(Clearwidsom.net) My name is Yang Guiyuan. I am a male, born on September 19, 1964, in Wuhai City, Inner Mongolia. I graduated from Zhelimu Livestock Institute Professional School in Inner Mongolia in September 1981. As soon as I completed my college education in September 1985, I entered the veterinary Master's degree program at Changchun Liberation Army Veterinarian University. After earning my degree, I was hired by the university as a faculty member in the department of animal medicine at the China Liberation Army Farm and Animal College, where I taught undergraduate veterinary classes and engaged in clinical and scientific research work. During that time, I was rewarded for my good work several times and was commended with the outstanding teacher award in 1993-1994.

In August 1996, I passed the entrance examination for the Disease and Physiology Ph. D. program of the First Military Medical University. Because I grew up in the northern part of China, I couldn't get used to Guangzhou's tropical climate and suffered poor physical health. I began to search for an effective Qigong practice. In November 1997, I first learned about Falun Dafa while I was at the university. I read the book Zhuan Falun. Deeply fascinated, I began to understand some of the truths about life and began the path of Falun Dafa cultivation. Within a short period of time, my physical health improved substantially; I closely followed the principle of "truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance"; I looked inside in the case of any conflict; and I faced adversity with a gentle heart and peace of mind. My smooth and successful completion of the burdensome Ph.D. academic load can be attributed to the benefit of cultivating Falun Dafa.

After obtaining my Ph.D. degree in July 1999, I returned to the Quartermaster University of People's Liberation Army (previously the "Farm and Animal University").

Since July 20, 1999, when Jiang's group started its widespread suppression of Falun Gong, the university has actively followed Jiang's policies in persecuting Falun Dafa. In order to coerce me into giving up the practice, they specifically assembled a party branch research faculty conference attended by both the department's political commissioner and the school security office head Dong Guoshan. Afterward, the Animal Medicine political commissioner and Party Branch Secretary Zhang Xichen had talks with me several times, frequented my home to talk to me during school recesses, requested that I hand over Falun Dafa books, threatened to confiscate my family property if I didn't hand over the books, hinted that I would be dismissed from my job if I didn't give up the practice, and so on. It created tremendous mental strain and seriously affected our normal family life. We frequently resorted to leaving home to escape them.

When they figured out that I wouldn't do as they requested, the Quartermaster University's political commissioner Feng Guoquan asked to have a talk with me. Afterward, on September 17, 1999, they began to monitor me 24 hours a day. I was told to move out of my home and into another room. A party member accompanied me 24 hours a day and two students took turns for the night shifts. I was not allowed to eat at home, but had to eat at the school cafeteria under the eyes of the party member. Someone had to accompany me home if I needed to pick up personal items. The entire school knew about my situation and the news traveled to my wife's workplace, where we became the subject of gossip. It further increased the mental strain and made our relatives and friends very anxious about our situation.

While I was under house arrest, people came to talk to me frequently, either threatening me or attempting to persuade me with offers of personal gain. I was illegally detained for over three months. I was released and sent home after promising that I would not leave the school and go to Beijing to appeal and with a guarantee from the research faulty office. In August 2000, however, I was fired from my job. I received a discharge stipend so that I could look for another job on my own. They also took away my party membership.

In April 2000, I found a job in the medical division of the Lierfan Pharmaceutical Limited Company in Changchun. The Organizational Department of the Quartermaster University learned about my new employment in October 2000. They sent two people to the company, informed them that I was a Falun Dafa practitioner, and threatened that the company would be responsible for anything that might happen. I therefore had to resign and lost my job.

On November 26, 2000, I went to Beijing to appeal. In Tiananmen Square I hung a banner that said, "Falun Dafa is Good" and was arrested by the local security branch office. I did not give out my name or address during the interrogation, so that same day I was transferred to the detention center in Miyun County, Beijing, where they continued to interrogate me with insults and beatings. Without gaining much information from me, they locked me up for seven days and released me. Not long after I returned home, I learned that the local residential committee already knew that I had gone to Beijing to appeal. Since they might do something to harm me, I had to leave home on February 14, 2002. I was homeless until I finally rented a place in Guangzhou.

Because of the fact that I practice Falun Gong, it took me a year to find a job in Guangzhou.

