Older Woman Subjected to Persecution Due to Her Belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance

Name: Unknown
Gender: Female
Age: 63
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Unknown

Date of Most Recent Arrest: September 9th, 2007
Most recent place of detention: Chongqing Shabao Women's Forced Labour Camp
City: Chongqing
Province: Sichuan
Persecution Suffered: Living under surveillance, detention, solitary confinement, electric shocks, mental hospital, beatings, sleep deprivation, torture, forced labour, drug administration, blood extraction.

Because an older woman practised Falun Gong and upheld Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, she changed from having many diseases to being free of illness. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began the persecution of Falun Gong, she was subjected to persecution many times. She was forced to leave home and move from place to place, and was also incarcerated in a forced labour camp.

The following is her account:

I'm 63 years old. Both in 1993 and 1994, I was fortunate enough to attend Teacher Li Hongzhi's, the founder of Falun Gong, lectures in Chongqing. After that, I became free of illnesses and very energetic. Falun Gong changed my view of the world and life completely. Since then, for the past 16 years, my steadfast commitment to Falun Gong has not changed.

On July 20th, 1999, the CCP began to persecute Falun Gong. My phone was tapped, my residence was placed under surveillance, plainclothes police officers often came to my home to harass me, and I was often followed wherever I went.

The CCP's "Two Congresses" were held on March 7th, 2007, so I went out to hang up banners exposing the persecution of Falun Gong. I ended up being listed as "wanted" by the Chongqing City's Jiangbei Police Sub-Bureau and the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong). I was forced to leave home and move from place to place. At the Chongyang Festival, when I went to the Industrial and Commerce Bank to withdraw my pension, I was arrested by six plainclothes officers from the Jiangbei District Police Sub-Bureau, including Liang Shibin, Dai Yong, Huo Xia (female), Liu Ling (female), Wang, and Zhang. Officer Wang confiscated my pension of 1,000 yuan¹ and my pension certificate in public. I shouted, "Ladies and gentlemen, I did not steal or rob, I am not corrupt, and I don't take bribes! I'm a Falun Gong practitioner, and police officers from the Jiangbei 610 Office are trying to arrest me! They took away my pension! How am I going to make ends meet? Falun Gong is good!"

Officer Wang lowered his voice in an attempt to intimidate me, "Don't shout, or we'll handcuff you." I shouted, "Don't handcuff me!" Then I quickly took back my money and my pension certificate. Six of them surrounded me and carried me into their vehicle, which headed towards the Wangxiangtai Brainwashing Centre in Lushan Village in the Yubei District. While I was detained there, they didn't notify my family. Because he refused to disclose to the police where I rented a place, my 29-year-old son was beaten until he had a mental collapse. To this day, he is still hospitalised in a mental hospital.

I was detained and strip searched. They confiscated my key, mobile phone, and an MP3 player. They locked the room and didn't allow me to leave. They also didn't allow me to do the Falun Gong exercises or study the teachings. Two female guards watched my every move and then reported to the 610 Office agents. There was bits and pieces of glass in my meals, and the mattress I slept on was electrified between midnight to 5 a.m. In less than a week, I had kidney failure, pain in my liver and spleen, and my heartbeat had accelerated. I woke up suddenly every night, so I just got up and did the exercises. My mind was blank, and I lacked strength and vomited blood everyday.

Every week, officer Liang Shibin and others interrogated me and tried to force me to "confess." Officer Zhang was particularly insistent. After they realised that nothing was going to work, they switched to soft tactics. Zhang, the head of the Chongqing 610 Office, tried to deceive me into writing my cultivation story by telling me that he would release me afterwards. I saw through their tactics, so I refused to write it. Police officers led by Liang Shibin took me to the Jinzishan Mental Hospital in Chongqing City, where they locked me up and had doctors admit me to the hospital. After I managed to run out of the gate of the hospital, the police arrested me again and detained me at the Jiangbei District Detention Centre for one month. While at the detention centre, I vomited everyday.

