Around 5:30 a.m. on September 23, 2005, large groups of police officers led by the Daqing City 610 Office carried out city-wide arrests of Falun Gong practitioners.
Twenty-seven practitioners were arrested and their homes searched. After more than a month, the local media has not said one word about the incident. Arrested practitioners, however, are still detained. Except for a few relatives of practitioners and a few witnesses, most citizens, and even some relatives of the arrested practitioners, do not know of these arrests. Practitioners risk much spreading flyers to expose the illegal persecution, but flyers posted in public places have been quickly damaged by people hired by the government.
This article is based on information collected through painful efforts. It is our sincere hope that all kind people will offer their hand to help these practitioners.
1. Breaking into Homes Carrying Video Cameras to Fool the Neighbors
At about 5:30 a.m. on September 23, 2005 (Friday), large groups of police officers in Daqing City broke into many practitioners' homes to arrest them. On average, about 10 officers arrested each practitioner. Carrying video cameras, they damaged door locks, violently searched practitioners' homes, and illegally arrested practitioners.
The Daqing City 610 Office mobilized 11 of 20 police branches. Total police officers in action were about 200. The 11 police branches are: Ranghu Road Branch, Donghu Branch, Tieren Branch, Longnan Branch, Chengfeng Branch, Kaifaqu District Branch, Xincun-Dong'an Branch, Longfeng Branch, Babaishang Branch, Huizhan Branch, and Wolitun Branch. The arrests were overseen by the chief and deputy chief of the Daqing city police headquarters.
1) Since practitioners have been clarifying the facts about Falun Gong to the world's people during the past six years, many people have learned the truth. It's hard for the persecution to continue now. Police officers know that they are doing wrong deeds because they know practitioners are good citizens. They even use groups of police officers to arrest just one 70-80-year-old practitioner.
2) Groups of police officers came in with video cameras in hand. Their intention was to trick by-standers into believing that they were searching for important evidence in practitioners' homes.
3) Police officers put computers, printers, and printer paper together with Falun Gong flyers, CD's, the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party and then videotaped them. In this manner, they hoped to trick viewers into believing that Falun Gong flyers and other materials were downloaded and edited on these computers. This is quite misleading because nobody who watches the video can tell what is actually inside those CDs, the computers, or the other materials. There was no proof whether the materials were from that computer or not. Since police officers treat all materials as "National Secrets," the public has no way to verify the integrity of the videos.
Police officers use tricks such as these to deceive the public, to appease the pressure from the authorities above, and to threaten and intimidate practitioners' families.
In this round of arrests, 27 practitioners were arrested. Most of them were women in their 40s to 50s. Three were in their 60s and 70s. Five of them were middle-aged men.
2. Practitioners are Good Citizens
The practitioners arrested on September 23 are all good citizens who follow "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" and do not seek revenge, even when being attacked or verbally abused. The following facts support this.
Ms. Chen Changxiu is a 49-year-old resident of Apartment 101, Unit 2, Building 2-1, Longnanyue Apartment Complex. She used to have many diseases which could not be cured even though she took many different medications. She was very weak. Not long after Ms. Chen began practicing Falun Dafa, all her diseases disappeared, and she became very good tempered. All the people around her liked her. The neighbors could not believe that police officers would arrest her from home so violently.
Ms. Cheng Jinzhi is a 43-year-old accountant who was laid off with compensation from the bank where she worked. She lives at Apartment 301, Unit 2, Building 3-11, Longnanyue Apartment Complex. Through practicing Falun Gong, Ms. Chen was cured of her serious muscle weakness disease, without medicine. It is widely known that she is a good wife and mother. Her husband is very sad about her arrest.
Ms. Li Shumei, 65, lives at Apartment 202, Unit 5, Building 25, Longnanle Apartment Complex. She used to have many diseases, but through the practice of Falun Dafa, she recovered completely. This time, Ms. Li was also arrested.
Ms. Chen Qingli is a 42-year-old worker at the Sa District Management Office. She lives in Building 5-25, Dongfeng New Village. Before practicing Falun Gong, Ms. Chen was addicted to playing Mahjong, had a fiery temper, and had many health problems. After she started practicing Falun Gong, she became healthy and open-minded, and she now enjoys helping others. Since July 22, 1999, Ms. Chen has suffered from much persecution. This time, her home was searched and she was arrested and detained.
Ms. Liu Li is from the Changxi area, in the Longfeng District. She was an employee of the Longfeng Cleaning Products Division, Wanlong Materials Company, a subsidiary of Daqing Petro-chemical. She is a very honest and hard-working person. Because Liu Li has been very firm in the practice of Falun Gong and clarifies the facts to people, she was detained and forced into a compensated lay-off.. In April 2004, Ms. Liu opened a daycare. Due to her kindness and love for children, kids call her "Mom." On September 23, Ms. Liu was arrested and could not take care of the daycare and the kids. About 30 kids had to leave her services.
Due to limited space in this article, not all of the practitioners' stories are listed here. Names of arrested practitioners are listed at the end of the article.
3. Police Officers Acted Like Ruffians in the September 23 Arrests
The following are some of the crimes committed by the police officers:
a) Police Officers Were Very Violent, Treating Seniors and Children Brutally
The chief of the Kaifa District Police Branch led a group of police officers and broke into Professor Liu's home at Daqing Petroleum University to arrest his 63-year-old wife, Gao Guifen. The police officers first confiscated all cellular phones in the home and cut the phone line, then they videotaped the home-searching process. Professor Liu's 13-year-old grandchild was very upset and cried. Professor Liu was seriously mentally affected. When Liu's family questioned the legality of the search, the police officers took out a blank warrant and filled it out in front of them.
