(Minghui.org) My name is Fang Yingwen. I am a 59-year-old male Falun Gong practitioner. I was born in Shikeng Village, Longtian Town, Chaonan District, Shantou City, Guangzhou Province, and am now living at Jinlongxin Village, Shenzhen City.
I started practicing Falun Dafa (also called Falun Gong) in 1998. On January 1, 2001, I went to Tiananmen Square to speak up for Falun Dafa, but was arrested and taken to Beijing Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp, where I was detained and persecuted for two and a half years.
Nine months later, I was arrested again and taken to Shenzhen Meilin Forced Labor Camp, where I was detained and persecuted for three years. On the last day, I was transferred to the Shenzhen Brainwashing Center, where I was detained for another six months.
I was persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for six years.
On the morning of January 1, 2001, I carried with me a banner "Falun Dafa is good," and a fishing-rod flagpole with a big picture showing the characters "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance." I wore a vest with the characters “Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance” on the back when I entered Tiananmen Square.
I walked about 20 meters into the square and had not yet unfurled my banner. There I was stopped by a person wearing a green uniform. He asked me, “Are you a Falun Gong practitioner?”
"Yes.”
He immediately pushed me into a police car. I shouted "Falun Dafa is good" in the car, and the policeman struck me three times in the back with a baton.
I was taken to Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp in Beijing and told I would be there for a year and a half. Because I would not give up the practice of Dafa and firmly refused to renounce my belief, my stay was extended by a year. I was detained in the camp for a total of two and a half years.
At the time, the Falun Gong practitioners detained there were from different places and ages--elderly Beijing residents, junior high school students from Changchun, and college students from Tsinghua University. Dafa practitioners accounted for about half of the detainees.
In the early period of the persecution, I was detained in Group Two of the labor camp. One day, as soon as I finished copying Master's article “On Dafa,” Captain Li grabbed me and took it away.
He was on duty that night. He called me into his office and ordered me to sit on a long bench. He was sitting with his back against a high chair and slept. About half an hour later, he woke up. He stood up, came to my left and lashed my shoulder three times, and then returned to his chair to sleep.
Half an hour later, he woke up again and gave me another three vicious lashes on the shoulder.
Later I was transferred to Group Six. One time, an inmate ordered me to sit on a stool, while he sat opposite to me. He kicked my calves hard and repeatedly.
He tortured me like this for seven days. My legs were injured and bloody. I walked lamely and couldn't stand still. The captain laughed at me and asked me why I walked like that.
One time I asked to use the restroom, but the inmate who kept close watch on me gave me a hard time and pushed me underneath the bed for two hours before allowing me to urinate. I went a hunger strike for seven days to protest.
While I was being held at Beijing Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp, I recited Master's poems from Hong Yin and articles from Essentials for Further Advancement every day. I was free of illness. I had a fever only once, but I was fine three days later. During the two and a half years in the labor camp, I didn't spend one cent on medical expenses.
There were ten other practitioners who were also given extended terms of detainment because of their firm belief in Dafa. They were practitioners from Guangdong, Beijing, Shanghai, Fujian, and other regions.
One practitioner shouted “Falun Dafa is good” while he was walking, though his arms were being held by two inmates. He did this for more than ten days.
I was detained in Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp for two and a half years and released on June 30, 2003. I returned home to Shenzhen on June 30, 2003.
In April 2004, when I arrived at home, my son told me that police officers from Futian, Shenzhen, came and told me to meet them at the police station. I went, and later the police ransacked my home. They arrested me and took my Dafa books.
I was taken to Shenzhen Meilin Detention Center, where I was detained for seven days. I sat on the ground with both legs crossed to send forth righteous thoughts. They transferred me to another cell when they saw me.
The cell head there had a dragon tattoo. He punched and kicked me every day. I withstood this for two months until I couldn't suffer his violence anymore. One day I shouted “Falun Dafa is good” and “the Fa rectifies the cosmos; the evil is completely eliminated."
On the following day, I was taken to Meilin Forced Labor Camp in Shenzhen, where I was held for three years.
During the two and a half years while I was detained in Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp, with family savings and help from friends, my two daughters were able to continue their studies.
While at Meilin Forced Labor Camp, however, I ran out of savings and my wife had no job, so we had no money for our daughters to continue their studies.
I wrote a letter to my family and told them that Falun Dafa is the Buddha Fa and it's not wrong for me to have a firm belief in Dafa. I told my daughters to make a living on their own. One daughter was studying in a vocational school and the other in junior high school.
One time when I was reciting the Fa at the labor camp, inmates saw my lips moving and called Captain Li to handle the situation. The captain tied me to a metal chair with tape, then tied me and the chair to a pole.
I kept on reciting the Fa. When he saw my lips still moving, Captain Li taped my mouth shut and left only my nose for breathing. I closed my eyes while I was tied up like that for more than an hour.
At the labor camp, I refused to report at entry or exit, refused to greet the captain as ordered, speak, answer questions, renounce Dafa, or sign any agreement. I suffered several beatings because I refused to respond to the captain when he called the roll. The police often handcuffed me to the metal railing and made me stand for extended periods.
