Ms. Diao Xiuzhu's Family is Broken and Her Mother Dies Due to Persecution by Pengzhou City Officials

Practitioner Ms. Diao Xiuzhu is from Mengyang Township, Pengzhou City, Sichuan Province. Her family has been destroyed and her mother has died as a direct result of the persecution by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials from Pengzhou City. Ms. Diao was put in a mental hospital for more than 290 days. Just before Ms. Diao was taken to the mental hospital, Yang Jianhua, an official from the 610 Office¹ said "What a pity! A flower will wither and I will lose another friend (indicating death)."

Ms. Diao was an accountant at the Yinhe Tool Factory in Mengyang Township, Pengzhou City. Before she learned the practice of Falun Dafa she was in poor health. Although she did not suffer from any serious illnesses she became sick from time to time. After learning Falun Dafa her health improved and she felt very light. She was purified not only physically but also mentally. In the past she would take things home from work. Afterwards she returned everything she had taken. One day when the factory ran out of the gloves for workers who were doing quenching, she contributed her own safety gloves. When the manager of the factory wanted to pay her she declined. In the eyes of her employers and her fellow employees she was a good colleague. She was also praised by her neighbours. Since she started the cultivation practice of Falun Dafa her outlook of the world totally changed. She always put the interests of other people before her own, thereby winning universal praise. But simply because she spoke the truth about Falun Dafa, her family was destroyed and her mother died.

When Ms. Diao was immersed in the happiness of her cultivation of Falun Dafa, the Jiang Zemin [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] regime began its unprecedented evil persecution of the practice on July 20th, 1999. The persecution changed Ms. Diao's life completely. Shortly after it started she was forced to go to the Mengyang Township Government to attend meetings every day. She and other practitioners were forced to read newspapers that slandered Falun Dafa. They also had to report to the neighbourhood committee every day. She frequently heard about practitioners who had been badly beaten and fined and their homes ransacked. In order to stop practitioners from going to Beijing to appeal, the government forced every practitioner to pay a cash deposit of at least 1,000 yuan². Even an 80-year-old lady was not spared. In order to get the money, the government employed people to ransack practitioners' homes, beat them, and fine them. If the practitioners had no money to pay then they would be forced to sign a note acknowledging the debt. At the time the environment in Mengyang was very bad. There was a total reign of terror and practitioners there had a very difficult time of it.

Ms. Diao Xiuzhu knew that Falun Dafa taught people to be compassionate, and that learning Falun Dafa could turn a bad person into a good person and also cure illnesses. Since it brings numerous benefits and doesn't do any harm to society, why would such a good cultivation practice be suppressed? She realised that she should not remain silent any longer, and the escalation of the persecution also helped her understand that she should not just tolerate it. She decided to step forward to safeguard and appeal for Falun Dafa. On December 30th, 2000, she went to Beijing with some fellow practitioners to appeal for Falun Dafa, and was arrested at the Guangyuan Train Station. She was detained for two days and was taken back by Mengyang Township government. Zheng Hongmin from the Mengyang Township Government stole more than 700 yuan from her.

Ms. Diao was detained at the township government for two weeks and was forced to stand outside in the biting cold weather during the evening. Many of the other practitioners who went to Beijing with her were beaten by government officials incited by Bai Meichun. Those who actively participated in the persecution included Zhang Zongjun, Zheng Hongmin, Zhang Zhixiang, Luo Shifeng, Wang Zhiyong, and Zhou Pingguan. Some practitioners were black and blue as a result of the torture. Mr. Wen Changping and his wife, Ms. Shi Liangping, were so badly beaten that they were covered with cuts and bruises. Jiang Qunhua was deprived of sleep for many days and nights on top of the beatings. During the day, 11 practitioners were handcuffed and paraded through the streets to be publicly humiliated. After the parade they were forced to stand on high stools to be insulted in public. There were many onlookers.