The chief of the Donghu Police Branch led six officers to Mr. Li Qingzuo's home. Policewoman Xu Hongxiang lied, saying that she had a stomachache in order to deceive Mr. Li into opening his door because Mr. Li is a doctor. As soon as the door was open, officers rushed in and pushed Mr. Li down to the floor and twisted his arms and neck very brutally. Mr. Li's son tried to stop the violence. But police officers stepped on his toes and said, "Are you practicing Falun Gong also? We should arrest you as well!"
Police officers from the Babaixiang Branch and Huizhan Branch arrived in three police vans at Mr. Zheng Hongjun's home at Apartment 502, Unit 3, Building 3-4, Hongwei Village, Chengfeng District. Over 20 officers surrounded Mr. Zheng's home. They broke the door lock to enter Zheng Hongjun's apartment. Since Mr. Zheng refused to cooperate with them, six to seven officers beat Mr. Zheng all the way from the 5th floor to the outside of the building. The neighbors said, "These are ruffians, not police officers. They just arrested such a good person." The same day, police officers sealed up Zheng's business, "Shenghe Technology," which is located at Area B, Third Floor of the Dewei Computer Mall, Daqing City, and took what they wanted from it.
Ms. Tang Zengye is a practitioner who works at the Third Oil Extraction Factory. When she was greeting her friend Ms. Liu Fengying on a street, police officers rushed them and arrested the two women. Bystanders were shocked by the scene and thought the police officers were terrorists. The police officers then ransacked Ms. Liu's cellular phone store, and Ms. Tang's parent's and younger brother's homes.
Eight to nine police officers from the Xincun-Dong'an Police Branch arrived at Ms. Chen Qingli's home at the Dongfeng New Village. An officer pried the door lock and broke in. Police officer Zhu Liyou threatened Ms. Chen's husband, "I could destroy your family and kill you!" Deputy Police Chief Wu Guancheng was on site, but he said nothing when he heard these insane threats.
A female practitioner who lives at the Ranghulu District had a guest who was knocking on her door. When she opened the door, hidden police officers rushed in and arrested her. The guest was shocked, and went downstairs trembling. The guest told a by-stander, "Are those police officers? They are just like the terrorists in the movies."
b) Practitioners Accused Illegally
All arrested Falun Gong practitioners are charged with the same crime of "disturbing the enforcement of law by making use of a [slanderous words omitted]," which is derived from Item 300 of the Criminal Law, the "Explanations of Enforcing the Items Regarding Crimes Related to [slanderous word omitted] by the Highest Court and Procurator," and the "Decisions on Banning, Suppressing, and Punishing [slanderous word omitted] Activities" by the CCP's National Congress.
"Explanation" means if you print Falun Gong related materials, clarify the facts to the public, and are steadfast in your belief in "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance," regardless of the fact that these are very beneficial to society, CCP (the Chinese Communist Party) will say you have committed crimes and could sentence you to serious "punishment." The Chinese Constitution stipulates, "Citizens have the right of freedom of speech." Item 19 of the "International Human Rights Treaty" says, "All individuals have the freedom to express opinions, spread or receive information through any media without limitation by boundaries of countries. It can be in any form such as oral, written, printed, or art."
After Mr. Li Qingzuo and his daughter and daughter-in-law were arrested, a family member went to the Donghu Police Station to ask for an explanation. The police chief said, "The provincial government ordered us to arrest a list of practitioners on September 23." The family member asked, "What law did they break?" An officer said, "Li Qingzuo has a bad attitude. He shouted 'Falun Dafa is Good' when he was arrested and pushed into the police car."
The police officers did not prepare search warrants. When a practitioner questioned if they had a search warrant, one police officer answered, "Which warrant? We have a lot." He pulled several blank sheets out of his pocket, filled them out and threatened, "Is this enough? If it's not enough I'll fill out more. But I'll search your home as many times as the number of warrants I have."
It has been learned that police officers carried pre-stamped and sealed blank warrants with them and would fill them out as they pleased. When they arrested Ms. Tang Zengye and searched her parent's and brother's homes, Ms. Tang's family members questioned the police officers. They said, "Tang Zengye has 'Internet problems'."
b) Large-scale Burglary
Daqing police officers are notorious for illegally searching practitioner's homes. Some police officers check the practitioner's economic condition before doing a home search. If the practitioners don't have much money, theofficers don't have any interest in searching their homes. Police officers are stealing property from practitioners' homes.
One police officer works at the Longnan Branch. His notebook PC and his child's cell phone are both from practitioners. Illegal home-searching is one way police officers become wealthy. When they search practitioners' homes, practitioners have nowhere to appeal. One police officer told a practitioner, "I'll release you if you buy me a car. I don't need a new car. A used car is OK."
The September 23 arrests were another opportunity for police officers to rob citizens.
According to practitioners' investigations, after the home searches, practitioners found that not only computers, printers, fax machines, and Dafa-related materials were confiscated, but telephones, bank deposit books, and bank cards were also taken away. Sometimes, cash and precious metals were also taken away. Police officers left no receipts after the robbery.
Practitioner Ms. Cao Shuxia is from the Science and Technology Park in the Rangqu District. After the home-search, her child's computer, her husband's camcorder, their bank deposit books, and 1,000 yuan in cash were all gone. Even the telephone had been taken away. The police officers followed no legal procedures, and left no receipts for the property taken.
