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(Clearwisdom.net) In recent years, out of the desire to clarify the facts, some Dafa disciples outside China have established some websites and forums on the Internet intended for ordinary people, or have registered some organizations in ordinary society. The original intent was to clarify the facts and save people using the means of ordinary people. But a lot of times, because they could not solidly put effort into walking that path correctly and all the way through, the actual result fell far short of saving people. In other words, not only were these forms not truly used for clarifying the facts, they instead became a gathering place for some practitioners (inside and outside of China) to indulge their human mindsets and attachments. Some practitioners who did not study the Fa deeply, did not understand how to cultivate, or held on dearly to their many human attachments considered themselves to be ordinary people while doing things of ordinary people, seeking fame and pursuing emotional attachments. They experienced a lot of obstruction in their own cultivation, severely interfered with practitioners' cultivation, misled new practitioners and ordinary people, and even had an effect of undermining the Fa.
Let's give an example of this. There is a forum called the University of the Future China Forum, whose original intended audience is society in general, but a very large portion of its audience ended up being Falun Gong practitioners. It actually openly called Falun Gong, "Falun Gong of the Mind". When practitioners pointed this out to be an act of undermining the Fa, the response they got was, "If you call 'Falun Gong of the Mind" an act of undermining the Fa, are you saying that Falun Gong is not a method that cultivates xinxing? Who then is really undermining the Fa?" Regardless of the original intention, this kind of deceitful, fallacious argument is almost on par with the brainwashing rhetoric found in China's labor camps and brainwashing centers. Supposedly this website led cultivators within the forum, new cultivators, and non-cultivating democracy activists to engage in point-by-point "discussions" about the original work of Falun Gong, and doing so in a way that treats it like ordinary people's philosophy or scholarship. In addition, some of the analogies used in the process, as it tried to show off the authors' eloquence, had a ruinous effect. Even though a great majority of those that spent a lot of time at that website firmly believe themselves to be Falun Gong cultivators, they could not look at these phenomena with righteous thoughts, their views on many issues appeared to be right but were actually not, and they looked at things from the standpoint of protecting themselves and their small circle of people.
This is an example of undermining the Fa and severely interfering with practitioners' cultivation. The lamentable thing is that Fa-rectification cultivation has gotten to this point, but aside from the Qingxin Discussion Board that has been shut down, some media websites that practitioners have participated in setting up and maintaining still copy and promote material on this type of people and things. Cultivators truly cannot indulge the things that they take a liking to, human attachments, and demon nature. Otherwise, not only will that have a negative effect, it will produce a dark field and attract rotten demon special agents.
When projects intended to clarify the facts to ordinary people become projects focused on Dafa disciples, in searching deeply for root causes, one such root cause is recognizing the difficulties and but not pushing forward, and not using Dafa disciples' mentality of "It is difficult to do, but it can be done" to serve the purpose of saving people. Instead of facing the difficulties in cultivation with righteous thoughts, they became attached to the methods that they themselves "established," they became attached to the forum that this method has brought about for their own attachments, their showing-off mentality, and their desires of taking a liking to certain things, and they've forgotten that Dafa disciples must continuously improve themselves in cultivation, as well as their responsibility for saving people.
We all know that during the Age of Law's End, human minds have become deviated, ordinary people are lost in their pursuits of fame, self-interest, and various desires, and it is very difficult to clarify the facts and save people. Only when the Fa-rectification Period Dafa disciples continuously get rid of their human mindsets in cultivation, continuously develop compassion in cultivation, put themselves in other people's positions to consider things, understand the knots in ordinary people's minds, and clarify the facts with a focus, can they dissipate the confusing fog, truly explain the facts clearly, and thus save people. The process of saving people is also a process of cultivating oneself. During the process of saving people, there will be difficulties and ordeals. It requires us to continuously break through ourselves. Only when accompanied with cultivating ourselves well, can wisdom from the Fa continuously emerge, and the righteous gods in other dimensions will assist us, all of this manifesting in our getting things started and establishing a foothold in society.
Conversely, if one uses the human method of calling for support among practitioners as soon as one encounters difficulties, or intentionally or unintentionally turn projects that originally intended for ordinary people into projects targeted at practitioners, then on the surface it might appear quite well-attended and festive, but in reality it has run contrary to the starting point of clarifying the facts and saving people, and it becomes doing things for the sake of doing things and doing things for the sake of satisfying oneself. From the perspective of cultivation, it is running away from the tests and tribulations on the path of cultivation. It might appear to be a shortcut, but one can't improve from it and can become even more attached to it. Some of the people involved not only don't know to reflect upon their mistakes, they even think of those as their accomplishments. They wasted practitioners' time and energy, and yet they think that they were doing good things. There are also some Internet projects that have accumulated groups of practitioners with similar attachments, where they form cliques and write articles to express their ordinary human emotions. They position themselves as clarifying the facts and saving people, but in reality they are negatively affecting one another, flattering one another, expanding their attachments, and indulging their own human mindsets. When the website was shut down, they not only did not search inward, they bid one another goodbyes in sorrow, largely exhibiting the state of "carrying deep regret on and on", and they tried to think of all kinds of ways to move their cliques to other websites for "reunion." This strayed too far from the basis of cultivation and saving people.
Every Dafa disciple corresponds to his or her own cosmic body and shoulders the mission of saving sentient beings in a certain area. The time for saving people is pressing. Every task and every project that we do should land on the firm footing of saving people, and truly play the role of saving people. Don't continue to indulge one's own attachments and human thinking. The predestined opportunity will not wait forever. We must quickly learn how to be truly responsible for ourselves, be truly responsible for our sentient beings, and be responsible to validating the Fa. Let us quickly improve as a whole body, and let us work together with one mind to solidly save people and save more people.
Dafa Disciple in North America
Cleaning Up
Note: There are two reasons why I have not said anything about these matters all along. The first is that I wanted our students to cultivate to maturity on their own, to see these problems for themselves as they go about cultivating to maturity, and to get through them on their own. The second is that [I wanted] to see just how far those who orchestrated things would deviate. I was going to say something only when the human attachments had fully revealed themselves. Now that you have seen the problem, I'm going to say a few words.
The goal of some of the activities and projects that our students run is to save people and help Master validate the Fa, but time and again the only people it reaches are our own students, rendering these internal things. We can't go on like this. For one thing, those efforts cannot save people, and secondly, they interfere with our students' cultivation and saving of sentient beings. At the very least such efforts consume a great deal of manpower. Dafa disciples are to help Master rectify the Fa, and you mustn't consume our human resources this way. If some of the websites run by students can have a positive effect saving sentient beings, then you should continue to run them and do so in a healthy way. If they cannot do this, however, then don't end up serving as interference. I would especially suggest that you shut down all websites that drive a great number of new students as well as those who haven't studied the Fa deeply or who have strong human attachments to join in. Ordinary people's websites, things done by those who think of themselves as promoting certain activities on Dafa's behalf, and online activities by self-proclaimed practitioners have nothing to do with Dafa disciples' validating the Fa. From this day forth Dafa disciples should not participate in them anymore, especially the politically-oriented activities. Toppling the wicked CCP is not the goal of cultivation. Rather, for Dafa disciples the ultimate goal in cultivation is to reach Consummation. We expose the persecution in order to help people see the evil for what it is, and thus be saved. The disintegration of the wicked CCP is Heaven's mandate and a historical inevitability, and not something worthy of Dafa disciples doing things solely to that end. There are a few people among our students who, because they believed some nonsense from ordinary people early on when they first got close to Dafa and did not realize that it was divine beings probing their minds, have long held doubts about the cultivation done by Dafa disciples. So many years have passed, yet they still keep looking at Dafa with a human mindset and cannot forsake their attachments to politics and the power and gains that may come from such things in the future. Time has waited for you too long. Don't do Dafa things with impure human attachments. Dafa disciples' cultivation is solemn. No matter how clearheaded you may think you are, in reality, all of your involvement stems from your wisdom having been clouded by the attachment of pursuit that you have had since early on. Though you have made it to where you are today, you have always been the object of ridicule by divine beings. How sad it is that you have come close to Dafa, but cannot enter.
Let me address another matter. The human mind is unstable, so don't think that ordinary people are going to have righteous thoughts. There are some ordinary people who identify with Dafa's principles, but they have not actually done cultivation that is based on Fa. They have, via the media, spoken up for Dafa disciples and opposed the persecution, and this has led some students to consider such people extraordinary, and even treat them like Dafa disciples, not making a distinction between the two. And then there are others, even more foolish still, who regard what those people say as Fa. With all this adulation, these [ordinary] people can't help but grow delighted with themselves and forget who they are, which then leads all sorts of attachments to emerge in them. They then become so bold as to say or do anything, even to the point of disrupting Dafa disciples' normal cultivation and validating of the Fa. The truth is, this phenomenon can't be blamed entirely on these ordinary people. These people--who sympathized with Dafa--have been ruined by some of our students who lack righteous thoughts, are irrational, and don't do things based on the Fa. Since what we do is to broadly save sentient beings, people, no matter their frame of thought, are to be given a chance of salvation, and thus, human thoughts of every type are going to manifest among our students. I knew about all of this even before I first imparted the Fa. What is key for you is to study the Fa a lot. With a great deal of Fa study, you will naturally have righteous thoughts and, as you go about validating the Fa you will naturally do things based on the Fa. And only then will you take the right path. Master doesn't want you to always take the wrong path, and even less can he bear to see you being persecuted. Oftentimes the hardships you endure really are brought about by human attachments. When your human attachments are strong and you don't realize it, the old forces' factors will use the evil to capture you and send you to labor camps for persecution.
After reading this student's article, I wanted to say a few words to help you clean things up. It is still up to you yourselves to walk your paths well hereafter. When you have all become mature, the next stage will begin.
Li Hongzhi
August 6, 2009
(Clearwisdom.net) Fei Tian Academy of the Arts announced today that applications are now being accepted for female students, from 12 years old and 5'3" (1.62m) in height, 13 years of age and 5'3+" (1.64m) in height, or 14 years old and 5'4+" (1.66m)" in height. Applicants must practice Falun Dafa or be from a family of practitioners and aspire to learn the practice. Each applicant must provide a resume, professional experience, family or personal cultivation experience, and the following:
Name, gender, date of birth, height, weight, home address, email address, phone number, and recent photos
Photos must have been taken within the last month, and should include
Full length frontal, standing
Full length side view, standing
Full length back, standing
Doing a split
Doing a bridge
The applicant should be wearing dance or gymnastic attire, and the photographer should take the photographs in a kneeling position so as to accurately reflect the applicant's physical attributes.
All required materials must be submitted together for the application to be considered formally submitted. Preliminary qualifiers will generally be notified within two weeks of application receipt and given audition dates. If there are missing materials or the applicant has not passed the preliminary review, they will not receive an individual reply.
Please submit applications to dance@minghui.org. Inquiries may be directed to 646-761-6064 (Office).
Note: The size of each photo should not exceed 100K in size, and each email should not exceed 1MB in size, so as to prevent technical problems with the email.
Fei Tian Academy of Arts
August 8, 2009
(Clearwisdom.net) On August 6, 2009, Shao Yuhua, a Taiwanese Falun Gong practitioner who was jailed by the Chinese Government for a week, returned home to Hsingchu, Taiwan. Ms. Shao stated at the airport, "Falun Gong practitioners should have freedom of belief." She called upon people to help rescue practitioners who are being persecuted in China.
Shao Yuhua (in red jacket) returns home after a week's detention in China
Ms. Shao Yuhua married a Taiwanese and moved to Taiwan from China eleven years ago. In 2007, she started practicing Falun Gong. This past July, Ms. Shao went to visit her family in China with her ten year-old daughter. On July 31, she was arrested by Chinese police.
Several Taiwanese organizations and government officials were involved in rescuing Shao Yuhua. On August 6, she was released and returned home. At the airport, she and her husband, Cheng Shuda, expressed their appreciation to Falun Gong practitioners, the Taiwanese government and to the other organizations that helped secure her freedom.
Ms. Shao said, "I am free now, but thousands of practitioners in China are still being persecuted. Everyday people can't imagine how severe their situation is. I hope that international organizations and Taiwanese society will help them, as they have helped me."
Ms. Chu Wanchi, a well-known human rights lawyer, had a three-hour conversation with Ms. Shao after her release. She heard some of the details of what Ms. Shao experienced while detained in China. Ms. Chu related, "Shao Yuhua was arrested only because she practices Falun Gong. She was subjected to sleep deprivation. The police tried to force her to write a letter promising that she will no longer practice. She and her family were threatened."
The police tried to force Ms. Shao to write a letter renouncing Falun Gong, and made an outline for her to follow
Mr. David Kilgour, former Canadian Member of Parliament, had written to Taiwanese officials, requesting their help to rescue Ms. Shao Yuhua. The Falun Dafa Information Center also asked several international organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, to help. Many Taiwanese organizations and government officials actively helped to rescue Mr. Shao.
Ms. Shao Yuhua and her husband live in Hsinchu. Chang Bichin, spokesman for the Hsingchu Council, said that her mother-in-law is also a Falun Gong practitioner, and she knows that Falun Gong is beneficial to people. Chiu Jingchun, the councilman for Hsinchu, called upon the Chinese government to restore freedom of belief and release all illegally detained Falun Gong practitioners.
On August 5, the Taipei Times covered Shao Yuhua's case.
Ms. Shao thanked everyone for their help in gaining her freedom and requested more attention be directed to those who are still being persecuted in China.
(Clearwisdom.net) On August 6, 2009, Councilman Tony Avella, who is a candidate in the 2009 New York City mayoral race, declined an invitation to China, saying he will not go until the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ends its human rights abuses.
Tony Avella
The invitation was extended from the Asian American Business Development Center in Manhattan, and was for a trip to China on October 9-18. Mr. Avella made the announcement during a press conference in front of the Queens Library in Flushing, New York on Thursday evening.
"I'm not going to go and I would never go until such a time when the Chinese government responds to the human rights abuses, not only in China, but their persecution of Falun Gong practitioners here in the United States," said Avella, referencing the numerous attacks against Falun Gong practitioners in Flushing, many of which have been linked back to the Chinese Consulate of New York.
Mr. Avella continued, "Clearly we elected officials of the United States should send a clear message to them that we don't think human rights abuses and throwing people in jail for their beliefs is appropriate."
"I think the evidence is clear and what is going on in downtown Flushing is clear. It is unacceptable, here and in China itself. I for one am not going to be fooled by this," he said.
Mr. Avella added, "If more of my colleagues and elected officials in this country would do similar actions to what I'm doing today, it would send the message to the Chinese government that they have to change. They can no longer act in such a fashion."
According to former Chinese government officials and diplomats, the Chinese government often tries to seduce Western politicians with money, free trips to China and other benefits to convince them to support the CCP. Prof. John Li from City College praised Mr. Avella for resisting the CCP and setting up a model for other American politicians.
