(Clearwisdom.net) My name is Zhang Shuhua. In 1996, when I was still in China, my elder sister introduced me to the book, Zhuan Falun (1), and I read it carefully. From then on, I practiced Falun Gong. This is such a precious book, teaching us how to be good people. I have been an elementary school teacher for five years. Through reading Zhuan Falun, I came to know the universe's highest characteristic, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, the sole criterion for judging everything in the universe. From then on, I was full of confidence about the future. Luckily, my father and my elder sister are both Falun Gong practitioners, and until 1998, our home was the site for local group study and cultivation experience sharing. Through practicing Falun Dafa, I realized that it was true that Zhuan Falun could improve people's moral standards, and that one could be free from illness after practicing Falun Dafa. My whole body felt light while walking, and I did not get tired while working. I have learned to look inside myself in any situation, and I no longer get upset when bad things happen to me.

In the hot summer of 1999, on July 20, my father and all the fellow practitioners who had been coming to our home for group study and experience sharing were illegally taken to the township government one by one. They were locked up in a room during the night and exposed under the blazing sun during the day for many days. They were given very little food and no family members were allowed to visit them. The township authorities forced practitioners to turn in their Falun Gong books, did not allow them to practice the exercises and intimidated them by saying they would sentence them to forced labor and charge them with anti-Party and anti-state crimes.

Over the past three years in my hometown, there have been at least two Falun Gong practitioners tortured to death, and two practitioners died after suffering severe internal injuries from beatings. Many practitioners became disabled as a result of torture; three practitioners were stuffed into a large sack and beaten up by seven or eight town officials. Many practitioners were illegally sentenced to forced labor, where they were shocked with electric batons, tied up on the "Tiger Bench," deprived of sleep for long periods of time, forced to say bad things again Falun Dafa, and forced to watch slanderous video programs in an attempt to brainwash and "transform" (2) them. These are things I knew about before I left China in 2002. Lately I learned from Clearwisdom.net that four practitioners were tortured to death just in the Fangzi area alone. My sister was stuffed into a bag and beaten up, but she later managed to escape. My mother passed away under such terror. Since the persecution of Falun Gong started, there have been too many atrocities committed in my hometown that defy Heaven and reason.

In order to clarify the truth about Falun Gong to the central government, I went to Beijing to appeal. At Tiananmen Square, the police illegally detained me. Eighteen days of detention made me realize that the police not only break the law, but also ignore the illegal activities taking place around them. Although in every cell there were regulations posted explicitly prohibiting beating, uniformed police officers not only tortured a mentally collapsed common inmate in front of many of us Falun Dafa practitioners, but also instigated the inmates to beat me in order to keep me from doing the Falun Gong exercises. Very often, officials from resident offices of various provinces in Beijing would come and pick up people who had come to Beijing to appeal from their own local areas. They were sent back home for further persecution, despite the fact that these ordinary people who had borne so much hardship had come to Beijing to appeal for some justice precisely because they could not get justice back home due to corruption in their local governments. Now in Beijing, not only were their problems not resolved, they were sent back home to suffer more hardships and ill-treatment.

In 2002, I married my husband whom I had known for five years and came to live in Japan; yet I still could not escape the persecution of Jiang's group. When I lost my passport and applied for a new one at the Chinese Consulate in Osaka, they refused to issue a new passport for me simply because I am a Falun Gong practitioner. The following is my story:

I lost my passport in September 2003, and I went to the Chinese Consulate in Osaka as soon as I could, to inform them of the loss and to ask about the procedure for applying for a new passport. But the security guard blocked my way at the entrance, because I practice Falun Gong. The guard said he was only following the consulate's regulations. But I was also following the legal stipulation to report my passport loss promptly. It was then that I had to believe that it was true that even though I am a Chinese citizen I was not allowed to enter the Chinese Consulate. I waited outside patiently. At noontime, I finally heard someone speaking Chinese coming out of the building. I saw a young female staff member so I approached her and told her, with a great deal of sincerity, about why I had come. I told her that I practice Falun Gong and explained briefly about the situation of the persecution of Falun Gong in China, and hoped she could understand me. She thought for a while, told me which documents were needed for the passport application, and left in a hurry.

A month later, after I had prepared all the necessary documents, I went to the consulate again. But I was pushed out the door by the receptionist. She wouldn't even allow me to stand on the steps outside of the building, and told me this was what the consul ordered. I went home in tears. I was brought up in China and had received a patriotic education since childhood, which taught me to love the ruling party and the country, but now they treated me as if I were an enemy. I almost reached the edge of mental collapse. My husband, who has Japanese citizenship, helped me prepare the required documents, including, as required, publishing a notice of the loss of my passport in a Chinese newspaper. We went to the Chinese Consulate again a month later. During the following month while I was waiting for a reply, I wrote a letter to all six consuls about the situation of the persecution against Falun Gong in China. A month later, Consul Hong from the Osaka Consulate accepted my application and gave me a telephone number to call in another month to find out if it went through.

A month later when I called, Consul Hong told me that he was very sorry, but that he had not paid close attention to my application last time. He told me that I had to announce the loss of my passport in another newspaper instead of The Epoch Times, because this newspaper has reported the situation of the persecution of Falun Gong in China. He said that he did not read my announcement because they did not acknowledge The Epoch Times newspaper. I argued that he had looked at the receipt from The Epoch Times carefully when he accepted my case. However, he insisted that he had not paid attention to it. I asked him for a written explanation of their request for me to announce the loss in a different newspaper, but he told me he wouldn't do that. He even offered to pay the fee for me to republish my announcement in another Chinese newspaper in Japan and said that as soon as I switched to another newspaper to announce the passport loss he would give me a new passport straight away.

Two months ago I went to the consulate to clarify the truth again, and met with Zhao Dawei, the consul who is in charge of Falun Gong practitioners' passport cases. He did not allow me to talk and even called the police to intervene. A few days ago I went to the consulate again to appeal, this time related to the South African shooting incident. I saw Consul Hong and he gave me the same answer: I must switch my announcement to another newspaper. I asked him why was it that many other people who had published their announcements in The Epoch Times got their passports, but not me? He said that those people did not practice Falun Gong. I challenged him, saying that he had repeatedly told me in the past that my passport refusal was not because of my practice of Falun Gong. He immediately said, "Did I say so? I apologize for saying that. You can take your documents back and I will not process your application for you any more."

My case is still pending even though it was accepted on January 28, 2004.

Zhang Shuhua's lost passport

Receipt for the new passport application

Notes

(1) Zhuan Falun comprises the principal teachings of Falun Dafa.

(2) "Transform" refers to forcing practitioners to give up Falun Dafa under severe mental and physical pressure.