(Clearwisdom.net) My name is Qi Jianfeng and I am a Falun Dafa practitioner from Nanxiji Village, Xiheying Town, Wei County, Hebei Province. I am 50 years old. I began practicing Falun Dafa in 1997. Before that, I had many illnesses such as shortness of breath, edema, muscle aches, and shoulder pain. I always felt cold and had to wear cotton gloves and wool pants even in the summer. I was always on medication and couldn't work on our farm. My husband had to do all the farm work and housework for me as well.
In early 1997, someone introduced Falun Dafa to me and I started the practice. All my illnesses miraculously disappeared shortly after.
My mother, Ms. Xue Xiumei, was over 70 years old. She wasn't healthy and she vomited constantly. Although she took a lot of medicine every day, her vomiting became worse. Eventually, she began vomiting a black watery substance and her life was in danger. Mother, my third younger sister, Ms. Qi Jianzhen, and I obtained the Fa and practiced the Falun Gong exercises together. Their illnesses also disappeared and my family thus lived happily and was healthy.
When the persecution of Falun Dafa started on July 20, 1999, practitioners who had benefited so much both physically and mentally couldn't understand why such a thing would happen. We decided to do the Falun Gong exercises in a group on July 23 and use this as a way to validate the Fa. On July 22, we heard that the town and village officials planned to arrest practitioners at the practice site. Nobody was intimidated and over 20 people showed up to exercise the next day. Soon, the village and town officials arrived and arrested us without giving any reason. We were locked up in the village prison. They tried to force us to write "guarantee statements" promising never to practice again or we would not be released. They fined each of us 300 to 600 yuan. There was someone watching us 24 hours a day and we were not allowed to go to the toilet or sleep. Over 20 of us were crammed into a small room with just one bed. We were released after 20 days.
In July 2000, Ms. Sun Jinfeng from our village and my sister Qi Jianzhen went to Beijing to validate the Fa. When the village officials learned about the trip, they asked several practitioners to come to the police station and then they interrogated them. The town and village officials hired about ten people to surround me and asked me, "Did you know that your sister went to Beijing?" I didn't reply. They asked me if I practiced Falun Gong, I replied, "Yes!" They then brutally beat me. Over ten of them came together beating and kicking me, all the while asking me if I practiced Falun Gong. I replied with determination, "I will practice even if you beat me to death!" They handcuffed me to a pole in a yard for over an hour; then, I was locked together with my mother, sister, and five other practitioners in a coal storage room. There was not enough room to stand and so we tried to sit on a piece of paper. They took the piece of paper away and forced us to take our shoes and socks off and then cut off the strings holding up our underwear and pants. Li Dongxu from Zhenbao Village poured bucket after bucket of cold water on us trying to force us to "transform." We were soaking wet and were cold and hungry standing in the black muddy coal water. We stood for five days and were tortured every day. The practitioners who refused to write the guarantee statement were sent to the Qijiazao Brainwashing Center where the persecution continued.
Before that, some lawless people broke into my home and stole our TVs, yarn, and 200 yuan in cash. The evil people took my 70-year-old mother to the police station and interrogated her. She was asked if she knew that her daughter had gone to Beijing. My mother said she didn't know, and then she was taken to an empty house. Chen Xiling from Zhenbao Village, Shi Juncheng, and a third person took turns beating my mother. Later, the police arrested my brother, who was not a practitioner, and confiscated his TV, yarn other personal belongings, and 200 yuan cash that was hidden under the TV. My sister-in-law cried and my brother asked them to return the things but his request was in vain. The police even forced my mother to put her fingerprint on a document (agreeing to surrender the objects that had been confiscated from the family). My mother fainted right away and her life was in danger. She was sent home the next day.
After about nine days, Chen Xiling and two other people broke into our house and forcefully took my mother to the Shijiazao Brainwashing Center. My mother was tortured until she couldn't eat or drink and was very weak. At this time, my third sister was transferred from the prison to the brainwashing center. My sister and I and other practitioners went on a hunger strike for six days to protest the illegal detention and abuse. When my sister became critically ill, she and my mother were allowed to go home.
