I am 69 years old and from northeast China. I learned Falun Gong in June 1997. In less a month, all my illnesses, including: pains in my legs and on my skin, lower back pain, stomach ulcer, and stiff shoulder were gone. Later, all five of my children also began to practise.
Since July 20th, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to suppress Falun Gong and slander Teacher [Teacher Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Dafa]. I was deeply grieved. Five of us went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. The police there arrested us and we were locked in a basement for seven days. Then we were returned back to our hometown, where we were detained for an additional thirty days. We went on a hunger strike to protest and were then released. My family realised that we needed to explain the facts to people, so that people would understand that Falun Dafa is good. Many times we returned to Beijing to appeal.
During the initial period of the persecution, I was arrested many times. On November 12th, 2000, my son, grandson, daughter-in-law, and I went to Beijing to inform people about the true nature of Falun Gong, but we were taken by the police to the Shijingshan Detention Centre in Beijing. During the police interrogation I refused to tell them my name [editor's note: due to the CCP's policy of implicating and harassing practitioners' family members and work units, practitioners often refuse to reveal their names and addresses when they are arrested]. They further interrogated me at night and fiercely slapped my face. My face began to swell and I started to bleed from my mouth.
After the police who were beating me got tired, another policeman took me to different room and told me, "I know practitioners are good people and have difficulties at home. You tell me where you are from and I will let you leave tomorrow morning." I believed him and told him I was from Jixi City. The next day the police locked me in the basement of the Beijing Office, designated for detaining practitioners.
After spending three days in the basement I was handcuffed and transferred to the Jixi Detention Centre in Heilongjiang Province. The guards tortured me and tried to force me to sign a document to renounce Falun Gong. When I refused, they detained me for an additional 20 days, then sentenced me to a year in prison.
I was Imprisoned in a Forced Labour Camp
At 7:00 p.m. on November 17th, 2000, the police took me out of the Jixi Detention Centre and asked me to sign a statement. I asked the police what it was for. When they told me I was to be sentenced to a year in a forced labour camp, I refused to sign. They told me either way I'd have to go to prison. That same night, the police handcuffed me and sent me to the Wanjia Forced Labour Camp in Harbin City. I hadn't eaten for four days and was dressed in light clothing. I passed out in the car due to the extremely cold weather.
In the Wanjia Forced Labour Camp, I was again tortured and the guards wouldn't let me eat if I didn't follow their instructions. In the summer months the guards would force me to lie on the ground, exposed to the sizzling heat of the sun, or make me stand against a wall for long periods of time. The guards wouldn't allow me to go to the toilet or eat.
On January 31st, 2001, fellow practitioners and I tried to study Lunyu together, but the guards brutally beat and punished us. As I fell to the ground a guard kicked me and broke one of my ribs. It took three months to heal.
On June 17th, 2001, the guards made up six rules in the camp. Some of them were, "not appealing for Falun Gong," "not doing Falun Gong exercises" and "not going to Beijing [to appeal for justice]." They asked all practitioners to sign the agreement, but the practitioners refused. That night, the guards brutally tortured 15 of the practitioners whose cells were on the first floor of the labour camp. One of the practitioners on the second floor, Li (given name unknown), who had some supernormal abilities said, "Some people on the first floor have been beaten to death." A prisoner (not a practitioner) reported Li's comment to the guards. The next day, June 18th, 2001, five guards brought four dishes and a bowl of rice to Li and hurried him to eat. Li heard the word "poisonous" in his ear and so he told the guards he wouldn't eat if they didn't. The guards took Li to a secret room. It was said that all of the 15 practitioners, dead or alive, were taken to the secret room. Later it was revealed that four out of the 15 died. This was later known as the "6-18 incident" that happened in Wanjia Forced Labour Camp and was known among the practitioners. Brutal incidents like this are still ongoing in the camp.
I had severe itching all over my body from scabies as a result of the torture. I vomited blood and had blood in my stools. I was very weak and wanted to meditate to improve my health. A guard known as Xiaoma saw me meditating and reported me to Captain Lin and Wu Jinying. Xiaoma and four other guards claimed that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) forbade people from doing the Falun Gong exercises, so they beat me. Lin punched me so hard on my chest, that I had difficulty breathing for several months.
One day in February 2001, I was doing the exercises and Xiang Yuanqin saw me. She scolded me and tortured me. The next day she fell down the stairs and broke her shoulder.
On November 15th, 2001, every practitioner wore a white flower in memory of practitioners who died due to torture. On November 17th, 2001, my health further deteriorated and the camp authorities released me because they feared bearing the responsibility if I were to die in the camp.
My Husband Cheng Zhongmou Is Persecuted and I Am Sent to a Forced Labour Camp Again
In November 1999, my husband and I were at home when two police officers, Tong (first name unknown) and Liu Minggui, broke in. They tried to confiscate our Falun Dafa books, but when the power went out all of a sudden, the officers quickly left.