Four Falun Gong practitioners gave speeches at the press conference, exposing the persecution they experienced.
Yu Zhenjie, 58, is from Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang Province. She was arrested and jailed several times, and badly tortured. Her brother and sister-in-law were sentenced to 13 and 11 years respectively. She called upon the American government to help rescue them.
Liu Yan, 58, is from Beijing. She was arrested, imprisoned and physically tortured in March and May 2001. She was later sentenced to four years in a labor camp, where her legs were beaten and injured. She was force-fed, her head was badly beaten and her left eyeball was knocked out. She was deprived of sleep for a long time, and beaten and shocked on the face with electric batons several times.
HTML clipboard
(Clearwisdom.net) Falun Gong practitioners in Finland have clarified the truth at the White Church, a well-known tourist attraction in Finland, since July 23, 2009. In addition to introducing Falun Gong and the persecution in China to the visitors at the church, they also help Chinese tourists to quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliated organizations.
Built in 1852, the White Church is a masterpiece of Finnish architecture, and is a popular tourist destination year-around. Outside the church, Falun Gong practitioners set up banners with such messages as, "Falun Dafa is good," and "Fully Disintegrating the CCP to Stop the Persecution." Also displayed are truth-clarification boards and a petition signature book calling for an end to the persecution. Many Chinese tourists have thus learned the facts about the persecution taking place in China.
People read the truth-clarifying displaying boards
After viewing the huge banners, many Chinese tourists ask practitioners about the persecution. A Chinese student studying in Italy was shocked to learn about the persecution. As she was only ten years old when the Chinese regime started to persecute Falun Gong, she had no idea whatsoever about the severity of the persecution. Besides explaining to her the characteristics of Falun Gong and the universal principals of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, a Falun Gong practitioner shared with her about the persecution she and her family suffered simply because they practice Falun Gong and cultivated themselves to be better people. The student patiently listened to the sharing for about three hours or so, and asked many questions. After learning the truth, she decided to renounce her membership in the CCP, the Communist Youth League and the Young Pioneers.
After seeing the display boards exposing the persecution, some Chinese tourists misunderstood and got the impression that Falun Gong practitioners were against the Chinese government. They said, "Can't you use other approaches to stop the persecution?" The practitioners replied, "As soon as the persecution started, we petitioned various petition offices at all levels, according to the rights endowed by the Chinese Constitution. However the petition offices instead became places for people to be arrested. Many Falun Gong practitioners have been arrested, incarcerated and sent to forced labor camps, while others lost their jobs or had to leave their families to avoid persecution and arrest. As a result, we have no choice but to expose the atrocities committed by the Chinese Communist regime. Unlike what is mentioned in the Chinese Communists regime's propaganda, Falun Gong has no political motivation. Over the past ten years, Falun Gong practitioners have never resorted to violence, which fully demonstrates that Falun Gong is a peaceful, rational practice."
The Chinese tourists finally fully understood what Falun Gong practitioners are doing, and sincerely said goodbye to the practitioners.
"What can we do about the persecution in China?"
Many people who have fully understood Falun Gong ask, "What can we do about it, and how can we help you?"
A Western man who spoke fluent Mandarin talked to a practitioner for quite a while. After learning the facts about the persecution of Falun Gong, he sympathized with the suffering of Falun Gong practitioners, but he could not understand why Falun Gong practitioners clarified the truth to Westerners, as the persecution in taking place in China which is far away. He wondered what Westerners could do about the persecution. The practitioner told him that what most people in Western countries knew about Falun Gong was limited to the misleading propaganda fabricated by the CCP-controlled media, and many people, even in the West, have been deceived by the lies. The practitioner added, "What Falun Gong practitioners are doing is exposing the intrinsically evil nature of the CCP, so as to let people around the world understand the facts about Falun Gong and take a right stand on the issue."
A young Finish man was really shocked to see the photos of the brutal persecution against Falun Gong practitioners. He solemnly asked a practitioner, "What I can do for you?"
A young man and his girlfriend stood in front of the display boards for a long while reading the information. After a practitioner shared with them about her personal experience of brutal persecution, they also asked, "What can we do for you?"
Throughout the activities, many people wanted to donate money to support Falun Gong. While politely rejecting their kind offers, practitioners said, "We simply hope that you are able to tell your family members, friends as well as other people around you about the brutal persecution in China. This will be of help for those who are being persecuted."
People were so moved that they condemned the Chinese regime's atrocities one after another.
After viewing various photos of persecuted Falun Gong practitioners, an elderly Finish person said in tears, "This is just too bad," while a tourist from South Korea sobbed and couldn't continue his conversation.
A Japanese man who was visiting with his family told a practitioner that they did notice Falun Gong practitioners clarifying the truth in Tokyo, but they didn't pay much attention to them. While they were aware of the Chinese regime's persecution of Falun Gong, they didn't know that the regime was so evil. After listening to practitioners explain the persecution, his wife said, "They [the CCP] are evil indeed." Upon bidding farewell to the practitioners, the husband said, "Keep it up!"
After learning about what is taking place in China, another tourist said that he believed that the CCP would eventually be disintegrated, as the atrocities perpetrated by the CCP will never be tolerated by the world. He also wished practitioners good luck in their efforts.
(Clearwisdom.net) Prior to the Communist regime's initiation of the persecution of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, 40-year-old Mr. Xu Bin worked at the Dukou Steel & Iron Factory in Panzhihua City, Sichuan Province. Over the next several years, Mr. Xu suffered severely under the persecution. He eventually left Wumaping Prison in Muchuan County, Leshan City, Sichuan Province in 2009, after enduring constant brainwashing and savage torture.
1999-2001: Brainwashing and forced labor
Renhe District Politics and Security Section head Zhang Hongtai in Panzhihua City and police officer Cui Fuli instructed officials from the Security Section to confiscate Xu Bin's Falun Gong books in July 1999. Below is an account of what Mr. Xu had to endure:
Officials from the Renhe District Police Department's Politics and Security Section turned the Renhe District Party School into a brainwashing facility in September 1999, a place where brutality was commonplace. The brainwashing session lasted a week. Between 50 and 60 Falun Gong practitioners were taken there and bombarded with slanderous propaganda. Each practitioner was forced to pay 200 yuan. They took Xu Bin and Ai Zelin to the Politics and Security Section and told them to curse Falun Gong's founder Mr. Li Hongzhi and verbally attack Falun Gong, or they would never go home. Both practitioners firmly refused, and the officials beat them for six hours, after which the practitioners announced their determination to remain true to their belief. They were held in police custody for the next 15 days. Perpetrators responsible for the beating and illegal incarceration include section head Zhang Hongtai, now the head of the Jinjiang Police Station, and Cui Fuli, Politics and Security Section officer.
Xu Bin went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong in December 1999. Zhang Hongtai and Cui Fuli detained him for 37 days. He went to Beijing again in April 2000, and officials at the Renhe District Politics and Security Section held him for another 37 days.
Mr. Xu went to Beijing for the third time in August 2000 and was illegally arrested. Official Cui Fuli sent him to the Xinhua Forced Labor Camp in Mianyang City, Sichuan Province. Cui Fuli filled out a labor re-education sentence form without approval and subjected Xu Bin to two years of hard labor. Xu Bin was held at this labor camp between August 2000 and June 2001, as he was later granted an early release.
2001: Yanbian County Detention Center
A local resident surnamed Cai reported Xu Bin and another practitioner to the police on October 12, 2001 as they handed out Falun Gong information pamphlets. The police gave Cai a 200-yuan reward and arrested the practitioners. Officers from the Hongge Town Police Statioin then sent the practitioners to the Yanbian County Detention Center.
Xu Bin did the Falun Gong exercises at the Yanbian County Detention Center. The guards shackled him, but he continued to do the first four exercises, which do not require sitting down or crossing the legs. The guards eventually left him alone. Later on, officers Zhang Ran and Zhao Feng from the Panzhihua City Domestic Security Division separated Xu Bin and Xu Tianfu and interrogated Xu Bin about the source of the Falun Gong materials they were carrying. As Xu Bin did not tell them, they began slapping his face and striking his body. They handcuffed him with his arms behind his back and attached the handcuffs to a window railing, so that his feet were off the ground. The torture ended at midnight. Xu Bin was unconscious from the pain when he was taken to another room, where the guards removed his shackles.
After they had been held at Yanbian County Detention Center for approximately 25 days, Panzhihua Domestic Security Division officials transferred Xu Bin and Xu Tianfu to the Panzhihua City Detention Center in November 2001 to be held for one month, followed by 18 months at the Miyi Detention Center.
Guards at the Miyi Detention Center beat, handcuffed and shackled Xu Bin for doing the Falun Gong exercises, and they immobilized him in a specially made bed for death row inmates awaiting execution. He suffered also from swollen and painful gums. They pried his mouth open with a cervical dilator used in abortions so that they could force-feed him unknown substances. Xu Bin witnessed the guards handcuffing an elderly practitioner for doing the Falun Gong exercises. She went on a hunger strike. The doctor and guards then pinned her down and savagely force-fed her unknown substances, after which they put her onto the same kind of "Death Bed". She died within a few days.
Miyi County Court put Xu Bin and Xu Tianfu on trial in October 2002. Tang Juzhou was the judge, Yang was the public prosecutor from the Miyi County Procuratorate, and the court-appointed defense lawyer was Wu Xigui. Xu Tianfu's son hired two lawyers to defend his father. During the trial, the prosecutor turned lies into evidence. The two hired defense lawyers dared not speak for their client, while the court-appointed defense lawyer simply echoed the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rhetoric. When Xu Bin and Xu Tianfu spoke up in their own defense, the judge cut them off. No verdict was reached during the trial, yet three days later the court announced that Xu Bin had been sentenced to seven years in prison, and Xu Tianfu had been sentenced to nine years in prison. Both practitioners appealed with the Panzhihua City Intermediate Court, which rejected the appeal and upheld the original verdict.
Deyang Prison
Xu Tianfu and Xu Bin were taken to Deyang Prison in February right after the 2003 Chinese New Year. Deyang Prison is a mid-sized facility that holds death row inmates and those who have received reprieves.
The guards at Division 2, also called the Entrance Division, are assigned to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. They not only carry out the persecution themselves, but they also order prisoners to act as accomplices. These accomplices monitor and coerce the practitioners to recite prison regulations and sing CCP propaganda songs. They use brutal beatings to compel those who refuse. They also administer other punishment, such as forcing the practitioners to stand, walk and run in military formation. They divided the practitioners into groups of approximately 15 people. After mandatory CCTV "news" watching sessions in the evening, every practitioner is required to verbally attack Falun Gong by regurgitating Party propaganda.
Two or three inmates monitor each practitioner. They follow him everywhere like shadows, walking beside him when he eats, works, and uses the restroom and even watch his sleep. Their job is to make sure the practitioner does not get a chance to study Falun Gong books, do the Falun Gong exercises, or speak with other practitioners. The inmates fervently torture the practitioners in order to curry favor with the guards. One practitioner from Panzhihua City refused to do the forced labor and did the Falun Gong exercises inside the cell. He was beaten, locked in a solitary confinement cell, placed under "strict control" status three times, and his sentence was extended by several months.
The guards hastily transferred Xu Bin and three other practitioners, who resolutely persevered in their belief and therefore were considered "dangerously influential." They ended up at Wumaping Prison in Muchuan County, Sichuan Province in November 2003.
Wumaping Prison
Guards at Division 4 of the Wumaping Prison also used inmates to closely monitor and persecute the practitioners, such as forcing them to do hard labor day and night. If the practitioners do not meet the work quota, they had to stand outside beside the prison wall and "repent."
According to one inmate, guards Wang Yijun and Gong Junfu instructed prisoners to assault practitioners Zhu Shaojie, Xiao Huizhan, Zhu Gang, and Geng Dexin. Zhu Shaojie lost consciousness, and Xiao Huizhan could barely stand after the beating.
Other than back-breaking manual labor, the guards also make the practitioners watch slanderous videos, memorize prison policies, wear the prison uniform, shave their heads and write guarantee statements. Anyone who refuses to cooperate would be sent to the Group Drill Team for further torture.
Inmates at the Group Drill Team enjoy privileges usually obtained through special relationships with prison authorities or through bribes. They are given power over other inmates and Falun Gong practitioners. Other inmates cater to their every need, such as doing their laundry.
Practitioner Feng Zhongliang developed widespread calcified lung granulomas from tuberculosis. The guards force-fed him unknown substances over a long period of time; practitioners Liu Xueming, Zhu Gang, Zhu Xuezhi and several others were brutally abused and taken to the Chengdu Prison Hospital only when they were near death. All of these atrocities took place at Division 4.
The pressure at Division 7 under division head Zhang Jian was even more intense. The guards threatened inmates who sympathized with Falun Gong practitioners, ensuring that the practitioners faced constant physical abuse from the inmates.
Chen Guoshun was the political head of Division 7. He locked practitioner He Yuanchao from Chengdu City in a solitary confinement cell the day after he was transferred to Division 7 from Division 1. He demanded He Yuanchao write the prison rules from memory and specify his "understanding" of each rule. He also tried to coerce He Yuanchao to wear a prison uniform. Two other practitioners received similar orders, and all three refused to comply. The guards ordered inmates to take the practitioners outside to the prison wall and make them stand there for one hour and sit on the ground for one hour while they "repented." He Yuanchao insisted that he had done nothing wrong. The abusers chained his arms to metal rings on the ground near the wall. It was December and snowing heavily, yet they forbade He Yuanchao to wear more than two sweatshirts and a pair of sweatpants. He was chained for an entire day and returned to the cell at bedtime. The guards handcuffed him before he went to sleep.
Xu Bin and six other practitioners were held in Division 1. Because they refused to do hard labor, Division 1 heads Xia Shaowen and Deng Xuewen separated them. They transferred Geng Dexin to the Drill Team at Division 4 and sent He Yuanchao to Division 7.
Then, the guards closed in on Xu Bin. Guards Deng Xuewen, Xia Shaowen and Luo Guohua held lengthy interrogation sessions with Xu Bin a few days after September 20, 2007 and demanded that he give up Falun Gong. They claimed the prison Education Section had given them the assignment to "reform" Xu Bin, and demanded that he work with them to fulfill their "work requirement." Xu Bin's answer was a resounding "No," which infuriated the officials. They locked Xu Bin in a solitary confinement cell and arranged for agents and inmate Liu Rongbo, who was serving a sentence for drug trafficking, to move in with him in order to watch him around the clock. Inmate Cai Qinhui from Chengdu was another monitor.
Xu Bin persevered in his belief, however, so the guards sent in more inmates, Luo Xuedong, Song Anming, Tang Xianlin, and several others. They would not let Xu Bin do anything by himself, talked to him constantly and tried to force him to renounce his belief.
