(Clearwisdom.net) I am a practitioner from the Inner-Mongolia Autonomous Region. I originally worked as a clerk, while my husband was a senior engineer and an assistant manager. We lived a comfortable, affluent life. But we soon lost everything.
Before I started cultivation practice, I had a bad temper. I was also in poor health with many illnesses, including heart disease, arthritis, stomach disorders, erratic blood pressure, and chronic fatigue syndrome, among others. I rarely felt well.
In February of 1998, a relative introduced me to Falun Dafa. Every day I studied the Fa, practiced the exercises, and lived according to the principles of Dafa. Several months later, I was free of all my illnesses, and I truly felt Dafa's miraculous effects. My whole outlook on life had changed dramatically. I recognized the magnificence and incomparable goodness of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance." Falun Dafa is indeed a great, high level cultivation practice. I felt incredibly fortunate.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), however, began its irrational persecution of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, arresting and detaining practitioners or sentencing them to forced labor or prison terms. Many people in our local area were arrested. A short time later, I left my hometown to run a business in another city. I heard frequent news about people from my hometown who had been arrested or sentenced to forced labor. Those who were not arrested effectively lost their freedom because they had to turn in their IDs and report to the police department every day. Practitioners who ran their own businesses had to make statements of intent or ask for permission every time they went out of town to get supplies. The police also specified the route the practitioners had to take, or they wouldn't get their IDs. Practitioners had no freedom at all, and their businesses suffered as a result.
The police went to the homes of my siblings and other relatives many times to ask for my address and phone number, claiming that they wanted to take me back to my hometown. But my family did not cooperate. In September 2000, I went back to my hometown voluntarily. I went to my sister-in-law's home in Ulan Hot first to have an experience sharing with the local practitioners.
A practitioner's husband did not understand the truth about Falun Dafa, however, and he reported us to the police. They stationed officers outside my sister's home for three days. On the afternoon of October 8, the police arrested my sister. They arrested a total of nine people during those three days - everyone but me. So they gave my case top priority. They held a meeting with the Ulan Hot City Police Department, Forestry Police Department, and local police to discuss strategies for apprehending me. Their superiors had identified me as a dangerous fugitive who had to be captured, whatever the cost.
I was forced to begin a difficult life, fleeing from one place to another. But the police did not give up. On the night of October 19, they arrested my husband and held him at the Ulan Hot Detention Center. They interrogated him many times, demanding to know my whereabouts. They also repeatedly lied to him, saying that they would take me home as soon as they found me. They intimidated him and told him that he would get three years of forced labor if they couldn't find me. My husband almost collapsed under the pressure. His mouth was full of sores, and he was unable to eat. He was illegally detained for a month.
The police also went to one of our relatives, saying that they would release my husband if the relative paid them 5,000 yuan. To secure my husband's quick release, the relative borrowed the money at a high interest rate and gave it to the police. They used my husband to extort 5,000 yuan from our relative.
Although he had been released from custody, my husband was still on probation awaiting trial. The police continued trying to force him to reveal my whereabouts. They also held his ID and denied all his requests to have it returned. After many such hassles, my husband finally escaped from the police. We were forced to become homeless and endured severe difficulties.
For the past eight years my father's family has been harassed and intimidated by the local police, who often go to my family's home to interrogate them. This has created a huge emotional burden on them. On January 22, 2001, and again the following month, four to five officers drove a police car to my father's home during the night in order to arrest me. My father was in his seventies and already had heart disease. His condition often intensified because of the constant stress the police caused. My brother was also in poor health, and he too developed heart disease under the stress of police harassment. His condition did not improve until he was finally hospitalized at the end of 2001 with severe symptoms of heart disease. Every day, my family lived their lives in fear.
The police also harassed and intimidated other relatives of ours. They criss-crossed the region looking for me, wasting huge amounts of manpower, resources, and money. They used people's hard-earned money to persecute others.
Wherever we went, our relatives feared that they would be implicated, so they dared not take us in. We had no place to stay. Some relatives finally let us stay with them, but they were terrified. Every day, we lived in worry and fear. I soon had no choice but to do some craft work to earn some money, and we were barely able to make ends meet. Someone who did not understand the truth told the authorities that we practiced Falun Dafa. The police came to the house several times and asked for our IDs, saying they needed them to issue us a permit for temporary residence.
From then on we were under constant surveillance. One night a police officer jumped into our courtyard at around 11:00 p.m. and came into our room looking for Falun Dafa practitioners. He did not find any, so he left. We were under surveillance for more than six months. We could not sleep peacefully. Whenever the police came, the dog would keep barking, which disturbed the neighbors' sleep so much that they got upset and swore at the police.
Originally my family ran a business outside my hometown. Then CCP members arrested and detained my husband and pursued me all over the region. Our business partner used this opportunity to steal our property and merchandise worth over 100,000 yuan. We were left penniless. But later on, other practitioners assisted us unconditionally, providing us with a place to live and helping us in many other ways. Our life became more stable, but it was still very difficult.
On March 3, 2003, officers from my hometown police department went to my son's workplace -- which was 3,000 miles away -- to look for my son. Fortunately he was not there at the time. They then questioned my son's co-workers, attempting to learn his whereabouts. They told the police that my son had left very early. The police did not believe it and stayed there for several days looking for my son. They finally left without finding him. Since my son had graduated in 2001, the authorities in my hometown kept refusing my son's request for an ID, which prevented him from finding a good job. My relatives asked others to apply for an ID for my son, but to no avail. The authorities said that they had been ordered to freeze our residence registration.
All this has taken place because of the persecution initiated by the CCP. We have been unable to work or return to our home. My family and relatives have all been persecuted because of me. My father is almost eighty now, and I have not seen him for eight years. My family and I live in the same country, yet we are unable to see each other. The CCP will just not let us live our lives in peace.
