Falun Dafa Practitioner Zhao Xin, 56, Persecuted for Seven Years in Jilin City

My name is Zhao Xin, and I am a Falun Dafa practitioner in Jilin Province. I am 56 years old, and I live in Jilin City.

I started practising Falun Dafa in 1996. In a very short period of time, all my diseases disappeared. I consistently practised Falun Dafa and cultivated my heart to be a good person.

But on July 20th, 1999, Jiang Zemin's group started persecuting Falun Gong openly. They fabricated lies and slandered Falun Dafa. For speaking up for the truth and calling for justice for Falun Dafa, I have been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for seven years. Here, I'm making the persecution facts public.

Detention, July 1999

On July 22nd, 1999, to speak up for Dafa, I went to the Jilin Provincial Government building to join a peaceful appeal, but was arrested and taken to the Changchun City Police Academy by the armed police and military soldiers stationed in Changchun. At the time, two or three thousand practitioners were being held there. I wasn't released until six or seven hours later. I went to the Jilin Provincial Government building to appeal again on July 24th, 1999, and was once again arrested by the armed police and taken to the Changchun City Luyuan District Elementary School for detention. I wasn't released until more than five hours later. The government didn't state the reason.

Arrested September 2000

Because my local government was acting unlawfully and the officials would arrest practitioners illegally, I went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong on Sept. 27th, 2000. As soon as I arrived at the Appeals Office, police officers from Daxing County Police Department in Beijing arrested me and detained me in the Daxing Detention Centre for seven days. They forcibly searched me, confiscated my ID and 200 yuan in cash¹, which they never returned to me.

On October 7th, 2000, police officers from the Jilin City Police Department took me to the Dongdatan Police Station of Changyi District in Jilin City. A police officer with the surname Wang ordered my family members to pay for my train ticket of 200 yuan. Immediately, without any legal procedure, I was taken by force to Jilin City Detention Centre and later transferred to the Jilin City Lockup, where I was detained for 44 days. There was no freedom of speech at all.

Sentenced to Forced Labour

On November 24th, 2000 I was sentenced to two years of forced labour without any legal procedure, and was taken to Heizuizi Labour Camp in Changchun City. During seven months of detention in the labour camp, I witnessed and suffered from the labour camp authorities' crimes in persecuting Falun Dafa practitioners. There were new practitioners sent in every day, and because of the high turnover rate, there were constantly about 1,200 to 1,600 practitioners detained at the labour camp. I was in Team Four of Division Six, which held between 30 to 55 people. They forced every practitioner into the office to sign a statement renouncing their cultivation practice. If a practitioner didn't comply, the guards would shock him or her with electric batons. When they did this, several guards kept shocking the practitioner and at the same time beat and kicked him until the practitioner signed the statement. A practitioner from Siping City whose last name is Wei suffered a mental collapse after being tortured in this way. Steadfast practitioners were confined in a small cell. The small cell was in the room underneath the staircases at the back of the guards' office. The room was about 6-7 square metres (about 65-75 square feet), and it had a metal cage to confine practitioners. To achieve a 100% "transformation²" rate, the team leaders Li Tong, Zhu Dan and Liu Ying would use all kinds of methods including depriving practitioners of sleep, forcing practitioners to stand for a long time, and brutally force-feeding them.

Because Division Six was the so-called "Regeneration Division," which was the most forceful one in "transforming" practitioners, the guards in this division were rewarded with large bonuses. There was a young guard named Yu who dared not use the electric batons at first, but then he drank more than 3 oz. of hard liquor to boost his courage, and then went crazy shocking practitioners. The persecution turned a human into a demon.

To brainwash practitioners, every day the guards forced practitioners to watch and listen to videos and tapes that defamed Dafa. Besides this, practitioners were forced to do 16 to 17 hours of slave labour, which included making crafts being exported to Japan. The labour camp authorities lied to the outside, saying that they had been treating practitioners like "life-giving spring breeze and rain." As soon as visitors came, they hid the steadfast practitioners and kept them from being seen. They would always deceive their supervising organisations, saying they had a 100% "transformation" rate, in order to secure their operating budget. To make money, the labour camp authorities wouldn't release practitioners even when they were "transformed" or their terms had been reached. A college student named Sun from Changchun City couldn't hold on any longer and died suddenly in the labour camp. To shirk their responsibility, the guards pretended to send him to the emergency room several hours after his death.

