I am Li Manting, 65 years old, a Falun Gong practitioner in Sihe Town, Yushu City, Jilin Province. I started to practise Falun Gong in 1995. Since that time, my character and physical health have improved a great deal. Deep in my heart, I know that Falun Gong is great and noble.
1. Persecuted by the police from Yushu City Police Department
On July 20th, 1999, I heard that some practitioners in Changchun City were arrested and that the government had prohibited the practice. I went to the provincial government courtyard with other practitioners to appeal for Falun Gong. The local government dispatched large numbers of police officers to arrest us.
After July 20th, when we returned home, we found our homes had been ransacked and our Falun Gong books had been taken away. Policeman Zhou Yongchun often searched practitioners' homes, extorted money from practitioners, and tried to forced them to write so-called "guaranteed statements1." He used very despicable tactics.
In the spring of 2000, several practitioners and I were going to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong but were intercepted at the Changchun train station. We were taken back to the Yushu City Police Department by Chen Guoxing, head of the Political and Security Section. I was had 300 yuan2 extorted from and was taken to a detention centre. Policeman Chang Shengli at the detention took 130 yuan from me. I was forced to write the guarantee statement otherwise they would not release me. I was detained for more then four months and was severely injured physically and mentally.
Not long after I was released and returned home, Wang Wenzhi, a local evildoer, colluded with Policeman Wang Guozhuang to take me from my home to the brainwashing session held by Yushu City 610 Office3. I was treated very badly. I went on a hunger strike to protest and was allowed going home ten days later when I was extremely weak.
In 2002, when fellow practitioners and I went to hang banners saying "Falun Gong is good" in Xinzhuang Township, local police arrested us and took us to Yushu City Police Department. As soon as we walked into the room, a tall, heavy officer immediately searched our pockets. Eighty yuan was confiscated from a fellow practitioner and me. In order to protect the practitioners in our hometown, we refused to give out our names and addresses. Policeman Shi Hailin and two others from the Domestic Security Division removed my trousers and brutally beat me with a one-inch-wide plastic tube all over my buttock. Seeing I still refused to tell them anything, they beat me all over my body again. Then Shi Hailin suggested, "Make him do the 'Carrying a Sword on the Back.'" Two or three guards pulled my two arms behind my back and tried to handcuff my hands behind my back. I tried hard not cooperate. For 20 minutes, they couldn't put the handcuffs on. Finally they held me down on the ground and someone put his knee on the back of my head. My hands were cuffed behind me. They pulled the handcuffs up, which was extremely painful. Then they suddenly let the handcuff do loose, which made them tighter. They did this repeatedly, which made the handcuffs cut into my flesh and, it seemed like, into the bone. I was in extreme pain and cold sweat ran down my face. They stopped and asked me again, "Will you tell us who you are?" I told them, "I just want to tell people that Falun Gong is good. You should not treat me like this." They continued to torture me until I lost consciousness. They let go of me and I fell to the ground. My head bounced on the floor and made a noise.
I saw that I was handcuffed and facing up. My face was pale and my eyes were tightly closed. I was not breathing. It looked like a dead body. But my mind was very clear. I had a feeling of being free of my body, no pain and no pressure. I was calmly watching how they treated my body.
The two policemen were in a panic. The younger one said, "Is he dead?" Police Shi Hailin carefully checked me over. He lowered his voice and said, "Quick, quick, remove the handcuffs." However, the two of them together still couldn't removed the handcuffs because they were so tight. Sweat dripped off them, but they still failed. Finally, they viciously pulled my arms close together, knowing that they could break, and removed the handcuffs.
The younger one said, "How could they be so tight? Is he dead?" He said again, "Is he dead? What do we do?" Police Shi Hailin said in low voice, "Raise his head up." The younger policeman raised my head gently with his left hand. Shi Hailin scooped some water from a bucket over my forehead and said, " You are trying to fake your death!" At that time, I made a sound and my main consciousness returned to my body. Shi Hailin asked again, "Who are you? Tell us, who are you?" I said, "I just want you to know that Falun Gong is good." Shi Hailin was completely defeated and turned around and left. The younger policeman said to me softly, "We will not beat you or abuse you anymore. Just tell us your name. That's it." I still refused. He left as well.
About an hour later, they took out a pile of the photos from the detention centre. It took a long time for them to figure out who I was. By that time, it was early morning. We had won precious time to protect our fellow practitioners.
The next morning, we were taken to the detention centre and I went on a hunger strike for five days. Then I was transferred to the No.3 Division of Chaoyanggou Forced Labour Camp in Changchun City.
