(Minghui.org) I am a Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa) practitioner from Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province. Because I refused to renounce my belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, I was arrested several times, blackmailed, forcibly divorced, tortured, force-fed, and sentenced to 14 years in prison by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Previous Ailments Before Practicing Falun Gong
After getting married in 1980, I was diagnosed with cancer in my uterus and ovaries, among other diseases. After an operation, the tumor grew back to the size of a goose egg. After being told that there was no hope at a local hospital, I went to a specialist tumor hospital in Beijing, where doctors confirmed the original diagnosis.
I was then diagnosed with tuberculosis. I had chest pain, which worsened when I walked a little quickly. As a result, I couldn’t walk for an entire year.
I was covered with pimples under my skin and even under my eyelids. I had a headache for which I had to inhale cannabis smoke or vapor to relieve the pain when medicines didn’t work.
My leg bone was deformed, and I couldn’t walk because of lower back pain. I had two treatments in the hospital, which didn’t work. I had to have an operation and was paralyzed for six months afterward.
My medical fees added up to more than 100,000 yuan, but my health only worsened. I was bloated and weak, unable to do anything. I was tormented by this pain for more than ten years, and my life seemed over.
May 1998: Recovering after Cultivating in Dafa
At the age of 36, on May 13, 1998, I was introduced to Falun Dafa. After four days of practicing, my body was cleansed as described by Master Li (the founder of Falun Dafa). I realized I had borne only a little of my karma, while Master had endured most of it. When I woke up in the morning, I was no longer in pain. I felt relaxed and seemed to have boundless energy. I was able to do household chores and heavier physical work.
I recovered from multiple diseases because of practicing Dafa, and Master didn’t ask for a penny from me. The principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance changed my life, and Dafa answered many questions I’d had since childhood.
My husband witnessed the changes in me and was amazed. He told everyone that my returning to good health could only be attributed to practicing Dafa. He also praised me for becoming a better, kinder person.
July 1999: Persecuted for Persisting in My Faith
On July 20, 1999, former head of the communist regime Jiang Zemin launched the brutal persecution of Falun Gong, spreading rumors, slandering the practice, and targeting a hundred million practitioners–people who would not fight back because of their belief.
The authorities ransacked practitioners’ homes, confiscated their property, and sent them to forced labor camps and prisons. At least thousands were tortured to death, and the CCP even harvested organs from living practitioners. Their families were also harassed, discriminated against, and torn apart.
May 2000: Appealing for the Right to Practice
I went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong on May 1, 2000. I was arrested doing the exercises on Tiananmen Square. The next day, three officers from Honggang Police Station in Daqing extorted 7,000 yuan from my husband to pay for escorting me back to Daqing. They stole hard-earned money from people like us to satisfy their greed. Before going on the return trip, they spent our money on sightseeing and even stayed a night at the famous tourist spot of Beidaihe.
After I was escorted back to Daqing, I was taken to Honggang Police Station and then Daqing Detention Center. Because I refused to be treated as a criminal in the detention center, I was put into a solitary confinement cell, handcuffed and shackled.
One night, my handcuffs opened, allowing me to do the Dafa exercises. When a guard saw me practicing through a surveillance camera, he tried to stop me, but I ignored him. The next day, he beat me, slammed my face into the wall, held me by my collar to kick me, and threw me to the ground.
Because I did the exercises, I was dragged several times through the corridor with shackles on my ankles. I was forced to stand with my head drooping forward as part of a torture method called “flying an airplane.” Sometimes, I was so tired that I would fall asleep while standing in that posture.
Once I was cuffed and hung up on the window in the confinement cell for a whole day, with the tips of my toes barely touching the ground and the shackles still on my ankles. I would be released for a quick meal and then hung up again.
On the sixth day of my detention, my husband came to the detention center to ask me to sign divorce papers. He was threatened that he would lose his job if he didn’t divorce me.
I was detained in Daqing Detention Center for one month, Honggang Detention House for half a month, and Shaertu District Detention House for another two months. I went on a hunger strike to protest this illegal detention. On the fifth day of my hunger strike, I was unable to walk because I had lost feeling in my hands, feet, and lower limbs.
My family was told to take me home. By then, I had been detained for nearly four months.
December 2001: Beaten After Appealing for Justice in Beijing
I went to Beijing again in December 2001 and was arrested for opening a banner on Tiananmen Square. In the Tiananmen Police Station, because I refused to provide my name and address, I was hit by a tall male policeman in his 40s. He also kicked my legs.
I didn’t hate him since he had been deceived by the CCP. I said to him, “Don’t be so upset. It’s not good for you. You’re harming yourself when you beat me.” He finally stopped and took me to another room, from which I escaped.
January 2001: Detained and Tortured for Raising Awareness of the Persecution
A fellow practitioner and I distributed informational materials about Dafa in the Hutu District in January 2001, and we were reported to the police. We were chased down by three police cars from Chengdu Police Station and arrested. I managed to hold down the driver so that the other practitioner could jump out of the car and escape.
I was taken to Chengdu Police Station and then transferred to Daqing Detention Center. It was overflowing with practitioners. Some were taken to other district detention centers, and I was taken to Datong District Detention Center.
There, I went on a hunger strike. Three days later, I was force-fed through my nose. On the ninth day of the hunger strike, I became very weak. I had a new tumor in my uterus that caused a lot of pain. I was taken to the Honggang Police Station. The head of the police station refused my mother’s request to take me home and insisted on taking me to Honggang Detention House.
