(Minghui.org) Two dedicated schoolteachers have not been allowed to return to their classrooms following their arrest last August for practicing Falun Gong.
Ms. Wei Xiujuan and her husband, Mr. Han Yongqiang, credited Falun Gong for returning them to good health and giving them a new outlook on life, contributing to their job performance. They were recognized by the school multiple times for educational excellence.
However, after the communist regime began to suppress Falun Gong, they were passed over for further promotions and awards. Their students couldn't comprehend why their beloved teachers were being punished simply for practicing Falun Gong.
After much soul-searching, Ms. Wei and Mr. Han concluded that there was nothing wrong with striving to be a good person following Falun Gong's principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. They resumed their practice, only to be arrested and detained multiple times. Their latest arrest last August resulted in the suspension of their jobs upon their release.
Ms. Wei, a 45-year-old from Jilin City, Jilin Province, is now suing former Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin for initiating the persecution of Falun Gong and destroying the once-promising careers of her and her husband. She also holds Jiang responsible for causing her and her family ongoing emotional anguish.
She mailed her complaint to the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Supreme People's Court on June 17. Receipt of both complaints was confirmed through online tracking.
Online confirmation of criminal complaint filed to Supreme People's Procuratorate
Online confirmation of criminal complaint filed to Supreme People's Court
Below are excerpts of Ms. Wei's complaint, which details what she and her husband had gone through during the past 16 years.
Falun Gong Gave Us a New Life
I used to suffer from heart disease, uterine bleeding, anemia, migraines, bronchitis, gallbladder inflammation, and arthritis. I even had thoughts of ending my own life because I was unable to cope with the suffering.
My husband had hepatitis B and was often hit with unbearable liver pain. He was emaciated.
However, our illnesses disappeared shortly after we began to practice Falun Gong in 1996.
I was happier and became a better person. My husband became much stronger and was always in a good mood. We worked diligently and were recognized as outstanding teachers in our school--Teacher's College of Beihua University.
However, both of us were detained, humiliated, subjected to brainwashing, monitored, and harassed.
Caged Overnight and Humiliated on Stage
On July 20, 1999, the day the persecution began, my husband and I went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. Our school officials were very nervous when they discovered where we had gone. They tried to get us to give up the practice. I was removed from my position as homeroom teacher.
We could not understand why Falun Gong was being persecuted, and decided to go to Beijing again to appeal for justice.
On our way to Beijing on September 6, 1999, we were intercepted in Changchun by school officials and police. We were taken back to Jilin and detained separately.
I was confined in a one-cubic-meter metal cage overnight before being taken to an auditorium near our school the next morning. A few other practitioners and I were handcuffed and forced to stand on the stage with loudspeakers blasting propaganda that defamed Falun Gong. Many teachers and students from our school were in the audience. It was an extremely humiliating experience, to say the least.
I was next taken to a detention center for 15 days. Since I refused to give up my belief, I was moved to another detention center, where I saw my husband and learned he had been detained there since our arrest. The living conditions were terrible–the steamed buns had bugs in them, and several practitioners had to share one long bed and one toilet next to it.
Misled Family Pressured Me to Give Up Falun Gong
My mother, my brother, and my father-in-law all had benefited from Falun Gong after I introduced it to them. However, because of the lies spread by the media and pressure from the government, they were all very angry at us for not giving up the practice. Before our arrest, my father-in-law came to our house and ripped up many of our Falun Gong books.
My mother, who had recovered from seizures and heart problems through practicing Falun Gong, came to visit me in the detention center. She cried and slapped me in the face in her attempt to get me to renounce Falun Gong.
I was heartbroken and under so much pressure that, against my will, I wrote the “guarantee statement” giving up the practice a month later.
Self-Criticism Sessions
After I was allowed to return to school, I was forced to criticize myself in front of all the teachers. So did my husband, who also was forced to write statements agreeing to give up Falun Gong during his detention.
