Ms. He Aier Repeated Arrested, Harassed and Brainwashed

Ms. He Aier Repeated Arrested, Harassed and Brainwashed
Guangzhou resident Ms. He Aier used to suffer from severe heart disease until she began practising Falun Gong in 1997, after which she miraculously regained complete health. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began persecuting Falun Gong in 1999, the officials constantly harassed her. She was held in brainwashing centres five times and subjected to both physical and mental torture. Below is her account of persecution.

He Aier

My name is He Aier. I am 61 years old. I suffered from heart disease for more than three decades. I underwent surgery for separation of the bicuspid aortic valve in 1979 and had heart valve replacement in 1994. I developed serious atrial fibrillation after the valve replacement and was told to take blood-thinning drugs for the rest of my life. This was a huge emotional and financial blow to my family.

Fortunately, I started practising Falun Gong in 1997, and the atrial fibrillation went away. I have not taken any blood-thinning medication in the last 12 years and remain perfectly healthy.

After the communist regime began persecuting Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999, I wrote letters to my relatives and friends and told them how Falun Gong restored my health and what Falun Gong really is.

Officers from the local police station harassed me daily at my home for two weeks, between March 1st, 2000 and March 14th, 2000.

I was arrested and taken to the first session at the Liwan District Brainwashing Centre in Guangzhou City, where I was held for 17 days in July 2000. The second session followed in December 2000 at the same facility. They held me for nine days. The third session followed soon after, at the same facility. They held me for 23 days. I was held at the Xicun Street Culture Station in the Liwan District, Guangzhou City for 17 days in March 2001.

The fourth session followed. They held me for 29 days in April 2001, although I returned home prior to the release date.

Another session followed at the same facility in February 2002. Although they had planned to detain me for 15 days, I returned home on the eighth day because I could no longer walk due to torture.

I was taken for a sixth brainwashing session at the Huangpu Drug Rehabilitation Centre in Guangzhou City in March 2002, where I was originally scheduled to be held for 17 days but returned home early.

Domestic Security officials ransacked my home on February 12th, 2007, prompting me to leave home to avoid arrest.

Persecution

1. Two police officers came to my home at 10:00 p.m. on March 1st, 2000. They claimed to be checking residence permits, but after I opened the door, they told me to write a guarantee statement to give up Falun Gong. I refused, and they took me to the police station and held me in a triangular shaped closet about 60 cm [1.97 ft] long and 60 cm [1.97 ft] wide. The next morning, the officers asked their superior to get his instruction and called my husband to the police station. They made him write a guarantee statement before street committee officials took me home. From then on, two police officers would come to my home and try to reform [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] me daily. They harassed me for two weeks.

2. Officials constantly harassed me. The street committee 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) agents and police officers broke into my home on the afternoon of July 15th, 2000. They demanded I go to the police station. They held me at the police station and locked me and three other practitioners into a storage room at night. I insisted that I did nothing wrong and refused to enter the storage room. The police handcuffed me to the arms of a chair in the front hall until 2:00 p.m. the next day. When all street committee officials gathered, they put us in a police vehicle and drove us to the Shijing headquarters. The front yard was filled with armed police officers and security officers. They looked like a firing squad. We later learned this show of force was to affirm the first round of brainwashing in the Liwan District. The officials read so-called policies such as no talking, no Falun Gong exercises or Falun Gong book study in the brainwashing facility. Those who violate the "rules" would receive stiff punishment. We were bombarded with slanderous propaganda all day long and then coerced to write our "understanding" of the lies. This session lasted until July 31st, 2000.

3. Each brainwashing session was similar to the first. Eight officials would come to my home and take me to the police station. They would drive us to the Shijing headquarters where we listened to slanderous articles all day long. During the third session they started playing defamatory videos. We watched and read these things daily and we wrote "understandings" daily. If our essays did not conform to their twisted standards, they would make us re-write it until they liked it.

Once I was put under house arrest, the officials of my street and residential committee told me, "You are so stubborn. You haven't changed your mind, even after going to several sessions. You must study harder. The district government has decided for you to study at our street culture station." I firmly refused and locked myself into my room to avoid being taken there. The stalemate lasted well into the evening. The police chief arrived, followed by many criminal team police officers. They threatened me, "We'll take action if you stay in your room. Don't blame us for not giving you any warning." My husband thought it would be futile to go against them, and that I would not be able to eat if I stayed in my room. So he advised me to come out and go with them. I went with them.

They held me until April 1st, 2001. They drove us to Shijing again that day where the fourth brainwashing session had begun. They arrested 10 practitioners and took them there. They brought our family members who accused us of selfishness and of neglecting our spouses and children; they threatened to divorce us; they made us feel guilty and confused. At this time the officials brought out a feast and made our families think the brainwashing facility was heaven for us, and no persecution existed. There were ten practitioners, but they prepared food for more than 70 people. They also held ping-pong games, basketball games, dance parties and evening parties and made us sing and dance.