Mr. Zheng Hongjun was forced to accept a compensated layoff. He is divorced and is supporting an 11-year-old daughter who is sick and cannot take care of herself. Since he had no income, Mr. Zheng rented out his only room to help pay for his daughter's living and medical expenses. They stayed with his parents and opened a computer store to survive. On September 23, police officers arrested Ms. Zheng and sealed up his store. Since Zheng Hongjun's family could not take care of the store, police officers have taken away most of the items in the store.
d) Torture and Painful Cries, Relatives Are Brokenhearted
Arrested practitioners are detained at the Daqing Detention Center and Longfeng Detention Center. Most of them have been tortured. Many of them went on hunger strikes in protest and were force-fed brutally three times a day. The police department declared that all arrested practitioners would be sent to forced labor camps. The following are pieces of information leaked out through layers of a tight information blockade.
Ms. Tang Zengye was tortured by being forced to sit on the Iron Chair. Her hands and feet were handcuffed to steel rings, which left her immobile. The torture, plus her hunger strike, has made Ms. Tang very weak. She vomited blood. The guards coerced criminal inmates to slap her face and hit her head with the steel basin used to force-feed her. In the force-feeding, criminals tortured Ms. Tang cruelly. The excruciating torture caused Ms. Tang to scream in pain.
Ms. Cao Shuxia is jailed at the Daqing Detention Center. She was forced to sit on the Iron Chair for a whole night, followed by a 24-hour interrogation. On October 2, 2005, Ms. Cao was again interrogated starting at 7 a.m., and she was again not allowed sleep for 24 hours. As soon as she closed her eyes, the cruel monitors would hit her face with a mop, which left a big bruise around her eyes. Ms. Cao was not allowed to use the bathroom even when she was on her period, which caused her slacks to be soiled. She was in a mentally disoriented state.
When Mr. Yuan Mi was first jailed at the Daqing Detention Center; he was interrogated for 5 days and nights non-stop as to the source of the truth clarification materials in his possession. He was forced to sit on the Iron Chair and was not allowed food or sleep. An officer covered Mr. Yuan's head with a black plastic bag and blew smoke into it. He suffered serious mental trauma as a result of the torture. Mr. Yuan is now detained at the Harbin Drug Rehabilitation Center.
Mr. Li Yequan has been on a hunger strike since he was arrested on the morning on September 23. On September 27, the forced labor camp refused to take him after a physical exam. But the Daqing City Political and Judicial Committee, the 610 Office, the police department, and the forced labor camp held a meeting that night and decided to detain him for two years in the forced labor camp. At the camp, Mr. Li continued his hunger strike in protest. The camp force-fed him brutally three times a day. Witnesses said that the forced-feeding is too horrible to observe or describe.
Another practitioner, Mr. Ge Zhenming, was sent to the forced labor camp on a stretcher by his captors.
The ongoing six years of persecution have caused colossal mental and physical injury to the local practitioners and their families. Blood and tears have accompanied their lives. The September 23 arrests added new pains on top of old scars. While over 20 practitioners are suffering in detention, hundreds of their relatives are suffering from illness, mental collapse, worry and sadness. Some families of the arrested practitioners have lost their source of income. They are having an extremely difficult time surviving and have had to beg for help.
When Mr. Zheng Hongjun was arrested, he was pushed into the police car barefoot in only his underwear. His sister and brother tried to stop the arrest, but were attacked by the police. His father, in his 60s, was so scared he fell onto a bed, pale faced with terror. Mr. Zheng's 65-year-old mother, who had never had heart problems, developed an irregular heartbeat due to the arrest. Zheng Hongjun's daughter, who has been disabled and bedridden for ten years and cannot speak clearly, was threatened to the point of crying and almost fell onto the floor from her bed. Now Mr. Zheng has been detained at the Longfeng Detention Center for over 20 days. His parents and daughter have been suffering all day long, every single day. His daughter beat her chest with her hands and shouted "Papa! Papa!" in tears while looking at her daddy's empty bed.
 Zheng Yanxu (Zheng Hongjun's disabled daughter) |
 Zheng Yanxu walks with the support of her grandma |
The arrest of Ms. Chen Qingli left her whole family in tremendous sorrow. Her son lost his happiness for he is now unable to see his mom after school. To avoid making Ms. Chen's parents and father-in-law unhappy, Ms. Chen's husband did not tell his father and her parents about the arrest. Ms. Chen's brother and sister had to take a temporary leave of absence from their jobs to beg for help for her. Her husband said, "I am not old, but see how many gray hairs I grown these years! She just got back from detention, and worked for two years, and now she is arrested again. I don't know how to survive anymore!"
When police officers broke into Ms. Gao Guifen's home like robbers, Ms. Gao's 13-year-old grandchild-in-law was terrified to the point of crying. Ms. Gao's husband, a 68-year-old professor, suffered a heavy mental trauma. Since July 20, 1999, due to the frequent harassment by police officers, this honest academician has suffered from depression and has been under medical treatment. But this new impact almost killed him. Sometimes he feels that life is unbearable. His children are frightened and had to accompany their father to work, which interfered with their jobs.
e) Dark Minions Are still Maneuvering, Plots Are still Going on
According to reliable sources, former president Jiang Zemin's die-hard followers, Zeng Qinhong and Luo Gan, have mobilized a new round of large-scale arrests by making use of the police and secret agencies. Their intentions are to create a situation of intensified persecution after Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao came into power, and thereby shift some of the responsibility for the persecution onto Hu and Wen.
At around September 20, 2005, police chiefs across Heilongjiang Province gathered at Harbin City to plot the arrest campaign. They listed Harbin and Daqing as focal points. The provincial police department sent name lists of practitioners to the local levels and ordered them to arrest the designated practitioners before October 1. In some areas, police officers were ordered to eat at the police dining hall, and to monitor, patrol and arrest practitioners day and night with an emphasis on nighttime arrests. On the night of September 22, the Daqing City Police Department and National Security Bureau held an emergency meeting, and decided to arrest practitioners on the list the next morning.
