I am a Falun Gong practitioner from Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province. Because I have remained faithful to my belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance since 1999, I have been sentenced twice to forced labour and locked up at the Shuanghe Forced Labour Camp in Qiqihar City. In addition, I was incarcerated for almost four years in the Harbin City Women's Prison, where I was made to do hard labour and subjected to various ruthless tortures. Among other things, I was hung up in the air and swung from side to side, and I was stripped naked and beaten.
Walking on the cultivation path to be a good person
Prior to Falun Gong practice I once broke my leg, severely damaging the nerves, prompting the doctor to predict that I would be paralysed in my remaining years. Being physically and mentally miserable, I began Falun Gong practice and went to the exercise site daily. I followed the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance to be a good person. My leg gradually healed, and I was able to work diligently at my place of employment.
Why won't they let me be a good person?
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime banned people from practising Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999. On July 22nd, 1999 my husband and I, along with many others, went to the municipal building to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. We asked for the release of our volunteer coordinator. Two loudspeaker-equipped vehicles were parked in front of the municipal building and constantly broadcast the regime's decision to ban the practice. Armed soldiers surrounded us while the loudspeakers told us to leave immediately and threatened us. At the end, the remaining practitioners were taken away and detained in a suburban school, which was on summer break at the time. Practitioners from the same area were locked up in one classroom. The policemen wrote down our addresses and phone numbers. They escorted us to our local police station in the middle of the night and locked us in small rooms, releasing us the next afternoon. From then on, our whereabouts were monitored, our phone was tapped, and we were forced to write a guarantee statement to renounce Falun Gong.
Sentenced to forced labour for remaining firm with my faith
On October 16th, 1999, CCP officials in Qiqihar City arrested many practitioners who refused to write the "guarantee statement." At 8:00 p.m., a few Longhua Road Police Station agents detained me and transferred me at 11:00 p.m. to the Qiqihar City No. 1 Detention Centre. The guards put me in handcuffs and shackles because I did the exercises. I was sentenced to one year of forced labour for refusing to write the "guarantee statement." In early December 1999, I was again transferred, but this time to the Qiqihar City Shuanghe Forced Labour Camp, where I was subjected to savage torture in addition to doing hard labour. I was released in June 2000.
Arrested by special agents at Tiananmen Square for appealing for an end to the persecution
In order to appeal for Falun Gong, on December 16th, 2000 I caught the train to Beijing while carrying banners exposing the persecution of Falun Gong. Walking on Tiananmen Square alone, I saw numerous undercover policemen walking around.
Standing in the crowd with a banner unfurled, I shouted, "Falun Gong is good!" A soldier jumped at me and kicked me in the chest. I fell down but continued shouting, "Clear Falun Gong's name!" An undercover policeman arrived and dragged me on the ground for a while. Then he twisted my wrist. My arm made a popping noise, and soon I could no longer move my hand. Then he dragged me into a police vehicle.
Inside, I saw an undercover policeman hitting a woman practitioner in the face. I tried to stop him, but he hit me instead. We were taken to the local police station in front of the railroad station. Many practitioners there shouted, "Falun Gong is good! Clear Falun Gong's name!"
They separated us, and I was sent to a detention centre. They demanded my name, but I did not tell them. Hence, they transferred me to the Dongsili Police Station, where they demanded my name again. At 3:00 a.m., they interrogated me again, but I still would not tell them my name. Then they sent me to our local area's liaison office in Beijing. I escaped eventually and decided to leave home to avoid further persecution.
The vicious deeds of Jianhua District Criminal Police Division agents
On January 22nd, 2001, I was arrested for distributing leaflets exposing the persecution and telling people the facts about Falun Gong and that Falun Gong teaches people to follow the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance and was initially locked in the same room with two other practitioners. We could hear a male practitioner's screams of pain from the next room. Practitioner Li Xingya and Han were arrested and imprisoned there, too.
They took me to a small room in the middle of the night, where seven policemen subjected me to the cruel torture, "Su Qin Carrying a Sword." [The torturers forcibly pull one of the practitioner's arms over her shoulder and another from behind, and handcuff both hands together that way. After that, they force the practitioner to squat, with her head raised and body straight.] It was extremely painful. They demanded to know my name. I replied, "Falun Gong practitioner." Then, they took me into the room where my husband was being tortured. He was in shackles and tied up, sitting on a metal chair in the middle of the room. He wore heavy trousers, and his face was very pale. I learned later that they had shocked his private parts with electric batons. He could not move his arms for more than six months because of the torture.
They asked me who he was. I replied that I did not know him. Then the guards took me away. They cuffed my hands behind me, wrapped wet towels around my wrists, tied my feet onto a metal chair with jump ropes, and then tied the handcuffs onto the metal board on the upper level of a bunk bed. My entire body weight was on my wrists. They pushed me while one guard shook the bed, and another guard said, "Bring the electric baton. I will shock her sensitive parts."
