News and Events from Around the World
Facts of the Persecution
Media Coverage
Practitioners Exchange Insights and Experiences
(Clearwisdom.net) New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV) will host the first International Chinese Vocal Competition in Kaufmann Concert Hall in New York City, from October 15-17. The competition will bring more than 100 talented Chinese vocalists together, who will compete in front of a live audience in two categories - "Chinese Folk Singing" and "Bel Canto". The competition has received high remarks from many achieved vocalists around the world.
Dr. Kim Chow-Morris, a third-generation Chinese immigrant, teaches philosophy and music at Ryerson University. She highly commended NTDTV for its commitment to promoting authentic Chinese culture. She said that the competition is exciting and offers a great opportunity for second and third generation Chinese immigrants to rediscover their cultural roots.
Dr. Chow-Morris believes that one function of music is to harmonize the human being with nature and to promote communication between people. She said, "I send my greetings to the NTDTV audience and wish the best for the vocal competition. I hope that the competition will be held annually and continue to grow."
Dr. Chow-Morris is the founder of York University's Chinese Orchestra and has performed on the dizi and xiao (Chinese flutes) in many venues around the world.
Upon hearing news of the vocal competition, renowned Taiwanese-Canadian vocalist Hung-chwun Liu was very pleased. She believes that this competition will provide a good opportunity for talented young vocalists.
Renowned Taiwanese-Canadian vocalist Hung-chwun Liu
Ms. Liu said, "There are many young talents, including some of my students, but they rarely have opportunities to get known, as there are few competitions available for them to participate in. The vocal competition organized by NTDTV is great, as it provides such an opportunity. I hope people will encourage young talents around them to participate in this competition."
Hung-chwun Liu is a registered music teacher recognized by the Royal Academy of Music. Besides teaching and directing a local chorus, she is very active in local multi-cultural and charity activities.
Keith Hill, MP for Streatham, made the following speech on Thursday 11th October in the UK House of Commons.
I am very pleased to speak for the first time in more than nine years as a Back Bencher under your chairmanship, Mr. Chope. I congratulate the Foreign Affairs Committee on their excellent report and my hon. Friend the Member for Ilford, South (Mike Gapes) on his presentation of it. I do not intend to detain the House for long, partly because other hon. Members will be anxious to speak and partly because I want to raise an aspect of human rights in China. China is referred to in the report, but I am well aware that it was only six months ago that the House debated the FAC's report on east Asia in this Chamber and that China was the main focus of that debate.
The issue that I want to raise is the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China and, in particular, the horrendous allegations of the systematic and organised harvesting of their bodily organs. I raise those shocking matters at the instigation of my constituent, Ms Youyan Li, and especially after my meetings with her elderly parents. I may mention their names because they are now safely settled in Australia: Mr. Baoging Li and Mrs. Jinghang Liu. They are both Falun Gong practitioners. Both were arrested several times in China. Mrs. Liu was forcibly subjected to blood tests and other forms of medical examination, which we believe were the preliminary stages of organ harvesting.
The persecution of Falun Gong practitioners is well attested. Amnesty International reported in 2001 that the Chinese Government had adopted three strategies to crush Falun Gong: violence against practitioners who refuse to renounce their beliefs; brainwashing to force all known practitioners to abandon and denounce Falun Gong; and a media campaign to turn public opinion against Falun Gong. Manfred Nowak, the UN special rapporteur on torture, reported in 2005 on the alleged ill treatment and torture of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners. The US State Department's country report on China, for the same year, indicated that the number of Falun Gong practitioners dying in custody was estimated to be between a few hundred and a few thousand.
What is this Falun Gong that attracts such violence from the Chinese authorities? It appears to be a spiritual technique based on traditional Chinese [meditation and] exercises. It includes such exercises, plus meditation and certain moral principles derived from Buddhist and Taoist teachings. Among other things, its practitioners are guided by concepts that translate as truthfulness, benevolence and forbearance. Falun Gong is not an organised movement. It has no members, just adherents. It has no political platform. It seems to attract middle-aged, middle class people rather like my constituent's parents, both retired and both former award-winning scientists.
Why, then, is the repression of Falun Gong so violent--so particularly virulent? The answer is perhaps twofold. First, there is the scale of the movement. By 1999, when President Jiang Zemin outlawed Falun Gong and set up the notorious 610 office to lead the repressions, the number of practitioners ran into the millions. In Beijing alone, there were more than 2,000 practice stations. Secondly, its value system--truth, tolerance, forbearance--was presumably seen as a challenge to the corrupt and ideologically bankrupt Chinese Communist party.
Will Hutton, in The Writing on the Wall, his new and rather good book
on China, writes:
"Although the Falun Gong is regarded in the west as a harmless creed
that should not be persecuted, its attraction and threat must not be
underestimated. It is seen by both the party and many of its adherents as
offering an idealism that the party lacks."
Nevertheless, the case remains that Falun Gong is just a value system and a way of living. Its persecution by the Chinese authorities is quite indefensible, as is the entire record of Chinese human rights abuse against Tibetans, Christians, Uighurs, democracy activists and human rights defenders. However, the charge against the Chinese Government of the mistreatment of Falun Gong practitioners is more serious still. It is the charge of harvesting healthy organs to supply a transplant industry that has expanded greatly in China in recent years and been enormously lucrative for the hospitals and surgeons practising in it.
I wish to acknowledge the work of two Canadians, David Matas and David Kilgour, whose reports on allegations of the organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners in China, published in July 2006 and January 2007, will form the main source material of most of my subsequent remarks. In May 2006, David Kilgour interviewed a woman using the pseudonym Annie, who said that her surgeon husband had told her that he had personally removed the corneas of approximately 2,000 an aesthetised Falun Gong prisoners in Sujiatun hospital in Shenyang City, in north-east China, during the two years before October 2003, at which point he refused to continue. The surgeon made it clear to his wife that none of the cornea "donors" survived, because other surgeons removed other vital organs and all the bodies were then cremated.
Annie, it should be emphasised, is not a Falun Gong practitioner. Indeed, it has been put to me that for many, if not most, Falun Gong practitioners, the most direct evidence of the practice of organ harvesting comes from a non-Falun Gong source. For obvious reasons, there is a veil of silence over the practice: the dead cannot speak and neither can their families, because it appears that large numbers of Falun Gong prisoners decline to identify themselves in order to protect their families. Members of that population of unidentified prisoners can therefore simply disappear without anyone outside the prison system being any the wiser. And who, among the surgeons and medical staff, would admit participation in the transplants of organs from the living bodies of Falun Gong prisoners, particularly considering that many operations are carried out in military hospitals by surgeons wearing military uniforms, their silence reinforced by military discipline?
According to public reports, in the six years before the ban on Falun Gong in 1999, the number of transplants in China averaged 3,000 a year. In the six years from 2000 to 2005, they averaged 10,000 a year. Where did the increase come from? Not from family donors--there appears to be a deep cultural aversion in China to organ donation. It is estimated that at least 98 per cent of organs for transplants come from non-family sources. Nor did the increase come from executed criminals. China, of course, executes more criminals than the rest of the world put together. There are still more than 90 capital offences, including political and economic crimes in which there has been no violence. The Chinese Government have themselves acknowledged the use of prisoners sentenced to death as a source of organs for transplants.
The use of capital punishment and the harvesting of the organs of executed criminals--obviously without their consent--are both to be condemned wholeheartedly, but they do not explain the increase in the number of transplant operations since 1999. According to tabulations based on Amnesty International reports, the average number of executed criminals in each of the six years to 1999 was 1,680; in the six years from 2000 to 2005 it was 1,616. There has to be another source. The increase cannot be explained by improvements in technology, because the Chinese were perfectly able to do transplants in the 1990s. It is true that there has been a big new investment in transplant centres. There were only 22 liver transplant centres operating in China before 1999, and there were 500 in mid-April 2006. That investment expanded capacity, but it did not expand the source, nor does it explain why the websites of Chinese hospitals have been able to advertise waiting times for kidney transplants of one, two or at most four weeks. By contrast, the average waiting time is 27 months in the UK and just over three years in the United States.
The Canadian investigators, Matas and Kilgour, were unable to visit China. However, they used Mandarin speakers to call hospitals and transplant doctors and ask about transplants. Sometimes the callers were referred to prisons or courts. I wish to quote a passage from the report. It states:
"In early June, 2006, an official at the Mishan city detention centre told a telephone caller that the centre then had at least five or six male Falun Gong prisoners under 40 years of age available as organ suppliers. A doctor at Shanghai's Zhongshan hospital in mid March of 2006 said that all of his organs come from Falun Gong practitioners. A doctor at Qianfoshan hospital in Shandong in March implied that he then had organs from Falun Gong persons and added that in April there would be 'more of these kinds of bodies...' In May, Dr. Lu of the Minzu hospital in Nanning city said organs from Falun Gong practitioners were not available at his institution and suggested the caller call Guangzhou to get them. He also admitted that he earlier went to prisons to select healthy Falun Gong persons in their 30s to provide their organs."
There are only two kinds of witnesses of organ harvesting, but the victims die and what remains of their bodies is burned, and the perpetrators are unlikely to confess. However, I am convinced that there is sufficient evidence to establish a strong case that organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners exists.
I conclude by referring to the experiences of my constituent's mother, Mrs. Jinghang Liu. She is 66 years of age and was arrested six times and sentenced to three years' imprisonment. She is now an Australian citizen. In August this year, she wrote to Prime Minister Howard to ask him to raise the issue of the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners when he met President Hu Jintao at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit. Mrs Liu wrote:
"In the end of 2000, I was taken to the prison hospital along with four other Falun Gong practitioners. We were forced to take medical examinations under the threats of electrical batons. The exams were comprehensive, including blood, X-ray, urine and optical tests. At that time, I wondered about the purpose of the exams because it obviously was not driven by concern about Falun Gong practitioners' health. But I just couldn't figure it out. During my detention, I also witnessed a large number of Falun Gong practitioners who refused to give personal details."
She wrote that they "were numbered and transferred to unknown places. One day a young female practitioner who was in the same cell with me was called out. She never came back. She had a fair and pretty face with long braids. She was an artist."