In the afternoon the local authorities continued to parade the practitioners in a car from one village to another to insult them. Even eight month-old baby Yang Xinyu was not spared. When the child's parents, Mr. Yang Xianjun and Ms. Zeng Yi, were paraded through the streets or were forced to stand on high stools in public, Yang Xinyu was on Ms. Zeng's back. The CCP officials also forced the practitioners to pay fines of 10,000 yuan each. Some practitioners were over 60 years old but were still forced to divorce their spouses. Sometimes practitioners' family members were beaten or detained for not having enough money to pay the fines. Four members of three generations from Mr. Yang Xianjun's home went to Beijing to appeal. The local government detained Mr. Yang's father, who was not a practitioner. He was unable to sleep on his back owing the severe beating. Ms. Diao was forced to pay a fine of 14,000 yuan. Bai Meichun, Qiao Lijun, Huang Rensong, Miu Shichang, and several others repeatedly phoned members of Ms. Diao's family, demanding that they pay the money. Zhang Zongjun, deputy head of the Township, said to Ms. Diao, "Diao Xiuzhu, if your family doesn't pay the money, tomorrow we'll beat you after stripping you naked."

Under this intense economic and political pressure, Ms. Diao's husband could no longer bear it, so he divorced her, and their 12-year-old son went with his father. Ms. Diao's workplace was also under great pressure from the CCP. After she resumed her job, the local government and the neighbourhood committee followed her wherever she went. The evildoers also hid, around the clock, along the road travelled by her family members.

One evening in September 2001 when Ms. Diao Xiuzhu was distributing leaflets exposing the persecution and telling people the truth about Falun Dafa she was arrested by police officers Xiao. Deng, Party Secretary Zheng Guihua. and Bai Meichun. She was detained at Pengzhou City Detention Centre for a month. During her detention she was forced to do hard labour pasting paper boxes. At the end of the one-month detention, local police officers Xiao and Fu Jin took her directly to the local government. Ms. Diao went on a hunger strike for four days before she was released.

Before this, government officials Zheng Guihua, Qiao Lijun, and Zhou Pingkuan often went to Ms. Diao's home or work unit to harass her, using the excuse of wanting to "have a chat." Ms. Diao was very firm in her belief and resolutely did not compromise with them. She told them Falun Dafa was to teach people to be good and it also helped to cure illnesses and keep fit. She told that that it was not wrong to be a good person. Therefore the CCP considered her a thorn in their side.

On July 30th, 2002, Qiao Lijun, a Communist official, and an officer from the local police station called Ms. Diao and tried to get her to come to the local government office, saying that it would only take a few minutes. When she saw through their lies they said, "Every time you talked to us you were quite right and we were unable to prove you were wrong. Now Pengzhou City is holding a brainwashing session and clever people from above would like to talk to you." Ms. Diao still refused to cooperate. Finally they got very angry and called in a dozen or so police officers headed by Party Secretary Zheng Guihua. At the time it seemed to Ms. Diao that there were people everywhere. Her mother, who was over 80 years old, was very frightened, but Ms. Diao still refused to cooperate. Police officer Fu Jinchao dragged her out of her home. Her mother asked them not to take her away. Zheng Guihua, the Party Secretary said viciously, "Don't make trouble or we will arrest you as well. Don't think because you are elderly that we will let you go." Ms. Diao's mother was very angry and scared at the same time. Her legs turned rubbery, and her mouth quivered.

Ms. Diao was detained for ten months, at the Pengzhou City Detention Centre. At the time, guard Zengjun said to her, "You can practise Falun Gong exercises here for the rest of your life."

In order to resist the persecution, Ms. Diao stopped eating and drinking. She was sent to Pengzhou City Mental Hospital, where the persecution continued. She did not eat or drink for 303 days. She was on a metal bed at the mental hospital for over 290 days. The room where she was detained was locked at all times. Besides the guards with batons in their hands keeping surveillance around the clock, there was a wolfhound outside the door. After Ms. Diao was sent to the mental hospital, Yang Jianhua from the 610 Office lied to the practitioners at the detention centre, saying that Ms. Diao was dead and had been sent to the crematorium.

