(Clearwisdom.net) It was not until 1997 that people started to practice Falun Dafa in my county. Local practitioners began to develop some basic understandings of the Fa by the fall and winter of 1998. Not long after that, in July 1999, the persecution began. The whole country was covered with terror, and we (the local practitioners) were forced to stop our group practice and Fa study.
The local practitioners went to Beijing as a group to appeal for Falun Gong in the spring of 2000. As a result, the authorities launched a massive arrest campaign throughout the county, filling all the detention centers with practitioners. The police even rented out some hotel rooms to detain the arrested practitioners, and some practitioners were detained in nearby counties. The practitioners who were not arrested were illegally detained at brainwashing centers, and they were not allowed to go home or to have visitors. Some practitioners were detained for over three months, and hundreds of thousands of Yuan in fines were extorted from the practitioners and their families.
In the summer of 2001, the police escalated the persecution. They waged another county-wide arrest of practitioners. They immediately arrested practitioners upon finding any slight amount of "evidence." For example, one practitioner's child wrote the words "Truthfulness, Benevolence, Forbearance" on a wall. The police used the incident as "evidence" to abduct the practitioner and sentence the practitioner to two years of forced labor. Again, practitioners filled all the detention centers throughout the county. The police brutally tortured practitioners who were being detained, and followed the Jiang group's directions that "One will not be held accountable for beating Falun Dafa practitioners to death. It will be counted as suicide." They used torture instruments, leather whips, electric batons, handcuffs, and shackles to torture the practitioners, and also hung practitioners in the air. Some practitioners lost consciousness on the spot, and persecutors poured cold water on them to wake them up. One practitioner was tortured to death, and over ten were illegally sentenced to forced labor. When sentencing people to forced labor terms, the police had to report the cases to their superiors for approval. When some sentencing requests were not approved, the police created new reports and submitted them to their superiors. Some of the cases to sentence practitioners were reported four times. They would not stop until all the cases were approved. The corrupt police also extorted "fines" from the practitioners many times. One practitioner was extorted of 8,000 Yuan (1), and some practitioners were illegally detained for over five months.
Later, the situation became worse. The police began ransacking practitioners' homes for no reason. Some practitioners' homes were ransacked four or five times a year. Furthermore, the police directly abducted practitioners. One time a police officer abducted a practitioner using the excuse that "There is (Falun Gong) activity somewhere out of town." Some persecutors did not even bother to find excuses, and directly ordered practitioners to follow them to the police station. If the practitioners complained, they were told, "You can hire a lawyer from the U.S.A."
In January 2004, three practitioners were abducted, and one was sentenced to a forced labor term. In March 2004, two more were abducted and one was sent to a forced labor camp, and in April, two more were abducted. To rescue the detained practitioners, some practitioners suggested that we send forth righteous thoughts together twice a week, once in the town square, and once near the police department. In the beginning, not too many practitioners participated. However, the detained practitioners were released after only a few days. During that time, truth-clarifying materials that exposed the local persecution were also distributed. One practitioner distributed the materials to several offices in the police department. As a result, the police department took responsibility for their actions. The Political Protection Section head (who was in charge of persecuting practitioners) became the topic of all police staff conversations. They all condemned the section head. The rampant arrogance of the local "610 Office" and Political Protection Section was gone in just a few days. All the practitioners were encouraged by the good results. They sent forth righteous thoughts at the square for thirty minutes, and then shared their experiences freely like they did before July 1999. In order to create a better environment, the practitioners not only eliminated the dark minions and rotten demons that controlled the wicked persecutors, but also eliminated the wicked people's bad thoughts when sending forth righteous thoughts, completely negating all the old forces' arrangements.
After more than six months of sending forth righteous thoughts together, the situation in our county changed dramatically. The vice party secretary of the county (who is in charge of political and judiciary issues) and the chief of the county police department were transferred away, and the director of the county "610 Office" resigned from his position. The Political Protection Section head and director of the "610 Office" did not even dare to look at practitioners when they meet them on the street.
One time a practitioner invited the Political Protection Section head to sit down with him/her (probably in a restaurant by the street or similar environment) and offered some tea to the section head. The practitioner talked about the section head's crimes during the past several years of persecuting practitioners. Passersby stopped and condemned the official, "Only bandits do this kind of thing." The official was speechless. Before he/she left, he/she said to the practitioner, "I will let you know immediately when Falun Gong's reputation is restored."
Now, all local practitioners have felt the power of righteous thoughts, and we have started to become one body. Teacher says, "The environment is created by you, yourselves," (Essentials for Further Advancement).
Through reading the Clearwisdom.net website, I learned that there are still some areas in China where practitioners are persecuted and illegally abducted, so I wanted to share our experiences in this regard. Please kindly point out anything incorrect.
(1) Yuan is the Chinese currency. The average monthly salary of an urban worker in China is 500 Yuan.
September 28, 2004