Once, two policemen covered my head with a black bag so that I could not see, and then two inmates forced my hands to my side while pushing me forward. After we walked for about a hundred meters, they pushed me upstairs.
They removed the black bag when I was taken to a small bathroom. They stripped off my clothes, leaving only my underwear. They delivered two meals to me through the iron grate. I was detained inside that bathroom for 15 days.
One time, I sat on a stool and sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil. I didn't cross my legs, nor did I close my eyes or make any gesture. I did this for seven consecutive days. Whenever I had time, I sent forth righteous thoughts.
They couldn't tolerate my doing this and reported me to an officer in Group Eight. The officer instigated the inmates to beat me for a couple of days, until my right clavicle was fractured.
I reported to the captain about my injury, but he ignored me. I was in extreme pain at night. They didn't take me to the hospital for sixteen days. An examination there showed that my right clavicle was fractured.
They took me to Shenzhen Police Hospital for medical treatment. I refused to accept their medical treatment and requested to practice the Falun Gong exercises so that I could recover on my own. They refused. I was forced to undergo two surgeries.
In the last three months of detainment at the forced labor camp, I suffered more serious persecution because of my firm belief in Falun Dafa.
The police found seven inmates to keep close watch on me around the clock. Each shift was eight hours, with two inmates on duty for each shift.
When I was detained at Meilin Forced Labor Camp, 95 percent of the inmates were drug abusers. The police chose the worst inmates among them to beat me. If any inmate was able to transform a practitioner and get the practitioner's signature on the transformation agreement, that inmate would be given three months’ reduction in his term of detainment.
They forced me to sit on a square plastic stool every day and keep motionless. I was forced to sit there from 5:30 am to 2:00 am the next morning, so I was allowed only three and a half hours of sleep every day. My body was in constant pain, and each day seemed like a year.
They ordered me to remain motionless while sitting on the stool. If my hands moved even a little, they hit me; if I was not sitting straight, they hit me. Sometimes if I closed my eyes for a few seconds, they hit me.
Two inmates held sticks wrapped inside a newspaper. If my body moved a little, they would strike me in the back. I couldn't remember how many times they hit me each day. I often heard my back crack when I tried to sit up straight. I ached while walking and bending over. My back was badly injured.
One time while I was sitting on the stool and wearing only slippers, the newly-arrived officer stepped on my foot. He was wearing leather shoes. His right foot stepped heavily on my right big toe, while he was keeping his left foot in the air. He put all his weight on my toe and twisted his right foot. The nail of the right big toe came loose and I was in a lot of pain.
For a period of time, they were like demons. They pasted Master Li's picture onto the ground, put a stool on the picture and forced me to sit on it. When I refused, seven of them came together and carried me to the stool while beating me.
For another period of time, they ordered me to sit in front of a TV and forced me to watch the videos that defamed Falun Dafa. If I refused to watch it, they beat me. If my eyes were not focused on the TV, they beat me, too.
During another period of time, they forced me to listen to recordings that defamed Falun Dafa and forced me to wear an earphone. I refused to wear it. They surrounded me, grabbed my hands, held my head still, and forcibly put the earphone on me.
Deprived of sleep, I couldn't help but doze off during the day. They beat me whenever I dozed off a little. Sometimes they allowed me to stand up and walk around inside the cell. Once because I was too sleepy, I walked straight into the wall.
I was not allowed to leave my seat for a whole day. If I left my seat without their permission, they beat me. They didn't allow me to use the restroom until my pee and feces came out, then they allowed me to go to the restroom to clean myself. When I did the cleaning, they often doused me with ice cold water. They tortured me this way every day.
Ten days before my release, police brought to me an inmate, who claimed that his axe-like palms had forced about seven practitioners to give in. He said no one was able to survive his strikes, so they had to transform and sign the agreement.
They took me to the platform on the third floor. That inmate asked me if I was going to transform and sign the agreement. I ignored him. He used his right palm to strike me heavily on the left side of my face while I was sitting on a small stool. He struck me several times, knocking me down each time, but I got up each time.
Seven days before I was released, that inmate came again. He read out the transformation letter and asked me if I was going to sign it. I ignored him. Several inmates pushed me to an area where no monitoring cameras were available and gave me another beating.
As a result, my face was swollen and blistered, my gums bled, my teeth came loose, my head was painful, and I had difficulties eating. I talked to the captain and instructional officer and requested to meet the prosecutor based in the forced labor camp. I wanted to sue that inmate. They gave me excuses and prevented me from meeting the prosecutor. Eventually they told the inmate to apologize to me.
During the three years in Meilin Forced Labor Camp, I suffered tremendous pain. When I was released, I was immediately transferred to Shenzhen Brainwashing Center.
During the first several days at the brainwashing center, I told them the facts about Falun Dafa. Later I refused to speak. They couldn't deal with me and had to release me. Six months later, I returned home.
During the six years that I suffered cruel persecution, I survived the evil and safeguarded the dignity of Dafa with my righteous thoughts.
I am grateful that Dafa endowed me with an adamantine will. I will never be able to repay Buddha's boundless grace.