In July 2006, a law banning the sale of organs in China came into effect. Since the publication of the Matas and Kilgour reports last year and this, it appears that the number of transplants has come down significantly. However, we have reason to believe that the practice of organ harvesting continues; if it does not, it is for the Chinese authorities to prove that that is the case. They should allow independent, third-party investigations in China and I very much hope that the British Government will press for that in their discussions with the Chinese authorities. Let us be clear: harvesting the organs of unwilling donors is a crime against humanity and it is for the Chinese to take action to end this evil. The repression, imprisonment and mistreatment of Falun Gong practitioners should also cease. I hope that, in their dialogue with the Chinese on human rights, Ministers will press for an end to that persecution.
Source http://clearharmony.net/articles/200710/41619.html
(Clearwisdom.net) On October 10, 2007, Falun Gong practitioners in Jiayi held a one-day group Fa study and experience sharing meeting at Boai Primary School during the National Day holiday. Group study and experience sharing is held once every two months in Jiayi. In the morning, the practitioners studied Master's scriptures in small groups on campus. In the afternoon, the practitioners gathered in the middle porch to share their experiences in cultivation and truth-clarification, for their mutual improvement.
In the experience sharing, a practitioner said that his family of four all practice Falun Gong. When talking about changes in his wife after practicing Falun Gong, he exclaimed, "I witnessed the marvelousness of Dafa! My wife suffered an illness without a name, which doctors temporarily named, 'chronic blood degradation'. Neither Western nor Chinese medicine could treat it. Before surgery, she got to know about Falun Gong from a friend. She read the whole book Zhuan Falun in one night. Her 'chronic blood degradation' was then gone - it was a miracle."
In talking about phoning mainland China to clarify the truth, many practitioners said that it was the best way to get rid of the attachment of fear and to cultivate endurance. One practitioner said that he was a person with an introverted character. When he was young, he used to hide whenever a guest came. After practicing Falun Gong, his wife encouraged him to call mainland China to explain the facts about Falun Gong, but he could not pick up the phone. Later he enlightened to the understanding that it was interference from evil factors. For the first time, he picked up phone and read a pre-written draft. On the other side, the listener agreed to quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He gained confidence to continue truth-clarification.
Later, many practitioners came to his home to call China together. He felt that group truth-clarification has a better effect. He said that it was most important to keep up the effort to call people in China to clarify the truth. Otherwise, after one or two days without calling, the pursuit of comfort would come and delay the opportunities for saving sentient beings.
This practitioner also enlightened to the understanding that making phone calls to clarify the truth is a part of cultivation. He said, "Your cultivation state can be reflected in the calls. It is an opportunity to look inward and get rid of attachments." He encouraged other fellow practitioners with his own experience: "When the phone rings, it can eliminate evil factors in the other dimension."
Another practitioner mentioned feedback from fellow practitioners in mainland China. Many people said they accepted calls from overseas. The calls can improve the success of truth-clarification efforts of mainland practitioners. The practitioner said, "You explain the facts. If the other party does not accept it, don't be disheartened. Your call eliminates some of evil factors behind the other party. Another practitioner's call to that same person will have a similar effect. At last, he or she becomes clear and quits the CCP. The process is a manifestation of our integrated body."
Before the end of the experience sharing, a practitioner said that studying the Fa well is the basis of saving sentient beings. When all practitioners across the world form one body, the world's people will be able to know the facts about Falun Gong and the CCP's brutal persecution will be fully exposed.
(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Wang Yuhuan, a Falun Gong practitioner from Changchun City, Jilin Province was arrested along with many other fellow practitioners on May 9, 2007. The police informed her family of her death in the evening of October 9.
Wang Yuhuan had passed away at Changchun City Central Hospital two weeks before the police notice on September 24.
Wang Yuhuan was a kind woman in her 60s who did not have much education. She was arrested a dozen times by the Changchun police over the past eight years. She was once tortured on the Tiger Bench for three days and two nights, until her anklebones were exposed from the constant grinding of the shackles and the tendons in her arms were torn through repeated beatings. The police shocked her face with electric batons, burned her eyes with cigarettes, and stabbed her ears with bamboo sticks, causing injuries all over her body. She and some other women Falun Gong practitioners were stripped naked and tied to wooden boards with their arms and legs spread out for 26 days, during which male guards and inmates humiliated and insulted them.
Officials from the Jilin Province Public Security Department, Changchun City Police Department and Erdao District Police Department launched a large-scale assault against Falun Gong practitioners who were holding an experience-sharing conference on May 9, 2007. They arrested 38 practitioners, including Wang Yuhuan and Feng Liping, and searched various districts within the city. They ransacked many homes and arrested other practitioners. It is estimated that around 70 practitioners were arrested, and many others went into exile to avoid further persecution.
The practitioners were taken to six police departments in Erdao District, Changchun City: Dongsheng Road Police Station, Heshun Police Department, Jilin Street Police Station, Dongzhan Police Department, and Rongguang Road Police Station. More than 50 practitioners were taken to the No 3 Detention Center at 8:30 p.m. on May 12. Practitioner Feng Liping suffered serious injuries on one arm due to beatings; he can move his arm only within a very limited range. He is currently held at the police hospital, and his mother is being forced to pay 300 yuan a month. Feng Liping was once taken to a secret base to be brutally tortured. It is unknown who is responsible for the arrest and torture, but the Changchun City National Security Bureau is likely the culprit.
Below is Wang Yuhuan's own account of the gross abuse she suffered, provided in 2005.
"It is hard to believe such atrocities can happen if you have not seen it yourself. In the forced labor camp, the guards sold our bed to other inmates for 2,000 yuan per bed per month. In a big room, the beds are on a very long and wide bench, and all the inmates sleep on the bench parallel to each other. Each bed is a section on the big bed with enough room for one person to sleep. There were many more inmates and practitioners than the number of beds available. Inmates who bought a bed could lie down facing up; others have to be on their sides, tightly packed against each other when sleeping. Those who bought beds were allowed to beat practitioners. When more inmates bought beds, less room was left for practitioners, and they were packed against each other even more tightly. In August 2000, I was sent to Heizuizi Forced Labor Camp, where I had to work for 18 hours a day, making products for export. The guards tried to "reform" me. They forced me to write reports about what was on my mind. When I refused, they ordered inmates to beat me. Guard Sun Mingyan from the No. 6 Group sat on my head and tortured me with an electric baton, burning the skin on my face and scalp. Sun also beat my face and body. I was badly injured and had swelling all over my body. Around December 2000, I was transferred to the No. 2 Group, where guards forced me to move electric generators, which is hard physical labor and injured my muscles. By November 2001,when I was released, I still could not hold a bowl because of the injuries I suffered. Before releasing me, staff from the 610 Office made me pay 2,000 yuan.
The 610 Office ordered a massive manhunt in Changchun City on March 5, 2002 because practitioners clarified the truth by tapping into the cable TV network. The persecutors arrested about 5,000 practitioners. Each cell in the detention centers held over 50 practitioners -- even the restrooms were used to detain practitioners. On March 11, 2002, police from the No. 1 Division of Changchun City police arrested me and put me inside an iron cage in a police station near Caishenmiao, Nanguan District. The iron cage was about 1.3 meter high (about 4 feet), so I could not stand up straight. On the evening of March 12, 2002, policemen Gao Peng and Zhang Heng interrogated me. They handcuffed my hands behind my back and covered my head and neck with a canvas bag. The bag opening was tied with a rope tightly around my neck. I could not see, and breathing became difficult. Then they tied me up tightly and threw me into the trunk of a car. I was driven to a place in the mountains near Jingyuetan. It was a place designated for torturing practitioners, and where many practitioners were tortured to death. Mr. Liu Haibo, a practitioner and a college graduate, was tortured to death at that place. They stripped off all his clothes and forced him to kneel. Then the guards inserted an extra-long electric baton deeply into his anus, shocking his internal organs and killing him.
Mr. Liu Yi, a doctor who worked in Luyuan District Hospital, was also tortured to death there. As far as I know, twenty-three practitioners were tortured to death here. I know the names of many of them. They were buried in a big pit nearby. A pretty female practitioner, Ms. Xiang Min, told me after she was carried back to the detention center that the guards sexually assaulted her while shocking her. Nearly 30 practitioners were tortured to death after the massive manhunt in Changchun City."
2. Tied Up Naked in Bed and Humiliated for Over Two Months
Wang Yuhuan said: "Police took me to this mountain. After more than two hours of driving the car stopped. Several police officers pulled me along and kept beating me. I just staggered along. I was continuously thrown against a tree and the police told me frequently that they would kill me today. After more than ten minutes of walking, we entered a building and then walked for a little until we reached a room. The police took the canvas bag off my head and said: "Prepare yourself to die today, nobody walks out of here!" I was in a small room of about six square meters. There was a small table, which held three long electric batons with claws, a rope and a bed. The bed was for police to rest, but they still continued to curse at us when they were tired from the beatings. There was also a tiger bench, and policemen were getting things ready to torture practitioners.
Then, several policemen pressed me down on the tiger bench, cuffed my hands and tied them behind my back. Then they put my arms on the back of the tiger bench, my chest and abdomen were tightly fixed by two steel clubs that crossed the bench, and my feet were held rigid by two big steel hoops. Then police began to brutally torture me, repeating the torture every five minutes. Every time, they pulled my arms forwards and backwards, and I heard the sound of my bones and tendons cracking. I almost fainted from the excruciating pain. The floor was wet from my sweat and tears. They pressed my head towards the hip, because steel clubs fixed my chest and abdomen to the bench, and I felt as if my neck was going to break. I felt excruciating pain in my chest and abdomen because of the steel clubs holding me in place. I constantly felt as if I was going to suffocate. They also tied a rope to the hoops that were fixed to my ankles and pulled the hoops, causing unbearable pain to my ankles. At the same time, other police officers pressed my head down towards the hip. The pain made me tremble violently.
This cruel torture was repeated every five minutes. My sweat, tears and blood soaked my hair and clothes and the unbearable suffering caused me to faint over and over again. They poured cold and boiling water on me to bring me to. The hot water burned my already injured skin.