During the ten months she was detained, the CCP officials coupled threats with promises, attempting to force her into renouncing Falun Dafa. As a result she was injured both physically and mentally. During the process Ms. Diao saw the true nature of these officials. They pretended to be kind at times, then turned ferocious at other times. They used all kinds of tricks, including deceit and intimidation. However, all this failed to change a true practitioner's rock-solid and unshakable belief in Falun Dafa. When Ms. Diao's friends, relatives, and colleagues went to visit they all shed tears for her.

During her detention in the mental hospital, the medical personnel could not find her blood vessels owing to the fact that she was on a hunger strike for a very long time. Each time they had to try 20 to 30 times before they were able to find a blood vessel. After the transfusion she felt extremely weak, had a headache, and felt nauseous. Since the evildoers could not continue with the transfusions they began to force feed her. At the beginning they used a nasal feeding tube. As part of this torture they left the rubber tube in her nose for as long as a week. Ms. Diao still remembers when her former factory manager came to visit her and saw a section of tube hanging down her chest. He only said, "Xiao (Little) Diao" and could not continue. When the tube was removed it was all black. Thereafter they used a mouth opener to do the force feeding. It was also very painful. They pulled her arms and legs straight and then tied them to the bed. This was already very painful. Then four or five people held her down. Use of the mouth opener ruined her teeth and mouth and there was always blood. Nurse Xun Li sometimes stepped on Ms. Diao's stomach. One day when they had difficulty inserting the tube into her nose, they asked for instructions, and the head of the hospital, Yang Xianrong, said, "You have to insert the tube no matter what happens." Finally, Huang Jin and Sun Li from the mental hospital found a thick, hard tube and tried to insert it down Ms. Diao's throat, but they failed.

Ms. Diao's mother was alone at home. Since one of her arms was crippled she could not look after herself, so she longed for her daughter's return. It was getting cold, and the older woman recalled the days in the past when Ms. Diao would bring a bowl of hot dumplings made of rice flour served in soup every morning. Thinking of her daughter being persecuted she was extremely sad, and she cried every day. Worry and fear, as well as being unable to eat or sleep well, exhausted her mentally and physically, and she fell seriously ill. The older lady clearly knew how evil the CCP was. Her husband had been labelled as a counterrevolutionary and she had experienced persecution including the ransacking of her home. In her own words, the CCP was extremely evil. When they ransacked the house they even lifted the tiles to check for anything suspicious and even the toilet was not overlooked.

When Ms. Diao's mother was dying, she longed to see her daughter one last time. Even when she was unable to speak and could not respond to other people who tried to speak to her, whenever someone passed down the corridor she would painstakingly turn her head towards the door, hoping it was her daughter whom she missed day and night. The older lady died waiting, disappointed and regretful. At the time Ms. Diao had been locked up in the mental hospital for five months. No one informed her that her mother had passed away. At her mother's funeral, many onlookers cried.

Later, when the fellow workers asked the factory manager to bail out Ms. Diao, the Communist regime ordered the manager to pay tens of thousands of yuan. Only when the authorities found out that Ms. Diao was in critical condition and they did not want to be responsible for her death did they ask Ms. Diao's elder sister to take her home. Liu Zhengfang from the local government forced her sister to pay one thousand yuan behind Ms. Diao's back. Due to government pressure as well as economic pressure, the factory manager recruited someone else to replace Ms. Diao at work. During her detention the Communist regime fined her 17,750 yuan and her mother 1,000 yuan.

Even under such circumstances the local government official, Miu Shichang, and members of the neighbourhood committee often went to Ms. Diao's home to harass her. One month after she was released, although she had not recovered her health, she was forced into homelessness to avoid further persecution.

Note

1. "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.

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://minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/10/9/164151.html