(Clearwisdom.net)

My name is Mr. Yu Shenghe, and I started to practice Falun Gong in December 1997. I used to suffer from many serious illnesses, including gastric ulcers, kidney inflammation, and an irregular heartbeat. But after I started to practice Falun Gong, I quickly regained my health and also improved spiritually.

On July 20, 1999, Jiang Zemin launched a nation-wide suppression of Falun Gong. On December 28, 1999 (lunar calendar), I went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. On the 29th, I was unlawfully arrested at Tiananmen Square. I was detained in Changyi for 15 days and then transferred to Shibu Town, where I was kept in custody at the "Family Planning Office", which is in fact a detention center where Falun Dafa practitioners are held.

On January 20, 2004 (lunar calendar), as soon as I was taken to the "Family Planning Office", the director Ming Zhaojiang (who has now been promoted to the "610 Office" in Changyi City) asked me to stand straight against the wall. He smelled of alcohol at the time and slapped me repeatedly across the face until his hand was bruised. He then heated a metal poker in the stove until it turned red. He waved it in front of my face to threaten me but did not burn me. He then picked up a small metal coal shovel and hit me across the face with it, using all his strength. My cheeks became swollen right away but he used it again to beat me on my forehead. My forehead, my eyes, and my whole face were swollen and bruised. The other people present could not even bear to look at me. When Ming Zhaojiang finally got tired of beating me, he phoned Wei Tiankui, who is in charge of the propaganda office in the town, and asked him to come over. Although it was below ¨C 10 degrees Celsius [14 degrees F], Wei forced me to take off my outer clothing. I was forced to stand in the yard, with only a thin layer of clothes and my hands raised above my head. He also forced me to hold an approximately fifty pound piece of coal. To make it more painful, they put a couple of stone wedges under my feet, and I had to stand there for over two hours in this tilted position.

On March 21, 2000, Gong Zhiqiang and Wei Tiankui called me into a small room on the second floor of the "Family Planning Office" building when one of my relatives was visiting. They asked me, "Do you still practice Falun Gong?" When I replied "Yes," he knocked me to the ground and brutally kicked me in front of my relative. When they got tired of this, they asked me to take my clothes off again. I was forced to stand barefoot in only my underwear on top of the building while holding a basin filled with water above my head. Gong Zhiqiang whipped me over my body and head with an electrical wire. Blood soaked my underwear. My face and neck were drenched in blood. I looked badly mangled. He did not stop until his pager rang. After that, Wei Tiankui asked me to crawl on the ground. He whipped me on my body and feet with my belt until the belt was shredded. I was not able to lie down to sleep for three nights and my underwear stuck to my body with dried blood.

On April 10, 2000, Gong Zhiqiang and Wei Tiankui, were instructed by Guo Guanglin, the local Party Secretary, and Li Chunsheng, the bailiff, to come to the "Family Planning Office" again. They asked practitioners Li Xiufen, Lin Yongshun and Wang Lizhen to meet at the roof of the building, and forced them to walk while squatting down and holding a big piece of wood over there heads. A basin containing chunks of concrete weighing up to 60 pounds was balanced on top of Lin Yongshun's head. They used needles to stab Li Xiufen's head and feet. After they had tortured the practitioners for a while, they asked the practitioners if they still practiced Falun Gong, and the practitioners all firmly answered "yes." Then the three practitioners were hung from metal ladders, and their hands tied with electric wire. Only the tips of their feet were still touching the ground. They hung there on the roof top for a whole day. When they were eventually released, the electric wires had cut into their flesh and their wrists were bleeding. At around nine o'clock in the evening, after Gong and Wei had obviously been drinking alcohol, they came back to the "Family Planning Office" and kicked all eight practitioners out of their rooms. At the time, we were all in our underwear and bare footed. We were ordered to kneel in the yard. Gong Zhiqiang and Wei Tiankui then violently kicked us in the ribs from both sides. I was rolling back and forth on the ground and gasped for breath for a long time. In addition, Gong Zhiqiang stepped on my temple with his heel and then on Wang Lizhen's fingers. Just then, I heard somebody else who had come with Gong and Wei, shouting loudly, "Stop! Stop! You will kill them." However, he realized that he could not stop them and left in a hurry. The other two kept beating us, saying, "According to the higher-ups, there is no limit to what we may do to Falun Gong practitioners. Whatever we do, it will be okay, as long as they stay alive." Then Wei Tiankui forced me to crawl on my knees and elbows, from the bottom of the stairs to the top of the building. He kicked me at every step and there were 49 steps in all. On the third floor, there was a metal ladder. He asked me to grab the ladder with my hands. He pulled my undershirt over my shoulders and my underpants below my knees. He then stabbed me about ten times in the back with a large needle. Then he brutally whipped my genitals brutally using a small belt. He forced me to keep crawling. When I almost reached the top of the ladder, he asked me to hang on by both hands with my feet suspended in the air. When I could not hold on any longer, he pulled on my feet with a small belt. I took a fall from about three meters . This was repeated about six more times. He then forced me to raise a piece of concrete weighing about 60 pounds, and made me move to the bottom of the stairs in a squat while holding the concrete slab on my head. I was then forced to kneel in the yard again with the slab on my head. The same thing was done to Ms. Li Xiufen and my wife Qu Xiuhua. My wife fell from the stairs and lost consciousness. The next day, I could not get up because of the pain and because my chest was badly bruised. However, they still forced me to clean the streets along the government compound of the town. I had to walk with the help of a wooden stick.

