48 Hours in a Chinese Detention Center

I arrived at the Beijing International Airport at approximately 4:00pm Beijing time on Monday, March 25th. I departed from the airport on shuttle bus number 3 into Beijing and got off at the Dongzhimen subway station. After handing out about five pieces of Falun Dafa information to a young boy and vendors on the street, a big ruffian came up from behind me. He grabbed me by the arm and pulled me to the side of the street. I was immediately surrounded by several other men and couldn't move. The men had red bandanas tied around their arms. They didn't identify who they were. They tried to take me behind a fence so the people on the street wouldn't see me, but I refused. After a few minutes, one of them radioed the police and about 7 fully uniformed police arrived within five minutes in a police van. Upon reading the information I had handed out, the policemen grabbed me and tried taking me into the police van. When I tried to leave and continue on my way, they used more force to move me towards the police van. At this point, I called out 'Falun Dafa Hao' (Falun Dafa is Good) to the crowd that had gathered on the street. The police then became violent and began slapping me in the face and kicking me in the legs. I continued to call out 'Falun Dafa Hao' and was picked up and thrown into the police van. They forced me to the floor of the van and kept kicking me to keep me silent. Upon closing the doors and shutting the window visors, they drove me away to a nearby police substation and took me into a room for interrogation. It was around 5:30pm Beijing time.

At the police station, I immediately asked to call the U.S. Embassy, but was denied. My person and luggage were searched, and they took my passport, airport tickets, and wallet. Upon finding Falun Dafa information in my bag, they said I had broken the law, and must be punished. I told them that they were breaking their own constitution and the International Covenant of Human Rights that China had signed onto. They said that it didn't matter because I was in China and had to do what they said. They interrogated me for over an hour and kicked, slapped, and shoved me when I refused to answer their questions. The entire thing was filmed on a hidden camera that had been installed in the room by the police. At round 6:45pm Beijing time they took me from the police substation to a nearby detention center.

The detention center was located beneath what looked like a hotel or seminar building, and had two cells in it. I was put into a cell by myself and my luggage was kept away from me. The cell was very dirty and the bed was stained with what looked like human waste. The walls were covered with dirt and stains. I was locked in the cell by myself for the next 45 hours from approximately 7:00pm, Monday, the 25th, to 4:00pm, Wednesday, the 27th. On different occasions throughout my stay in the detention center, they tried to get me to answer several questions as to where I was from, who I traveled to China with, where I got the information I had brought with me, and if I had been in contact with anyone in China. I refused to answer any questions I thought could be used to distort the truth or used to hurt other people. They also tried to get me to sign a form several times, but I refused. In the afternoon of Tuesday, the 26th, after being escorted to and from the bathroom, I asked them if I could do my homework (which was I brought with from school.) At this point, one of the guards became very angry and pushed me back into the cell. He then punched me in the mouth and stomach, and kicked me down to the bed. I had a bloody lip for about 20 minutes.

It was 24 hours before they asked me if I wanted any food or water. At this point, I went on a hunger strike from the remaining 24 hours of my stay. I told them that my detention was illegal and I would not eat or drink until I was released. I practiced the Falun Dafa exercises frequently throughout the entire detention time, and the guards looked on very intently. There were always at least two guards on duty all the time, but were frequently up to 5 or 6 at various times.

In the early morning hours of Wednesday, the 27th, when the guards were asleep, I wrote in Chinese the words 'Falun Dafa is Good', 'Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance are good', and 'Falun Dafa is a righteous practice' on the rear wall of the cell that I was in. Upon waking up, the guards were very shocked. They asked me what time I had written the words, and I replied that I didn't know the exact time, but it was in the early morning hours. They became very angry that I didn't know the exact time, and slapped and shoved me. Two hours later, they came back into the cell to take pictures of what I had wrote. They then had a young worker come in and erase the words, and tried to take my photo. I turned my back to the camera, and one of the guards punched me in the side of the head and pulled me by my hair to try and hold me in a position where they could take my picture, but they were unsuccessful. Several other guards then came into the cell at this point and demanded that I stand up and exit the cell with them so that they could take my thumbprints and photo. I refused to move. The same guard that had just punched me then put me in a headlock and chocked me while pulling me off the bed. I was dragged out of the cell and two guards began to kick and punch me in the legs and torso, and slap me in the face and head. They again pulled me by the hair to try and get a photo of me, but were unsuccessful. They also were unsuccessful at taking my thumbprints. After about 15 minutes of beating me, I was taken back into the cell and locked up for the remainder of my stay. Later in the day, one of the guards spit in my face after I told him he shouldn't persecute good people.

At around 4:00pm Beijing time, March 27th, the guards entered my cell and told me that it was time to leave. Upon walking out of the cell, I grabbed my luggage and was escorted into a police van with 7 more uniformed police. I was taken to a place where they picked up my new return trip tickets, and then to the airport. At the airport, they drove the police van up to the plane itself so that I was not allowed to come into contact with any other people while in China. They treated me like a highly dangerous criminal. They most likely feared that I would tell the people I came into contact with that Falun Dafa was good and expose about the beating I had received while in custody.

The police took away the several thousand pieces of information about Falun Dafa that I had brought with me, my walkman, personal tapes, cds, my duffel bag, and extorted a total of approximately 670 yuan ($US 80) from my wallet. They claimed that the money was needed to pay for the change for my plane ticket and a new visa, even though I had a perfectly good return ticket scheduled for March 31st and a valid visa. The total value of the materials that they took from me was probably equivalent to U.S. $200, not including the $US 80 that they took to pay for the plane ticket and visa. During the entire detention, I was not allowed to contact the American Embassy or make any calls back home. I was never informed of when I was going to be returned or if they had made any contact with the U.S. government.