Some practitioners forgot why they were there and participated in the games and seemed to have a lot of fun. I cried. The 610 Office agents saw me crying and said, "It's great that you've realised your mistake. We'll forgive you. We'll let you go home as soon as you write a guarantee statement. But if you continue to be stubborn, we'll send you to a labour camp."

I refused to read slanderous articles. The person they assigned to monitor me sat next to my bed and read those articles aloud, to prevent me from falling asleep.

My heart disease symptoms re-emerged on the morning of April 29th, 2001. While watching a video, I suddenly felt shortness of breath, my heart sped up and the atrial fibrillation returned. My face was purple from lack of oxygen. They were afraid I would die, so they let me go home; but the class head continued to come to my home daily to make sure I was still in a condition unfit for brainwashing until the end of that session.

4. I gave 3,000 yuan¹ to a friend who lived in the Baiyun District on January 10th, 2002 and asked her to give the money to her sister who lived in Canada. She had loaned me 3,000 yuan when I was hospitalised for heart surgery. After I began practising Falun Gong, I decided to return all the money my relatives and friends had given or loaned to me while telling them about the wonders of Falun Gong. But while I was talking to my friend on the phone, two officers who claimed to be from the Baiyun Police Department went to investigate my friend at her home and told her that I was practising Falun Gong. My friend was frightened by the police and cut off contact with me. I believe the police had intercepted the letter I wrote to my friend. I did not violate any law, so I wrote a letter to the head of the Baiyun Police Department and asked him to resolve the issue for me. I made copies of the letter and gave them to street police officers and party officials; this eventually became incriminating evidence against me.

Two police officers came to my home on the morning of February 21st, 2002 and said the police chief was waiting for me at the police station. After I got to the police station the chief told me many officials had submitted copies of the letter I wrote to the head of the Baiyun Police Department. They held me there and took me to the Liwan District Custody Centre that night, claiming I had "sabotaged administration of societal safety" by writing a letter to the police head. I began to experience shortness of breath and rapid heartbeat on the fifth day, and atrial fibrillation returned full force. Despite my condition the police would not let me lie down. They saw I was at the brink of death on the seventh day. They brought a woman police doctor who said, "Your blood pressure is really high, and you'll get killed if you fall down." On the evening of February 28th, 2002, a police officer and my husband came to the custody centre to take me home. I could no longer walk on my own.

5. A group of police officers, party officials and 610 Office agents arrested me on March 7th, 2002, 15 days after the previous detention, and took me to the Huangpu Drug Rehab Centre. They said they received orders from above that clearly indicated I must go, even if I had to be taken there on a stretcher. Again, at the centre they showed me slanderous videos and libellous articles written by Party cronies. They began brutally beating determined practitioners daily at midnight and told us to stay quiet during the beating, and not reveal our scars and wounds to anyone afterwards or they would beat us even more sadistically. I heard gut-wrenching screams throughout the night. Each practitioner was kept in a separate room, under 24-hour camera surveillance; the same in the toilets and showers. The practitioner is never allowed outside the room except when accompanied by staff on the way to watch propaganda videos; the rooms are all locked with metal chains. The practitioner is completely isolated from the outside.

After I was taken to the drug rehab centre, a doctor diagnosed my heart rate in excess of 200 beats per minute. I had frequent bouts of atrial fibrillation, difficulty breathing, high blood pressure, headaches, dizziness, and numbness in the left half of my body and could not lie down at night, but only half lean on my back. I was held until March 23rd, 2002. They saw that I was hovering near death. To avoid liability, they sent me home.

6. A large group of officials from the Domestic Security Division, the police department and the street 610 Office ransacked my home on the afternoon of February 12th, 2007. I was outside a court office to send righteous thoughts to help practitioner Ma Minqing who was being tried that day. However, I received a phone call from my husband while I was on a bus home. He said with a trembling voice, "Lots of police officers and street officials broke into our home. I don't know what they want. Don't come home." He hung up before I could answer. He called me again after a short while and said in a low voice, "Lots of police officers are ransacking our home." Then I heard the police screaming at my husband, accusing him of informing me and disrupting their administration of public duty. Then it was disconnected.

The police took a laser printer, three colour ink jet printers one of which was broken, a DVD burner, a hard drive, a USB drive, one laminator, an MD machine, two new mobile phones, one CPU, more than 20 Falun Gong DVDs, Falun Gong exercise DVDs, Falun Gong books, and Falun Gong materials that had recently been printed. The police piled all of these things in the living room. They wrote "illegal property of crime suspect He Aier" on a banner, put the banner above the pile and took pictures of it. They then took everything to the police station.

Since that day they have come to my home daily to intimidate my husband and coerce him to turn me in. I had no choice but to stay away from home.

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://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/12/6/213923.html