Some police officers resisted or were reluctant to follow orders in this round of persecution. One police chief said, "They really have nothing to do, why arrest those practitioners?!" Many police officers said, "This party is coming to an end, why always arrest Falun Gong practitioners?!" Several deputy police chiefs said, "What's the use of arresting practitioners? There are so many criminal cases which we have no time to deal with." One city-level official said, "Whenever I was forced to organize an arrest of Falun Gong practitioners, I would feel like I was committing crimes and felt very uneasy."
Afraid that local police officers aren't cruel enough to practitioners, the persecuting authorities ordered that police branches are not allowed to decide what to do with the arrested practitioners, and must report the status of persecution and arrests to the upper levels. Recently, in provinces such as Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Shandong, Ningxia, Anhui, Guangdong and Beijing City, many arrests of Falun Gong practitioners have occurred, and cases of deaths of practitioners have happened continuously. These are new crimes CCP has committed against Falun Gong practitioners.
In the afternoon of September 30, police authorities in Daqing City held another emergency meeting to deploy a citywide search and arrest of Falun Gong practitioners before the night of October 1, CCP's National Day. The meeting ordered all police officers to enter into "category 1 vigilance." At around October 21, officers from the Heilongjiang Province 610 Office stayed at the Daqing Ethylene Factory for a long period of time. Under pressure, the Ethylene Factory Police Forces carried out intensive monitoring and investigation, and arrested practitioners Liu Wanji, Zhao Yumei, Han Yunhua, and others.
We demand the unconditional release of all detained practitioners, and demand that these criminal officers be put to justice, and that the name of Falun Gong be cleared immediately!
4. Major Government Departments and Officers Responsible for the "September 23" Arrests and Home Searches of Practitioners
(Note: For home or office phone numbers, dial country code + area code before all numbers. For cell phone numbers, dial country code before the numbers. Country code: 86, area code: 459)
1. Daqing City National Security Bureau
Director, Lin Zhisheng: 6281231(Office), 6688448(Home),
13604651999(Cell)
CCP Secretary, Wang Xiyan: 6181232(Office), 4611878(Home),
13904591292(Cell)
2. Daqing City Police Department
Chief, Cao Liwei: 6371699(Office)
Political Commissar, Cao Zhenhe: 6373066(Office), 6280888(Home),
13329500002(Cell)
It has been six years since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched the persecution of Falun Gong. This persecution tore my family apart and destroyed it. My mother, Zhang Wenhan, used to work at the Zhengzhou University hospital. My father, He Sanpu, used to work in the Propaganda Department of the Provincial CCP Committee and was recognized as a very good person. When my mother was 36, she had very serious illnesses, including inflammation of the esophagus and gallbladder, pneumonia and an enlarged liver. She also had inflammation of her intestines, anemia, and serious neurasthenia. Mom was very weak and could not live without medicine. In August 1995, she had rheumatic fever, which caused serious bone pain. The rheumatic fever finally developed into rheumatic heart disease. She had to go to the hospital again, where the doctors found that she also had tuberculosis bacillus in her urine, and kidney disease. She had fever all the time and pain in the chest, heart, bones and also suffered from edema. Due to the pain, she was only able to sleep two to three hours every day, and she sweat a lot. Since Western medicine could not do anything to help her, she sought help from Chinese medicine. Three months of treatment cost several thousand yuan, although she still didn't get any better. My father was quite busy at work; he had much of the housework to do too, which physically exhausted him. Due to the heavy pressure, his health got worse and worse, and he often had pain in his heart.
Fortunately, my mother began practicing Falun Gong in April 1996. It was a miracle that all of her illnesses disappeared only a few months after she started practicing Falun Gong. She became a normal, healthy person again. Happiness returned to our family. Falun Gong saved our family. Since then, both my father and I also started the practice.
However, since the persecution of Falun Gong began on July 20, 1999, our happiness was destroyed again. My parents' workplaces kept pressuring them, telling them to renounce Falun Gong. My parents refused to do so, and instead tried to clarify the truth of Falun Gong to the people at work. But people were deceived by the lies from the government-controlled media. Under these conditions, my parents decided to go to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong, telling the government that Falun Gong heals people's illnesses and also teaches people kindness.
In December 1999, before my mother left for Beijing, the police learned about her plans, so they ordered her workplace to keep her under 24-hour surveillance. No matter where she went, there were always two people following her. This situation lasted until the beginning of 2000.
On March 4, 2000, my mother and I went to the State Council Appeals Bureau to appeal for Falun Gong. But before we even entered the gate, we were stopped, questioned by plainclothes policemen on the street, and illegally arrested. We were jailed in the basement of the Zhengzhou City Liaison Office in Beijing. The local police department in Zhengzhou and my mother's workplace were told to take us back to Zhengzhou City, so we were transferred to a local detention center. We were searched as soon as we got there. Mom had a pocket-sized copy of Zhuan Falun. They told her to give them the book. Mom replied that this book is even more precious than her life, so she would not hand it over to them. Immediately, four or five men rushed over and tried to take the book away from my mom. Mom held onto the wall and said, "This book will be with me forever, and I won't let you take it away from me." They stopped and became quiet. I shouted at them, "Leave my mom alone." After two minutes, the team leader relented and told those men to leave. We were jailed in a cell.
The next day, the team leader told the chief of the detention center what happened. The chief then came to our cell with several men. We were doing the Falun Gong exercises. The chief cursed at and beat us, but we were not moved. We kept doing the exercises and studying the Fa together.