After they tortured me with the tiger bench method for over four hours, I was close to death. They put a metal bucket on my head. Seven police officers smoked three cigarettes each and blew the smoke into the bucket for more than an hour. I choked and fainted many times. They again brought me to with cold water. Before I was completely clear-headed, they burned my eyelids with cigarettes butts. The pain was indescribable. I struggled and moved. After they were bored with this torture, they punched me in the head and face. My nose and mouth bled. I lost two of my front teeth, and my face was swollen, turning purple-black. They also perforated my eardrums with thin bamboo sticks. I was deaf for half a month. They went to sleep at 2 a.m., as they were tired from torturing me.
During the 17-day detention in March 2002, I was taken to this torture place three times. Each time the torture was worse than before. During the final two times, they took me at midnight from the cell. Every time seven to eight police officers came to my cell to take me to the place of torture. They took me back to the cell when I was near death. As the police didn't want others to see my injuries and blood from the torture, they dressed me in a very thick sweater and pants, but the blood soaked through the clothes. Then the police dressed me with thicker clothes, but the blood still soaked through. Due to the terrible atmosphere and worries about fellow practitioners, many practitioners could not sleep at night. The practitioners who were on the blacklist of the 610 Office were "interrogated" daily. We were tied up and a plastic bag was placed over our heads. Our hands were tied behind the back before the police put us in a car. They drove to the mountain, where we were tortured.
After I was tortured, my health condition was precarious. No. 3 Detention Center was deceived into accepting me the following day. I was taken to the provincial hospital and Military No. 3 hospital for a check-up. The doctor said that my entire body was injured. In the afternoon, Guo Shuaishuai and I were taken to the prison hospital for further persecution. As soon as we entered the hospital, they tied us to a bed and injected unknown drugs into us. My legs are still numb. I have no feelings when they are pinched and my feet are always cold. Guo Shuaishuai was force-fed for over two months without the tubes being taken out between sessions. She was in unbearable pain. Dafa practitioner Jiang Yong, who had been arrested at the same time, died from the torture in June or July. Jiang Yong was injected with an unknown drug. Daily they took a large blood sample. Jiang Yong became extremely weak and emaciated, and she died from the brutal force-feeding. We saw with our own eyes the inhuman process of a person being tortured to death! Guo Shuaishuai felt that the force-feeding was too painful, so she swallowed the rubber tube, which was 1.5 meters long. The stomach pain made her roll on the bed, and the prison doctor was afraid that Guo Shuaishuai would give evidence to the outside. Thus, they tormented her even more cruelly.
The police and male prisoners looked at our naked bodies daily and tortured us unmercifully. One of the prison doctors touched Guo Shuaishuai's private areas, although she was suffering terribly. Guo Shuaishuai swallowed a small spoon, so the doctor operated to remove it. He made an incision from the chest to below the abdomen and took out the spoon. They stitched up the incision and sent her home, because she was at death's door. Guo Shuaishuai's body and mind have still not recovered.
Zhao Xiaoqin, who entered the prison hospital with me, fainted from the beating by 610 Office staff. They threw her down the stairs. She still can't talk and became demented. There was a big lump the size of a bowl on her head and her left arm was broken. After she was thrown down the stairs, she was taken to the prison hospital for further persecution. In the hospital, the doctor put a cast on her arm. This cast was not removed or cleaned during the entire summer. Her arm began to fester, and there were maggots on her arm. She became mentally disturbed and only laughed and cried without reason. I witnessed many inhuman atrocities. All of the women were tied to a hard board naked, with the limbs separated widely, for 26 days. We suffered unbelievable humiliation by the police, prison doctors and male prisoners!
Because I refused to give up Falun Gong, they decided to send me to the No. 3 Detention Center. However, the detention center refused to accept me, because they felt that I was near death. The police did not know what to do. They punched and kicked me, hung me from an iron door in the detention center for five to six hours, and then took me to the prison hospital for persecution. After I returned to the hospital, I went on a 50-day hunger strike. The doctor opened up a vein with a knife, knotted one side of the blood vessel and tied it off. He put a needle into the other side, so blood poured on the ground and bed. My legs were badly swollen, and my feet started to become gangrened. The prison doctor said that my left leg was doomed. I was injected with over ten bottles of unknown fluid daily and nobody took care of me. I relieved myself in the bed and my body was soaked in urine for dozens of days. The suffering was indescribable. When they gave me milk fluid intravenously, because I was on hunger strike they had problems with my blood vessels. The surgeon shook the transfusion tube in his hand a few times, and then forced it into the blood vessel. The pain was excruciating and I fainted several times."
Phone numbers of individuals and work units responsible for persecution:
No 3 Detention Center in Changchun City: located in Sheling Town, Shuangyang District, 011-86-431-4162709 (main switchboard)
Gao Yi: head of the detention center, 011-86-431-4162709 ext. 8041,
011-86-431-4162701 (office)
Wei: head of the detention center: 011-86-431-4162701 (office),
011-86-13804466391 (mobile), 011-86-431-8710519 (home)
Wang Jiachen: political secretary, 011-86-431-4162709 ext. 8042,
011-86-13009000080 (mobile), 011-86-431-5652688 (home)
Li Xiandong: head of Health and Safety Section
Watchdog Hotline at No 3 Detention Center: 011-86-431-2072614
Erdao District government in Changchun City: 011-86-431-4643181
Party secretary: 011-86-431-4647383
Dang Hongyan: head of 610 Office, 011-86-431-6161508 (home)
Wang Liguo: Party secretary at "610 Office", 011-86-431-4657810
Jiang Xiaojun: "610 Office"
(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Wang Yangfang is a retired employee of the No. 7 People's Hospital in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, where she was the supervising doctor of Chinese medicine. She is 65 and began practicing Falun Gong in 1997. Before practicing Falun Gong, she suffered from a difficult and complicated illness called "steaming bone syndrome"(1), which was considered incurable. She also suffered from alopecia, stomach trouble, arthritis, heart disease, osteomalacia (2), insomnia, anemia, arteriosclerosis, and bleeding in her left eye. Not long after she began practicing Falun Gong, all of her illnesses were eliminated. When she went to the health center at work, the doctor asked her, "Your skin is so nice. Have you had plastic surgery? Ms. Wang told the doctor that the changes in her skin occurred because she practiced Falun Gong.
However, after the persecution of Falun Gong started in 1999, Ms. Wang Yangfang was detained, sentenced to forced labor, monitored in her daily life, harassed, and tortured.
1. Detained and Sentenced to Forced Labor in 1999
On June 20, 1999 Jiang Zemin's regime started using many methods and every type of media to slander and persecute Falun Gong. On that day Ms. Wang Yangfang and many other practitioners went to the Sichuan Provincial Government to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. Before the persecution of Falun Gong started, Ms. Wang and some other practitioners wrote a letter stating the benefits they had received from practicing Falun Gong. Later the Yulin Police Station used this letter as an excuse to persecute Ms. Wang.
At the end of 1999, Ms. Wang went to Beijing to validate the Fa but was arrested by police officers from the Qianmen Police Station in Tiananmen Square. Afterwards, she was handed over to the Sichuan Provincial Office in Beijing and interrogated. The police took 200 yuan from her, which was all she had at the time. They subjected her to sleep deprivation and severe torture. Ms. Wang was then taken back to Yulin, Chengdu City. She was held at the Jiuru Village Detention Center for 15 days.
Upon returning home, Ms. Wang's work unit detained her in a meeting room and ordered her to "confess." Her friends tried to persuade her to give up her cultivation practice. They told her that "the weak cannot contend with the strong." A police officer asked her if she still wanted to practice Falun Gong. She replied resolutely, "Yes, I do!" As a result she was again detained at the Jiuru Village Detention Center for 15 days. Shortly after she was released, another young policeman from the Yulin Police Station demanded that she quit the cultivation practice while interrogating her. Ms. Wang clarified the facts about Falun Gong to him. She told him that practitioners use the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" as their standards to live by and were all striving to become better people. After practicing Falun Gong, their illnesses disappeared. The head of the police station with the surname of Xue asked her again, "Do you still want to practice? Will you still go to Beijing to appeal?" Ms. Wang clearly told her that she would not give up Falun Gong. Without being allowed to say anything more, Ms. Wang was taken to the Lianhua Village Detention Center, where she was held for a month.
According to incomplete statistics, in the Yulin Residential Area alone, more than 20 practitioners have been arrested or detained. Approximately eighteen practitioners have been sentenced to forced labor camps. Several practitioners clarified the truth to Police Chief Xue, and she admitted that she suffered from headaches due to persecuting Falun Gong. Later in 2003, she was transferred to Wuhou Police Department and assigned other duties.
Ms. Wang was detained at the Lianhua Village Detention Center for a month. Since she continued to practice the Falun Gong exercises and refused to renounce her beliefs, she was transferred to the Jingxia Street Transfer Center, where she was detained for over 10 days. She was there in February 2000, which meant that she spent the Chinese New Year in the center. Later she was transferred to Nanmusi Forced Labor Camp in Zizhong City, where she was held for a year.
At Nanmusi Forced Labor Camp, Ms. Wang was sent to the No. 3 Division. The head of the division was a woman named Zhan, and her deputy was a woman named Wang. From March to July the detained practitioners continuously clarified the facts to the police officers. However, the officers refused to listen. They didn't allow the practitioners to do the exercises or study the Fa. The practitioners did the sitting meditation and went on a hunger strike in protest of the mistreatment. They were then forced to do excessive manual labor. In July 2000 the forced labor camp brought all of the practitioners from several divisions together to undergo brainwashing.
While detained at the forced labor camp, Ms. Wang suffered from inhuman torture. She was not allowed to sleep, and in the summer she was forced to stand under the scorching sun for hours or stand facing a wall all day long (called holding the "army corps" position). She was not allowed to use the toilet, shower, brush her teeth, or drink water. Whenever the guards found her practicing the exercises, they would beat her with a spiked club. One day a guard from the security division beat Ms. Wang very badly.
The guards tried to force her to write three statements renouncing Falun Gong or a confession. She was also followed by personal monitors wherever she went. The head of the forced labor camp with the surname of Wu tried to deceive her into renouncing Falun Gong but failed.