I told the guard on duty there, “I have severe pain in my stomach area. If you dare to take me in, you will be responsible if I die.” They refused to admit me, and I was taken to the hospital for tests. The doctor suggested that I have surgery to remove the tumor, saying my life would be in danger otherwise. At my mother’s insistence, I was finally allowed to go home.
March to April 2001: Arrested Again and Force-Fed
I was arrested in Changchun City by undercover police and taken to the Tiebei Detention Center in Changchun. I refused to tell them my name and address and went on a hunger strike to protest the unlawful detention. Five or six inmates were ordered by guards to beat me every day.
Later, I was force-fed twice a day with concentrated saltwater. After a few days, my two front teeth were loose. I began to have blood in my stool and developed incontinence. My life was in danger. On the 33rd day of my hunger strike, I was released.
July 2001: Arrested and Tortured
In July 2001, I was arrested on Zhonglin Street, Saertu District of Daqing City by more than 10 police officers from Zhaodong County, Harbin City. I was thought to be a “key” Falun Gong practitioner and taken to the Zhaodong Police Station. I was bound to an “iron chair” in handcuffs and shackles before being interrogated.
When I refused to give my name and address, five or six officers yelled at me and started shocking me with electric batons. They forced my jaws open and shocked the inside of my mouth, as well as my face, neck, and then my entire body. I was tortured repeatedly despite having wounds all over my body. My skin was burnt and had large areas of black and purple. I couldn’t use my mouth.
These officers also placed Master’s photo under my feet and tried to force me to step on it. When I refused, they held my feet and forced them down onto the photo. They tormented me until midnight.
A male policeman in his 50s held my neck from behind and repeatedly rubbed his mouth against my head, face, and ears. He also fondled my neck, breasts, back, and thighs.
Another two officers took turns to torment me the next day. One burned me with cigarette butts. The other beat my knees with a bamboo stick, which was especially painful because my knees had already been injured by the electric shocks. They tortured me from the afternoon until the next morning.
Officers then brought in a board with rows and rows of nails sticking out of it. They threatened to make me sit on it. I told the instructors, “Stop doing evil. We Falun Gong practitioners try to be better people. I haven’t broken any laws. Don’t treat me this way. Your persecuting me isn’t good for you either.” Perhaps moved by my words, they didn’t subject me to this torture. (I later heard that a male practitioner in Harbin named Zhang Ce was forced to roll on a board of nails, and he was killed when a nail punctured his heart.)
I was taken to the Zhaodong Detention Center and went on a hunger strike. After six days, I was taken to the hospital because of pain in my stomach. They found a large tumor. I was then taken back to the detention center by two guards. When I was left alone in the surveillance room, I escaped through the open window.
I was put on a wanted list with a reward of 70,000 yuan. Once again, I had to go into hiding.
May 11, 2003: Arrested and Tortured
I was arrested by more than 10 police officers from Harbin near the No. 211 Hospital of Harbin on the afternoon of May 11, 2003. They stepped on my head to force it under the driver’s seat, almost suffocating me, and took me to the No.1 Division of the Harbin Police Department. My laptop and 1,700 yuan I had on me were confiscated and never returned.
Three or four officers put me in a small room and tied me to an iron chair. I refused to cooperate with them. They shocked me simultaneously with three electric batons and had to recharge them after they ran out of battery. The blue light from the electric batons rattled in the room. They tortured me on and off for about nine hours. My clothes were burnt into pieces, and my pants had many burn holes.
The police were not satisfied, so they wrapped a 220-volt wire on the fingers of my left hand and shocked me. The strong current penetrated my whole body, causing unbearable pain. I passed out many times and only became conscious again when they poured cold water on me. Muddleheaded, I heard an officer say, “You’re going to die. It’s not like we haven’t made others die this way before.” They tortured me for nearly an hour.
Seeing me unable to endure anymore, they removed the handcuffs and shackles and allowed me to get off the metal chair. I was barely able to stand. I was taken to another room to sign a paper. A rotund officer grabbed my collar to pull me up and then threw me to the ground. Another officer stopped him from doing it again because he thought I might die.
I was taken to the No.1 Detention Center of Harbin City the next day, May 22. I came down with a headache and vomited everything I ate. My head was buzzing from a concussion. I was detained in the No.1 Detention Center for 21 days and then transferred to No.2 Detention Center for a few days.
I was transferred to the Hailun Detention Center in Hailun City, Heilongjiang Province at the beginning of June. I was already paralyzed by then. I still had a tumor. My weight dropped from 55 kg (121 lb) to 35 kg (77 lb). I was skin and bones and on the verge of death.
I was taken to the hospital. The inmates threw my clothes away because they didn’t expect me to return from the hospital alive. I refused the operation to remove the tumor. I was taken back to the detention center 20 days later, and then they took me back to the hospital. This went on again and again.
September 2003: 14-Year Prison Sentence
I was regarded as a key Falun Gong practitioner by the Hailun City Police Department. I was charged by the Hailun City Procuratorate and sentenced to 13 years initially by Hailun City Court, before Shihua City Procuratorate and Shihua City Court added another year to the sentence.
Before I was tried in Hailun City Court, six or seven people came to the detention center and told me to sign some documents. I refused. Someone tried to forcibly hold my hand and make me sign. I warned them that they were committing a crime.
I was tried in Hailun City during September 2003. I was carried from the hospital to the courtroom. The indictment was full of fabrications. I was given a 14-year prison sentence and deprived of the right to appeal. The public security agencies in Hailun City colluded with those in Shihua City and Harbin City to frame me.
(To be continued)