The next day the two officers came back again. They forced my husband to put down a deposition and turn in his Falun Gong books. One day, towards the end of November, seven police officers broke into our house. They took our books and ordered us to pack our bags to go to the police station with them. When we refused, they forcibly carried and pushed us into their cars and took us to the Hengshan Police Station. I was sentenced to a year and my husband was detained for a while. The next day the officers went to our home to confiscate our belongings. They took 17 Dafa books and 12,000 yuan1 in cash without giving us any receipt.
After my husband was released, he lived a homeless life to avoid arrest until after I served my sentence. After he picked me up from the Wanjia Forced Labour Camp, the police still came to harass us every day. We were forced to leave home again and move frequently to avoid further persecution.
My Son, Daughter-in-law and Grandson Are Persecuted
On November 12th, 2000, my son, Cheng Peiming, daughter-in-law, Wang Shuhong, my grandson, Cheng Yu, and Mr. and Mrs. Wang, and their child, went to Tiananmen Square to appeal for Dafa. All the adults were arrested. The two children, Cheng Yu and the Wangs' child, were trying to figure out how to go back to Jixi City by themselves. They realised they came all the way here to appeal but they hadn't even opened up their banners yet, so they decided to return to Tiananmen to appeal. Cheng Yu opened up his banner and shouted, "Falun Dafa is Good!" The police quickly arrested him and interrogated him. Cheng Yu told the police that he had come there with his parents, but his parents were arrested and he didn't know where they were. The police couldn't find Cheng Yu's parents and put him in the Tianjin Detention Centre. A practitioner who was also from Jixi city was detained there and she knew Cheng Yu. Eventually she took Cheng Yu back to Jixi City.
My Son Cheng Peiming's Experience
My son, Cheng Peiming, and his wife had their own small business in Jimo City in Shandong Province. The three of them had a great life. My son's lung tuberculosis was healed after he started practising Falun Gong and everything went well for him.
After the persecution started, the CCP sabotaged his business and forced him to give up his business. The police forced him to walk to the town hall in a squatting position with one officer pulling his ear. My son suffered a heat stroke several times due to the intense heat in the summer and when the police didn't give him any water, his lips would crack. The police beat him and tried to force him to give up Falun Gong, but my son knew that Dafa gave him his life back and cured his lung tuberculosis. He truly benefited from the practice and knew the CCP made up all the propaganda on TV, so he refused to cooperate with the CCP. He knew couldn't stay in Shandong anymore and went to Daqing City in northeast China. After living in Daqing for six months, the local CCP made it impossible for him to live there and so he came to be with my husband and me in Jixi City.
One night, CCP agents in Jixi City attempted to arrest my son. He didn't want to bring us trouble and so left our house, becoming homeless. He worked with other practitioners to make leaflets exposing the persecution. Someone reported them to the police, and they were arrested; many Dafa books, leaflets exposing the persecution and a rental car were confiscated. My son, Cheng Peiming, was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Cheng Peiming Is Brutally Tortured
In May 2001, Cheng Peiming was sentenced to eight years. During his sentence, the police brutally tortured him. The followings is my son's statement of how he was persecuted:
1. At the Jiguan District Public Safety Bureau in Jixi City, Heilongjiang Province
On May 11th, 2001, as I attended a conference with practitioners from the Hongxing Township, Jiguan District, Jixi City, I was attacked by four police officers. Two police officers grabbed me, and another two jumped on me and brutally beat me until I fell to the ground. They grabbed my feet and dragged me to their car, about 30 feet away. They tried to stuff me into the trunk, but I struggled. They repeatedly banged my head, then forced me into the trunk and drove me to Jiguan District Public Safety Bureau. We arrived at about 4:00 p.m. where they threw me into an interrogation room
From 4:00 p.m., May 11th until 8:00 a.m., May 13th, for a period of more than 30 hours, I was continually interrogated and tortured by four policemen; they only stopped when they ate. During the torture process, they didn't wear their police uniforms or identity badges because they didn't want me to disclose their conduct.
During that time, the police tied me to a Tiger Bench2 and used over ten methods of torture on me. They punched me in the face, inserted heated skewers into my nails, shot at my lips with rubber bands, scratched a belt buckle up and down my ribcage, clipped my nipples with steel clamps, beat me with batons, forcefully dug into my collar bone, and used tortures called "Nama" and "Space Hat" on me.
"Nama" - two police pushed really hard on the gap between my legs and lower abdomen; two other police squeezed really hard on my ribcage from my lower rib up to my arm pits. It was extremely painful and it exhausted me.
"Space Hat" - the police put a plastic bag on my head, tightened it, and put a helmet on my head. They heavily banged a 7 pound hammer on the helmet until I partially lost consciousness due to the fierce impact. They repeated this during interrogation.