2. Ms. Wang Was Harassed and Persecuted by the Yulin Neighborhood Committee in 2000
In July 2000, a group of former practitioners who had turned against Dafa was invited to the forced labor camp to brainwash practitioners. Because Ms. Wang had been under severe pressure for a long time, both her mental and physical health were devastated. In addition, she still had a lot of attachments. As a result, she did things against her conscience and was released in October, 2000.
After returning home, the Yulin Neighborhood Committee often harassed her and tried to force her to give up Falun Gong. They also forced Ms. Wang to report to the judicial office and the comprehensive administration office every day. At the time, the head of the judicial office was a woman named Liu. The people in charge often called Ms. Wang to their offices for "chats" and tried to force her to give up Falun Gong. They also threatened to send Ms. Wang back to the forced labor camp. Ms. Wang clarified the truth to them but they wouldn't listen and slandered Dafa.
One year later, both of these officials were replaced . The new director of the comprehensive office Jiang Lin called Ms. Wang to the office many times and pressured her to quit her practice of Falun Gong. When he found that Ms. Wang was as firm as ever with her belief in Falun Gong, he continued to slander Dafa and escalated the persecution in the area. They arranged for Director of the Yulin Neighborhood Committee Zhou Wenshun and two others to monitor her.
3. Arrested and Sent to a Brainwashing Center in 2001
In May 2001, the Yunlin Neighborhood Committee locked Ms. Wang and other local practitioners who refused to give up Falun Gong in a meeting room and subjected them to brainwashing. Officers from the Yunlin Police Station guarded the door and forced the practitioners to watch video programs that slandered Falun Gong. All of the practitioners turned their heads away and refused to watch. The officers tried to force the practitioners to sign a statement promising not to practice the exercises, not to go to Beijing to appeal, and not to associate with other practitioners. Some of the practitioners' family members helped to persuade them to sign the statement. Eventually, only eight practitioners refused to cooperate with the evildoers and remained determined not to sign the statement. They began a hunger strike to protest their illegal detention.
In the evening, the staff at the Yulin Neighborhood Committee quietly transferred all of the remaining practitioners to another place. On the following day these practitioners continued the hunger strike. In the afternoon, the authorities summoned the practitioners' family members and threatened them in front of the practitioners to apply more pressure. However, Ms. Wang was very firm and unaffected by this tactic. In the evening, the head of the neighborhood committee and several officials tried to force the practitioners to give up one by one. Ms. Wang was taken to an office where there were about 14 people including the Party Secretary, a director of the Comprehensive Administration Office with the surname of Zhang, head of the police station with the surname of Liu, and a person with the surname of Duan. They used threats and other methods to try to force Ms. Wang to cooperate with them. Ms. Wang remained unmoved, and she kept reciting the Fa. At midnight Ms. Wang still remained firm, which flabbergasted those officials. Finally Chen Zhiming, Party Secretary of the neighborhood committee, called Ms. Wang into another office and asked her, "Can you promise not to practice Falun Gong and not to go to Beijing?" Ms. Wang answered, "I will determine what I should or should not do." That night, Ms. Wang was released and the brainwashing efforts fell apart.
4. Ms. Wang Was Illegally Arrested in 2002 and Tortured
At about 9 p.m. on November 15, 2002, when Ms. Wang went to the bicycle
parking lot at the No. 7 Hospital in Chengdu City to pick up her bike, she was
grabbed by the hospital security guards, including guard Li Xiaohua and her
husband Zhang Nan. Ms. Wang was taken to the Zhimin Road Police Station in Wuhou
District. Other guards confiscated Ms. Wang's watch, handbag, and bicycle. At
the Zhimin Road Police Station, a policewoman searched Ms. Wang. Then a dozen or
so policemen from the Zhimin Road and Yulin police stations, the Huhou Police
Department (headed by Secretary Zhang of the Huhou Political and Judiciary
Commission), and Party Secretary Chen of Yulin Police Station ransacked Ms.
Wang's home. They confiscated Teacher's portrait, a copy of Zhuan Falun,
and some truth-clarification materials. During the process Ms. Wang's daughter
asked to see a search warrant, but they could not produce one.
After ransacking the house, they forced Ms. Wang to go with them. When Ms. Wang
did not go willingly, her hands were handcuffed behind her back and a large
policeman pulled on the cuffs to lift her up, almost breaking Ms. Wang's wrists
and causing excruciating pain. Ms. Wang was detained at Zhimin Road Police
Station and suffered severe torture there. In the evening she was handcuffed to
a chair that was next to a sewage ditch. Her feet could not touch the ground and
she was not allowed to sleep. During the day she was not allowed to eat. At 9
o'clock on the following morning two guards named Zhang and Wu Bo approached Ms.
Wang. Guard Zhang told Ms. Wang that they were going to take her picture. Ms.
Wang said, "We are all good people, so I refuse to have my picture taken
like a common criminal." Guard Zhang became furious. He grabbed Ms. Wang's
head with both hands and pushed her to the ground. As a result Ms. Wang could
not see out of her left eye while she was at Chengdu Detention Center in Pixian
County. The photo was not taken.
On November 16, 2002 Ms. Wang Yangfang was arrested on criminal charges by the Huhou District Police Sub-department, Chengdu City Police Department. She was sent to Chengdu Detention Center in Pixian County, where she was tortured both physically and mentally. She was subjected to sleep deprivation and forced to do excessive hard labor until 2 to 3 in the morning.
On December 5, 2002, Ms. Wang was formally arrested by the Huhou District Police Sub-department of the Chengdu City Police Department
One night in January 2003, the inmates covered Ms. Wang's head with clothing and then beat her up, while the other practitioners were asleep. Four practitioners in the cell were beaten in this manner.
During her detention at the Chengdu Detention Center, Ms. Wang developed the symptoms of high blood pressure (systolic pressure of 230 mm Hg), heart disease, and elevated intraocular pressure. Her eyes were red and swollen. Policeman Zhang from Zhimin Road Police Station pressed on her temples and the prison doctor Fu didn't treat her at that time. As a result, Ms. Wang could not see out of her left eye. She asked to go to the hospital for treatment, but Fu did not agree to let her go. Only when her illness became acute and she began to vomit did the guard ask the other practitioners to help take Ms. Wang to the prison clinic. A male guard accompanied them and watched the doctor check Ms. Wang's eye, measure her blood pressure, listen to her heart, and prescribe medication. The doctor told Ms. Wang, "Ask Doctor Fu to take you to Chengdu No. 3 People's Hospital for a follow-up assessment."
On March 3, 2003, a physical examination showed that her left eye had final stage glaucoma, and her blood pressure went as high as 230 mm Hg. The eye drops prescribed by the doctor actually made her eyes feel worse--even more painful and swollen than before. Ms. Wang asked the prison doctor Fu and the guards many times to take her to an outside hospital for treatment. However, they lied and told her that it was the Zhimin Road Police Station and the Procuratorate that did not allow her to get outside treatment. Ms. Wang learned later that the Yulin Neighborhood Committee and Jiang Lin, the Director of the Comprehensive Administrative Office, also tried very hard to stop her from being released. Ms. Wang went on a hunger strike to protest her situation. Twenty days later, she was emaciated and too weak to talk. When the patrolling guards passed by, a practitioner reported the situation to them. Ms. Wang was then rushed to the hospital for treatment for dehydration. At the time she thought of Teacher's words:
"The meridians will ... eventually connect to become one large whole. At that point, this person will have no meridians or acupuncture points. " ("Cultivation of Both Mind and Body " from Zhuan Falun)
She asked Teacher to help her. The doctor tried hard but failed to find her vein to administer the fluids. Police officers Wu Bo and and Huang from the Zhimin Road Police Station took Ms. Wang to the Yulin Police Station and asked her to sign a document entitled "Released on Bail for Medical Treatment." Ms. Wang found that the document slandered Falun Gong and misrepresented her words, so she refused to sign it. Ms. Wang called her daughter to come and pick her up and take her back home. She went home on March 24, 2003 after being detained for more than four months.
After Ms. Wang returned home, the neighborhood committee sent people to monitor her every move. She was constantly interfered with and followed wherever she went.
On April 11, 2003, Ms. Wang Yangfang was charged by the Huhou District People's Procuratorate in Chengdu City.
One day in May 2003, two people from the Procuratorate came to Ms. Wang's home. After explaining their purpose, they asked Ms. Wang to sign for receipt of a summons to court. Eventually, they forced Ms. Wang to sign a document that said she was "out on bail awaiting trial." At that time, she had not studied the Fa well and had no knowledge of legal proceedings. She was afraid that if she did not sign the document, she would receive a severe sentence. Because of this, she signed the document. Later, when she measured her deeds against the Fa, she realized that what she had done was wrong. Therefore, she did not sign in acceptance of either of the verdicts at two subsequent trials. About 10 days after the first trial, Ms. Wang wrote a letter to the judge and stated that her signature on the bail notice was null and void. At the next trial Ms. Wang asked the judge if she had received the letter. The judge answered yes, and told her that the letter had been forwarded to the intermediate court.
On August 21, 2003, Ms. Wang was illegally sentenced to three years in prison, but was allowed to serve the sentence outside the prison.
5. Ms. Wang's Family Members Were Also Harassed
In May and June of 2005, Li Li, Deputy Head of the neighborhood committee, went to Ms. Wang's home to try and force her to sign a statement to renounce Falun Gong. Ms. Wang clarified the facts to her and told Li Li that she would never sign such a statement. Later on local officials went to ask Ms. Wang's husband at his workplace two or three times to sign the form for her. Her husband also refused. Then, employees from the comprehensive administrative office repeatedly waited outside the entrance of the neighborhood committee to force Ms. Wang's daughter Wang Yangfang to sign the form for her mother. They threatened and intimidated her, but Ms. Wang's daughter refused, as well.
On April 18, 2006, policeman Gao Shan from Yulin Police Station asked Ms. Wang to sign a notice to lift the "Transformation and Investigation Under Surveillance." Ms. Wang refused to do so. However, Gao Shan said, "Someone signed the notice for you." Ms. Wang was stunned by this news. At home she asked her husband and daughter if they had signed and they both said they hadn't. A few days later when Ms. Wang came across Gao Shan again, she stated clearly that no one in her family had signed the statement. Around October, Gao Shan asked Ms. Wang to go to the police station to put her fingerprint on the document, but she resolutely refused.