The guards persecuted us insanely. They wouldn't allow us to sleep before midnight. We were forced to stand facing the wall without moving during the night, and listen to the propaganda slandering the Falun Gong principles during the day. The guards drew a circle on the floor for each person, and we had to sit inside the circle. We were not allowed to talk to each other. We ate a small bun and a bowl of diluted rice porridge for each meal; still, our family was charged 25 yuan per day for our meals. We were illegally imprisoned for a month and were subjected to violent "transformation" attempts. Those who refused to "transform" would be punished by being forced to kneel on brick blocks, made to hold their arms at shoulder height while supporting two brick blocks, or holding their arms straight above their heads while standing without moving. Under this brutal situation, I wasn't able to take it any longer and wrote a guarantee statement against my will. I was fined over 1,000 yuan before being released.
After my third younger sister came home, the lawless people frequently came to our home to harass us. My sister wrote a letter to the Town Secretary trying to sue the police and expose their illegal conduct. This way we got our TV back. However, they said that the cash that was taken from us would not be given back unless we quit practicing Falun Gong. My mother and I said, "We will continue to practice! We don't want the money. We want to practice Falun Gong."
In November 2001, my third younger sister, Qi Jianzhen, and Sun Jinfeng from our village went to Beijing again to validate the Fa and were arrested by the Beijing police. After they were detained for four days, our local police recognized my sister and brought her back home. She was sent to the Yu County Prison. My sister went on a hunger strike for over a month, which brought her to the brink of death many times. The prison officials were afraid of being held responsible for her death, so the local 610 Office was asked to send a car and take my dying sister home. As my sister was being carried towards our home, my mother could see that my sister was as thin as a rail and almost dead. She refused to allow them to bring my sister into her home, "She was perfectly fine when she left and now she's dying. You persecuted her to this extent and I won't take responsibility for her death. Take her wherever you want."
A town official, Jia Zhongcheng, said, "It was you who told her to practice." "I want you to practice too, would you? She did it out of her heart." answered my mother. My mother left right away. I was afraid that they would take my sister home and told them, "You are bringing her to us when her life is in danger. Why didn't you bring her earlier?" Jia answered, "It wasn't us who put her life in danger, it was the Communist Party that persecuted her." I replied, "I won't take care of it." I went home. They followed me home immediately and begged me to take my sister. I told them that if they wanted me to keep my sister, they should never come back or harass her again.
After a little more than a month, and when my sister had recovered a little, many police officers started patrolling the area in their cars looking for my sister and Sun Jinfeng. My sister and Sun Jinfeng had to hide underground where we store dry wood. After that, my sister and Ms. Sun were forced to leave our home and live a homeless life for half a year. After six months, my sister and Sun Jinfeng were found, arrested, and sent to the Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp in Baoding City. They were illegally sentenced to two-year terms. The camp refused to take my sister because of her weakened condition. The county 610 Office and county police bribed the camp to take my sister. My sister and Sun Jinfeng encouraged each other and were determined to expose the evil when they were released.
After my sister was sent to the Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp, the village police officer, Guo Zhengcai, led two men and a woman from the 610 Office in town to break into my mother's home. Three of them beat my mother until she fell to the ground and they jumped on her and forcefully took four of her Falun Dafa books. Facing the evil people's harassment many times, my mother was not a bit afraid. She often said, "I am over 70 years old. It is Teacher and Dafa that gave me my life. My heart is composed and righteous. I will validate the Fa openly and nobly!"
After my sister and Sun Jinfeng left my house, a gang from the town government arrested me, took me to town, and tried to compel me to tell them the whereabouts of my sister and Ms. Sun. I went on a hunger strike to protest their evil conduct. Three days later, Jia Zhongcheng, a town official, said to me, "I won't ask you to defame Falun Gong and write the guarantee statement. Just eat when you need to."
On my way to the dining hall, I saw a gang from the 610 Office beating a practitioner with steel bars in a yard. That practitioner had one lame leg and the evil gang targeted that leg and beat it with full force. The practitioner's tragic and miserable screaming could be heard from far away.
On May 6, 2005, Gao Yuzhen, Qi Jianrong, Li Senlin, Qi Jianzhi, Sun Jingfeng, and I solemnly stated that the statements we wrote under the pressure of the persecution were null and void. The gang from the town came to investigate the solemn statements we had written, arrested us all (except Gao Yuzhen who was 87 years old), and held us in detention. We all went on a hunger strike to protest and were released after a week.