Then they shocked my breasts with electric batons. After taking me off the bunk bed, they put me on a metal chair and yelled, "Now tell us your name, or else we'll hang you up again. Did you go to Beijing and unfurl banners?" They took me to the Qiqihar City No. 2 Detention Centre in the middle of the night.
Handcuffed, shackled and locked onto floor rings at the No. 2 Qiqihar Detention Centre
While there, on the fifth day of the Chinese New Year we practitioners recited Falun Gong articles together. Guard Lu Zheng urged the guard on duty to beat us. We protested, and the cell was in chaos for a short while.
They brought a few other practitioners and me to the office. I said that Falun Gong practitioners had not committed any crime. A guard surnamed Guo hit me in the face. While he repeatedly hit me, I said aloud that Falun Gong was good. He screamed that he would go get the "little white dragon" (a plastic tube with a metal core) if I continued, but that did not make me stop.
He then dragged me to another small room, where he put me in handcuffs and shackles weighing 38 pounds and tied both handcuffs and shackles together. He then tied everything onto floor rings. My body was bent over in the shape of a bow. It was utterly miserable.
When centre head Lin Yonggui came to check in the middle of the night, he pressed my collarbone acupuncture point with great force. Although it hurt tremendously, I did not make a sound. Then he fiercely kicked my lower back and demanded to know, "Are you going to say anything more?" I said, "Yes." The next day, all of the practitioners started a hunger strike to protest them torturing me. Because of that, they transferred Zheng Weili, more than 20 other practitioners and me to the No. 1 Detention Centre.
My face was swollen and purple, and my eyes were bloodshot. They carried me to the # 29 prison cell, where I lay down for several days. I requested and was able to talk to director Yang and Hao, and I demanded my release. I also wanted to sue the two guards, Lin Yonggui and Lu Zheng, for brutally torturing us.
In March 2001, I was once again sent to the Qiqihar City Forced Labour Camp, where I was locked in a small confinement cell and subjected to brainwashing. On October 13th, 2001, after posting a small placard with the words "Falun Gong is good" on it on a hallway wall, I was transferred to the Second Qiqihar City Detention Centre, where I was held for nearly one year.
While there, the persecutors attempted to photograph us. Because we refused to let them do that, practitioners Yang Yanqiu, Wang Shufang, Miao Xiaolu, Liu Yongjuan and I were subjected to various kinds of tortures. Prison guard Lu Zheng called us to the front hall, where there were several guards with cameras. They gave us boards with our names on them, but we would not let them take our pictures. They beat us with clubs and kicked us. They hit us on our heads and bodies while we shouted, "Stop hitting us, Falun Gong is good!"
On September 19th, 2002, they sentenced us to four years in prison and transferred us to the Women's Prison in Harbin City.
The Harbin Women's Prison
On September 19th, 2002, two guards accompanied us to the Harbin Women's Prison. We set out before dawn and arrived at around 1:00 p.m. As soon as we arrived, five of us, including Yang Yanqiu, Liu Yongjuan, and Miao Xiaolu, were slapped, kicked and beaten. The perpetrators were team leader Lu Xping, guard Liu Shuang and several criminals. They forced us to take off our clothes, made us squat naked, put us in prison uniforms, and shaved our heads.
They did not give us anything to eat for lunch but led us separately to different offices, to begin our "reform1." They tortured us by making us squat, handcuffed us from behind, shocked us with electric batons, and kicked and beat us. They shocked us with electric batons and then put us into solitary confinement cells.
Liu Yongjuan's face turned purplish black, and her head swelled up after the beating. Miao Xiaolu was fixed to the floor ring in her handcuffs. I suffered from excruciating pain on a metal chair in the cell. The next day, they again took turns to beat and verbally abuse us. They used all kinds of ways to compel us to write the "four statements" to give up Falun Gong. This lasted for 27 days. Later they put us into the conference room and forced us to watch brainwashing videos. During the night, they handcuffed us behind our backs and made us sleep on the cold ceramic tile floor, which was quite cold since we were in the North without any heat.
The second day, we went on a protest hunger strike. They dispatched more policemen and criminals to intensify the persecution. When they beat us, we didn't cooperate with them and shouted, "Falun Gongis good!" One month later we were separately sent to the intensive training group, where two criminals supervised each practitioner. They followed us everywhere and forbade us to speak. Shortly after we were sent to the Middle Team, where four criminals were assigned to monitor each practitioner.
They used the system of "implication." Whenever a Falun Gong practitioner did something the guards did not approve of, the criminals monitoring her had points deducted from their score. They thus put the criminals at odds with us. The inmates often beat us and forced us to do heavy labour.
