Knowing the Truth, We Should Not Allow the Crimes to Continue

I was shocked after I read the news about the atrocities occurring in forced labour camps in China. But at the same time I thought that this kind of unbelievable information might just be falsely reported. So I felt relieved from the deep grief. But reading several related articles made me think.

With its guiding principles of violence and struggle, ever since its birth, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has never stopped killing people. They use different torture methods on people with different opinions, such as skinning people alive, boiling people alive, assault and battery, and detention in prisons and forced labour camps. The brutality of the Party's killing methods is not news to anyone.

Let's not mention what I've seen and heard in the past sixty years of the crimes the CCP has committed using the excuse of class struggle. I would like to share some of my personal experiences after I started practising Falun Dafa with the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance to prove that the CCP is capable of committing any atrocity.

In October of 1999 there was a rumour that the CCP would define Falun Gong, which teaches people to be compassionate, as a "heretical cult" organisation. Falun Gong practitioners thought the CCP didn't know the truth, so many practitioners went to Beijing to appeal for Dafa or lived there to wait for the CCP's final decision. I was retired then. I was planning to go to Beijing to find a job to continue my previous profession. And of course, my main intention was to directly clarify the truth to the CCP that Falun Gong improves one's physical health as well as raises one's character. There were lots of Falun Gong practitioners living in hotels then. So I found a hotel too.

One night, after I studied the Falun Gong teachings, practised the exercises and only slept for two to three hours, I was awakened by some rude knocking and shouting. Policemen broke open the front door, kicked opened the door of every room, and pulled all the visitors and Falun Gong practitioners into police cars to go to the "610 Liaison Office."* They then started illegal interrogations.

They asked for my name, work place and home address. Because they searched out my professional identification, I had to tell them (because of the CCP's policy of "Guilt by Association," anybody who is related to Falun Gong practitioners who go to Beijing to appeal for a stop to the persecution against Falun Dafa, such as their families, work place management, the local police departments, management in the districts, counties, cities and provinces would get punished or fined. So many Falun Gong practitioners don't report their names when they are arrested.) Following that they asked, "Why did you come to Beijing?" I said, "Looking for a job." They asked again, "Do you practise Falun Gong?" I said, "Yes." (I didn't know then what to do with the sudden craziness of the CCP, and I underestimated the CCP's wickedness. I didn't answer the question rationally. Just because of that one word of truth, I was sentenced to two years of forced labour. During those two years, my retirement pension was taken away. I was dismissed from the evil party, as well.) I asked, "Who decided that Falun Gong practitioners are not allowed to come to Beijing?" They rudely shouted, "Shut up!"

Why was I arrested right after I came to Beijing? It turned out that the police arrested an elderly practitioner who lived in this hotel and extorted a confession from him. They used the most brutal torture methods to force him to tell about all the Falun Gong practitioners in that hotel. The CCP has a principle that it would rather kill ten thousand innocent people than let one enemy escape. So they didn't even let the visitors who came to Beijing go. I witnessed a young man from Jilin Province who came to Beijing looking for work. He was beaten and his cell phone was taken away, as well as 3,000 yuan in cash.

Most of the Falun Dafa practitioners who were arrested with me didn't tell their names. They were sent to the Dongbeiwang Police Station in Beijing. One practitioner told me, "We were sent to the Dongbeiwang Police Station. We were beaten brutally right after we got there. Then they locked many people into an empty cell without beds or blankets. They didn't give us food. They didn't allow us to use the bathroom. They forced us to squat on our toes with bare feet and with our arms holding our knees. They also put some pushpins on the floor under our heels. It was hard enough for us to hold up just on our toes. The policemen still used electric batons on our heels. So the pushpins punctured our heels. We were forced to go through interrogations. Some practitioners were hung up from trees and subjected to electric baton shocks. I couldn't endure the torture and I told them my name. So I was sent back to the local police station and sentenced to three years in a forced labour camp."

I was held in the local detention centre. There was a row of cells in the hall behind several iron doors. There was a big mattress on the floor in each cell. Right next to the mattress there was a toilet. At night, people (mostly Falun Dafa practitioners) squeezed next to each other. During the day, they were forced to endure the "sitting board" in the tiny cell. They were not allowed to leave except when being interrogated.

There were policemen's curses and shouting in the hallway; there were screams of agony from people being force fed; and there was screaming and shouting from the mentally disoriented. People were suffering greatly.

The policemen were shouting in the hallway, "If you Falun Gong practitioners don't write the pledge, the government will send you to camps in the Northwest. You will never return home."

Later, from some "reformation models" who often were in contact with people in the 610 Office, I heard that the CCP was building concentration camps that were just for detaining Falun Gong practitioners. Anybody who didn't get reformed would be sent there.

At the time, I thought what they said was just a threat, so they could achieve their purpose of reforming practitioners. I didn't really think a government, even with a tiny bit of conscience left, would do things like that. But the reality proved me wrong. The CCP's persecution of Falun Gong practitioners has reached a totally irrational level. When we understand and know the truth, we won't allow it to continue.

Let's all expose the persecution and appeal to the international community to investigate the inside story of the concentration camps. Let's rescue Falun Dafa practitioners illegally detained in all forced labour camps, detention centres, prisons and concentration camps and collect the personal information about all the missing practitioners!

*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.