(Minghui.org) When I appealed for Falun Gong with other practitioners in Beijing on April 25, 1999, it never occurred to me that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was video-taping us that day. When the persecution of Falun Gong started in July 1999, I was forced to quit the military.

I was illegally arrested after I returned to my hometown, because I appealed for Falun Gong, and sentenced to five years in jail. I was beaten, and my ribs and eardrum were broken. The intense pressure of the persecution almost caused me to have a mental collapse. To avoid further persecution, I took my wife Pan Suyun and son and moved away from our home town. We have suffered so much in this persecution.

Detained, Threatened, and Forced to Quit the Military

Some practitioners were arrested in Tianjin City in April 1999. I didn't understand why such a good practice was being maligned. I felt I should go to the state officials and talk to them about the practice.

I put on my brand new military uniform, and went to Beijing. I wanted to tell people, many people in different fields including the military, that I practiced Falun Gong because it was really good.

I met a young man in his thirties on April 25, 1999, near the south end of Fuyou Street in Beijing. He told me that he was also a practitioner and was from Beijing University. He asked me, “Where did you come from? Why did you come?“

Because of my training as a military man, I immediately became suspicious and knew he was not a practitioner, but a spy. To help him understand, I said, “Many practitioners were arrested in Tianjin. I came to Beijing to appeal for them. Falun Gong practitioners should not be mistreated. We should be allowed to practice freely.”

I didn't know he was recording our conversation. A military official later told me that two people with video cameras were following me that day.

My photo and the video tape they made of me were distributed in the military on April 28, 1999, by the CCP's Military Commission. They were looking for me. That's when I realized that this was serious. In order not to implicate others, I went directly to the officials and told them why I went to Beijing to appeal.

I was immediatedly suspended from my military job and had to hand in my lieutenant's badge. Three higher military officials came to talk to me at the same time. I was detained in a room, not allowed to see anyone, and not allowed to go home. My wife and my son were deceived, and came to visit me. The entire time they were in the military compound, they were being closely watched.

I was transferred to a local artillery regiment one month later, but still detained. My wife and son were also taken there in three guarded vehicles. They were under house arrest with guards in front of and behind the house where they were staying.

I was kept alone in a building where I was subjected to constant brainwashing. I was forced to watch videos that slandered Falun Gong, sometimes for 16 hours a day.

The security head threatened me, “You must renounce Falun Gong. You must give up the practice!”

Every day, higher officials phoned to check the status of my brainwashing, and to issue orders. Whenever the phone rang, I felt a twinge of fear.

Under such high pressure, I felt that I would have a mental collapse at any moment. The brainwashing and the high pressure brought devastation to my family, as well as our close friends and relatives.

The CCP started to persecute Falun Gong openly on July 20, 1999, and the persecution on me was intensified.

The political department head tried a variety of methods to force me to give up Falun Gong. I was not allowed to go home until midnight, and I was watched even when I went to the restroom.

Seeing that I was steadfast and refusing to give in, they were afraid that I would expose them, so they tricked me into writing about my cultivation experiences. They then modified what I wrote to meet the higher authority's demands.

My family and I were forced to return to my hometown in October 1999. The officials used this as an excuse to search our home in the military compound. Our Dafa books and Master's picture were taken away. Most of our furniture was destroyed.

Jailed for Five Years for Writing an Appeal Letter

I went to the county appeal office with more than 100 other practitioners on August 2, 2000, to appeal for Falun Gong. Liu Changhe, head of the Politics and Security Section in the county police department, took the appeal letter out of my pocket. We were detained in a brainwashing center. We were all forced to stay outside under the blazing sun in the hot summer. Among us were 60 to 70-year-old people, and five or six-year-old children. We were exposed to the sun from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Not long after, I was fired from the county government and kicked out of the Party.

Three practitioners and I started a hunger strike to protest the detention while we were detained in the county detention center. Zhang Xi, a deputy from the county police department, and Wang Jin, head of the detention center, dragged us to the courtyard, and forced me to kneel down. When I refused, Wang Jin took off his shoes and viciously slapped my face with the soles.

Zhang Xi ordered two armed police officers to stand on each side of me and whip me with a metal-edged belt. When they tired of beating me, I was handcuffed and shackled. To make my suffering worse, they chained the handcuffs and shackles together so I was not able to stand, sit, or lay down. I was cuffed this way for more than 12 hours. My back felt like it was broken, and the pain was extreme and unbearable.

After being detained for six months, I was sentenced to five years in jail in January 2001, and was detained at No. 4 Prison of Hebei Province. While I was imprisoned I was kicked and punched by the inmates. My eardrum was damaged after my head and face were constantly punched.

