Seven-year-old Daughter of Falun Gong Practitioners Suffers Miserable Childhood Due to Persecution of Parents by Chinese Communist Party (CCP)

Flight CA981, en route from China, landed at the JFK Airport in New York on January 27th, 2011. A little girl looked through the plane's window, yelling with great joy, "Mummy, we are in America!"

The little seven-year-old girl, Niu Qingqing, came from Beijing, China. Since she was born, she has been with her mother for less than two years. Both her father, Mr. Niu Jianping, and her mother, Ms. Zhang Lianying, are Falun Gong practitioners. They were arrested and detained many times by Chinese police because of the persecution of Falun Gong in China.

Qingqing Was 18 Months Old When Her Mother Was Imprisoned

On June 14th, 2005, the police arrested Ms. Zhang because she wrote an article for the Minghui website (Chinese version of Clearwisdom.net) exposing the crimes committed by officers from the Xiangheyuan Police Station and the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) against practitioners. She was first held at the Beijing Dispatch Division and then transferred to the Zhaoyang Detention Centre. She was then sentenced to a two and a half year term at the Beijing Women's Forced Labour Camp, where she was tortured repeatedly. In 2006, the guards in the camp played a child's cries around the clock at high volume to try and make her renounce Falun Gong. Ms. Zhang remained steadfast in her belief.

When Ms. Zhang was arrested, Qingqing was 18 months old. She often asked her father when her mother would return home.

In late 2005, a few days before the New Year, Ms. Zhang's family was allowed to come see her at the camp. Qingqing woke up early that morning, excited to see her mother. She was so tired that she fell asleep and didn't get to see her mother. Perhaps, it was for the best, as her mother's face was scarred and bruised at the time from the beatings she received.

Eight months later, Qingqing went to see her mother again. Her mother's face still showed the scars and she was emaciated. Qingqing didn't even recognise her own mother. When her mother reached for her, she cried out in fear. Her mother held her for a while before Qingqing asked her, "Who are you?" Her mother was shocked.

During the two and a half years Ms. Zhang was imprisoned, Qingqing was allowed to see her five times, mostly in the hospital, after Ms. Zhang was admitted for injuries resulting from beatings.

One time during a visit, Mr. Niu told Ms. Zhang to write down how she was tortured so that he could give it to a lawyer. A guard overheard the conversation and ordered Mr. Niu and Qingqing to leave the hospital. Ms. Zhang wanted to see her then two-year-old daughter through the window, but the guard and inmates beat her and tied her to the bed. Qingqing remembered that when Mr. Niu heard the beating, he returned to stop the guards and the prisoners. The hospital staff and police officers dragged him outside.

In March 2007, Ms. Zhang did the Falun Gong exercises, and the guard ordered inmates to beat her. This resulted in a brain haemorrhage, and she was transferred from the Tiantanghe Hospital to the Beijing Renhe Hospital for immediate surgery. The doctor said that her life was in danger and she was in critical condition for 12 days. Qingqing and her father visited her again. Ms. Zhang was unconscious, had many tubes sticking into her, and her hair was shaved off. As soon as Qingqing saw her mother and asked why she was that way, a guard ordered Qingqing and her father to leave. Qingqing kept saying, “Mummy come home, mummy come home.”

After the surgery, Ms. Zhang was transferred back to the Tiantanghe Hospital. Qingqing went to see her mother for the fifth time. She gave her mother a piece of candy. Before she could say much, the guard told her that their ten minutes was up and she had to leave. Qingqing held on to her mother, refusing to leave. The guard pulled her away from her mother.

Qingqing continued to worry about her mother's safety because the images of her mother's injuries from the torture haunted her. On October 2006, the forced labour camp allowed Ms. Zhang to make her only phone call. When Qingqing heard her mother, she quickly asked, "Mummy, did they beat you?" The guard cut off the call immediately.

Witnessing Her Mother's Arrest, the Little Girl Stopped Smiling

Ms. Zhang was released in December 2007 and reunited with Qingqing, who was four at the time, two years after her arrest.

Four months later, the Chinese regime began to arrest practitioners on a large scale nationwide. On April 20th, 2008, Mr. Niu and Ms. Zhang were arrested. Qingqing came home with her parents from shopping at the market on that rainy day. The police were waiting for them at the front door. A police officer grabbed Ms. Zhang by her neck and she fell backwards. Her umbrella and the eggs they had just bought dropped to the ground. Ms. Zhang shouted, "Falun Gong is good." The officers covered her head with a black bag and dragged her upstairs. Qingqing was terrified and kept screaming, "Mummy!"

The police dragged Mr. Niu upstairs as well, and they held him down on a bed and Ms. Zhang on the sofa. The officers ransacked the house. Ms. Zhang removed the black cover from her head, so the police officers dragged her downstairs and threw her in a car. Qingqing ran after her mother, crying loudly. The car drove away, leaving Qingqing alone in the rain.

Qingqing stopped smiling after she witnessed her mother's arrest. She stopped laughing and was scared to talk while in public.

With both of her parents arrested, Qingqing lived with relatives. She wrote to her parents, tracing her hand on the letter, wishing that her mother could hold her hand when she was not around.

Ms. Zhang was taken to the Dongcheng Detention Centre and the Dispatch Division in Beijing. She was tortured for two months before being transferred to the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp in Liaoning Province. She was handcuffed and tortured. She suffered the “stretching torture” (see http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2007/12/30/92640p.html for further information) over twenty times. She could not straighten her fingers for more than a year after that. Male guards twice covered her eyes with a piece of black cloth and shocked her with electric batons inside her thighs, under her armpits, and on her private areas. The guards didn't stop until her flesh was burnt. She was beaten with electric batons, wood clubs, bed boards, and handcuffs. On several occasions, guards grabbed her hair and threw her against the wall or table. They hit her face with a large cooking spoon and cut her lips open. Guards Ma Jishan and Chen (female) injected her with unknown drugs. She was hung up numerous times in various positions. Sometimes she was hung up and stretched without any clothes on, until she passed out due to the excruciating pain. Guard Wang Yanping once jabbed her with a 6-ft long log. Captain Zhang Jun kicked her private areas. One time, she was handcuffed to a window frame with her legs pulled apart and tied to two heater pipes. In the summer, she was often tied to a bed with her hands bent down and tied to the wheels under the bed. She was forced to remain in that position for a long time, and the pain was excruciating. One day, twenty people beat her until she was at the brink of death. They then fed her heart tonic pills to revive her, and then continued with the torture.

Qingqing didn't know that her mother had been brutally tortured, but she never stopped worrying. Late at night, she hid in the toilet and cried. On holidays, she cried in a corner. When asked why she was crying, she replied, “I don't know if my parents are even having any food today.” She was only four at the time.

Her father and mother were finally released. Qingqing was no longer used to calling Ms. Zhang "mummy" anymore, and sometimes she called her "auntie" by accident. But, the little girl was exited to be with her parents again.

Qingqing and her family have been in America since the beginning of this year. They have escaped the Chinese Communist Party. In the U.S., Qingqing's face again lit up with her beautiful smile, seen by her mother for the first time in a long time. She is now carefree.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2011/2/20/236441.html