The inmates obtained a book filled with slander attacking Falun Gong from guard Deng Xuewen. They sat around Xu Bin, while Liu Rongbo and Song Anming read the slanderous words out loud. Xu Bin protested saying, "It's a lie!" They began cursing Falun Gong. Liu Rongbo and Song Anming twisted Xu Bin's arms, and Xu Bin struggled. All four inmates descended upon Xu Bin and pinned him down. Liu Rongbo pinched Xu Bin's inner thighs while Luo Xuedong punched him. The assault lasted for a long time. After Xu Bin sat up, Luo Xuedong and Liu Rongbo kept striking his head and face. Still, they failed to force Xu Bin to give up his belief that day.
Xu Bin later went on a protest hunger strike. The officials did not let him sleep that night, and the four inmates worked two-hour shifts to make sure Xu Bin could not get any sleep. This strategy continued for 72 hours. Guards Deng Xuewen and Luo Guohua ordered Xu Bin again at the end of this session to write a guarantee statement, and he flatly refused. At this point, Luo Guohua put on a facade and began saying many flattering things to Xu Bin while looking for an opportunity to take advantage of his possible weaknesses. In the end, Luo Guohua said, "Okay, we'll write the guarantee statements and you can just copy them. These words do not come from your heart, and as long as you do as we say, in the future we will never again meddle with your belief."
Xu Bin agreed, and the officials let him alone for three days, between October 1 and October 3, 2007. On the fourth day, guard Deng Xuewen told inmate Luo Xuedong to make Xu Bin write a guarantee statement yet again. Xu Bin realized he had made a mistake by copying the deceptive statements last time, so he refused to listen to anything they had to say this time. The inmates physically assaulted Xu Bin. They rained punches and kicks upon him, and pinched his thighs and face, but Xu Bin held his ground. They again resorted to sleep deprivation on October 4, which lasted 72 hours, during which Xu Bin did not eat or sleep. Luo Xuedong wrote an excerpt from a slanderous book and told Xu Bin to hand-copy it, and Xu Bin obeyed, as his mind was befuddled from the lack of sleep.
Later when his mind was clearer, Xu Bin reflected on his thoughts and actions. Several days later he submitted an announcement to guards Deng Xuewen and Luo Guohua, saying that he wrote the guarantee statement under physical and mental duress, and that the statements were completely void. The guards were transferred away soon afterwards. Xu Bin began doing the exercises at night and resumed normal communication with other detained Falun Gong practitioners.
One inmate said that he wanted to learn Falun Gong after listening to Xu Bin explain about the practice in mid-June of 2008, so Xu Bin recited Lecture One and Lecture Two from Zhuan Falun and wrote several poems from Hong Yin for him. Inmate Cai Qinhui spotted this person doing the Falun Gong exercises the evening of June 30 and informed guard Chen Guoshun. Chen Guoshun and Luo Guohua searched the inmate's belongings and found several handwritten poems from Hong Yin in his pillow that Xu Bin had written down for him. They forced him to stand against a wall for one week and "repent." Inmates Wang Chun, Hu Jie, Liu Rongbo and Yuan Yi started watching Xu Bin, who was sent to the strictly-controlled cell. They manhandled Xu Bin in an attempt to put a prison uniform on him. Xu Bin struggled, but they managed to hold him down and put the uniform on him. They struck his face many times, making it swell up severely. They told Xu Bin to write a statement to "atone for his behavior." Xu Bin wrote a statement and read it in front of all the detainees, including three other practitioners, and admitted that he had violated prison regulations.
Xu Bin submitted an announcement to division 1 head Xia Shaowen in September 2008, which said that all repentance statements and everything written by the inmates with his forged signature were completely void.
Xu Bin finally regained his freedom in 2009 after seven years of nightmarish ordeals. Meanwhile, another practitioner Liu Tianhou died as a result of torture at Division 1 at the Wumaping Prison.
Wumaping Prison Education Section: 86-833-8349011
(Clearwisdom.net) Mr. Zhang Xingye, a Falun Gong practitioner from Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, was brutally tortured by the guards in Daqing City Prison recently. Mr. Zhang's father, who is 70, went to the Daqing City Prison to visit his son many times, but was turned away every time.
When Li Weilong was promoted to be deputy head of the prison, he denied practitioners food because they refused to wear the prison uniform.
Li Weinan with the No. 6 Division of Daqing City Prison savagely beat practitioners. On the afternoon of July 14, 2009, Li Weinan encouraged inmate Li Huiwu and other inmates to beat practitioners Mr. Zhang Xingye, Mr. Yang Gongxi, and others. They used sticks to beat Mr. Zhang, which resulted in wounds all over his body. Handcuffs were put on his hands and fetters on his feet. He was left outside in the scorching sun for a long time, which caused Mr. Zhang to suffer heat stroke, and he had difficulty breathing.
Two Pictures: A week after the being beaten, Mr. Zhang's wounds still remained.
The truth of the persecution is still being covered up and the crimes are continuing.
Contact information for those involved in Mr. Zhang's persecution:
Li Weilong, deputy head of Daqing City Prison: 86-13936903441 (Cell)
Li Weinan, head of the No. 6 Division: 86-13136800877 (Cell)
Head Li Weinan from No. 6 Division of Daqing City Prison
Deputy Head Li Weilong of Daqing City Prison
(Clearwisdom.net) As of July 22, 2009, it had been one year and 18 days since Falun Dafa practitioner Mr. Zhou Xiangyang started a hunger strike at the Gangbei Prison in June 2008. In April and May 2009, he was rushed to the Tianjin Women's Prison Xinsheng Hospital to receive emergency treatment. However, he was sent back to the Gangbei Prison on June 2. Because he was in critical condition, his family requested that he be released on bail for medical treatment. The prison officials agreed, however the prison stipulated that the family transfer Mr. Zhou's registered permanent address from Tianjin City to an address that was under the 610 Office's jurisdiction. Mr. Zhou's family refused to cooperate. On July 13, 2009, Mr. Zhou's family demanded his release from prison. Mr. Zhou was emaciated, weighing only around 50 pounds.
Mr. Zhou Xiangyang
Mr. Zhou Xiangyang, 32, formerly a promising engineer at the No. 3 Surveillance and Design Institute of the Ministry of Railroad in Tianjin City, was subjected to brutal torture and illegal detention in three forced labor camps, including Tianjin City's Shuangkou Forced Labor Camp, Ji County's Yushan Forced Labor Camp, and Jianxin Forced Labor Camp.
Shuangkou Forced Labor Camp from February 2000 to September 2001
In early 2000, Mr. Zhou was sent to Tianjin City's Shuankou Forced Labor Camp where he was detained for 18 months.
In the Shuangkou Forced Labor Camp, there was an incident when prison guard Wei Wei secretly dragged Mr. Zhou to a closed room, shocked him with an electric baton and beat him, trying to force him to renounce Falun Dafa. Mr. Zhou's face bled and was disfigured from the beating.
In the Shuangkou Forced Labor Camp, Mr. Zhou was brutally beaten countless times. He was once shocked with an electric baton and beaten brutally for over an hour, forced to stand still for more than 20 hours, and allowed to sleep only three hours a day for a month. The following officers in the First Ward of the Shuangkou Forced Labor Camp took part in torturing Mr. Zhou: Wei Wei, Wang Lifang, Lu Lin, and a guard surnamed Du in the First Section.
Yushan Forced Labor Camp from Fall of 2001 to August 2002
After Mr. Zhou completed his term in the Shuangkou Forced Labor Camp, the authorities extended his term for another year and transferred him to the Yushan Forced Labor Camp in Ji County in the Fall of 2001.
Mr. Zhou and other practitioners resolutely resisted performing forced labor duty. Prison guard Wei Wei incited inmates to use high voltage electric batons to shock and burn Mr. Zhou's sensitive areas, including his mouth and the back of his head. The electric baton even broke down from repeated use, and caused Mr. Zhou to pass out from the prolonged shocking. Wei Wei claimed that another guard, Li Zhan, said that if an inmate died from the beating, it would be said that the inmate committed suicide and the inmate would be buried on the mountain behind the prison.
After being tortured very brutally, Mr. Zhou announced that he would hold a hunger strike. He was consequently force-fed with liquids daily. Mr. Zhou said, "I will not commit suicide. I'm holding a hunger strike to protest against the unbearable torture."
Mr. Zhou was detained in Yushan Forced Labor Camp for one year, but after he completed his extended one-year term, he was transferred to the Jianxin Forced Labor Camp in Tianjin City in August 2002. He was subsequently released unconditionally because he became dangerously emaciated and weak.
Arrested and Detained in Daying Police Station of Hexi District in May 2003
On May 31, 2003, Mr. Zhou was arrested and taken to Daying Police Station in Hexi District, Tianjin City and sentenced to nine years. On the morning of June 1, the police put him in a cage, strapped him to a chair, stripped him naked, poured cold water over his entire body, and turned the air conditioner to the lowest temperature setting. The police tortured him until June 3, and during those 48 hours, he was cold and wet and was not allowed to eat or drink. He was cursed at and beaten constantly. The police also used a stick to poke his nose, ears, and eyes. Mr. Zhou soiled himself because he was not allowed to use a restroom.
Mr. Zhou was detained in the Hexi District Detention Center for fourteen months.
In Tianjin City's Gangbei Prison from August 2004
Mr. Zhou was transferred to the Gangbei Prison in Tianjin City on August 9, 2004.
Mr. Zhou was scorned and beaten numerous times for resisting the violent brainwashing imposed by prison guards. On December 23, 2005, Mr. Zhou tried to stop prison guards Zhang Shilin and Qi Shuhai from broadcasting programs that defame Falun Dafa, but he was carried away from the work area, beaten, berated, and detained in solitary confinement. Afterward, he was denied visitation from his family.
From December 23, 2005 to March 2, 2006, Mr. Zhou was shackled and cuffed and lay on the concrete floor for nearly four months during the cold winter months, during which time Mr. Zhou announced that he would hold a hunger strike. The prison guards lied to his family, and at the same time quickly transfered Mr. Zhou to Tianjin's City Liyuantou Prison.
In late June 2008, the Gangbei Prison transferred Mr. Zhou and other practitioners to the Ninth Ward, known as the "Fortified Target Attack Team," to receive even more brutal torture, to which Mr. Zhou resolutely resisted. Mr. Zhou has since held a hunger strike. The Gangbei Prison put him in solitary confinement and subjected him to the painful forced-feeding twice daily. Mr. Zhou became very weak and emaciated and could no longer walk. He lost control of his bladder and bowels. His family's repeated requests to visit him have all been rejected.
In April-May of 2009, he was rushed to the Tianjin Women's Prison Xinsheng Hospital to receive emergency treatment. However, on June 2, he was sent back to the prison where he was monitored by a prison doctor surnamed Meng. Mr. Zhou's family was told that he was being force-fed five times a day and was in critical condition.
Gangbei Prison: 86-22-62071156, 86-22-62071158
Zhang Shilin, warden of Fifth Ward: Zhang Shilin (police badge number: 1208217)
Warden of First Section, Lu Zhiguo: (police badge number: 1208140)
Warden of Second Section, Song Xuesen: (police badge number: 1208219)
Ninth Ward (Fortified Target Attack Team): 86-22-62071215
Warden, Yang Zhongshui (police badge number: 1208055): 86-13332087001 (Cell)
Earlier reports: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2008/8/20/99986.html, and http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2009/6/16/108340.html
(Clearwisdom.net) In May 2009, Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Tang Min, from Hunan Medical University, was put into a mental hospital by her employer because she refused to give up her belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Ms. Tang was injected with nerve-damaging drugs at the hospital, and she has yet to regain her freedom.
Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Tang Min
Ms. Tang Min is in her forties and works at Hunan Medical University in Changsha City, Hunan Province. The university illegally detained her numerous times at its affiliated hospital, the No. 2 People's Hospital in Hunan Province (Hunan Province Mental Hospital, also known as the Provincial Neural Specialty Hospital). Ms. Tang Min is currently being forcibly injected with psychiatric drugs every two weeks. After each injection, her body becomes cold, resulting in shivering and uneasiness. According to knowledgeable people, this type of drug damages the central nervous system, leading to slower reactions and other harmful effects.
A Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official associated with Hunan Chinese Medicine University was furious when Ms. Tang persuaded a friend to quit the CCP. In May 2009, Ms. Tang was once again detained at the No. 2 People's Hospital in Hunan Province, and her friends were all denied visitation. Ms. Tang's activities were also restricted to the cramped hospital room. After two months of isolation from the outside world and continued drug injections, Ms. Tang became emaciated, and she looked much older. Her face became a deathly white.
Last year during the Beijing Olympics, Ms. He Xianggu, another Falun Gong practitioner from Changsha City, who is a nurse at Hunan Province Women's and Children's Health Institute, was imprisoned at the No. 2 People's Hospital in Hunan Province for a third time. Ms. He was held down by four or five nurses and doctors while they injected her with Risperidone, a drug used to treat schizophrenia. In the two earlier detentions, Ms. He was injected with long-acting haloperidol decanoate which caused stiffness in the entire body, along with nausea and vomiting.
(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Hu Qili of Shuangyashan City, Helongjiang Province was arrested by several police officers, including police chief Li Hongbo and officer Zhuo Aiming from the Shuangyashan City Lixin Police Station at around 8:00 p.m. on July 20, 2009.
Ms. Hu Qili
The police used the excuse of collecting a utility fee to trick Ms. Hu into opening her door. Two officers pushed Ms. Hu and her daughter to a sofa to make them sit, and the officers threatened her daughter, saying that they would harm her if she didn't do as ordered. Without showing any identification, the police ransacked Ms. Hu's home, and took many of the family's personal belongings, including 400 "yuan" in cash. Ms. Hu and her daughter were not allowed to use the bathroom before they were forced to leave with the police. Three or four officers carried Ms. Hu to a car by force without letting her put on her shoes. The police also took Ms. Hu's daughter with them to the Lixin Police Station.
The following day the police also arrested Ms. Hu's husband, Mr. Sun Hui, at his workplace, and detained him for over 40 hours. Mr. Sun and his daughter were released on July 22, but Ms. Hu is still being detained in the Shuangyashan Detention Center. Ms. Hu's parents went to the police station to demand Ms. Hu's release, but to no avail. Her family is very worried about her.
Ms. Hu, 48, was an employee of the Coal Mining Bureau First Construction Project Hospital, which is now called Fangyuan Hospital. Since the Chinese regime started persecuting Falun Dafa in 1999, she has been constantly harassed by the local police. As a result, she lost her job and income. Wherever she was employed, the police followed and harassed her, causing her to be unable to work.
On November 21, 1999, Ms. Hu went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Dafa and was arrested and detained in the Beijing Xicheng Detention Center for 17 days.
On July 2, 2000, she again went to Beijing to appeal and was consequently detained in the Jiamusi Xigemu Forced Labor Camp for one year.
On September 6, 2001, Ms. Hu was arrested and detained in the city's forced labor camp and was released on November 3, 2001.
On February 20, 2002, when the family was celebrating her daughter's birthday, the police used a key to open her home and took Ms. Hu away.
