Ruthlessly Persecuted by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Authorities After Falun Gong Turned Me into a Good Person

Name: Xie Jifu
Gender: Male
Age: 55
Address: Qiaogou Township, Wutongqiao District, Sichuan Province
Occupation: Unknown

Date of most recent arrest: November 18th, 2002
Most recent place of detention: Deyang Prison
City: Deyang
Province: Sichuan
Persecution suffered: Detention, imprisonment, home ransacked, beatings, torture, extortion, brainwashing, sleep deprivation, living under surveillance

(Editor's note: This article was transcribed from a speech by Xie Jifu.)

In Qiaogou Township in the Wutongqiao District of Leshan City, Sichuan Province, there was an unscrupulous villain named Xie Jifu. He was known to the locals for wining and dining, whoring and gambling, as well as fighting. Though he was only a little over 40, he suffered from all kinds of diseases such as tuberculosis, stomach trouble, haemorrhoids, athlete's foot, and so on. Even walking made him very tired. For a long time he was on traditional Chinese medicine prescribed by his mother, who was a Chinese medicine practitioner. However, there was no sign of improvement. That prodigal son was me.

In July 1997, I began to practise Falun Gong. Not long after that, all my deceases disappeared without having to take any medication. Most important of all, I understood the real meaning of life, so I cast off my old self and got rid of all kinds of my previous bad habits. Instead, I learned to be compassionate to others, think about other people first, and tried to do my job well. I felt my health returning to the state of a 20-year-old.

My mental and physical health greatly improved. All my family and friends were very much amazed and really witnessed the beauty of Falun Gong. However, on July 20th, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began an all around persecution of Falun Gong. Like many other practitioners, I was also ruthlessly persecuted.

On November 18th, 2002, a group of plainclothes officers arrested me and took me to the Qianwei County Police Department. In the afternoon, Li Zuo, political instructor of the National Security Division of the Wutongqiao Police Department, and his men escorted me and fellow practitioner Mr. Song Youping to the Wutongqiao Detention Centre. On the same day, Du Gaoyin, head of the Wutongqiao National Security Division, brought Li Zuo, Ren Huaifei, and others to ransack my home. They confiscated Falun Gong books, and a lot of materials about Falun Gong and the persecution.

The same day I was incarcerated in Wutong Detention Centre, jailer Song Youjun, incited by prison guards and in collaboration with Wang Tingfu and two criminals, tortured me for nearly an hour. The skin on the jailer's hands peeled off as a result of the beatings. On the following day, Huang Liping, a female prison guard, and Zhong Yuqiang, a male guard, transferred me to the No. 9 cell. Huang Liping told jailer Luo Peihua, "This person is practising Falun Gong. Teach him to obey the rules." She incited the criminals to use violence against me, as described below.

1) "Statue of Guanyin:" In the bitter cold winter, they poured cold water over my head and then fanned me. This torture method is described as "opening the air-conditioner.. After that they used a two-inch-long plastic brush to brush my back until blood was oozing out. Then they poured the cold water over me again. This torture lasted for nearly an hour.

2) "Stir-fried Green Beans:" They inserted a toothbrush between my fingers, tightened my fingers around it, and then twisted the brush left and right until the skin and the flesh were lacerated. As a result the fingers on my right hand festered for more than 40 days.

3) "Stewed Hog's Hoof:" Two people pinned me to the ground and forced me to sit against the wall. Two criminals stepped on my legs and walked on them until my legs were black and blue, which only disappeared weeks later.

4. "Andrographis and Caladium Hen:" I was forced to stand still against a wall. The evildoers punched the right and left sides of my chest and waist with their elbows until I collapsed.

Other tortures were used, including "Chinese Cabbage Soup" and "Examine the Air Force." Worse still, Luo Peihua and other criminals tried to force me to curse our Teacher. Since I kept silent, he began to punch me. Luo Peihua, Yuan Tao, Tan Chaohua, Zheng Kun, and Peng Huaming beat me for three consecutive hours until they were dog-tired and breathing heavily. My left cheek was cut and bleeding. My whole body was numb, so I did not feel the pain.

