us at the time of our release.
I was subjected to persecution after going to Beijing for the first time to appeal
On the third day after I returned home from the police station, I set off for Beijing to appeal on behalf of Falun Dafa and to speak up about the mistreatment of practitioners. I was arrested in Tiananmen Square and was sent to the Anqiu City Custody Centre, where I was held for 15 days.
While in detention I received only a small bun twice a day. The authorities forced practitioners to watch slanderous videos and read slanderous books. They tried to force us to write "guarantee statements" to renounce our belief. I persisted in studying the Falun Dafa books and doing the exercises. The guards dragged me to the courtyard late at night and made me stay out in the freezing weather for more than six hours. The guards also forced the practitioners, including myself, to sit on the ground with both legs stretched out and both arms raised to shoulder level. We were forbidden to put our hands down. The guards would kick whoever put their arms down. I was only permitted to wear a sweatshirt and sweatpants. My body was numb and ached from the cold and exhaustion. We kept our arms up for six hours before the guards allowed us to put them down. Our arms were by then so rigid that we could barely let them down. After 15 days, they transferred me to the Monitoring and Administrative Division at the Anqiu City Detention Centre.
I was held there for 33 days and fined nearly 2,000 yuan. Practitioners were often interrogated and forced to do slave labour. The guards tired to coerce us into writing guarantee statements. Some practitioners, including myself, continued to do the Falun Gong exercises. The guards would then hit us with rubber clubs and make us stay in the yard at night. Three practitioners lost consciousness from the bitter cold. Despite this cruelty, practitioners still kindly told the guards, who had been misled by the government propaganda, the facts about Falun Dafa at every opportunity. Some guards stopped persecuting practitioners after learning the truth, while other guards went against their conscience and continued to torture practitioners in order to earn bonuses and promotions.
After I was held at Anqiu City Detention Centre for 33 days, authorities from the Wangjiazhuang Town Police Station took me to the town government and attempted to coerce me into writing guarantee statements. I adamantly refused. I was released three days later.
Returning to Beijing to appeal
In mid-June 2000 I took off for Beijing to appeal for the second time. I was intercepted before I got there and was held at the Anqiu City Detention Centre again. Every Chinese citizen is guaranteed the right to appeal, as stated in the Constitution of China, yet for exercising my right to appeal I was accused of "disrupting social order." In order to uphold my rights and belief and to protest the illegal detention, I went on a hunger strike. After five days of a hunger strike I was extremely weak. The jailers feared having to accept responsibility if I died, so they released me.
The second day after my return home, Wangjiazhuang Town Police Station officials arrested me once more and took me to the police station, where they held me for more than 30 days. My mother, who was 63 years old at the time, and two other practitioners were also held there.
The the police station personnel initially didn't give us any food. Director of the police station Han Fuben was very happy to see us suffer. He said, "Su Baoli, why don't you hold another hunger strike?" We held a group hunger strike to protest the illegal detention, and the police force-fed us.
A dozen days later I was again transferred to the Anqiu City Custody Centre. The guards mistakenly inserted a tube into my trachea, and I almost suffocated. I kept vomiting blood. The sadistic guards continued to force-feed me. I was unconscious after the procedure and my pulse was quite weak. I was at the brink of death, but the officials refused to release me.
I was arrested on a "sensitive day"
Prior to July 20th, 2000, Anqiu City 610 Office agents mobilized the police and other Communist regime agencies to arrest many practitioners in an attempt to prevent the practitioners from going to Beijing to appeal. Many practitioners in Anqiu City were sent to detention centres, custody centres, and police departments at the county and town level. While in detention we persisted in reciting the Falun Dafa teachings and doing the Falun Gong exercises. The guards shocked us with electric batons and sprayed us with water hoses. They failed to destroy the rock solid determination of Falun Gong practitioners. I was released in early August.
More than one month later, before October 1st, the Anqiu City 610 Office organized another large-scale arrest targeting Falun Gong practitioners. I was arrested and held at the Wangjiazhuang Town Police Station. At first they left us out in the open so that mosquitoes would bite us. Later the weather became colder by the day, and the village lake froze. We slept on a plastic sheet and a bed sheet spread on the concrete floor. We didn't have a quilt or anything to cover us at night. One practitioner's family eventually visited her and brought a quilt. The four of us tried to share this quilt. Because the quilt was too small, I covered myself with only the bed sheet, but I couldn't sleep due to the bone-freezing cold. We held a group hunger strike and requested unconditional release. We were released before January 1st, 2001.