Ms. Hu was detained in the Jiamusi Xigemu Forced Labor Camp for two years, during which time she endured extremely brutal torture. She was forced to sit on a torture bench for 17 to 18 hours a day, and was forced to watch video programs that defamed Falun Dafa. She was also handcuffed in a "forced back bend" position for several days in a row [a very painful form of torture in which one arm is reaching down the back behind the head and the other hand meets it from the lower back. The two hands are handcuffed together to cause unbearable pain] .
Personnel who directly took part in mistreating and torturing Ms. Hu:
Li Yanchun, chief of the Shuangyashan City Public Security Bureau: 86-469-4233001 (Office), 86-15331811777 (Cell)
Lixin Police Station:
Li Hongbo, chief: 86-15046825789 (Cell)
Zhuo Aiming, police officer: 86-15046825789 (Cell)
Shuangyashan Public Security Bureau Anti-[slanderous term omitted] Task Force
Du Zhanyi: 86-469-4248910 (Home)
Yu Yongjiang, city party secretary and the 610 Office: 86-469-6103990 (Office), 86-469-4464599 (Home)
(Clearwisdom.net) On July 20, 2009, Falun Gong practitioner Cui Junchen and his daughter Cui Linyan from Caotun Village, Haowangzhuang Town, Wucheng County, Shandong Province were arrested, and their home was ransacked. Currently, both of them are being detained in the Wucheng County Detention Center. Over the past ten years, Cui Junchen and his family have been subjected to repeated arrests, detention and fines. The following is a brief summary of the persecution lthat Mr. Cui and his family have suffered.
In July 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to persecute Falun Gong. Cui Junchen, Cui's wife, and mother were arrested and detained for over ten days.
In 2000, Cui Junchen and his mother were arrested by the Wucheng County Police and detained in the Wucheng County Detention Center. Cui's motorcycle was stolen by Wucheng County Police Station police officer Zhang Ruijun.
In 2001, Cui Junchen was put into Wangcun Labor Camp of Zibo City, Shandong Province by Wucheng County Police Station. Timber worth hundreds of thousands of yuan at his home were all taken away, and only Cui's 70-year-old mother and his wife were left to take care of two young children. Without a steady income, they depended on relatives and friends to survive, and ran up a large debt.
After Cui Junchen got out of the labor camp, the police from Haowangzhuang Police Substation, CCP officials in the town government, and Zhang Ruijun from the Wucheng County Police Station frequently harassed him at his home.
In the fall of 2006, Zhang Ruijun and others suddenly rushed into Cui Junchen's home, startling and greatly frightening Mr. Cui's elderly mother. This, plus several years of suffering from the stress of the persecution, led to her death a few days later. Before the persecution, she did the Falun Gong exercises and maintained pretty good health.
During the 2008 Olympics, Cui Junchen, his wife, and his daughter were arrested by officers from the Wucheng County Police Station. Their laptop, printer, and other belongings were confiscated by the police. All three of them were detained in the Wucheng County Detention Center. After Zhao Jun, Director of the Wucheng County Police Station, forced him to pay 16,000 yuan, Cui and his daughter were released. However, Cui's wife Chen Honghui was sent away for 18 months at the First Women's Labor Camp in Shandong Province.
Zhao Jun, Liu Mingtai, Zhang Ruijun, and Wang Dongren are police officers at the Wucheng County Police Station. They have threatened to send Falun Gong practitioners to forced labor camps, and every Falun Gong practitioner has had moeny extorted by them, from several thousand yuan to upwards of ten to twenty thousand yuan. These police officers force the families of Falun Gong practitioners to deposit large amounts of money to the bank account of the police station, without any kind of legal documentation. The money was then embezzled and spent by these officers. The main person in charge of the local persecution was Wang Yinghua, the CCP Committee Secretary of Wucheng County.
Others heavily involved in the persecution include:
Zhao Jun, Director of Wucheng County Police Station: 86-534-6217000, 86-13905443280 (Cell)
Zhang Ruijun, member of the National Security Team of Wucheng County Police Station: 86-534-6289961, 86-13639456567 (Cell)
Wang Dongren: 86-13053456548 (Cell)
(Clearwisdom.net) At noon on July 13, 2009, Lin Jiawei, head of the Domestic Security Division in Dumeng County, Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, led local police officers and party officials to arrest nine people, including Falun Dafa practitioners Mr. Liu Fubin, Cui Ruhui, Mr. Yang Haixia, and their family members.
At around 11:30 a.m. on July 13, 2009, two party officials visited Mr. Liu Fubin's home located at 516 Division at Bei Street. After the party officials left, more than twenty police officers went to Mr. Liu's home and arrested Mr. Liu and his wife, Li Shuchun, his daughter who is barely 16 years old, Li Rui, his brother who is not a practitioner, Liu Fuze, and his brother's wife, Zhao Mingjing. They also seized tens of thousands of yuan in valuables, including a computer, a printer, and other personal items.
When Mr. Liu's daughter was released on July 14, her forehead was full of blisters. They were caused by the police spraying pepper water on her face. Witnesses also said that at the time of her release, one of Li Shuchun's eyes was swollen from being mistreated by the police.
Also at around noon on July 13, police officers Li Shilin, Liu Zhenghuai, Wang Shiming, and others made a surprise visit to the Haoze Photo Store on Bei Street and arrested the owner, Cui Ruhu. His store was ransacked and the computer which was used to process digital photos was taken. The computer was returned when no incriminating evidence could be found on the machine. Cui Ruihui, however, is still being detained by the police.
At around noon on July 13, several police officers visited Yang Haixia's husband, Wang Hongyue, in his office at a mobile company. They asked Mr. Wang to go home and open the door for the police, to which Mr. Wang refused. The police threatened that they would break into his home if he refused to go home. Then police officer Sun Hongchang ordered Ms. Yang's brother Yang Haitao, who also worked for the same mobile company, to talk Mr. Wang into going home.
Mr. Wang was therefore forced to go home to open the door for the police. The police arrested Yang Haixia and practitioners Ms. Song Shuqing and Ms. He Xiangling, who were visiting Ms. Yang at the time. They also took away some personal items, including the book Zhuan Falun, and some DVD's.
Years ago, Ms. Yang Haixia had breast cancer and both breasts were surgically removed. She regained her health after she started practicing Falun Dafa. The local police attempted to arrest her in 2002. Her family sent her hospital records to the Public Security Bureau, so that everyone in the bureau knew that she was a cancer patient whose life was saved by practicing Falun Dafa.
Ms. He Xiangling, formerly a nurse at the Aolinxibo Town Health Clinic, was a brain tumor patient. Her health turned around after she started practicing Falun Dafa. Ms. He is now suffering excruciating headaches due to the recurrence of the brain tumor. She is in police custody.
Ms. Song Shuqing was sentenced to three years of forced labor in 2002. Her husband couldn't bear the hardship and died of illnesses while she was detained in the forced labor camp. Ms. Song was left with two daughters. Her elder daughter currently works in southern China. Ms Song and her younger daughter depend on each other for survival The police arrested Ms. Song for no reason and her daughter is home alone with no one to take care of her.
(Clearwisdom.net) Today's News from China includes incidents of persecution that took place in 25 cities or counties in 8 provinces. In this report, 18 practitioners were subjected to mistreatment during their detention and at least 30 practitioners were illegally arrested.
1. [Xingcheng City, Liaoning Province] Mr. Guo Chunzhan Arrested
On the evening of July 26, 2009, Mr. Guo Chunzhan, who lives in Chajia Village, Weiping Township, Xingcheng City, was arrested by the Gaojialing Township Police Station while he was clarifying the truth in Gaojialing Village. He is currently in the Xingcheng City Detention Center. The police left his home in disarray when they searched it.
Qin Yanxue, chief of the Xingcheng City National Security Brigade: 86-13009290849 (Cell)
Song Changjiang, director of the Xingcheng Municipal 610 Office: 86-13998914827 (Cell)
Xu Feng, director of the Xingcheng City Detention Center: 86-429-5152226 (Office)
2. [Anshan City, Liaoning Province] Ms. Bi Lijuan Unlawfully Arrested
Ms. Bi Lijuan, around 45, is an English teacher in the Anshan No. 1 High School. She was arrested on the evening of July 25, 2009 while distributing truth-clarifying materials.
3. [Wuwei City, Gansu Province] Ms. Du Guifang Arrested
Ms. Du Guifang, in her 60s, was arrested in early July 2009 by the Wuwei Public Security Bureau and held in a detention center. Details are unclear.
4. [Zibo City, Shandong Province] Ms. Hu Qinhua and Ms. Wang Xiurong Arrested
Ms. Hu Qinhua, in her 50s, is retired from the Shandong Refractories Factory in Zibo Boshan District. Between April and May 2008, she clarified the truth to the contract workers who were remodeling her home and encouraged them to withdraw from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliated organizations. She also gave them truth-clarifying materials. She was reported, and officers from the Boshan District Chengdong Police Station broke into her home, searched it, and arrested her. She was not released until the police had extorted money from her. The police went to her home and harassed her several times. Ms. Hu was reportedly recently arrested again.
Ms. Wang Xiurong, in her 50s, also retired from the Shandong Refractories Factory in Zibo Boshan District, encountered a similar situation in early 2009 when officers from the Boshan District Chengdong Police Station broke into her home and arrested her. They extorted money from her before releasing her.
5. [Yingcheng City, Hubei Province] Three Falun Gong Practitioners Arrested
On July 28, 2009, three practitioners from Yingcheng City were arrested by officers from the Gepu Police Station while the three were clarifying the facts in Gepu Town, Yunmeng County, Hubei Province. They are currently held in the Yunmeng County Detention Center.
Lin Tao, director of the Yunmeng County Public Security Bureau: 86-712-4322764 (Office), 86-13807294985 (Cell)
Deng Guobin, National Security Brigade: 86-712-4324300 (Office), 86-712-4221479 (Home), 86-13907294738 (Cell)
6. [Luzhou City, Sichuan Province] Several Falun Gong Practitioners Arrested
Ms. Gu Yuanjie and Ms. Zhao Zhaoquan, both in their 70s, were arrested in their individual homes on July 6, 2009, under orders from Yu Xingquan, an official in the government of Texing Town, Lu County, and the director of the Texing Town Police Station. They were detained in the Luzhou City Yuhuangguan Detention Center for fifteen days before they were released on July 21, 2009.
Ms. Luo Liling, in her 50s, who lives in Mianhuapo Township, Naxi District, Luzhou City, was arrested on July 23, 2009, by the police from the Naxi District National Security Brigade while she was explaining the facts in the Naxi District. She is now in the Luzhou City Yuhuangguan Detention Center.
Ms. Yang Wencai, in her 60s, who works in Corporation Five in the Naxi District, was arrested on July 23, 2009, by the police from the Naxi District National Security Brigade for clarifying the truth in the Naxi District. She is now in the Luzhou City Yuhuangguan Detention Center.
Ms. Zhang Lihui, in her 40s, who lives in Huguo Town in the Naxi District, was detained by the Naxi District National Security Brigade twice in 2008 for clarifying the truth. She has been missing for over a month.
7. [Laiyang City, Shandong Province] Mr. Li Zhiting Detained in the Xixia Detention Center
Mr. Li Zhiting, who lives in Xichahe Village, Muyudian Town, Laiyang City, was arrested on July 19, 2009. At around 10:00 a.m., the police went to his home and searched it. They took a 21-inch TV and a VCD player, and confiscated a picture of Falun Gong's founder, several Dafa books, and some printed materials. Mr. Li Zhiting was sent to the Xixia Detention Center in the afternoon.
On July 23, 2009, Mr. Li Zhiting's family went to the Xixia Detention Center to visit him. They were not allowed to see him. Before they left, the police extorted money from them. According to sources, the Xixia Detention Center told the family to pick up Mr. Li Zhiting on July 28 or 29, 2009. The family had to pay 500 yuan before they could take him home.
8. [Anshan City, Liaoning Province] Ms. Li Suhua Arrested at Home
At around 8:00 a.m. on July 22, 2009, four officers from the Anshan Police Station Lishan Branch broke into Ms. Li Suhua's home and arrested her and her son. They also confiscated her computer. Her son was released that night. Ms. Li is now in the Anshan City No. 1 Detention Center.
9. [Gongzhuling City, Jilin Province] Police Officer Yin Yuhui Tortures Practitioners with an Electric Baton
Yin Yuhui and Zhong Niujun, instructors at Gongzhuling Prison, used an electric baton on Mr. Yang Feng and Mr. Liu Chengda for more than twenty minutes while three inmates held him down. Mr. Yang was later held in a small cell. Mr. Yang's sister went to visit him on May 21, 2009, but she was not allowed to see him.
On May 21, 2009, Mr. Xie Guichen was put a small cell. On July 22, 2009, Yin Yuhui and Zhong Niujun used electric batons on Mr. Xie. Later, another practitioner, Mr. Li Dequan, was also tortured by Yin and Zhong in the small cell. Mr. Zheng Fengqiang, a practitioner from Jilin Province, was also put in a small cell for refusing to work.
10. [Dongying City, Shandong Province] Ms. Liu Meifang Taken to a Brainwashing Center
Ms. Liu Meifang, in her 50s, is retired from the Dongying City Grain Bureau. On the afternoon of July 26, 2009, she went out to clarify the facts and never came home. At round 8:00 p.m., Dong Ning and police from the Binbei Branch National Security Brigade searched Ms. Liu's home. They confiscated her computer, printer, books, printed material, and other personal items. Ms. Liu is currently detained in the Shengcai Brainwashing Center.
11. [Hefei City, Anhui Province] Ms. Li Mei Sent to a Brainwashing Center after One Year of Forced Labor
After serving an unlawful one-year term of forced labor, Ms. Li Mei from Hefei City was secretly sent to the Feicuiyuan Brainwashing Center by the Hefei City 610 Office and the Hefei City Intermediate People's Court for not giving up her belief in Falun Gong. Ms. Li was sentenced to a one-year term of forced labor in 2001, which was extended for several months.
12. [Fushun City, Liaoning Province] Ms. Zhou Yuying and Ms. Xia Shukun Still Held in Masanjia Forced Labor Camp
At around 11:00 p.m. on June 28, 2008, police from the Hongtoushan Town Public Security Office and the First Office of the Fushun City Public Security Bureau disguised as utility workers went to Ms. Zhou Yuying's home. When no one answered the door, they broke in and took the 57-year-old Ms. Zhou and her 30-year-old daughter, Ms. Xia Shukun by force. Zheng Qiang, Ms. Xia's husband, tried to stop the police and was arrested as well. After detaining Ms. Zhou and her daughter for one month in Fushun City, the police took them to the Second Unit of the Second Brigade of Masanjia Forced Labor Camp on July 26, 2008.