After being tortured, I had blood in my urine and suffered from chest pain for a long time. Even after I was sentenced and transferred to Deyang Prison, the pain continued for quite some time. However, I recovered without having to take any medication.

They not only tortured me but also robbed me of my personal belongings. The quilt I used in the winter, a pure wool sweater, and a pair of leather shoes were carved up by Peng Minghua, Yuan Tao, and Tan Chaohua. Jailer Luo Peihua stole 1,245 yuan¹ in cash. To protest the persecution and ill treatment at the Wutong Detention Centre, I went on a hunger strike twice. The first time it lasted 13 days and the second time 12 days.

Half a year later on June 3rd, 2003, I was taken to a small room in the Niuhua Township Government and put on trial. I rejected the lawyer they had designated and defended myself. I told the court that practising Falun Gong was an expression of my freedom of belief. I talked to them with compassion and told them that, before I practised Falun Gong, I was an unscrupulous villain and that Falun Gong had helped to change me from a villain into a good person. What a contribution Falun Gong had made to the country and the society! However, the judge sentenced me to five years of imprisonment based on a fabricated charge. During the arrest and the trial, I refused to sign any documents such as the arrest warrant or the trial records. In the court, I exposed the crimes committed by the CCP. A judge Liu said that if I did not agree with the verdict, I could appeal.

Several other practitioners were held with me in Wutong Detention Centre. Among us was Mr. Yang Zhiping, who suffered the most serious tortures. He was not allowed to eat, but was force-fed with a dozen cups of water, which had been used to wash the dishes. His lower body was affected with dropsy and he also had a problem with his heart. He was also sentenced to four years of imprisonment and we were sent to Deyang Prison together. The prison doctor found a dark scar on his chest, which was more than twenty millimetres long and three to four millimetres wide. His heart was damaged and he was on the verge of death. Deyang Prison officials refused to admit him and turned him back to the Wutong Detention Centre in the afternoon. I learned later that doctors at the two large hospitals in Deyang and Leshan all said that he needed to have a heart transplant. I thought that he would die. However, a few days after I was released at the end of 2007, he came to see me. I was really shocked. It turned out that, since the detention centre did not want to be held responsible for him, they had released him. After returning home, he recovered very quickly. His experience has once again witness to the wonder of Falun Gong.

The head of each cell in Wutongqiao Detention Centre were all thugs supported by the centre. They used the money they stole from us to buy presents for the head of the detention centre, Cu Dacheng. I saw with my own eyes that Luo Peihua handed brand name cigarettes to Cu Dacheng. Luo admitted that they spent 300 yuan on Cu Dacheng per day. The detention centre not only ruined the practitioners physically, but also maltreated them in their daily lives and ruined them financially. Take for example, five thin pieces of pork and half a bowl of celery sold for 20 yuan. This meant that a whole pig would sell for more than 20,000 yuan, which is equivalent to more than a one year's salary for a worker.

On August 1st, 2003, I was taken to Deyang Prison and locked up in the strict control group, the No. 2 Ward, No. 8 Division. This ward was known to the detainees as the "demon's ward." The head of the ward, Zeng Guifu, often beat practitioners. Those involved in the persecution included instructor Chen Ping; 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) officials Zhang Jun, Cui Weigang, and Tu Yangming; Deputy Warden Ma Chengde; and disciplinary guard Qiu Shen. They were extremely evil. They stopped at nothing in maltreating practitioners. In addition to the application of a variety of physical tortures, they also forced practitioners to undergo mandatory brainwashing, assigned inmates to monitor and torture them and did not allow practitioners to talk to each other or to meet with their families. All this was in an attempt to force practitioners to renounce their belief.

Deyang Prison was formerly the No. 95 Automobile Manufacturing Plant. After the plant was ruined by corrupt official Ma Aijun, it was turned into a jail. The plant's Party secretary, Ma Aijun, became the head of the prison and Class III Police Supervisor. The auto workers, who had lots of bad habits, became prison guards or instructors. Workshop directors became the heads of the wardens. Even the teachers of the school for the sons and daughters of the plant workers became prison guards, and the plant's hospital became the prison hospital. Deyang Prison was established just like that.

