March 11, 2002

(Clearwisdom.net)

I walked out from Changlinzi Forced Labor Camp after an 83-day hunger strike protest. The following is my experience in eradicating the evil persecution for the second time.

On the eve of February 7, 2002, a dozen plain-clothes policemen from the First Division of Harbin City Police Department, Subdivision of Police Department and Police Station barged into my home without showing any ID and confiscated my property. The police asked me, "Is your name Gao Yang?" I replied, "Yes". They asked, "Do you practice Falun Gong?" I replied, "Of course!" They wanted to arrest me, and I told them, " I didn't commit any crime, why should I go with you? No, I won't go with you. Falun Dafa is a righteous Fa. Falun Gong practitioners are all good people because they follow the teaching of 'Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance.' We are innocent. Why should we go with you?" Seven to eight policemen then beat me severely. I was in so much pain but I still shouted, "Falun Dafa is good. Falun Dafa is a righteous Fa!" The policemen snatched four brand new DVD players that I just bought for my friends and relatives. They also grabbed my DVD player, two boxes of spray lacquer for my car, my son's crayons, my cell phone, pager, phone directory, tape recorder, walkman, tapes, Master's picture and Dafa books as well as 90 Yuan RMB from my pocket. I firmly demanded, "Return my teacher's picture and Dafa books to me." The police then gave them back.

One of the policemen ordered, "Put the handcuffs on him." I shouted, "Falun Dafa is good! Why do you handcuff me? I am innocent." Six to seven policemen beat me, grabbed my arms and forcibly handcuffed me. My hands were handcuffed to the point of bleeding. They sealed my mouth with tape because they were afraid that the neighbors would hear me shouting, "Falun Dafa is good!" I knew that they could temporarily seal my mouth but they can never seal my heart. I must expose their evil action to the public.

I was taken to the detention center, where I was handcuffed on a cold metal chair. The room was very cold, and I was wearing only cotton trousers and a sweatshirt. The policemen were cold despite the fact that they wore heavy coats. When they tried to extort a confession from me, they beat me whenever they were not satisfied with my answer. When I answered their questions, I often mentioned that Falun Dafa is a righteous Fa and reminded them of the principles of karmic retribution - "Good is rewarded with good and evil is met with evil." I didn't hate them, but I pitied them. One of the young policemen didn't beat me after listening to my advice, perhaps because his conscience had been awakened. They took turns interrogating me, and they did not allow me to sleep or even close my eyes throughout the night. However, they failed to get any so-called "evidence" from me.

The next morning, February 8, I was taken to the First Division of Harbin City Police Department, a secret place where Falun Gong practitioners are routinely interrogated and tortured. They placed a plastic barrel over my head so that I would not know the location, and they continued their interrogation using torture. I was handcuffed to a metal chair. They tortured me until I would become exhausted so that they could take advantage of my weak consciousness - so they thought. The police forced me to admit that those DVD players were bought for watching Falun Dafa materials, and the marker pens and spray lacquer were bought for writing Dafa banners. I told them what those materials were truly bought for--for my friends, my son and my car, respectively. The vicious police baited me, "If you admit it, we will let you go." I clearly understood their purpose, if I admitted it, they could declare that I was guilty. How could they have a kind heart towards Falun Dafa practitioners?

Then the police interrogated me for a few hours about the people whose names were in my personal phone directory. Finally I told them, "I will never tell you that, and I won't let you persecute any more practitioners." They were speechless.

On the afternoon of February 9, 2002, the police acquired a detention warrant and tried to make me sign it. I refused and said, "I have not committed any crimes, why are you holding me? Falun Dafa is a righteous Fa (Law, Principle), you should release me unconditionally."

They told me, "You're right, you don't have to sign it, but write down the reason why you won't sign."

I wrote on the warrant, "Falun Dafa is a righteous Fa. It teaches people to become kind and virtuous. It is beneficial to the nation and to the people, with no downside risk. From the bottom of my heart, I sincerely say, 'Falun Dafa is good! I request that all innocently detained practitioners be unconditionally released!'"

