Persecution Put Me at Death's Door More Than Once

Because I didn't give up my belief and firmly believe in "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance," I suffered all kinds of tribulations. I was close to death several times due to Jiang's regime's persecution. In 1999 I was illegally dismissed from my job. I was locked up many times. My original happy family was destroyed. Then I opted to become homeless to avoid further persecution.

Obtaining Dafa, I was freed from disease

I was a person who was formerly tormented by many diseases. During the 1998 Lunar New Year I got into a car accident, which made things even worse for me. I lost hope in everything. In June 1998, a friend gave me a copy of Zhuan Falun¹. After that I began to study the book and do the exercises. A miracle happened several months later. All my diseases disappeared without a trace. The pain disappeared completely. I could walk so fast on my injured legs that I felt as if I were flying.

I went to Beijing twice and was tortured so badly that the bones showed through the skin of my feet

Just when I was immersed in happiness, on July 22nd, 1999, the media stopped all other programmes and broadcast only one programme all day long, slandering Falun Gong. On September 20th, I took the train to Beijing, intending to tell the government my experiences of how I benefited from studying Dafa.

I was shocked as soon as I arrived at the Appeals Office of the State Council in Beijing. The People's Appeals Office had already become an arrest site. Police officers were aggressively arresting practitioners. I couldn't approach. Helplessly, I returned.

On October 25th I once again went to Beijing. Just as I arrived at Tiananmen Square, several police officers walked toward me and tried to arrest me. I asked, "What are you trying to do?" They said, "We want you to curse the Falun Gong Teacher. Do you dare to do so?" I said, "I don't even curse or beat anyone when I educate my son!" They said, "She is a Falun Gong practitioner!" They pushed me onto a police car and sent me to Miyun Prison.

There, several policemen pushed me to the floor and put me in shackles and handcuffs that weighed about 30 to 40 pounds and were covered wih rust. I was handcuffed behind my back. The vicious policemen took off my shoes. They dragged me to the yard covered with cobblestones and forced me to walk circle after circle wearing only tights without shoes. When I had walked for several hours I really couldn't walk anymore. The policemen then came and dragged me by my arms and ran around the yard, with my legs bouncing off the ground. Because I was exhausted from walking for so long, I was unable to protest the torture. They stopped when they were too tired to walk. My tights was by then torn and my legs were chafed. The handcuffs and shackles had cut deeply into the flesh and my skin had become a mixture of flesh and blood. In spite of this, they did not remove the handcuffs or shackles and kept them in place for six days. When I was sent back to the Jilin City Detention Centre, my feet were so injured that the bones showed through. It hurt as badly, as if someone had cut me with a knife. I had difficulty walking for more than six months.

On February 15th, 2000, when I was sharing experiences and cultivation understandings with other practitioners, I was again arrested. I was sent to the No.1 Detention Centre in Jilin City. The police there ordered the criminals to monitor us. They prohibited us from talking or doing the exercises. I was punished twice with having to squat for long periods of time. I was forced to squat for more than 10 hours once. My legs were swollen and I couldn't stand. I went on a hunger strike. On the sixth day the police force-fed me. A criminal told me, "I made the corn paste. A half bag of salt was added to two handfuls of corn flour." About eight people pushed me down and force-fed me. When they did so, my stomach began to hurt. My mouth was cut, and my stomach was in such pain that I couldn't stretch my back. I couldn't eat normally for a long time.

Darkness in the forced labour camp

On March 8th, 2000, I was sentenced to a one-year term in the Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp in Changchun. Seven practitioners and I were arrested at the same time, including Wang Rui, who was just 18 years old. Once we were sent there we were locked in a solitary cell.

