The Persecution of a Falun Gong Practitioner in Dalian City

A Falun Gong practitioner from the Jinzhou District in Dalian City, Liaoning Province, in his 50s, lived at the Nanshan Residential Compound on Zhanqian Street. He was formerly employed by a large enterprise. After Jiang Zemin's [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] regime and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began the persecution of Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999, he was forced to leave his job which he had held for several decades.

In August 1999, he was arrested and detained for fifteen days just because he practised Falun Gong outdoors. In the evening on October 28th, officers from Zhanqian Police Station in the Jinzhou District arrested him, and he was sentenced to one year of forced labour. He was severely tortured at the Dalian Forced Labour Camp and his sentence was extended for an extra six months. In 2007, he went to an economic development zone and found a job. But on July 2nd, he was persecuted again.

In 2008 officers from Zhanqing Police Station and the Jinzhou District Police Department arrested him at his home and he was sentenced to one year of forced labour. During his lengthy detentions, his family led a difficult life and suffered severe financial hardship.

Following is his personal account:

Less than half an hour after I came back from Shandong where I was visiting my family, somebody knocked at my door. He claimed he was from work. I opened the door and saw that I didn't know this person so didn't let him in. When I asked him why he was there, he said it was company business. Then, about four or five plain clothes police showed up, jumped on me, held me, and took me to a waiting van.

I shouted, "The police are arresting an innocent person. Falun Gong is good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good." Many people looked at us from a distance and dared not to come near. The police tried to push me into the van. I kept shouting "Falun Gong is good!" One of the officer holding me down hit me in the stomach several times. I told him, "You are committing a crime by hitting me." Then he stopped. In the car I told them the facts about Falun Gong. He kept threatening me.

I was taken to the Huanghai Road Police Station in the Development Zone. I shouted, "Falun Gong is good," as soon as I got out of the car. Many people looked at us when we passed through a big hall. A guy from the 610 Office¹ interrogated me. I refused to answer any questions except to say, "Falun Gong is good." He was going to hit me, but I warned him, "You will be committing a crime if you hit me." Then he asked a question and answered it himself. I said, "You can ask me any question but I will reply with one sentence: 'Falun Gong is good.' So go ahead and write it yourself." He wanted to show me what he had written. I said, "I will not approve anything you have written. I don't want to see it, either."

Then he left and some other officers came in. I told them the facts about Falun Gong.

1. The Prison in the Development Zone

As soon as I was taken into the prison, I said, "Falun Gong is good." The head of the cell said, "It is a Falun Gong practitioner." Then he just ignored me. The deputy head of the cell told me to recite the prison regulations. I said, "Falun Gong practitioners will not recite them." The head said, "That's true, they will not recite them. So you don't need to recite them." The deputy head told me to me wash my feet. I washed them. He said that I didn't wash them properly and told me to wash them again. I said, "Aren't you hassling me?" The head said, "Then you have to wash them twenty times." I shouted, "Falun Gong is good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!" towards the corridor. Guards ran to me and asked me why I was shouting. I said, "They are harassing me." The guards said a few things to the head and left. The head said to me, "As long as you don't shout, you can do whatever you want." I said, "Then I will do the Falun Gong exercises." He said it was OK. I told the inmates the facts about Falun Gong. The head didn't bother to tell me off. He pretended he didn't hear it.

Fifteen days later I was sent to a cell where inmates did hard labour. As soon as I got there, I shouted, "Falun Gong is good!" It seemed that they were used to it. They looked at me and told me to work. I said, "I will not." When the head of the cell asked why, I said, "I will not do work for the CCP." The head looked at me and said, "OK, then you wait. Guards will come to give you a lesson." I then told them what Falun Gong was all about. They said they already knew. Then I started to practise the exercises. They tried to stop me, but I continued. When they found I was not bothered, they stopped. I told them that if they continued harassing me, they would be punished.

One day the head of the cell didn't let me do the exercises. I shouted, "Falun Gong is good. Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!" towards the corridor. The head didn't know what to do with me, so he let me continue my exercises. The guards heard me shouting and came over to me, saying, "As long as you don't shout, you can do whatever you want." I thought to myself that I had already shouted what I wanted to shout and everyone had already heard, so now I should clarify the truth to them. I persuaded seven or eight people to withdraw from the CCP in the prison.

