Greetings ladies and gentleman.
My name is Zhang Cuiying, and I am an artist from Australia. I have loved art since my childhood. I have held solo art exhibitions in many countries around the world and won numerous prizes for my work.
I have made the long journey to be here today because I want to call upon the help of all kind-hearted people to assist in the "SOS campaign to rescue Falun Gong practitioners in China." Even as we speak, many Falun Gong practitioners' lives are in grave danger. They are suffering brutal persecution with each passing minute.
Luckily, I am an Australian citizen, so I was able to regain my freedom in November 2000, after being rescued by the Australian government. That is why I am still alive and able to stand here today to recount my ordeal in Chinese prisons.
Four years ago I suffered from arthritis severe enough to make eating and walking difficult. In fact, I even lost my ability to paint. It was a life almost not worth living, but practicing Falun Dafa rectified all of these maladies and gave me a second chance in life. I was able to paint again. I could not accept the fact that such a good practice has met such persecution and slander in China, so I wanted to talk to Jiang Zemin and clarify the truth about Falun Dafa using my personal experiences. However, what I received in return was eight months of suffering and torture in four different prisons.
On December 31, 1999, while watching a national flag-raising ceremony in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, I was dragged into a police car and beaten by three policemen. They suspected that I was a Falun Gong practitioner, and they beat me until my face was covered with blood.
On January 26, 2000, I was practicing Falun Dafa exercises in Beijing's Rending Lake Park when I was arrested and brutally beaten. They held me in Beijing's Westside Detainment Center without any legal procedures.
On February 4, 2000, I discovered that my husband and I were being followed while eating in a restaurant. More than twenty officers from the Public Security Bureau arrested us and sent us to the maximum-security prison of Beijing -- the Beijing City Detainment Center. We were locked up with death row inmates, and they denied us sleep for four to five days. In the middle of the winter, I was forced to stand barefoot on freezing concrete with both of my hands up in the air. Approximately five policemen surrounded me and tried to force me to give up my Australian citizenship and threatened to destroy my family.
On March 5, 2000, China was holding the People's Congress Meetings, and I wanted the People's Representatives to say a truthful word for Falun Gong. However, as soon as I set foot on Chinese soil, the police searched my bag. After discovering my letter to Prime Minister Zhu and Dafa books, one officer slapped me in the face so hard that I was dizzy and lost some of my hearing for several days. Later without any legal procedures, I was inhumanely detained for five months, and a phone call from Jiang Zemin added three more months to my sentence.
For seven months, I was not allowed to go outside. I ate, slept, and used the toilet in the same room, causing severe rashes and boils on my skin. They beat me, insulted me, and splashed water on me, but I told them that there is nothing wrong with practicing Falun Dafa. They brutally threw me from the bed onto the floor, kicking and punching me until my body was covered with blue and purple bruises. At night the pain kept me awake, and this was exacerbated by the heavy steel chains that I was forced to wear. I was thrown into male jail cells, and while we showered, male inmates and policemen watched and tried humiliate us with vile words. I was forced to sleep on the freezing concrete floors with my head next to the toilet. The food I ate were leftovers from other inmates' bowls, and I was not allowed to touch the drinking bucket. They took everything from me, including 2000 Yuan [Approximately US$250, four months salary of an average urban worker in China]. I had no money to buy anything, not even toilet paper. After the Australian consul found out about this, he travelled six hours from Guangzhou City to Shenzhen City to bring toilet paper to me. The prison guards also took away my pen and paper, so I could only use toothpaste to write the words, "Falun Dafa is good, cultivating Truthfulness, Benevolence and Forbearance." on my clothes. In front of surveillance cameras watched by male guards, they forcefully ripped off my top, and I could only use my hands to cover myself.
The officials commanded prisoners to beat me, promising them reduced sentences for doing so. An inmate named Zhang had embezzled 1 million Yuan, and by law she should have been sentenced to five to fifteen years. Because she beat me, she was released after one year.
