Abused and Forced into Homelessness for Practising Falun Gong

My name is Meng Fanqing, and I am 44 years old. I live in the Fanquan Village, Shuangjing Town, Handan County, Hebei Province. Before I practised Falun Gong, I was an unscrupulous villain and my wife divorced me. In 1998, I started to practise Falun Gong. After that, I started to understand the ultimate meaning of human life and tried to behave according to the Falun Gong principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Not long after, I became a completely new person. My father was very surprised that Falun Gong really changed me for the better, and he really admired Falun Gong.

In 1999, the the persecution of Falun Gong started. To demonstrate that the practice and its founder were innocent, I went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. However, my mission failed, and I was abused by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for 15 days and extorted out of 300 yuan¹.

During autumn, the police in Shuangjing Town arrested me when I was in another city under the order of Zhao Kai, a policeman from the Police and Security Section of Wei County. I was not released until my family rescued me.

In 2000, I was arrested again by Zhao Kai. I was detained and abused in the detention centre of Wei County for 6 months. One day, Zhao Kai shackled my hands and took me to the second floor of the Forest Bureau. He interrogated me about participating in a Falun Gong conference but I refused to talk. He then pushed me to the ground and slapped my face, and simultaneously uttered abusive words. Realizing that he could not extort a confession from me, the Deputy Chief Lu Xueping kicked me violently until he was tired. Zhao Kai threatened me, "You will be sentenced to forced labour even if you do not confess anything."

In the detention centre, I explained to an inmate, Song Hongjun, about the might of Falun Gong. After he learned the truth, he wanted to practise Falun Gong. One day he was seen practising Falun Gong by a prison guard. As a punishment, Police Chief Yin struck his face with a thick book and his face was badly swollen. The prison guards also tortured him with an instrument by connecting his hands and feet with an iron chain. He was forced to carry the instrument whenever he ate or slept for many days. He needed help when he went to the toilet.

Six months later, I was sentenced to one year of forced labour. I was sent to the Handan Labour Camp with four practitioners including Song Xiangtang, Wang Fang and Wei Yong.

In 2001, policemen Zhao Kai, Cao Kegang, chief of the Shuangjing Police Station and Li Xuekuan, the communist party secretary, ransacked my home. They threatened my mother that I would be accused of opposing the communist party and the social order of society if I did not give up Falun Gong. Within one month, they came to my home and harassed us over 40 times. During that period, my parents could not live peacefully and suffered much mental anguish. My father worried about me so much that his health deteriorated. He was hospitalized later. However, the police monitored the hospital to entrap and arrest me again. As a result, I could not see my father before he passed away.

In 2002, the local 610 officials² and the communist party secretary from my village, Guo Dabao, looked for me in desperation to arrest me again. They went to my brother-in-law's family to harass them every few days. They could not go on about their lives in peace. Under such conditions, I had to abandon my home and live in a remote city. During these years, the Residence Administration Office of Wei County refused to grant me a residence permit because they were afraid that I might go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.

As such, I was forced to leave my home and an elderly mother unattended. Due to lack of anyone to do the work, the field was left barren and the house was abandoned.

Note

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

2. "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.ca/mh/articles/2009/3/17/197305.html