First-Hand Account of Persecution as Told by a 54-Year-Old Woman from Jinzhou, Liaoning Province

I am a 54-year-old Falun Gong practitioner from Jinzhou, Liaoning Province. Because of my belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, I was repeatedly arrested, and my house was ransacked by the police. I was also placed on the Chinese communist regime's Most Wanted list and was forced to leave my home and become homeless.

Falun Gong Restored My Health

I had many illnesses before I started practising Falun Gong. I couldn't work and didn't get along well with my husband. All my illnesses disappeared after I started the practice. Falun Gong taught me to become a good person. My family also took up the practice after they saw the amazing changes in me. We thanked the founder of Falun Gong for the happiness and blessings he brought us.

Arrested in Beijing for Speaking Up for Falun Gong

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under the leadership of Jiang Zemin, started persecuting Falun Gong practitioners on July 20th, 1999. I went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong on October 4th, 1999, but on October 11th, I was arrested and held in a detention centre in the Haidian District.

More than 20 practitioners were detained in one small room at the detention centre. While we were lying down, criminal detainees often stepped on us to pass through. We were forced to squat and sit on hard boards for extended periods of time. I went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. I was transferred to the First Detention Centre in Jinzhou 15 days later by officers from the Jinzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau and Zhang Dakui from the Guta Public Security Bureau. I went on another hunger strike at the First Detention Centre. Zhang Dakui and Dong Dawei took me to the Masanjia Labour Camp in Shenyang City on October 28th.

Good People Jailed and Tortured

I was treated inhumanely while being detained in the Masanjia Labour Camp. The guards didn't allow practitioners to read Falun Gong-related books. When the guards saw us (practitioners) reciting Falun Gong teachings, they mobilized their colleagues to shock us with electric batons and hit us with plastic sticks. One day, when I was seen by the guards reciting Falun Gong teachings, they rushed at me and started pulling my hair. Then they ordered criminal inmates to handcuff me to a heating pipe in the toilet, forced me to squat and tortured me until the evening, inflicting a permanent arm disability. On another occasion, one of the guards grabbed my hair and tried to pull me out of the room, but practitioners were able to stop him by forming a circle around me.

One morning I was seen reciting Falun Gong teachings by captain Su Jing. She immediately dragged me to an empty room and forced me to squat for a day. I was having my period at that time, and my menstrual blood flowed onto the floor through my trousers.

Criminal inmates were given permission by the guards to beat practitioners at will. Practitioners' screaming from the torture could be heard almost every day. One day I was seen reading Falun Gong teachings by criminal inmate Li Fenglian. She started hitting me in the face with her fists, as a result of which my nose started to bleed and my lips became swollen. I couldn't eat anything afterward. Practitioners said to Li: “You are an inmate, who gave you the right to hit us? We can sue you.” She answered: “Wang Naimin, the political commissar, ordered me to hit you. He said he would reduce my prison term if I hit you.”

The guards gave us (practitioners) thin clothes and shoes to wear in the winter in order to force us to transform [forcibly renounce Falun Gong]. They ordered us to shovel the snow with our hands, using no tools. My hands became numb because of the cold. They forced us to perform hard labour every day from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. After being tortured and enduring immense suffering, I was finally released and reunited with my family after a year of detention.

Beaten by Police for Trying to Appeal for Justice in Beijing

In order to be able to tell people about the beauty of Falun Gong I went to appeal to the government in Beijing in December 2000. I arrived there, I stayed at another practitioner's house. Because our phone was tapped, the police came to arrest us the next morning at about 9 a.m. I saw many officers in the backyard as I looked out the window. The police broke down the door. They pulled me from the 16th floor to the ground floor of the building by my hair, put me in a room and started to interrogate me. “Where are you from?” they demanded. I refused to answer so the officers slapped me very hard in the face. They grabbed my hair and banged my head against the wall, and kicked my head, face and back. I had blood all over my face, my jaw turned black and became badly swollen, and my whole face was disfigured due to the beatings. One of the officers said: “Maybe she is from Changchun.” They pushed me into a black car. I refused to cooperate so one of them harshly pushed my head down and threw me in. They handcuffed me with another practitioner, so that the handcuffs cut into my flesh, causing excruciating pain. They put a hood over us and took us to the Longfeng Hotel, a place where they tortured practitioners. As soon as we got there, several officers started hitting us with their shoes. After they became tired, they dragged us to the bathroom. One of them said: “It's almost the Chinese New Year. Let us know where you came from so we can release you.” I told him: “I didn't break any law. If you sincerely want to have a normal conversation with me, please take off my handcuffs first.” He said: “OK! Let me unfasten it for you.” I sensed that he was a kind person, so I started telling him about the beauty of Falun Gong and he listened carefully. At about 2 a.m., I escaped after they fell asleep.

Repeatedly Followed by Police Because of My Belief in Falun Gong

In September 2001, because my phone was tapped, I was followed by the police when I was on my way to pick up some leaflets exposing the persecution of Falun Gong from a practitioner's house. I was later arrested by Zhang Dakui from the Guta Public Security Bureau and Dong Dawei from the Jinhua Police Station. They punched me, slapped me in the face and pulled my hair. I shouted, “Falun Gong is good!” After we arrived at the police station, they handcuffed my hands and restrained my legs, and then went to ransack my apartment. The landlord, an elderly lady, was so scared that she had a heart attack. They also went to ransack my brother's house. They beat him and my sister severely, causing their eyes to become bloodshot, and then took them to the detention centre. I was detained as well, and I protested by going on a hunger strike. Seven or eight criminal detainees participated in force-feeding me under the instigation of the police. They put me down on a tiger bench¹ and tied me up with metal wire, twisting the wire with a pair of pliers until it cut into my flesh, causing excruciating pain. My arms turned black and blue. Then the police inserted a tube (the width of a finger) into my throat. Blood instantly gushed from it. One of the criminal detainees said: “I beg you. Please eat something. I don't want to see you suffer like this.” A doctor came to measure my blood pressure and found that it was extremely low. My pulse was also very weak. I was rushed to a hospital for emergency treatment. I was able to escape during my stay at the hospital while no one was paying attention to me.

Forced to Leave Home and Couldn't Return Due to Being Targeted by the CCP

Although I managed to escape, CCP agents put me on the Most Wanted list. My family and loved ones were repeatedly harassed by the police and their phones were tapped. A monitoring device was installed on the roof of my brother's house. My family was placed under tremendous pressure.

I couldn't go home and have been forced to go from place to place as a homeless person for the past 10 years. I have been renting apartments for short periods of time and then moving on. A few times I had to move out before my lease expired to escape arrest. During the Chinese New Year or other holidays, I couldn't go home to join my family. When my son got married, I couldn't go home to be at his wedding. My family constantly worries about me.

During the so-called sensitive dates around such events as the Olympic Games and Asian Games, the CCP mobilized even more of their resources to conduct searches and make arrests. More than 80 practitioners in our city are currently being detained.

Since the CCP started to persecute Falun Gong in 1999, 63 practitioners in my city have been tortured to death, more than 70 sentenced to prison, over 650 sent to labour camps, at least 3,000 arrested, and 2,500 detained. In addition, over 30 million yuan² worth of property was taken away from practitioners and their families.

I urgently call on all kind people in the world to help end the cruel persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China.

Note

1. "Tiger Bench": Prisoners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead without movement for long periods of time.

2. "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/2011/1/11/234746.html