In Memory of Ms. Jia Shuhua

It saddened me when I learned that Ms. Jia Shuhua had passed away on March 25th, 2010. Ms. Jia, 55, lived in Houxiangzi Village, Chengguan Town, Pingdu City, Shandong Province. She benefited immensely after she started practising Falun Gong in the 1990's. She enjoyed her life and treated others with kindness. All of this changed on July 20th, 1999, when the nationwide persecution of Falun Gong started.

In 2000, Ms. Jia went to Beijing to appeal on behalf of Falun Gong. She was arrested. Police officers from Pingdu City took her back and held her in the Pingdu Hospital of Chinese Medicine. She was forced to pay 14,000 yuan¹ before she was released.

In 2001, the police surrounded Ms. Jia and other practitioners while they were chatting, but Ms. Jia managed to escape. In 2002, the Chinese Communist Party further escalated the persecution. In order to raise the public's awareness of the persecution, she went to expose the persecution of Falun Gong in the family quarters of the Pingdu Electric Company. She was turned in to the police and taken to the Pingdu City "610 Office" (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong). She refused to give up her belief and was sentenced to two years of forced labour. Due to maltreatment in the Wangcun Women's Forced Labour Camp, she developed stomach problems. Soon she was in critical condition. The labour camp officials were afraid of being held responsible and decided to release her on medical parole.

She remained weak after returning home, but officials from the labour camp made phone calls to her home every month, threatening to take her back if she continued to believe in Falun Gong. Local police officers also showed up frequently to harass her and her family. Under constant, escalating pressure, her situation deteriorated. She had to undergo surgery for her stomach.

At 9:00 a.m. on July 20th, 2006, the police broke into her home and took her to a brainwashing centre operated by the 610 Office.

One night at around 11:30 p.m. in 2008, the police showed up at her home again. Her family was able to spot the officers in time to alert Ms. Jia. She managed to escape.

After years of relentless persecution, Ms. Jia's condition continued to deteriorate. She had to undergo another surgery for bile excretion. She soon passed away.

As close family and friends, we are especially grieved by her untimely death. At the same time, we have all been touched by her steadfastness in upholding her belief. She knew that Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance is at the very root of life. If a person no longer adheres to these principles, life itself would lose its meaning. The widespread moral decay in today's China is an indication of how seriously these principles have been violated. Disasters, natural and man made, are a result of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sabotage of traditional culture and indoctrination of atheism. Some may suggest that if Falun Gong practitioners simply stayed at home, one could avoid being arrested. But what Ms. Jia and countless other practitioners have risked their lives doing is to dispel the CCP's lies and to help everyone reclaim the Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance that's in their hearts. Having awakened to these truths, how could they not spread these words to others, so that people could understand what Falun Gong is really all about and embrace these virtues.

Practitioners have benefited from the teachings and practice of Falun Gong. It is a tradition in our culture that when one receives an inch of help, he repays it with a yard. When Falun Gong is persecuted, it is all too natural for practitioners to speak out, with courage and using peaceful means, while abiding by the principles of Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance. What Ms. Jia did was simply to exercise her rights as protected by the Constitution, which states that citizens enjoy the freedoms of belief, speech, press and association. It is the CCP who is trampling these freedoms. She was not only upholding her basic human rights, but also all of our rights.

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/2010/3/31/220737.html