At around 10 a.m. on February 10, the fourth day of torture on the "Tiger Bench" had ended, but both of my legs remained swollen. [Practitioners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall. Practitioners' knees are tightly tied on the small bench - "Tiger Bench." He has to sit straight up with his eyes looking straight ahead. His hands are tied on the back or sometimes placed on his knees. He is not allowed to turn his head, close his eyes, talk to anyone, raise his hand, or call out for the attention of the guards. Many inmates are assigned to watch the practitioner. If he turns his head, they would force the practitioner to hold his head in that position indefinitely. If the practitioner raises his hand to call the attention of the guards when his hands are placed on his knees, they would force him to hold his hands in the air indefinitely. If he speaks, they would force his mouth to remain open indefinitely. Usually some hard objects are inserted underneath the practitioner's lower legs or ankles to make it harder for them to tolerate this abuse (see illustration on http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2001/11/24/16156.html).]

They forcefully took me to the municipal second detention center. After searching me, they locked me in the seventh cell on the second floor. I had been on a hunger strike ever since they first abducted me on February 7. On the afternoon of February 10, they took me from my cell and force-fed me. Six inmates held me down against a board, rendering me immobile. They inserted a finger-thick, hard plastic tube down my throat and into my stomach. To torture me further, they brutally pushed the tube into me as far as possible, so that my stomach felt as though it was being punctured. There was a natural reflex in my throat to vomit, and I felt extremely nauseous. The torture lasted for half a day. When I returned to the cell, my stomach was burning. I thought that they had punctured it.

On the second day, when they continued to force-feed me, it was worse because they put a lot of salt into the mixture of gruel that they were forcing into me, and it was excruciatingly painful when it hit my stomach wounds. In the days that followed, I began vomiting blood. Upon seeing this, the police were afraid to continue force-feeding me. On February 14, 2002, I was unable to eat anything. On February 19, the detention center requested that the Police Department First Division send me to the hospital. As they were scanning my stomach in the hospital, I began clarifying the truth to a crowd of over ten people, doctors and patients alike. I told them that Falun Dafa is the righteous Fa, that Falun Dafa is good, that it makes people became virtuous and healthy, and that numerous illnesses vanished after I began practicing Falun Dafa. I told them that there are over fifty countries in which Falun Gong is practiced, even in Hong Kong and Macao, which are under China's rule. However, Mainland China is the only country that persecutes it. I told them that the police had staged the self-immolation incident on Tiananmen Square in order to frame Falun Gong. I said that I had been on a hunger strike for over thirteen days, and that the reason we use our lives to safeguard Falun Dafa is because it is a righteous Fa. It benefits the nation as well as the people. I mentioned that we, as practitioners, do not participate in politics, and therefore criticize neither the policies of the Party nor those of the country. The policy to persecute Falun Gong, however, is evil. It puts those who practice "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" into jail and tortures them. The number of people who have died from the persecution is well over 1,600, according to government sources. How long can this policy last? Please remember, "Falun Dafa is good! Falun Dafa is the righteous Fa!" The people from the First Division tried to prevent me from speaking many times, but I refused to cooperate with them, so they sent me back to the detention center.

On February 22, sixteen days into the hunger strike, I began vomiting more blood. The police in the Second Detention Center were afraid that I might die, so they found my family and let them bail me out. They took this opportunity to extort 3,000 Yuan and never gave a receipt. (The average monthly salary of an urban worker is 500 Yuan.) Then they released me. After I was released from Changlinzi Labor Camp, following an 83-day hunger strike, I once again exited through the gate of the Second Detention Center. Even after I returned home, my body was still covered with scabies, and I continued to vomit blood. These are the results of the brutal torture that I experienced, both mentally and physically.

I just wanted to use this forum to expose the evil to the light of day.