My mother and I were detained for more than two months, and my father and sister were detained for a while. In October 2000 they were sentenced to three years of forced labour.
Implication policy; I left home to avoid additional persecution
The Communist regime persecutes people who have any connection with Falun Gong practitioners. They do this to incite hatred against practitioners. These individuals often harassed and threatened me. They arrested me and extorted money from me, and my family did not live a day in peace. My family lived in constant fear. My husband and parents-in-law changed from supporting to opposing my belief and mistakenly thought I made them lose face. In order to force me to give up Dafa practice, my husband often beat and verbally abused me. He even phoned the authorities to report me and assisted them in their efforts. I left home and lived in exile to avoid additional persecution.
I was arrested while in exile
In the evening on April 15th, 2002, three other practitioners and I rented a place. The police arrested and took us to the Beigong Police Department in Weifang City. The police stepped on my hair and dragged me back and forth along the floor. One officer in his 50s threatened, "If you refuse to give us your personal information, we'll strip you naked and throw you in the street." I said in a serious tone, "How old are you? I can't believe you said those words!" He left right away. I heard a female practitioner in another room shouting, "You perverts!" I said to one officer, "Quick! Go over there and stop them!" He immediately went to the other room.
The following day they transferred me to the Weifang Detention Centre. Five practitioners were being held there at the time. We did the exercises, and held a hunger strike to protest against the persecution.
The Communist regime agents are extremely brutal when force-feeding Falun Gong practitioners. The physical pain is difficult to articulate. Each time I was force-fed I was not sure I was going to live. Some practitioners had a tube as thick as a finger inserted into their nose. Occasionally the tube is left in their stomachs to inflict pain. Some tubes are left in for so long they fill the air with a stench when they are finally pulled out. I witnessed firsthand the incident with one practitioner who was energetic and glowed with health prior to force-feeding, but after she was force-fed she was carried back to a cell, her body sagged, and she was at the brink of death. She looked completely different before and after the force-feeding.
On our seventh day at the Weifang Detention Centre the guards force-fed us. The first practitioner who underwent force-feeding shook with spasms. He was cold and at death's door. After taking his blood pressure, the detention centre doctor's face fell and he left without administering any emergency measures. This practitioner's condition deteriorated as the night went on. The detention centre authorities finally told his family to take him home. I don't know if he survived.
I was the second person to be force-fed. The guards tied me to a large wooden plank. About five guards stepped on my hair and held my arms and legs down. Then they inserted a thick tube into my nose. I almost suffocated from the excruciating pain. After the feeding my body heated up and I trembled. I washed myself repeatedly with cold water despite the chilly weather and later lost consciousness. The guards ignored me but also said, "It doesn't matter because no one cares if she dies."
The fourth day in the morning the doctor took my blood pressure and panicked. They rushed me to a hospital in Weifang City for emergency treatment. The guards tied me to a bed, handcuffed me to the opposite bed poles, and gave me an IV infusion. I felt terrible after the infusion. It felt as if a million bugs were gnawing at me, and my heart beat so fast I could hardly breathe. I asked the guards, "What did you give me?" One guard said, "A drug that will make you healthy! If you give us the names of your family members, you'll feel better with your family by your side." I looked at him and knew he was lying. I made a fist to stop the fluid from entering my vein. The guard hit my hand to make me relax it. I tried to ignore the pain and said to them in a solemn voice, "You are persecuting good people against your conscience in order to get promotions and to further your personal interests. Conscience is important for a person!" They turned their heads and dared not look at me. They left the room soon afterwards. At noon, I asked to use the toilet and they refused permission. I asked repeatedly and was allowed to go. I moved slowly toward the toilet. My head was spinning and my body was so weak I felt as if I was walking on cotton. Miraculously, I escaped from the hospital after eight days of being on a hunger strike.
Arrested again during exile
On October 28th, 2002, three other practitioners and I were arrested at our rented home. Agents from the Anqiu City 610 Office made the arrest. They held us at the Anqiu City Detention Centre. While in detention we persisted in doing the exercises. Guard Ma Xiyan vehemently beat us with a rubber club and verbally assaulted us as he hit us. He refused to listen to practitioners who tried to explain the facts of Falun Dafa to him.
