The Persecution Experienced by A Common Family

I started practising Falun Dafa in 1997 and experienced a lot of changes in body and mind afterwards. Every day I studied the Falun Dafa teachings and did the exercises with a few fellow practitioners in my village and I was able to treat everything I came across with a benevolent heart. I felt so happy and told everyone I met that Falun Dafa had brought back to me a healthy body and a loving family and it had made our life so much better.

But on July 20th, 1999, the rogue group headed by Jiang Zemin used the wicked Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to start an all out persecution of Falun Gong, and stories slandering Falun Gong were all over the TV. In my area--Zhangqiang Town, Kangping County of Liaoning Province, the Zhangqiang Town Police Station, and Sankeshu Village--meetings were held everyday to transmit directions from above and to discuss how to persecute Falun Gong. The party chief in my village, Jiang Zhilong, called me and a few other practitioners to his office and told us to stop practising Falun Gong. He also said that if we practised it again, the village would recover the land contracted to us and imposed a fine of 2000 to 4000 yuan (approximately 128 pounds to 250 pounds), and if three or five of us gathered together, it would be regarded as our doing the exercises and have a meeting.

After that Zhangqiang Town police officers came to my house from time to time to harass me, and we lost our environment for practising Dafa. I could not figure out what was going on. After I started practising Falun Dafa, I became healthier and constantly measured myself against Dafa requirements. I tried to be a good person, a better person, and this was a great practice that taught people to be good. Was it wrong to be a good person? Influenced by the government propaganda on the TV, my family members began to exert pressure on me, too. My husband tried to force me to surrender Dafa books and to write a repentance statement¹. I refused, so he wrote it for me. Zong Haitao, a para-policeman from the town police station, came to my house everyday, making sure I was at home. Under these circumstances, a few fellow practitioners and I exercised our most fundamental rights and went to Beijing to petition our cases.

We arrived in Beijing on December 27th, 2000. We had thought we could find authorities that would listen to us. Unexpectedly, Beijing was even more heavily guarded and there was no place where people could air their grievances. The plainclothes and uniformed policemen in front of Tiananmen Square questioned anyone who passed through and asked them if they were Falun Gong practitioners. The policemen would not hesitate to use their electric batons to beat anyone who they thought were Falun Gong practitioners. Together with other practitioner petitioners, I was shoved onto a police van and taken to a prison on the outskirts of Beijing. We were kept in the Shahe Police Station in Beijing, and I was led to a cell. Barefoot and in pyjamas, I was told to stand on icy cement floor for a long time, trembling with cold.

The following day, Li Mi and Zhang Xiangning of the 610 Office¹ and Public Security Bureau, and Xue Jiuling, Zong Haichao, and others of the Zhangqiang Town Police Station took us back to the Zhangqiang Town Police Station. Xue Jiuling, the deputy party chief, cheated me out of 400 yuan (approximately 25 pounds) and has not returned it to me to this day. When we arrived at the Zhangqiang Town Police Station, Liu Chunyu, the director, first pushed us into the corners of a room and then cuffed us to beds, with two policemen nearby watching us. The police station contacted my family and extorted 500 yuan (approximately 30 pounds) from them. I was detained for 52 days before they sent me to the Longshan Correctional Centre for a two-year term.

The guards at the Longshan Correctional Centre were full of abusive words. There we were overworked, and often we were told to stand, sit, or were deprived of sleep as a means of punishment. One day a TV reporter came, and we were told to sit in a line in the corridor, while a supervisor told the reporter how good the conditions were, how Falun Gong practitioners were treated like sisters, and how we liked the place. Sitting in the front row, I could not help but ask the supervisor, "Do you want us to tell the truth?" He said, "Yes." So I continued, "You just said you treated us as you did to your loved ones, but how come you often beat us and yell at us? Look at what you did to Aunt Yuan Zeqin, who's sitting right next to me. She is over 70 and her ribs were all broken." At that moment, the reporter switched off his camera. A team leader by the name of Li rushed over and pulled me away. I was later sent to the Zhangshi Brainwashing Centre for further persecution. There they tried to force me to write repentance statements. I refused, so they told me to squat and to sit on Dafa books. They didn't give me any food or water and would not allow me to use the toilet. I was maltreated there for two days and two nights and then sent back to the Longshan Correctional Centre.

Another time, when I saw the supervisor beating up a practitioner I went up to stop him. Guard Wei Bingtang punched me across my face, cutting my lip.

While I was detained, my husband, my 80-plus-year-old mother-in-law, and my two children had a hard time at home. Once, Liu Chunyu, the director of the Zhangqiang Town Police Station, and a few policemen stormed into my home. Only my mother-in-law and my two children were home at the time. Without any warrant, they conducted an illegal search of my house. My mother-in-law could not stand it and became seriously ill. Afflicted by advanced liver cancer, she looked out the window every day, longing for my return. But she died in the end without being able to see me one last time. In agony my husband had to seek help to have me released on probation and Xue Jiuling extorted another 3000 yuan (approximately 188 pounds) from him.

These are the misfortunes Jiang Zemin and the wicked CCP have caused an ordinary family. Here I want to offer a word of advice to those who are stilling persecuting Dafa practitioners today: Stop being an accomplice to the wicked party and turn away from your deviant path before it's too late!

Note

1. Repentance Statement: In this statement the practitioner is forced to admit remorse for practising Falun Gong, promise to give up Falun Gong, and never again associate with other practitioners or go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.

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.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/3/9/150454.html