Ms. Sun Shuqin is a Falun Gong practitioner from Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province. Because she refused to give up her belief in Falun Gong, she was arrested many times, imprisoned, put into a mental hospital and a brainwashing centre, and laid off from work. We hope that people with a sense of justice will denounce the human rights violations and help stop the persecution of Falun Gong in China. We also hope that people who have participated in the persecution will wake up, turn away from evil and choose a bright future for themselves.
The following is Ms. Sun Shuqin's account about how she was tortured and put into a mental hospital and a brainwashing centre.
I was an employee of the Industrial and Commercial Bank, Chengnei Branch, Jinzhou City. I obtained a copy of the book Zhuan Falun [This book comprises the principal teachings of Falun Dafa] in late 1996. After I read it once, I was delighted and I wished that I could have read it earlier. It was difficult to describe my happiness at finding answers to all my puzzles about life. I knew right away there that this was the meaning of my life and that this is what I had been waiting for and seeking my whole life. I decided to become a cultivator.
I lived by the three principles of Falun Dafa -- Truthfulness, Benevolence, Forbearance -- and followed Teacher's [Teacher Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Dafa] teachings. Soon my illnesses were all gone and I enjoyed a healthy, joyful and full life. I applied a higher moral standard to myself and worked diligently and responsibly without any complaint. My managers and colleagues all praised me for my dedication to my work, kindness and upright character.
Arrested for Following the Law to Appeal for Falun Gong
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started persecuting Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999. Radio, television and newspapers contained mountainous lies and slander against Dafa. Being sincere, honest and responsible to our nation and people, I felt that I must step forward to inform people about the true nature of Falun Gong and dispel the state propaganda attacking the practice.
So I went to the Beijing Appeal Office in October 1999. When I approached the office, I was stopped and asked if I was a Falun Gong practitioner and where I was from. I answered honestly. Then I was taken to the Jinzhou City Police Department Beijing Office and later back to Jinzhou.
Put into a Mental Hospital
My mother received a phone call from my bank, asking me to write a statement promising to no longer practise Falun Gong. I refused to do so. At that time, there were many cases of arrests and layoffs of Falun Gong practitioners. The fear from past political movements during the CCP's regime really frightened my parents. Someone suggested getting a mental illness statement for me to save my job. So they took me to the Jinzhou City Kangning Mental Hospital.
The doctor at the hospital declared that I had “paranoid schizophrenia,” basing his findings on the fact that I would rather give up my job than promise not to practise Falun Gong. He told my parents that I needed to take medication. My parents were confused. I went on a hunger strike to protest. The doctors inserted a feeding tube into my stomach to force-feed me with food and medicine. My parents hid and cried helplessly. It pained me to see my relatives being lied to and their kindness being taken advantage of. I felt very sorry for them. People hurt the ones they are closest to because they don't understand one another, but they still love and care for each other. Though I loved my relatives, I would never do anything against heaven, morality, justice and conscience. I believe that someday the public and my relatives will come to understand that the greatest and most fundamental benevolence and care from Dafa practitioners is manifest in their enduring pain and validating Falun Dafa.
As I had been a good employee and a nice person, my managers and colleagues understood that I was not politically motivated but that I was only trying to defend my cultivation belief and be a good person. So I did not lose my job, and kept my position at work. That ended my stay at the mental hospital.
I am not sharing my experiences to blame my relatives. If someone is to blame, it's me. For I had not explained the facts about Falun Dafa adequately to them. Actually what happened to me and my family was just a tiny sample of the torture that Dafa practitioners and their relatives experience.
Taken to a Brainwashing Centre for the First Time
Six months later, in July 2000, the CCP started a new brainwashing campaign to persecute Dafa practitioners. Local police arrested or deceived Dafa practitioners to get them into brainwashing centres. Officials at the Shiyou Police Station, Jinzhou City claimed that my actual residence did not match my residence record. They sent my residence record, along with my identification card that they had in their possession (the police withheld the identification cards of all practitioners who went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong), to the Jingye Police Station in Jinzhou City. When I went the Jingye Police Station to correct my residence record, I was asked to write a statement promising not to practise Falun Gong. I refused. I was grabbed by the police right then and there and taken to a brainwashing centre.
A lot of Dafa practitioners were taken to that brainwashing centre. First, we were forced to watch television programs slandering Dafa and then ordered to write reviews. With our true and benevolent hearts, we all wrote why Falun Dafa is good and exposed the lies broadcast on television and in the media. When the managers of the brainwashing centre read the reviews, they were speechless and kept shaking their heads without a word. One person said impressively, “These are students of Li Hongzhi!” Later, Dafa practitioners realised that this kind of “brainwashing” and “transforming1” violated our human rights, so we went on a hunger strike together to protest. We practitioners used everything, even our lives to tell the public and government that Falun Dafa is good, and that Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance is good! We used this peaceful method to safeguard our belief and human rights. However, the CCP's persecution did not stop, but became even worse. Many practitioners were put into prisons, forced labour camps or detention centres. I was in critical condition after being on a hunger strike for five days. So my family and my employer were allowed to take me home. Then came two peaceful years of work and life.
Taken to a Brainwashing Centre for the Second Time
Before the 16th National Congress of Communist Party of China in 2002, the CCP started another round of persecution against Falun Gong practitioners. In September the newly appointed executive of Jinzhou City Industrial and Commercial Bank (City Bank) and managers of our branch tried to “transform” me in our branch's conference room three times.
