Practitioner Yang Xiuqin from Liaoning Province Describes Persecution She Has Endured Since 1999

My name is Yang Xiuqin. I am a 40-year-old Dafa practitioner in Fushun City, Liaoning Province. I briefly describe in the following paragraphs the persecution I suffered in China.

On July 20th, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began its persecution campaign of Falun Gong. Officials from my place of employment started to monitor me and would not let me work.

On July 20th, 1999 I was on my way to the Fushun City Government to petition, trying to show them the facts that Falun Gong would benefit both the people and the country, and asking them to release the detained innocent Falun Gong practitioners. However, scores of armed police from the Fushun region blocked our way. They dragged us to a police vehicle and transported us to a house in an unfamiliar area for detention and interrogation. The interrogation continued until after midnight. The 610 Office¹ head Wang Rulin from my residential Wanghua District took me back. Then several local police officers and local Party secretary Hui searched my home and confiscated Dafa books and videos.

That same day, Chinese Central Television broadcast a news story of a Fushun miner who supposedly died by refusing to take medicine because he practised Falun Gong. Another practitioner and I felt the news might be a fabrication intended to smear Falun Gong, so we decided to verify the news source. We found that the story was a total fabrication. For this reason, section manager Meng Wei from the Politics and Law section at Fushun Police Department criminal division and police officer Yan Wu came to my home. They detained me and interrogated me for a whole day.

In September 1999, I went to Beijing to appeal and was arrested at the Jietai Temple. I was held in the Mentougou Detention Centre for 24 hours. Wanghua District 610 Office head Wang Rulan (the Minghui/Clearwisdom website has several articles about this evil person) escorted me back to Fushun City. He was affiliated with Fushun City Politics and Law System in Liaoning Province and accompanied by bureau head Zou and section head Meng Wei from the Politics and Security Section.

On the way back to Fushun, a drunken policeman surnamed Meng hit the bone behind one of my ears with his fist and broke the bone. It was so painful. He then confiscated all of my belongings. Afterwards they sent me to the Fushun City Detention Centre, together with seven other practitioners. In the detention centre police urged another inmate, Zheng Min, to beat me and kick my head, in an attempt to force me into giving up my belief. The abuse happened because I had declared I would not give up my belief.

There were more than forty people in a crowded cell at that place. The cell was only twenty square metres in size, (including the toilet). Each of us got a small piece of stale bread at every meal. The odour in the cell was atrocious. Other inmates often beat us without any reason. We were subjected to physical abuse and mental tortures.

One month later, the police escorted several Falun Gong practitioners and me to Fushun City Wanghua District Politics and Security Section. My mother in law, sister and daughter were waiting there, hoping I could return home soon. They were aghast when they saw me: I had become so skinny from the tortures that my weight dropped from 120 kilogrammes (265 lb.) to 60 kilogrammes (132 lb.) and I had to struggle to walk.

My thirteen-year-old daughter held me and cried loudly. My mother in law, husband, sister and brother were also in tears. However, the police handcuffed me. My mother in law and daughter held my hands, crying. Police viciously pushed them aside and dragged me to a police vehicle. Looking through the window I saw my daughter and mother-in law running behind the police vehicle, my daughter shouted, "Mother," and my mother in law called my name. I could no longer hold my tears.

The CCP used systematic persecution methods on my daughter. She was a student at Yanwu No. 28 Middle School in Fushun. Instructed by high-level officials, teachers subjected her to certain conversations. My daughter had just entered the first middle school grade. Infused with propaganda and CCP lies, some students who did not know the truth of Falun Gong discriminated against my daughter. My daughter felt lonely and helpless in school, and had to drop out. She was extremely hurt.

I was sentenced to one year of forced labour in the Fushun Forced Labour Camp. Falun Gong practitioners were compelled to perform daily physical labour. One day I was punished for reading Dafa books. Carrying out the abuse were labour camp guards Zeng Qiuyan and Jiang Yongfeng (the Minghui/Clearwisdom website has published articles on this vicious person). They told me to stand against a wall with my head pressed against it. I was in this position for several hours, which was very painful.

While I was detained in the labour camp, my fourth older brother's health deteriorated because of worrying and thinking of me. He died on February 13th, 2000. Before his death he called my name repeatedly, hoping to see me one more time, however his wish could not be fulfilled.

