Ms. Xu Lixiu Recounts the Persecution that She and Her Family Have Suffered Since 1999

The following is a statement by Ms. Xu Lixiu, a Falun Gong practitioner from Xishui County, Hubei Province, about the persecution suffered by her, her family, and other practitioners.

I am from Tongluoshan Village of Zhuwan City in Xiushui County, Hubei Province. I am 43 years old.

One morning around August 20th, 1999, I was visiting my parents. A Chinese Communist Party (CCP) cadre named Liu, from the Wangcheng region of Qingquan City in Xiushui County, and other cadres went to my parents' house. At that time, my father had just started practising Falun Gong. One of the cadres said to my father, "As long as you co-operate with us and say that you went blind as a result of practising Falun Gong, we will never bother you again." My father had experienced all the political movements by the CCP and knew deeply how evil the party is. He did not know how to reply, as he was intimidated and a little scared.

I said to my father seriously, "Dad, you practise Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. You should speak the truth. You cannot lie against your conscience to co-operate with them." After hearing that, he said, "It is not because of Falun Gong that I lost my eyesight. I gradually lost my sight after I was accidentally hurt by a lotus root pole while I was digging lotus roots. You should not force me to lie."

Seeing my father refuse to co-operate with them, they threatened me, "Today we are talking to your father. It is none of your business." I said, "I also practise Falun Gong. If I did not see this scene today, I am afraid that nobody could even believe that this kind of thing could happen. Cadres should serve the people. How can you guys come here to threaten a senior citizen to fabricate lies to persecute Falun Gong!" After hearing what I said, they left.

Arrested, Imprisoned, and Robbed for Persisting in Cultivation

On October 10th, 1999, my brother, my sister-in-law, and three other Falun Gong practitioners went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. While in Beijing, they were arrested and detained in the Pingguoyuan Police Station. The police brutally beat them and tortured them into giving a false confession. The police released them after they had been detained for over 30 days in a detention centre and after the police had taken 3,900 yuan ¹ from my brother and my sister-in-law.

At about 8:00 p.m. on December 18th, 1999, over 100 practitioners did the exercises together in Xishui Square to show people the magnificence of Falun Gong and tell people that all the reports about Falun Gong on TV were slander and lies. The police from the Xishui County Public Security Bureau-- including Huang Haijun, Yang Jian, and Xia Shousong--arrested all those practitioners and tried to force them to renounce their belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Those practitioners were detained for over 50 days and were not released until they had paid 600 yuan. My sister-in-law was sentenced to one year in a forced labour camp.

At that time, I was running a small business in Wuhan City. I was arrested along with about a dozen practitioners by the police from the Xujiapeng Police Station in Wuchang City while we were doing the exercises at the practice site of the Wuchang Auto Manufacturing Factory at about 4:00 a.m.. We were then transferred to Dongxihu and the Erzhigou Woman's Forced Labour Camp in Hanko City. Many practitioners were imprisoned there at that time and doing hard labour.

One day in the early evening, all the practitioners tried to do the exercises together. However, a policewoman ordered the inmates to pull off the practitioners' clothes, leaving only our undergarments. The police ordered the inmates to beat us brutally. After the beating, they tied up our hands and feet and forced us to sit on the ice-cold concrete ground. At the time, the cold wind was roaring and the water was freezing. The police and the inmates could not bear the cold, even though they were in long, padded overcoats. They allowed us to go inside at around 10:00 p.m.

The next morning, some practitioners continued to do the exercises and were brutally beaten again. The police taped our mouths shut, tied up our hands and feet, pulled off our clothes, and poured cold water on our bodies. We were released after 15 days of persecution and were forced to pay 400 yuan.

At the end of December, I went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong with several other practitioners. We were arrested and later detained in the Xishui Detention Centre for over three months. The police released us after they forced us to write the guarantee statement² and took 700 yuan from us. After retuning home, the police chief of the Zhudianxing Police Station in Xishui did not allow me to go back to Wuhan City to run my business and ordered me to report to the station every week. In addition, the police continually threatened my in-laws.

Later I again went to appeal in Beijing. I was recognised by the police at the Beijing train station. I was later imprisoned at the No. 2 Xishui Detention Centre. Later, I was transferred to the No. 1 Xishui Detention Centre to be persecuted further. The Public Security Bureau eventually sentenced me to one year in a forced labour camp.

Forced Brainwashing in Shayang Forced Labour Camp

I was imprisoned in the Shayang Forced Labour Camp. At first, I was assigned to the Qilihu Forced Labour Camp Team No. 3; later, I was transferred to the Shayang Women's Forced Labour Camp Team No. 9. The team leader Yang and the policewoman in charge of persecuting Falun Gong, Bi Huiqiong, instructed four drug addicts to monitor us in shifts, 24 hours a day. If we did or said anything that did not meet their requirements, they would brutally beat us. Once because we did not report to them and did the exercises instead, I was beaten by drug addict Shen to the extent that I was not able to move at all and almost passed out.

I went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. Policewoman Bi Huiqiong transferred me to Qilihu Hospital and instructed the doctor to force-feed me. The forced-feeding was very brutal. They used a triangle-shaped iron clip to force open my mouth and fixed the clip with bolts and nuts. After that, they inserted a plastic tube into my mouth to my stomach and vigourously stirred it in my stomach. They asked me, "Are you going to eat or not?" If I did not reply, they would open my mouth wide, which was already badly torn up.

Twice, because I insisted on doing the exercises, policewoman Bi Huiqiong ordered two policemen and others (six or seven people all together) to imprison me in a warehouse with both my hands cuffed behind my back. The two policemen shocked me with electric batons all over my body until I nearly died.

On top of this physical abuse, I was also subjected to forced brainwashing. They forced practitioners to watch videos slandering Falun Gong. After practitioners watched the videos, they forced us to share our thoughts, which was actually meant to prevent us from thinking rationally and with a clear mind. They asked three to five former practitioners who had turned against Falun Gong to try to convince us. When our minds were clouded by the torture, they would try to force us to sign statements giving up Falun Gong. It was exactly under that kind of pressure that I signed a statement and did something that a Falun Gong practitioner should not do.

My Brother Persecuted to the Verge of Death

In April of 2001, my brother was arrested by police officers, including Gan Shitao and Tao Jinsong, while he was working in the field. He was then imprisoned in the No. 1 local detention centre. He went on a hunger strike to protest. After over a month, my brother was on the verge of death. They released him, not wanting to be responsible for his death.

After my brother was sent back home, some of his neighbours went to see him and brought him some nutritional supplements. My brother was extremely skinny and could hardly breathe at that point. However, with the power of Falun Gong my brother survived.

Note

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

2. "Guarantee Statement": A statement to declare that one is remorseful for practising Falun Gong and guarantees not to practise Falun Gong again, not to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and never again associate with any Falun Gong practitioners.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/11/30/90383.html