Around 11:00 p.m. on August 23, 2002, four or five plainclothes policemen from the Baiyun "610 Office" in Guangzhou broke into my rented house in Yongtai Village in the Baiyun area. When they searched my house, they found Falun Dafa books and informational materials so they immediately arrested me and expanded the search. They found a computer and printer, so they called in a computer expert to to check for materials related to Falun Dafa. When they didn't find any, they inserted a VCD that contained Falun Dafa materials and asked me to print some materials so they could take photographs.

I didn't cooperate with them, so they took the VCD and my Falun Dafa books and materials and set them next to the computer and started taking photographs. After a few hours, they put the computer, printer, tape recorder, identification card, student ID card, and my bank statements into a bag to take with them. They casually listed the items that they were taking on a piece of paper and asked me to sign it. Because I was not given the opportunity to check the items, I refused to sign. They returned 2,700 yuan found during the search and said that they would not take my money but then said that they didn't know anything about an additional 6,000 yuan in cash. They tied me up and took me to the police station in Yongtai Village to lock me up. Early on the morning of February 9, after a fairly simple interrogation, they handcuffed me and transported me in a police vehicle to the Baiyun area branch station to resume the interrogation. Because I would not tell them anything about the other Falun Dafa practitioners and their communication activities in Guangzhou and other areas, they did not let me sleep and took turns interrogating me, two people at a time, until the morning of February 11 when they transferred me to the Baiyun County Detention Center.

A few days after the February 12 Chinese New Year, the detention center again began to call me for interrogation. They did this a few times with poor results. One day in March at sunset, they again called me to the interrogation room. They had moved their drink machine into the room and said that they were ready to do battle with me and wanted to find out how many days I could sustain the battle. They arranged for eight people, divided into four groups of two each, to take turns interrogating me non-stop. I was allowed to stand or sit but not sleep. One guy named Ye said, "We do not force confessions by torture, but you are in the medical profession and you should know that a person can last only so many days without sleep." I asked him, "Isn't sleep deprivation a form of torture?" He didn't say anything.

After a few days of this torture, my feet were swollen. Two of the people were especially vile: they were nasty, sarcastic and insulting, and they'd yell out loud as soon as they saw my eyes were closing. One of them spit melon seeds in my face, poured water on my head, punched the left side of my face, kicked my upper left leg with his foot, and knocked me down. He said that he didn't want to beat me and I wouldn't be able to stand any beating. He wrote the name of the founder of Falun Dafa on a piece of paper and laid it on the chair for me to sit on. I refused to sit on it so he left me standing there. This kind of treatment continued until the afternoon of the seventh day. They still could not get the result they had hoped for so they gave up and sent me back to the detention center.

After 8:00 a.m. on April 11, 2002, the police called me out of the room and cuffed me and another person together. They gave me a letter of notification that I was sentenced to two years of forced labor in the Guangzhou City First Labor Camp for "disturbing social order." There were no signatures on the letter. I asked a policeman, "How did I disturb social order?" The police had unlawfully broken into my house, ransacked my home, and arrested me. Who had disturbed social order? It appeared that even the police themselves also felt that it was really improper for them to send me to a labor camp for practicing Falun Dafa, so they dared not to leave any evidence on the letter of notification. On that day, a total of 40 people were sent to the Guangzhou City First Labor Camp. Thirty-eight of those people were from drug rehabilitation centers. I was the only Falun Dafa practitioner. I was sent to the Special Discipline Division (No. 2 Division) in the labor camp. That very evening, a person who had been brainwashed, a guard named Chen Fumin, and a person whose last name was Lu came to talk to me.

After I was sent to the No. 2 Division, I was in the "Strict Discipline Period." After other inmates went to work I could do nothing but sit inside my cell on a tiny plastic stool. I even had to get permission from the inmates who were on duty in the hallway to use the toilet. At any time the labor camp guards could come to talk to me, or they let those who aided them in brainwashing people might come to talk to me. Generally I was not allowed to talk with others. Just like me, Dafa practitioners Shen Wei, Zhang Jian, Wu Qiang and others were also in the Strict Discipline Period.

