The Persecution I Experienced Over the Past Seven Years at the Hands of the Chinese Communist Party
By a Falun Dafa practitioner in Mainland China
(Clearwisdom.net) Seven years is a short time for a happy person, but it
is a very long time for a person experiencing anguish and tribulations. The past
is almost too painful to recall, yet it is so vivid, as if it just took place
yesterday. Back in June of 1999, the local police and spies harassed me constantly. As a
result, I could not study the Falun Dafa books or do the Falun Dafa exercises
without interruption, so I decided to go to Beijing to appeal for justice. It was early when I arrived in Beijing, so I rested in Zhongshan Park. Soon,
a few armed police officers walked over to me and pushed me into a van. They
drove me to the Beijing Armed Police General Headquarters. They put me in a room
where many other Dafa practitioners were held. They laid some rope on the floor
next to us and forbade us from stepping outside the rope. If we did not obey
them, they would attack us physically and verbally. The police called us over one by one and registered us. They took us to a
stadium in a bus. When I got off the bus I saw two rows of people--police and
reporters. We walked between the two groups of people as flashbulbs went off all
around us. As we entered the stadium, the police told us to sit on the ground.
Fully armed police officers guarded the stairways. Officers from regional
liaison offices in Beijing picked us up at 7:00 p.m. and sent us overnight back
to the corresponding local cities. I went to Beijing for the second time in September 1999. Officers from the
Fuyou Street Police Station arrested me and held me for three days before
sending me to the Changping Custody Center. Upon arriving at the custody center,
the guards forcibly body-searched me. When they found money on people, they would force people to make purchases at
the center. I found out later that the Communist Party feared public discontent
toward its countless atrocities as it was approaching October 1st. Each year
prior to this day the Party would evict out-of-towners from Beijing and send
them back to their local cities. Each police officer is issued a quota of 50
arrests a day. If he falls short of the quota, his year-end bonus is reduced.
The police went to extreme means to arrest people in a desperate attempt to keep
their bonuses. One woman in her 40s told me, "I sell breakfast food at a
stall in Beijing. The police knocked over my stand and arrested my husband and
me." Another woman said, "I was selling vegetables in the market when
the police arrested me." Other detainees included people who came to
Beijing hospitals for medical treatment and people who had traveled to Beijing
to get married. The police ordered inmates to monitor the detainees, who were forced to squat
in the courtyard during the day. The inmates would beat whoever moved and
refused to follow orders. In the evening, the police packed buses full of
detainees like sardines in a can and sent them back. The Communist police are
vicious toward common citizens and even crueler toward Dafa practitioners who
refuse to tell their names [Note: Because of the Chinese Communist Party's
practice of implicating and harassing family members and work units of Falun
Gong practitioners, practitioners often refuse to give their names when they are
arrested, in order to protect their families and associates]. They used
corporal punishment such as beatings, electric shock and also sleep deprivation
on these practitioners. Three days later I was sent back to my city where I was
detained for another 15 days. I went back to Beijing in October 1999 and was taken to the Xicheng Detention
Center in Beijing. On arrival I had to immediately remove all clothing. They
thoroughly searched me and cut all metal adornments on my clothes. They also
took away my belt, and I had to hold my pants up. They searched me again before
sending me to my cell. The head of the cell coerced me to recite detention center policies. He
wouldn't let me sleep unless I could memorize the policies. Once, when I was
taken out to be fingerprinted a male guard told us to squat, holding our head
between our arms. I said something to another practitioner, and the guard beat
me savagely. One practitioner in his 50s asked for permission to do the Dafa
exercises. Zhou, a female guard said, "If you hit your head against the
metal gate and survive, I'll let you do your exercises." Eleven of our Dafa practitioners refused to do slave labor. We recited the
Fa and did the Dafa exercises together. The detention center head
told us to go to the courtyard and said we could do the Dafa exercises there. It
was cold that November. We did not have warm clothing and wore simple
plastic-soled shoes. Soon, the detention center head brought a pile of handcuffs
and handcuffed us, one by one. First, he handcuffed us in front; then he
handcuffed our hands behind us. After 30 minutes he saw we were not going to beg
him, so he handcuffed in a crueler way: one arm pulled over the shoulder to the
other arm that was pulled up from behind. The guards handcuffed us for four hours. When the handcuffs came off, our
hands looked like they didn't have a drop of blood in them. My right thumb was
numb for six months. The detention center officials also force-fed Dafa
practitioners who went on protest hunger strikes. They beat practitioners who
petitioned to study the Fa and do the exercises. They also used other corporal
punishment and sleep deprivation and torture tools on us. I was taken back to Tieling on November 13, 1999 and held at the Tieling
Detention Center where I was forbidden to study the Fa or do the exercises.
