(Clearwisdom.net) I am 65 years old, and I am a retired military person. Before practicing Falun Gong, I suffered from a multitude of illnesses, consulted many doctors, and swallowed lots of medication. I felt that my life was not worth living. It was too painful. I was so fortunate, as Falun Dafa saved me from this painful life.
On March 25, 1993, I attended Master's two-hour lecture, followed shortly after, on the 29th, by Master's 10-day class. 10 days after that, I felt my body had become light. This amazing practice was responsible for my attaining good health after 10 years of suffering. Furthermore, my husband also attained his health because of Falun Gong. Since July 20, 1999, the start of the persecution of Falun Gong, I was arrested many times, and my niece was tortured to death.
On the afternoon of July 20, 1999, six policemen broken into our home and took me forcefully to the No.1 division of the police station for interrogation. 8 hours later, given my husband's fervent insistence, I was able to return home. On July 21st, I went to the provincial committee to argue my case. The leaders refused to see me and totally ignored me. What happened instead? They took me by force to the local police station, and detained and interrogated me for two days and nights. Because I refused to turn in any Dafa books, they sent 11 local policemen to ransack my home on the 24th . They couldn't find anything, thus they demanded that I report to the police station daily, morning and night. I didn't cooperate, so they sent some people to keep an eye on me. They stooped to harass us through frequent phone calls and confiscation of my identity card, which they keep at the local police station to this day.
On December 21, 1999, I decided to go to Beijing to appeal to the government. The police arrested me at the railway station and detained me at a nearby police station . I was locked into an iron cage, which measured only 5 square meters. There were 7 people in this cage. It stank! None of us could sit down. Even standing was difficult and we had to squeeze together. At 2 o'clock on the 23rd, I was sent to No.1 Female Detention Center. The police put criminals in charge of those who are good people and who practice "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance." They forced us to sleep in the same room with criminals and share the same bathhroom. Some of these criminals suffered from sexually transmitted diseases. Every morning, the police asked us to do physical exercises with other cellmates. When we tried to practice Falun Gong exercises, the police dragged us out of the lineup and punished us by making us stand for 12 hours straight. Additionally they poured cold water over our feet.
At 6 o'clock on December 25th, the police ordered the criminals to drag Dafa practitioners to the outside and strip off all their clothes, including their shoes. It was a cold winter day and we wore only our underwear. Our hands and feet were tied up and we were forced to sit on the concrete floor. They forced us to change position. Therefore, Liu Yiping, An Jiyun, Song Jingxiu and other practitioners' underwear was torn. Some were so frozen that they could not stop trembling. They had to remain there until 10 p.m. before they could go back into the building. And what awaited them? A cold shower. The next day, they were forced to hard labor that was far beyond their abilities. They worked from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, and at times they worked until 11 p.m.. Generally they worked from 13 to 15 hours a day. Dafa practitioner Liu Chuyan refused to wear the forced labor camp uniform. Therefore, the police ordered female cellmates to strip off her clothes, drag her from the ground floor to the fifth floor, and beat her up. They extended such effort to make her wear the forced labor camp uniform. After 15 days at the forced labor camp they demanded 300 Yuan [Chinese currency, the monthly salary for an average Chinese urban worker is about 500 Yuan] for room and board. But the room and board was deplorable.
In January 2000, more than 100 practitioners held a Fa conference at a hotel. After the police heard about it, they fined the hotel over 30,000 Yuan, and arrested the hotel manager (who is also a Dafa practitioner). They attempted to arrest the organizer. Therefore, I was forced to leave home and wander about for over four months. The day I left I saw many policemen at the railway stations and piers. I was forced to take many detours on my way home.
On October 5, about 20 Dafa practitioners bought train tickets for travel to Beijing. 13 of us were arrested before boarding the train by the police and were detained for 24 hours, under the excuse of checking our IDs. They forced my son to turn over 200 Yuan as a bonus for the police. They also confiscated a train ticket worth 100 Yuan. After that, they sent us to a brainwashing class at the police station. During this period Xiao Yongxue, Liu Guofen, Zhang Huifen and I were seen as the leaders because we refused to follow their rules. They treated us with deadly intent. A vicious policeman named Gao Hai, known as number one bully at this station, hit me with his fist when we stood on the stairs. I fell down 10 stairs. It was hard to grab the rail so I could stop. He chased after me and kicked my back. I somersaulted down and fortunately was stopped by some of the staff members and was saved. Gao Hai hadn't finished his dirty work yet. He came down, grabbed me by my hair, hit me and kicked my face and body violently. I felt dizzy, had a ringing sound in my ears, and bled from my nose and mouth. My tongue was paralyzed for more than half an hour. My mouth was badly hurt and cut more than one inch, and kept bleeding. This behavior made Gao Hai's co-worker Zhang Jing, an employee of the Justice Department, feel terrible.
Those cruel policemen beat all four of us almost to death and dragged us outside into the rain. At that point in time the other practitioners joined us in the rain to protest. We became thirteen. The wicked policeman was furious. Therefore, he called in the section head named Jing, who treated us even worse. He knocked us to the ground and made us kneel in the rain. In addition, he demanded that we keep our lower back straight and knees without movement. He kicked us if we didn't obey. A 65-year-old senior female practitioner, Auntie Liu Yuejing, was kicked so viciously that her lower leg bones fractured. He demanded that she kneel, although she was physically unable to do so. This torture continued until after 8 p.m. Practitioners were hurt so badly that they were unable to stand. They could only sit on the floor. They even did not allow us to use the bathroom.
