Name: Jiang Yabin (姜亚宾 )
Gender: Male
Age: 52
Address: Liumao Township, Hengshan District, Jixi City, Heilongjiang Province
Occupation: Farmer
Date of Most Recent Arrest: May 26, 2008
Most Recent Place of Detention: Mudanjiang Prison (牡丹江监狱 )
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Electric shock, forced labor, brainwashing, illegal sentencing, beatings, hung up, imprisonment, solitary confinement, torture

(Clearwisdom.net) My name is Jiang Yabin. I'm 52 years old and live in Liumao Township, Hengshan District, Jixi City, Heilongjiang Province. I began practicing Falun Gong in December 1997. I am a farmer and work from sunrise to sunset. It would have never entered my mind that I would be imprisoned at any time of my life. However, since the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) suppression of Falun Gong was initiated on July 20, 1999, my family and I have suffered the CCP's brutal persecution, destroying my family's harmonious life.

I was illegally sentenced to a three-year prison term, one year of forced labor, and was detained three times. My wife Zhang Cuiqing was sentenced to forced labor twice, but was not admitted to the camp due to heart disease. I could not be there for my two daughters during many of their school years and was unable to see my eldest daughter get married.

My parents felt heartache and worries for many years, and my 78-year-old father kept calling my name before he passed away. He left this earth holding pain and worries in his heart. My mother-in-law worried about and missed her daughter and me so much that she went blind from the stress. She also had a stroke.

Before I practiced Falun Gong, I suffered lower back pain and was also diagnosed with a stomach disease. Due to the pain I was in, I could not sleep. My wife, Zhang Cuiqing, had rheumatism and also suffered from lower back pain .

We began to practice Falun Gong with the wish to be cured from our illnesses. Our illnesses went away soon after we started practicing. We are grateful to Teacher and Dafa! Moreover, I stopped drinking, smoking and gambling, and turned into an upright and noble person because I lived by the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

Our life took a turn for the worse as soon as the CCP banned Falun Gong in 1999. I went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong three times. Twice I was escorted back by our local police and was detained for one year of forced labor the third time.

In November 2000, I was detained in the Jixi Forced Labor Camp. Guards and inmates took turns beating me the minute I arrived. They made me watch videos that slandered Falun Gong, and attempted to make me write a guarantee statement to renounce Falun Gong. Guard Zhang Guohua beat me with a baton for over half an hour. My entire body was blue and purple, and I could not move afterwards. I gained physical and mental health from Falun Gong, and nothing that harmed me, my family or society. What crime had I committed?

At the time, my wife was also serving one year of forced labor at Wanjia Forced Labor Camp in Harbin. Our eldest daughter, who had an outstanding academic record and did well in sports, was forced out of school because we could not afford her tuition. My mother-in-law was placed under so much stress that she went blind. She also had a stroke and could no longer take care of herself. My nearly 70-year-old mother had to look after my younger daughter, as well as trying to reason with police and the public security bureau. Police extorted 1,000 yuan from her and demanded that she supply them with rice and fish.

On May 26, 2008, I was arrested while working on my farm by police from the Liumao Township Police Station and Lishu Public Security Sub-bureau. They robbed me of my computer and other belongings. Police from the Liumao Township Police Station interrogated me, extorted money, slapped me in the face and mercilessly tortured me for over two hours. They then transferred me to the Jixi Detention Center. Shortly afterward, the Hengshan District Court sentenced me to a three-year prison term. I appealed to the court, but 610 Office staff exerted pressure, and prison guards incited prisoners to beat me around the clock to stop me from appealing. My oldest daughter's boyfriend stood up for me, so police attacked and harassed him many times.

In November, I was held in the intensive training section at Jixi Prison. A wound on my leg broke open, exposing the bone, yet I was still forced to perform manual labor. When I made a mistake doing the work, I was tortured with an electric baton for over 20 minutes. At that time, my eldest daughter got married and we could not do anything for her on that important day of her life.

In January 2009, I was transferred to Mudanjiang Prison. Because of my injury, I was kept in the prison hospital. The guard ordered two prisoners to force me to write the “three statements” to give up Falun Gong. I refused, so they made me stand next to an open window during a cold winter day, from 8:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m.

In May 2009, deputy chief Sun, claiming that I refused to work, slapped me in the face for nearly half an hour and threatened to put me into a small confinement cell. On July 4, 2009, the guards put practitioners in a brainwashing session and demanded that we write the “three statements”, threatening to torture us if we refused.

Torture demonstration: hung up and tortured

Xie Yunhuan and I were taken into a small cell. Chief Hu ordered prisoners Hou Zhenbao, Wang Jinyu and four others to mercilessly beat us. Hou Zhenbao beat us with bed boards, and yelled, “I have orders from the top. If you do not write the three statements you will be tortured to death.” Both of us were covered with bruises; we could hardly move and our lives were in danger. Afterwards, Xie Yunhuan struggled to walk out of the cell and shouted: “Help! They are killing people!” The guards told everyone to go back to sleep.

Torture demonstration: Beaten mercilessly

The guards demanded that we renounce Falun Gong and that we perform forced labor. We had to make clothing for export to Japan. We worked from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., and often until 9:00 p.m. They deprived us of food and the prison shops were too expensive to buy anything.

When I was about to be released, the Procuratorate and 610 Office staff demanded that I write the three statements, and discuss my “understanding” with them. I told them, “Anything I have said or done [against Falun Gong] in the past was against my will. I declare it to be null and void. Falun Dafa is good, I won't renounce it.” On May 25, 2011, I was released. However I was arrested again and taken to the Jixi Brainwashing Center by local 610 Office staff and police. I resisted and returned home three days later.

The persecution of practitioners has been going on in China for the past 12 years. What happened to my family is just the tip of the iceberg. Countless practitioners and their families still suffer under the persecution.

I wish that this tragedy would end now and that the people of China can live in freedom