In April 2005, He Dehua, the township's Party secretary; the head of the township, Jiang; and the Party secretary of the township's political and judiciary commission Zhang (female) came to the Deyang Prison and attempted to help the prison authorities make me renounce Falun Gong. After I saw through their fine words, Ye Dehua called in prison guard Hu Xiaodong and Hu Yueshan, an official from the prison's 610 Office, to torture me. At that time, I failed to be to calm and fought back. As a result, the prison officials began to accelerate their persecution. I was transferred to the No. 2 Ward, where I was put under strict control for 80 days and in a small cell for 20 days. Every day, they only gave me six ounces of food and did not give me any bedding to sleep on.

In early 2006, I was transferred to the No. 5 Ward, which was another "demon's ward." Li Chaoyong, the head of the ward; Tian Yong, official of the 610 Office, as well as Deng Deling, Luo Guanglun, and Li Weidong, incited inmates Xiao Peng and Wu Huaguo to torture me. They punched and kicked me and did not allow me to sleep. They said that if I did not renounce Falun Gong they would make me insane or disabled or even kill me. They also threatened to exterminate my whole family.

In April 2007, a group of people headed by Party Secretary Zhang of Qiaogou Township came to Deyang Prison to try to make me renounce Falun Gong. Among them was Pu Xiaoling, the current community director. She brought my sister with her to ask me to give up Falun Gong. I told them, "Our Teacher Teacher [Teacher Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong] tells us how to be good and you ask me to give that up. Would you want me to go back to being an unscrupulous villain who went dining, wining, whoring, and gambling as well as fighting?" Pu also lied to me that no one in the township practised Falun Gong anymore. I did not believe her and expressed myself very clearly that I would cultivate through to the end. The Party secretary incited a guard named Li Weidong to tell me to slander Falun Gong. They used all sorts of methods in an attempt to force me to renounce Falun Gong, but failed, so they started another round of ruthless maltreatment.

Prison guard Li Weidong beat me and threatened to kill me. I was the only practitioner that had not renounced Falun Gong. The evildoers received five thousand yuan reward for making a practitioner renounce Falun Gong. I told him that he would not receive a penny of reward because of me. He also incited inmates Xiao Peng and Wu Bo to beat and verbally abuse me. I laughed at them so they even forbade me to laugh. They did not allowed me to sleep for seven days and nights. Li Weidong told criminal Xiao Pengy to talk to me and tell me that if I refused to renounce Falun Gong, they would not release me even when my term of imprisonment expired.

Later, I was tricked. After being deprived of sleep for more than seven days and nights, I copied a guarantee statement written by inmate Xiao Peng, promising not to practise Falun Gong again. Afterward, I very much regretted it.

In the morning on June 26th, after 174 hours of inhuman sleep deprivation, I slept on a long table. After I fell asleep I rolled off the table and rolled down the stairs. I was taken to a hospital and the X-ray showed open fractures of both of my knees. My right leg was broken, so I needed to be operated on. They did not show me the X-ray film. I had general anaesthesia, and when I came to, both my legs were in plaster casts. When I was unconscious, they had wired my right leg with nuts and bolts. On June 29th, they discharged me from the hospital and returned me to Deyang Prison. However, the prison doctors never cared for me and did not even give me any treatment. Instead, guard Li Weidong incited inmate Xiao Peng to go the hospital to verbally abuse me.

To prevent the news of the inhuman torture from being leaking to the public, the No. 5 Ward held a meeting during which everyone was warned not to discuss anything about Xie Jifu. Whoever discussed it would be locked up in solitary confinement and lose the opportunity to have their terms of imprisonment reduced.

During my time in the hospital, my legs very swollen and hot. However, due to my faith in the healing power of Falun Gong, I was miraculously recovering and the swelling disappeared.

