Bring Back My Happy Family

Unfortunately memories are not always beautiful. In fact, I tremble with fear each time I recall what has happened to my family. These terrible tribulations have been branded into my memory for good and are memories that I shall never be able to forget.

I used to be my parents' treasure. As a teenager, I was supposed to live a worry-free life under my parents' protection, but I have experienced life's greatest tragedy. Because of Jiang Zemin's, former head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and his regime's persecution of Falun Gong, my parents, both practitioners, have been taken away from me. My family has been torn apart and shattered.

My father's name is Yu Xuewen. He worked at the Water Heating Team of Xiaoming Mine. My mother's name is Li Wenying. She worked at the Daxing Mine Service Company. They started practising Falun Gong in September of 1996. Because Falun Gong teaches its practitioners to cultivate kindness, enhance their morality and thus improve their physical health, my mother's temperament improved greatly. Her disposition improved and she became peaceful, tolerant, sincere, and passionate at work. My father became very kind and generous. He also became very diligent at work. I witnessed the miracle of Falun Dafa in my parents' dramatic improvements in their physical health and morality. I also benefited a lot from Falun Dafa. Back then my home was always filled with happiness and lots of laughter. We lived a very happy life.

On July 20th, 1999, Jiang Zemin abused his power to force the entire country to assist him in his goal of persecuting Falun Gong and its practitioners. All of China fell into a state of terror, including my family.

My mother decided to go to the State Department's Appeals Office in Beijing and appeal on behalf of Falun Gong. She left for Beijing on my 18th birthday. Mother promised me that she would celebrate my birthday after she returned from Beijing, but when she returned, she was fired from work and "illegally sentenced" to one year of forced labour because she exercised her constitutional right to appeal. As a child with little experience of the world, I was very confused. Didn't the Chinese Constitution guarantee every Chinese citizen the right to appeal to the government? Otherwise, what was the purpose of establishing an appeals office in every major city in China?

I longed to see my mother, but each time my request was rejected. I looked at the tall wall, the heavy metal doors, and the disciplinary staff members' cold, expressionless faces. I had nothing to say but tears. My most beloved mother, as well as kindhearted Falun Gong practitioners, were suffering the most inconceivable torture!

One day my persistence finally touched the prison police. They opened the door and granted me a visit. During the visit, my mother pulled up her shirt to reveal her back, which had been repeatedly subjected to electric shock torture and beatings. Some areas of her back were red and swollen and some were covered with scabs. Some wounded areas had been attacked again before they had had a chance to heal and were oozing yellow fluid. Mother had been very healthy, but now, after repeated attacks by the police's stun batons, she looked withered and ill. She was in a living hell. It was shocking and frightening! I no longer believed the lies fabricated on TV about the "tender, kind reeducation" given to Falun Gong practitioners at the forced labour camps. This is the truth behind the lie that "this is the best period of human rights in China!"

During the year my mother was imprisoned and tortured, my father was repeatedly arrested. When I witnessed my father being taken away by the police, it was as though someone had poured salt on my wounded heart. Words could not adequately express my agony. I repeatedly went to the public security bureau and the detention centre to demand my father's release, but nothing helped. All of my relatives refused to help me for fear of being punished for their association with my family. My home became cold and empty. Lonely and sad, I often sat at home in tears, staring into blankness.

Later on my father was released. I thought, "Even though my mother is not with me, at least I have my father." But shortly afterwards, my father was illegally imprisoned again. The public security bureau did not need any reason or law to make the arrest. In the end, I was overcome with fear as soon as I heard someone knocking on the door. I was afraid that it might be the police coming to arrest him again. I had no idea how much longer I could endure the suffering.

My mother remained imprisoned for a long time beyond her scheduled release date, but I told myself, "Finally the three of us will be reunited." That turned out to be a childish wish. On the politically sensitive dates, the police, the residential committee, and the 610 Office¹ continue to barge in and harass us. The management at my father's company has also repeatedly attempted to "brainwash" him. Although they know my father is an excellent worker, they stopped giving him any raises after 1999, claiming to be following the CCP's regulations.

During the 16th National People's Congress, the public security department in our area started to illegally arrest a lot of Falun Gong practitioners. At around 6:00 p.m. on October 31st, 2002, Mr. Yan Jiagui, the Hongfang Police Station chief, brought a team of officers to arrest my parents. To escape from further persecution, my mother attempted to slide down on a rope from the third floor, but the rope snapped. She fell to the ground from the third floor, causing pulverising fractures of her ankles. Nevertheless, these depraved men did not leave her alone. They took her directly to the detention centre without giving her any medical treatment. My father's company took him directly to the detention centre. I was also locked in the Hongfang Police Station overnight. The police also destroyed the anti-theft metal door when they broke into our home.

About 7:00 a.m. on January 7th, 2005, Hongfang Police Station officers arrested my father again as he was on his way to work. Without going through any legal procedure, the police took him directly to Tieling Forced Labour Camp and sentenced him to a one-year term. The police didn't notify anyone, not even the family, after they made the arrest. It was not until later that we learnt that he had enraged his company's management because he had exposed the fact that his company failed to give him any raises because he refused to give up practising Falun Gong. This is the cost of telling the truth under the Chinese Communist regime.

Once again my beloved parents were taken from me. For the past six years--ever since July 20th, 1999--my parents have been subjected to the police's unreasonable interrogations, curses, ransacking, illegal imprisonment, and torture simply because they practise Falun Gong. Is there any justice in this world? I have told of the tragedies that have befallen my family to everyone and everywhere I could reach in order to find help. I have written a few letters to the management at the Tei Coal Group, the management at my father's company, the Head of the Tieling City Forced Labour Camp, the Secretary of the Tieling City Committee, the prosecutor's office and the court, calling for their help as well as their attention to my family's plight.

In April of 2005, Mr. Liu Haishan, head of Armed Security of Tei Coal Group, Mr. Shi Xuecheng, Chairman of the local 610 Office, Mr. Zhang Fucai, Captain of the State Security Team, and the head of Xiaoming Mine's Security Division went together to Tieling Forced Labour Camp to pick up my father, but the police there shouted, "We will not release him until he writes a "guarantee statement" to give up practising Falun Gong!" Zhang Fucai made me write a guarantee statement on behalf of my father, but they said it didn't count after I produced it. They insisted that my father must write the guarantee statement himself. My father refused their unreasonable demand and is still illegally imprisoned.

Note:

1. 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.