Falun Gong Practitioner Ms. Zeng Qing Recounts Her Persecution Experiences

My sister, Zeng Qing, is a very gentle and decent person, and her husband loves her dearly. They have an eleven year-old son and the whole family has lived happily together. But for the past three years, the peace and joy of her family has been lost. The following is a transcription of a recorded phone conversation with her:

"My name is Zeng Qing and I am a Falun Gong practitioner. I used to live in Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province. After July 20th, 1999, when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began persecuting Falun Gong practitioners, I was detained four times and sent to brainwashing centres twice, and was imprisoned in a forced labour camp for one year."

"During the Chinese New Year, 2000, I was detained for the first time. My husband and I wanted to tell the government the facts about Falun Gong, but we were arrested even before we got to the appeals office. We were then taken to a detention centre, we were forced to do strenuous labour and were allowed only three hours of sleep each day. If we didn't complete the work assigned to us, we were beaten. At that time, I often asked myself, 'Have I done anything wrong?' and my answer was 'No.' Looking back on my cultivation path of the past four years, I disregarded my own personal gain and loss, and always tried to be a good person. I benefited from my practice tremendously--I enjoyed very good health and lived harmoniously with my family. I never felt so blessed in my life."

"After I returned to my work unit, public security officers continued monitoring me. It created great pressure for my work unit. My superiors advised me to tell the police that I had quit practising Falun Gong and then they would no longer bother us. I told them, 'As a Falun Gong practitioner, I need to tell the truth. Besides, it is such a great practice. Why are we not allowed to practise it?' A document was sent to my work unit, indicating that once a person was sent to a detention centre three times, that person would be sent to a forced labour camp. Thus my work unit tried to find means to have me sent to a forced labour camp in order to be free from the burden. But I do not have any hatred toward them."

"The excuse used when they detained me for the second time was that I had written something after work. The person who watched over me thought I was writing something about Falun Gong, so he immediately called security personnel. They took me to a detention centre without any explanation. The third time I was detained was because a friend, who is also a Falun Gong practitioner, called to tell me that she wanted to visit us, and public security personnel overheard our phone conversion. They arrested my husband, my friend and me. They searched all over our house to the point that everything was turned upside down, and they took away all the material related to Falun Gong."

"Since I had been detained three times, they now could send me to a forced labour camp. My boss called me one day to say that a shipment would arrive soon and he wanted me to rearrange the storeroom in order to accommodate the new shipment. After a while, my boss arrived and told me to close the door of the storeroom. I thought he wanted me to go get the material and I thus followed him. I was surprised to find that the police were waiting for me. Several of them ran over and took me to a police vehicle. They wanted me to sign an agreement for the labour camp, but I refused. I asked them why they sentenced me to do forced labour. Their answer was that I had 'disturbed the social order'."

"Looking back on the year in the forced labour camp, it felt like I was living in hell for a thousand years. In the beginning, I was forced to go through intense brainwashing. They forced us to listen to material framing and slandering Falun Gong. If we didn't listen carefully, we were punished. Falun Gong practitioners were put in the same cell with twenty or so drug addicts, and the guards told them to watch us. If they found out that we did Falun Gong exercises, they severely beat us. It was a routine and we were deprived of sleep, beaten and cursed. When Falun Gong practitioners were screaming in pain, doctors gave them an injection with some kind of anaesthetic drug. They left nothing untried to force us to give up practising Falun Gong. Under such high pressure, intimidation, deception, and ruthless maltreatment, every practitioner became terribly emaciated. Some even suffered mental collapse. I became absent-minded and was changed by the so-called brainwashing. Even so, I still was forced to do labour for 17 hours every day for the 7-8 months that followed. I was released in August 2001."

"Once released, I was sober and knew what my choice was and what path I should follow. I thus wrote a solemn declaration to declare that I would continue practising Falun Gong."

"During the Chinese New Year of 2002, I was sent to a brainwashing class. On April 30th, I was secretly transferred to a guest house. Each Falun Gong practitioner was put in an isolated cell and we were not allowed to have any contact with the outside world or to have any relatives visit us. We were bombarded with a continual, high-volume audio broadcast that slandered Falun Gong. Unwilling to compromise, I was sent to a detention centre for the fourth time. Before my departure to the detention centre, I wasn't allowed to bring anything with me, not even shoes. On the eighth day in the detention centre, my menstrual period came. A prisoner couldn't bear to see me in such condition and thus gave me some napkins."

"When I was released from the detention centre, my husband went to a '610 Office¹' to ask for my clothing. When the local police found out about my release, they sent several dozen people to surround our whole building, and they arrested me. I was sent to a brainwashing centre for the second time. They were unable to make me give up my faith and thus released me in June."

"Walking through all these hardships for the last three years, our young son suffered so much! It was 11:00 p.m. at night when I was sent to a detention centre the third time. I was taken to a police vehicle while my husband and my child were crying. When we were transferred to Zhuhai, we were total strangers there. My child was 11 years-old at that time. He had to go buy groceries, cook and go to school by himself. My 75 year-old father was concerned about his safety and came to Zhuhai City from Hunan Province to be with him. They depended on each other for survival. My father had poor eyesight and couldn't see things well. When my 70 year-old mother was jailed because she practises Falun Gong, father was worried about mother and fell sick. My younger brother thus went to get him and brought him back to Hunan."

"Since my son also practised Falun Gong, his school threatened that if he continued practising Falun Gong, he would be expelled. Under such great pressure, my innocent and lovely son became reticent and lost his childhood happiness. He was like other children or relatives of Falun Gong practitioners having to endure such painful experiences."

This is the end of the phone recording, but my sister's misery didn't end here. In October 2002, she was sentenced to three years of forced labour. I earnestly ask kind people to help those Falun Gong practitioners in prison to let justice and decency forever exist in this human world.

Note

1. "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/2002/12/20/41364.html