After one month of being jailed, I decided to start a hunger strike to protest the illegal detention. On the fifth day of the hunger strike, I showed symptoms of illness. Doctors came to examine me and found no signal when measuring my blood pressure and heartbeat. They called an ambulance. I was clear in my heart that I am a cultivator, that everything is arranged by Master, and nothing bad would happen to me. Even in such a circumstance, the policemen still tried to force Mom to renounce Falun Gong and Master. Mom refused. The doctor asked Mom, "What do you want to keep? Falun Gong or your daughter?" Mom said, "I want both. Falun Gong saved me and gave me a new life, so I won't betray it. My daughter is a cultivator, and she has her own path of life. She is in danger now, so you should release her right away." The doctor looked at Mom and murmured to himself with tears in his eyes, "So solid?" The ambulance came after a while. They examined me again, and found no blood pressure or heartbeat. So I was sent to the hospital.
After the policemen left, my blood pressure rose gradually, and everything came back to normal. My pale face also became normal. My mom and I looked very good, and even our skin became smooth. The doctor was amazed, "Your mind was clear and all the organs functioned well, even when your blood pressure and heartbeat were zero. Falun Gong really produced a miracle!" In the hospital, Mom and I clarified the truth to the doctors and nurses. They were all interested to hear what we talked about. In the afternoon, the police released both of us unconditionally.
On July 14, 2000, my father called the Jinshui Police Station in Zhengzhou and asked them to release the practitioners who were held in detention longer than their sentences. He also said that it is illegal to do so and told them the heavenly principle that, "Good meets with good, and evildoing meets with karmic retribution." Twenty minutes later, my father was arrested at his workplace. They sent him directly to the detention center and searched our house. Mom and I didn't know that Father had been arrested, because they hid the news from us. At night, since my father was still not home, I called his workplace (the Henan Daily; he was transferred from his original workplace for practicing Falun Gong). It was then that I learned that he was already arrested. We didn't know where he was jailed. The next day, we went to the first detention center where we were jailed when we did the exercises in public, but found that my father was not there. Mother called the police station to inquire. The chief of the Political Security Section, Li Xinjian, said that he had nothing to tell my mother. Mother said, "I am his wife, so I have the right to know where he is!" Later we learned that my father was in the First Detention Center, which is for criminals like murderers, but they jail good people - Falun Gong practitioners - there too.
After 48 days, without any legal procedures and not informing the family, my father was sentenced to two years in a labor camp. We learned about it one week later. We brought some clothes to my father in the Baimiao Forced Labor Camp. That was the first time we saw him since his arrest. When we saw him, he was doing some heavy labor. He had become very skinny. According to the police, he was in even worse condition when he first got there. I could not help crying. Father comforted me, saying that everything would be fine. He asked me to listen to and obey my mother. Because the policemen were present we didn't talk too much, but our hearts were connected, and I understood my father's wish - he hoped that I would cultivate solidly. Later, since my mother and I practice Falun Gong, the authorities cancelled our permit to visit my father. We never saw him during the next two years. We survived through that hard time by encouraging each other and studying the Fa.
On December 29, 2000, Mother and I went to Tiananmen Square again and shouted out the words from our hearts with other practitioners, "Falun Dafa is good; Falun Dafa is righteous; Restore the reputation of our Master and Dafa!" We opened one banner after another. I saw that Mother was already caught by the police. Another practitioner and I ran around, holding the banner. Very soon we were pushed down by plainclothes policemen. They grabbed my hair and threw me into a police car, which had been parked there already. We were sent to the Tiananmen Police Station where I saw a lot of metal cages. One practitioner was locked in a cage, with blood all over his body. In the police station yard a lot of practitioners were held, my mother among them.
All the practitioners encouraged each other. We recited Master's articles and poems from "Hongyin". The scene was quite moving. The policemen beat us. A 20-year-old young man came in, holding his hand, and said that the police broke his fingers. The practitioners shouted, "Don't beat people!" But the policemen waved their metal batons. They didn't even spare 60-year-old people. The practitioners kept trying to stop them. Later, we were sent to jails and detention centers in Beijing. Mother and I were jailed in the Chaoyang District Detention Center. We were forced to take off all our clothes and were body-searched as soon as we got there. All our money was taken away. Mother and I were incarcerated in different cells.
In the wintertime, the temperatures were well below freezing and it was snowing, but the guards forced some practitioners to stand outside. They were only allowed to wear very thin clothes. We were not permitted to wear heavy clothes when on trial. In the cell, if we studied the Fa or recited Hongyin, the guards would order the criminal inmates to beat and curse us. The criminals burned practitioners' private parts with lit cigarettes and poked their ribs with pens. They forbid practitioners to use the bathroom. They slapped our faces with shoes. They forced us to bend down in the corner of the room. They dragged practitioners outside at night and beat us in the snowy weather. The detention center authorities ordered the criminals to force-feed practitioners through a tube in the nose. They tortured us by all kinds of methods, trying to destroy our will. In such a severe environment, practitioners still tried to kindly clarify the truth to them, and tell them why it was not good for them to torture people. Some practitioners even gave their sweaters to the criminals who were afraid of the cold. Gradually, the criminal inmates changed their attitude. They didn't interfere with us when we were studying the Fa. Some of them even joined us, and some said that they would not do any bad deeds after being released and the would also practice Falun Gong, and go to Tiananmen Square to appeal for Falun Gong.
After being jailed in the detention center for one month, the local police from my hometown came to take me back on the 2001 Chinese New Year's eve. On the way back, we had a car accident and my head was injured. Neither the local police station nor the police department wanted to take responsibility. They asked my relatives to take me home, since both of my parents were jailed. They had somebody stationed outside the house to watch me. One week later, I learned that they were planning to do something with me, so I escaped on the seventh day of the Chinese New Year. Thus I started my five-year-long homeless life.
