Tragedy Then Happiness After Losing Eyesight

Name: Zhao Fengxia
Gender: Female
Age: 37
Address: Guanjian Town, Tongliang County, Chongqing City
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: Early September, 2007
Most recent place of detention: Chongqing City Shimahe Women's Forced Labour Camp
City: Chongqing
Persecution Suffered: Detention, forced labour, brainwashing, solitary confinement, beatings, sleep deprivation, long-term squatting, drug administration

Ms. Zhao Fengxia was a beautiful and kind young lady. Now, a year after her release from a forced labour camp, she can only walk slowly while holding onto a stool and with her back bent. Her legs are extremely weak. It is not known what kind of drugs were administered to her while she was in the forced labour camp.

I. Lost Sight

In late February 2005, Ms. Zhao was taking her son to the Second Middle School for opening day when she suddenly lost her eyesight just as she was approaching the road outside her home. She was totally blind.

Her mother hurriedly took her to Tongliang County People's Hospital where the doctors examined her. They said she had a severe problem but they could not help, and that she should go to Chongqing for treatment as soon as possible. Her parents immediately took her to Chongqing Daping Hospital where she had a CT, B-ultrasonic scan, an MRI, and a bone marrow test. She had consultations with doctors of ophthalmology, neurology, and internal medicine, but after all the tests and examinations, no one could diagnose the problem or offer her a cure. The doctors suggested only experimental treatments, but could give her no guarantee that they would help. Her parents would not agree to this course of treatment without a diagnosis. The entire family was gripped with desperation.

II. Sudden Good News

Just as they all were about to give up hope, a lady at the hospital, who was the older sister of another patient in the same ward, told Ms. Zhao that she could be cured by reciting, “Falun Gong is good. Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” This lady told them that her husband, son, and herself were once all well-qualified researchers from Beijing. She once had an incurable disease and she lay in bed for more than 12 years. Her medical costs amounted to tens of thousands of yuan¹ every year, but she still didn’t get better. All her hair had fallen out and she had become terribly skinny. She then learned about Falun Gong and decided to give it a try. Not long after, she miraculously recovered. Her hair grew back and she is now well and energetic despite being in her sixties.

After hearing the lady's story, Ms. Zhao's mother quickly took out a copy of Zhuan Falun, the main text of Falun Gong, and began reading it to her daughter. It turned out that Ms. Zhao's mother was a Falun Gong, practitioner herself, but she had been afraid to talk about it after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) persecution began on July 20th, 1999.

The lady said to Ms. Zhao, “If you want to be cured more quickly, you should read the book yourself.” The nurse heard what the lady said and sneered, “She can't even see, how could she read a book?!”

Ms. Zhao didn't argue, and a sentence suddenly appeared in her mind, “What actually causes people to become ill is seventy per cent psychological and thirty per cent physiological.” She said this out loud to her mother and asked her, “Is this sentence from that book?” Her mother said, “Yes, it is from Zhuan Falun.” (Before July 20th, 1999, when the persecution of Falun Gong began, Ms. Zhao had read Zhuan Falun with her mother and remembered this sentence.)

Ms. Zhao got the book from her mother and looked at it. She saw some fuzzy characters that gradually became clear. She suddenly realised that her eyesight was back!

None of the doctors could understand or explain the miracle. After this, Ms. Zhao completely changed her view of Falun Gong and decided to immediately begin practising.

After Ms. Zhao learned the five exercises, she was able to fly back to Shenzhen City and go back to work.

III. Arrested for Telling People the Truth of the Persecution

In 2007, Ms. Zhao left her job in Shenzhen to take care of her elderly grandmother. She went back to Chongqing and planned to get another job. One morning in early September, Ms. Zhao and her mother were on their way to see a friend and they passed Shangqingsi People's Elementary School. They talked to the gate security guard about the persecution of Falun Gong. Without warning, the security guard took out a pair of handcuffs and handcuffed Ms. Zhao's mother. He then called the police station and a police car arrived and took them away. They were told that they would be released in three days. However, three days later they were taken to Jiangbei District Detention Centre and then to Shimahe Forced Labour Camp.

In the forced labour camp, they were brutally tortured. They were immediately separated, and the guards then cut their hair and forced them to give their fingerprints. They were also often ordered to write the camp regulations and their (ideology) “understandings.” They were ordered to curse Falun Gong and step on the founder of Falun Gong, Teacher Li Hongzhi's, picture. Ms. Zhao refused and the guards put her in a small cell and ordered prisoners to beat her, not let her sleep for extended periods of time, and also make her squat and stand still facing a wall for long periods of time. If she moved even a little, the prisoners who were monitoring her beat her.

Several months passed, and Ms. Zhao could no longer endure the torture. She wrote some “understanding” that was against her will. She immediately realised that she had let Falun Gong down and she wanted to grab it back and tear it up, but it was too late. After that, she had sincere regrets, would not speak, and looked very lost. The police officer asked her mother several times whether Ms. Zhao had mental problems. Ms. Zhao's mother said firmly that her daughter had no mental problems.

After several months, Ms. Zhao was sent to a hospital for an examination. It was at this time that the police secretly began putting drugs in her meals. On one occasion they used a large quantity of an unknown drug and Ms. Zhao vomited everything she ate. After about two months, Ms. Zhao became disoriented and her legs were becoming very weak. She could no longer stand normally and her feet became extremely swollen. She could not even wear shoes. She had to exert great effort even to simply walk slowly. At the same time, she developed symptoms of abdominal distension and diarrhoea and did not want to eat. The officers in the forced labour camp were afraid that what they did would be exposed, so they called her father, put Ms. Zhao on probation, and released her from the forced labour camp.

Related article:

http://clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2007/9/10/89401.html

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/2011/4/13/238867.html