2. Dalian Forced Labour Camp

Xu Yungang, the head of the "610 Office" of the Police Department in the Development Zone in Dalian, sentenced me to two years of forced labour. When I arrived at the camp, the inmates were having lunch. There were no guards. They were sitting on the ground eating. I squatted down to eat. The inmate who monitored me asked me why I didn't sit down. I said, "I am a Falun Gong practitioner." Then I explained the facts about Falun Gong to him and about forty people there all listened to me.

I was sent to the Eighth Team that specialized in persecuting Falun Gong. As soon as I got there, they wanted to take a photo of me. I refused to cooperate and shouted, "Falun Gong is good!" The inmates forced me to have my photo taken. I then closed my eyes. Because I didn't corporate with them, the guards there hated me. One morning as I was brushing my teeth, someone shouted my name and ordered me to go to the head office. As soon as I got upstairs, inmates who were waiting there pushed me down and dragged me downstairs. I shouted, "Falun Gong is good!" A policeman hit me in the stomach. An inmate started to strangle me and stuffed a towel in my mouth. I was pushed into a car and driven to Masanjia Forced Labour Camp in Shenyang.

3. Masanjia Forced Labour Camp in Shenyang City

As soon as I walked into Masanjia Forced Labour Camp, I saw a guard brandishing two big electric batons and intimidating newcomers. Inmates who were selected to monitor other inmates shouted to everyone to stand facing a wall with their noses touching the wall. I didn't obey and shouted, "Falun Gong is good!" He didn't shock me but told an inmate to bring an iron chair². He chained me to the iron chair and left. Another guard came and talked to me. I then told him the truth about Falun Gong, then he left. Soon after, the guard with electric batons came back and said that I was assigned to the team upstairs and told me not to shout when I went upstairs.

But the same thing happened again after I went upstairs. Inmates forced me to squat down and kicked me. I stood up and shouted, "Falun Gong is good!" Someone hit me squarely in the face. My mouth instantly swelled up. I kept shouting. He then hit me in the head. A team leader by the surname of Gao signalled to him to stop hitting me. He took out an iron chair and chained me to it and moved me to another room.

It was already very cold in November in Shenyang City. I only wore a jacket. I shivered the whole night because of the cold. I felt I was as cold as the iron chair. How cold the chair was, how cold my body was. They purposefully opened the windows to freeze me. But they wore thick cotton coats while I only wore a jacket while chained to the metal chair. Every day a team leader came to try to persuade me to write a statement to give up Falun Gong. They said I would receive a reduced sentence if I was "transformed³." They tried to persuade me to give up my belief and to write the three statements. I said that I would never be "transformed" or write the "three statements." Then they gave in a little bit and said that as long as I did work they would let me go free. At the beginning I didn't agree. They then chained me to an iron chair for fifteen days and nights.

One day team leader Gao came and said to me, "We don't ask you to write the three statements or to be 'transformed' or give up your practice. As long as you will work, we will untie you." I believed what he said and agreed.

4. "You Will Be Disabled All Your Life."

But what I was facing was even more severe persecution. They sent me to work in a field. At the time it was very difficult for me to walk. The team leader told me to cut wheat. I said I was not able to. Then he told me to stand in the field until they finished working.

Later the team leader told the other inmates to force me to work. Every day I had to work until midnight. Then I decided not to obey them. One day when several hundred inmates were having lunch, I shouted, "Falun Gong is good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!" All the people in the dining hall were looking at me. I kept shouting. One inmate kept hitting me but I kept shouting until we were taken to the team leader's office. Gao took out two electric batons and shocked my head and back. I kept shouting. Then Gao shocked my hands with electric batons.

I had difficulty going upstairs or downstairs. A medical exam showed that I suffered from anaemia. Every day four people dragged me upstairs. Sometimes they dragged me along the ground for a long distance.

One day I carried some quilts into a storage room. I was so weak that I couldn't stand and lay down on the ground. An inmate saw me and said that I was pretending to be sick. He told other inmates to pour water on the ground and then drag me around to soak up the water like a mop.

One day I fainted and lost consciousness. They shocked me with electric batons to try to wake me up.

Five or six days later, I regained consciousness. Team Leader Gao said to me, "You can go home now." One guard said, "Do you know what you will be like when you get home? You will not be able to stand up anymore. You will be disabled forever."

But I was not disabled. I completely recovered thanks to my righteous belief in Falun Gong.

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.

2. Iron Chair: The "Iron chair" is made of iron pipes. Victims are restrained on the iron chairs with both arms and legs tied for a long period of time, see illustration at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/1/9/17577.html

3. "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/2009/6/22/203183.html