Li Xinqiang, Fushun National Security Brigade: 86-13804138110 (Cell), 86-413-6687110
13. [Gongzhuling City, Jilin Province] Mr. Shen Baogui and Mr. Chen Hongxiang Face Illegal Trials
Mr. Shen Baogui, a teacher at the Siping Agricultural Engineering Institute, who lives in Fanjiatun Town, Gongzhuling City, and Mr. Chen Hongxiang, a tricycle taxi driver, are facing illegal trials.
Liu Yuzhuo, director of the Gongzhuling City Integrated Office: 86-434-6214948, 86-13904351126 (Cell)
Zhao Lanping, director of the Gongzhuling City 610 Office: 86-434-6236130 (Office), 86-434-6228810 (Home), 86-13804473179 (Cell)
14. [Chengdu City, Sichuan Province] Ms. Xu Xiaorong Transferred to the Xinjin Brainwashing Center
Ms. Xu Xiaorong, an outstanding teacher at the Chengdu Middle School, was taken from home by the Chengdu City 610 Office and the Public and National Security police to the Jinhua Brainwashing Center in Chengdu City on August 2, 2007. She was later transferred to the Xinjin Brainwashing Center in Chengdu City and has been detained there ever since.
15. [Tianjin] Additional Information on Ms. Wu Aihua and Ms. Wu Jin's Arrest
On July 23, 2009, Ms. Wu Aihua and Ms. Wu Jin, both in their 50s, were followed by plainclothes officers and taken to the No. 8 Criminal Police Unit, Tanggu Police Branch. Ms. Wu Aihua was later taken to the Tanggu Detention Center. Ms. Wu Jin was released the next day after a medical exam revealed that she had severe symptoms of heart disease and high blood pressure. She was placed under house surveillance. Both Ms. Wu Aihua and Ms. Wu Jin's home were searched on July 23. Both of their sons' computers and printers were confiscated, along with some Dafa books and printed material. Ms. Wu Aihua is currently under criminal detention. She refused to sign her name on any document so the police of the No. 8 Unit forced her son to sign.
16. [Jianping County, Liaoning Province] Information on the Persecution of Mr. Yin Guozhi's Family
At around 8:00 a.m. on July 28, 2009, Duan Weijun, director of the Jianping County Bajianongchang Township Police Station, and other officers searched Mr. Yin Zhiguo's home and confiscated his computer, printer and Dafa books. At around 12:00 p.m., he called Du Yaojun, the village head of the Bajia Village, and took Mr. Yin's wife, Ms. Fu Jinghua, and their son to the police station. Ms. Fu was sent to the Jianping County Detention Center in the afternoon.
Duan Weijun, director of the Jianping County Bajianongchang Township Police Station: 86-421-7741932 (Office), 86-13504213559 (Cell)
Zhang Baofeng, instructor of the Jianping County Bajianongchang Township Police Station: 86-13898088205 (Cell)
Yao Yunge, police officer at the Jianping County Bajianongchang Township Police Station: 86-421-7741959 (Home), 86-13842151829 (Cell)
Du Yaojun, village head of the Bajia Village: 86-421-7741812 (Home)
17. [Yanshou County, Heilongjiang Province] Mr. Wang Yunping Arrested
In mid July 2009, Mr. Wang Yunping from Yanshou County was arrested by offcrs from the Qingchuan Police Station and taken to the Yanshou County Detention Center.
Qingchuan Police Station: 86-451-53064110
Yanshou Detention Center: 86-451-53015359
18. [Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province] Mr. Huang Weizhong Sent to the Jiamusi Prison Hospital
Mr. Huang Weizhong from Jiamusi City was sent to Jiamusi Prison and has been detained there more than fifteen days. Since Mr. Huang has been on hunger strike to protest the persecution, he is very weak. After he was sent to the training camp in the prison, he was transferred to the prison hospital due to his physical condition.
Jiamusi Prison Warden's Office: 86-454-8816001
Lu Yunqiang, assistant warden who is in charge of the persecution of Falun Gong: 86-454-8816201 (Office), 86-13359639666 (Cell)
19. [Zhuanghe City, Liaoning Province] Additional Information on Arrested Practitioners
Ms. Song Xiangfeng, who was arrested on July 22, 2009, was formally charged by the procuratorate on July 28, 2009.
Ms. Xu Shufeng, who was arrested on July 24, 2009, was taken to the Jinnan Road Rehabilitation Center by the Zhuanghe City Xinhua Police Station.
20. [Dalian City, Liaoning Province] Mr. Yu Fanglin Unable to Eat Due to Dropped Jaw
Mr. Yu Fanglin from Dalian City was arrested by the Fumin Police Station on Fumin Square, Shahekou District, Dalian City, on the morning of July 24, 2009. He was not able to eat while in the police station due to a dropped jaw. He was then taken to the Yaojia Detention Center. The police extorted 500 yuan from his family.
21. [Zhaodong City, Heilongjiang Province] Dr. Zhou Wenyuan Tortured During Interrogation
On the morning of July 12, 2009, Dr. Zhou Wenyuan was arrested at home by three officers from the Dongfa Township Police Station. Following the arrest, personnel from the Zhaodong City 610 Office searched Dr. Zhou's home and confiscated his printer, computer, cash, and other personal items.
On the same day, Dr. Zhou was taken to the Zhaodong City Public Security Bureau where he was tortured during the police interrogation. Dr. Zhou's face was so swollen that it was deformed. Dr. Zhou also showed severe symptoms of tuberculosis.
Chi Yuliang, deputy director of the Dongfa Township Police Station: 86-455-7727110 (Office)
Zhu Yin, secretary of the Zhaodong City CCP committee: 86-455-7998088, 86-13503670000 (Cell)
22. [Boye County, Hebei Province] Ms. Cai Lingru Arrested
Ms. Cai Lingru, who lives in Wangying Village, Boye County, works in Anguo City, Hebei Province. She was arrested by the Anguo Public Security police while distributing truth-clarifying pamphlets. She is currently held in the Anguo City Detention Center.
23. [Jiaozhou City, Shandong Province] Mr. Du Xide and Mr. Leng Quanjia Arrested
Mr. Du Xide and Mr. Leng Quanjia, both in their 50s, are residents of Dakuaijiagou Village, Ducun Town, Jiaozhou City. At around 4:00 a.m. on July 31, 2009, the Jiaozhou City 610 Office, along with officers from the Ducun Town Police Station, arrested Mr. Du and Mr. Leng. Their whereabouts are unknown. Between 2002 and 2004, Mr. Du was sentenced to three years of forced labor.
24. [Laizhou City, Shandong Province] Ms. Teng Chunxiang Arrested
Ms. Teng Chunxiang from Wangjia Village, Jincheng Town, Laizhou City, was arrested in Xincheng Village by the Jincheng Police Station while she was clarifying the truth.
25. [Hengshui City, Hebei Province] Mr. Chen Zhenlei Persecuted
Mr. Chen Zhenlei is an employee of the Chemistry Company of the Hengshui City Jiheng Chemical Group. On July 24, 2008, he was arrested by the Kangfu Street Police Station in the Taocheng District of Hengshui City while he was visiting neighbors. He was interrogated and detained for fifteen days. The police station released him to his company on August 9, 2008. On September 2, 2008, his company notified him that he was expelled for missing work without leave for fifteen days. Between April and the end of May 2009, the company's housing authority cut off the power to his dorm several times and tried to force him to move out.
Xiao Qiusheng, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Jiheng Chemical Group: 86-318-7953613, email: xiaohuijh@163.com
26. [Shishou City, Hubei Province] Two Practitioners Arrested in Jiangling County
Early on the evening of July 29, 2009, two practitioners from Hengshi County, Shishou City, went to a village in neighboring Puji County to clarify the truth and encourage people to withdraw from the CCP and its affiliated organizations. They were reported and arrested by the Puju County Police Station. The two were taken to the Haoxue Town Detention Center in Jiangling County that evening.
Cell phone number of a police officer in the Puji County Police Station: 86-13972365239
27. [Pingdingshan City, Henan Province] Mr. Zheng Jianmin Severely Tortured at the No. 3 Forced Labor Camp in Henan Province
Mr. Zheng Jianmin from Jia County, Pingdingshan City, was arrested by police officers from the local station and sent to the No. 3 Forced Labor Camp in Henen Province for not giving up his belief in Falun Dafa. Shen Jianwei, deputy chief of the Third Brigade, beat and insulted Mr. Zheng in public. He slapped Mr. Zheng so hard that his mouth bled and teeth fell out. The police used various excuses to brainwash Mr. Zheng, and they deprived him of sleep, held him in a small cell, refused him the use of toilet, and forced him to squat for a very long time. They did not allow Mr. Zheng to talk to anyone. They beat or insulted Mr. Zheng for any slight disobedience.
Mr. Zhao Zemin, in his 40s, is from Kaifeng City, Nenan Province. In 2008, he was arrested by the local police and taken to the No. 3 Forced Labor Camp in Henan Province, where he was subjected to brainwashing and torture. After six months of torture, he was not able to walk normally. His family went to the No. 3 Forced Labor Camp several times to ask for his release with no success.
28. [Tongnan County, Sichuan Province] Ms. Kuang Wenying Arrested Again
Ms. Kuang Wenying, in her 30s, is a resident of Unit 1, Kuzhu Village, Xinhua Town, Tongnan County. She was arrested four times for not giving up her belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. She was sent to the Maojiashan Women's Forced Labor Camp in Chongqing and served a one-year term, which was extended to eighteen months (from April 18, 2000 to October 19, 2001). After she was released from the labor camp, the Tongnan County 610 Office sent her directly from the labor camp to the county detention center and held her for 25 days, during which time Ms. Kuang went on hunger strikes to protest the persecution. After she showed life-threatening symptoms, she was released and went home. Before she was fully recovered, the local police constantly went to her home and harassed her. She was thus forced to leave home. On the afternoon of April 13, 2009, she was arrested again in her rented home in Tongnan County. She is currently held in the Tongnan County Detention Center.
Zhang Simao, instructor at the National Security Brigade: 86-23-87282048 (Office), 86-23-44556219 (Home), 86-13072396999 (Cell)
Luo Yonghong, National Security Brigade: 86-23-44582048 (Office), 86-23-44907513 (Home), 86-13983265867 (Cell)
Zhou Ke, director of the 610 Office: 86-23-44568610, 86-23-44565363, 86-23-44918266
29. [Miyi County, Sichuan Province] Mr. Yang Xingchun Arrested in Wuding County, Yunnan Province
Mr. Yang Xingchun from Miyi County and another practitioner whose last name is Zhang were arrested in Wuding County, Yunnan Province, on July 20, 2009. He is currently held in Wuding County.
30. [Wuhan City, Hubei Province] Mr. Han Tao Arrested
Mr. Han Tao, a bus driver on Route 7, was arrested at around 5:00 p.m. on July 23, 2009, by the Laodong Police Station and the neighborhood committee, who had been waiting for Mr. Han's return to his uncle's house at 13 Hubianfang, Aomen Road, Jiang'an District, Wuhan City.
31. [Hengyang City, Hunan Province] Ms. He Xiqiu and Three Other Practitioners Arrested by Officers from the Zhuhui Public Security Branch
Ms. He Xiqiu is 53 years old. At around 9:00 p.m. on July 20, 2009, more than a dozen officers from the Hengyang City Zhuhui Public Security Branch and the Factory 272 Xinhua Police Station broke into Ms. He's home located in the living quarters of Factory 272. They searched her home without a warrant and confiscated her Dafa books, cassette player, copier paper, ink, scissors, and other personal items. Two other practitioners, Ms. Cai Suyin (64 years old) and Ms. Wen Jianxiu (55 years old), were at Ms. He's home when the police came. All three of them were taken to the Xinhua Police Station. They are currently held in the Baishazhou Detention Center in Hengyang City.
At around 8:00 p.m. on July 20, 2009, officers from the Zhuhui Publich Security Branch of the Zhanqian Police Station arrested Ms. Liu Jianhong, a 51-year-old nanny working in the Zhuhui District. She is now in the Baishazhou Detention Center.
32. [Shishou City, Hubei Province] Ms. Xiong Lianxiang and Ms. Zhou Xiaojun Arrested in Jiangjing County
On the afternoon of July 29, 2009, Ms. Xiong Lianxiang and Ms. Zhou Xiaojun, both from Hengshi Town, Shishou City, were arrested while they were clarifying the facts in the Yangzimiao area in Jiangling County. They were taken to the Jiangling County Detention Center.
(Clearwisdom.net) Today's News from China includes incidents of persecution that took place in seven cities or counties in four provinces. In this report, 10 practitioners were subjected to mistreatment during their detention and at least 3 practitioners were illegally arrested.
1. [Heilongjiang Province] Ms. Wang Suqing Detained at the Jinan No. 1 Forced Labor Camp
Practitioner Ms. Wang Suqing from Heilongjiang Province worked in Jinan City. The police arrested her and held her at the Xijiao Detention Center one night in mid July 2009 and then sent her to the Jinan No. 1 Forced Labor Camp.
2. [Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province] Ms. Liu Shuhua and Ms. Liu Wenru Sent to the Yaziquan Detention Center
Ms. Liu Shuhua and Ms. Liu Wenru are residents of Xinfa Town, in Daoli District of Harbin City. Someone reported them to the police at 10:00 a.m. on August 1, 2009, as they spoke with people in public about Falun Gong. Officers from the Xinfa Town Police Station dragged them to the police station and kept beating the practitioners. They sent the practitioners to the Yaziquan Detention Center in the Daoli District.
3. [Benxi City, Liaoning Province] Mr. Wang Yaming Taken to the Zhangqizhai Police Station
Officers from the Zhangqizhai Police Station arrested Mr. Wang Yaming at 9:00 a.m. on July 31, 2009 and took him to the police station.
Zhangqizhai Police Station: 86-414-5623110
4. [Heilongjiang Province] Update Regarding the Persecution at Daqing Prison
Mr. Yang Gongxi's family went to the Daqing Prison on July 28, 2009, but was not allowed to see him. The authorities' ruthless beating had severely injured Yang Gongxi, and the abusers did not want the family to see the evidence of their crimes.
The same thing happened to practitioner Mr. Wang Jiang's family.
Practitioners held at Division 6 are forced to stay outside between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. each day. Practitioners held at Division 5 are assaulted daily and forced to sing Chinese Communist Party propaganda songs on the drill ground.
5. [Shandong Province] Mr. Sun Jiangdong's Condition at the Forced Labor Camp Unknown
Officials sentenced Mr. Sun Jiangdong from Binzhou, Shandong Province to three years in a labor camp on July 25, 2009. His family went to the Shandong Province No. 2 Forced Labor Camp in the morning of July 31, 2009 and demanded to see him, but the authorities refused, claiming he had contracted an infectious disease.
6. [Weifang City, Shandong Province] Four Practitioners Face Illegal Trials
The Hanting Court in Weifang City planned to try practitioners Ms. Cao Junfeng, Ms. Kong Xi, Mr. Ge Kun and Mr. Yin Guohua within ten days of July 31, 2009. At the same time, Kuiwen Court officials covertly tried Ms. Cao Junping, Mr. Lu Xinliang and two other practitioners who were given only three days to appeal.