Telephone numbers of those responsible for the persecution:
Area Code: (28)
Liang Lan, Wuhou District People's Procuratorate, Chengdu City:
86-28-85069732 (Office)
The General On-duty Office of Wuhou District Police Sub-department, Chengdu
City: 86-28-85079567, 86-28-85070486
The No. 1 Section of Wuhou District Police Sub-department, Chengdu City:
86-28-86406628
The On-duty Office of the Yulin Police Station, Wuhou District Police
Sub-department, Chengdu City:86-28-85553503
Zhimin Road Police Station, Wuhou District Police Sub-department, Chengdu City:
86-28-85443629, 86-28-85454582
Yulin Neighborhood Committee: 86-28-85553994
The Comprehensive Administrative Office, Yulin Neighborhood Committee:
86-28-85582936
Jiang Lin, Director of the 610 Office
Yang Huajie, Head of the Security Section of No. 7 People's Hospital:
86-28-84513530 (H), 86-13658069558(Cell)
(1) Traditional Chinese medicine describes a person's condition in terms that are often foreign to the West. "Steaming bone syndrome" refers to internal heat caused by low yin energy. The patient feels like heat is coming from within the bones.
(2) Softening of the bones caused by lack of calcium, phosphorous, or vitamin D.
(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Yin Peikun is a sixty year-old Falun Dafa practitioner. She lives in Longshan Village, Xintai City, Shandong Province. In late 2004, she was sentenced to two years of forced labor for clarifying the facts about Falun Dafa, and she was released in early 2007. On September 1, 2007, she was arrested again. Recently, she was sentenced to another two years of forced labor. She is imprisoned at the Jinan City Women's Forced Labor Camp in Shandong Province.
Ms. Yin's husband and son are incapable of farming or performing household chores due to mentally disabilities. Ms. Yin takes care of almost everything... from family responsibilities to farm duties and household chores. After more than six months of hard work cultivating, planting, and tending the crops, she was taken away just before harvest time. All of her labor will be in vain if the harvest is lost.
Another practitioner from the same village, Mr. Zhu Minglin, was forced to put his fingerprint on a so-called guarantee statement, and was extorted of 1000 yuan before he was released.
Liu Yu (male), Xintai City CCP Standing Committee member, Xintai City CCP
Committee of Political and Legislative Affairs secretary: 86-538-7264687
(Office), 86-13605387266 (Cell)
Zhang li (male), Xintai City CCP Committee of Political and Legislative Affairs
deputy secretary, 610 Office director: 86-538-7237654 (Office),
86-538-7078288 (Home), 86-13583876288 (Cell)
Yang Zhaohui (male), Xintai City Police Department director: 86-538-7103001
(Office), 86-538-8275796 (Home), 86-13561767867 (Cell)
Liu Zhongmin (male), Xintai City Police Department political director:
86-538-7103002 (Office), 86-538-7103299 (Home), 86-13905387006 (Cell)
Wang Dianjun (male), Xintai City Police Department deputy director:
86-538-7103003 (Office), 86-538-7103268 (Home), 86-13905487967 (Cell)
September 28, 2007
(Clearwisdom.net) Officials from the Saertu District Police Department in Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, arrested Falun Gong practitioners Ms. Li Hui and Ms. Du Shuxia on September 22, 2007. They handcuffed the women behind their backs and sent them to the No. 1 Detention Center in Daqing City at 8:00 p.m. In the days that followed they tortured and interrogated them and videotaped the entire process.
They bound Li Hui to a metal chair for several days. They constantly pressured her and tried to extort a "confession." They planned to fabricate charges against the practitioners and forbade family visits. They lied to the families in an attempt to extort money by saying the practitioners had committed felonies.
Ms. Li's arrest happened during an arrest sweep on April 25, 2007, staged by officials from Saertu District Police Department. She escaped the next morning and went into exile. The police claimed she was a "Level A Criminal-at-large" just because she persevered in her belief in "Truth, Compassion and Tolerance."
The police ransacked the home of another practitioner, Ms. Du Shuxia. They took her computer(s), printer(s), MP3 player(s), a large but unknown amount of cash, a bank deposit book, and a salary card, falsely claiming it was money used for Falun Gong activities. Ms. Du was left with less than one yuan after the plundering and cannot even afford to buy food for her high school aged son.
Li Liansheng, Saertu District Police Department deputy head, is personally responsible for the persecution
Zhong Yuzhen, female, head of Community Division Six: 86-459-4682175 (Office), 86-459-6688678 (Home), 86-13936734888 (Cell)
Li HuiMs. Li Hui, 38, worked at the Daqing Materials Corporation and lived near the Daqing Entertainment Center. She was transferred to the Repair Division in 1996 to work as a locksmith. Ms. Li enjoyed an expanded mindset through Falun Gong practice and was kind and considerate toward everyone. She was well liked among her colleagues and neighbors. After her mother passed away, she invited her grandmother to live with her so she could take care of her.
Li Hui was pregnant during her first arrest on June 22, 2000. Officers from the Fuqiang Police Station, the Saertu District Police Department participated in the arrest. After her release, her superiors sent her immediately to a brainwashing center at the company where she was forced to watch slanderous videos that attacked Falun Gong. Though in an advanced stage of pregnancy, she was forced to pull weeds in the sweltering heat.
Because she refused to write a guarantee statement, the company laid her off in early August 2000, put her on one-year probation and extorted 5,000 "yuan" from her, calling it a "fine." They also extorted an additional 10,000 yuan "guarantee fee" from her family that was later returned. The company did not let her work for two years and in 2002 eventually assigned her a housekeeper position for the vehicle division.
Her husband filed for divorce in 2003. He could no longer endure the tremendous financial and political pressure. Li Hui became the sole breadwinner for her 80-year-old grandmother and young daughter.
Ms. Li was at work when a group of officials barged into her office at 10:30 a.m. on April 25, 2007. The officials included the deputy police chief, local officers Wang Song and Zhao Jingzhou, a plainclothes police officer, Security Division head Cheng Jin, Security Division director Zhang Yuming, and Ta Huailiang, Party secretary for the transportation team. They lied and told her they were going to verify certain information about her and then started to pull at her. Li Hui shouted and struggled. Wang Song and the plainclothes officer twisted Li Hui's arms behind her, handcuffed her, and pushed her neck down so she was bent at a 90-degree angle. They shoved her downstairs and kicked her into the backseat of a black car. Wang Song and Zhao Jingzhou sat to her left and right. The plainclothes officer took Li Hui's bag.
After they took her to the Saertu District Police Department, a woman officer body-searched her, including her shoes. Wang Song and Zhao Jingzhou took her to the basement around noon. They dragged her into an interrogation room and bound her to a metal chair. They handcuffed her and immobilized her feet. Four officers took keys they found in her bag. They hired two people to accompany them, and all went to ransack her home.
The officials tried to trick Ms. Li's grandmother into opening the door by saying they were checking residence permits. The old woman refused to comply. They tried all of Li Hui's keys and still could not open the door.
Wang Song went to the kindergarten that Li Hui's daughter, Cong Cong, attended. He forced the teacher to take Cong Cong and tell Li Hui's grandmother that they were going to get the residence permit for the little girl. The old woman again refused. Furious, the police violently shook the burglar-proof door. The old woman was so frightened she could not speak. The thunderous noise forced the neighbors to come out and find out the cause.
The police ignored them and continued to attempt to break the door down. The old woman eventually opened up just as the burglarproof door was about to give way. Five individuals immediately forced their way in and turned the home upside down. The ransacking lasted four hours. The invaders took a computer worth 3,000 yuan, printer(s), VCDs, and 3,000 yuan cash. The police even put on a show and asked the neighbors to act as witnesses, but refused to leave any receipt or documentation for the things they took.
Between 2:00 p.m. and 10 p.m. that same day, four officers tried to "crack" Li Hui, who was bound in the metal chair, in an effort to create evidence to justify the persecution. She refused to cooperate with the interrogation and explained to them the facts about Falun Gong. At 6:30 p.m., the deputy police chief who directed the arrest and ransacking arrived and asked her in a menacing tone, "Where is your DVD writer?" A short-statured officer entered the room and looked at Li Hui with scorn and contempt. He cursed the founder of Falun Gong for four minutes. Before he left he threatened, "Just wait and watch how I'll fix you!"
Li Hui was bound to the icy metal chair for 16 hours, between noon April 25 and 4:00 a.m. on April 26. She shivered at night, and her wrists were swollen and sore. She managed to escape at 4:00 a.m. by jumping out of the restroom window and went into exile to avoid arrest.
After Li Hui broke free, the police held a stakeout outside her home and even sent spies to live at her home for more than two months. They made her 80-year-old maternal grandmother leave. Li Hui's 65-year-old father had to take care of his 84-year-old mother and had no energy for Li Hui's maternal grandmother, who had to live with relatives in the countryside. The old woman had a heart attack, and her body was swollen. Li Hui's daughter, Cong Cong, now lives with her father who married another woman. She often cries and looks for Li Hui.
The police not only occupied Li Hui's home, they also repeatedly called her father and relatives. They lied to him, saying Li Hui was a Falun Gong "leader." Her father was frightened and worried about Li Hui. He lost weight and was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He said to others, "It's all over! Li Hui has lost her job, her family, everything!" He dreaded the Communist Party after having lived through ruthless political campaigns during the Cultural Revolution. Driven by desperation and fear, Li Hui's father believed the police and led two sons to look for Li Hui. He hoped that by turning Li Hui in to the police, the regime would give her "lighter punishment," spare her life, and restore her job. After Li Hui's second arrest, the police threatened to sentence her to prison, thus destroying the old man's hopes and again plunging him into depression.
The Persecution of Du ShuxiaMs. Du Shuxia, 48, worked at the Saertu District Tax Bureau and lived in Dongfengxin Village in Daqing City. She benefited profoundly from Falun Gong practice and became a well-liked person among her relatives, colleagues, and neighbors. When the Party began persecuting Falun Gong she was persecuted for eight years because of her perseverance in her belief.