On the evening of June 5, Gong Zhiqiang and Wei Tiankui called me to the yard after they had been drinking again. They asked me if Falun Gong was a cult. When I answered, "no", they forced me to remove all my clothes. Gong Zhiqiang grabbed my leather belt and started to beat me with it. At first, he beat me on the head and neck. Then, he held it at the other end and beat me with the buckle. When it descended on my chest and belly, I lost my breath, and felt as if my belly was split open. I fell on the ground. Yet, he still kept swearing at me, saying that I was playing dead. He forced me upright and whipped me again. I was later released.

On March 25, 2001, around 7:00 pm, the head of the local police substation Jiang Yanmin and six policemen came to my home on the orders of Guo Guanglin and Li Chunsheng. As soon as they arrived at my home, Jiang Yanmin asked for money and ordered me to give him my bankbook, as well as for the keys to the desks in the room. I refused. He then instructed police officer Li to pry open the drawers of three desks. Jiang Yanmin took one of the bankbooks, while police officer Chu Jianguo put forty yuan into his own pocket. They also took a color TV set, tape recorder, sound system, radio, motorcycle, refrigerator, and a bill counter without any legal authorization. They even grabbed two new maps, one of my son's games and an expensive pen.

On December 24, 2001, I was arrested by the "610 Office" for distributing printed material explaining the facts about Falun Gong. Chen, Director of the Politics & Security Section of the local Public Security Bureau, Jiang Yanmin, and several local policemen, more than ten people in all, broke into my home and abducted me. I had my hands cuffed in the back to a metal chair in the town's police substation. They took my keys away from me. Then several people blindfolded me and started to electrically shock my armpits with electric batons. They viciously beat me in the ribs from both sides with wooden sticks. That afternoon, the authorities searched my home again and this time confiscated a big color TV set and DVD player that my son bought for his wedding. Jiang Yanmin took all of our bankbooks, one of which carried savings of 20,000 yuan, due that day. I had not set a pass code to protect the savings account. Jiang Yanmin immediately asked Yin and Qu Jiantao to withdraw the money from the bank. Then, my wife and I were unlawfully taken to the municipal public security bureau. I was illegally detained for a month and my wife was detained for half a month. In detention, Chen phoned my son and threatened him in order to extort 10,000 yuan from him.

Since July 20, 1999, I have been wrongfully detained twice, and forced to attend brainwashing sessions in the Changle and Weifung Forced Labor Camps. In the brainwashing sessions, they did not allow me to sleep for several days and nights in a row. I was subjected to severe physical and spiritual torture. I was kept in custody in the local police substation during three Chinese New Year's holidays, unable to see my family. 45,000 yuan has been extorted from me and my personal belongings valued at more than 5,000 yuan were confiscated. I have been jailed for a total of more than one year, thus being deprived of my personal freedom, my ability to run my business, and a normal life with my family members. My parents, children, relatives and friends have also suffered from the persecution, constantly living in terror from the illegal actions of the authorities.