Zhang Futao, public prosecutor: 86-536-3012087 (Office), 86-536-7254040
Luo Xiangxian, Weicheng Court: 86-13953650099
7. [Dingzhou City, Hebei Province] Ms. He Yonglian's Sentence Extended
The sentence imposed on practitioner Ms. He Yonglian from Dingzhou City expired on July 19, 2009. When her husband went to the Hebei Province Women's Forced Labor Camp to pick her up, the authorities arbitrarily extended the sentence because she refused to renounce her belief.
He Yonglian was held at the Baoding Forced Labor Camp for one year, between January 2002 and January 2003. A group of officials from the Kaiyuan Town government and from the local police station arrested her on July 20, 2008, and held her at Division 4 at the Hebei Women's Forced Labor Camp.
Zhang Zhanjun, Kaiyuan Town Party Secretary: 86-312-2737668 (Office), 86-312-2301388 (Home), 86-13700329968 (Cell)
Tian Xiaohui, Kaiyuan Town Police Station head: 86-13603227979 (Cell)
Feng Guifu, 610 Office Education Section head: 86-312-82974729, 86-312-88607848, 86-13931229866
8. [Dalian City, Liaoning Province] Police Harass Mr. Sun Caizhang and Family
Four officials including 610 Office agent Lin Chuanyi broke into the home of Mr. Sun Caizhang in Changling Village, Changling Town, Zhuanghe, Dalian City at 9:00 a.m. on July 21, 2009. They confiscated Falun Gong books and a picture of Mr. Li Hongzhi. Police chief Ma Qingyue slandered Falun Gong and threatened the family. He ordered Sun Caizhang to go to the police station in the afternoon.
(Clearwisdom.net) A "Solemn Declaration" is a person's public statement to the world that whatever he or she has done or said under duress or deception that was against Falun Dafa is null and void. These statements have come from Falun Dafa practitioners in China who wish to express regret that, in the face of physical torture and brainwashing, they signed documents renouncing Dafa and guaranteeing not to practice again. Now, they hereby declare their intention to resume practicing Falun Dafa.
Here are some examples of the Solemn Declarations:
Please click here for more Solemn Declarations
(Clearwisdom.net) On July 30, 2009, US Senator Robert Menendez from New Jersey wrote the following letter to Chinese Ambassador Wenzhong Zhou, to condemn the Chinese government's persecution of Falun Gong over the past 10 years and to call for the release of detained Falun Gong practitioners.
Robert Menendez
New Jersey
United States Senate
July 30, 2009
Dear Ambassador Zhou,
This July will mark the 10-year anniversary of the Chinese government's persecution of Falun Gong. The crackdown on Falun Gong has subjected practitioners to severe mental and physical abuse and has caused their families countless hours of emotional agony. These grave human rights violations in the People's Republic of China highlight the need for greater international pressure on the Chinese government to provide all its citizens the freedom to worship in the manner they choose, in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human rights.
China has exhibited a poor human rights record around the world. Whether it is in Sudan, Tibet or within China's own borders, the Chinese government needs to show greater respect for individual human rights if it is to gain the respect of the world. I have heard from a number of my constituents in New Jersey about the continued mistreatment of Falun Gong practitioners. The exact number of Falun Gong members who have died while in the custody of the Chinese government, either from torture, abuse, or neglect, is unclear, but whatever the number, it is not acceptable.
This persecution of Falun Gong is an affront to humanity, and I strongly believe the United States Government should speak out more forcefully against the denial of freedom of religion to the citizens of China. I ask for your assistance in gaining the release of the friends and relatives of my constituents who are being held in custody in China for religious reasons, and ask that greater pressure be exerted on the Chinese government to change its international and domestic policies regarding the protection of human rights.
Sincerely,
ROBERT MENENDEZ
United States Senator
(Clearwisdom.net) During November and December of 2007, I thought I should calm my mind to really study the Fa well; thus, I planned to stay at home for a few days. I sat in the double lotus position and started to study the Fa. By the third day, I had reached a point where I wanted to recite all of Master's lectures. The Fa is so precious. When I continued and studied further, suddenly the cultivation path that I have taken in the past eight years unfolded before my eyes. I realized I had traveled a path of validating myself for the past eight years. All the uncomfortable words that fellow practitioners had said to me also appeared before my eyes. I saw that I had rarely looked within, instead, I usually felt that I had been wronged. Sometimes, even when what others said was correct, I had felt that their words were grossly unjust. Sometimes my tone of voice had made it clear that I didn't allow others to disapprove. When we exchanged our views and shared, I would often talk about how we should do things, and wasn't concerned about the abilities or endurance of other people. I had often pointed out the faults of others and how others had treated me unfairly.
When I saw this, I felt deep regret in my heart. I kept asking myself: When I heard the suggestions that others gave me, why didn't I search within? Why didn't I look within myself while I was in the midst of conflicts? If I had truly been searching inward, I wouldn't have been on the road of validating myself for eight years! I felt so terrible inside my heart, that I walked back and forth. I walked for two days. At the same time, I also felt very afraid, I thought to myself, "If Fa-rectification ends now, where will I go?"
I organized my thoughts for a moment: The first thing I needed to do was to get rid of all the opinions in my mind about fellow practitioners, and send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate all the bad thoughts in my mind. I told myself that I must search within myself unconditionally, that when I encounter conflicts I should just look within myself.
Then one after another, the conflicts came!
One occurred after a fellow practitioner was rescued. Fellow Practitioner A said, "Let's have an experience sharing meeting and the main topic would be looking within, to find where we didn't do well which caused our fellow practitioner be arrested." Everyone arrived on time. When Practitioner B sat down, he started saying that A was at fault here and there; when he finished talking about Practitioner A, he talked about Practitioner C. I thought to myself, there wouldn't be anyone talking about me today. To my surprise, after a while, Practitioner B switched the topic, and spoke to me. He said, "Let me give you a suggestion; your attachment of validating yourself is too strong. When you fixed the computer, you really showed off, as if others don't know as much about it as you do." I said to him, "I have realized that, I have the attachment of validating myself, and I am cultivating myself to get rid of it." However, even though I'd said it calmly and rationally, I felt wronged inside. Yes, on that day, when I fixed the computer, I solved the problem quickly, and I felt happy and started to show off. But right after I said a few words, I realized that it was an attachment, so I talked about my attachment and exposed it to the others. Now I felt that because I had talked about it by myself, Practitioner B used it as an excuse to accuse me. I felt so wronged inside that I almost cried. On the way home, the attachments of feeling wronged and not wanting others to talk about me kept surfacing. My main consciousness kept saying, "This is arranged by Master," so I realized it's an opportunity for me to upgrade myself. However, I still felt wronged inside. I thought, "I must grasp this opportunity. First I need to thank Master. I gestured "Heshi" to Master's picture and said, "Thank you, Master! I will definitely get rid of the attachment of showing off." After this, the attachment of feeling wronged and not wanting others to talk about me disappeared. All the bad thoughts in my mind were gone. It was as though nothing had happened.
There was another instance when Practitioner A said that I said some bad things about her. I got really angry and spoke to her using offensive language without looking inside. After a few days, a few practitioners got together and discussed how to improve together. Practitioner A talked about me. She said that I was saying negative things behind her back. I felt I had explained everything clearly to her already, but she still talked about me in front of so many people. I wanted to ask her to tell the whole story, but I don't like to argue in front of large groups of people. I tried pretty hard and managed to tolerate it. After the meeting was over, I had originally wanted to reason with her again. However, a practitioner called her over and spoke to her, so I went home by myself. On the way home, I searched within myself thoroughly to see if I had actually said any bad words about her. After I searched for a while, I still couldn't remember when I had said bad things about her to someone else. But I knew the conflict could not exist accidentally. I thought, "Let me look within myself further." I asked myself, "No matter whether I talked behind her back or not, do I really think of her that way? When I looked inside, I found that my mind was filled with such negative thoughts about her. I thought, "Hey, nothing needs to be said. I had been adding so many bad thoughts and matter to her in my mind every day, how could she not know about it?" This conflict was helping me to cultivate my mind cleanly. I should not think negatively about others. In fact, these negative things were unrighteous thoughts, things I needed to cultivate away and get rid of.
One characteristic of a righteous being is that his mind is full of righteous thoughts. No matter whether toward a fellow practitioner, or anyone, or anything, the thoughts he generates are righteous thoughts. He would not always look at other people's shortcomings or even always use the mentality that goes along with the old force's persecution to think about things. In fact, this is a big problem. When I realized this, my anger suddenly disappeared; instead, I wanted to find her and hold her hands to thank her. At the same time, my heart was filled with thanks to Master. Master knew that I could tolerate being accused in front of many people. In order to let me recognize my shortcomings, Master had her talk about me in front of a lot of people, leading me to search within. I further understood the difficulty of the effort that Master has put forth to save sentient beings. I further realized that I must treasure each conflict, truly search within myself during the conflict, and look at the issue with righteous thoughts.
There was another time when Practitioner A suddenly wronged me. Even though I didn't say anything, I felt really unhappy inside, but I also looked within. However, I was always looking for right and wrong within the matter. No matter which way I looked at it, she was at fault and I was wronged! Therefore, inside I always felt it was unfair. I also believed that Practitioner A was not cultivating solidly. At the same time, Practitioner A and Practitioner B also had a conflict. It happened that I went to the village together with B. Practitioner B immediately started talking about the faults of Practitioner A. I didn't want to expand the conflict and create barriers amongst practitioners, so I stopped B. I didn't think of this as being righteous thoughts and righteous actions, but it helped me to understand one principle: that is, one needs to pay back whatever one owes. At the same time, I also knew how this tribulation was formed. I said to B and the other practitioners, "Stop saying anything. In fact, this is karmic retribution. Last year, we hurt her; this time, it is reversed. If we feel uneven inside, or even enlarge the conflict, then next time we will still run into conflicts. Let's look within, laugh the situation off, and stop it right here. Let's not repeat it again."
I realized that conflicts do not happen without a reason. They all happen for a reason. Therefore, when one is in the conflict, one should not argue within the issue; otherwise, one will get bogged down in the issue, get bogged down in right and wrong, true or false, without being able to pull oneself out.
In cultivating the heart, I have gone through a lot of suffering, and then I cultivated a little bit of forbearance. In the beginning of the year, a very big barrier formed between me and another practitioner. Cultivating away the attachments of feeling wronged, of sentimentality, and jealousy, I held back the tears and as I rode my bicycle, doing what I needed to do, for many days. I was happy and joyful while I did things, but after I finished taking care of business, the tears ran down and I could not stop them. No matter how hard it was to endure, I told myself, I must endure it; and not talk to other people about it. I felt if I talked about it, I would feel better inside, and feel delighted; however, the karma would not eliminated. Instead, I had created karma, and it's even possible that I had created barriers between practitioners. Therefore, I told myself to send forth righteous thoughts strongly to eliminate these human attachments. When I could not endure it, I would rather cry, but not complain to others about it. After I experienced this, I felt I was able to forbear somewhat better than before.
Experiencing all kinds of tribulations and tests, I find that I have changed. Now when I hear things other people say about me, I look within myself to find my own fault. I no longer need to tolerate it with tears in my eyes. Sometimes, when the attachments surface, I think to myself, "Put it down. What do I want to bring with me when I leave this human world? When I am able to let go of human attachments, I gain tolerance and compassion."
(Clearwisdom.net) One day, as soon as I finished putting up a banner that reads "The world needs Truth-Compassion-Forbearance," I heard someone shout behind me: "Stop!" Right away, I began to feel uneasy, became alert and began to send forth righteous thoughts. When I turned my head, I saw a middle-aged woman smiling at me. I was still using my unkind heart to measure her, thinking, "She must be really happy for catching a 'big fish!'" I kept thinking about her with such a mindset.
She then began to talk. "I was afraid that I couldn't find anyone practicing Falun Gong, and I finally found one today! One of our villagers drove his truck uphill in order to transport coal, his big truck ended up turning upside down, but he was fine. Everyone was saying that was because he carried a keepsake with him that says 'Falun Gong is good.' My son is also a driver and he'd like to get one of those keepsakes too, but we've had trouble finding Falun Gong practitioners, so I began to pay attention to you guys, and today I finally found you. It's truly awesome!"
My nervousness finally subsided. I happened to have a few such keepsakes with me, so I gave all of them to her. I also began to clarify the truth to her, and help her entire family quit the evil CCP (Chinese Communist Party) and its affiliated organizations. However, I was not happy about myself. I felt bad for thinking about her, a sentient being hoping to be saved, with a bad heart and fear!
Coincidentally, a few days later, my 13-year-old son suddenly told my husband, "Do you know, Dad, what I miss most about my childhood? I miss Mom holding or carrying me with her on her bicycle to surrounding villages to hand out Falun Gong materials."
Actually, in more recent years, I tried not to tell him about handing out truth-clarification materials, because I was afraid that he would interfere with me and not understand what I was doing. Now, since he brought it up, I explained it to him. He became angry and began to loudly criticize me, "Alright! You have been hiding that for so many years! Why didn't you tell me?" While quietly sending forth righteous thoughts and cleaning up the evil behind him, I was complaining about him, but he was still angry and said, "Tell me, why didn't you tell me?"
I began to be moved again, and I had some fear, so I adjusted myself, then said to him very seriously, "Because you are not a practitioner and you don't understand what we do. I was afraid that you would try to stop me and that you would incur karma. I did all that for you!" He smiled and said to me, "Had you told me earlier, I'd have helped you, and it could have gone faster and safer".
My heart began to calm down again, however it still was not very happy. I again felt sad for my thinking about sentient beings with a bad heart and fear!
The following paragraph of the "2009 Washington DC International Fa Conference" touched the very depth of my soul:
"If a Dafa disciple's heart is unsteady, it will cause changes in his or her surroundings. When you have fear, for instance, you will find that the sentient beings around you are not quite right. When you change such that your presence is refreshing and uplifting to people, and your mind becomes broad and full of optimism, you will find the things around you to be correspondingly different. When clarifying the truth, when validating the Fa, and when encountering challenges as you do things, adjust yourself and look at things with righteous thoughts. It might just prove to be effective."
Sure enough, our thoughts indeed impact sentient beings and the environment surrounding us! Teacher said:
"When you have fear, for instance, you will find that the sentient beings around you are not quite right." ("2009 Washington DC International Fa Conference")
I was deeply shaken by this! Everything that happens today in ordinary society is the result of practitioners' thoughts.
Let's follow what Teacher told us. Let's cultivate and be in high spirits, be broad-minded and optimistic, adjust ourselves for the better, and view things with righteous thoughts.
Then our environment will surely change! One should not always wait for Teacher, who has mighty power, to end this persecution.
I feel that this is all I can express. It may not be to the exact point of what I really wanted to say. Fellow practitioners, please kindly point out anything inappropriate.