I could not get up the following day due to injuries suffered during the savage beating. The guards ordered a dozen inmates to chew up food and dump it into my mouth to humiliate me. I slapped my hand on the table and shouted, "Is this what your parents taught you? Don't you have brothers and sisters?" I confronted the guard, "Is this how you educate the inmates?" The inmates left, and the guard also left.
Practitioner Liu Qingmei was force-fed food other had chewed up and almost suffocated.
I was held at the Anqiu City Detention Centre for more than 50 days, during which time 610 Office agents demanded 30,000 yuan from my husband. They promised they would not send me to a forced labour camp if they received 30,000 yuan, and that my family only needed to pay an additional 2,000-yuan "reform" fee for me to be sent to a brainwashing centre. They said they would return a part of the 2,000 yuan if I was held at the brainwashing centre for more than six months. My family believed them. They sold their cropland and borrowed from every source. They eventually managed to scrape together 31,500 yuan and gave it to the authorities. After they got the money, these thieves never returned a penny to my family but added insult to injury by sending me to forced labour just the same! My family was not rich. Now we are deep in debt. We can't even afford cooking oil or salt and don't have enough money to send my daughter to kindergarten.
The 610 Office agents transferred me to Anqiu City Party School's Brainwashing Centre. They handcuffed me to a metal chair for three days and deprived me of sleep for seven days. Hu Shaoqun from the 610 Office slapped my face with a book for an entire afternoon. They ordered collaborators3 Li Dehe, Song Tingshan, Yao Hexing, and others to brainwash me. Because I remained determined, the collaborators started beating me. I was afraid of being sent to a forced labour camp, so, under tremendous pressure, I wrote a guarantee statement. I did something a Dafa practitioner should never do and left a stain on my cultivation path. I was released before the Chinese New Year.
Several days after the Chinese New Year I was again arrested and sent to the Anqiu City 610 Office. I refused to cooperate with these agents and I kept shouting, "Falun Dafa is good!" Four guards held my arms and legs and repeatedly threw me on the ground. Wang Ziqing from the 610 Office beat and kicked me. He phoned my husband and told him to help "reform4" me. He said I would not be released unless I completely "reformed." My husband, who was deceived and did not think calmly and rationally, vented his frustration on me. During the day, I was tortured physically and mentally at the brainwashing centre, and at night my husband beat and verbally abused me. Each day seemed longer than the previous one. I felt I would be better off dead than alive.
I escaped from the brainwashing centre after more than one month of torture. I was again arrested a few days later at my parents' home. I escaped once again, more than one month later, lived in exile for a while, and returned home after two months.
On March 15th, Anqiu City 610 Office agents arrested many practitioners
On March 15th, 2005, Anqiu City 610 Office officials suddenly ransacked the homes of all practitioners in the city and arrested and detained them. I was held at the Anqiu City Detention Centre along with my parents.
After we were sent to the detention centre, Li Hongbin, who was promoted from a driver to head of the Wangjiazhuang Town Police Station for taking part in the persecution, was ecstatic. He walked around carrying a briefcase and looked smug. I pitied him, for he ignorantly committed crimes. He was sacked soon afterwards.
While being held at the detention centre I refused to wear a prisoner's uniform and was handcuffed to a metal chair and left exposed in the cold weather for eight days. I refused to say that I was guilty of any crime, and I requested immediate and unconditional release. One of the guards violently slapped my face twice. I saw stars and could not see clearly. When he again raised his hand, I looked straight at him and said, "I'm not a criminal! Why are you hitting me?" He backed off and said, "Who said you are a criminal?" He quickly left. A while later another guard arrived. He slapped my face and kept saying, "You are a criminal, you are a criminal!" I looked at him, and, with a sincere desire to help him, I continuously told him the facts about Falun Dafa and explained the relationship between bad deeds and retribution. He kept slapping my face. I kept explaining the facts to him. He finally stopped and squatted on the ground silently.
I was transferred to a detention cell on the ninth day. My whole body tingled, my legs were severely swollen, and my feet hurt so badly that I could not walk. I could not sleep at night due to pain, but the guards said, "You are faking it." After I lost consciousness from pain they carried me outside to force-feed me. Despite the fact that I was extremely weak, they handcuffed me to a metal chair and left me outside for eight days until I lost consciousness on the chair.
