(Clearwisdom.net) People call him Lao Zhao. He used to work in an electronics factory. He had stepped onto a deviant path in ordinary society and become a thief. One day in 1995, when he was shopping with his family, he saw a large group of Falun Gong practitioners doing the exercises. He really wanted to learn but his wife stopped him, and he missed the chance. Soon after, he was put into a detention center for stealing goods worth over 30,000 yuan. Whenever he mentioned this, he was very regretful. If he had obtained the Fa back then, he would never have done that.
Fortunately his mother started practicing Falun Gong in 1997. She sent him the Dafa books and illustrations for the exercises so that he could learn the practice in the detention center. She would correct his movements when she visited him. Lao Zhao cherished the Fa. He studied the Fa and practiced the exercises diligently. Very soon he learned the five sets of exercises and his xinxing also improved. He knew that he could no longer be muddle-headed like before. Soon after that, the verdict came and he was sentenced to a life-long jail term. He was sent to Chuanzhong Prison in the rural area of Nanchong City, Sichuan Province, that specifically detains felons.
Lao Zhao kept studying the Fa and practicing the exercises in prison. He promoted the Fa to other inmates and several inmates also started practicing Falun Gong. After July 20, 1999, some inmates reported him and the police confiscated his Dafa books and materials. The police asked him, "Are you going to continue to practice?" Lao Zhao replied firmly, "Yes!" The furious police put him into solitary confinement and tortured him for 20 days. But all the torture did not change his faith. They had to eventually release him. Fearing that he would not be able to endure the torture and would give up, his elderly mother often traveled several hundred miles to visit and encourage him, bringing him Teacher's new articles and telling him stories of other practitioners validating Dafa. When the evil was most rampant, his mother said, "Please never give in. I will be proud of you."
In 2001, CCTV broadcast the story of the "Tiananmen self-immolation incident" fabricated by the CCP. The night following the broadcast, Lao Zhao pointed out to other inmates in a dignified manner the inconsistencies and holes in the story. This caused the police to panic. They once again put Lao Zhao into solitary confinement and handcuffed and chained him in a cross shape to the death bed. As a result, he did not have a bowel movement for over 20 days. It was very difficult but Lao Zhao endured. The police had to release him from solitary confinement and they reported to the Sichuan Prison Management Bureau.
In April of 2001, Lao Zhao was transferred to Deyang Prison. This is the site specifically for persecuting practitioners in Sichuan Province. At that time, they were carrying out so-called "forceful transformation." He did not waver at all. The police then put him along with several other of the most determined practitioners into the most vicious fifth division to be tortured: he was subjected to extended exposure to strong sunlight, was forced to stand for a long time in the position of "a golden chicken standing on one foot," was beaten, and so on. Policeman Li Weidong threatened him, "Lao Zhao, if you insist on not being transformed, you life-long jail term will never be shortened." Lao Zhao replied, "I will still practice even if I serve a life sentence." According to Chinese law, if an inmate with a life sentence does not commit any criminal activity within the first two years in jail, the term will be changed to 18 to 20 years. However, Lao Zhao had been in jail for four or five years, yet his term was never shortened because he did not give up his faith in Dafa.
Fearing that his determination would influence those who had already given in, he was transferred to the fourth division. The environment there was relatively better.
In June 2002, after the officials went to a conference in Beijing, they started another round of torture. Lao Zhao was once again transferred to the 8th division of the second prison area that specifically persecutes Falun Gong practitioners. Here, police prohibit family visits and block any communication of news. I once again met up with Mr. Lao and found that he was even more mature than before. Although the food was poor and he suffered various physical punishments such as exposure to rain and sun all day long, he had a rosy complexion and his skin was fair. He always considered others first and helped other practitioners, encouraging them to be determined and resist the evil persecution and the nonsense from collaborators.
For the past several years, he not only suffered torture from angry police and inmates, but was also attacked by the collaborators. However, these never influenced his determination in cultivation and he has never left a stain on his path of cultivation. When the police humiliated and mocked him using his previous crimes committed before he obtained the Fa, he replied, "I committed those crimes exactly because I had not practiced Falun Gong. If I started practicing earlier, how could I ever have done things like that? Today I am a cultivator. I want to be a good person, but you don't allow me to do that. When I was doing bad deeds before, why did you not help me?"
In 2002 when I left Deyang prison, Mr. Lao Zhao asked me to tell his mother not to worry about him. However, within two months of my release, I was once again put into another prison and was beaten until my leg was broken. I was only released recently. Now I write down his story to tell his mother and everyone in the world that only Dafa can change a person for the better. Vicious perpetrators can never change the faith of Dafa practitioners. I also wish Lao Zhao the best on his cultivation path.