She traveled to the Shuanghe Forced Labor Camp in Qiqihar City on December 16, 1999, to visit a fellow practitioner. She was detained for four months and 20 days at the Appeals Bureau. Ms. Du was arrested again on November 18, 2000, when she visited a fellow practitioner's home. This time she was detained for five-and-a-half months, including four months in police custody as a petitioner.
At work, her superiors took her to the police department on May 21, 2001. She was detained for one month and later sentenced to two years of forced labor. The labor camp, however, refused to accept her because she developed symptoms of critical illness. Her salary was suspended during the detention. After she returned to work her superiors placed her under long-term surveillance. Her seriously ill husband traveled to Beijing for surgery. Du Shuxia's workplace immediately sent two people to Beijing, called Du Shuxia's husband, and asked him about her whereabouts.
After her husband died in 2003, her ex-husband won custody of their son because she practiced Falun Gong. Du Shuxia has lived a lonely life ever since.
Long-term detention and persecution traumatized Ms. Du. She experienced frequent loss of consciousness as well as confusion and epilepsy. Sometimes she would lapse into unconsciousness for long periods of time. She was diagnosed with a difficult nerve disease that may kill her at any time. Although Falun Gong has helped her numerous times in the past several years and pulled her out of dangerous situations, her mental wound never healed, and her condition worsened because the persecution continued. She had no choice but to take long-term leave from work. She knew Falun Gong gave her a new life, so she often told people about the wonders of Falun Dafa.
After her arrest, her family explained her condition to the police and asked for her release. The police said, "Go ahead and get a diagnosis, and we'll let her go." When the family went to the hospital, however, the doctor said only the police or procuratorate had the authority to access Du Shuxia's medical records. The police refused to release her, refused to check her records at the hospital, and continued to interrogate her.
People responsible for these persecution incidents:
Daqing City National Security Bureau
Lin Zhisheng, head of the bureau: 86-459-6181231 (Office), 86-459-6688448
(Home), 86-13604651999 (Cell)
Wang Xiyan, Party secretary: 86-459-6181232 (Office), 86-459-4611878 (Home),
8613904591292 (Cell)
Daqing City Police Department
Cao Liwei, head of the department: 86-459-6371699 (Office), 86-13384595678
(Home)
Cao Zhenhe, political secretary: 86-459-6107789 (Office), 86-459-6280888 (Home),
86-13329500001 (Cell)
Saertu District Police Department
Liang Shengli, head of the department: 86-459-4688999 (Office), 86-459-6509989
(Home), 86-13329501001 (Cell)
Liu Zhili, political secretary: 86-459-4607779 (Office), 86-459-4663506 (Home),
86-13936944444 (Cell)
Daqing Material Corporation, Petroleum Management Bureau
Sun Tiewen, head manager: 86-459-5961258 86-459-5901587 (Home), 86-13904695581
(Cell)
(Clearwisdom.net) At about 7 p.m. on September 23, 2007, Wang Yongkang from Changde City, Hunan Province led a group of police officers from the National Security Team, the National Protection Team, and the 610 Office to break into Falun Dafa practitioners' homes in Changde City, Hunan Province. They ransacked their homes mainly to search for and to confiscate Dafa materials, cash, and bank statements. If they found any Dafa materials, they would then take the practitioners away.
It was said that those CCP (Chinese Communist Party) police officers arrested Ms. Zhao Chunxiu, Yi Zhongqing, Yang Guiming, Ms. Su Shaofeng, Ms. Xiao Aiqin and other practitioners. About a dozen of them are currently being detained at a detention center in Changde City.
When those police officers came to practitioner Ms. Xiong Bifang's home, they knocked at her door first but she refused to open it. Then they began to use an iron rod to try to force open the door. As they were trying to smash open the door, other police officers smashed open two iron gates and locks. One hour later, they broke into her home and ransacked it. There are three locked drawers in her home and as soon as they saw them, the police officers forced open one drawer with much effort but didn't find any Dafa materials. They then found a bank deposit book and just took it for themselves. This was the fourth time that Ms. Xiong's home was ransacked by police officers. This was her fourth bank deposit book that was taken away by CCP members.
In order to resist the persecution, we suggest that the Changde City practitioners send righteous thoughts every hour at 7 p.m., 8 p.m., and 9 p.m. We need to eliminate every evil element that is persecuting practitioners here. We also need to stop the persecution and have all practitioners under detention released unconditionally!
(Clearwisdom.net) In the early afternoon of September 26, 2007, Li Xiangguo (male) and Chen Xiqiang (male), who are both guards at the Jiamusi City Prison, section 1, subdivision 2, tied the arms of Falun Dafa practitioner Mr. Shan Zhiping into an excruciatingly painful position because he refused to report for forced labor. Mr. Shan was suspended by the arms until his feet no longer touched the floor.
Two other Falun Dafa practitioners, Mr. Gong Zhijun and Mr. Wang Lansheng, tried to persuade the guards not to do so. However, Li Xiangguo would not listen, and instead asked one of the deputy supervisors of a group of guards, Quan Wei (male), to punch and kick Mr. Gong and Mr. Wang until they were writhing on the ground in pain.
When the guards went off duty, they stayed and continued to torture the practitioners. Mr. Shan was tied in a painful position to the the door frame, and his body was hung up by the wrists. Mr. Gong and Mr. Wang were ordered to come to the office. The supervisor of section 1 Zhang Bo (male) and a group of guards yelled and cursed at them. The guards even clamored that it was quite normal to beat two people to death in prison. The guards cuffed Mr. Gong and Mr. Wang to the banisters on the second floor. Mr. Wang was kept there until 9:00 p.m., but Mr. Gong was forced to spend the whole night there. During the night, Mr. Shan was released from the door frame and taken to solitary confinement, where he was shackled to the floor.
Personnel involved in the atrocities at section 2:
Supervisor: Liu Jinping (male);
Deputy Supervisor: Liu Wei (male);
Deputy Instructor: Zhao Jinpeng (male);
A prisoner: Jiang Xiangjian (male);
The Jiamusi City Prison in Heilongjiang Province:
Liu Changyu (male), the deputy head of the prison in charge of the persecution
of Falun Gong: 86-13946452222 (cell).
(Clearwisdom.net) Under the coercion of the Tianqiao District 610 Office in Jinan City, Shandong Province, the Tianqiao District Court covertly held a court session and illegally sentenced practitioners Ms. Cheng Shuxiang and Ms. Du Shufeng to prison on September 28, 2007.
On April 25, 2007, Ms. Cheng Shuxiang and Ms. Du Shufeng, practitioners from Jinan City, were taken into custody by officers from the Beiyuan Road Police Station in Tianqiao District, while they were distributing truth clarification materials. Li Mei (female) and Wang Hui (female), officers from the Tianqiao District 610 Office, madly searched the homes of the two practitioners but came up empty-handed. However, Ms. Cheng and Ms. Du were still held in the Jinan City Detention Center located in Erxian Village, Zhonggong Town. Their families were not allowed to visit them or even bring clothing to them.
The administrators of the Tianqiao District 610 Office violated legal regulations and detained the two practitioners for too long. In addition, when the court session was held on September 5, 2007, the case was set aside due to insufficient evidence. The administrators of the Tianqiao District 610 Office and the Political and Judiciary Committee were not happy with the result and applied pressure on the Tianqiao District Court. As a result, the court held another session and illegally sentenced Ms. Cheng Shuxiang to prison for four years and sentenced Ms. Du Shufeng to three and half years on September 28, 2007.
Practitioner Ms. Wang Xiaoran was also brought to court recently, and the outcome needs further investigation.
The family of Ms. Cheng Shuxiang: 86-13969000499 (Cell)
Ms. Du Shufeng: 86-531-88973391 (home)
(Clearwisdom.net) Recently, many Falun Gong practitioners in Hengyang County, Hunan Province, were arrested and their homes were ransacked. Mr. Hu Songbo, a schoolteacher at the Shuihu Elementary School, is a new practitioner and became healthy enough to be able to teach a class again. He wasn't released until the authorities extorted money from him. The following are additional incidents of persecution that practitioners in Hengyang County were subjected to.
Practitioner Dai Kuisong, a villager in his late 60s from Fuxing Village of Goulou Township in the Hengyang County, was conducting business in the Tiechang Market the morning of August 6, 2007. Someone reported him for practicing Falun Gong. Officers from the Goulou Township Police Station seized him and stuffed this senior citizen into the trunk of a police car, in spite of the temperature being 1020 F. They sent Mr. Dai to a detention center in the afternoon and held him for ten days in complete violation of the Chinese constitution. The day following his release, several police officers broke into Mr. Dai's home and confiscated his tape recorder, Falun Gong lecture CDs, Falun Gong books, and" truth-clarification" materials, including copies of "Minghui Weekly". The police also asked about the whereabouts of Mr. Dai's son, also a Falun Gong practitioner. At about 10 o'clock at night, a police officer suddenly appeared at his home, demanding to know his son's whereabouts and asking him if there were people not related to the family in the house.
Practitioner Ms. Zhong Mingying was arrested at her home in Yinshan Village, Goulou Township, Hengyang County, on August 17, 2007. She was working out of town. That day, more than ten officers from the county's Political and Judiciary Committee, the township, the village and the police station arrived in two police vans and broke into her home, ransacked it, and took her away. They did not release her until ten days later. It was said that the police soon arrested her again and detained her for 15 days before they released her on September 27, 2007.
On the night of August 17, 2007, police officers broke into and ransacked practitioner Mr. Zhu Pingzhi's home in the Baiguo Village, Jingbing Township in Hengyang County, and took away equipment such as a computer, printer, CD burner, and materials worth a combined value of more than 20,000 yuan (about USD2,500). Mr. Zhu and his wife have escaped and decided to go into exile to avoid further persecution and arrest.
On August 23, 2007, officers from the Hengyang County Political and Judiciary Committee and from the Jibing Police Station arrived in two police vans at the home of schoolteacher Mr. Hu Songbo from the Shuihu Elementary School and arrested him. They kept him in the Jibing Police Station for a day and a half without providing any food or a blanket. They did not release him until his family members and school colleagues visited the police authorities several times and had 2,000 yuan extorted from them.