2. Brutal "fortification fights" in Chaoyanggou Forced Labour Camp
During 13 months in the forced labour camp, I suffered many inhuman tortures. The two so-called "fortification fights" were the most ruthless. During the first one, guards manipulated inmates to torture practitioners. A mobster and his two thugs were directly involved in torturing me. When I had just been sent to the No.3 Division, they asked me whether I wanted to be "transformed4." I said, "What is 'transforming?'" The mobster said, "Don't pretend not to know!" He pressed my head and squeezed me into the space in the bunk bed ladder. They pulled my arms behind me. My outer clothes were removed. The mobster, Song Hongwei, held a broom handle that he had prepared ahead of time and started to beat me, from my neck all the way to my feet. While beating me, he kept asking me, "Are you going to be 'transformed?'" He beat me up and down three times but he failed to make me give in.
He rested a little bit. Then he took a chance and suddenly attacked my ribs with his elbow. I was immediately unable to breathe. It is very easy to cause injury with such a blow. He then raised the club over his head and yelled, "Are you going to give up?" I said no. A sound of "Cha" was heard and the club smashed into my back. People around shouted, "It's broken." The club had broken in two pieces. I cried out and fell forward and then bounced back. I fell to the ground and fainted.
When I regained consciousness, I saw the mobster poking my philtrum acupoint just under my nose with the sharp point of the club, making my mouth fill with blood. Seeing I was awake, he asked me again, "Are you going to give up?" I said no. He threw away the broken club and said, "Go back to your bed."
The mobster was going to give up on me. However, he made another attempt when the guard, Zhang Jing, told him he would be rewarded by having many days deducted from his term. In the afternoon, he started beating me again like he did in the morning. Although I was already covered with wounds, I was brutally beaten again. Finally, he told the two thugs to hold me tightly, raised the club over his head, and yelled, "Are you going to give up?" I said, "No!" A noise was heard but the club fell to the ground and didn't hurt me. Like a balloon leaking all of its air, the mobster said, "This is an old 'copper.' He is out of my hands from now on." Then he threw himself onto his bed.
Two months later, there was another ""fortification fight" in the labour camp. This time the guards in the labour camp conducted the torture themselves. They used a lot of different torture tools and more cruel means. Chen Lihui, head of the No.3 Division, and guard Zhang Jing hung me up with my hands over my head and cuffed them. My feet barely touched the ground. Half an hour later, they changed to another torture. All four limbs were tied to an arm-wide wooden stick. Then they gave me a kick and made me face the ground. I was not able to move at all. Five minutes later, they released me. Seeing I still didn't give up, they tried again. This time they made it last ten minutes. Then tried again for another 15 minutes. Seeing it didn't work, they changed to another torture. I was pushed into a damp, cold room. My upper clothes were removed. A window was opened. The cold winter wind was already unbearable. However, Chen Lihui, head of the division, prepared a bucket of cold water and dumped it over my head with a scoop. The icy cold seemed to penetrate my bones. Seeing my hands holding onto the waistband of my trousers, Chen yelled, "Dump the water into his trousers." When I was almost frozen, he stood in front of the open window and pretended to block the wind for me. He advised me, "Give up Falun Gong. Don't make it difficult for yourself." I didn't acknowledge him. He started to dump water on me again. When I was squatting down and trembling all over, they switched to another torture.
Deputy Wang came. Two of them started kicking my legs. I had no place to hide but withstood the kicking. They kicked me down to the floor and then continued to kick my chest, back, and buttocks. I had no strength to avoid being kicked. When I was laying on the ground unable to move, they finally gave up.
After a while, guard Zhao Jianping brought a whip and started to lash my face. He yelled, "I'll beat you to death. I'll strip off your skin." No matter how they tortured me, they still couldn't make me give in. The brutal night was finally over. They left when it was light.
The next morning, Chen Lihui made some calls and shortly a group of people came. They surrounded me. They held whips, electric batons, handcuff,s and wooden sticks. Without no other recourse, I took a chance and bumped my head against the corner of a wall. My head was covered with blood and it dripped all over the floor. I fainted. When I resumed consciousness, I saw they were wrapping me up and trying to stop the bleeding. Later I was taken back to the cell. Chen Lihui told others that there should not be any effort to "transform" Li Manting any more, and no one should talk about him to the outside.
When my one-year term was over, in order to extort more money, the guard Zhang Jing refused to release me on time. I was held an extra month before being released.
In the forced labour camp, I was not the only one being brutally tortured. All steadfast practitioners suffered similar torture. I knew that practitioner Ding Yunde in the same division as I was died from the torture. Many practitioners were disabled due to the torture. What I know and what I suffered are but a tip of the iceberg in the persecution of Falun Gong.
Note
1. "Guarantee Statement": A statement to declare that one is remorseful for practising Falun Gong and guarantees not to practise Falun Gong again, not to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and never again associate with any Falun Dafa practitioners.
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.
4. "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")
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/2/28/173256.html
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