At 10 p.m. on January 25th, 2008, police officers led by Liang Shibin secretly took me to the Shabao Women's Forced Labour Camp in Chongqing City. Without going through any legal procedures, they sentenced me to two years of forced labour. As soon as I was admitted to the camp, guard Chen stripped off my clothes and searched me. After that, I was locked into a solitary confinement cell for one month. Nine drug offenders were divided into three groups to take turns watching me. I was forced to cut my hair short and wear a prison uniform. I was tortured every day. I had to face a wall and stand in a military position. I had to squat for a long time, do frog jumps, and recite the prison rules everyday. If I didn't recite or recite properly, I was hit with plastic bottles. I was forced to write reports on my "reflections" everyday. They were looking for things that they could use to slander Falun Gong.

When I refused to write this, they deprived me of sleep. When I laid down, I was not allowed to face the wall, my legs had to be stretched out straight, so as to prevent me from doing the sitting meditation. When I was thirsty or wanted to use the toilet, I had to report to my minders. Only when they gave permission could I go ahead. When police officers came to monitor the cells, they lifted our quilts to see if anyone was reciting Falun Gong articles. No one was not allowed to do the exercises or read Falun Gong books. If anyone was found doing the above mentioned things, the person would be penalised, such as having her term extended. Only half a basin of cold water was provided everyday to wash our face and feet. Practitioners were not allowed to talk to each other or look at each other. If they did, they would be penalised.

People at the camp forced all the practitioners to perform forced labour, such as wrapping candy. From 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., there was no break time, and I was forced to wrap up 37.5 Kg (about 82 pounds) of candy. If I failed to hit the target, "collaborators"² cursed at and beat me, and my term was extended. Points were then deducted from me, and I was not allowed to have any visitors. Plus, I had to stand in a military position from midnight to 1 a.m. in the hallway in the evenings. But I still had to get up at 6 a.m. the next day to perform forced labour again. If I was not quick enough in joining the line-up or spoke incorrectly when reporting to the guards, I received corporal punishment and points were deducted. I was only allowed to go to the toilet four times a day, but was not allowed to wash my hands afterwards even though I had to continue wrapping sweets, knitting clothes or folding paper boxes. This was to "save time and water." As a result, I often urinated in my trousers as I worked and was starving all the time. The person in charge, Su Chang, ordered the collaborators to not give me enough food. After a while, my weight dropped drastically--from 73.5 Kg (161 lbs) to 53.5 Kg (117 lbs)--and I was vomiting everyday.

There were more than 200 people in the No. 4 team, and 149 of them were practitioners. The water they gave us to drink contained unknown drugs. In order to cover it up, they put in something else before they poured in the medication. After drinking this water, all the practitioners and other prisoners felt dizzy, drowsy, lacked strength and had stomach aches and diarrhoea. They lost their hearing, had kidney failure, hair loss, high blood pressure, diabetes, and fatty livers. Right then, Hu Xiaoyan, the deputy in charge of the No.4 Team, notified us that we had to have a medical examination. Before this examination, we were not allowed to drink any water, nor have a meal, because they were taking our blood. Regardless of how we felt, we had to perform hard labour as usual the next morning.

Every year, practitioners had to "donate" blood twice. People from the camp ganged up with the No. 324 Army Hospital, and they used a big container to extract our blood, which was then carried out secretly. This was done at the hospital inside the camp. Afterwards, the camp officials earned a significant amount of money. Practitioners that "passed" the exam and were under 35 years old were transferred out and totally disappeared from the camp. Due to our unpaid, hard labour and blood "donations," every guard in the Women's Forced Labour Camp in Chongqing City received a year-end bonus of more than 10,000 yuan. If their ranks were higher, their bonuses were even larger.

On the sensitive days, people from the Chongqing City's 610 Office and the municipal police bureau set up certain quotas for their police sub-bureaus and police stations, regarding how many practitioners they had to arrest, how many drug addicts they had to arrest, etc. This was done "in order to ensure harmony and stability in society." Whether they managed to meet the quota or not was linked to the officers' salaries and bonuses. If they failed to reach the goal, their salaries and bonuses were reduced, and they weren't entitled to a salary increase the following year.

Note

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

2. "Collaborators": former practitioners who have turned against Falun Gong under brainwashing and torture. They are then made to assist in brainwashing and torturing practitioners.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2010/2/7/217711.html