(Clearwisdom.net)

On one morning in October 1999, after I did the Falun Gong exercises at the park, several policemen seized me and took me to a hospital. Many other practitioners were arrested as well in the same fashion. The police detained me at the police station for 15 days under the pretext of "disturbance of social order." At the detention center, the police took away my copy of Zhuan Falun, my Falun pin, and nearly 100 Yuan* without giving me a receipt.

At the detention center, I was forced to sit on the floor with both of my legs reaching out straight. I wasn't allowed to talk, and every day I was fed moldy corn bread and boiled vegetables with salt, which was not enough food. On the 13th day of my detention, the residential committee staff came to the detention center, and asked my fellow practitioners and I to write letters guaranteeing to give up cultivation, or else we wouldn't be allowed to go home. I didn't want to be detained any longer, so I wrote such a guarantee against my will.

My detention was supposed to be over after 15 days, but the head of the residential committee didn't let me go home, even though I had written a letter of guarantee. Instead, I was sent to a brainwashing session sponsored by the Wujiabao Forced Labor Camp.

At the brainwashing class, the police watched us from windows, looking in on our room. We were only allowed to sit on plastic stools, and not allowed to talk to each other or walk around. Later on, the police sent two inmates to stay with us. Via the inmates, we were put under constant surveillance so that the police could monitor us more closely. Because I lost my freedom, I even had to ask permission for such things as going to the washroom. On approximately the 7th day of my being detained at the brainwashing class, I started a hunger strike.

The police team leader had me come to see him then, and because I didn't want to say a word, several policemen dragged me into a Political and Law Commission officer's office, and had me watch them beating up another Dafa practitioner. After that, the police took me to their car, and one policeman said: "I guess you are much clearer now, after seeing all this. Now we are sending you for a medical check." I told them that I was perfectly healthy and that I didn't want to do it. They told me that I had no choice.

Later that afternoon, I was sent to Fushun City No.5 Hospital, a mental hospital. I was detained in a ward for mental patients. While watching the patients, I was very scared. I told the nurses that I was OK, but they didn't believe me. They even forced-fed me white small pills, after which I felt sleepy.

After a while, the nurses realized that I wasn't a mental patient. However, they still forced me to take that small white pill, saying that this was at the doctors' and chief doctors' requests. Each time when the wards were checked by the supervisor, the head of the hospital, or the head of Communist Party Committee, I clarified the truth of Dafa to them. Later, they didn't force me to take the white pill anymore. By then, I had been detained at the mental hospital for over 10 days. Even though they knew that I was not mentally ill, they treated me the same way as the patients, which caused tremendous psychological anguish.

Later, my family found out that I was being detained at this mental hospital. After many requests by my family, the residential committee staff released me. I had been detained at the mental hospital for over 30 days. The center staff extorted 1000 Yuan from my father and my younger brother as a "hospitalization expense."

After coming home, the residential committee staff attempted to force me to write another "letter of guarantee" to give up my belief. I refused and had to leave home in order to avoid further persecution.

*Yuan: Chinese currency. The average monthly salary of an urban worker in China is about 500 Yuan

04/15/2003