On November, 2007, I was released from prison. With crutches under my arms, my family, Party secretary Zhang of Qiaogou Township, and the director of the neighbourhood committee, Zhang, picked me up. During my imprisonment, the money my relatives and friends had sent me was all pocketed by the evildoers. My legs gradually recovered in half a year's time. I was able to work after that.

After I returned home, CCP officials sent people to monitor me, and Pu XiaoLing often came to my home to harass us. She tried to trick me into applying for a subsistence allowance in an attempt to put me under their surveillance. She also threatened my family by saying if I went out to expose the persecution I had experienced, they would lock me up again and keep me in jail forever. My mother was so scared and cried the whole night.

I went out and exposed the persecution and torture I had endured. They assigned special agents to follow me and report everything I did to the 610 Office. The Party secretary of Qiaogou Township, Zhang Bangcai, went to my work place in Xibei Township and ordered the local police keep an eye on me. When the township officials collaborated with the developers in seizing the farmers' land, they used me as an example to threaten those farmers who were unwilling to sell their land. Zhang Bangcai clamoured, "Whoever wants to go against the Communist Party by being unwilling to sell their land will come to no good and end up like Xie Laoqi who became crippled."

On July 27th on the eve of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the political instructor of Qiaogou Police Station, Yang Bo, and head of the station Tan Chunping, in collaboration with the 610 Office and the police department, stepped up their surveillance on me. They broke into my home again without going through any formalities. They ransacked my it and confiscated Falun Gong books. I was once again taken to the local police station and photographed against my will. They even detained my 83-year-old mother and one of my sisters, took them to the station, and forced them to be photographed as well. The officers involved included the head of the Wutongqiao Police Department, Li Aimin; deputy head Wang Huaken; and policeman Ren Huaifei. They forced me to sign a document before releasing me at 11:00 p.m. They also tried to cut off my livelihood by trying to persuade my boss to fire me. When they didn't succeed, they attempted to kill me in a car accident.

On July 30th, 2008, when I was not far away from home, a car without a registration plate drove in the wrong direction and knocked me down from behind. I ended up with a two-millimetre cut on the corner of my left eye and lost lot of blood. My right thumb sustained a joint fracture dislocation and my right leg and right hand were swollen.

Shortly after 4:00 p.m., Pu Xiaoling, Zhang Shenqi, Song Qingming, Deng, a driver named Yuan, Qiaogou Township Party secretary Ma Jun, head of the township 610 Office Wang Ying, political instructor of the local police station Yang, and a policeman came to my home and arrested me. They took me to the brainwashing centre, which was set up inside Julong Guest House in Dashiqiao, Leshan City. At the time, I had blood all over me and my eyes were so swollen that I was unable to see anything. The evildoers did not allow me to go to the hospital for treatment. The brainwashing centre refused to take me, because the staff there simply did not want to take any responsibility. They reported my condition to the Wutongqiao District 610 Office, and Yuan Qin from that office took me to Honghui Hospital in Leshan City, where I had an X-ray. The doctor told me that I needed an operation, saying that it would help me to heal quicker. I told him that I did not have the money to pay for the operation. Then they took me to Wutongqiao People's Hospital. The doctors there also said I needed an operation. When I told them that I did not have the money, they asked, since I did not have the money, why did I come? I told them that I had been abducted and taken there. In the evening when they noticed that my eyes were very swollen, they could not see the wound and therefore were unable to stitch me up. They did not want to take the responsibility and asked me to sign a document saying that I would bear the responsibility myself for choosing not to have the operation. I signed the document. I knew if I had the operation I might have suffered from even worse persecution. My right leg was a typical example. I insisted that they find an orthopaedic surgeon. On the third day, a female doctor helped me to set the fractures. I was detained in the hospital for 15 days. The township hospital sent in people to take turns keeping me under surveillance. On August 14th, I talked to a Mr. Yang and asked to be released so that I could go home to recuperate. I said it was not convenient for me to stay in the hospital since I needed nutrition. He asked Ma Jun for instructions and I went through the formalities to be discharged from the hospital in the afternoon.

Upon returning home, Song Qingming and Zhang Shenqi came to my home every day to keep an eye on me.

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://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2009/11/6/211539.html