Practitioner Ms. Kong Xiangying from Mengyin County, Shandong Province Recounts Years of Brutal Persecution and Torture

I am Kong Xiangying, a practitioner from Liancheng Township in Mengyin County, Shandong Province. I am 42 years old, and I started practising Falun Dafa in 1996.

Falun Dafa Saved My Family

My husband and I were always at odds before I began to practise Falun Gong. I considered divorce because we fought so frequently. At first we just argued, but later our fights turned physical. Our friends and relatives tried in vain to stop our fighting. When mad, we let our anger out on our son. He worried about us and what would happen if we got divorced. My husband even took a job in another city to get away from me.

In 1996, I got hold of the Falun Gong book, Zhuan Falun. I read it three times and was captivated. As I gradually became more and more aware of the principles of Falun Gong, I realised why people are on this earth. I wanted to live by Falun Gong's principles of "Truthfulness, Benevolence, Tolerance" and be a good person, or even better than a good person.

Therefore, I tried to be good to others around me. Whenever something happened, I first tried to think if other people would be hurt. Seeing my change, friends and relatives said, "It's amazing that Falun Gong has helped you let go of your bad temper." My son also said happily, "Mum has rarely spanked me since she began to practise Falun Gong." My husband was overjoyed and took over all the housework. Falun Gong not only purified my body and heart, but also saved my family from falling apart.

Dark Clouds

On July 20th, 1999, Jiang Zemin, [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) used dirty tricks to stir up hatred against and frame Falun Gong. They fabricated lies and incited hatred against practitioners. The three Party Secretaries of the Liancheng Township Party Committee, Ji Zhenyu, Feng Yuhai and Wang Yifu, followed Jiang's group closely to persecute practitioners. They organised and directed large-scale raids against practitioners' homes, looking for Falun Gong books. They stole Falun Gong books and forced practitioners to write guarantee statements, agreeing not to practise Falun Gong anymore. Over five hundred Falun Gong practitioners in our township were persecuted.

Because I refused to write the guarantee statements, I was detained and forced to undergo brainwashing. They tried to "transform¹" me and told one of my brothers to help them. More than thirty people from the township government pressured me and threatened that they would imprison my brother, friends and relatives. Afraid that my family would be implicated, my brother put a lot of pressure on me. I succumbed under the pressure and wrote the statement against my will.

Persecuted for Going to Beijing

In October 1999, I went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. But, there were so many policemen in Beijing. They asked everyone if they practised Falun Gong. I replied with the words, "Truthfulness, Benevolence, Tolerance." A policeman slapped me in the face immediately, and then I was pushed into a police car. The car circled Tiananmen Square a few times and then drove to the Mengyin County Government Liaison Office in Beijing. My residence card was confiscated there. The next day, we were taken back to Mengyin County. I was taken to the Liancheng Township Police Station. The policemen dragged me out of the police car, and I was handcuffed to the stairs in a way that I could only stand on my toes. Station Sergeant Tian Liegang ordered a policewoman to strip-search me, and he stole 410 yuan² from me. Policeman Wang Wei from the County Police Department intentionally stepped on my hands when he passed the stairs, saying, "We'll see if you continue to practise Falun Gong!" An hour later, I was handcuffed to the basketball goal in the yard, where it was terribly cold. That night, Director Gong Yansong interrogated me. He handcuffed my hands behind my back and forced me to sit on the floor with both legs stretched out in front of me. He struck me, pulled on my hair and slapped my face. Blood ran out of my mouth. He slandered Falun Gong, and badmouthed everyone in my family.

When he was tired, he ordered a younger policeman to open my handcuffs and told me to do the exercises. That young policeman couldn't watch this brutality and left the room. I did the first four sets of exercises calmly. I didn't tell him anything during the interrogation, and he handcuffed me to a small tree for the rest of the night.

I was given no food the next day. Policemen ate the buns that my family had brought for me. Then, Tian Liegang and Wang Wei interrogated me again. They forced me to sit on the floor with both legs stretched out. Tian Liegang shook my head by my hair and slapped my face with his shoe. When he was tired, it became Wang Wei's turn to beat me. Wang Wei hit the back of my head viciously.