Division Chief Zhou Jianxiong said to me, "We do not force you to give in. We have plenty of ways. We can easily find an excuse to extend your term every month until your term reaches the allowed maximum sentence of three years. We then send you to the 'Law Education School' (which was, in fact, a brainwashing center). If you still refuse to give in, we will then send you back to the labor camp. So it goes on repetitively."

In the beginning of May 2002 I had been in the "Strict Discipline Period" for nearly one month. Seeing that no people could change me, Zhou Jiangxiong suggested that he and guard Bi Dejun and Associate Labor Camp Director Zhou Yangbo handcuff me and another practitioner and transport us to a labor camp in Shenzhen City, which was specifically used to detain Falun Dafa practitioners. They wanted the brainwashing center staff members, who had higher education degrees, to brainwash me. On the way they still told me, "You can get out very soon if you agree to give in. After you get out, who will stop you if you practice secretly?" After four to five days they did not succeed and had to take me back. After a short while, the labor camp sent me to the No. 8 Division to do heavy manual labor.

After I was sent to the No. 8 Division, the guards made two inmates monitor and control me. One of them was called Li Shaozhu from Guangdong Province, who had been sentenced for taking drugs and another named Huang Shanfeng, a burglar from Guangxi Province. Whenever I slept or worked in the factory they accompanied me, one on each side of me. At other times they made sure that one of them was with me, even when I went to the toilet. I was only allowed to talk to them. I was forbidden to talk to other inmates. I got up at 6:00 a.m., and then washed my face and ate breakfast. We started to work at 7:00 a.m. and did not stop until 12:00 p.m. We started to work again at 1:00 p.m. in the afternoon. In the summer when it was the hottest, our work was at best delayed until 1:30 p.m. We stopped working at 5:00 p.m. In the evening we started to work at 6:00 p.m. and stopped at 10:30 p.m. During the whole time working, we were only allowed to take a five-minute break to use the toilet.

The major products of this factory were plastic flowers, toys and other handcrafts. Each person was given a work quota. If he could not finish it, he would be reprimanded, forced to work extra hours and even beaten, or had points deducted from his score. If too many points were deducted from the score his term would be extended. There was a rule that a lead guard was authorized to extend the term of the inmates by a maximum of ten days each month. Because I did not follow what they had instructed me to write in my introspective report, my term was extended every month by a minimum of eight days to a maximum of twelve days. Practitioners Wang Keng and Lu Haiyun who were detained in No. 8 Division were also mistreated this way.

All year long we ate foods prepared with old rice. At breakfast we ate pickled vegetables, and at lunch and dinner we had boiled winter melon and occasionally boiled pumpkin. Each week there were two to three occasions on which we were given the so-called additional variety of foods. There were only seven days during a whole year (Spring Festival, New Year, October 1 [the Chinese National Day], and May 1 [the Labor Day]) during which we did not need to work. The long-time heavy labor and malnutrition caused many people including me to suffer from severe itching in the scrotum area. The skin in that area kept peeling off. When the old skin peeled off, new skin was exposed. Once anything touched this new skin, I would feel a sharp pain. It affected my sleep, a situation had lasted the whole summer.

In the beginning of September 2002, I suffered from a severe oral cavity ulcer, sore throat, and stomach gas. In just several hours I had to discharge the generated gas through vomiting. I could hardly eat. When the rice entered my stomach, I could feel a sharp, abrasive pain, as if grains of sand were rubbing together. I asked permission to take a rest and do the exercises, but guard Wu disagreed and he only gave me a permission to eat the so-called patient meal of boiled noodles. My body weight dropped to 40 kilograms [88 lbs]. When I walked I felt dizzy and fatigue in my legs. The symptoms lasted over twenty days, but I still had to go to work as usual. Later, the persons who were responsible for watching me said, "You looked awful during that time and we were afraid that you might die suddenly."

In October 2002, the window and door of a room on first floor of the No. 8 Division building was suddenly covered and no light could come in. I heard from other inmates' discussions that the guards might start to do something bad to someone. Then shortly I discovered that Lu Haiyun disappeared. There were inmates on duty in the hallway who did not allow other passers-by to stop there and even look in that direction. Before long, Wang Keng also disappeared. One morning at the beginning of November, I was also put into that dark room. The inmates responsible for watching me also moved in.

