Ms. Wang Meiqing, 69, of Zhaoyuan City, Shandong Province Recounts the Torture and Abuse She Suffered in Detention

Name: Wang Meiqing
Gender: Female
Age: 69
Address: Zhaoyuan City, Shandong Province
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: January 19th, 2009
Most Recent Place of Detention: Brainwashing centre
City: Zhaoyuan
Province: Shandong
Persecution Suffered: Detention, interrogation, brutal beatings, extortion, brainwashing.

In October 1999, I heard that Ms. Zhao Jinhua from Zhangxing Township had been beaten to death by the police because she refused to give up her belief in Falun Gong. I was shocked and could not believe it. Another practitioner and I went to a fellow practitioner's home to find out if it was true. Soon after we arrived, we heard a knocking at the door. When we opened it, nearly twenty police officers rushed into her home. They had handcuffs and were carrying a video camera. The practitioner's two sisters-in-law and a neighbour were also at her home. Without producing any documentation, they handcuffed us. We were then put into two police vehicles and taken to the Luofeng Police Station. They said that they arrested us because it was an illegal gathering. We were then interrogated separately.

The news of Ms. Zhao's death had spread, and within a few days, more than a hundred practitioners from our city were arrested. Two of them were sentenced to forced labour camps for three years, and a few others were held for one month in a detention centre after being held in a police station for nearly two months. I was detained at Luofeng Detention Centre for two weeks.

I went to Beijing to appeal on January 28th, 2000, and was arrested and detained at Luofeng Police Station. The head of the station ordered his staff to drag other detained practitioners and myself out to the courtyard. He kept kicking and punching us while we stood in the freezing cold. We were not released until the Chinese New Year.

Police officers came to my home on February 21st, 2000 to harass me. When they saw three other practitioners there, they said we were holding an illegal gathering. One of the officers used his mobile phone to call more police over. They arrested us. An officer grabbed my hair, two officers held my arms and two others held my legs. They carried me down the stairs and put me into their vehicle. One of them then sat on my back. We were taken to Luofeng Police Station, where I was locked in the basement.

More than twenty practitioners were held at the police station, and they were forced to stand handcuffed to metal gates for several days. They were denied food and water. The practitioners were then brought into a room one by one, and asked if they would continue to practise Falun Gong. If they answered “yes,” they would be beaten severely with a broom handle. Some practitioners had blood pouring from their noses and others' legs were badly bruised and swollen. Some practitioners were shocked with electric batons and had burn marks on their necks.

We were forced to run around the courtyard a few days later. Whenever someone refused, they would strike their legs with a wooden baton. We had to run like this for long periods of time each day for three days. We were then taken to a large room and were not allowed to leave. A plastic bucket was used for a toilet, and when it filled up, two practitioners had to carry it to the washroom to empty it. We all went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. Practitioners were gradually released at the demands of their family members. Some practitioners had varying amounts of money extorted from them. My daughter had to borrow money to get me released. I later heard that some poor practitioners from the countryside had to give some of their livestock or other valuables to the police in order to get released.

I was arrested by officers from Mengzhi Police Station in the winter of 2000, when I was seen putting up posters to let people know the facts about Falun Gong. I was detained at the police station for the night, where it was freezing cold. The next morning, three officers with rubber clubs started to beat me. When I fell to the ground, they continued to hit my lower body until they got tired. Later, they went to beat another practitioner. Then they took both of us to Luofeng Police Station. We were released 15 days later.

On January 16th, 2000, I went to Beijing with another practitioner to appeal for Falun Gong. We went to Tiananmen Square and unfolded a large banner. Plainclothes officers then came and arrested us. We were taken to a local police station and put in the basement with a lot of other practitioners. One of the officers was beating practitioners' heads with an electric baton. I saw that a practitioner's head was bleeding, so I used both hands to grab this officer's legs to make him stop. He fell to the floor, then quickly got up and left. The police later dragged us into their vehicles, while beating us and hitting us in the head.
When it was dark, we were taken in several vehicles to the suburbs for detention. A few practitioners and I were taken to Huairou County. It was snowing heavily, and we were forced to take off our jackets and shoes, and stand in the courtyard. We were then given a medical examination, which lasted for nearly three hours. The guards confiscated all of our personal belongings.

After we were taken to the cells, a few practitioners started to do the exercises. Soon, two police officers came and beat us with batons. Two female practitioners' faces and eyes swelled up right away. It was a most horrible scene, and I was so scared that I started crying. One of the officers then turned and slapped me in the face a few times.

Officials from the Liaison Office of our local police station came and took me away the next day. When I refused to give them my name, they confiscated my I.D. card and extorted a large sum of money from my company. I was taken to Luofeng Police Station, where officer Sun Yansong kicked me very hard, pushing me against a table and breaking the table leg. I was later taken to the basement with approximately ten other practitioners. They tried to give me an injection, but I refused. They then pinned me to the ground while an officer kicked me, breaking one of my left ribs. I went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. After 10 days, they saw how emaciated I was, and were afraid that I might die there. My daughter was then told to take me home.

When agents from the Zhaoyuan City 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) held brainwashing sessions in the spring of 2011, Yin Binrui, from my workplace, actively cooperated with them and coerced practitioners from my workplace into going there. I immediately left home to avoid further persecution and became homeless. Yin and 610 Office agents went to my daughter's workplace. She is not a practitioner, but they still detained her in an office at my workplace and deprived her of sleep for 24 hours. She was detained there for a week. Her husband was working out of town, and their nine-year-old child was thus left at home alone. They tried to get my daughter to tell them where I was hiding, and told her that if they couldn't find me, they'd have her company dismiss her from her job. They took my daughter to search all of my relatives' and friends' homes. My son and his in-laws were afraid to take me in, and my friend's mother was so terrified by the police that she became very ill. Whenever she hears a police siren, she is so traumatised that she can't eat or sleep.

Yin became so frustrated when he couldn't find me, that he hired a psychic to find my whereabouts. She told him that I was dead. Hearing that, my daughter burst into tears. When I heard of my daughter's situation, I felt very sad and decided to go home. I was told that if I went to the brainwashing centre I would be allowed to leave after 15 days, but I ended up being detained there for two months and did not get released until I became very ill.

When the 16th National Congress was held in 2006, Yin and half a dozen agents from the 610 Office came to my home and took me to the brainwashing centre again. I appeared to become very sick overnight. They were afraid to take responsibility if something happened to me, so they sent me back home the next day.

I was arrested again on January 19th, 2009, when I was seen putting up posters exposing the persecution of Falun Gong. I was then taken to the brainwashing centre. Two days later, I appeared to have high blood pressure and heart disease. They called my daughter, extorted money from her, and then had her take me home.

Yin led a few officials from the brainwashing centre to my home on July 17th, 2011. I refused them to let them in, and they soon left.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2011/8/9/245108.html