By Ms. Meng Xiangji, a pharmaceutical student at Purdue University

(Clearwisdom.net) I was close to a nervous breakdown the minute I heard the Beijing police arrested my mother Liu Guifu on the night of February 28, 2005. This is the fourth time that police arrested my mother! I had spoken to my mother just two days before the arrest, and now she is locked up in a Chinese prison. No words can begin to describe my distress and despair.

Not a day that goes by without my thinking about my mother's safety in China. This is the fourth time that the police have arrested my mother. She had already been sentenced to one and a half years in a forced labor camp from 2001 to 2002 because of her steadfast belief in Falun Gong. Because of the Chinese Communist government's communication blockade, I could only learn little about the most degrading, brutal torture my mother had suffered while she was detained in a detention center and a forced labor camp in Beijing. While my mother was unlawfully detained in the detention center, the police beat her to the ground and repeatedly walked on her body. They also forced her to clean clogged toilet bowels with her bare hands. After this humiliating task, they did not allow her to wash her hands before eating her food. While she was unlawfully detained in Beijing's Xin'an Forced Labor Camp, the prison police of the Fourth Brigade would stop at nothing to have her renounce Falun Gong. Because my mother refused to give up her belief in Falun Gong, they had her stand daily without moving for long periods of time for nearly four months! In addition, they beat her daily. Once they realized that my mother would not renounce Falun Gong, they found a new way to torture her. They forced my mother to do hard labor during the day and study the forced labor camp "regulations" at night. My mother could not get any rest or sleep, although she is already 50 years old.

I cannot possibly imagine why the Chinese Communist Party would want to repeatedly imprison and torture a law-abiding, decent, and virtuous citizen like my mother. When they arrested and imprisoned my mother for the fourth time, I finally lost all trust in the Chinese Communist Party.

I felt highly distressed and worried about my mother during her earlier arrests. On the other hand, I was rather disappointed and somewhat upset with my mother, as she repeatedly refused to take my advice. I wanted her to play it safe and thus escape the tyrannical environment. I wanted her to keep her personal security in mind at all times, which meant in my mind to remain silent. I used to advise her to play it safe and always make her personal security her highest priority, so that she could continue to pay for my expensive tuition in the United States. When she was arrested and suffered from the police's persecution, I held grudges against my mother, because she might jeopardize my chance of getting a degree. If she was imprisoned she could not send me the funds for my studies in the U.S.

Her latest arrest was like a slap on my head and my conscience finally awakened. I began to ask myself why has this been happening to my mother? The question brought me back the memory of my mother's life. For the first time I think I could understand why my mother must step forward to clarify the truth for Falun Gong and why the Chinese Communist Party would stop at nothing to hide the truth of Falun Gong from the Chinese people.

Misery is the only word that describes my mother's life prior to her practicing Falun Gong. My birth father constantly cursed at and beat her. He later forced my mother to agree to a divorce, and we moved from Tangshan to Beijing. As I remember, I never had a stable home growing up. One time, I remember my mother once refused her boss's request to commit fraud for him. Therefore, her boss refused to pay her for a very long time. She managed to enroll me in a boarding school, so I had a place to eat and sleep, meanwhile, she was homeless. My mother had absolutely nothing. I had become the world for my mother. Her only goal in life was to stop me from being hungry. My happiness was her only happiness. My mother said to me hundreds and thousands of times that she would die if it were not for me.

When I was little, I could not understand the suffering of my mother. The daily struggle to survive was slowly killing her. The burden of making a living was taking a severe toll on my mother's strength and health. But she never went to the hospital. It was not because she was perfectly healthy, but because she could not afford the medical expense. In fact, she was always close to a breakdown and only her iron will and the wish to care for me kept her going!

In the darkest hour of my mother's life, it was Falun Dafa (or Falun Gong) that brought hope and new life to my mother.

My eldest aunt Ms. Liu Guijin, who lives in Tangshan, had polio. Also, she had been severely injured during the Tangshan Earthquake, which also affected her health. After she started to practice Falun Gong, she became healthy. Best of all, the teaching of Falun Gong was completely free. My aunt wanted to thank Mr. Li Hongzhi for his wonderful Falun Gong, so she sent him 500 yuan (approximately $60 USD) in the mail as a small token of her gratitude. But Mr. Li Hongzhi returned the money to her in full.