The police weighted me down with handcuffs and leg shackles weighing over 40 lbs and didn't allow me to remove them during sleep. I told other prisoners (not practitioners) that Falun Gong was innocent and went on a hunger strike to protest. The prisoners (not practitioners) beat me every day. On May 15th, the Deputy Director Zhang Yi tried to talk me into eating, but I refused. Zhang ordered me to kneel down. I again refused. Two prisoners held me down and banged my head on the ground. Zhang Yi ordered four police to shock me with electric batons. They stripped me and shocked my penis and the inside of my mouth. They tried to force me to badmouth Teacher and Dafa but failed. They shocked me continually for three days. I couldn't stand it any longer and started eating. They then forced me to wear 60-lb shackles for 24 days. During the following months, Zhang Yi often instigated prisoners to beat me, spit in my face, push me around, and stuff dirty socks in my mouth. On January 7th, 2002, Zhang Yi beat me with an electric baton for no reason.
2. At the First Detention Centre in Jixi City
At 9:00 a.m. on May 13th, 2001, I was taken to the 8th Prison Ward of the Jixi First Detention Centre. A guard told the prisoners that I was a "heavyweight" Falun Gong practitioner and they needed to teach me a good lesson. The minute I stepped into the prison cell, two prisoners punched my head and I was pushed into one of the walls. The prisoners surrounded me and the guard came in and put handcuffs and shackles that weighed over 40 lbs on me.
I was in the detention centre for over 11 months and my body was extremely swollen because of the beatings. There was a doctor in the detention centre with the last name Wang, who said, "If a practitioner is beaten to death, I will issue a death certificate saying he died of a disease."
3. In the Jiguan District Court in Jixi City
In January 2002, I was sent to trial in the Jiguan District Court, where I told the judge that Falun Dafa was innocent and was a righteous teaching. I told him that practitioners were not guilty of any crimes. They sentenced me to eight years and the court officers beat me with a baton.
4. At the Harbin Prison
On April 10th, 2002, the police put me in the Harbin Prison "Intensive Training Team," to continue the torture. On January 5th, 2003, guard Lin Bo tried to force me to write slandering materials against Falun Gong. To protest, I swallowed six 3-inch long steel nails [editor's note: Dafa practitioners are not supposed to use such extreme means to protest. The fact that Mr. Cheng felt compelled to resort to this extreme measure is an indication of the severity of the persecution]. I had to have surgery twice, at the Heilongjiang Provincial Hospital, to remove the steel nails. Before surgery, I said to the doctor and nurses, "Practitioners are good people, please tell them (the prison guards) to stop persecuting us." Guards Lin Bo, Du Zuosheng, Li Cai and two others at the scene lowered their heads in shame.
During the surgery, the doctor pumped out two bowls of blood since the nails had poked through my intestines. The surgery lasted over two hours. They didn't give me anaesthetics and caused severe damage to my stomach and intestines. I became dizzy, delusional, and seriously fatigued during the surgery.
I was transferred back to the Harbin Prison Hospital. After two days of intravenous injections, guards Lin Bo, Dong Zhicheng, and Zhang Jiushan locked me in solitary confinement, where I went on a hunger strike. At night, prisoners Zhang Yong, Zhang Xiaofeng, and Ni Jie came to torture me. Zhang Yong said, "Don't blame me; the government ordered us to torture you. If you die, the government will take the responsibility; if you don't, we get merit points for torturing you." They covered my mouth with a towel, poked my eyes, punched my ears, clutched and squeezed my testicles, and kicked my head. Zhang Yong forcefully pulled on my collar bone, which was extremely painful and made my arm go numb. Ni Jie and Zhang Xiaofeng kicked my ribcage and bent my fingers back. The torture lasted for several hours. My throat was dry and I threw up. The towel stopped it from leaving my mouth and I had to swallow the vomit. The prisoners didn't want to be responsible for my life and asked the police to take me back to the hospital.
On April 10th, 2003, I was transferred to the Sixth Prison Ward. I decided to formally press charges against the prison guards who tortured me. I told Captain Zhu Wencheng how I was tortured. Zhu told me that it was illegal for practitioners to sabotage the SinoSat satellite, so I told him that practitioners had done so because the government wouldn't let us inform people about the true nature of Falun Gong and that they created the propaganda to justify the persecution. They tried to tell me I didn't have evidence of the torture and beatings. I showed them the bloodstains I had on my bed sheet. They told me that that only proved that I had tuberculosis and I vomited blood on my bed sheet. I had nowhere to go and no one to turn to.
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The above is how my son Cheng Peiming was tortured. At the end of 2004, my daughter-in-law Wang Shuhong divorced my son because she couldn't make a living and raise their son Cheng Yu if she was married to a Falun Gong practitioner. My two daughters are imprisoned in the Harbin Women's Prison now and have to do intensive labour every day.
Jiang Zemin's regime tore my happy family apart. I hope that all kind-hearted people who hear my family's story will see through the CCP's evil nature, and wake up from the CCP's lies. I hope they will quit the CCP and choose to have a future.
Note
1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.
2. "Tiger Bench": Prisoners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead without movement for long periods of time.
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/4/21/153175.html
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