The room had no ventilation and it was dark and humid. The light was on day and night. Pasted onto all the walls were slogans such as "Reformation is the only way out." There were also photos of the founder of Falun Dafa. The photos were crossed with a red pen, hanging upside down on the wall. It was dark and ghastly. I ate inside the room. I could not go out to use the toilet before all other inmates went to work or before they went to bed after they came back from work. The guards brought in a big pile of material that slandered Falun Dafa and attempted to make me read them. I refused. Then the guards let the inmates who accompanied me read them.

Five days later I was sent back to the Special Discipline Division for Falun Dafa practitioners, that was the No. 2 Division. I was put into a so-called "conversation room," which was constructed by remodeling a big classroom. Concrete walls divided this classroom into four or five rooms, and a metal door was installed in each room. On the door was a peephole, which only allowed people to peep through it from the outside, but not vice versa. The concrete wall was still not completely dry yet. Based on the room setting and the tools equipped for torturing the practitioners, the room was very similar to and even outdid the dark room in the No. 8 Division. From what I knew, practitioners Chen Ruichang, Lin Tianci and others had been detained inside the conversation room.

I learned later that the conversation room method was learned while guards were in Beijing. Between September and October 2002, the labor camp specially sent some labor camp guards to Beijing to learn this persecution method. It was said that No. 2 Division Chief Zhou Jianxiong, Associate Chief He Guichao and guards Bi Dejun and Li Weicheng had gone to Beijing to participate in this training. So, in October 2002, the labor camp environment became worse. Labor camp Associate Director Zhou Yangbo and the No. 2 Division Political Instructor Li Guomin assembled many cruel persons from different labor camp divisions. These people mainly consisted of drug addicts and gang members. They were exempt from doing manual labor. Furthermore, they were rewarded with a reduction of their terms (their terms would be reduced by twenty days if they could force one practitioner to give up practicing Falun Dafa). So these thugs were specifically utilized to persecute Falun Dafa practitioners. The inmates who were personally involved in torturing practitioners were Wang Feng, Cui Yucai, Jiang Yong, Xia Jianhua and others. They had resorted to very cruel and violent methods to successively torture those determined practitioners, to force them to give in.

Several days later, they took me late in the afternoon to see a psychologist. Wang Feng and Cui Yucai took me directly to a fairly remote confinement cell, where Xia Jianhua and Jiang Yong were awaiting me. As soon as I entered the room, they said to me viciously, "Now let's see if you will be transformed or not." They pushed me to the ground. They tied my two wrists first with cloth straps of several meters long (torn down from the military quilt cover) and then my underarms with the strap. Thus the blood flow in my arms was cut off. They bent my arms behind my back and pulled them upward and tied them up, making the arms parallel to each other and my hands almost touching my neck. Then they tied my arms and upper body tightly with the strap. It was extremely painful. Then came my feet and legs! Two ankles were tied together first. Then they strangled my thighs to cut the blood flow, making my legs swell. Then they forced my legs into the lotus sitting position, with one leg first on top of the other thigh and tied together, then pulled the other leg from underneath to the top of the first thigh. They pulled the straps up, while they pressed my legs down by stepping on them with their feet. They used so much force to pull my legs that my two legs were almost overlapping. It was very painful. Then they tied my legs tightly together. Finally, they used the last piece of strap left from the thigh to fasten my neck into a position that made my head bend toward my legs. Thus, my whole body was tied up into a ball. I could neither raise my head nor straighten my back. I could neither sit up nor lie down. It was even difficult to breathe.

Being tied like that, the pain was excruciating, with numbness, due to lack of blood blow, setting in and swellings of my body parts. I felt physically and mentally exhausted and it was difficult to breathe. After about half an hour, my legs and arms turned almost bone chilling cold. Then the police ordered the depraved people to loosen the strap. The loosening was even more painful. After a little while, they tied me up like that again. When they tied me up, Cui Yucai stuffed the pictures of Falun Dafa founder into my anus and around my genitals and kept saying dirty words. I became extremely hot and I was devastated. I could not longer bear such brutal torture and thus, although unwillingly, I was "transformed."

