Xu Jingyong Describes the Persecution He Was Subjected to in Qitaihe City, Heilongjiang Province

I am a practitioner in Qitaihe City, Heilongjiang Province. Because of government reforms, I became jobless in 1993. Not able to find any job, the stress made me ill and I was so weak that I could not do anything. With the moral standards of society deteriorating, I became more selfish and all I thought about was my own self-interest. But after I began practising Falun Gong, all of my illnesses disappeared. I always held myself to the principles of Falun Gong and was person with high moral standards. Not only did my health improve, my family became harmonious as well. Seeing the changes in me, people who knew me said, "Falun Gong is good."

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to violently persecute Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999. I could not understand why. After I began my cultivation, I benefited a great deal both physically and mentally, and my family became more harmonious. I tried to do the best I could in my job--arriving early and leaving late for work everyday. These were all things that people could easily see. Furthermore, there were a hundred million people practising Falun Gong in the nation. Falun Gong was good for the country, the society, and families in every way. Why did the government not let us practice it? I went to Beijing to appeal but was intercepted at Shanhaiguan and sent back to Qitaihe City.

On June 24th, 2000, my wife and I went to Tienanmen Square and told people there the facts about Falun Gong. We were arrested and taken to Qianmen District Police Department. Because so many people were detained for going to Beijing to explain the facts about Falun Gong, they transferred us to Shijingshan Stadium.

The temperature reached 104 degrees that day. They detained us there without giving us any water and wouldn't let us use the toilet. The next evening I was taken to Pinggu Jail and given a great deal of rough treatment. On the fifth day, I was taken to the local office for Qitaihe City in Beijing and held in the basement. Two days later, they took me back to Qitaihe and put me in the First Detention Centre.

While I was detained in the Qitaihe First Jail, officers from the police department and Taonan Police Station interrogated me several times, along with lots of beating and cursing. I was told to memorize the jail regulations and would be beaten if I refused or if I was unable to do it. I was forced to kneel for a long time because I went to the toilet at night. During the month I was in jail, I was ordered to work for the canine team. On the hottest days of the summer, I was forced to pull weeds, dig holes, and plant trees. I was forced to dig ditches, build dikes, and load, unload and move sand, bricks, and rocks on rainy days. After three months of intense hard labour, I borrowed 1,350 yuan¹ to pay the jail extortion and was released on October 2nd, 2002. My wife and I had more than 3,000 yuan extorted from us. The company I worked for withheld my unemployment payment, causing my family extreme hardship.

On the afternoon of April 9th, 2003, another practitioner and I were repairing the company housing building. An officer from Taonan Police Station, using the pretext of performing an identity check, arrested me, took me to the police station, and then transferred me to Qitaihe Police Department. I was interrogated until 10:00 p.m., and sent to the jail afterwards. The name of the police chief in charge of Falun Gong affairs at the time was Zhang Heping. I was jailed for 15 days and was forced to pay 225 yuan. During this time, my wife was also arrested. We lost over 1,000 yuan between two of us.

Between February and March 2008, the CCP persecuted Falun Gong practitioners again, using the pretext of "Olympic security." Some practitioners that I knew were arrested. Officers from Taoshan Police Station and the director of the neighbourhood association came to my home to harass me. I was afraid and ran away, giving up my work. I was forced to stay away from home for over a month, and later I moved out of my home.

In the March-April time frame in 2009, the Qitaihe City Office began a hundred-day campaign to harass practitioners. Several practitioners were followed, and the police came to my workplace to wait and catch practitioners. The national security police came to where I lived and harassed practitioners but did not find me. On April 5th, plain clothes officers came to my workplace to harass me. I did not follow their orders. Later the police came to look for me. On April 17th, some elderly practitioners in our city were arrested. On April 27th, the police came to look for me again. Not knowing their intentions, I left home and stayed away to avoid being arrested and persecuted again.

Note

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

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/5/11/200638.html