(Minghui.org) My name is Yu Ping, and I am 42 years old. I started practicing Falun Gong in January 1999 when I was working on my PhD at Qinghua University in China. I have been trying to conduct myself according to Falun Gong's principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. I have become a healthier, better person as a result. While I was at university, I published many dissertations and won many prestigious scholarships, including a Siemens Scholarship.

But the Chinese Communist regime began to persecute Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, which is in violation of China's constitution that guarantees its citizens freedom of belief. Those who refuse to give up their constitutional right to practice Falun Gong have faced different forms of persecution, including losing their jobs, fines, incarceration, and even death.

For refusing to renounce Falun Gong, I served four years in prison (from October 18, 2000 to October 17, 2004) and two years in a forced labor camp (from April 19, 2008 to April 18, 2010). The local authorities robbed me of all of my personal property and savings. When my wife and I were arrested, our son was left at home alone with no one to care for him.

My wife, Zhao Yumin, and I were both arrested on October 18, 2000, for practicing Falun Gong. The police took our cash, TV, DVD player, computers, a printer, a copier, mobile phones, my business suits, my shoes, our quilts and comforters, an ivory bangle, and wool coats among other items. They even took our rice and a barrel of cooking oil. Our son was only eight at the time, but the police simply left him on his own without even asking for a social worker to see to his care.

Because I refused to renounce Falun Gong, I faced many different forms of torture and abuse in prison. I was forced to spread my legs. I had to attend brainwashing sessions. I was denied sleep for 12 days. I had to wear a straightjacket and a helmet. I was also subjected to forced feeding, not for nourishment but for additional pain. In fact, many Falun Gong practitioners have died of suffocation and internal organ injuries caused by force-feeding.

Re-enactment of the torture of spreading the victim's legs

Re-enactment of force-feeding

The Chinese Communist regime arrested large numbers of practitioners before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games to prevent us from telling the world about the persecution of Falun Gong. My wife, her sister, and I were arrested on April 19, 2008, although we had not done anything illegal. The police subjected us to their brutalities during the arrest. I had bleeding inside my eyes. Blood splattered over my nose, lips, and shirt. My wife and I both lost our shoes when the police harassed us. We were taken to Donghuamen Police Station barefoot and were sent to forced labor camps, all because the regime wanted to hide its human rights violations from those attending the Olympic Games.

My son was 16 and my daughter was just over a year. They were left at home with my elderly father-in-law, who also needed personal assistance. My baby daughter was particularly traumatized by the event. She was sleeping when the police broke the door open and started beating my wife and me. She saw us being beaten and taken away. She was terrified and kept crying and screaming. She had never been separated from her mother. We were told that she woke at night, crying and asking for her mother. She was repeatedly seen staring at blank walls. No one dared to mention the word “mother” or “father” in front of her, but it did not help her cope. Our baby daughter lost a lot of weight over the following months.

While I was in the detention center in Beijing waiting to be transferred to the forced labor camp, six guards repeatedly shocked me with electric batons for about 60 minutes. They removed my clothes, forced me to lay down on the floor, and began shocking me. They told me they were “cooking me as a pancake with an electric grill.”

It was so painful that I felt as though I would die. They kept shocking me until the batteries ran out of power. They then got a fresh batch of electric batons. The room reeked with burned flesh. The torture left me with blisters filled with blood the size of oranges on my back and chest.

Re-enactment of torture with electric batons

After I was transferred to Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp in Beijing, I continued to face torture and abuse. I was forced to sit on a small bench, to stand still facing a wall, and squat or march for long hours. Moreover, I was made to work as a slave to produce stamp collection albums and other products for export.

My wife, Zhao Yumin, started practicing Falun Gong in January 1999. After the regime began to persecute Falun Gong, my wife repeatedly exercised her constitutional right to appeal for her right to practice Falun Gong, but each time she ended up being arrested, imprisoned, and fined.

She was arrested for the first time on October 18, 2000, with me. She managed to escape but had to go into hiding. She was arrested again in January 2001. At that time she had a molar pregnancy with a lot of vaginal bleeding. She was subjected to in-home detention. She was arrested again on July 19, 2002, and had a front tooth knocked out by a police officer. She was sent to the Beijing Legal Training Center to undergo brainwashing. Zhao Zongbao and Chen Jie from the local 610 Office confined her to a metal chair for two nights to try to make her renounce Falun Gong.

Re-enactment of the metal chair torture

She was also subjected to the Death Bed, where she was tied to a metal bed in a spread-eagle position for more than 30 days. The guards even released mosquitoes in the room to aggravate the torture. When the weather turned cool in Beijing in mid-September, they denied her warm clothes and even a quilt at night. For nearly two months, my wife wore short-sleeved T-shirts and shorts while chained to the metal bed. She was also not allowed to shower or brush her teeth. She was force-fed to escalate the torture. After she was finally released from the metal bed, she was unable to sit up.

Re-enactment of the Death Bed torture

Although the police failed to produce any evidence, she was sentenced to prison on a charge of “obstruction of justice.”

How could my wife have obstructed justice when the police had no evidence to justify the arrest in the first place? How could they arrest her for practicing Falun Gong when China's own Constitution guarantees its citizens the freedom of belief?

My wife served 30 months in prison, where she faced electric shocks and worked as a slave. She had to work long hours, sometimes up to 14 hours a day. She was deprived of sleep. She was made to sit in the lotus position bound with ropes as a means to make her renounce Falun Gong.

Re-enactment of the torture of sitting in the lotus position and bound with ropes

My wife and I were last arrested on April 19, 2008. Her younger sister, Zhao Jinmin, and her mother, Qin Xiu-e, were arrested at the same time. A female captain named Fu had four drug addicts force-feed my wife, her sister, and her mother with a large quantity of water and then didn't allow them to use the bathroom. They were transferred to Hubei Women's Prison, where they were forced to undergo brainwashing and endure verbal threats and abuse and sleep deprivation. They were also forced to stand still for long periods of time.

The persecution that my wife and I have faced is typical of what hundreds and thousands of Falun Gong practitioners in China have faced since July 20, 1999. We have been denied our constitutional right of our spiritual belief in Falun Gong and tortured for appealing for that right. The Chinese Communist regime has violated China's Constitution, as well as a long litany of domestic and international laws on human rights.