Mr. Hu stopped teaching in 2005 due to illness. He started practicing Falun Gong for health benefits between March and April 2006. In the second half of 2006, he was recovered and was able to teach again. Jibing Police Station officials had heard on August 23, 2007, that Mr. Hu was practicing Falun Gong, so they harassed him at home, ransacked his home, and arrested him. They demanded that he pay them 5,000 yuan and told him not to practice again.
On September 12, 2007, officers from the Jibing Police Station went to practitioner Zhong Yan's home, ransacked it, arrested him and fined him 2,000 yuan.
On September 22, 2007, officers from the Banqiao Township police station in Hengyang County went to practitioners Hong Fuyin and Tang Shoujun's homes, ransacked them, and confiscated Falun Gong books and truth-clarification materials. The two practitioners escaped. Mr. Hong Fuying went to practitioner Dai Kuisong's home the next day, but in less than 20 minutes, more than ten officers from the Goulou Township Political and Judiciary Committee and from the Goulou Township police station, as well as village head Dai Mingjun from Fuxing Village, arrested Mr. Hong Fuyin.
Goulou Township Police Station:
Police officer Cai Yongguo: 86-13975461822
Police officer He: 86-13974798840
Office of Government Administration for Goulou Township:
Office: 86-734-6846715
Party Secretary Liu Junhui: 86-13875704999
Hengyang County Jibing Township Police Station: 86-734-6846882
Liu, the Section Chief in the Xidu Police Department: 86-734-6818488 ext. 6623
(Clearwisdom.net) The Austrian Newspaper Mostviertelbasar reported on the Human Rights Torch Relay event, a rally held on September 11, 2007. The event was jointly sponsored by the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG) and the Austria Human Rights Association (IGFM), with a mission to stop the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) trampling of Falun Gong practitioners' and other Chinese people's human rights. The newspaper report pointed out, "Under the rapid economic growth in China, the government controls power. Its cruelty is not less than Mao's time. In China's labor camps, every day innocent people are tortured to death. The CCP has initiated atrocities of organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners for lucrative profit, in which the army has participated. In the past year, more than one thousand people have become victims of these atrocities."
(Clearwisdom.net) No matter what illusions the evil presents or what measures it takes, in front of true Dafa practitioners and in the righteous field of practitioners, the evil will dissolve in a state that is unnoticeable by ordinary people.
In late September, we had ordered 30 satellite TV receivers to receive New Tang Dynasty Television programs. In the afternoon of September 27, the store manager notified us that the goods had arrived, but in order to pick up the receivers we needed to bring our personal ID cards, since police officers were there at the time. Dafa practitioners understood what he meant, so we immediately took the batteries out of our cell phones, to prevent being tracked, and then notified other practitioners to send forth righteous thoughts. Thus, we cooperated as one body to dissolve all evil that is masterminding the police in hindering and obstructing our efforts to assist our Teacher in saving sentient beings. We sent forth strong righteous thoughts together, Whoever dares to touch these 30 receivers (our divine devices for saving sentient beings), that being will commit a crime against Dafa and all worldly beings, and will be sent to hell to be dissolved while repaying the debt. The following morning, the store manager called again and asked us to pick up the receivers, but did not mention a word about our personal ID cards.
This time, several practitioners stayed home to send forth righteous thoughts while two of us went to pick up the receivers. Everything went smoothly.
One of the practitioners who stayed behind to send forth righteous thoughts saw in another dimension a huge snake coiled with its head reaching down. At this time fellow practitioners sent three strong thoughts of destroy it, but it did not work. Then the practitioner asked Teacher and the guardian gods for help in dissolving this evil. Once this thought appeared, the evil snake fell down and disappeared immediately.
The two practitioners who went to pick up the receivers also had strong righteous thoughts. They had no fear, nor any human notions, only pure compassion while fulfilling their historic vows and saving sentient beings. They were protected by Teacher and completed the task without a glitch.
This incident made me ponder, and I finally came to understand that now that Fa-rectification has come to the final stage, it is also time that the evil meets its doom. However strong the evil appears to be, these are just illusions. Everything in this human world revolves around Dafa. When doing Dafa work, there should be no human notions. If we had human notions at this critical moment, especially since it was the CCP's so called National Mourning Day, and the CCP was holding their general meeting, if we had the notion of fear and did not dare to pick up the receivers, then would we not have conformed to the arrangements of the old forces and be following their ways? Then we would have left loopholes for the old forces to exploit. If that had happened, we not only would have suffered financial losses, but also would have hindered our efforts to save people. The consequences would have been severe.
Therefore, I think that all situations now occurring in the human world are staged acts. We Dafa practitioners are silently doing the Fa-rectification work that worldly people cannot comprehend. Saving sentient beings is the most magnificent and holy deed of all. Although there are various difficulties, as long as we base our understandings on the Fa and stay on the way directed by Teacher, then the divine power of Dafa will be manifested right in front of us.
October 4, 2007
(Clearwisdom.net) I became a Falun Gong practitioner at the end of 1998. The first day I had planned to learn Falun Gong I awoke at 5:00 a.m. and immediately went to the practice site. When I did the practice that morning I was thrilled. It was a kind of wonderful feeling that I had never experienced before. For more than 20 years prior to that I had many kinds of illnesses. My heart disease had become the worst it had ever been. I was fortunate to begin Dafa practice. I firmly believe that through Dafa cultivation people can return to their original, true selves. Master will lead His disciples home.
After July 20, 1999, when the Communist regime began the persecution of Falun Gong, fellow practitioners and I went on to distribute flyers to explain the facts about the persecution. At the time, we did not have a printing center as we do today, so I went to a copy shop. Fellow practitioners were quite surprised when I returned with the flyers. They said that all the copy shops were being monitored, and they were forbidden to copy anything related to Falun Gong. They wondered how I made copies. I told them that I only thought that Falun Dafa is so great, and I was trying to offer salvation to sentient beings. I had no fear; therefore I was able to copy. Everyone smiled and agreed.
Recalling this, I knew that was Master's protection and the effect of righteous thoughts. The thinking based on the Fa, not on human notions, made all the difference. Had I worried about my own safety, about the evils possibly attacking, and that the shop might deny me, the result could have been completely opposite. Later I also wrote letters to government agencies, telling them how Falun Gong teaches people to be good and moral. I also wrote by hand many letters and sent them out to people.
But I also had negative experiences and lessons to be learned. My human mentality and attachments caused damage. Fa study lets me find the places where I often read Master's emphasis on Fa study. Master's said in "Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Europe:"
"You must put your mind to studying the Fa. Read the book and study the Fa. Read the book and study the Fa. Almost every time when I'm teaching the Fa I painstakingly tell you to read the book, read the book, and read the book. As long as you read the book you will attain things better than you'd expect."
The Fa is in the books, and the Fa contains everything you need in order to cultivate.
I realized that only if we study the Fa well can we satisfactorily complete the three things Master has arranged. Righteous thoughts do not come from a strong determination alone. They are the natural results of solid Fa study and raising of cultivation levels.
First of all, we must have rock solid faith in Master and the Fa, and we must believe that we are true Dafa disciples of the Fa-rectification period. We must confidently walk on the right path. We cannot be nervous and suspicious about everything and doubt the effect of our truth clarification and sending righteous thoughts. We have to solidify our righteous thoughts. Since we are Dafa disciple of the Fa rectification period and our path is the most correct, our mission is the greatest. In addition, we should keep up the regular routine of sending righteous thoughts every day. We all have our jobs, and our lives and work consume lots of time. But no matter how busy we are, we must keep up sending righteous thoughts, and make sure we do it during the four designated times and any local relay routines. We should do our best to avoid skipping any time.
Master said in "My Thanks to Sentient Beings Who Have Sent Greetings;" "Dafa disciples are the sole hope of salvation for the beings in each region and each nation."
I have become more and more convinced of this righteous thought during the past few years. I have kept up my effort to distribute persecution explanatory materials to people far and near. I am the hope for all of my neighbors to receive salvation. One day a neighborhood administrator asked me, "Do you know that there are many Dafa flyers in our neighborhood?" I said, "Isn't that a good thing? What's wrong with letting everyone know the truth?" I went on to clarify the truth to her. Although she did not say much at the time, I could tell that she learned some facts about the persecution. In general, righteous thoughts can dissolve the whole persecution. Strong righteous thoughts can instantly eliminate any evil.
The above is my humble understanding. Please correct me if anything is inappropriate.
(Clearwisdom.net)[The following article appears in the book Hearts and Minds Uplifted--The Power of Falun Dafa, first published by the Clearwisdom editors in 2006. The many short stories in this book were written by people of all ages, from many countries, and from all walks of life. They are all very personal and unique, and yet they share a common theme: the tremendous spiritual growth that comes from practicing Falun Gong. For more information or to order Hearts and Minds Uplifted, please see: http://www.mhbooks.org/mhbooks/index.php?target=products&product_id=29937&sl=EN]
I'm 53 years old and have practiced Falun Dafa for about 5 months.
In spite of the goodness of my parents and six siblings, throughout my childhood, there always was a feeling of loneliness and isolation in my mind.
In my young adulthood, I was very honest and someone once warned me not to be too honest; that made me feel stupid. After that I struggled to not be too honest and stupid. I gradually became "smarter" as I aged, but it was against my conscience, and the sense of isolation from my childhood was still there.
I came to the United States from Japan 30 years ago to marry my fiancé. I have been quite happy after marrying, at least in my private life. On the surface probably I looked normal, but I could not help feeling foreign among my Japanese coworkers and friends, and I had a tendency to retreat into myself and my family. After many years of striving, I started to learn how to be on my own and to follow my own conscience and judgment. I kept saying to myself, "It's ok to be different." When I was about to reach 50, like many other women of similar age, I started to have a hormone imbalance that brought chaos to my health. Many of the problems could be controlled by taking herbs, but most of the herbs were not supposed to be taken for a prolonged period. As soon as I stopped taking them the problems came back.
About the same time, I became interested in meditation and was looking for an opportunity to learn it, without success. Then one day someone introduced me to Falun Dafa. After the sitting meditation, we read the book, Zhuan Falun. Immediately, it fascinated me. After all those years I found a book that told me my conscience had been right. I went back to the practice site again the next week. The book was telling us about tribulations this time. I thought, "This is it. Sure, there is a purpose for our sufferings." I was delighted. The truth was that this book struck me deep in my heart without any apparent reason. And whatever the reason was, I knew I had found something which I had almost given up searching for. A month later, I attended a nine-day seminar. When about two months had passed, I suddenly realized that I hadn't taken any herbs for a long time and I was feeling fine.