(Clearwisdom.net) For quite a long period of time, I have noticed that some practitioners have been longing for the end of their cultivation. Because they think that the path of cultivation is long and lonely, they feel that it is a bit hard to continue. I would like to share my understanding on this issue.
I have never had the slightest feeling of suffering from loneliness over these long years. On the contrary, I have felt very happy. This is because Teacher has provided us with a basis for life. Although I am not rich, I do not have any worries regarding my daily necessities, so I have no economic pressures whatsoever and naturally feel very relaxed. Before I learned Falun Dafa, I read books and magazines as well as watched TV. Now I am a practitioner, and I use all my time to read more Falun Dafa books and practice the exercises more. Therefore, I do not need to "squeeze in" time to read the Fa and do the exercises. When people communicate with others, they talk a lot about everyday people's things. Since I am a practitioner, when I communicate with them, I do not talk about things like domestic trivia, rather, I clarify the truth to them. People that do not practice often go out for walks. I also go out for a walk, but I bring truth-clarification materials with me, so that I can distribute them as I walk.
Sometimes local officials come to my home to visit me. While some fellow practitioners thought that these visits were harassment or persecution, I do not think that way. I first of all disintegrate all the bad factors behind them and try to clarify the truth to them with compassion and in a way that they understand. I think when we communicate with sentient beings, we must not always use positive methods--we can also use negative methods and turn them into positive methods. However, if some people really want to persecute me, the Buddha Fa also has the solemn nature of Gods.
Actually, as long as practitioners have righteous thoughts of compassion, no one will think of persecuting you. These thoughts that someone may want to persecute you occur when you yourself have such problems.
In 2005, several government officials summoned me to their office and asked me if I still practiced Falun Gong. At the time I quietly begged Teacher for help to eliminate the evil factors behind them and had a righteous thought that no one could touch me, since I had Teacher's protection. My mind was filled with thoughts of how to protect myself from being persecuted, so I lost my train of thought in clarifying the truth. However, I had to answer the question, so I said, "Yes, I do!" Then I started to talk about why it is wrong to persecute Falun Gong and how some of the prison guards tortured practitioners.
Gradually, I became focused and forgot myself and the people in front me. I forgot that I had begged Teacher for protection, leaving only one thing in my mind, which was the wish to clarify the truth. At that time, I felt as if everything, including the air around me, was frozen. I saw several people sitting in front of me. They all lowered their heads and dared not speak, but sat there with a dull look.
I talked for a while, and when I stopped I felt as if I had awakened from a trance. It seemed as if everything had just been freed and the people in front of me seemed to have just awakened from a dream. They looked at each other and returned to their normal duties. I was a bit shocked about it myself. Just at that time, one of the officials said to me with a smile, "Good, that's good! You can go now. If you have questions, please let us know."
Afterward, I realized that the power of the Buddha Fa is only displayed when I empty out all other thoughts from my mind and only think about saving sentient beings. A great righteous God would not think about being persecuted, but only about his responsibility to sentient beings and the righteous factors. Since I am a practitioner, I will try to do the same so as to meet the requirements of Dafa.
Saying that the path of cultivation is lonely and hard to bear is actually if one is afraid of being persecuted. Practitioners arrive at this stage to cultivate, and no one had said he/she suffers from loneliness. When the persecution, which has lasted for a long time, started, then practitioners noticed that it was hard to endure. As a matter of fact, it was not the path of cultivation, but the mentality of fear that made one feel that the path was long and lonely and hard to bear.
It's been ten years since the persecution started. However, I have never had any thought of loneliness. I only felt lucky that I have had the opportunity to learn Dafa. I have had no disasters in my life, have enjoyed a never-degenerated Vajra body, and have had no worries about my daily necessities. Therefore, I feel happy about being on the path of cultivation.
(Clearwisdom.net) As soon as I became aware that I was pregnant in 2002, I started playing Dafa music and Master's lecture tapes for the baby in my womb. I knew she came for the Fa, and would not be an ordinary child, and that I should regard her as a young practitioner rather than merely my child.
I treated her as a young practitioner after she was born. Sometimes she wasn't feeling well, but as soon as I played Master's lecture tapes or Dafa music, she got better very quickly. When she began talking, I taught her to chant "Falun Dafa is good," and "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good." I started teaching her to memorize Hong Yin at age two. As soon as she entered the daycare center around age three, I started teaching her the core principles of cultivation practice and asked her to follow them; for example, not fighting back when being punched or insulted, looking within, no second cultivation way, and judging right from wrong according to Dafa. She understood these principles. I often read her books such as Stories of Cultivation Practice, Stories of Traditional Chinese Culture, and books that had no Communist Party culture elements, such as Journey to the West and Pinocchio.
I also taught her to send righteous thoughts and do the five sets of exercises. In addition, I picked stories from the Minghui/Clearwisdom and Zhengjian/Pure Insight websites and read them to her, with the purpose of filling her mind with good things, which could strengthen her righteous thoughts.
She's now in elementary school, and I asked her do a shorter version of the whole set of exercises every week. I also requested that she recite several poems from Hong Yin every night before bedtime. She now participates in the global sending forth righteous thoughts activity at noon and 6:00 p.m. as much as possible. She is able to concentrate when watching Master's lecture videos, and while studying Zhuan Falun during school breaks.
Her school has a flag event every Monday morning, and each day she sends righteous thoughts to eliminate the Communist specter behind it. She can tell when there are bad elements in the textbooks, and sends righteous thoughts as soon as she sees them. When she doesn't feel well, she sends righteous thoughts, studies the Fa, and looks within, then becomes well again. Others in our family are used to this already. When I don't feel well, she sends righteous thoughts for me. When others don't feel well and think they've caught a cold, she tells me in private, "No, it's caused by karma."
Children have very few bad thoughts. In daily life, I teach her to lead a simple and easy way of life. In China however, the environment for elementary school kids is not comparable to the Minghui School environment overseas, because people have different predestined relationships and many of us have to stay in China. But we can strive to change our environments, and at the very least our family environments for the better, so that our kids can live in a relatively pure environment where they can be influenced more positively, and yet more importantly, build the ability to resist the bad influences of society.
I personally believe that the young practitioners' cultivation states have a lot to do with their parents. Their self-sufficiency, discernment and self-control are relatively weak and they're easily affected by their environments. Therefore, as parents we should not only spend time caring for their basic needs and studying, but also supervise and help-out with their cultivation practice every day. We need to make sure their faith and righteous thoughts toward Dafa are not compromised at any time. We especially need to pay attention to keeping their thoughts as pure as possible by keeping them away from the bad things in society, and helping them learn things that are beneficial, and learning the principles of Dafa. We can never let our guards down and think it is OK to "follow the course of nature" in this regard. Supervision is essential!
I know a practitioner who believes in "following the course of nature" with regard to bringing up her child. The child did quite well when he was little--his third-eye was open and he could often see Master's law body. But the practitioner did not take the responsibility to supervise him, and gradually things started to go bad. The child got into computer games and his academic record started to drop, not to mention doing Fa study and the exercises. Moreover, he would get angry whenever anyone tried to discipline him.
I suggested that the fellow practitioner help her child study the Fa, but the practitioner said, "In my understanding, every family has at least one person who creates difficulties for others to improve, and it is not possible for everyone to be diligent. The child has grown up and has formed his own mind, and I can't do anything about it." The child later had to withdraw from school due to his poor academic record. He now stays at home playing computer games and surfing the Internet all day, and has stopped practicing cultivation.
The practitioner sighed, "I am so busy. I have no time to supervise him. He doesn't listen to me. He's big enough to make his own decisions. Let's follow the course of nature." My heart sank when I heard this. If the practitioner had put more time into helping her child, he would have turned around a long time ago and improved. After all, he came to the world for the Fa!
Fellow parent practitioners, our goal is to "...attain the righteous Enlightenment of selflessness and altruism." ("Non-Omission in Buddha-Nature" from Essentials for Further Advancement) We should be compassionate, especially to our children. I don't think it is right to wait for our children to grow up before they make the decision of whether or not to practice cultivation. Some of us think we're too busy as parents. We have to work, do the three things well, do housework, and attend social activities, etc. Some of us think our time is too tight for practicing cultivation even for ourselves, not to mention sharing it with our children. They also believe that supervising children takes a lot of effort, energy and time, and it's better to have someone else to take care of them.
I personally don't believe these kinds of thoughts are based on the Fa. The thoughts of wanting to be free of trouble, and not wasting time on children, are caused by the attachment to ease and comfort. It is a manifestation of a lack of the sense of responsibility and mission, and the root is selfishness. Even non-practitioners take great responsibility in educating their children. Raising children should give education as the first priority.
If we wait for them to grow-up before supervising their cultivation practice, won't that be too late? Won't we have to spend more time helping them remove their bad thoughts and notions? Drawing an analogy, isn't a room cleaned every day easier to clean than one that is cleaned once a week? Isn't it an extra benefit that it is clean every day? The human world is full of contaminants. Shouldn't we use the pure water of Dafa to cleanse ourselves every day? Indeed! The same is true with our young practitioners! Of course, I'm not suggesting we watch them at every moment and not do anything else, which is another extreme.
Raising our children as non-practitioners is doing them harm. This is not showing consideration for their eternity and we are not being qualified parents. Because we have obtained the Fa, to truly think of our children, we should help them with practicing cultivation, instead of merely providing them with a comfortable life. Just because we cannot become attached to sentiments doesn't mean we should ignore them. We are supposed to supervise them well. We shouldn't ignore them! I know many practitioners who pay a lot of attention to their own cultivation, but treat their children as ordinary people, which I think is caused by their being lost in conventional thinking.
A child's mind is like a blank piece of paper, and it depends on us what is drawn on it. Master said, "A person is like a container, and he is whatever he contains." ("Melt into the Fa" from Essentials for Further Advancement) What have we filled their minds with?
Dafa practitioners should do well in every aspect. Lack of time and capabilities is an excuse, and the real reason is that we did not pay attention to our children's cultivation practice as seriously as to our own. It is because we are not selfless enough.
In my humble opinion, we must, by all means, raise our children responsibly, and spend enough time in assisting them with their cultivation practice. We should not allow our non-practitioner family members to take over completely, and be satisfied with their having good food, clothing and academic achievements. Aren't those things far less important than obtaining Dafa? A life that came to the human world when Dafa is spreading is for the Fa! Let us all work hard and advance diligently with our fellow young practitioners!
This concludes my limited personal understandings. I hope to inspire some fellow practitioners, so that future regrets can hopefully be reduced.
July 3, 2009
(Clearwisdom.net) In "Fa Teaching at the 2009 Greater New York International Fa Conference" Master talked about the Fa at the Final Judgment. Those who have played positive roles will also have to face a Judgment. This Fa deeply touched my mind, and I kept looking inside for the reason why this affected me so deeply.
As I wrote this article, I came to realize that this section of the Fa had deeply touched on my fundamental attachments, "the attachment to consummation, to my cultivation level and to myself." They stem from an intense selfishness, which I thought I had discarded. However, it was actually hidden in my mind so deeply that I, myself dared not to think about it and dared not touch it.
In March 1999, I started cultivating Falun Dafa. After July 20, 1999, when the persecution started, because I had not studied the Fa well, with a strong attachment to consummation, I went to Beijing to validate Dafa. I thought that it would be like what had happened during the "June 4th Massacre," that we would probably face a storm of bullets and I would probably die. Thinking that if I died, I would reach consummation, I thought to myself, "So be it. It will only be a short period of pain. Master has told us to let go of the attachment to life and death." After arriving in Beijing, I found it was not like what I had imagined. Uniformed and plainclothes police were everywhere, and they were arresting people. After going to several places, I went to Zunhua in Hebei Province, where I was arrested. A drunken policeman started slapping and punching my face violently. I cannot remember how many times I was hit. My face turned purple and blue and was swollen from the beating. Due to my intense fear, I compromised.
In 2000, I returned to the university to continue my studies. I read Master's new scriptures, and through studying the Fa, I came to realize that I had made mistakes. With several fellow practitioners who were also my schoolmates, I went to Beijing again. We were arrested at Tiananmen Square by personnel from the security section of the university and escorted back. We were then detained in the Siping Detention Center. Later, I was sent to the Heizuizi Forced Labor Camp in Changchun. I thought that I would be tortured there, but to my surprise, I was not. I was surrounded by all the "transformed" people who had given up practicing Falun Gong under force. I learned later that the labor camp didn't let us see any of the Falun Gong practitioners who had remained steadfast in their belief. In the labor camp, I thought that those people who had deviated from Dafa had come to an understanding of the principles at higher levels and thought that by giving up, I was eliminating my attachments to consummation, so I wrote the "three statements" and left a stain on my path of cultivation.
In the following several years, because I could not study the Fa, I gradually became separated from cultivation and fell down to the level of everyday people. I was even worse than the average person. Benevolent Master saw that I had not lost my original nature and arranged opportunities for me to return to cultivation. However, after returning to cultivation, in a comfortable environment, I was not diligent, just like Master mentioned,
"You have all seen that in today's society negative things abound, and they spur on people's attachments and affect their minds and souls, continually dragging the world's people downwards. It is terrifying. Dafa disciples are human cultivators, not gods that cultivate, and so as people who cultivate, they will be interfered with to some extent. If they cannot handle themselves well, then they are just like ordinary people; and when interfered with, their behavior will be much like that of ordinary people. Some students haven't encountered much in the way of ordeals and have gradually become lax. This means that they have formed attachments to the various temptations of ordinary society, and been dragged down by its lure." ("Fa Teaching at the 2009 Greater New York International Fa Conference")
Although, I was not diligent, I kept thinking, "Even though I didn't do as well as I should have, I should be going to a good place. Since I have been continuously cultivating, I shouldn't have to go to hell." When I read the paragraph of the Fa about the Final Judgment, I felt that Master was talking about me. How will I face this final judgment? Have I done my best? Have I upheld my righteous thoughts in the face of difficulties? How have I done in saving lives? I came for the Fa with great courage, under the eternal Buddha's graciousness, which this world had never experienced before, as a life to play a positive role. Can I say that I have completed the mission that I came here for? Nonetheless I still kept thinking about obtaining for myself, I didn't treasure sentient beings but instead kept thinking about my own Fruit Status and level. I felt so ashamed for my dirty selfishness. If the Fa-rectification really concluded today, I would have to go to hell. I had felt strange why recently, when in tranquility, I would see darkness in front of my eyes and layers and layers of darkness around me. I didn't know where my mistakes were. Now I have finally come to understand that it was caused by my intense attachment of pursuit.