My mother was taken back from Beijing by people in her workplace and sent to a brainwashing center. One month later, since she refused to renounce Falun Gong, she was sentenced to two years in a labor camp. Like that, I was separated from Mom. I could only get information about my parents from the Internet or from practitioners who were released from the labor camp. Now and then I received some words or poems from my father, which he asked practitioners to mail to me. He encouraged me to study the Fa more and walk well on the path of cultivation, since I had to live and cultivate on my own. I know that my parents won't worry about me as long as I can cultivate well.
I produce truth clarification materials with other practitioners. We print the materials, edit a weekly journal and deliver Master's articles and other information to the practitioners who don't have access to the Internet. In July 6, 2001, because one practitioner at the materials production site didn't pay enough attention to security, the police discovered the location of our site. Three practitioners were arrested and sent to a labor camp. Three computers, printers and copy machines were confiscated. I had to jump out of the window to escape arrest. My legs were broken. So again, the policemen had to ask my relatives to take me back.
My father started a hunger in the labor camp strike to protest the persecution. The guards handcuffed his arms behind his back and beat him with five electric batons on the head, ears and neck. He was knocked down, and then they stepped on his body and shocked him for 45 minutes. His face and neck were badly burned and swollen. His sentence was extended by three months. The labor camp forced practitioners to watch slanderous TV programs and compelled them to write their "understandings" of those programs. My father then wrote the truth about Falun Gong, entitled, "Falun Gong Cannot Be Insulted," and signed his name as, "Falun Dafa practitioner He Sanpu." The Third Team political head He Xianglong (this person has already been named on the list of persecutors) took my father to the office and handcuffed him. He kicked my father and beat him with an electric baton. Two policemen shocked him on the head, ears and neck. They also took off his clothes and shocked his back, stomach and lower back for 30 minutes.
In this severe environment, Master's articles were not easy to get, so Father had to recite the Fa. He memorized Guiding the Voyage and many other articles, which were sent into the labor camp through secret channels. He recited the Fa silently every day for three hours, which made his righteous mind more solid.
Mother was incarcerated in the Shibalihe Women's Forced Labor Camp in Zhengzhou, where the guards broke her legs, so she could take care of herself. She was in a solitary cell, and people were not allowed to visit her. Due to brutal force-feeding, two of her teeth were broken and other teeth were knocked loose. Her sentence was extended by three months. Since both of my parents are very solid practitioners, both of their sentences were extended. They were still not released after three extra months; instead, persons from their workplaces and from the local 610 Office sent them to a brainwashing class.
I collected the phone numbers of the supervisors at my father's workplace and published them on the Minghui/Clearwisdom website. Overseas practitioners called them, which shocked the evil. With practitioners' help and righteous thoughts, four months later my father was released. While he was in the labor camp, his CCP membership was revoked and he lost his job, but he didn't regret this. Two months after his release, the state council held a conference, citing "security issues." Under this pretext, personnel in the police station took my father away from home again. Father started a hunger strike and was released 20 days later.
After her sentence was extended by three months, my mother was sent to a brainwashing class by her workplace in March 2003. I collected the phone numbers of the leaders at her university and published an article on the Minghui/Clearwisdom website. I also edited some materials about the founding of the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, and articles on the subject of, "good meets with good, bad is met with retribution," as well as articles about the persecution of my mom. I sent them to the leaders of her school and asked them to release her immediately. Some overseas practitioners also called them, asking them to release her. One month later, Mom was released. Here I want to say, "Overseas practitioners, I really appreciate your help. Every call, every fax and every letter from you is a powerful shock to the evil, and also a big help to the practitioners in Mainland China!"
Simply because of my belief, the police are always trying to arrest me. They have looked for me in my relatives' homes and my friends' homes. They hold a picture of me and ask people about me around the bus station close to my relative's house. To avoid being persecuted again, I left my hometown. During this period, the police went to my home to harass my father. They claimed that I am wanted, and that this order has already been spread throughout the police network, so I cannot escape.
When father went to work, he was again sent to a brainwashing center by people from his workplace and from the 610 Office. After being released, he had to leave home with Mom to avoid persecution by his workplace and being sent to another brainwashing class. He and Mom are wanted by the 610 Office and by the Henan Daily. Their home registrations were cancelled also.
On July 11, 2005, undercover police caught my parents at a bus station. Mom escaped, and no one has heard from her since. Father was locked up in the Wanqingshanzhuang Brainwashing Class in Zhengzhou. He started a hunger strike on August 28. I called the CCP Committee at the Henan Daily and asked them to release him. They cursed me and said, "Falun Gong is our enemy. They deserve it if they starve to death!"
Because we believe in "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" we don't lie, and we defend our rights given by the Chinese Constitution. We are persecuted by CCP. In those six years, how many happy families have been destroyed? How many children have lost their parents? How many old people have lost their children? And how much bloodshed has occurred due to the persecution?
Here I appeal to the international community and to all kindhearted people, "Please give us your assistance and your support for Falun Gong. Let's stop the persecution together."
I long for the day that I can get back together with my parents.
Relevant Contact Information:
The deputy chief of the Henan Daily, Zhao Tiejun:
86-371-65795868 (Office), 86-371-65952956 (Home)
The office of the Henan Daily, Director Zhang: 86-371-65795879
(Office)
The CCP committee of the Henan Daily: 86-371-65795820, 65795811
The deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the CCP Committee
in Henan Province, Ma Zhengyao: 86-371-65902380 (Office)
The CCP Propaganda Department, Henan Province: 86-371-65902743
I was illegally arrested on April 4, 2003 and detained at Beijing's Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp for nearly 300 days. I experienced and witnessed many evil acts in this living hell.