Team leader Zhang Xiuli tortured practitioner Ren Shuxian, who was from Yichun City, by hanging her up for more than 20 days. Her feet swelled up and bled. Practitioner Ding Huo and I were made to squat for more than ten days. When Zhang Xiuli tried to torture Ren Shuxian again by hanging her up, Ren jumped from the second floor and sustained a fractured heel.
Once a provincial official in charge of rules and regulations for labour camps and jails, accompanied by prison head Wang Xing, came for an inspection. I asked to speak and expose the guards' wrongdoings. The criminals tried to stop me, and the prison's surveillance chief Chen was about to beat me. I stopped them, "How dare you beat me while the prison head and inspection person are around?" By that time, more and more practitioners asked for an opportunity to speak. They put the practitioners into a solitary confinement cell. In front of her, I exposed how Zhang Xiuli had tortured Ms. Ren Shuxian and asked to remove their policy of implicating the inmates. After being released from solitary confinement, because I kept protesting their illegal acts, I was sent back to solitary confinement just about every month.
In the fourth cell, we refused to watch videos or listen tapes that slandered Falun Gong. As a result, Wang Juyan was put into a solitary confinement cell, and all of the other practitioners were handcuffed to the head of the bed while sitting on the concrete floor. They were forbidden to sleep. Xiao Lin instigated guards from the four sections and more than twenty criminals to chase more than ten practitioners to run outside. They hit us with a baton if we refused to run. An over 60-year-old practitioner was out of breath and bent down trying to get a bottle of water. A guard surnamed Niu kicked the bottle away and said, "No drinking!"
In the evenings, they made us face a wall, sitting upright, legs straight, and hands on the knees. If we moved slightly or closed our eyes, they would beat us brutally. Some were tortured into unconsciousness. When they woke up in the morning, their socks were found to be caked with dried blood, as the criminals would poke their feet with needles. They also used a wooden club to hit one of practitioner Piao Yingsu's toes, making the toenail come off. Criminal Wang Fengchun also used a wooden club to hit her genital area. Practitioner Zhang Yanfang was subjected to the most serious torture. Her face was swollen and the rest of her body was black and blue. It was difficult to recognize her.
They put Ding Huo, Tian Guiqing, Wang Hongjie, Guan Yingxin, Li Yushu and me into a warehouse. We went on a protest hunger strike, and three days later they force-fed us through a tube.
I had a seizure on September 20th, 2003 and passed out, probably because we hadn't slept for almost 20 days, in addition to holding a hunger strike and being subjected to force-feeding. They laid me down on a sponge cushion and carried me to the new warehouse building. I was made to sit on the concrete floor and forbidden to sleep. It was November at the time, and the warehouse concrete floor was ice-cold. I stayed on this floor without a quilt or cushion for more than two months while on my protest hunger strike.
Because I refused to wear a prison uniform and resisted performing any forced labour, in March 2004 the persecutors detained Ding Huo, Liu Liping and me in a solitary confinement cell for four months. We were handcuffed all the time and forbidden to use the toilet. I went on an eight-day hunger strike to protest. The captors eventually transferred me to the Ninth Ward, where four criminals monitored me. I was completely isolated from the outside. Criminal Qiao Qingyan took the lead in brainwashing us. She urged other criminals to play music to interfere with me and compelled me to watch the TV programmes that slandered Falun Gong.
I went on another hunger strike to protest the unlawful detention and asked to be unconditionally released. They used brutal ways to force-feed me. One of them would straddle my legs while another one pressed down on my stomach. Two others held down my arms, while another held my head and force-fed me. I almost suffocated twice. They even used a metal spoon to knock out one of my teeth. I was skeleton-like, weighing only 35 kilograms (74 lbs).
The Ninth Ward became the most notorious "reform" base. They barraged us in turn, and we were forbidden to sleep around the clock. The criminals read slanderous information to us. Wu Xiangfen was the one forbidding me to sleep. They made me sit on the concrete floor to watch videos that slandered Falun Gong. I recited the Falun Gong teachings in protest. Criminals Tao Hong, Guo Shuhua and others, eight of them, rushed toward me. They took off my clothes and beat me with a shoe from head to toe. The pain was almost unbearable.
In June 2005, I was isolated again. Later on I was put in the same room with those on night duty. After all this suffering, on October 26th, 2005, I finally gained my freedom.
At present, my husband and numerous other practitioners still suffer in the Daqing Prison. My husband was sentenced to 12 years. I lost my job and can barely eke out a living. It is difficult for me to return home. Even under these circumstances, the police always harass my family members and inquire of my whereabouts.
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")
Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/6/18/180485.html
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