Master taught us,
"There were also some critically ill people suffering from cancer or other deadly diseases who came to practice Falun Gong but died just the same. Why? While that person was paying lip service to practicing Falun Gong, his mind didn't let go of his illness whatsoever. Some people may think this way: 'He was quite keen on practicing. He told us about not taking medicine, and he also advised us to give up the attachment to illness. He even helped others learn the Fa.' But he didn't necessarily give it up himself--you don't know what was on his mind. This shows how complicated the matter is. He asked others to give up the attachment, knowing that Teacher could hear it. He wanted it to be heard by Teacher. To put it plainly, he was trying to deceive Teacher. His real intention was: 'Teacher will certainly take care of me for all these things I've done. I'm reading the books, performing the exercises, and telling others to cultivate, so Teacher will definitely eliminate my illness.' You see that on the surface he stopped taking medicine, said those words, and acted in accordance with my requirements for practice. In essence, however, he didn't truly meet the standard for a cultivator. He was still thinking, 'As long as I do this, Master will surely get rid of my illness.' He was still thinking like that. Did he root out his desire for Master to get rid of his illness? Wasn't that desire still embedded and concealed in his mind? In that case, wasn't he trying to deceive others as well as me? In fact, he was deceiving himself. In that case, how could he be cured of his illness? " ("Lecture at the First Conference in North America")
I have learned a lot through writing this article and have become clearer about the principles of the Fa. I want to truly do the "three things" well with a pure mentality without pursuit, and I want to be selfless, to consider others first, to discard my fundamental attachment and to discard my selfish mentalities. I hope that fellow practitioners don't go through this tortuous path as I did. Because of my limited understandings, I have many insufficiencies and I hope to discuss and exchange them with fellow practitioners. Heshi.
(Clearwisdom.net) Over the last two years, after studying the Fa, memorizing the Fa, or particularly after studying "Fa-Teaching Given to the Australian Practitioners," what I have benefited from most is understanding the importance of looking inward whenever encountering a problem, and forming a habit of looking inward. I have learned to rectify the Fa with wisdom, keep myself in a state of cultivation, completely negate interference from the old forces, do the three things diligently, and urgently save sentient beings.
Cultivating Away the Attachment to the CCP's Collapse
I felt that the sooner the downfall of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the easier for the mainland Chinese to eliminate their fear. All Chinese know how brutal the CCP is as it persecutes its citizens. Under the enormous pressure, most dare not or are unwilling to learn the truth about Dafa, particularly those in the government and in the Party committee. When you give them the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party or Dafa truth-clarifying materials, they may immediately reply, "We received an order prohibiting us from reading these materials." I hoped for the downfall of the CCP in the near future, in order to have more sentient be be saved. When I discussed this issue with fellow practitioners, most also believed that when the CCP collapses, the greatest interference to saving sentient beings will be gone.
Master said,
"As I've said, everything that happens today in the ordinary society is the result of Dafa disciples' thoughts." ("Teaching the Fa at 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.")
However, because of our human hearts and attachments, we created the opposite result. Over the last nine years, these lessons have been repeated over and over. We should truly be aware and awaken.
After studying the Fa and carefully looking inward, I realized that what we did was with a heart of pursuit, a heart of counting on others and counting on an external force to eliminate the CCP and end the persecution. Master said,
"Since you're Dafa disciples, you shouldn't put your hopes in so-called 'natural' changes, external changes, changes in the ordinary society, or in some favors that someone might do for us. You are Gods, and you are the future rulers of different cosmoses, so who would you count on? All the beings are counting on you!"
"You're cultivators, and all changes come from your cultivation and the Fa-rectification..." ("Teaching the Fa at 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.")
The sooner the collapse of the CCP and the end of the persecution, the better for saving sentient beings, but we can only count on Dafa practitioners to end the persecution. Our first and foremost task is saving sentient beings. Eliminating the CCP is not the most important thing.
I believe that maintaining mainland Dafa practitioners' cultivation environment and steady cultivation state is also rectifying the Fa. The sentient beings will able to see the wonderfulness of Dafa, eliminate their fear and be willing to learn the truth of Dafa.
Master said,
"Validate the Fa with rationality, clarify the truth with wisdom, spread the Fa and save people with mercy-this is establishing the mighty virtue of an Enlightened Being." ("Rationality" from Essentials for Further Advancement II)
Looking Inward is a Magic Tool Given to Us by Master
Master wants us to learn the Fa on the basis of the Fa and elevate to a rational understanding of the Fa. This is an important step for Dafa practitioners to elevate as a group.
From Master's two recent scriptures, all emphasis is on "looking inward." Why does Master keep advising us earnestly and kindly about "looking inward?" There has to be deep connotations.
I am not yet clear about how to understand the Fa on the basis of the Fa. However, I recently realized that if one is able to look inward when studying the Fa, then he can understand the connotations of the Fa. The purpose of studying the Fa is to improve and elevate in the Fa. When one truly learns to look inward, he is truly studying the Fa and will be able to learn the connotations of the Fa. Looking inward is cultivating oneself. Recalling my cultivation path after the persecution started on July 20, 1999, under Master's compassionate protection I did not suffer persecution, but I felt quite passive, as if looking inward in order not to be persecuted. I didn't actively eliminate the interference from the evil. I always waited until the loophole in my xinxing was too obvious and the projects to save sentient beings were interfered with. Then I began looking inward to see what kinds of attachments were still there. With Master's protection I wasn't persecuted, but the project was affected and had to stop. This caused great regret.
Through studying the Fa for a year and with Master's reminder, I finally realized that in order to negate the old forces and smoothly do the three things well, we must become accustomed to looking inward at all times and form a mechanism of looking inward. Summarizing the process, when I was able to look inward and quickly find the problems and my attachments, I knew that I was on the Fa. If I looked everywhere and couldn't find the problem, I might have deviated from the Fa, so I studied the Fa more and found out why I wasn't on the Fa. I started becoming accustomed to doing this, and now, whenever I encounter a problem, for the most part, I can understand it on the basis of the Fa. I am able to keep a Dafa practitioner's state of cultivation, use righteous thoughts to view the problem, actively eliminate interference and better save sentient beings.
Dafa cultivation is very serious. It not a simple issue of whether you cultivate well or not, it is a critical life and death issue for sentient beings. As Dafa practitioners, we must cultivate ourselves well, look inward, and truly cultivate ourselves. It is our responsibility and our sacred mission.
This is my understanding. Please kindly point out any shortcomings.
(Clearwisdom.net) I am a Dafa practitioner in Guizhou Province. I want to share a miracle regarding my wife.
My wife and I started practicing Falun Gong in July 1997. But she only believed in the healing illness and getting fit part, so she was not very diligent in doing the exercises. Thus she had many illnesses over the years. She has had rhinitis for almost thirty years. She also had hives and acne. Recently she had had a low fever for about a year, her temperature remaining above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and she every drowsy every day.
One afternoon, she told me that she had a sharp pain in her neck. She saw a doctor, who diagnosed the problem as degenerative osteoarthritis. She then thought, "Even someone with cancer could be healed after practicing Falun Gong. This time I will practice it diligently; I believe it will heal my illness." She became determined to cultivate well.
When I returned home that evening, she told me her diagnosis and her thoughts on being a determined practitioner. I asked her, "Do you still have the pain?" "Yes." She replied. "Have you read the book [Zhuan Falun] and done the exercises?" "No," she said. The pain was still there when she went to bed. She said, "Maybe I won't be able to sleep again tonight." I said, "Since you decided to practice well, then you should read the book before going to sleep." So she started reading.
The next morning, she told me that she didn't feel any pain and she slept the whole night through. However, just after she got up, she again felt pain in her neck. She asked me to get up to do the exercises with her. So we did the first four sets of exercises. After one hour of exercises, I asked her, "Do you still feel the pain?" She had even forgot her neck pain. Then she moved her neck left to right, up and down, and it was not painful at all. She jumped up and down, saying "Falun Gong is really miraculous!"
For the next two months when my wife did the exercises, she had a runny nose. Then, the rhinitis that she had for thirty years and that forced her to sleep with her mouth open was completely healed. All her other illnesses were gone, too. She is a firm Dafa disciple now.
July 30, 2009
(Clearwisdom.net) Editors' note: In both Western and Chinese cultures, the principle of karmic retribution, that is, being held ultimately accountable for one's own actions, is widely accepted. The fundamental teaching of Falun Gong is the characteristic of the universe, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. The universe will reward acts that are in harmony with this principle, while doing things such as beating, torturing and murdering people will incur karmic retribution. Stated another way, good deeds will be rewarded with good, while evildoings will meet due retribution. Articles such as this one are meant as a compassionate reminder of this principle to those who would commit wrongdoing. While many of those who persecute Falun Gong are merely "following orders," the universal law requires that they, too, be held responsible for their actions, and that only by reversing their course of wrongdoing may they escape retribution.
The following are several instances of karmic retribution to officials and others who engaged in persecuting Falun Gong.
(Heilongjiang Province) A Judge in Hegang City Died from Kidney Failure
Shao Bo, one of the judges of the Xingan Court, Hegang City, Heilongjiang Province, was known to take public funds as his own. After the persecution of Falun Gong began on July 20, 1999, he followed Jiang Zemin's gang to persecute Falun Gong, doing his part by sentencing Dafa practitioners.
After handing out a series of unjust sentences, Shao Bo began experiencing retribution. First, one of his kidneys failed and had to be removed. Then his second kidney began having problems and medicine didn't help. Shao spent thousands of yuan each day for medical treatment. After having spent almost all of his ill-gotten money, he died last year, only 44 years of age.
Inmates Used in Hegang City to Persecute Dafa Practitioners Receive Retribution
Zhang Qingchun, Hegang City's Public Security Bureau Chief and warden of the Second Detention Center, selected six inmates to be "hit men" for torturing Dafa practitioners detained at the Bureau of Mining Industry. Zhang Qingchun said, "Beat them until they say that they will quit practicing Falun Gong. When they do, I will reduce your jail term."
A few years have passed since then, but the jail terms of these six inmates were not reduced. There was no gain in taking part in the persecution of Dafa practitioners, and instead, they have gotten themselves into more trouble.
In the Spring of 2000, many Falun Gong practitioners were detained at the Bureau of Mining Industry in Hegang City. There were 30 to 40 male practitioners, and all of them were brutally beaten. The six inmates divided into two teams. Chang Kaichun was the team leader, and Xie Zilin and Li did the beating. The other team included the leader Wang, Hou Gangzhu, and Li. As instructed by the Public Security Bureau, the six inmates brutally beat and inhumanly tortured practitioners by punching, slapping, and kicking them, and subjected them to verbal abuse. Practitioners who didn't smear Dafa were continuously tortured for three days. Those who fell to the ground were picked up and beaten again and again. Practitioner Guo Xingquo vomited blood because he was beaten so severely.
Chang Kaichun, in his thirties, was the cruelest. Zhang Qingchun didn't reduce Chang's prison term, so he became even worse. Although he was eventually released in 2004, Chang was later sentenced to death because of committing homicide.
Hou Gangzhu, in his twenties, was a vicious person. After returning to the Second Detention Center, his jail term was extended three additional years because of his constant beating of people. Also, while serving his jail term, his fellow inmates crippled his legs.
Inmate Li, in his thirties, was released after finishing his term, but was jailed again for another year for physically injuring people. Again, not long after his second release, he was sentenced to 17 years in prison because he committed a crime that caused a death.
Zhang Qingchun, the Assistant Chief of the Public Security Bureau, died from retribution all of a sudden.
Wei Diandong, a Judge at Donggang City Court in Liaoning Province, Gets Colon Cancer
Wei Diandong, male, 39, was the assistant manager at Donggang City Criminal Court and was in charge of sentencing. Based on evidence fabricated by the city's Public Security Bureau in collaboration with the public prosecutor's office, Wei sentenced Dafa practitioners Zhao Guiqin and Song Jiwei to three and a half years each. When Zhao Guiqin's elderly mother, and Song Jiwei's elderly father questioned Wei Diandong about his persecuting the innocent practitioners, he shouted, "Whenever you want to sue me, go right ahead. You don't have a chance to win."
The two parents hired a lawyer from Beijing to appeal for their children. However, Dandong City's Intermediate Court, under the control of the "610 Office", refused to let their appeal go to trial and maintained the original sentence.
Wei Diandong never believed Dafa practitioners when they told him about the old saying that doing good deeds is rewarded with good and that doing evil things is penalized with misfortune. Then, in April 2009, a week after he was promoted to be the manager of the Dadong City Court, he was diagnosed with colon cancer at Beijing hospital. He had surgery there and is still receiving treatment.
(Hubei Province) Zhijiang City's Public Security Bureau Chief Dies of Pancreatic Cancer
Liu Fangcai, was the Zhijiang City Public Security Bureau Chief and the main person in charge of persecuting Falun Gong practitioners in that area. He died of pancreatic cancer in April 2009.
During the last ten years of brutal persecution, Falun Gong practitioners have been continually telling people the facts about Falun Dafa and exposing the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) vicious acts, for the purpose of saving people who have been poisoned by the CCP's lies.
We sincerely hope that those who are still taking part in the persecution will stop, for their own sake.
July 25, 2009
A typical example that how the Chinese media monopolized by CCP fabricate stories by distorting the facts.
Ms. Wang Liping was arrested and sent to the force labor camp, because CCP officials found Falun Gong fliers in their residence compound. The police confiscated several dozens blank CDs in her store as "evidence" and assumed she was the suspect.
When Ms. Li Yaohua's 91 years old father returned to Shanghai after 30 years living in Taiwan, his reunion dream was broken. With no one to take care him, he had to run around for help.
Attorney Wang Yonghang in Dalian City defended Falun Gong practitioners who were persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party. As a result, police broke into his home and arrested him and his wife. His wife and elderly mother were also physically assaulted.
On July 11, 2009, the local police in Zhuzhou City arrested Ms. Zhang Xinyi and detained her at District Police Precinct, where she was interrogated. Currently, she is detained at the 2nd of Detention Center of Zhuzhou City. Ms. Zhang has begun a hunger strike to protest the persecution. This is her third arrest for practicing Falun Gong.
Mr. Fu Zhenyong, 64, has been repeatedly harassed by local police officers for believing in "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance." In April 2009, he was secretly tried and later sentenced to nine years in prison.
A family of refugees is reunited in Germany.
Ms. Tang, 73, is a retired associate professor from Luzhou Medical Institute was arrested in her home on June 23, 2009.
After Mr. Yang Guiquan, 45, died on July 5, 2009; major wounds were visible on his back as well as on the back of his skull. Signs of electric shocks were also observed on his legs. His family was not allowed any inquiry or appeal.
Peng Jinping is confined to a cell and brutally treated.
Clearwisdom.net and its Chinese-language sister-website (Minghui.org) provide first-hand reports about the horrors of the persecution of Falun Gong in China. Dozens of reports are received every day from the victims of torture, the wrongfully imprisoned, and families crippled by the senseless hardship and grief for their loved ones imposed by the persecution. In contrast, the websites also report positive news and events from the more than 80 countries around the world where Falun Gong is practiced, and serve as an online forum for practitioners to share stories of the good things Falun Gong has brought to their lives. For more information, please contact editor@clearwisdom.net.