Jiasmusi Practitioner Wang Shuqin's Own Account of Her Persecution

Name: Wang Shuqin
Gender: Female
Age: 65
Address: Xizhan Community District, Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: Second half of 2006
Most Recent Place of Detention: Jiamusi Forced Labour Camp
City: Jiamusi
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Harassment, detention, extortion, home ransacking, forced labour

For refusing to give up her practice of Falun Gong, Ms. Wang Shuqin and her family have been regularly harassed by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) henchmen. In order to expose the lies behind the persecution and give people an opportunity to understand the beauty of Falun Gong and the brutality of the persecution, Ms. Wang often traveled to distribute materials that explained the facts about Falun Gong. As a result, she has been detained and even imprisoned in a forced labour camp. Below is her own account of the persecution she has suffered in the past years.

I used to suffer from rheumatism. Every morning when I woke up, both of my hands would be so swollen that I could not clench my fists. I also suffered from many problems with my digestive and nervous systems. Especially in the winter, these conditions tortured me until I wished I were dead. My husband was an alcoholic who squandered all the money he earned. Our family lived in poverty, and I often got angry at him. Sometimes I even hit him.

In early 1997, I began cultivating Falun Gong. I very quickly experienced what it feels like to be free of illness. Under the compassion of Falun Gong, I obtained relief from these hardships. My personality also changed a great deal. I no longer swore at anyone and stopped fighting with my husband. My family became peaceful and happy.

Relentless Harassment and Threats

Simply because I practise Falun Gong, my family has been harassed daily since the persecution began on July 20th, 1999. One day in the autumn of 1999, I was working in my daughter's restaurant when the president of the Party Community Council, Deng Jie, came looking for me. Before this she had already harassed me many times. She told me to go to the Youyi Road Police Station, saying “Police officer Dong Zhu is looking for you.” I followed her there. The next day she came looking for me again and told me to drop all my work and follow her to the police station.

Dong Zhu went to my family's restaurant with the excuse of taking pictures of our employees. Yet when she was setting up her camera, she was secretly taking pictures of me. One morning, Dong Zhu and four or five other officers came to the restaurant and started shouting. They also ransacked the place. Seeing how unreasonable they were acting, my son stood up to question them and ask them to leave. Knowing that they were actually acting like hooligans, they left, but they nevertheless took me to the police station for no reason whatsoever.

Two officers from the Changhong Police Station came later and ransacked the restaurant again. Seeing a Falun Gong book on the desk, they secretly stole it. My son accompanied me to the police station to demand the return of the book, but they refused to give it back. My son started arguing with them. However, when I saw that they were about to use physical force on him, I hurriedly took him home.

One day around the 2001 Chinese New Year, Dong Zhu broke into my room and started searching. She also searched and ransacked my husband's room. All these years it has been like this. They simply come whenever they want to and do whatever they want to do with my place.

One night at around 7:00 p.m., Dong Zhu and four or five other officers knocked on my door. I knew that they had come to harass me again, so I didn't open the door. They then knocked on my neighbours' door, asking if anyone was in my room. The neighbors said that they didn't know. On New Year's Eve, Dong Zhu, along with the chief of the Youyi Road Police Station and a few other officers, came to my place again. They asked me for my Falun Gong books, which I firmly refused to hand over.

One day, the same bunch of hooligans wanted to seize another practitioner, Wang Jiping, who works at the 224 Hospital. A few officers from the Youyi Road Police Station used this as an excuse to harass me at home again. They knocked on my door, but I refused to open it.

A Jianshe Police Station officer named Zhao Zhongqiang and two other officers once knocked at my door. They soon started shouting. They used the excuse that they had found a small radio broadcaster broadcasting “Falun Gong is good” at a local market. In 2002, there were large scale arrests in Jiamusi City. Many practitioners were arrested. Dong came to my place and asked my husband where I was. My husband told her that I was in another city helping a relative take care of her child. Dong said that if I had been at home, she would have arrested me.

In order to persecute us, Dong came to my place and stole our hukou (residence registry book). She lost the registry, and it took a few years before we were able to apply for a replacement copy. It affected the normal course of our family life.