One night in February, I was sent to a brainwashing session. Four to five guards took turns threatening me, attempting to force me to give up Falun Gong. They had been trained at other prisons to persecute practitioners.

Guard Zhang Zhonglin talked about the training and said, “We learned a lot. For those who refuse to be transformed, we first deprive them of sleep, then food, then drink, then restroom use, and so on.”

Zhang Zhonglin ordered five or six inmates to take me to a room, which was soundproofed and had no windows.

In the beginning, they tried soft ways. I was then deprived of sleep. Finally, they started to beat me. Zhang Zhongli beat me down to the floor, and kicked me. During the beating one of my ribs was broken and my mouth and nose bled. I bled so hard that the blood soaked into my clothes.

Inmate Wang grabbed my shoulder with his hands and forcefully shoved his knee into my chest. The pain was so severe that I could not breathe. I became limp and dropped to the ground. I almost passed out.

Torture re-enactment: Brutal beating

The torture almost caused me to lose my memory. I was finally able to think and remember things after March 17. I still can't remember anything that happened before that day.

Just before my term was over, I was put in a solitary confinement cell. I was released in August 2005.

My Family Had No Other Choice but to Leave Home

While I was imprisoned my wife and son were also persecuted. They were detained in the county brainwashing center in August 2000 because they appealed for Falun Gong. They were forced to stand outside under the hot sun for more than eight hours without food or water. The police took the only cash they had, 100 yuan.

My wife and another practitioner were arrested and detained in Fangshan District, Beijing in January 2001, for appealing for Falun Gong. The police punched her about the head. She was later sent back and detained at a local detention center where she was force-fed. At that time, when a female practitioner had been force-fed many times through her mouth and nose, they even removed her pants and force-fed her through her anus.

Wang Jin, head of the detention center, slapped my wife's face and ordered that she be tortured by chaining the handcuffs and shackles together, so she could not stand, sit, or lay down. She was tortured this way for days, and couldn't straighten her back.

On the first day of Chinese New Year, several female practitioners in the detention center called out loudly, “Master, Happy New Year! Falun Dafa is good!” They were pulled out into the snow and beaten with rubber belts.

Several police officers, led by Liu Yanjun, head of the police station, broke into our home one day in May 2001, at around 5:00 a.m. They took my wife Pan Suyun, my son, and my brother to the county detention center. The police blackmailed them and threatened to send them to a labor camp.

Because I was in jail and thus we had no income, a practitioner came to give my family some money. It was reported to police. Police came to search for it but didn't find anything. The incident made many people afraid to interact with my family. My child was traumatized.

My wife went to the local police station in August 2001, to ask for written permission to visit me in jail. Instead, she was cuffed to a heating pipe overnight and sent to a brainwashing session the next day. She was detained there for more than a month.

I was released from jail in August 2005. By that time, I was so weak that I couldn't stand up, and my entire body was limp most of the time. When my condition improved, I asked to have my job reinstated. I tried many times, but was refused.

I was arrested again at home on March 10, 2006, by Wang Hailong, a deputy from the Qinglong County Police Department, along with Zhang Shujun, head of the Domestic Security Division, Dong Xiumin from the politic and security section, and some other officers. They took Master's picture, a tape player, my citizenship registration booklet, and other items. They even took our apples and firecrackers.

When my child came home from school and saw that I had not returned home, he made a sign reading, “Return My Dad,” and went to the county police department. By that time, I had already been sent to the county detention center. That evening, my wife and son went to the home of Wang Hailong, deputy of the county police department, and asked for my release. Wang kicked my wife and threatened her, “I will arrest you both if you don't leave now.”

I was released home two weeks later. To avoid being persecuted, we decided to leave our hometown and move far away. My mother-in-law suddenly passed away while we were gone.

My mother-in-law used to have heart problems and other diseases, but recovered after she began practicing Falun Gong in 1997. Like many Chinese she listened to the CCP's lies and stopped practicing after the persecution started in 1999. Witnessing my wife and I being arrested and detained again and again, she was under extreme pressure, and her health problems resurfaced. She developed thrombosis and died on Chinese New Year's Day in 2008, at the age of 73.

My mother-in-law's eyes were wide-open when she died. Sadly, she was waiting, hoping to see my family one more time before she passed away. However, we were far away and unable to get back in time to say goodbye.

In August 2008, before the Olympic Games, Han Min from the Qinglong County 610 Office dispatched five plainclothes police officers to where my family was staying, intending to arrest us and take us back to Qinglong County for persecution. We left in time and their scheme failed. We had no choice but to wander around again.

My son graduated from high school with good grades in 2011. However because of our financial state we could not afford to send him to college. He had to give up the opportunity for further study, and had to get a job.