(Clearwisdom.Net) One day during my detention in the Panjin City forced labor camp, a director of the main team of the camp, Tang Xiaobiao, came to me and said excitedly, "The USA is finished! Got hit by someone!" Later I learned that he was referring to the September 11th terrorist attack. The reaction of Tang Xiaobiao towards the attack was the result of an anti-American education, learned since childhood.
Often, the guards wrote slanderous slogans against Falun Dafa on the blackboard in the large classroom. Later on, when they used the punishment called "sitting board" [Every day, practitioners put their hands on top of their laps, with backs straight and sitting on benches 18 hours per days, sometimes for over fifty days. The authorities restrict practitioners' use of the restroom. Due to sitting on hard benches for extended periods, large and painful sores develop on the buttocks, causing an inability to have normal body functions because of the pain.] in the large classroom, they didn't put up the slogans for a while. However, after several days, they started to write on the blackboard again. The next day, fellow practitioner Yin Baowen cleaned the blackboard. Then the whole labor camp was forced to begin over 50 days of "strict administration." They said this was because Yin Baowen had cleaned the blackboard. We all knew that this was just an excuse to persecute us further. During this period, the labor camp also canceled our only day per month for family visitations. Every day we were forced to sit on the hard wooden benches for 18 hours, with our eyes wide open, with less than 6 hours of sleep per night. They watched us very closely to make sure we kept our eyes open. The guards pressured the criminal inmates they assigned to watch me; there were cameras inside the room so that these inmates had to put in efforts in monitoring us, otherwise the guards would know. We were not allowed to use the bathroom as we needed to; we could only use the bathroom once in the morning and once in the afternoon. I was beaten many times because of my need to use the bathroom frequently. In addition, there was no break for going outdoors, no lunch break, and no talking whatsoever. Every day felt like an eternity. Even if we did sit as they required us, we were still beaten.
Prison guard Dai Yong was in his 20's, and enjoyed beating people. One day during the strict administration period, Dai Yong wrote words to slander Teacher on the blackboard in front of us, and signed my name to it. When I protested, Luan Yong and Dai Yong rushed over to me. I knew that their writing on the board was directly targeted at me. They hit and kicked my abdominal area severely. After I fell to the floor, they stomped on me with all their weight.
I don't want to record every beating I suffered. Each account of every beating is almost the same. But to the victim, every time is different. Although they beat me with batons every time, being hit once and being hit dozens of times are different. Being tortured once and being tortured every day are two different things. Although I don't want to repeat each one of these atrocities, the evil continues to repeat their crimes. If we were to write down the details of every beating that each person received in the Panjin City Forced Labor Camp, we would fill volumes.
Not only were people beaten and otherwise physically punished, there were also attempts to humiliate, degrade and psychologically abuse practitioners. These insults included using the blackboard eraser to wipe white chalk powder on my face, writing curse words on my back, spitting in my face and so on. All of these are the things that the Chinese Legal Department's Director, Tang, did personally.
After more than 50 days we finally were allowed a little outdoor recreation. Because of sitting on hard wooden benches for so long, our buttocks were extremely sore. We had become very weak. Although almost all of us were young men, we were shaking with fatigue as we went downstairs. Afterwards, the restrictions on us became a little bit looser; but the so-called "minimum control" simply involved letting us sleep for 8 hours and allowing us to use the bathroom a little bit more freely. We were still forced to sit on the hard wooden benches every day.
Whether I was in the detention center or the forced labor camp, I was not allowed to see my family. In the hopes of being able to see me, and also in order for me not to be beaten, my family invited the authorities to dinner and sent them gifts, spending almost 10,000 Yuan (note: 500 Yuan is the average urban worker's monthly salary). On my side, they were torturing me; on my family's side, they were taking money from my family [as a bribe for better treatment]. This is typical of the widespread and systematic corruption that is happening in China today.
As the intensive forced sitting didn't shake our determination, the authorities began to think up new ideas to try to make us renounce our belief. After this long period of torture, I began to think about how much longer I could passively endure like this. It's not that once you followed their orders, they would stop torturing you; on the contrary, they were becoming more aggravated. I knew I could not sit still waiting for death. On the night of December 2, I dreamed that many of us were individually motivated to paint "Falun Dafa is Good" on the wall. I also dreamed that I was distributing flyers in the classroom. The next night, I had another lengthy dream. At the end of the dream I saw a golden road, very wide, with golden edges on both sides. The middle of the road was paved with small triangular golden bricks, which were slightly darker than the edges. But the whole road was golden and shining. It suddenly appeared in front of me. In the dream I thought that my celestial eye was opened. I knew I could not continue the forced sitting any more. I needed to walk forward, but I really didn't know how to proceed forward. Practitioner Guo Yulong had started fasting on December 4 to protest the persecution. This prompted me. Although the memory of the pain of my last hunger strike was still fresh, I knew I had no other alternatives to appeal for an end of the torture. On December 22, I also started a hunger strike.