Policewoman Hou Zhihong, who was in charge of the newcomer's team in the No. 4 Brigade, screamed, "Stand up! I'll tell you that no exercising is permitted in the forced labour camp. If you do the exercises, these things are waiting for you!" She then took out electric batons, straps, handcuffs and other instruments of torture. She said, "Do you see these? There are still some things that are even more terrible. I will choose to use them according to your attitude." We were forced to sit on benches every day, with no talking or moving. We were forced to sit that way for more than 10 hours a day. Later we were forced to do slave labour, as least 17 or 18 hours a day. Sometimes they let us sleep only two or three hours. If we worked a little slower, they would either beat or verbally abuse us.

Because of the camp officials' illegal tactics, more than 10 practitioners held a hunger strike and requested to be unconditionally released. The camp authorities had us force-fed brutally. The guard said to me, "You are the first!" They pushed me on the bed and inserted a long rubber tube into my mouth to my stomach. After a long time the corn paste just couldn't be poured in. I was suffocating and couldn't take a breath. I broke loose and sat up, out of reflex. Realising that I would die unless I did so, I quickly pulled out the tube. I was completely exhausted, however, and coughed constantly. After that, I often coughed and vomited blood.

On May 13th, 2000, the practitioners locked up in the No.4 Brigade held a group hunger strike to protest our illegal detention and persecution. This time the officials escalated the persecution against us. Administration Chief Yue Jun and others held electric batons and bound the practitioners undergoing hunger strikes to a metal wire bed. They shocked the practitioners' mouths, necks and entire bodies while force-feeding them. The metal wire bed bounced up, along with the practitioner's body. Sparks flew everywhere. The sounds of the electric batons, cries, shouts, and sounds and smell of vomiting filled the hallway of the health care building. It was a miserable sight. Yue Jun then walked up to me and said, "I only recognise you. I will start with you today!" They kept shocking me for a long time. Immediately, big blisters rose on my body and neck. My wool sweater was burned. She still wouldn't stop. She took off my sweater, re-bound me to the metal bed, and shocked me again for a long time. The last thing I remember was darkness before my eyes and intolerable pain.

In August 2000, policewoman Zhang Guimei said that she would use a different technique on us. She ordered several practitioners who didn't renounce Dafa to go to a small storage room, where she forced us to sit on the ground in the lotus position for eight hours every day. Our hands were put behind our backs and we were prohibited from moving. Policewoman Li Xiaohua said, "Whoever moves will be shocked with a big electric baton!" We were forbidden to use the restroom. All of us suffered from blood blisters on the feet. Some vomited. The extreme pain made us hover between life and death. When Ms. Wang Xiufen moved a little, she was dragged forward and kicked and beaten by several brigade leaders. Then she was forced to continue to sit for three days. Zhang Guimei threatened, "The state gives us a death quota! I will first use that on you three," which meant Wang Xiulan, who was eventually persecuted to death, Jin Min, and me.

By the end of November 2001, I had been locked up for ten months beyond my term.

Newly arrested practitioners were constantly sent to the Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp . The authorities used violence on steadfast practitioners. They were forced to stand for several days in a row, deprived of sleep, bound to a bed, and shocked with electric batons. One day Zhang Guimei stared at me and said, "As soon as the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee closed the meeting, they issued new documents. We will send all of you that don't 'reform²' to the northwest region where there are no signs of human habitation. You will have no way to come back. You will die of hunger or cold!"

They subjected the newcomers to violence on a daily basis to force them to "reform." Seeing this pained my heart.

On November 30th I again held a hunger strike. I put forward three requests: 1. Stop violating the law while executing the law, meaning, stop the violent persecution of practitioners using electric batons and other instruments of torture. 2. No term extensions. The forced labour camp officials have no right to extend victims' terms at will, which is disobeying the law. 3. Release all the Falun Gong practitioners who are "illegally imprisoned."

After I finished stating my request, brigade leader Guan Wei said, "It's impossible! When are you going to eat?" I replied, "If you don't promise me, I won't eat."