My aunt's recovery motivated my mother to give it a try. Soon after she started her cultivation practice, she also became healthy. Fellow Falun Gong practitioners also helped her find a place to live. Most importantly, I finally saw happiness and joy in my mother's face again. The pressure of living no longer distressed my mother. Instead, she became more and more diligent in her Falun Gong cultivation practice. Everything became an opportunity to upgrade her cultivation level. Mother began to face her life with a new attitude and courage. Mother has always been a beautiful woman, but now she looked so much younger and radiant. (see Photo A)

Photo A

Photo B

In 1998, a fellow practitioner introduced someone to my mother whom she married. I had a stepfather. After many years of living a homeless life, my mother and I finally had a stable home. When they first got married, my stepfather was very ill. My mother took very good care of my stepfather and did all the work. She was an excellent cook and homemaker. Under my mother's affectionate care, my stepfather's health improved rapidly. Then, my mother built a dozen rooms in my stepfather's backyard, which they rented out for extra income. My mother used this additional income to pay for my tuition at Purdue University, where I studied for a pharmaceutical degree. She was the strength of our new family. If not for the power of Falun Gong, my mother would never have been able to endure the physical and psychological burden of supporting our family. Before Jiang Zemin started to persecute Falun Gong practitioners in 1999 and before the police started to arrest and torture my mother, my stepfather and my mother led a very happy life because of Falun Gong.

After my mother had survived the third detention and tortures at the forced labor camp, she returned to her parents' home. She found that they were bed-ridden. Both parents were laying in a fetal position in a filthy bed and suffered painfully. It was obvious that her parents had suffered from severe neglect. My mother burst into tears. Since then, she went to her parents' home daily to make sure they had food and to clean them until they passed away within a day of each other, on October 18 and 19 of 2003. All their friends, relatives, former colleagues and neighbors who attended the funeral said the same thing to my mother: "When we saw Mr. and Mrs. Liu (my grandparents) suffering from severe neglect before you were released, we thought all of their children were animals. It was not until you were released from the forced labor camp and started to look after them that we realized the true reason why they had suffered from neglect. The Chinese Communist Party locked up all decent and law-abiding children for practicing Falun Gong! How could they leave these elderly people alone at home, without anyone to take care of them? It is the Chinese Communist Party that is truly inhumane!" Mother proved to them through her actions that her spiritual belief, Falun Gong, is genuinely admirable and truthful!

After looking back on the past, I finally remembered how wonderful a person my mother had always been. She has been a dutiful and wonderful daughter to her parents, a virtuous and understanding wife to her husband, and a selfless and affectionate mother to me. My mother is the most virtuous person I know. She is not only a beautiful woman to behold, but also beautiful on the inside, a woman with a loving heart to match her outer beauty. She has an iron will and is steadfast in her belief of Falun Gong. Yet, she is also kind and generous to others, and always tolerant and forgiving.

Now I understand myself better. I used to resent the Chinese Communist government for its violations of human rights, but I was also upset with my mother for stepping forward for Falun Gong. Now I know I was upset with my mother because I was afraid to challenge the evil Chinese Communist regime. Every time the police arrested my mother, I could only sit at home like a coward, silently praying for her. Now I realize that my fear would only encourage the Chinese Communist Party to continue or even escalate their persecution of my mother. The evil will always be evil. You can never expect the evil to stop being evil. It will not stop its wickedness when you do not confront it. Only a Falun Gong practitioner who is not afraid of confronting the evil Chinese Communist Party, like my mother, is genuinely admirable and worthy of our admiration. Next to my mother, I appear to be insignificant and weak. But I must not sit idly at home and do nothing any longer. After losing my mother four times to the Chinese Communist Party, I have decided that I must not tolerate its terror any longer. I must say to the Chinese Communist Party, "My mother's actions are perfectly righteous and legal! You must stop the terror against my mother and release her at once!"

Without my mother, my stepfather will have no one to look after him. He is likely to become frail and sick again. My study will also be affected. But the difficulties that my stepfather and I will soon face, are nothing compared to the tortures my mother has suffered and is still suffering. My family can never be complete or happy again until the Chinese Communist Party stops its persecution of Falun Gong. It is my earnest wish that all kindhearted people in China, the United States, and the rest of the world will help me rescue my mother.

This time, Qinglongqiao police station staff arrested my mother. My mother is now detained in the detention center at the Haidian Branch of the Public Security Bureau. I hope more kind-hearted people can write or call the detention center at the Haidian Branch of the Public Security Bureau, Beijing and related units and demand for her immediate release.

Phone numbers and addresses of related officials:

Captain Zhu Feng, phone: 86-10-82883420, address: The detention center at the Haidian Branch of the Public Security Bureau, No. 25, Longgang Street, Qinghe, Haidian District, Beijing, zipcode: 100085.
Phone: 86-10-62902266 extension 3500 or 3582.

Director Zhang Weigang, phone: 8610-82519110, address: Haidian District Branch of Beijing Public Security Bureau, No 15, Changchunqiao Street, Haidian District, Beijing.
Police officer Wang Haipeng, cell: 13911321221, address: Qinglongqiao Police Station, The first No. 5, Erlongzha, Haidian District, Beijing.
Phone: 86-10-62881666, 86-10-62881620.

Fuyuanmen Neighborhood Committee, Qinglongqiao, Haidian District, Beijing.
Phone: 86-10-62543932.

Yuanmingyuan Police Station, phone: 86-10-62553476.

Director Ma Zhenchuan
Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau
No.9, Dongdajie, Qianmen, Dongcheng District, Beijing, zipcode: 100740