Don't Be Scared and Don't Compromise, Ms. Xu

One day when I was changing clothes, I grabbed my favourite outfit. It was a T-shirt that brought me both warm and sad memories. It was a gift from Ms. Xu, who picked it out for me after shopping at countless stores on a hot afternoon.

Ms. Xu Hui, 47, a resident of Dalinzi Town, Fuyu County in Jilin Province, is a geography teacher at the Dalinzi Town High School. Tall and very beautiful, she is a kind and soft-spoken lady who gets along very well with students, co-workers and neighbours.

I got to know Ms. Xu when I was a boarder at her home in 2006. She took very good care of me. We got along like family instead of strangers. Her work at the school kept her very busy because during the weekdays she left home early and came home late. She also took care of all the home duties. She went out of her way to come home at lunch to cook for me, and she made sure I didn't need anything, which touched me a lot because she could have eaten at school and not bothered to take care of me.

Ms. Xu has a 21 year-old daughter. Her husband was arrested when her daughter was in her teens, and he was released in July 2007. Ms. Xu single-handedly raised their daughter. Her meagre wages were not enough to support her family, so she planted crops after work. Winter in north-eastern China is extremely cold and burning firewood is a tough job, but she managed to do it.

Because of her good looks and good occupation, many people thought that she would remarry, and some people even tried to arrange dates for her, but she rejected them all.

Although she lived a difficult life, Ms. Xu still constantly helped her neighbours, and I witnessed this many times. For example, she once gave a neighbour some money to take her sick child to the hospital. There were no strings attached to the money she gave. Another time one of her neighbours was without a water pump to water her vegetable garden, and Ms. Xu extended her water hoses to the neighbour's garden.

When asked why she was so strong and kind, she replied calmly, "I believe in Falun Gong, and believing in Falun Gong means you have to be a good person, an even better person. To be a good person you have to think of others first, and be kind to others, but not with the intention of obtaining fame or wealth. You should be firm and tenacious when you encounter hardship."

Because of her belief in Falun Gong and Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, every year her school threatened her to renounce Falun Gong. She was forced to live at the school and her salary was withheld, in an effort to pressure her into renouncing her belief. During those years (2001-2003) when the persecution against Falun Gong was so severe, she came very close to being sent to a brainwashing centre, but a just-minded person stopped the police from doing so. In 2006, her school forced her to work as a guard instead of as a teacher.

On April 24th, 2008, it was raining when I received a phone call from Ms. Xu, telling me that she had been taken to a local police station and that several policemen were on their way to ransack her home. She hoped that I could put some important items of hers in a safe place. That was our last phone conversation.

Ms. Xu was taken to a local police station on April 24th, 2008. She was then sent to the Fuyu County Detention Centre where she was detained for seven days. She was sentenced to eighteen months of forced labour because she refused to renounce her belief. She has been detained in the Seventh Ward of Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp in Changchun City for fourteen months.

I called Ms. Xu's family and they were very distraught. Her husband had been home for less than a year and their reunion lasted only a few months. A nice person like Ms. Xu, once again a wife, was taken away.

Her family said that Ms. Xu had lost a lot of weight and looked pale. She was forced to work long hours, and if she failed to complete the assignments given to her, she had to work extra hours. The meals consisted of steamed buns made of corn flour, and filthy vegetable soup without oil. The daily necessities and food in Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp cost more than twice what it would cost to buy a meal outside the jail. Even if inmates had money to purchase things, the items were not necessarily for sale. If an inmate refused to give up her belief, her family was not allowed to bring her food.

I went to see Ms. Xu at the labour camp. I got off at Changchun Train Station and took the 246 bus. The last stop was Heizuizi Forced Labor Camp. One could see that it was a decrepit place. The buildings around the labour camp were low, old, broken, dirty, and chaotic. The Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp had tall buildings surrounded by a long wall. It had a small black door that could easily escape a visitor's eyes, which made it look lifeless. All the guards I saw had bloated faces and they looked mean. They spoke loudly and were mean to people. Every megaphone had constant noise coming out of it and you could not hear clearly what the other person was saying. There was also a video camera above our heads. I heard that they used it to check if any of the visitors were Falun Gong practitioners.

Someone told me that practitioners in the Seventh Ward of Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp protested against the long hours of labour (minimum 15 hours per day) and were beaten as a result. I worried so much about Ms. Xu.

I don't know if the mean prison guards who beat the good people will be chased down wherever they go in the world like the Nazi butchers who stood trial for what they had done during World War II.

Ms. Xu, I know you did not abandon your faith. Don't be scared and don't compromise. Carry on!

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/7/17/204706.html