Practitioners who tried to do the Dafa exercises were tortured. One evening,
practitioner Zhang Yan and I were assigned to be on night shift duty. Zhang Yan
did the first four sets of Dafa exercises on the floor, and I did the meditation
exercise in bed. Soon, cell head Yue came. She grabbed Zhang Yan's head and
rammed it into a wall with brutal force. She also hit Zhang Yan until she was
severely bruised and disoriented. Cell head Yue then walked over to beat me. She
kicked me to the floor and slapped my temples with the soles of hard plastic
slippers until I almost lost consciousness. She did not stop until she ran out
of strength. Then one of the division heads named Liu Zhongchen came to our cell and
forced six Dafa practitioners including myself to kneel in front of a wall
before he whipped us with a belt. He also shocked the arch of my feet with
electric batons. He did not spare an older practitioner in his late 50s. He also
immobilized Zhang Yan in place with a torture tool. This tool looks like this:
One end is a thick iron ring that was placed around Zhang Yan's neck, and the
other end was a metal chain fixed to the rings of a bed. Zhang Yan could not
raise her head when wearing this torture tool and had to lie down all the time. In early December 1999, I received a notice saying that I was sentenced to
one year of forced labor. I was taken to the Tieling Forced Labor Camp along
with two other practitioners. We were body-searched right away. The guards took
Master's articles from me. They cut my hair short, flush with my ears. They used
vicious means, including freezing, electric shock, sleep deprivation and other
tactics to persecute Dafa practitioners who persisted in doing the Dafa
exercises. I was transferred to the Liaoyang Forced Labor Camp on January 30, 2000. The
officials there not only body-searched me, they also pulled out the stuffing
from my quilt and from my pillow. They took my Dafa books. Deputy division head
Yin slapped my face over and over because I had not handed the books in myself. Endless work ensued. The Party used us as machines and forced us to work 12
hours a day. We were forbidden to sleep if we did not meet our quota. Even on
holidays we were not allowed to sleep until after midnight, as a means to keep
us from doing the Dafa exercises. We were often taken out to do manual labor
such as digging holes to plant trees, level the ground and dismantle cement
bags. We were forbidden to sleep after returning from this heavy manual labor
and instead had to continue to do handiwork until past midnight. There was no
exception for those who were sick. Once, when the officials played a Dafa-slandering video, I refused to watch
it. Guard Huo Yan called me out and beat me before locking me in solitary
confinement. They forced me to sit completely motionless, with my arms wrapped
around my knees. It was summer, and the pressure on my buttocks resulted in open
sores. Soon, pus and blood glued my underwear to my buttocks. I had to peel the
scab away each time before I could go to the restroom. They also never gave me
enough food -- only a small corn pancake and a bite of corn porridge.
Furthermore, they played Dafa-slandering audiotapes on a daily basis. I was sent to Group 3 at the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp again on October 19,
2000. Guard Wang Xiaofeng sent several collaborators to
"reform" me. They bombarded me with twisted Dafa-slandering theories.