Deceit and Extortion

Secretary Liu of the Dongjuzi Street Committee of Changyi District in Jilin City was in charge of persecuting Falun Dafa practitioners in this area. After I was sent to the labour camp, she went to my home many times to persuade my husband to pay the "guarantee fund," and claimed she could get me out of the labour camp with the money. At the beginning, my husband said I didn't commit any crime and that I should be released unconditionally. But Secretary Liu said, "The order from above says that as long as a person practises Falun Gong, that person should be arrested. Some have even been beaten to death in the labour camp. How about you give me 4,000 yuan to bail your wife out first. When her term is reached, as long as she does not go to Beijing again, you money will be returned to you." My husband was frightened, and gave her 4,000 yuan to bail me out. But after my term was reached, my husband went to ask Liu to return the money, and she turned against him and said she would not give him a penny unless Falun Gong is redressed. My husband became ill from this incident and was hospitalised. Where else can you find such a hoodlum government that has such corrupt officials? Later, Secretary Liu was transferred and a new party secretary named Chai took over her position. When I went to ask for the money, Secretary Chai said the street committee didn't have the money or any record of it, and couldn't resolve the matter for me.

On November 7th, 2002, Yang Ziyan (female), a clerk from Dongjuzi Street Committee went to my workplace, Jilin City Water Company. There she talked to Li Zhuang (female, now retired), head of the Organisation Department of the Party Committee and in charge of persecuting Falun Gong. She charged me 2,000 yuan to pay for room and board at the brainwashing centre, but in fact I wasn't there at all. My workplace gave her the money by deducting it from my wages. My husband went to the street committee and demanded the money back. But deputy secretary Li Qingzhi said she wasn't aware of this and wouldn't do anything until she found out what was going on, and told my husband to wait at home. In the meantime, she went to my workplace and asked Li Zhuang to stop the payment of my salary because I was persistent in practising Falun Gong and "making trouble" everywhere. Li Zhuang cooperated with the persecution and held my salary for four months. She didn't return it to me until overseas practitioners from all over the world continued calling her and mailing leaflets exposing the persecution to her, and she could no longer bear the pressure.

On November 7th, 2002, Wang Zhonglai, director of the Dangdatan Police Station of Changyi District in Jilin City (now transferred to the Preliminary Hearing Section of Changyi District Police Department in Jilin City) planned to send me to the brainwashing centre. He ransacked my home and went to the 610 Office³ to look for evidence to use as an excuse to send me there, but failed. He didn't send me to the brainwashing centre on that day but said he was going to do it the following day.

In the police station, the police officers took turns interrogating me until midnight, and then handcuffed me to the headboard of a bed in the duty office. While the three policemen were sleeping, I asked Master to strengthen me and then I walked away from the police station. At daybreak, director Wang Zhonglai led all the police officers and drove in police cars to look for me. They didn't find me so they extorted another 1,000 yuan from my husband. They claimed that to find me they didn't get any sleep for an entire night and were very tired, and asked for a treat in a restaurant. They also claimed that as I ran away, they could not face their supervising organisation and had to quiet it down with money, otherwise it could grow into a big problem. My husband was very frightened. He had to borrow 1,000 yuan and delivered it to them.

Salary Withheld

Li Zhuang, head of the Organisation Department of the Party Committee at the Jilin City Water Company, was in charge of persecuting Falun Gong. She actively cooperated with the Jilin City 610 Office to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. By October 2000 she had suspended my salary of a total amount of 16,355 yuan, and still hasn't paid me yet as of today. On November 7th, 2002, she cooperated with the Dongjuzi street committee of the Changyi District in Jilin City and deducted 2,000 yuan from my salary, and has not paid it back.

In short, for the past seven years, the Dongdatan Police Station of Changyi District, the Dongjuzi Street Committee, and the Jilin City Water Company have worked together to perpetrate Jiang's genocidal policy against Falun Gong practitioners. They have used all available means and have stopped at nothing. The police officers arrest practitioners at any time and anywhere. The street committee extorts money from practitioners' family members by deceiving them and using the excuse of bailing practitioners out. And the workplaces suspend practitioners' salaries, causing good people who practise Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance to have no foothold in society.

Agencies and individuals participating in the persecution:

Dongdatan Police Station of Changyi District in Jilin City
Tel: 86-432-2483206, 86-432-2456438
Local police officer: Xu Chun

Tongjiangjie Police Station of Changyi District in Jilin City
Tel: 86-432-2774957
Local police officer: Zu Jincai

Dongjuzi Street Committee of Changyi District in Jilin City
Party secretary: Chai Chang
Deputy party secretary: Li Qingzhi
Clerk: Yang Ziyan
Tel: 86-432-2579669, 86-432-2577263

Jilin City Water Company
108 Taoyuan Road, Jilin City
Zip: 132001
General manager: Li Lin
Main switchboard: 86-432-2032778
Former head of Organisation Department of the Party Committee: Li Zhuang

Home phone: 86-432-2459882

Note

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

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. "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.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/8/29/136646.html