On the third day of my hunger strike they force-fed me as a means of persecution, not to save my life. Several people pushed and held me down and inserted a rubber tube into my nose. I coughed badly and couldn't breathe. They tried to insert it into my nose but it came out of my mouth. I had a severe nosebleed and vomited a large quantity of blood. They didn't care about my life and said, "No matter what happens, we have to insert it!"

It frequently happened that the tube needed to be inserted five or six times. I was nearly suffocated several times. In fact, even if the tube were inserted, they wouldn't feed me many things. They knew that it wouldn't help anything, but they had to force-feed me twice a day. Each time after they force-fed me, I was exhausted and felt that I had had a narrow escape from danger. I clearly knew what the torture of force-feeding meant. I already was mentally well prepared: I'm still alive today, but I might lose my life tomorrow. They saw that they couldn't change my mind. On the eleventh day they decided to send me to the police hospital.

The above incidents are only part of what I've experienced and witnessed in the forced labour camp.

The police hospital

Before they sent me to the police hospital, the forced labour camp authorities extorted 2,000 yuan³ from my younger brother. On December 9th the camp administrators, guards, and doctors sent me under escort to the police hospital. They threatened me all the way to the hospital, "Didn't you refuse to eat? You thought that the forced labour camp was bad. After you get to the police hospital, you will see that they have plenty of methods to punish you!" Wang Kefei was tortured to death the end of 2001 and died in that police hospital.

The guards bound me to a bed with hand and foot rings. I could only lie down and couldn't move, not even a little. They then took a very thick rubber tube and inserted it into my stomach through my nose. Because the tube was too thick, they attempted to insert it several times but still couldn't succeed. It made me cough violently. The guards didn't care about my life and forcibly inserted the tube into my nose. They tortured me for a long time and finally succeeded in inserting the tube. I had broken out in a sweat and was exhausted. They said, "Let's continue!" They then inserted a catheter. My body was shaking from the pain, and the tube in my nose kept me from breathing properly.

It was extremely painful, and death was a blink away. At night, saliva kept running into my mouth, but I could not take care of myself because of the bindings. Sometimes when I could not spit I felt almost suffocated. They had inserted the tube but did not feed me. They kept the tube constantly inside me as a form of abuse, keeping it inserted so long that my throat was swollen and I coughed continually. Since nobody was taking care of me and I was tightly cuffed to the bed, I could only turn my head to the side when I had to spit. My face and body were covered in filth. When the catheter leaked and urine spilled onto the floor, the criminal detainees cleaned the floor with my cotton pants while cursing at me "for polluting the ward." During the day they were too disgusted to be around me and stayed in other rooms. Before they left they would leave the windows open. It was December, the coldest month of the year and this was in northern China. I only had my underwear on. The mattress was wet, and the quilt covered me only up to my chest, and yet I couldn't move. Pain, cold, physical abuse, and insults came together. Every day I suffered in great misery.

The criminal in the same cell told me, "I've been here for more than a year. I've already seen a lot of things. How about Yu Lixin? She was from the city government, but she was still tortured. Later, nobody took care of her and they abandoned her in the hallway!"

After I returned home I heard that Yu Lixin underwent a hunger strike for four months in the police hospital. Nobody took care of her there, either. It was the hospital rule. Later they force-fed her. The catheter broke and left her soaked in urine. Faeces accumulated so much that it touched her hair. Bedsores covered her whole body. She died on May 4th, 2002 from the torture.

On the fourth day the camp authorities were afraid that I might die and they would have to take the responsibility. They let my younger brother take me home. Finally I left the evil den. After only four days in the police hospital I developed the profound opinion that this hospital was not for curing illnesses or saving lives, but for intensifying the abuse and torment of people under the persecution.

The above incidents are only part of what I had to endure under the persecution. Jiang's regime is so vicious and inhumane. Their crimes are too numerous to record. But none of the difficulties and hardships could shake the kind and righteous people's belief in Dafa and "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance."

Note

1. Zhuan Falun: This book comprises the principal teachings of Falun Dafa.

2. "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")

3. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/5/8/127177.html