Several days later, when they saw that I did not "reform", they
stripped away their mask of feigned kindness and forced me to squat, do
handstands and did not let me sleep. Wang Xiaofeng told the collaborators to
beat me. They stood in a circle, with me in the middle, and attacked me in the
style of the "Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)." They verbally
assaulted me, shoved me around and grew increasingly violent. Collaborators Wang
Xiuzhi and Wang Xiaofeng vehemently hit my head and face with books, splitting
my lips and making my head swell. I had several bumps on my head. The guards often took Dafa practitioners to deserted classrooms and isolated
places to beat them. They took practitioner Sun Juan to a hotel, kicked her to
the ground, straddled her, grabbed her head and rammed it into the floor. They
beat practitioner Wang Jianhua so severely she had to receive IV infusions for
one week. When she returned, her face was still swollen, and the corners of her
eyes were black and blue. Practitioner Wang Jinlan was in her 50s, but the
officials often punished her physically and did not let her sleep. The guards
also often played Dafa-slandering videos and forced us to watch them. I finally went home on October 19, 2001. I was reported in January 2002 while distributing truth-clarification
materials and was taken to the Political and Security Section at Tieling County
Police Department. One older man who looked like an owl called over a few young
police officers and told them to interrogate me. I refused to cooperate with
them, and the man slapped my face. I shouted, "Falun Dafa is good!" He
told two tall, brawny men to beat and kick me. I was not afraid and continued to
shout, "Falun Dafa is good!" They could not figure out what to do with
me, so they sent me to the Political and Security Section at the Yinzhou
District Police Department. I still refused to cooperate with the officials. Officers Liu Daiying and
Yang Dongsheng handcuffed me next to a wall, wrapped my head in a plastic bag
and hit me with books. But, I never followed any of their commands, so they sent
me to the Tieling City Detention Center. One evening when I was doing the Falun
Gong exercises the guard on duty saw me and came over to beat me. He also tried
to immobilize me with chains. Two other practitioners and I together resisted
the persecution and shouted, "Falun Dafa is good!" The guard was
frightened and ran away. We went on a hunger strike the next day to protest the
abuse, and they brutally force-fed us and immobilized us with chains. They sentenced me to three years of forced labor in March 2002 and took me
back to the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp. I was held at Group 1, Division 1,
headed by Wang Xiaofeng, who was promoted to division head for his efforts in
persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. They immediately found two collaborators and tried to "reform" me.
I turned them away without hesitation. They all knew me from the previous
detentions, so they no longer tried to "reform" me. One morning when I was doing the Dafa exercises in my cell an inmate saw me.
He called on several collaborators who dragged me outside. I shouted, "Falun
Dafa is good!" They dragged me into the office and threw me on the floor.
One collaborator took off his socks and tried to put them in my mouth. I closed
my mouth. He pinched my nose so I could not breathe. Soon, Wang Xiaofeng came
and he told the inmate to send me to solitary confinement cell. A long, narrow
and hard bench was the only thing inside that cell. They handcuffed my hands to
each end of the bench and forced me to sit on the bench. I was incarcerated in
the solitary confinement cell this way for 25 days. On the morning of April 8, 2002 I delivered Master's articles to fellow
practitioners. Inmate Gong Xiling reported me to guard Xue Feng. I was taken to
the ground floor where Dafa practitioners are tortured. I was handcuffed to a
heating pipe for three days and I had to stand the whole time. They also posted banners with slanderous words attacking Master and Dafa.
Several Dafa practitioners including myself shouted, "Falun Dafa is
good!" Collaborators Li Qing and Duan tied silk strips over our mouths,
wrapped our heads in quilts reeking of urine, and sealed everything in place
with tape. We were later locked up in solitary confinement cells. By this time, the long
narrow bench had been replaced with a large metal chair especially designed to
torture Dafa practitioners. The metal chair has many semicircular bars welded
onto it that holds the arms and legs of the victim in place so he cannot move at
all. The officials let the practitioner in the chair use the restroom twice a
day. At other times the practitioner has no choice but to relieve himself in his
pants. Seven days later Wang Xiaofeng took me back to the ground floor. He told Li
Qing and Duan to tie my hands behind my back to a bed pole because I did the
Dafa exercises. They made me sit on a small plastic stool. From that day on, for
more than two years, I never slept in a bed again. Due to sitting in a crooked
posture for a long time, my limbs swelled and hurt terribly whenever I made a
slight movement. Practitioner Zhang Yunxia was in her 60s but the officials abused her all the
same. Practitioner Su Yiwen had heart disease, high blood pressure and a bloated
stomach, but the officials still tortured her. Practitioner Zhang Chunmei was
also handcuffed to a heating pipe and forced to sit the same way I was. Her
hands swelled like balloons, and they turned black. Even her face swelled.