Once I was "transformed," the police forced me to act as a depraved person. They forced me to curse Falun Dafa founder and tear and burn pictures of him. Police Li Weicheng took pictures of these incidences and asked me to write the "Three Statements" (1). My brain was numb and I could not write anything. So they gave me a sample to copy. In order to "reinforce" the results of the "transformation," they continuously talked to me in the "conversation room" for over a month. I was forced to copy articles which attacked Falun Dafa daily. I had to complete a report daily and turn it in every night. From then on, I wrote such reports daily, until I was released from the labor camp on July 15, 2003. Li Guomin, director of unit #2, He Guichao, the deputy director of unit #2, and another policeman with the last name of Wu took turns talking to me and asked me to write articles which attacked and slandered Falun Dafa. They ordered me to finish such articles within a required time and the article had to be over 6,000 words. The content had to be "insightful." If not, I was asked to rewrite it. After finishing such articles, the police brought writing materials and asked me to make the following "statement": "The material I've written is all true and I agree to publish them." Then I was forced to sign and finger-print it. Then I was asked to attend and speak during a so-called "Exposing and Criticizing Conference." The conference was videotaped and made into a DVD.

The police often organized those practitioners who had been "transformed" to watch video programs slandering Falun Dafa, such as "Focus Discussion." They were also required to write thoughts after watching or listening to the policeman Hong Yuanpeng's lectures. The lectures were nothing but fabrications that slandered Falun Dafa. Such activities were held almost daily. The rest of the day we had to work.

If one appeared to be depressed after being "transformed," the police would take them aside for a talk, as they suspected that they were "faking transformation" or "getting cold feet." So they would take you back to the "conversation room" or to make you suffer the tortures once again. After breakfast, we had to do a drill of either running or military training. Our breakfast was just rice soup and pickles. We soon ran out of energy and were exhausted after such drills. During hot summer days, one sweated so much that the "uniforms" stuck to the body and one felt very uncomfortable. Then we were asked to go to the classroom to sing those songs praising the party. We had to sing very loud, otherwise we would be in trouble. During the holidays and festivals, we had to give performances, that is, we had to praise the so-called "Good Guards."

The book Zhuan Falun taught us clearly why we should be good people. After practicing Falun Dafa, besides the purification of my body, I was also able to uplift my moral standard gradually. However, the so-called "transformation" started with doing bad deeds and preventing one from being good. Such "transformation" is just like forcing good women to become prostitutes.

The police all knew interrogation under torture violated the law, so they ordered the criminal inmates to do it. Such despicable acts were actually harming those inmates too. The police ordered them to do these bad deeds with the promise to reduce their term and excuse them from hard labor. They needed this type of encouragement to commit crimes.

When they forced people to "transform," they would use brutal tortures including cursing Teacher. Once the disciples cursed their Teacher, many became ungrateful, mean people and often felt they could no longer be good people. But that was not enough. The guards also forced you to write all kinds of "statements" and copy the lies and slander published by the media about the founder of Falun Dafa. Thus, you were forced to be a participant in the slander and fabrication of lies and could no longer to be "truthful." Moreover, you were helping the tyrant to do evil deeds. After video taping your public speech during the "Exposing and Criticizing Conference," they asked you to betray your fellow practitioners again. Their purpose was for you to commit many bad deeds in writing or have them audio/video taped, so that you would feel ashamed. They believed that you would loose your dignity, as well as courage to be good people again after being released, even if you wanted to.

Thus, the more bad deeds you committed, the farther you moved away from goodness. They were responsible for you losing your conscience and righteous thoughts, making you a completely degenerate person without any thoughts of your own. Whatever they said, you would do. Only then, would the "transformation" have reached its ultimate goal. This was essential for the so-called "transformation."

Besides writing reports about your thoughts daily, those being "transformed" had to watch videos attacking Falun Dafa daily and complete a summary review every week. They also had to take an exam every month. The police just tried to make you remember those vicious lies and make you feel nervous every minute, day in and day out. From the moment you got up in the morning, you began to worry, "What kind of bad things will I be forced to do today?" If you appeared to be unpleasant in the eyes of the guards, or they felt that you were not sufficiently obedient, they would force you to do some type of military training, which was actually a form of torture.

