Staying Steadfast Through Years of Persecution in China

Sun Xuemei, 46-year-old, used to be a schoolteacher in China's Jilin province. But she had to flee her country after Chinese police arrested and tortured her—not for committing a crime, but for refusing to give up her spiritual beliefs.

Ms Sun practises Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that includes meditation and moral teachings.

Like millions of other practitioners in China, Sun says she benefitted from Falun Gong.

Sun Xuemei said, "After I practised Falun Gong, within three months, all of my illnesses disappeared. I was very excited at the time, and thought that Falun Gong was simply amazing."

As the practice became more popular and widespread, the Chinese Communist Party launched nationwide crackdown in 1999. They carried out mass arrests, sentencing practitioners to prisons and labour camps unless they agreed to renounce Falun Gong.

In 2002, police broke into Sun Xuemei's home. They arrested her and four other Falun Gong practitioners there. They took them to the local police station—where they were interrogated and tortured.

"They used this torture device on me, cuffed my hands with my arms up, open like this, and there were two hoses on either side. When they pulled on the hoses, my feet barely touched the ground. Very soon, the cuffs would dig into my wrist. Within a few minutes my hands turned black. That pain is indescribable."

According to the Falun Dafa Information Center, physical torture is a common method used by Chinese police and prison guards to force Falun Gong practitioners to renounce the practice.

Sun says despite the torture, she did not give up her beliefs. So authorities tried forced labour. They forced her to make merchandise for export, often making her work more than ten hours a day in prison conditions.

"When I did not transform [forcibly renounce Falun Gong], they made me work. All of the labour involved toxic goods, and we made crafts like figurines and Christmas trees. At that time, many of us felt dizzy, vomited and became allergic to the materials we were working with. Sometimes we couldn't see out of our eyes, like we were poisoned. We did this work for a long time."

In all, Sun was detained six times between 1999 and 2007. But she refused to give up her beliefs, remaining steadfast in her practice of Falun Gong.

In 2007, she decided to flee China. She's now seeking refugee status in another country in Asia—but asked us not to reveal which one to protect her safety.

And besides applying for refugee status, she's also working with local practitioners to expose the Chinese regime's human rights abuses against Falun Gong.

"I hope that all the kind-hearted people around the world can stand with the side of justice, and stop this persecution."