(Clearwisdom.net) My name is Yi Ke, and I am not a Falun Gong practitioner. I would like to tell what it was like being in the Beijing Detention Center. Although it happened in 1999, nine years later it still feels like it happened just yesterday. The police discovered several pornographic VCDs at my place and held me for ten days at the Beijing Fangshan Detention Center. What I witnessed there moved me repeatedly. My detention center stay turned out not to be a waste of time but rather a turning point in my life.
I had to remove all my clothing and submit to a body search before I was allowed to enter the facility. Buttons, zippers, belts, and shoes had to be left outside. I had to hold up my pants so they would not fall down. A cell head asked each detainee several questions. If the reply was unsatisfactory, a beating followed. I was forced to maintain torturous positions such as "flying an airplane" and "Swallow Flying" (see also http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/8/31/51910.html), as well have my face slapped again and again until the inmates in the cell who did this to me got tired. All seven inmates--except one young man about my age--participated in torturing me. The young man did not take part and even shouted at the other inmates to stop the beating me and tried protect me. The inmates called him "Falun Gong."
No one knew his name. He called himself Falun Gong Practitioner. The guards pressured him for his name and address, but he refused to tell them. The inmates admired what he did. Later on I learned why he was detained.
He had practiced Falun Gong for three years. After taking up the practice, his insomnia and dizziness disappeared and his morals improved. He told me two stories. Before beginning the practice he went out of his way to obtain personal gain by faking receipts for reimbursements. After becoming a practitioner, he refused all the falsified receipts offered by a store manager who wanted to promote the store products. Once when he mailed 3,600 yuan to purchase a bunch of audio parts from a company in Wuhan City, the company doubled his delivery. He sold all the parts and mailed the extra 3,600 yuan back to the company and explained that he did this because he was a Falun Gong practitioner. Not long ago, he purchased more minutes on his cell phone in the Fangshan region. The salesman forgot to charge him. He was so busy talking to the salesman about how to check the minutes that he forgot to pay. Realizing this after he had already left the store, he went back, paid what he owed, and told the salesman that he did it because he practiced Falun Gong. The salesman was grateful and surprised and said, "You Falun Gong are so good! How come the TV tells a different story about Falun Gong?" The practitioner then explained what Falun Gong was all about and how Jiang's regime persecuted Falun Gong. The salesman and other salespersons in the store had a good understanding of Falun Gong after this incident.
In the past I did not know much Falun Gong. After this conversation I knew that Falun Gong practitioners were cultivators and lived according to Truth-Compassion-Forbearance. Falun Gong was persecuted because so many people practiced Falun Gong, their numbers exceeding CCP members. In addition, many high-level Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials also practiced Falun Gong, which frightened Jiang Zemin, who was worried about losing his power. That is why Jiang ordered Falun Gong to be wiped out. The primary reason for this persecution was Jiang's envy and resentment of the Master of Falun Gong. Several key CCP members disagreed, but Jiang insisted his orders be carried out. He slandered Falun Gong and sought to eliminate it in three months. "Mr. Falun Gong" and I also talked about the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre (known in China as the "June 4th Incident"), which was similar to the persecution of Falun Gong. After the students were labeled "anti-revolutionary rioters," the CCP used this as justification to massacre unarmed students and citizens.
In the following days we talked about almost everything. All the inmates were touched by "Falun Gong's" great compassion and tolerance, and were angry about this persecution. A young man in his 20s wanted to practice Falun Gong after he was released. "Falun Gong" told him how to find a contact person when he got out.
Later on, police officials questioned him several times, but he did not provide any useful information. He told us that many Falun Gong practitioners were here in Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. You saw them everywhere--from the city to the suburbs. About 30 practitioners, including himself, were arrested together. He only told the police that he was a Falun Gong practitioner. At the Fangshan Police Station the chief beat him. He told the chief not to get angry and explained what Falun Gong is. The next day a policeman beat him viciously and kicked him in the groin. In the end, he still did not reveal his name. The station officers took him to the police department, where he was questioned for an entire day but did not reveal his identify. Finally he was taken to the detention center.
I asked him if he hated the officers that had tortured him. He said, "No, our Master told us not to complain or be resentful." Many guards did not know the truth and did not understand Falun Gong. In the month of September, a military officer in the same cell saw him reading Zhuan Falun and attempted to report him. But after a conversation with the practitioner he learned about Falun Gong and the cultivation of Truth-Compassion-Forbearance, raising one's morals, and becoming healthy. Now that military officer is a firm Falun Gong practitioner.
The "Falun Gong" read to me "An Upright Person" from Hong Yin, which I still remember clearly:
"He who acts for his name
a life of anger and hate is his
He who acts for profit
cold is he, knowing not his kin
He who acts for emotion
many are the troubles he brings himself
Bitter,
fighting away,
he makes karma all his life.
Not seeking a name
life is carefree and content
Not set on profit
one is known as humane and righteous
Not stirred by emotion
the mind is quiet, desires few
Kind,
cultivating himself,
he builds up virtue all his years." (from translation version A)
We became very good friends before my release. He told me that his last name was Cao and that he was from Sichuan Province.
I have never forgotten this experience. Several years after, I had many conversations with people regarding Falun Gong. Many of them knew that the CCP falsified incidents and blamed Falun Gong, including the fake practitioner's suicide and the "Self-immolation Incident" at Tiananmen Square. Last year I obtained anti-web-blocking software so that I could really understand the truth of what is happening in China. I read the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party and saw clearly that the CCP placed itself above the country, above the law, and above the constitution, and has killed many people. After quitting the CCP and its affiliated organizations, I saw many people were still blinded by CCP ideology. I decided to write this article and share my experiences, especially for those who still misunderstand Falun Gong and are fooled by the fabrications concocted by the CCP. They should get close to Falun Gong and understand how Falun Gong practitioners cultivate and their excellent character.
Conscientious and ethical people with a sense of justice should stand up, appeal for Falun Gong, and stop the persecution of Falun Gong. I believe that justice will be served with regard to those who were and are involved in the persecution and that this will happen soon.
