A Practitioner from Hubei Province Recounts the Persecution She Suffered

My name is Rao Mianhua. I'm 41 years old now. I live in Group 3 in Wuxue Town, Wuxue City, Hubei Province. Before practising Falun Gong, I suffered from a bad stomach, enteritis, and gynaecological problems as a result of an induced abortion. I went to different doctors and spent large amounts of money, but nothing was effective. Hence, we were short of money, which caused many conflicts at home. Right when I was very miserable, I met a practitioner who introduced Falun Gong to me.

That practitioner took me to the practice site where we watched the videos of Teacher Li Hongzhi's lectures, the founder of Falun Dafa, for several days. I felt very relaxed. After practising for a period of time, all my illnesses disappeared. After that, the leaders of my village introduced several people to me to learn Falun Gong. Unfortunately, the relentless persecution soon started. The situation back then was very severe. The policemen from the Kanjiang local police station and the village leaders often came to my home to harass me. With several fellow practitioners, we went on our way to explain the true situation of Falun Dafa to the public. The police arrested us and detained us in a detention centre for 13 days. I was released only after my family paid some money, an amount I still don't know. In November 1999, I practised the Falun Gong exercises on a river bank and was detained in the detention centre again. I protested with a hunger strike for seven days, and my family paid some more money. I was released again.

In March 2000, the Kanjiang Police Station put me in the detention centre once again. Because I refused to sign the guarantee statement to give up practising Falun Gong, they beat me and handcuffed me with my arms behind my back for several hours. I was unable to eat or go to the toilet. The handcuffs left deep, bloody scars on my wrists. Fifteen days later, I paid 300 yuan¹ and was let go.

In April 2000, I once again went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. I was detained by the police from the Qianmen Police Station for 24 hours. They asked for my name, but I did not tell them, so they beat me [Note:Because of the government policy of implicating and persecuting practitioners' family members and work units, practitioners often refuse to reveal their names when they are arrested]. After that, they said that I did not waste my three-year practice at all. The next day, the police deceived me into telling them my home address. Kanjing Police Station officials had someone bring me back to Wuxue, where police officer Zou beat me and then detained me in the Detention Centre for more than 40 days. During this time, the police from the Kanjiang Police Station broke into my residence and ransacked my home. They even took away my bed, rice cooker, steam cooker, the bath, and almost everything in my home.

Without any legal documents or procedures, the authorities sentenced me to one and a half years of forced labour and sent me to Shizishan Forced Labour Drug Addicts Rehab Camp in Wuhan, where I was physically tortured. I suffered from a torture called "Tieqiang" ("sticking onto the wall") and then "Waqiang"("digging the wall"). I was forced to squat down with my legs spread and curved, but not totally down. It was called the "Number 8 step." I had to do these moves repeatedly every day. After a month, I was forced to do hard labour. I got up at 5:30 a.m., and went to bed between midnight and 3:00 a.m. In September I was finally allowed to go home.

In October, policemen Zou and Cai from the Kanjiang Police Station dragged me to their police car and again took me to Shizishan Forced Labour Drug Addicts Rehab Camp in Wuhan City. The leaders in that camp got a 10,000-yuan bonus if they "reformed³" a Falun Gong practitioner. Hence, they treated practitioners very cruelly. Practitioners were forced to take cold water showers in all seasons, summer or winter. On one occasion, the section head, Jiang, locked up all of the practitioners together. Our hands were all cuffed together behind our backs. After that, one by one, we were taken to the guard chamber to be shocked with electric batons. I felt numb after being shocked. Then we had to do strenuous military training. We had to do parade steps and hold our legs up for 15 minutes. We would be beaten if we stepped on the ground. The temperature then was nearly 40 degrees Celsius in Wuhan, which is nicknamed "Fire Stove" because it is so hot and humid the the summer. Immediately after the military training, before our sweat had dried, we were forced to shower in extremely cold well water.

After such long-term persecution, my feet could not move anymore. I was disabled and had to use a wheelchair. Then the police took me to the Military Hospital in Wuhan. The doctor told the police something which they would not let me hear. A few days later, on September 10th, 2001, I was released before the end of my term. However, the police from the Qinglin police station and the local branch of the National Public Security Bureau often came to my home and harassed me. My husband (who is not a practitioner) stood up for for me. The police then threatened him many times. They were about to put handcuffs on him. I lost my ability to work. Our two children still needed to go to school. My husband had to go to work out of town. The police still repeatedly came and harassed us.

On May 2005, Tian Shuiqing from the Qinglin Police Station brought several policemen to our home. They broke into our residence and grabbed my children's reading machines. The children asked the police to return their reading machines. The police then threatened the children. I repeatedly requested the return of the machines, but the police would not return them. In June 2005, I went to the Qinglin Police Station to ask the police to return the reading machines. The police told me to go to the Municipal Public Security Bureau to get them back, but the personnel there told me to go to the local police station. I went to the police station and found the head of the 610 Office², Pan Linfa. I asked for the return of the reading machines and the payment of our basic living costs. They told me to return the next day. When I went there again the next day, they told me that they would not return the reading machines and said that they were not responsible for my basic living costs. On the third day, I went again. I found Wang Shaozhai. He lied to me and told me to go inside another room to get the reading machines. Actually, he wanted to lock me up again. After I saw his intention, I rolled my wheelchair trying to get out. They immediately grabbed my wheelchair. I then crawled on the floor. They still would not let me leave, but pushed me over onto the floor. Then they carried me to the police car. I refused to get into their car by leaving my feet and head out of the car. Seeing this, they immobilised my head and feet with the car door. They drove me to the detention centre and took me out of the car. I sat on the ground. Police officer Dong slapped me twice. Two nights later, they took me home, but my parents-in-law would not take me in. The chief of the detention centre, Liu Tangyi, and policeman Wang carried me out of the car and ran away. My in-laws took me to the home of policeman Tian Shuiqing, who called 110 (an emergency number, similar to 999 in the UK). The 110 authorities then took me home again, but my in-laws still would not let me come in. Then the 110 office took me to the detention centre. The next day, the chief lied to me and said that the Municipal authorities and Wuxue Town both had someone waiting to see me at the Brigade Communist Party Branch Office. When I got there, I only saw one village leader, who ordered people from Wuxue Town to send someone to get me. The Wuxue Town personnel did not want to take responsibility for me, which caused me to become homeless and destitute for several days. Eventually, my in-laws let me go home.

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. "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/2006/6/8/129923.html