Because of their constant harassment, I could not live a peaceful life. I began thinking of going to Beijing to appeal to the authorities. Yet, the moment I arrived on Tiananmen Square, I was arrested by the police stationed there. My workplace supervisors brought me back. My factory supervisor, Zhang Zhibin, urged accountant Wang Youmin to have me write a guarantee statement promising to stop practising Falun Gong. I firmly refused.

Later, leader Guo, from the Yonghong Police Station, ordered me to write a guarantee statement, but I refused. I told him that Falun Gong was good. He replied, “I'm going to write that down.” I said, “Go ahead.” He instantly flared up, “I'll send you into a detention centre. It's no use there even if you shout, 'Falun Gong is good.'” Another policewoman surnamed Li started swearing at me and my daughter. My daughter broke down in tears. Leader Shi of the Yonghong Police Station extorted 1,500 yuan¹ from me before letting me return home.

Subjected to Physical and Psychological Torture in Detention Centres and Labour Camps

In March 2003, the Clearwisdom website published a letter appealing to the police in China to stop persecuting Falun Gong. It was very well written. I began distributing this letter in my local area. Soon after the police found out about it, they decided to take me into custody. Dong Shaolong, one of the officers, called the municipal Public Security Bureau. A few minutes later, a police car arrived. A gang of police officers wearing helmets came with their guns to arrest me, a thin, frail old woman.

That night I was imprisoned in the Jiamusi Detention Centre. It was very bad in there. It was so crowded that we couldn't even fit on the floor if everyone slept on their sides. It was so stuffy that I could hardly breathe. I would be yelled at by the supervising criminals for using the toilet or brushing my teeth.

My family members were afraid that I will suffer too much in the labour camp. My husband looked for help and spent over 8,000 yuan before I was released.

In late 2006, my husband fell sick and was hospitalized. The first day after he was released from the hospital, five or six police officers came to the house. It was not until later that I realized they were from the Qianjin Police Department and Fendou Police Station. They said that someone had reported to the authorities that there was a Falun Gong study group in my place. Without another word, they began ransacking the place. All my Falun Gong books, cassette tape players, as well as 200 yuan in cash, were stolen and have never been returned. However, when they came to my place, there were only my husband and I. Where was this study group that they spoke of? I sat on my bed and refused to let them take my books. Four officers carried me down the stairs. I shouted nonstop, “Falun Gong is good! Truthfulness-Compassion--Forbearance is good!”

I was taken to the Fendou Police Station. Zhang Xiaogang and Dong Shaolong got the authorities to sentence me to one year of forced labour. The reason they gave was that they found 50 copies of materials exposing the persecution of Falun Gong in my home. I've never kept so many materials at home. Even if I did, it would not violate the law.

In the labour camp, guards ganged up with criminals. They prohibited practitioners from practising the exercises and studying the Falun Gong teachings, and often swore at practitioners. In the morning, we were not allowed to use the washroom because they said we would be late for morning exercise. One morning, a criminal named Liu Jing refused to let me use the toilet. I tapped her on her shoulder, but she told team leader Liu YaDong, and Liu turned around and said that I had beat her up. In order to further persecute me, Liu transferred me from the Eighth Team to the Seventh Team (labour team).

Food at the labour camp was very poor. For months there would not be a drop of oil in the food. We'd be lucky to get a few vegetable leaves. Salt-water soup with mud in it with blackened buns were the norm. Added to my advanced age, I soon could not see well and could no longer work. I was transferred back to the Eighth Middle Team. Liu could not bear to lose face, and her henchman, Sun Hui, gave me a lecture full of swear words. Deputy Team leaders Jiang Jianan and Zhou Jiahui also swore at me frequently.
Eleven months into my imprisonment, my son spent 1,200 yuan to bribe the labour camp authorities, and they finally allowed me to return home.

Jiamusi Forced Labour Camp is a living hell. Refusing to give up my belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, I suffered immensely both physically and psychologically. I felt that I was in pain and being tortured every second.

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/2011/8/19/245580.html