First Hand Experience of Cruel Brainwashing at the Beijing Women's Forced Labour Camp (Part 4)

Part 1: http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200702/38017.html
Part 2: http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200702/38022.html
Part 3: http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200702/38038.html

8. Friends and Family Made to Suffer As Well

One day, someone shouted in the hallway, "Zhang Yijie come out!"

I walked out and followed the head of the cell to the visitors' building. I sat in a empty room and waited. It had been a long time since the guards had allowed anyone to visit me. I did not know who was coming. I rubbed my face to look more energetic and also to loosen up a bit.

The door opened, and my oldest brother stood in front of me. I stood up instantly. When our eyes met, my brother cried. Was it because of my skinny cheeks and white hair? Was it because I had changed so dramatically? It was only two seconds, then he gained control of himself as if he had never cried. But of course I saw all of it, clearly and vividly. As his younger sister, I could feel the tide of his emotions being held back by the force of his rationality, being locked inside for good. I sighed in my heart, "My brother is a real man!"

He never expressed his emotions, so it was unlike him when he walked towards me, held my shoulders and said, "Yijie, let's go home!" My heart felt a thousand things in his single sentence. I tried to hold back my tears.

I answered, "Do you want me go home at the cost of my integrity or life?!" I sealed the door tightly and prevented him confronting me in front of the authorities. If in the past, my answer would have ignited a verbal war, this time he was silent. I could tell that he was very sad and tried to control himself.

After July 20th, 1999, I went to appeal on July 21st. My employer, the Foreign Trade Ministry of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), was involved in the political movement and tried to force me to give up cultivating Falun Dafa, so that I could be "on the same page" as the CCP. My family also tried to convince me. My oldest brother was the most active of my three older brothers. My father, a history teacher, cooperated with him. Once, they suddenly locked me up in a room and tried many ways to force me to give in. My father used many historical stories about how people had been wrong. My oldest brother is a provincial civil minister. He is in charge of persecuting Falun Gong in that province. He knows clearly the CCP's plan to eradicate Falun Gong. They thought they could save me from disaster and stop me from ruining my reputation and losing profit or ruining my family.

Because I refused to give up, my family members contradicted each other and could not reach common ground. My father was so sad because he could not convince his beloved daughter even though he was a history teacher all his life. My oldest brother was about to jump out of his skin, but he had no other choice but to reason with me with patience.

At first I thought my oldest brother's attitude had influenced my family and caused me lots of stress. I thought he was a person without a sense of justice and that he was helping do evil. It was after I walked out of the forced labour camp that I learned he had also had to bear much mistreatment due to my cultivation.

On January 3rd, 2001, I was openly abducted by the State Security Bureau agents in the yard of my workplace. They took me to a brainwashing session held by the State Ministry Union. It was located in a forced labour camp. Those four big men suffocated and almost killed me when they carried me into the vehicle. I went on a hunger strike to protest the illegal abduction and forced brainwashing. I absolutely refused to be "transformed¹" even after the 15-day session ended. My die-hard will shocked the upper levels. They planned to force me to remain in the facility until I accepted their brainwashing. My oldest brother and my younger sister came to visit me during my hunger strike, and my older sister and my daughter came to pick me up when the 15 days were over. The Chinese New Year was coming soon, so they let me go home.

I went to Changchun City in Jilin Province, my childhood home, to spend the holidays and also to try to avoid further brainwashing. Nevertheless the authorities chased me to Changchun City. On New Year's Eve, policemen and neighbourhood administrators knocked on our door, demanded 4,000 yuan², and notified us that they were told to monitor me closely.

I had no money. Where could I borrow so much money on New Year's Eve, which is against the Chinese custom? I believed I did not violate any laws, but if I stayed in my parent's house, my family would be deeply hurt, and I could not return to Beijing to be further brainwashed. I had to leave home without saying good-bye to my father.

My disappearance angered the authorities. They put me on the national "Wanted" list. They blamed my older brothers for not cooperating with them, for releasing me, and for interfering in my case. They blamed my older brothers for four "crimes." On top of that, they, along with the Foreign Ministry Head, wrote to the Jilin Province CCP Committee, requesting that they discipline my oldest brother, the provincial civil bureau head, and my third older brother, the office chairman employed by the provincial justice bureau.

Jilin Province CCP Secretary Wang Yunkun commented on the letter: "Deal with it after the investigation." This "order" caused my two brothers huge mental pressure and severely hindered their daily life and work.
Official mistreatment of my brothers forced my departure. They authorities would not even allow me to spend seven days of a holiday peacefully with my family. They forced me to hide out on New Year's Eve and even implicated my two older brothers!

If they truly manage the country with integrity, like they claim ("Save people from flood or fire, give water to the thirsty") or even if they simply were reasonable, how could they abduct people in broad daylight? How could they "transform" people with violence? I was a government employee, yet I was treated so unfairly. It is beyond imagination how dark the local counties and cities are. They can abduct people just to change their thoughts! In order to change your beliefs, they will dismiss you from your position, fire you from your job, lower your salary, send you to a remote area, force you to go through brainwashing and sentence you to forced labour if you refused to accept the brainwashing, and complicate your families. Where is the justice?! Where is the law?!

After July 21st, 1999, my oldest brother and family members one by one saw me being mistreated until I was forced to disappear. After I was arrested in Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, my family witnessed the government mistreat me further. They could not accept all of that calmly. They have righteous thoughts and were forced to think over the painful facts. The right and wrong and the good and vicious were manifesting in their daily lives and influencing their conscience. They woke up from the painful persecution and distinguished right from wrong.

My oldest brother has been an honest official for over 20 years. Nevertheless, no one dared to ignore Secretary Wang Yunkun's order. It is fairly easy to be accused of a "crime" under the CCP's rulings.
Soon after, the Jilin Province high level officials gathered together to "study." My oldest brother was late due to work-related matters. He asked a colleague, "What are we studying today?"

People answered passively, "The three representations of Jiang."

My oldest brother was annoyed and said, "What is there to study?" and he left immediately.
Later, a disciplinary punishment in his case was announced inside the provincial CCP, which means that they eventually followed Wang Yunkun's order.

(To be continued.)

Note

1. "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")

2. "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/2006/11/17/142460.html