In the beginning, I was assigned to Division 5. Every day we had to sing the so-called "reformation song" before we could eat or sleep, and we had to shout "report!" before going into a room. To get a meal, we had to first kneel down in front of the police chief and say, "How are you, Chief?" and then say, "Thank you, Chief!" after we got our food.
The police incited the collaborators and criminal inmates to monitor practitioners' activities and to limit practitioner's basic rights. The police encouraged criminals to assist in the persecution if they wanted to get a reduced sentence; otherwise they would have to serve a longer term. The collaborators and criminals did not allow practitioners to recite Master Li's articles from memory, and even interfered when they suspected practitioners were reciting in silence. They forbade practitioners to have any discussion on anything related to Falun Gong. The labor camp's rooms have surveillance cameras, which monitor practitioners' every single activity.
Once, someone reported to the guards that I had talked to another Falun Gong practitioner. As a result, they locked me into a single cell, away from other practitioners. In the camp, the guards frequently sent those practitioners who were firmly persisting in Falun Gong and refusing to "reform" to a single cell or to the Training Center Unit where they would experience all kinds of persecution.
On July 8, 2003 the camp created the "Fortified Assault Team," which was the former notorious the "Fortified Assault Class" and later was changed to the "First Division." I was the first one transferred over on the day the "Fortified Assault Team" was established. Practitioners who refused to be "reformed" were locked in separate rooms with prison inmates assigned to monitor Falun Gong practitioners under 24-hour surveillance. The door window was pasted over with paper, leaving only a one-inch edge on each side so that people inside could not see out, but the police could clearly see inside through those spaces.
The meal consisted only of a piece of steamed cornbread and a small bowl of vegetable soup.
Practitioners were forced to sit on a small, 20-centimeter tall plastic chair, with their knees together and hands on each knee, and back and neck straight at all times, from 5:00 a.m. in the morning to 11:00 p.m. or 12:00 midnight, sometimes even later. If one moved a little, the inmates would beat or verbally abuse the practitioners. Sitting there for one day was extremely uncomfortable. After sitting for a longer time, the buttocks and coccygeal vertebra would be rubbed raw, even to the point of bleeding and discharging pus.
In addition, the police also used various other torture methods to persecute steadfast practitioners. Mental torment included verbal abuse, brainwashing attempts, other insults, bans on family visitation, threats and inducing fear, and isolation to the point of despair. Through these torments, the perpetrators hoped that practitioners would give up Falun Gong. Physical tortures included beatings, electric shocks, long-term seating on a small chair, meager food rations to the point of starvation, not allowing normal sleep, not allowing bathroom breaks and all kinds of other corporal punishment (exposure to the sun, to the cold or freezing weather, sprinkling foul things into one's nose or mouth). Sometimes practitioners were exposed to a number of these tortures at the same time.
I personally know that at the end of 2003, practitioner Liu Quanwang, who was incarcerated in the First Division, had urine sprayed on his mouth, nose and body. He was forced to sit on the small chair for a long time and was given very little food. He was insulted, beaten, stabbed with sharp objects and he was not allowed to sleep.
For those who were forced to sign the three statements against their wishes, the police continued persecuting them. They were forced to read materials slandering Falun Gong and view videotapes and to write down their feelings, reflections, a summary of their new views, and other self-examining thoughts. They would have to re-write this again and again until the police were satisfied with their writing. They would have to present their summary in front of the group and they were forced to assist in "reforming" other practitioners. They were also forced to work as slave laborers to make a profit for the camp. Because many of them signed the "three letters" against their will, they felt bitter from the bottom of their hearts. With repeated brainwashing, repeated writing of summaries, repeatedly having to read their writings aloud in front of the group, they suffered tremendous spiritual torment. That pain really was more brutal than the physical torture. It hurts ten or even a hundred times more.
What I have related above is what I experienced and witnessed of the tortures at the Tuanhe Forced Labor camp.
Deyang Prison, a Concentration Camp for Persecuting Falun Gong Practitioners
(Clearwisdom.net) Deyang Prison, located in Huangxu Town, Deyang, Sichuan Province, is a concentration camp for persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. Local officials have established a 610 Office specifically to carry out the persecution of Falun Gong in the area. For several years, the persecution at Deyang Prison has been ceaseless. Several Falun Gong practitioners were tortured to death. Numerous practitioners were severely injured and/or disabled from torture.
Since the persecution has continued for many years, the officials at Deyan Prison have established a thoroughly evil system of persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. When practitioners arrive at the prison, the first thing that the 610 Office personnel do is threaten them. Next they confiscate all of their books, pens and other belongings. After that, committee supervisor Wan Ling forces prisoners to register and tells them that they must follow Article 300 of the Criminal Law Code to recite the prison rules and wear prison uniforms. If practitioners do not follow the rules, they will incite the prisoners to torture the practitioners in the TV room on the first floor. Almost half of the practitioners were persecuted in this way.
The prison authorities put the practitioners who are not "obedient" into the Strict Disciplinary Division on the second floor and segregate other practitioners on the third floor. They find excuses to abuse the Falun Gong practitioners, for example, when practitioners refuse to recite the prison rules or don't follow unreasonable orders to mistreat other practitioners. Practitioners are punished through a variety of means, including being forced to stand in the "Army Corps" posture, being forbidden from buying daily necessities [from the camp commissary], being prevented from sending letters, and being forbidden to meet with their family members. The practitioners who are in the Strict Disciplinary Division are permitted only small amounts of food. The camp guards say, "We can't let them have enough to eat. If they are full, it's going to be even harder to change them." It snowed on February 19, 2005, and the guards forced Falun Gong practitioners to sit in the snow.
