Falun Dafa Practitioner Couple Persecuted and Tortured in Hebei Province

My name is Wang Gensheng, and I am from Beiliuzhi Village, Jing County, Hebei Province. Before my wife and I became practitioners, we had a miserable life. My wife, Wang Xiumin, was constantly ill, which made our poor financial situation even worse. After we started practising Falun Gong, all her illnesses disappeared. Our financial situation also improved. We became a harmonious and happy family. We conduct ourselves according to the principles of Falun Gong--"Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance." We always think of other people first. I volunteered as an assistant at our local practice site.

The persecution campaign launched by Jiang Zemin against Falun Gong practitioners destroyed millions of happy families. My family is one of them.

On July 20th, 1999, I went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practise Falun Gong. I was arrested by plainclothes police officers and taken to Qianmen Police Station. That night, I was held by authorities of Beiliuzhi Township in one of their conference rooms.

On the afternoon of July 20th, my wife and daughter went to the provincial government's appeal office in Shijiazhuang City. They were also sent back and detained by the Beiliuzhi Township authorities.

On the afternoon of July 23rd, local authorities forced my wife and me to watch news about the ban of Falun Gong. During the broadcast, all of a sudden, dark clouds filled the sky, and thunder roared. My wife was trying to tell the policemen and staff that these were warning signs and what they were doing was wrong. The head of the police station slapped my wife's face and scolded her. That night, staff members of the local township government and policeman Liu Xuekai got drunk. They forced several practitioners to line up facing the wall and started to viciously beat our backs. I was the only male practitioner. While they were beating us, they used obscene language and joked about molesting one of the female practitioners. One of my eyeballs was hit and started to bleed. I was steadfast in my belief in Dafa, and my eye quickly recovered within several days.

The perpetrators saw what had happened to me and Dafa's miraculous power, but they still didn't realise that what they were doing was wrong. About seven days later, they took my wife and me to the local detention centre. The gate guard of the detention centre took 100 yuan¹ and several other things from me. He told me that he would return them to me later. But afterwards, he refused to acknowledge that he took anything from me.

At the detention centre, the guards instigated other inmates to monitor us. The guards and inmates frequently cursed, beat, and physically punished us. Every time the guards took us to the police department, they put us in handcuffs. One time, I told them there was nothing wrong with believing in "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance." One policewoman said, "You'd be better off stealing or robbing people." We were given bad food--very thin rice gruel and vegetable soup, in which we found bugs, dirt and sand. Yet we were charged a 30-40 yuan boarding fee each day. Fifteen days later, the detention centre authorities extorted 5,000 yuan from my family and released us.

After we returned home, policeman Liu Xuekai and several other officers from the local police station frequently came to our home to harass us. They detained us at will. One time, a township official, who was assigned to my village, along with the deputy township executive brought several people to take my wife and me to the township government building. While they were playing Mahjong to gamble, we were handcuffed. Only after I went on a hunger strike for three days did they release me.

My wife managed to get out and had to live elsewhere to avoid further persecution. It was during the Chinese New Year, and my family couldn't spend the holidays together. Later my son's eyes were injured from strong alkali in Dezhou and was sent to the hospital. My wife brought him home and was immediately arrested by the local authorities. Her parents requested her release many times, and she was finally allowed to go home.

Soon afterwards, policeman Liu Xuekai and several others came to my home and asked my wife where I was. When my wife told them she did not know, she was brutally beaten. They even beat my son and daughter. Due to repeated persecution and harassment, my wife suffered a mental collapse and was unstable for quite some time.

Later, when I was at a fellow practitioner's home in Dezhou, officers from the Dezhou Police Station came and arrested me and three other practitioners. I was detained in Dezhou for 15 days. The police extorted 650 yuan from one practitioner. Later, they transferred me to the Jing County Detention Centre and I was detained with practitioner Meng Fansheng. We were constantly beaten and verbally abused. I saw guards putting handcuffs and shackles on practitioner Sun Lianjun from Xinzhai Village, and they tortured him. Ms. Bai Changge, a practitioner from Longxing, was handcuffed to the metal window frame and tortured. Practitioner Liu Lianyi from Xun Township was tortured to death. The township police department tried extorting money from our families but was unsuccessful. They then ordered other practitioners to pay for our release. They took 1,300 yuan from other practitioners.

In November 2001, while I was on my way to Dezhou, I was arrested again by local authorities. I was taken to Hengshui Brainwashing Centre, which was monitored by Liu Xuekai and Wang Shengcen. They used some people who were previously practitioners and could recite Dafa lectures but had gone astray to deceive us. I didn't do well and ended up cooperating with them. I agreed to sign the so-called "four statements²" (to promise not to practise Falun Gong.) After that, I was too ashamed to face Dafa and fellow practitioners. Teacher and fellow practitioners, please forgive me.

In April 2004, I was making furniture for customers in Dezhou. Li Lanming from my village came with several policemen from the township police department and tried to arrest me. The owner of the furniture shop didn't want me to go. They told him that they just needed me to fill out some paperwork and would release me after that. In the end, they took me to the Jing County Brainwashing Centre. My wife was also taken there. I went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution and was brutally tortured. I was forced to kneel down on bricks, shocked with electric batons, and handcuffed behind my back. The head of the brainwashing centre, Xin Changyou, and the police head wrote something down and tried to get my fingerprints, but I resisted. Fifteen days later, we manged to get out of the brainwashing centre.

Several days afterwards, they came to my home and took away our Dafa books and Teacher's picture.

What my wife and I have experienced represents just a tiny portion of the brutal persecution against all Falun Gong practitioners. Countless practitioners have been expelled from schools, dismissed from their jobs, and sentenced to forced labour or imprisonment. They have been subjected to numerous tortures including being shocked with high-voltage electric batons, tied to the death bed, handcuffed behind their backs, hung up in the air, stabbed with bamboo sticks, fed poisons and unknown drugs, savagely force-fed, fed with urine, faeces, and highly concentrated salt solutions, and sexually abused. They have had money extorted from them and have even had their organs harvested while they were still alive. The list goes on and on. Each entry in the record has been written in a practitioner's blood.

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

2. "Four Statements": Practitioners are coerced under brainwashing and torture to write the "four statements" as proof that they have given up their belief. Created by the 610 Office, they consist of "a letter of repentance," "a guarantee" to never again practise Falun Gong, a "Dissociation Statement" to declare a dissociation with Falun Gong and promise not go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and a list of names and addresses of all family members, friends and acquaintances who are practitioners.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2007/12/31/169339.html