Then, they accused me of "disrupting the implementation of law". They videotaped me and broadcast it on television in Liancheng Township for more than a week. My friends and relatives were terribly upset by this. Before they took me to Mengyin County, Gong Yansong said, "Throw her into the Great Northwest to let her practise." [The Chinese Great Northwest is undeveloped and isolated. The Chinese government will sometimes leave prisoners there to fend for themselves. They often can't make it back.]

I received criminal detention for more than twenty days in Mengyin County. The policemen from Liancheng Township Police Station took this opportunity to extort money from my family. They called my husband to the police station, made him squat on the floor as if he were a criminal, and did not release him until ten o'clock that evening. Then they interrogated him and asked which relative had money. He was forced to borrow 2,200 yuan from a relative and hand it over to the police. That was not enough. The police later demanded another 10,000 yuan. Since he had not heard anything about me, he bought gifts for 200 yuan for Gong Chujiang and also gave him 600 yuan in cash. But, Gong Chujiang was still not satisfied. He asked for another 100 yuan for my living expenses. He pocketed all the money and gifts.

The Policemen Act Just Like Gangsters

During the Chinese New Year in 2001, the County Police Department ordered a Group Secretary of our village to monitor me. When we had guests, Wang Mingjin, a policeman, came to my house and talked me into going to the police station. They detained me for eight days. They said that I had to pay a 15,000-yuan fine for appealing for justice for Falun Gong. During that time, County Party Secretaries Ji Zhenyu, Feng Yuhai, and Wang Yifu and a group of police ransacked the homes of 68 practitioners and fined them heavily. Some practitioners were fined around 15,000 yuan. The lowest fine was 3,000 yuan. They would increase the fine by 2,000 or 3,000 yuan if the practitioners talked to people about the persecution of Falun Gong or protested the fine. They collected more than 300,000 yuan in total. Some practitioners did not have any money and had to sell their possessions. Because I could not pay the 15,000 yuan, they took away our television, tape recorder, three pigs, and ten rabbits while we were not at home. They slaughtered the pigs and split the meat among staff from the county government officials and policemen. Director Wang Zaishui of the Veterinary Station and his staff took the rabbits. The people who ransacked our home stole a 5-pound bag of sunflower seeds that we had saved as snacks for the Chinese New Year. Ji Zhenyu forced me to sweep the commercial district streets and marketplace and write an IOU since they couldn't confiscate enough money and goods from me. He also ordered thugs to harass my family and said that they would not let up until we paid the full fine. To end the harassment, I borrowed 8,900 yuan, 300 yuan for an "education fee", and 10 yuan for a "photo fee". After receiving the money, Ji Zhenyu said, "Let's sign the receipt as the Party Secretary Office." Another person said, "No, sign it as the Leadership Committee Office to deal with the Falun Gong problem." Their were trying to lose the trail for the money so that they could keep it themselves. Even so, Ji Zhenyu continued to harass us. I was monitored for 40 days. Then, during the busy farming season or on politically sensitive days, they forced me to perform hard labour like digging holes to plant trees, setting up electricity poles, washing sofa covers, sweeping the streets, and so on.

Arrested Again

On April 24th, 2001, we had some visitors at our home. Our neighbour reported to the police that they were practitioners. Policemen Feng Dapeng, Wang Mingjin and another policeman broke into my home. Feng Dapeng held me down on the sofa while Wang Mingjin and the other policeman ransacked my home. They found a Falun Gong book and some pictures exposing the persecution. They arrested me and took me to the police station, where Tian Liegang and Feng Dapeng interrogated me. They wanted to know the source of the pictures, about our visitors and whether I still practised Falun Gong. Tian Liegang forced me to sit on the floor with both legs stretched straight. He slapped my face with his shoe, and my mouth bled. He then ordered Wang Mingjin to wipe off the blood with my shirt. They locked me in the county government garage for eight days. During that time, I was interrogated daily. The staff from the county government took turns watching me each night. They ate, drank, and amused themselves for a whole night. They said, "What we eat is from you Falun Gong practitioners, the drink is from you practitioners, and the entertainment is also from you practitioners. We are not afraid of your practising Falun Gong."