In March of 2005, following prison warden Ma Aijun's orders, they sent the Falun Gong practitioners from the Second Prison Ward, as well as the practitioners who were new to the prison, to a secretly-built brainwashing class. The practitioners were forced to watch Dafa-defaming VCDs for a long time (almost 8 to 10 hours per day). Practitioners were forced to stand in the "Army Corps" posture until 1:00 a.m. If the guards were not happy with them, they would torture and beat practitioners. They didn't even spare the elderly Chen Liqing and Chai Dengwen. Falun Gong practitioner Hu Kaiguo was beaten on the face, causing extensive bruising.
The guards used the excuse of Falun Gong practitioners not reporting and not reciting the prison rules to abuse and mistreat them. The following people were incited to carry out the abuse: Zhang Song, Tang Kunhui, Bai Jian, Wu Keming, Liu Dequan, Kong Fan, Zeng Qunjun, Liang Enjie and others. They carried out their despicable acts on Falun Gong practitioners on the first floor. Practitioners Yang Bin, Deng Weijian Gong Guanlei, Tang Gangyi, Wang Guohua, Yang Wenrun and Tuo Wanxue were victims of this abuse. However, the strict discipline and segregation still couldn't shake these practitioners' firm belief in Dafa.
The guards then established a so-called study room on the second floor, for the purpose of covert abuse and torture. They formed a so-called "Beat Die-Hard Team" or "Serious Crime Team" to torture practitioners. This team was led by Wu Keming. Most of its members were hardcore criminals or gangsters such as Bai Jian, Meng Zhaofu, Song Wenchao, Wu Keming, Li Qiang Yang Shuangquan and others. They beat the practitioners savagely. If the practitioners shouted out, they taped their mouths shut. The criminals followed the evil commands from the guards. Guard Li Runming installed a high-volume sound system and played loud tapes (recorded by the evildoing person Liu Dequan) to defame Falun Gong and mentally torment the practitioners.
The practitioners did not cooperate with the prison's unreasonable demands and were beaten. The perpetrators shouted at them if practitioners didn't follow their orders. They have been known to push practitioners out the third floor window and then announce to the world that the practitioner "committed suicide." They also said that they would stage a scene there and invite the TV reporters to report it. They even said, "China's population is too large anyway, so if you die it does not matter." They said that if they beat the practitioners to death, the earth would continue to turn. The perpetrators also claimed that they were murderers in society anyway. Here in the prison, these thugs were supported by the guards, and the murder of Falun Gong practitioners would not be punished.
With support from the guards, the criminals tortured practitioners cruelly. Falun Gong practitioners Yang Bin, Wang Guohua, Yang Kelin, Li Fuquan, Peng Zehua, Zeng Tao, and others had to face these wicked criminals daily. The abuse and gross mistreatment they encountered was unimaginable. On May 23, Falun Gong practitioner Wang Guohua was burned on the lips. The perpetrators of this crime were Wu Kemin, Kong Fan, Bai Jian and Liang Enjie. They also pushed chopsticks into Wang Guohua's mouth. They took turns to choke him and kick him in the head, wrists, hips, arms, feet and legs, causing severe injuries to Wang Guohua's body. He couldn't swallow anything and couldn't walk.
Falun Gong practitioner Yang Kelin was also severely beaten and had injuries and bruises all over his body. The evildoing people threatened Yang Kelin, telling him that if anybody asked about his bruises, he had to say that they were his "birthmarks." If he told the truth, they would torture him even more. Falun Gong practitioners Gong Guanlei and Deng Weijian from the Second Prison Ward were steadfast in their belief in Dafa. Even after going through previous brainwashing classes several times, they never gave up their belief. But this time, the persecution was so severe that they wrote the three statements. Afterwards, they regretted their actions tremendously. Under the arrangements of team head Wang Jinsong, several criminals were assigned to be watchdogs. They forbid the practitioners to talk with each other. They strictly limited the practitioners' freedom. They retaliated brutally against those practitioners who declared their three statements invalid. There are currently more than 20 practitioners in the third-floor "study room."
Following the commands of the former Chinese leader, Jiang Zemin's faction, Zeng Qinghong and Luo Gan successively convened secret Falun gong persecution conferences in Xi'an and Harbin and planned further persecution nationwide. At present, the police are extremely aggressive. The transformation quota set by the Sichuan Prison Administration Bureau for the Deyang Prison is at least 75%. If the quota is not reached, the prison supervisors stand to lose their jobs. Police officers Wan Aijun and Shi Junhua attempted to beat the quota. They instigated 610 Office policemen Cui Weigang, Ma Chengde, Li Runmin, Yang Jianbin, Zhang Jun and others to ruthlessly torture Falun Gong practitioners. Policeman Li Runmin even boasted about their work, repeating the phrase, "This is a life and death struggle."
On September 1, the guards transferred the "uncooperative" practitioners such as Yang Yourun, Gan Jin, Luo Xiaoxing, Li Shisong, Xu Tianfu, Wei Bing and others to the Third Prison Ward. The practitioners were forced to work until 1:00 a.m. every day. Under personal orders from prison warden Ma Aijun and deputy wardens Shi Junhua, Yan Dengyao, and Zhang Yaoshan (chief and deputy chief of the Political Section), the steadfast practitioners from other prison wards were all sent for brainwashing in the brainwashing class in the Second Prison Ward. When Falun Gong practitioners didn't follow their instructions, the evildoing people used blankets to cover the practitioners to torture them.
Those practitioners who weren't "reformed," even when their terms were up, were not released. Instead, they were sent to the local 610 Offices for continued imprisonment. There is no justice or rule of law for Falun Gong practitioners in China, and even their basic human rights are denied.
At present, the situation for Falun Gong practitioners is still extremely difficult. We hope that all kind people in the world might take action to rescue all the illegally-detained and persecuted Falun Gong practitioners in Chinese prisons.