When practitioner Mr. Sun Yezhi was force-fed, his heart-wrenching screams could be heard throughout the detention centre. Some guards could not bear to watch this cruelty and stayed away from the scene. The inmates were so frightened that they bowed their heads. In a loud voice, I spoke to deputy division head Zhang Yuanting, who was doing the force-feeding. I asked him not to persecute practitioners but he went on. With all the strength left in my body I shouted, "Heaven will not tolerate the persecution of Dafa practitioners!" Only my cries and Sun Yezhi's screams were heard in the detention centre.
After Sun Yezhi's force-feeding I was exhausted and collapsed in the metal chair, to which I was still handcuffed. When Zhang Yuanting came toward me I held up his hand covered with blood, cried, and said, "The blood of how many Dafa practitioners is on your hands? How will you pay this back in the future?" Zhang Yuanting laughed and walked away.
The practitioners' upright and kind acts made many inmates and guards realize that we practitioners are good people. Some guards stopped persecuting the practitioners and really admired them. An inmate once said to a practitioner, "You are a criminal element!" A guard heard him and immediately said to the inmate, "You are a criminal element; they are truly walking the right path."
I was sent to a labour camp and money was again extorted from my family
After one month at the Anqiu City Detention Centre I was skin and bones. I could barely walk. My menstrual period lasted a whole month. Anqiu City 610 Office agitators sentenced me to three years of forced labour. Wangcun Labour Camp officials refused to accept me because I didn't pass the physical exam. The detention centre authorities gave Wangcun Labour Camp officials 2,000 yuan in bribes, so they accepted me. According to law, the labour camp is supposed to distribute 800 yuan to the local government for each detainee admitted.
On the way to the labour camp, one officer from the Linghe Town Police Station in Anqiu City started beating practitioner Mr. Sun Yezhi for no reason. He stepped on Mr. Sun's hair and slapped his face. Practitioner Zhao Guangcai and I stopped the guard. This guard and officer Zhang Huansheng from the Wangjiazhuang Town Police Station savagely beat us. I kept shouting, "Falun Dafa is good! Release us now!" Anqiu City Detention Centre driver Han punched me in the mouth.
I later learned that the detention centre authorities had told my husband if he paid them a 10,000 yuan bribe they would send me home instead of to a labour camp. By the time my husband had collected 10,000 yuan and given it to them, however, earlier that morning they had already sent me to a labour camp. They lied to my husband and said, "We'll bring her back from the labour camp this afternoon." They never returned me or the money.
Savage torture at the Wangcun Women's Forced Labour Camp
At the labour camp, the guards taped my mouth shut and held me in solitary confinement for six days. Although my mouth was taped, I could still shout, "Falun Dafa is good!" I shouted as long as I could. About four guards stepped on my hair, pressed my neck against the edge of the bed, removed the tape, pried my mouth open with chopsticks, gagged me with a dirty towel, and then wrapped tape around my mouth and head several times. One guard jabbed my philtrum, the depression between upper lip and nose, with all his might. Even now my philtrum involuntarily jerks. One guard bent my arms with brute force. My arms were skin and bones, and I felt piercing pain shoot through them. They handcuffed me to the head of the bed for a day and night, and then they handcuffed me to the windowsill for five days. They pushed me against the edge of the windowsill and violently tickled me. They tortured me in other ways and tried to make me write the guarantee statements.
My legs turned purple and swelled up. My feet were numb and felt like it was being pricked by needles. My body shook and my heart felt like it was beating out of my chest. Everything went black and I fell forward. One guard later asked me, "How long will you last? What will this perseverance bring you?" I told him, "Each day counts. Truth needs to be upheld, because Truth will not shine if no one persists in it." He said, "You are stubborn and stupid. We'll unlock you immediately if you write a guarantee statement." I said, "Why do we Chinese people have to live without a spine?" He said, "If you persist, your legs will be useless. Decide for yourself." I told him in a serious voice, "Whoever carries out the persecution will be held accountable! I have never regretted my choice even when I was in great pain!"
In order to "reform" me, they didn't let me eat or sleep for a long time. They handcuffed me and tickled me, and the collaborators also tortured me. I accidentally bumped my head on a wall and against the table I was so exhausted. One month later the labour camp authorities wanted to destroy me. They resorted to a very debased method: four guards held me down, tickled me and made me give my fingerprint on a pre-written guarantee statement. They said, "See, you wrote a guarantee statement! Now you should be happy!" They tickled me very hard and said, "She is happy because she has reformed." They also obtained my fingerprints on other guarantee statements when I was asleep.
