Since July of 1999, Jiang Zemin officially outlawed Falun Gong in China and began the persecution; many Chinese people have been brainwashed by the lies and fabricated stories from the government's TV and radio stations, as well as newspapers. To clarify the truth and reputation of Falun Gong, a practice that benefits 100 million people worldwide, Falun Gong practitioners Gao Jiaxi, Huang Xungui, Wang Xuelan, Yang Dongzhi, and 10 others from Jiujiang city in Jiangxi province, went to Beijing to appeal to the government. This was their constitutional right, and they did so with goodwill towards others and benevolence in their hearts.

Upon learning of their appeal, the Jiujiang County Secretary General, Liu Tongyan, openly criticized and slandered Falun Gong. On July 7, under the order from General Liu, the Yong'an Town Secretary General Yu Jushengn, Deputy Secretary General Zhou Rongji, Police Chief He Jingang, and his Deputy Mei Jinhua, went to search the houses of practitioners and confiscated their Falun Gong materials. They had no search warrant or legal right to do so. Upon arriving, they rounded up practitioners Mr. Gao Dengquan, Ms. Gao Guifeng, Ms. Tang Meili, Ms. Rao Fenglan, Ms. Huang Yindi, and Mr. Zhang Yuxin and took them to the town hall. They asked the practitioners to write an affidavit saying they would give up their practice of Falun Gong, but they all refused. Because of this, on the next day, July 8, the persecution of these practitioners began.

They were forced to do things that Falun Gong practitioners would not want to do. They were forced to gamble by playing Majong. Mr. Gao Dengquan, a man of over 60 years of age, was forced to drink and smoke. When the officers could no longer locate a bottle of liquor, they forcefully put a lightened cigarette into his mouth. The other practitioners were told to curse Falun Gong, but they bit their lips and did not say a word. As a result, they were not fed for two meals.

On July 9, in an attempt to force the practitioners to sign the affidavits, the Town Deputy Secretary General Zhou Rongji stepped up on the persecution by ordering an officer to use an electric prodding rod on the practitioners. Someone in the on looking crowd was brought to tears upon hearing the sizzling sound of the electric rod. But still, even when faced with this brutality, the practitioners did not back down and maintained their firm belief in Falun Gong. They said, "Falun Gong is good for both my physical and mental health. I won't quit my practice." Upon hearing this, Deputy Secretary General got so mad that he told his personnel to beat and kick the practitioners. After the beating, two practitioners were handcuffed together and hung in front of a window under the baking sun. The sunshine was so fierce that day that Ms. Gao Guifeng fainted.

Afterwards, the practitioners who refused to curse Falun Gong were forced to kneel down under the hot sun on the trail covered by pebbles. A hanging display board with slanderous words about Falun Gong and Master Li was hung on the neck of each practitioner. The knees of the 60-year-old practitioner, Mr. Gao Dengquan, became bruised and ached with pain. Meanwhile, the Police Chief repeatedly hit Ms. Tang's head with a water bottle filled with water.

Kneeling in the sweltering heat, the practitioners silently tolerated the suffering without any complaints. Sweat damped their clothes and nearly boiled as it dripped from their bodies onto the hot pebbles. It was such an unfair mistreatment that even Heaven would be sympathetic enough to make it snow that hot day.

Still, the torture did not end. Against the disapproval of the observing crowd, the Order Commissioner Liu Xiaolai and the Police Chief lined up the practitioners and forced them to parade down the street with the slanderous display boards around their necks. With only a gong or drum and a dunce cap missing, this brought back to life the memory of scenes common during the days of the Culture Revolution.

After the physical abuse was over, economic penalties followed. Except for Ms. Gao, the County Police detained all the other practitioners in jail for 18 to 33 days. In order to be released, the County Public Security Chief and his supervisor Li Jianhua demanded a bond of RMB$2,000 (about four months of salary for an average Chinese city worker), plus a handling fee of RMB$200 for each of the practitioners.

Ms. Gao was not thrown into jail but was instead held in custody for 17 days and fined RMB$1,700. Her husband had already been fined RMB$4,000 for practicing Falun Gong, and he had no money left to pay the fine. He had to take out a loan at the local credit union in order to do so. There were no valuables left in the house, and their daughter had to drop out of school. Their untenured rented farmland was no longer producing anything.

To practice Falun Gong is to better one's health, to become a good person, to improve one's moral standards, and finally to become a righteous enlightened being. What's the crime in this? Those evil people who mistreat Falun Gong may use the excuse of "being ordered by the superior" to justify what they have done, but "being ordered by the superior" is not the basis for the rule of law! How can and order from a few individuals in charge go beyond the PRC's own Constitution or above the law? Who are really the ones responsible for disturbing the order of the society, then? Approving the use of violence towards innocent people will only loose the trust of the people!

Practitioners in China

Nov. 22, 2000