Lying next to me was an inmate with a severe mental illness, who defecated on herself all the time. Whenever I opened my eyes, I saw her soiled state. How could I live like this? I said to the warden, "You are torturing me like this, how can I live out this hellish life? Look at me, my skin is rotting. For the sake of basic humanity, you must let me return to Australia." He laughed wickedly, "Unless you give up Falun Gong, you will have to stay here forever, living this hellish life."
They also forced me to do heavy labor, sometimes for more than ten hours a day. Once, we worked from 7am to 11pm. Everyone was exhausted and fell asleep, but the prison guard forced us to get up and keep working, threatening us with an electric rod. He claimed that a certain amount of products were due the next day. Whenever someone came for an inspection, the extra products were hidden under the beds. I went on strike to condemn such unlawful forced labor. The jail guard called over the warden, and I said to him, "I will expose your practice of illegal forced labor."
I have this chance to talk about my experiences here today because the Australian government saved me from the verge of death. However, there are tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners in China who are being subjected to worse tortures and inhumane treatment than I experienced, yet they do not have a chance to expose the wickedness of Jiang and his criminal associates. Some practitioners were beaten to death, some were abused until they collapsed mentally, and some female practitioners were raped by criminals and male officers. Despite all of this, Jiang secretly passed an order to the police, "If they are beaten to death, you should say that it was suicide."
In order to let more people know about Jiang's treacherous and cruel persecution of Falun Gong, I am selling my paintings and donating all the money to the "SOS campaign to rescue Falun Gong practitioners in China." I am travelling from one country to another, telling all kind-hearted people, governments and media of the world about my ordeal in Chinese jails.
I have travelled to around 20 countries and more than 40 cities. Whenever journalists, government officials and kind-hearted people hear my story, they say with a pained heart, "We cannot bear to hear anymore." In the 21st century, what country would so insanely persecute their own people, especially those who follow "Truthfulness, Benevolence and Forbearance?" These kind-hearted people, after hearing my story, said that Jiang must be condemned for his actions. Around 60 officials including the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and members of Parliament in Australia have all stepped forward to condemn Jiang Zemin's actions. Many countries' governments and media have said that they can no longer be bystanders, and that they will try their best to stop Jiang Zemin from further torturing and committing crimes against the Chinese people.
I sincerely ask once more for all kind-hearted people, governments and media to reach out a helping hand and stop Jiang Zemin from persecuting Falun Gong practitioners and end this tragedy as soon as possible. Let the Chinese people have basic human rights like all the other people around the world and also the right to believe in "Truthfulness, Benevolence and Forbearance."
I know that my fellow practitioner, Zhao Ming, Computer Science master's student at Ireland's Trinity College Dublin has also met with torture in Beijing's labor camp, just because he practices Falun Gong. He endured all this because he firmly believes in "Truthfulness, Benevolence and Forbearance" and did not relent under the pressure. Today, he should be here breathing the fresh air and enjoying the warm sunshine like everyone else, but right now he is subjected to more than ten hours of hard labor a day and inhumane torture by inmates and policemen. With each passing minute, there is the possibility that he will lose his young and precious life like the 258 practitioners who have already died while in police custody.
Other practitioners who are suffering the same fate include accounting student Yang Fang and marketing student Liu Feng from Senior College Dun Laoghaire and Dun Laoghaire College of Further Education respectively. These two practitioners were also arrested after they went back to China to clarify the truth to Jiang Zemin and to tell him that it is a crime to persecute Falun Gong. Their passports were confiscated, and they were detained for over forty days. Their homes were placed under surveillance, and even now they are still being watched closely in a northern Chinese city. They have no jobs, no freedom, and cannot return to Ireland to continue their studies.
I sincerely call for all kind-hearted people of Ireland and Europe, media organizations, and governments especially, to help save Zhao Min, Yang Fang, and Liu Feng so that they can leave the labor camp and surveillance and a life of torture, suppression, and loss of human dignity, and return to their country to complete their studies.
Thank you.
August 8, 2001
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Category: Rallies & Protests
