(Minghui.org) The policy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to persecute Falun Gong remains unchanged, but more and more people have awakened to the truth. They have helped and protected Dafa disciples to the extent they could.
I had been given three years in a forced labor camp and endured physical, mental, and financial persecution. In April 2009, I was illegally arrested again and later sentenced to five years in prison, but I encountered something different this time. Below was my personal experience.
Every day during my 11 months at a detention center, I shouted “Falun Dafa is Good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” and clarified the truth to the guards and the detainees. I wore my own clothes—and not an inmate uniform—with words of blessing every day. No one, including the guards, objected.
On one occasion, I wrote on my jail cell wall with ashes of incense sticks that were used as mosquito repellent. I told the guard before I did it and, surprisingly, he did not say a word, nor did my cellmates have any objection.
All of the detainees had to do hard labor, including picking peas and sorting them. The work load assigned to each jail cell depended upon inmate head count. I told them, “I am a Dafa practitioner. I will not do the work because I am innocent.”
My cellmates understood and did not ask me to share in the work, but I always helped them. My refusal of the work assignment was to let them know that I did not accept the illegal detention and the charges against me.
To help me prepare a statement to defend my innocence, the detainees lent me the law books they had. The director of the detention center even talked to me before the illegal trial. He said, “The CCP is totally wrong if they sentence you for just writing a truthful letter to folks in your hometown.”
I was taken to a prison 11 months later after my arrest. I repeatedly shouted “Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!” and refused to wear the prison uniform. The guards sent me to solitary confinement. They also handcuffed and shackled me for doing the exercises.
After a while, I was put in the same room with the prisoners who were assigned to monitor other inmates. I told them that I needed to do the exercises twice a day and two hours each time. They took turns watching out for the guards while I did the exercises, sent righteous thoughts and studied the Fa. Inmates from other cells gave me copies of the Falun Gong teachings left behind by fellow practitioners.
Because of prior persecution, I developed symptoms of anemia, gastric obstruction, reflux esophagitis, and esophageal polyps. The prison guards scheduled a physical examination for me and asked the chief physician at the prison hospital to check on me.
In order for me not to be handcuffed and shackled anymore, the guards let me join the labor team and assigned me to do light work.
The director of our local 610 Office was also friendly to me. He visited me four times and gave me money each time; twice when I was imprisoned and twice after I was released. He also helped me find some odd jobs.
My village gave money to militias every year, and they included me in their list of people to give money to.