After Falun Gong practitioners "reform," the guards force them to work over ten hours a day and watch videos that slander Dafa and Teacher. They also scream at practitioners who lower their heads and refuse to watch, saying, "Look up! Watch this!" Many practitioners have their hands cut from copper wires and have brown calluses on their buttocks from sitting so long doing slave labour. After watching the videos, the guards force each practitioner to write their "understandings," praise the wicked Communist regime, and thank the Party for persecuting them. The practitioners are forced to write a weekly article, a monthly summary, a seasonal summary, a semi-annual summary, and an annual summary. They also have to report their thoughts whenever the guards ask them. They are not given extra time to write these summaries but have to sit on small stools, put the paper on their thighs, and write these during work breaks.
The authorities want to achieve complete mental control and the greatest physical devastation. They give the practitioners a very short time to eat, so practitioners have no alternative but to dump the food into their mouths, no matter how hot it is, because they are driven back to work if they don't eat the food within the allotted time.
Villainous behavior at the Weifang City Brainwashing Centre
On October 24th, 2005, my term, including the time I was held at the local detention centre, expired. Anqiu City 610 Office agents thought I had not fulfilled the reformation standard and sent me immediately to the Weifang City Brainwashing Centre.
At noon on November 5th, 2005, Weifang City 610 Office head Fu Jinbin barged into a room where three women practitioners were being held. Practitioner Ms. Jiao Huifang from Weifang City had been force-fed for nearly two months and often vomited blood. She had a tube in her nose for a long time and was extremely weak. Fu Jinbin smelled of alcohol and had a lascivious look in his eyes. He fondled Ms. Jiao below her waist, faked concern, and asked, "Do you hurt?" He did this in front of two other practitioners, including me. Ms. Jiao pulled his hand away. He handcuffed her and continued to touch her. She used her other hand to stop him. Fu Jinbin told me to tell the officer on duty to bring in another pair of handcuffs. I went to the officer on duty, and finally we were able to put a stop to this terrible behavior that day.
It has been verified that Fu Jinbin has sexually molested many women practitioners. There are several reports on the Minghui/Clearwisdom website exposing his actions, but he has not changed his ways.
I escaped later while looking after another practitioner in a hospital, and went from place to place to escape further persecution.
Escaping from the demon's den and again living in exile
After I escaped from the Weifang City Brainwashing Centre, I learned that my husband had taken our six-year-old daughter and gone to the Anqiu City 610 Office. He enquired about my whereabouts and asked for our 10,000 yuan back. They kicked my husband and ordered him to leave. Our daughter was frightened and cried.
Right now a saying is making the rounds: When a police station is short of funding, they arrest Falun Gong practitioners and extort money from them, just as they did back when they enforced the one child policy and imposed arbitrary fines on couples who had more than one child. People know that Falun Gong is upright and its practitioners are good people. I am not a highly educated person. What I have written represents only a tiny portion of all the atrocities being perpetrated against Falun Gong and Falun Gong practitioners. The actual statistics of huge number of crimes committed against practitioners are staggering. I hope people can tell good from evil and can clearly discern those who are persecuting millions of innocent, good people.
Police officers and others who are still persecuting Falun Gong, please think about it: When you think of your family, you love them and you want them to have a bright future. But do you know that a person's future is determined by his current behavior, good or bad? As you persecute innocent Falun Gong practitioners, have you thought about your own future and that of your family? You will receive punishment for your crimes!
History tells us that goodness is rewarded and evildoing is punished, a truth that will never change. Many historic examples tell us that those who take part in persecution of cultivators are destined to meet a bad end. I sincerely ask police officers and people in related positions who are still following Jiang Zemin's Communist regime in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners: Don't assist the evil in exchange for personal interest, because you will destroy your family and your futures.
Note
1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.
2. "The 610 office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.
3. "Collaborators": Former practitioners who have turned against Falun Gong under brainwashing and torture. They are then made to assist in brainwashing and torturing practitioners.
4. "Reform or Transform" Implementation of brainwashing and torture in order to force a practitioner to renounce Falun Gong. (Variations: "reform", "transform", "reformed", "reforming", "transformed", "transforming", and "transformation")
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/1/21/119143.html
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