During the first several days, the labor camp didn't pay much attention to me at all. They still forced me to sit on the hard bench. On the ninth day, they attempted to give me infusions. I refused, so they tied me onto the bed with ropes and handcuffs and ordered one prisoner to watch me. Just like this I lay on the bed for a whole day. Then Zhu Zhenlai, a newly appointed Vice Director of the team, came to speak to me. He had a kind face, and because he had not been on the Falun Gong issue previously, he had never beaten us before. He came to see me every day and talked to me. He too seemed to be dissatisfied with evil of the labor camp. My nature is such that, if other people smile at me, I cannot give a cold face back. I even treated him as a friend. However, they took advantage of my compassion. It was almost the Spring Festival. Zhu Zhenlai said, "Our guards will not be able to have a good holiday because of your hunger strike." At that moment, I forgot the persecution that I had suffered and my brain was not very clear. I believed that I was making trouble for other people, who would not be able to have good holidays and I felt that I owed them. I said I would eat, you guys go ahead and have a good holiday, I'll continue after the holidays. On December 27th of the Chinese Lunar Calendar I started to eat. Actually these several days of taking food again were more painful than fasting because my digestive system was no longer functioning properly. On January 6th of the Chinese Lunar Calendar, I resumed my hunger strike. After 8 days I heard that my employer had come to ask for my release. The Director, Tang Xiaobiao, said that the labor camp didn't want to keep me there either. If somebody asked for my release they would definitely let me go. If I started to eat again, then I could be released because I was needed at work and not because of my hunger strike, and that would be easier for the labor camp to report to the higher authorities. I felt that I was a good employee, and that my employer needed me. If they wanted me, then the labor camp didn't have any excuse to keep me. I started to eat again. Of course what really convinced me was also the pain of fasting for so long and the strong desire for food.
At this time, my family was busy dealing with getting me out again. Finally my employer said that the labor camp would not agree to release me. The labor camp said that the Oil Plant Police Station would not accept me. All of this negotiation lasted 21 days. But since I was eating again and was not in any danger of dying, the labor camp had no incentive to release me. I then understood that I had strayed too far from the right path. After hoping for success through all the other indirect methods, I now started to fast again.
They knew that they could never deceive me again and so they were no longer smiling and friendly. After I had been on hunger strike for over 20 days, Tang Xiaobiao kicked me badly. A large piece of the skin on my face was abraded away. After several days, the Procuratorate sent some people to the labor camp and I related to them all that had happened. However, they helped Tang to deny what he had done to me. They tried to force me to take infusions and I refused. One guard told me that they would not beat me this time. He handcuffed my hands and pulled hard, and the skin on my hands immediately became badly abraded. I was pulled to the bed. The next day when they tried to do this again, I used all my strength to hold the bars of the cage where I was confined. They pulled me hard, and could not move me. They were surprised, and later they never used the handcuffs to pull me again.
Throughout the hunger strike, I resisted every time they sent me to take infusions. They tied one of my arms to the handle of a shovel and told a prisoner to hold the shovel. Of course my feet were tied with ropes and the other hand was handcuffed. I was tied very tightly. Every day's infusion was just like torture. Of course besides the infusions, there was also the force-feeding. After over 60 days like this, I lost so much weight that I was reduced to skin and bones. The coating on my tongue had completely fallen off, and my mouth was festering so badly that I could not even open it. Later, I vomited every day and drooled constantly. I felt dizzy and nauseated and could not open my eyes or stand up. It was extremely painful. By May 28, 2002, I was on the verge of death, so the labor camp had to inform my family to pick me up. By that time I had been fasting continuously for 74 days. It had been almost over 5 months since I had started fasting. If I moved even a little bit I would vomit, and I was so dizzy I always felt that the sky and earth were spinning round. Even sitting up was very difficult for me.
After I got home I stopped vomiting and I could eat a little bit and gradually was able to recover. Through my recovery, I felt the wonder of Falun Dafa.
Right before the Chinese ruling Party's 16th Congress, the police were again arresting Dafa practitioners in Panjin City on a massive scale. I left home ahead of this so the police wouldn't be able to arrest me from my home. I am now destitute and homeless. In the small city of Panjin, I know over 20 Falun Dafa practitioners who have been forced to leave their homes. And I know this is just a very small number compared to all of those whom I don't know who have also been forced to become homeless.
In China, people don't have the concept of human rights; they just follow the logic that it's useless for arms to fight against legs (a weaker part of the body to contend with a stronger part). When Falun Dafa practitioners are arrested and sentenced to forced labor camps, their families dare not express their opinions. When the term is over and the labor camp refuses to release practitioners, the families don't demand the release of practitioners from the labor camp nor do they protest to the government. Instead, they go to the labor camp and beg the practitioner, "Please give in and be transformed, otherwise they will not release you." When the message that I had been beaten and tortured had been printed on flyers and distributed in the city, some people who know me read it and called my family. My brother said, "He didn't get beaten up, no he didn't." Later when I asked my brother, he said, "Even if you did get beaten up, I couldn't say so! What could we gain if I said it?" He is a college graduate -- nobody forced him -- but he chose to lie. Facing groundless persecution, why are these Chinese so timid? It is because the acceptance of state-run terror has become deeply rooted in people's minds.
If overseas Falun Dafa practitioners didn't clarify the truth, or if the international community did not pay attention to China's human rights, I could not survive today. I am an ordinary Chinese, and also one of the tens of thousands of Falun Dafa practitioners who are suffering under the persecution. I hope that through my experience, more people can learn about this terrible crime that is occurring in China. Because the evil is continuing, I hope that kindhearted people will learn the truth and resist this malicious persecution. I also hope that the Chinese people won't continue to be so numb. I hope they can become clear-minded and get out of the shadow of state terrorism.
January 6, 2003
For Parts 1 and 2, see
http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2003/1/19/31096.html
http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2003/1/27/31358.html