They did not get what they wanted. The torture was escalated. City Bank Party Secretary Zhang Jiang, Director of the Party Affairs Office Li Yingzhu, Branch Manager Mao Jianhua, Party Secretary of the Branch Bank Zhang Sujie and Labour Union President of the Branch Bank Zhang Yujin made plans to send me to Shenyang City Zhangshi Forced Labour Camp Brainwashing Centre in Liaoning Province.
On September 27th, 2002, I was suddenly told to give my work to another person. I was constantly monitored right after that, even when I used the toilet. I was taken out of the bank through the lobby to a waiting minivan. The windows were secured with thick steel grates inside. I sat between two guards. Another Dafa practitioner, Mr. Ju Yonghe, a retired worker, was also in the minivan. The van took off with sirens blaring. I asked where we were going. Zhang Yujin lied and said that the executives of the Provincial Bank wanted to talk to me. On the way, he also said to me, “Ms. Sun Shuqin, we have helped you in the past but what you are getting into now is because you are too morally upright.” I was puzzled, “Isn't it a virtue to be honest and upright?”
To my surprise, the van stopped at the Shenyang City Zhangshi Forced Labour Camp. I was put into the brainwashing centre there. Later I was told that the brainwashing centre did not want to take any practitioners from Jinzhou City, because it had its own brainwashing centre. The bank officials asked the officials from the Jinzhou City “610 Office2” to bribe the officials of the Shenyang City 610 Office to get me in. I did not know why they wanted to get me into Shenyang. Zhangshi Brainwashing Centre was extremely expensive. They charged two hundred “yuan3” per day per practitioner. My fee, after a discount, was five thousand yuan per month. The torture at the Zhangshi Brainwashing Centre was very sinister and secretive (see Appendix A for details). After being tortured for a month, my health greatly deteriorated and I was in critical condition. My bank hired a doctor from Jinzhou City Hospital, who brought an emergency kit to the brainwashing centre and took me home.
Employment Contract Unjustly Terminated
However, the persecution against me did not end. The director of the Party Affairs Office of the Provincial Bank, Ning Changwen called the City Bank to ask me to apply for voluntary retirement, threatening to lay me off with minimal benefits if I did not do so. I refused, stating clearly, “Voluntary retirement is on a voluntary basis. Please do not force me to do it.” Then the branch terminated my employment contract and reported to the Human Resource (HR) Department of the Provincial Bank on November 15th, 2002. But the Provincial Bank's HR Department would not approve it. Therefore, I was able to have six months of peace.
On June 19th, 2003, my department manager called me into his office. Zhang Sujie and the newly appointed HR manager of the Branch Bank Zhao Hongjun handed me an employment termination notice. They told me that my employment with the bank would be terminated on July 31st, 2003. If I chose voluntary retirement, I could get more money as severance pay. If I did not, they would follow the State Council's “Provisional Regulations on Institution of Labour Contract System in State-Owned Enterprises” published in 1986, to give me about ten thousand yuan as severance pay. Actually this regulation was nullified on October 6th, 2001, but they claimed it was still in effect. I asked them why, since all employees contracts came to an end, did they renew the contracts of everyone else but singled me out, though I had the same or better qualifications as others? Was it because I practised Falun Gong? Zhang Sujie said, “We don't want to talk about Falun Gong. We won't tell you the reason. The bank operates like a private entity. If we want to renew the contract with you, we will do it. If we don't, we don't. The managers have collectively decided not to renew your contract, so we're giving you this employment termination notice.” He said these words as if he was reciting. I wondered who told him what to say.
I said that it was not right, that the bank was a state enterprise and that if they didn't want to renew my contract, they should give me legitimate reasons. I went to talk to the seven managers of the branch and Zhao Hongjun, pointing out to them that their decision without legal basis was incorrect. It violated the law and violated my human rights.
They could not say anything but asked me to go to the City Bank's HR Department. I talked to the Section Chief of the City Bank's Human Resource Section, Xie Guangcheng. He told me that the City Bank had nothing to do with this decision and that the decision was made by the bank's branch managers. I went back to the branch manager Mao Jianhua and told him what Xie Guangcheng said. Mao Jianhua was clearly upset. I then asked him, “You said it was not because I practised Falun Gong. Then why?” He said, “If not for Falun Gong, what else can it be?” He then added immediately, “I only say this in private. In public I will never acknowledge it.” I asked him, “Do you really think I became very evil after practising Falun Gong?” He replied, “No. You are not evil at all. You are very kind.” Then I went to see the Party Secretary of the City Bank, Zhang Jiang. He said that he had heard of my situation, but it was not his responsibility. I then went to the president of the City Bank, Geng Jingdong, “You deny publicly that laying me off was due to my practising Falun Gong. Then was it because I had personality problems or I made big mistakes at work?” He said, “I respect your character and high moral standards. As for your work, all your managers, including previous ones, and your coworkers speak highly of you. Except for practising Falun Gong, we had nothing to say about you.” They agreed that I should go to the Provincial Bank to appeal.
My case lasted until April 4th, 2004. The Branch Bank finally announced that they would not renew my contract. This decision deprived me of about seventy thousand yuan, which I should have received as severance for my seventeen years at the bank. Instead, they only gave me ten thousand yuan as severance pay. The termination paper was signed by all managers of the Branch, who were pressured to do so from the top. How was this different from a thief robbing someone's money? The bank just did it “officially” in the name of the nation and “law.” The HR manager put together a list, including the severance pay and acknowledgement of employment termination, for me to sign. I did not agree with the employment termination, so I refused to sign them. I have not received the money.
(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. "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.
3. "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/2007/3/8/150248.html
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