Practitioner Sun Jinjun was force-fed. The officials pried her mouth open with a
spoon until her teeth came loose. They inserted a wooden stick into her mouth
and poured corn porridge down her throat. In July 2002, the guards persecuted Dafa practitioners who refused to wear a
prisoner's uniform. Group 3 heads Wang Xiaofeng and Huang Haiyan led six
collaborators and pinned Zhang Yunxia to the floor with her face down, removed
her clothes and put the prisoner's uniform on her. Then they handcuffed her
hands to each end of the long bench and did not let her go to the restroom. A meeting was held for everyone at the Masanjia Forced Labor camp on August
22, 2002, during which the officials illegally issued an arrest warrant for Dafa
practitioners Li Liming, Li Dongqing and Song Caihong. They tried to intimidate
determined Dafa practitioners this way. Many guards came. They surrounded the
conference room. I refused to go to the meeting. They dragged me there. In order
to prevent me from shouting, "Falun Dafa is good" they gagged me and
taped my mouth. Dafa practitioners constantly stepped forward during the meeting
to validate Dafa. The guards were vicious-- they kicked these practitioners to
the ground and beat them. They dragged the practitioners inside the building and
handcuffed their hands behind their back to a heating pipe. They gagged the
practitioners with cleaning rags and taped their mouths shut. After the meeting they sent me to a solitary confinement cell yet again.
There were nine solitary confinement cells. All of them were filled with Dafa
practitioners who had stepped forward during the meeting, whom the persecutors
thought "displayed the worst behavior." There were camera monitors and
also loudspeakers in the cell. The radio blasted fabrications slandering Master
and Dafa, day and night, at the highest volume without a break. It was
deafening. They reduced the number of daily restroom visits allowed Dafa
practitioners from three to two and forbade us to wash ourselves. This solitary
confinement lasted 30 days. My feet swelled so badly, the skin was about to
burst. The blood vessels on my feet were bright red and hurt very badly when my
feet touched the ground. My calves were red, hot and swollen. My hands and arms
also swelled like balloons. Guard Xue Feng took me back to Group 1 on September 18, 2002. They were
watching a documentary and ordered us to discuss the video afterwards.
Collaborator Ge Yunling said bad things about Falun Gong and accused Falun Gong
of getting involved in politics. I clarified the truth to her. She
refused to listen and cursed Dafa. I shouted the Fa rectification verse, and a
group of officials came over. They struck me to the ground, held me and tied my
hands behind my back. They put a filthy towel in my mouth and tied it with a
strip of cloth. Wang Xiaofeng and a female guard named Xiang videotaped me and
told the others to take me to the ground floor. In the evening, deputy Division
Head Wang Shuzheng took me to the office and tried to make me stand the whole
night but did not succeed, so she handcuffed me to a heating pipe, very close to
the ground. I had to sit on the icy ceramic tile floor. Another round of persecution, the "Battle to Take the Fort", began
at Masanjia in early December 2002. The guards were not permitted to go home
during that time and had to eat and sleep at the labor camp.
Wang Xiaofeng called me over on December 9, 2002 and threatened me. He said,
"You cannot practice Falun Gong anymore; if you do, I'll teach you a good
lesson!" I refused to comply, and he told me to go to the ground floor and
handcuffed me to a heating pipe. He gagged me with a cleaning rag and taped my
mouth shut. Then he proceeded to shock me with high-voltage electric batons.
Soon my hands bled while he kept accusing me of making trouble. My blood stuck
to the electric baton. He removed the tape from my mouth and began shocking my
mouth. My lips doubled in size, and I could barely open my mouth.