The local police and school staff continued to monitor and harass us. I felt lost and ashamed of myself for not having the courage to speak the truth that the persecution of Falun Gong was wrong.
Though we were back teaching, my husband and I were not allowed to be promoted or to receive any awards, because we practiced Falun Gong. We were even taunted for our past arrest.
Resuming Our Practice
I knew that was wrong, and that human beings need a conscience. So my husband and I resumed practicing and held ourselves to a practitioner's standard.
I began to teach high school classes in 2000, and my students excelled academically under my guidance. In a teacher quality evaluation, I ranked in the top among the faculty from 19 high schools in the city.
Police Break-In
Several police officers broke into our home on the morning of August 1, 2014. I had just stepped out of the shower and had on only a thin pair of pajamas. A policeman slapped me before I was able to say a word. They pushed me down and tied my hands behind my back. I struggled and asked to put on my clothes.
When I asked again, I was slapped again, and my mouth was taped shut. One officer shouted at me while holding the book they found, Nine Commentaries on Communist Party, “Today, I will show you just how violent the Communist Party can be.” They cuffed my hands behind my back and dragged me to a bedroom.
I passed out from fear and humiliation. After I came to, I was too weak to stand. They dragged me to a police car and took me to the hospital, where they discovered I had an irregular heartbeat, angina, and high blood pressure. I was then taken to a brainwashing center. Even though I was still very weak, I had to listen to talks and watch propaganda videos that defamed Falun Gong.
Chance Encounter with My Husband
Six days later, I was taken to the detention center. On the way there, I met my husband and learned that he was seized the same day of my arrest as he headed out of our apartment building. The next day, the police took him to the brainwashing center where I was once held. The guards had shoved two lit cigarettes into his nostrils until they burned to ashes.
Since I was unable to walk to the detention center, the police ordered my husband to carry me on his back. While waiting in the hallway, I got dizzy. Half-conscious, laid my head in his lap. He carried me all the way to my cell. I knew it was torture for him to see me suffer like that.
I passed out again while being admitted to the detention center. I had no pulse and was taken to the hospital. I was released a few days later on medical parole, but my husband remained detained. The guards ordered me to pay 1,500 yuan for my medical treatment and 5,000 yuan for my bail.
Family Terrified after Losing Contact with Us
The police never notified our family of our arrests on that August day. Unable to reach us, our family went to our home and saw that it had been ransacked and was in chaos. It took them four days to find out where we were.
When they came to visit us in the brainwashing center, they were not allowed to see us. They were in anguish, not knowing our conditions.
A few days later, they were notified to pick me up from the hospital. Seeing me near death, they were heartbroken.
Although I survived, I was still fragile and constantly worried about my husband. The local police and government officials often came to my home to monitor me. I was frightened by a knock on the door or the phone ringing. When I was attending an all-hands department meeting at school at the end of 2014, the police took me away in front of all the other teachers.
My husband was sentenced to three years, with five years of probation on April 13, 2015 (meaning there would be no imprisonment if he passes the probation).
During our August arrest last year, the police looted a lot of our personal belongings, including laptops, a printer, a camcorder, a camera, desktop computers, DVD players, and several cell phones. Some of the items have not been returned.
Though my husband and I are no longer detained, we are not allowed to go back to work.
Background
In 1999, Jiang Zemin, as head of the Chinese Communist Party, overrode other Politburo standing committee members and launched the violent suppression of Falun Gong.
The persecution has led to the deaths of many Falun Gong practitioners over the past 16 years. More have been tortured for their belief and even killed for their organs. Jiang Zemin is directly responsible for the inception and continuation of the brutal persecution.
Under his personal direction, the Chinese Communist Party established an extralegal security organ, the 610 Office, on June 10, 1999. The organization overrides police forces and the judicial system in carrying out Jiang's directive regarding Falun Gong: to ruin their reputations, cut off their financial resources, and destroy them physically.
Chinese law allows for citizens to be plaintiffs in criminal cases, and many practitioners are now exercising that right to file criminal complaints against the former dictator.