However, they were unsuccessful in their attempt to get information from me. On April 30th, 2001, Ji Zhenyu and 30 people ransacked our home when we were not there. They divided among themselves 3,000 pounds of flour, took three pigs for slaughter, gave four lambs to the truck and car drivers for travel expenses and stole more than 100 pounds of peanut cakes. They needed two large trucks to carry what they stole from my home. When my husband returned home from his out-of-town job, he was extremely upset to see that I was missing and that we had lost everything. He tried to commit suicide, but fortunately our neighbours stopped him.

Taken to Forced Labour Camp

On May 17th, 2001, I was detained in the Mengyin County Detention Centre for a month. Afterwards, I was sentenced to two years of forced labour and taken to the Jinan City Women's Forced Labour Camp in Shandong Province. I was detained in the Fifth Division, where two people immediately began to brainwash me. After they were tired, they tried to force me to read a book that slandered Dafa. They took turns asking twisted questions to brainwash me. My mind was gradually polluted. A month later, I was transferred from the brainwashing centre to the factory.

In 2001 the Jinan City Women's Forced Labour Camp imprisoned over 800 practitioners. The oldest was 62 and the youngest 16. The director of the forced labour camp was Jiang Lihang. There were 5 separate divisions, including one for criminals. Niu Xuelian was the head of the 5th Division and her deputy was Sun Juan. The guards included Zhao Jie, Zhang Hong, Ma Wenyan, Jiu Ling, Jiang, Li Chunhong, Dai Shaohua, Wang Shuzhen and Ma Hong. The inmates and practitioners were forced to work more than twelve hours a day. Most of the work was to produce products for export, including gluing flowers, embroidering, sewing quilts, tying ribbons, making medicine boxes and putting the name of Nanjing Pharmaceutical Factory in Jiangsu Province on the boxes. The glue contained a lot of chemicals. Inmates often fainted in the damp and muggy basement. We were also forced to pack pencils and make woven bags. We were held to strict deadlines and given quotas. We often had to work overtime and often until 1:00 a.m. to meet the deadlines.

In addition to the intensive labour, we endured spiritual torture. There were weekly criticising meetings, semi-monthly reviews, semi-annual reviews, annual reviews and ad-hoc official visits. We were forced to watch the lies on television. Whenever CCTV had television programmes slandering Falun Gong, we had to watch these programmes. Everyone was forced to write down their feelings and understandings after watching each program. If they were not satisfied with what we wrote, they would torture practitioners more severely in secret. Practitioners were put in solitary confinement, hung up in a tiny cell, and so on. I was there for 19 months.

When I returned from the forced labour camp, the police from the Liancheng Township Police Station took my picture. Wang Mingjin asked me for a 50-yuan recording fee. He said that they had recorded all the practitioners in the county and I was the only one left. Every few days, a policeman or some staff members from the county government came to my home to harass me. They also collaborated with Lei Yancheng, the head of the Mengyin County 610 Office³. They had the directors of the Jinan City Women's Forced Labour Camp Niu Xuelian, Liu and Deng to make follow-up visits.

Forced to Leave Home and Go into Hiding

One day in the middle of May 2004, eight policemen from the Liancheng Township Police Station broke into my home at 10:00 p.m. and ransacked it. Wang Mingjin found Falun Gong articles. They did not allow me to speak or move and pushed me into the police car. At the police station, a big policeman threatened me. I told him that what he said was wrong. He said that they would hand me over to the Criminal Investigation Department the next day. He also said that fining me 10,000 yuan was not enough. He ordered Wang Mingjin and two policemen to lock me in the on-duty office while he stayed outside.

The next day, the Liancheng Township Police Station sent many policemen and police dogs to find and arrest me. They gathered around my home. It was the busy farming season, and if my family did not plant the peanuts on time, we would have financial problems the following year. But my husband was in another city and I had to leave home to go into hiding. It was also the time for my son to take the high school entrance exam. Because I was not there, he had to do all the farm work on our 5 acres of land. He was depressed and many times he did not want to go home after school.

From 2004 to 2005, our neighbours often saw policemen climbing over our wall to ransack my home during the holidays or busy farming season. Even on the day after I left the police station, our neighbour saw Wang Mingjin breaking into my home and stealing property.

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

3. "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://minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/1/15/170353.html