On March 1st, 2000, we were transferred to the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp in Liaoning Province where we suffered from all kinds of insults and mental torment. When we had just arrived at Masanjia, guards instructed criminal inmates Mi Qiulan and Feng Lin to take off all of our clothes, then search our bodies. The guards purposely cut my hair very ugly, to laugh at me. They also brought in some collaborators² to surround me, attempting to force me to give up my practice and belief. Labour camp female guard Fang Yehong assigned an inmate to monitor me closely.

In mid-April 2000, guard Fang Yehong ordered an inmate to take me to the toilet where they attempted to force me to give up my cultivation and belief. I refused. Fang Yehong ordered inmate Feng Lin from Fushun City to beat me. She slapped my face, making it swell, then pushed my chest with her leg, and hit my back with her elbow and fist. My chest and back became black and purple. I vomited, felt dizzy and had a headache, which was very painful. They also deprived me of sleep and forced me to read the books that slander Falun Gong. I refused to read, so they verbally abused me and beat me. Each day spent in that Masanjia camp seemed like a year.

I could not get in touch with my family. I learned from a friend that all my family and relatives' telephones were tapped. My husband could not endure the long-term separation and CCP threats and persecution, so he asked for a divorce.

Falun Gong practitioners there had to do craft work, involving chemicals that are harmful to people's health. For example, chicken feathers were dyed to several colours. Our work place was very small, and chicken feathers were all over the room. It was difficult to breathe. We started work at 8 o'clock in the morning and were allowed to leave after 9 o'clock in the evening. We had only two toilet breaks that whole shift - one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

On September 19th, 2000, I finished serving the term and returned home. However, a few days later, the authorities started to disturb me at home and monitor my movements. They would come every week or two weeks, and we could not have peace at home.

In March 2002 the CCP held a People's Congress Conference. I once again went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. I brought along a letter and a VCD on the truth of the Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident. I arrived at the Bureau of Appeals. When I handed the letter, VCD and my identification card through a window, they did not ask me any questions but detained me. They did not give me any chance to explain, and told staff from Liaoning's Liaison Office in Beijing to take me to their office on the fourth floor of a building in Fangzhuang. They took away all of my documents, personal identification and belongings, and handcuffed me to a bed. I began to talk about the persecution of Falun Gong.

The next day in the morning I took a chance when the guards were not paying attention to me and quickly left the dangerous area, and left Beijing. I had planned to return home, however my neighbour told me that police had searched my home and my husband had been taken to the police station as hostage. They beat him and interrogated him. He had been detained for 24 hours. Police also led my husband to the homes of my parents, older brothers and sisters to search for me.

The officials wanted to arrest me. To accomplish that, they had rented an apartment on the third floor of my residential complex, toward the front, so people from the "610 Office" Politics and Law Committee could keep me under surveillance. I sensed they were waiting for me. I decided to leave home, to avoid arrest.

Since my identification card had been confiscated I could not find a job. I had to rely on other Falun Gong practitioners' support to survive. The authorities had mobilised the whole police force to look for me.

One day, when I had just arrived at my temporary residence, someone reported me. The police arrived in two vehicles to arrest me. Fortunately, I had already left and avoided the danger.

My mother understood the CCP's evil conduct very well (she had previously worked in a police station). She endured great pressure to ask around for help without any concern for her illness, and her health deteriorated as a result. I could not fulfil my filial duty to my mother because of the CCP's persecution. I could not remain beside my mother's bed to take care of her. She passed away on September 29th, 2006.

In order to help more people in China understand the truth of Falun Gong, which has been under defamation and persecution, I distributed materials in the Fushun City Wanghua District. On September 26th, 2006, two plainclothes policemen spotted me. They confiscated my bag and made an emergency call. I was able to escape with some kind people's help. Later, someone told me that they heard the two policemen tell their fellow officers they would torture me if they could arrest me.

The persecution incidents like mine are just the tip of an iceberg. Thousands of stories of more serious persecutions or deaths of Falun Gong practitioners have been blocked from being told due to Internet censorship and other reasons by the vicious CCP.

We hope international communities and human rights organisations will enter China to investigate the ruthless persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in the prisons, labour camps and concentration camps, as well as the barbarous acts of organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners. We believe that righteous people of the world will join us to stop the persecution.

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.

2. "Collaborators": Former practitioners who have turned against Falun Gong under brainwashing and torture. They are then made to assist in brainwashing and torturing practitioners.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/12/29/145700.html