Lawless officials incited Falun Dafa practitioners' relatives to participate in their efforts to force practitioners to give up their practice. The labor camp's regulations only allowed family visitations during the lunch hour on a certain weekday for all brigades. Visitors must gather together at the designated labor camp visiting room outside the courtyard. Some practitioners' relatives were even invited to visit, sometimes even into the camp courtyard. Whenever relatives came, the deputies would try hard to put on a show of being friendly, saying how well they treated this practitioner, who would be released as soon as he or she recognized his mistakes and accepted transformation. They would also say how this practitioner was so stubborn, resulting in serious consequences, as though this practitioner was determined to stay behind bars. They never mention whether it was lawful to detain practitioners here, even more carefully they would conceal the facts of brutal torture of practitioners.

Even though family members knew that the practitioner had done nothing wrong, the labor camp was a government organization that had power, and they thought it was futile to fight against the government. Furthermore, the family members were convinced that the only "way out" was to stop practicing. Family members certainly wanted to end the ordeal by any means out of concern for their relatives. Instead of condemning the unlawful detention at the labor camp, they were actually grateful to or even tried to please the camp deputies. They fell into the traps set by the deputies, and started to coerce their own loved ones, resulting in relatives making a fuss, kneeling down to beg, becoming temperamental or even violent. The deputies, on the other hand, were cheering behind their backs, even though they outwardly pretended to offer help and make peace.

This farce often took place in public. Refusing to stop practicing would lead to a practitioner's being labeled as "selfish," "callous," and "disrespectful." I personally witnessed such a situation. Practitioner Wang Keng's father came to visit him in the labor camp. Deputy Instructor Wu called a meeting of all inmates. Ostensibly he wanted everybody to see how Wang was going to behave, since his mother's heart ailment had become more serious because of her worry about Wang Keng. She sent a message saying her health would change for the better as soon as Wang Keng gave up his practice. When Wang Keng requested to stand up and speak out, people became very "emotional" as a result of deputy Wu's instigation. Several other deputies came forward and pressed Wang Keng to the floor forcibly by holding down Wang Keng's neck. Wang Keng's father walked up to him and admonished him.

Wang Keng went on a hunger strike to protest this persecution, but he was cuffed to a window frame for 20 days. I chose to remain solitary and lonely after witnessing one tragedy after another where the deputies stirred up hatred among practitioners' families and spouses. I never called my family and relatives even once while in the labor camp. I just pretended that I was missing them. Because of this they labeled me as "heartless."

After I failed to endure the torture, I gave in and announced I would give up my belief in Dafa even though deep in my heart I knew Dafa was good. Since then, I have been in great pain and agony. Everyday, I had to listen to the camp deputies shouting insults and curses against Dafa and its founder and was unwillingly forced to do bad things, completely losing human dignity and character. Yet, I just did not have the courage to stop such slanders against Dafa at that time. These kinds of mental tortures were even more atrocious than the physical tortures.

I returned to work at the Quartermaster University of People's Liberation Army after receiving my Ph D degree. In August 2000, I was forced to discharge from the army because I persisted in practicing Falun Gong. Even though I found a job in April 2000, the Department of Organization at the university sent someone to threaten my employer to be responsible and fire me. I was forced to resign again. I was abducted on February 8, 2002, around 11 p.m. at night in Guangzhou City and sent to the No. 1 Labor Re-Education Camp in Guangzhou City. I suffered all kinds of torture. Once they tied me into a ball. I could not raise my head, or straighten my back. I could not sit down or lie down and had difficulty breathing. The thugs even poked the picture of Falun Dafa's founder into my anus and private areas while cursing and insulting with the filthiest of profanity. I could not endure under such torture and was forcibly "transformed" at the outset, thus leaving a blemish in my journey of cultivation.

I firmly believe in Master, and my resolute faith in Dafa will not change, will never change! I solemnly declare that all my statements and deeds against Master and Dafa are completely void. I will work hard to make good to repay any damages caused to Dafa. I will cultivate in Dafa until I succeed.

Yang Guiyuan

August 7, 2004

(1). "Three Statements" - Practitioners are coerced under brainwashing and torture to write these as proof that they have given up their belief. Created by the "610 Office," the Three Statements consist of a letter of repentance, a guarantee to never again practice Falun Gong, and a list of names and addresses of all family members, friends and acquaintances who are practitioners.