Elderly Intellectual Persecuted for His Beliefs

My name is Wang Sili. I am a member of Jiusan Academy Society, which is one of the democratic parties in China. I have been cultivating Falun Gong and following the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance for 13 years, and have never wavered in my faith in all that time. Since the open suppression and persecution by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started on July 20th, 1999, the police have used deceitful methods eight times in order to gain entry to my home, confiscate my property, and arrest me. I was sentenced in Tuanhe Forced Labour Camp, Beijing to a term of one and a half years; then I was sentenced to 3 years in the Chadian Qianjin Prison of Tianjin City. In 2008, before the Olympics, I was arrested again and sentenced to two and a half years in a labour camp. The term was served outside of the labour camp because I was over 75.

During 11 years of persecution, I have spent New Year's day (Chinese New Year, also my birthday) alone in prison seven times.

During the time I spent in Tuanhe Forced Labour Camp, I wrote over 30 letters to my wife to encourage her to keep practising Falun Gong at home. After I was released I learned that all of the letters had been confiscated and she had not received any of them. Two months into my labour camp term, my wife was coerced into giving up her beliefs. Eventually, the cancer that she was previously diagnosed with returned and she passed away. My relative told me about her death only after I was released from the labour camp.

When my wife began practising Falun Gong in 1996, she had cancer. After she started doing the exercises and studying the teachings, her symptoms disappeared and she no longer needed to take medicine. The cancer returned because of the brainwashing and pressure she suffered. In the labour camp, all the guards tried to persuade me to live well so that I could get out to take care of my wife who was in serious condition. They had been deceiving me all along.

During the three years I spent in prison, I was locked in a small cell, which they put me in right after I arrived. There were two shifts in which prisoners monitored practitioners: one in the daytime and the other at night. One of the daytime monitors was a drug addict who was badly brainwashed and who harshly maltreated Falun Gong practitioners. The other was a very cruel burglar who was also brainwashed and completely deceived. He had been taught to hate the Falun Gong teachings and treated practitioners brutally. For the two night shifts, one was a gangster who made money through deceiving elementary and high school students; the other was a burglar who still had some human nature.

When I did not obey him, the gangster once yelled, "I can do anything to you as long as I don't kill you!" This must have been assured by the police. After I pointed that out and and asked him whether it was the case, he wouldn't answer me. If the police hadn't said this to him, he wouldn't have dared to say such an outrageous thing.

Every day, from 5:00 a.m. to midnight, I was forced to sit on 15 cm-high hard plastic chair. I was forced to sit straight, put both hands on my knees, and was not allowed to close my eyes. Otherwise, I was either cursed at or beaten. I was given about 15 minutes to eat each of the three meals. When the water cart arrived, I was not allowed to get water by myself; the inmate "guard" got it for me. When I needed to use the bathroom, I had to get permission from the inmate. The monitors walked behind me, and didn't allow me to look around or turn my head. In addition, when I met other practitioners, I was forced to lower my head and not make contact.

After sitting on that small chair for about a month, the flesh on my buttocks was broken and started to fester. Iodine was used to treat the infection. The monitors deliberately inflicted pain by scrubbing the flesh when they applied the iodine. The iodine caused the wound to stick to my underwear when I sat on the small stool. Each time I used the toilet, a layer of skin would peel away. Thus, they would apply iodine again and again and my skin would peel. Each application of iodine made it harder for the wound to heal. While this was happening, I started having heart problems. When I was sent to the prison clinic, the doctor was afraid of accepting responsibility for my state of health so he sent me to a hospital. One day, right after I lay down, I felt a pain in my heart. I told the guard on duty, and he helped to carry me on a bed board to the clinic. At midnight I was taken to the hospital. It took three weeks for me to recover. After I recovered, I was forced to sit on that chair again. The situation lasted for the whole year.

During this period of time, I was made to "report on my thoughts," so I described the torture and ill-treatment I had received in order to expose the brutality of the CCP and to let the true situation be known. I wrote until I was released. The two shifts of monitors recorded my behaviour every day so it could be used by the police when they tried to force me to renounce my faith in Falun Gong. In addition, they recorded my daily schedule in their notebook.

I am 76 now and have seen for myself the truly cruel nature of the CCP. After I graduated from college, I only worked in two places before I retired: the Ministry of Geology and the Ministry of Construction. I am clear about what the CCP has done. I dared not talk about it before, but now I will expose the things it has done since its inception. One movement after another, people don't ever get a break from it; the turmoil inside the country has never stopped; even the Chairman and the Marshal of the country could not die in peace (referring to Liu Xiaoqi who was persecuted to death during the Cultural Revolution). In my opinion, the CCP has never done a single good thing.

Above all, after repeatedly talking with the officers, except for a few leaders and very evil policemen, I was able to convince many to change their attitudes toward Falun Gong and they began to treat practitioners kindly. A few of them even agreed to withdraw from the CCP. Those who did not withdraw at least learned the truth.

On April 22nd, 2008, I was arrested again at my home. The police confiscated my Falun Gong books, leaflets exposing the persecution of Falun Gong, and my computer, justifying that the computer contained information related to Falun Gong. During the month I was in the detention centre I was told that I had been sentenced to two and a half years in a labour camp. However, due to my age, the term didn't have to be served in the camp. Instead, I was released on May 22nd and sent to a brainwashing centre for four months. I was kept in a room with two monitors. After four months, nobody came to interrogate me. Only on the day I was sent to the brainwashing centre, did the retired chairman of the neighbourhood committee visit me and claim he would "help" me. I told him that it was hard to say who was the one that needed help. That person didn't visit me again. I returned home on September 21st, 2008.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2009/8/23/206945.html