We felt so hungry and cold after being tortured and standing in the rain for over 10 hours. Our clothes were soaking wet and we were trembling because of the cold. (6 among us were over 60 years old.) All others could go back to their cells, but we 4 were locked in a cage less than 10 square meters in diameter for 2 months. We ate, drank and urinated in that cage. The vicious policemen were in the adjoining rooms. The cage was in their path for them to see when walking back and forth. They could see us when we urinated.
Up to January 2001, more than one hundred practitioners were sent here and brainwashed. Half of them were 50 to 60 years old, and one was over 70. Because we were not "transformed", the police continued to use a number of different torture techniques. One morning around 5 a.m., the police asked us to get up, stand together and run. We kept running until 11:40 a.m., and the police had no intention of letting us stop. We did not get breakfast. Even when some practitioners were too exhausted to run, the police did not allow them to rest. They took them aside and beat them. Finally the police allowed us to stop at lunchtime (noon). They told us that the ones who wanted to eat had to come forward. None of the more than 100 practitioners moved. We started to recite Teacher's "Lunyu." The police pulled out a practitioner with the last name of Han and forced him to kneel on the ground. Three policemen kicked his chest with their boots, grabbed his hair and kept slamming his head into the wall.
The police forced us to stand outside during the night for more than three hours. The police yelled, "If you refuse to be transformed, you will be sent to forced labor camps and sentenced!" They searched our beds and bodies. Once several policemen savagely beat up a young practitioner who was a soldier. They knocked his head into the wall, and brutally beat him. We demanded them to stop beating him, so the police lied and said that the practitioner was a rapist. To protest the defamation of the practitioner, we together recited "Lunyu" and Hongyin. We finally stopped them by pulling the practitioner away from then. On the next day, 40 to 50 anti-riot policemen arrived, making it between 60 to 70 policemen. They beat us and dragged us around. Many practitioners were wounded. The over 70-year-old practitioner was hit on his head. Policeman Gao Hai used a long bamboo stick to hit his head three times, which caused it to swell. During the Chinese New Year, the police extorted 2,000Yuan [500 Yuan is the average monthly income for an urban worker in China.] before they finally released me.
In the morning of May 9, 2002, I was arrested while distributing truth-clarifying materials. The police sent me to a brainwashing center, where three staff members attempted to brainwash me. In here, practitioners were not allowed to meet and they starved us. We were not allowed to sleep until 2 a.m., day-in and day-out. We had to get up at 6 a.m. No afternoon naps were allowed. They continuously forced us to listen to their slanderous propaganda defaming Falun Gong. The prolonged and continuous sleep deprivation, the collaborators' deceptive persuasion, and interrogation coupled with torture led to some practitioners to cave in. They wrote the "Three Statements." [Practitioners are coerced under brainwashing and torture to write these as proof that they have given up their belief. Created by the "610 Office*," the three statements consist of a letter of repentance, a guarantee to never again practice Falun Gong, and a list of names and addresses of all family members, friends and acquaintances who are practitioners.] On June 28, only two of us were still there, elderly practitioner Nanny Li on the second floor, and myself on the third floor. The police dragged us from the third floor to the first floor and ordered to us to stand in an area that was covered with slanderous slogans and cartoon pictures against our Teacher. I refused. They pulled me there and forced me to stand there. I told them in defiance, "Our Teacher is great." They sprayed something into my eyes and my eyes were sore for several hours.
Beginning June 28, more than 50 staff members in the brainwashing center were involved only with the two of us. Two of them teamed up, and took turns to "work" on us for an hour. We were kept awake day and night. Staff member Yang Mingfeng forced me to go outside and dig up tall waist deep thorny grass. I was forced to dig a certain amount of this grass within a given time. They threatened that if I failed, they would starve me. Moreover, I was forced to stand in the burning hot sun. During the night, they tied my hands behind my back and forced me to walk barefooted outside for extended times. When it was raining, they pushed me into the rain. Once they forced me to stay in a damp yard for several days and nights. To not let me remove mosquitoes, they tied up my hands behind my back. The mosquito bites covered my whole body, face and head. I went on a hunger strike for three days, but they still forced me to run. When I was too exhausted to run, they dragged me around on the ground. My legs and feet were severely swollen, and I could not wear my shoes, but they still forced me to walk and stand for extended periods. I was not allowed to squat down or sit. During the June heat I was not allowed to drink water, was not given food and not allowed to clean myself. Even the use of the restroom was limited and I was even then monitored. Once staff member, Zhu Laxiang, grabbed my bowl from my hands and did not allow me to eat. By July 10, I was the only practitioner left there. They began to threaten that they would send me to a forced labor camp, and brought my son and daughter to the brainwashing center, so they would help them. Because I did not study the Fa diligently, I caved in under this relentless pressure. My son and the staff members now hold the "Guarantee Statement" [A statement to declare that he or she is remorseful for practicing Falun Gong and guarantees not to practice Falun Gong again, not to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and never again associate with any Falun Dafa practitioners.] I acted against my conscience. This is a deep and painful lesson I learned. I was released on July 28.
* "610 Office" is a bureau specifically created by the Chinese government to persecute Falun Gong. It has absolute power over each level of administration in the Party, as well as over the political and judiciary branches.
