Elderly Practitioners Received Brutal Treatment in Fushan Town, Shandong Province in 2000

I was detained by my work unit after I travelled to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Dafa. The day after I returned home, the morning of December 26th, 2000, I wanted to walk in the park. At the gate of the park, eight of us were arrested by the police and sent to one of the seven dark detention centres organised by Wang Jimei, the Secretary of the Political Legal Committee of Weicheng District, Fushan Town. These detention centres are specifically set up to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. We suffered cruel torture and beatings there.

They gathered up sixteen thugs. Two of them beat each Falun Dafa practitioner. They started to torture us at noon. First they used a heavy catalogue to beat us all over our bodies. Then they forced us to stretch out our arms and hold them horizontally while they placed two large steelyard weights on each of our arms. They put other weights on top of the steelyard weights and also put wooden boxes on our heads. If the box on our heads dropped, they would beat us to the floor and then kick us hard. Afterwards they still got us up and forced us to stand with the box on our heads. They asked while beating us, "Do you still want to practise?" We all firmly said, "Yes!"

CCP Committee Secretary Yang Xidong shouted at the door, "We received orders from above: 'Beat them to death. All levels of the government will not charge you for beating them to death.'"

Therefore the thugs started to beat us more brutally. They saw that no matter how hard they beat us, I would not change, so they took off my coat and forced me to stand in the yard with bare feet and a sweater. It was 16 degrees Fahrenheit. Two thugs forced me to hold my arms horizontally. If my arms dropped a little bit they would kick them, and together they would slap my face. If they beat me down to the ground, they got me up and continued beating me. It was too cold, so they went inside. Later they took me inside and forced me to sit on the floor near their desk with my legs stretched flat. They sat on the desk and kicked my back with their leather shoes. Then they forced me to press my hands onto the floor. They grasped my ears and lifted me off the ground. I weighed over 160 lbs. They saw I still didn't yield, and then they pushed me outside the door again. They ground my bare feet with their leather shoes and poured boiling water over my head.

For every Falun Gong practitioner they forced to yield, they could get 500 yuan¹. Since the next day was a Sunday, they cursed while beating me, "Just an old lady like you, you delay our weekend." They tortured me until midnight. They could not stand it themselves. They dragged us into the building, and forced each of us to face a corner and forbade us from talking. The next morning when it was still dark, they pushed us outside in order to freeze us again. They shouted, "If you don't change in half an hour, we'll take off your pants to freeze you!" Later they took us to a nursing home located in southeast of the town. I was still only wearing a sweater and no shoes. There were two piles of snow in the shadow. Later the CCP Committee Secretary Yang came and shouted, "This old lady, she's too hard. There's no need to beat her. Go buy an electric baton to shock her." The head of the district Li Yongsheng waved his fist and shouted, "What are you practising this for?" His fist hit my front teeth. My mouth immediately started to bleed, and my gums got dark. I could not bite down, and my teeth hurt even when I read. Though both teeth didn't fall at the time, they show a big crack now.

I was forced to stand for a whole day. When it got dark, they went drinking. After they came back, they took me inside the office, and many thugs stood in the room. Almost all of them were officials from the village office. Because 500 yuan was not a small number to them, they said grinding their teeth, "We'll send you to the funeral home tomorrow." Someone held the electric baton and said, "Didn't you hate going to the hospital? I'll break your arms and make you stay in the hospital." Then he beat me twice with his electric baton. They saw that I stayed calm, and they shouted while holding the electric baton, "Aren't you afraid?" I stared at them calmly. These thugs shouted together, "Shock her!" Therefore they started to shock my hands, mouth, and the centre of my feet with the electric baton. I still didn't move. One thug jumped with rage, "You old lady, you can resist electricity!" So he grasped the long electric baton to beat me. The first day's torture had made my back swell up very badly. I could not stand them beating those parts any more. I tried to protect them with my hands, and one thug stepped on my hands and started to beat me rapidly and intensively. Two thugs took turns beating me. I could not stand it any more, my righteous thoughts went away and I was forced to say I would not practise any more. They stopped and asked me to write it down. Then they asked me to curse Falun Dafa. I would not curse even if they killed me.

The two thugs who beat me were Yu Haiyan, head of the north district and Want Lianjie, formerly in the united protection team.

After they finished beating me, they sent me to the seniors room next door. The other practitioners were already there. At the time I could not move anymore. Somebody had to help me to lie down, and I could not get up without help. Other people had to help me to use the toilet, and I had to use a cane. Some practitioners cried when they saw that my body was black and purple all over. I could not even squat down.

On the 6th day the head of the nursing home came and said, "Yesterday your son and daughter came to see you. How could we let them see you like this? We told them you are here and are very well, and we can't let you see each other." Since I went to Beijing I hadn't seen my family for over a month. It was snowing very hard the day before, and it was very difficult for my two children to find this secret place, and still we could not even see each other. At that time, I thought, "I am a practitioner who cultivates to be a Buddha, how could I be beaten like this?" I had another thought, "I can stand up." I really sat up, and then stood up. I could also walk around the table. The other practitioners were all happy for me.

The thugs asked us to turn in 2,000 yuan each. When my daughter came to pay the money, she cried when she saw how I was beaten like this. The other practitioners were taken away by their working units. They said another practitioner and I had a bad attitude and we were not to be released until January 12th, 2001. After I came back, the Financial Committee of the city fined me another 1,000 yuan. All together they extorted 3,000 yuan from me. Another practitioner, Song Yuhua, could not speak any more because of the beating. She was in critical condition. They sent her to the hospital for an infusion. She stayed in the hospital for a day and they took her back and continued to give her infusions in the nursing home. Their goal was to make her renounce Falun Gong. However, she still could not speak but showed vomiting symptoms. They were afraid and called her street neighbourhood office. The office asked her boyfriend to pay 2,000 yuan and carried her back. Another practitioner was tortured and showed symptoms of heart disease. They asked her family to pay 2,000 yuan and then let her go.

After I came back, many practitioners came to see me and were shocked by my terrible condition that was caused by the torture. When Chen Zixiu came to see me, she said in tears, "How could they do this? Isn't this too much?" Later she went to Beijing alone. On her way back she was caught, and she was beaten to death in the dark detention centre of Weicheng District organised by Wang Jimei.

Not only did this cruel torture fail to scare me, it made my heart rock-solid. After going through many difficulties, I arrived in Beijing again, held up a banner, and shouted, "Falun Dafa is great!"

Note

1. "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://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2007/2/2/148104.html