He shocked the soles of my feet, but I did not fall down. He said to Xue Feng,
"Before When I shocked people's feet before they would fall down instantly;
what's wrong today? The battery must be running low." Xue Feng found two
more electric batons and tried them on me, but they still did not work and had
even less electric power than the first one, so he put the two electric batons
away. He took out a notebook and tried to take notes, to prepare for further
persecution. I refused to cooperate with him. He sent me to solitary confinement
cell. It was very cold that winter, and they did not let Dafa practitioners wear
heavy coats. They opened all of the doors and windows to freeze us. Our food was
a small piece of hard cornbread and several pieces of salted vegetable for each
meal. They did not give us water. They ceaselessly played audiotapes slandering
Master and Dafa.
Wang Xiaofeng and Xue Feng took me back to the regular cell after 22 days.
The next day was Chinese New Year's Day. The guards were on vacation, so they
let me out of the solitary confinement cell. I was somewhat mentally traumatized
from the torture. In addition, my weight had dropped to 88 lbs. I could not hold
onto anything because my hands were black and the size of grapefruits, and they
were covered in frostbite. My feet were so swollen that I had to wear extra
large slippers. My ankles also swelled, became ulcerated and seeped pus. Scars
remain on my feet even now. My knees hurt as if they were stabbed with knives
whenever I moved. I could neither squat nor stand when I went to the restroom
and also sweated profusely from pain. Despite my condition, Wang Xiaofeng did
not let me sleep in a bed and continued to make me sit on a small stool with my
hands tied behind my back. They were not lenient toward other practitioners, either. They tortured them
with freezing, hanging-up, electric shock, sleep deprivation, and other corporal
punishment. They forced practitioners to sit in the full lotus position (both
legs crossed, one on top of the other) for long periods of time, to savagely
persecute them. They took practitioner Huang Shufen from Group 2, Division 1 to
the triangular storage room, where they handcuffed her arms behind her back, put
a rope through the handcuffs and hung her by her hands from a metal structure on
the ceiling. They pulled the rope up and down with Huang Shufen tied to the
other end hanging in the air. They did this repeatedly until both of her
shoulders were dislocated and her right wrist bone was completely shattered.
They put a plaster cast on her before her bones were correctly set. As a result
she could not use her right hand for more than one year. The officials hung practitioner Zhang Haiyan from Group 5, Division 1 from a
heating pipe with her feet barely touching the ground. They hung her for three
days, during which they bombarded her with audiotapes slandering Master and Dafa.
She could not endure the torture any longer, but she also did not want to betray
her conscience, her Master and Dafa in exchange for temporary relief.
Nevertheless, during a restroom visit, in desperation, she threw herself against
a heating pipe, and blood gushed out from her head. She was taken to the nurse's
office and given simple treatment before they quickly hung her up again. The
next day she threw herself against the heating pipe again. This time she
suffered a mental collapse and could not speak. Her head now has a 4 cm [1.6
inches] long scar. The officials also took Falun Gong practitioners to the triangular storage
room and handcuffed them to a heating pipe. They shocked the practitioners'
chest, armpits, inner thighs, neck, hands, feet and other sensitive body parts
until the practitioners give in. They also threaten the practitioners and tell
them not to expose the atrocities. Practitioner Su Yiwen had a heart attack in April 2003 and remained in bed,
feeling awful. One day Wang Xiaofeng and Su Hong, heads of Group 4, and Sun, the
group head on duty, tried to handcuff Su Yiwen and immobilize her with metal
chains. Su Yiwen firmly refused to cooperate with them. I supported her and
shouted, "Falun Dafa is good!" They sent both of us to solitary
confinement and held us there for 20 days. Masanjia Forced Labor Camp officials issued an arrest warrant for me on June
28, 2004 and sent me to Shenyang City Detention Center. The deputy division head
there, Xu Yan, was vicious. She brutally force-fed Dafa practitioners on hunger
strike. She poured a huge quantity of salt into the corn porridge fed to the
practitioners. Guard Duan Guoyun told the inmates to beat me. They yanked out
lots of my hair, which was all over the floor.
Chinese version available at
http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/4/2/151929.html
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