When I became serious about cultivation, my desire for making Falun Dafa known to other people grew. I started to participate in activities whenever possible with a fear deep in my mind, the fear that I would be forced to face my greatest weakness and change it; that is, my unusual shyness and nervousness. I have lived all my life avoiding the spotlight. The thought of talking to strangers made me nervous. Master Li has said that fear is an attachment. It was unavoidable to go through this ordeal to remove that attachment.
As the persecution in China kept getting worse, I joined other practitioners at the mall to collect signatures for a petition and to raise awareness of the persecution in China. At first I did not know how to talk to the people and I was at a loss. As a result I was not very successful in getting the signatures. With remorse, I took a moment at home trying to think what was wrong with me.
Soon another trial was given to me. I was to go to the community center on Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. There was a large assembly going on, and with another practitioner I was supposed to collect signatures for the same petition. Since my fellow practitioner had no experience, I was nervous again. But when the assembly was over and people came out one by one, without thinking much, the words came out of my mouth naturally. I felt my attachment become smaller.
In the past months, I have been forced to face my weaknesses and defects one by one. The tests never seem to cease coming.
Once I was supposed to do a job for someone and forgot about it. When that person called me to see if the job was done, I said, "Sure, it's ready," and as soon as I hung up I started to do the job. I did the job but I had a very uncomfortable feeling in my mind. I said to myself, "Was this a lie? Yes, I think it was. But it did not harm anyone, why is it bothering me? That's because it is against the law of the universe." Soon after, on a different matter I lied again and this time I immediately regretted it and thought about why I did it. It became apparent that I lied to make myself look more capable and better than I actually was. It was an attachment of pride. I felt ashamed. When a third trial came, I told the truth and apologized.
Now, Falun Dafa has become a part of my life. Where has the loneliness in my heart gone? I cannot find it anywhere. Thank you, Master Li.
(Clearwisdom.net) I began cultivating in Falun Dafa in August 1995. I would like to report to Master and fellow practitioners my experiences of explaining the facts and offering people salvation.
Distributing Flyers and Hanging Banners
After the onset of the persecution on July 20, 1999, I was convinced that Falun Dafa is good. I never doubted this. Nevertheless, I was afraid to come forward. I studied one lecture of Zhuan Falun daily. Several times when I opened the book, it fell open to Lecture Six, where Master said:
"Since he failed, he had to start all over again. He resumed his cultivation, and after much painstaking effort he again succeeded in his cultivation. This time he became scared and reminded himself in his mind: "I shouldn't get excited. Otherwise, I'll fail again." With this fear, he failed again. Fear is also a kind of attachment." (Zhuan Falun)
I knew I was attached to fear, yet I could not get rid of it. I only wanted to protect myself. After the persecution started, I treated the persecution with human notions, and out of fear, I burned all the Dafa materials I had stored at home for the local practice site. This was a terrible thing that I did, and it made me feel that I was not worthy of Master's salvation.
In 2000 Master published a series of articles. I knew then that I must leave my safe cocoon and, as a Dafa practitioner, step forward to distribute flyers and explain the truth about the persecution. I still remember the first time I went out to hang a banner. My fear was so overwhelming at 4:00 a.m. that I vomited in the restroom. Yet, I knew I was doing the most righteous thing and I must step forward. I separated my true self from human fear. I understood it was not me who was afraid; rather, it was my human notions and karma trying to interfere with me. With Master's protection I returned home safely after I hung up the banner.
When I first started distributing flyers, I was so nervous that I vomited every time I was ready to leave home. Yet, I overcame my fear and stepped out to validate Dafa. My fear disappeared when I reminded myself that I was offering sentient beings salvation.
Forming a Fa Study Group to Improve Together
With the Fa rectification process moving forward, the Minghui/Clearwisdom website proposed to rebuild Fa study groups. At the beginning of 2004, about nine practitioners formed a Fa study group at my home. From the beginning I was afraid to do this at my home because I was also getting truth-clarification handouts from the material center, and I thought that doing both might make me a persecution target. I wanted to protect myself. Because of my fear, people frequently knocked on the door as we studied the Fa. They were all from my residential community. I was so fearful that I actually wanted to disband the group Fa study. But I changed my mind and we continued. I changed my mind on this back and forth nine times and finally stabilized my mind through Fa study and sending righteous thoughts.
More than half a year after the Fa study group was formed, the phenomenon of someone knocking on the door occurred again. Our group members all looked inward and realized that the energy field in our group was not righteous. We were more interested in listening to what one fellow practitioner had to say, as we felt that he cultivated well. When all of us changed our mindsets, we continued to study the Fa together.
This year, a fellow practitioner said he felt pressured every time he came to the group Fa study. He said he was always criticized that he did not cultivate well. I recognized that I also wanted to boast about myself and looked down on fellow practitioners. I criticized fellow practitioners, rather than kindly pointing out their problems. My bad example made other group members criticize each other also. Studying the Fa, I realized I should not focus on fellow practitioners' problems; rather, I should send righteous thoughts and clear the energy field first. I should have faith that Master would remind fellow practitioners, and fellow practitioners would catch up through the Fa study.
Establishing a Truth-Clarification Materials Site at Home
In October 2005, I established a truth-clarification materials site at my home. Because of some fear, I always thought the printer was too noisy and the neighbors would hear me. I exhibited fear each time I printed materials. I didn't have a Dafa cultivator's righteous thoughts.
Four or five months later I got another, quieter printer. Superficially, my mind seemed calmer and my fear had lessened. Several months later, a fellow practitioner returned the noisy printer to me. This time I started to look inward to find my attachments. Fa study made me realize that I was doing the most righteous thing in the universe--explaining the persecution facts; no one should keep me from offering people salvation. Now I have both printers working at the same time, and I no longer notice the noise.
In September 2006 I had problems with a color printer. The lines that should have been one color turned out a different shade. Others told me that the cartridge head was dirty and blocked. I did not know how to clean it, so I simply bought another cartridge.
When I read an experience-sharing article on "Minghui Weekly" that "a practitioner should improve xinxing before repairing the machine", I was deeply touched. I looked inward and found that I always wanted to finish the printing as soon as possible, and that I did not like color printing because the cartridge was difficult to refill or install. It had not occurred to me that the printer was also a life-form awaiting salvation. Once I found my problems, I went home and sent righteous thoughts in front of the printer, telling it, "You must print nice copies for sentient beings." The printing output has improved greatly since then. I recognized that sending righteous thoughts works; encountering problems is not accidental; there must be attachments waiting for me to eliminate them. In order to do a better job of offering sentient beings salvation, I purchased another printer last week to make more materials.
My parents both practice Dafa, but my husband does not. My efforts to clarify the facts of the persecution to him in the past years have allowed him to have a correct understanding of Dafa. But whenever I had attachments, he would make trouble for me and help me get rid of my attachments.
After I started making information materials, my attachments to proving myself started growing. When I was writing this article, a fellow practitioner told me I was always inpatient when he picked up materials from me; that my attitude made him feel like he owed me something; that everyone had to follow my schedule to pick up their materials. When I first heard his comment, I was quite upset, thinking, "You had the ability to make your own materials, yet you all relied on me to provide them to you. How could I have time to study the Fa if I followed your schedules?" The next day I studied Lecture Two of Zhuan Falun. Master said:
"In offering salvation to people, there is no condition or consideration for cost, reward, or fame. They are thus far more noble than the heroes of everyday people. They do it completely out of their benevolent compassion."
I knew I was wrong and apologized sincerely to my fellow practitioners. Once my xinxing improved, I realized that the desire to prove myself was an attachment that should be overcome.
The above are my experiences in the past few years; please kindly point out any mistakes or misunderstandings.
(Clearwisdom.net) September 28th is Confucius' birthday and also Teacher's Day in Taiwan. Education is a great undertaking and the foundation of a strong and prosperous country. For those people who have a heart for education or are already in the profession, the challenge is how to lead every student to discover his/her own mystery of life with love and wisdom and to provide them with a good influence through education. The following are some experiences of Falun Gong practitioners regarding cultivation and teaching and influencing students in different stages of childhood.
Principal Hong Tengxiang practicing Falun Gong exercises. Cultivation helps educators understand the art of teaching.
Studies show that meditation can help adults gain a new outlook on life and help children concentrate better while studying and improve their immune systems.
Mr. Hong Tengxiang majored in history in college, and pursued education in his graduate studies in Taiwan and the United States. He has worked as an educator in middle schools for thirty years. He shares his experiences below.
Being Strict with Students
Following the belief that teaching requires strict rules and that education ought to focus on the whole person, I have served as the principal at three private middle schools. Currently, I still hold the record for supervising the highest number of students in Taiwan. One school still calls me the "No. 1 Principal" even after I was gone for more than ten years. I currently serve as the principal of the Huideng Middle School in Yilan. I have always taught my students to be goal-oriented, and I am known for being strict with them. My students are known for good discipline and grades.
Cultivation Gives Me More Wisdom
After I started practicing Falun Dafa in 2003, my idea of education changed dramatically. Although the problems with our youth still exist and may even become worse, they no longer weigh me down. I follow Mr. Li Hongzhi's Falun Dafa, treating education as a way of saving people, and I apply my wisdom to the school's operations. The results have been very good. In the last two years, our school has scored the highest in middle school standardized tests in our county. There has been general improvement in the morals of both students and teachers.
School is an institution for training and education. Middle school is a place for guiding students through their transition from being regulated by others to self-regulation. Therefore, there is both teaching and discipline involved. Educating students is not only for passing along knowledge, but it also includes skills for life. I ask teachers to discipline and teach at the same time and not to always punish students by marking down incidents of misconduct.
Corporal punishment and scolding certainly are not the best method for education or the only disciplinary method. When answering a question in Zhuan Falun Fajie, Mr. Li Hongzhi said,
"We stress Ren, and you shouldn't hit or curse at children as you please, including your own children. It is proper for you to discipline them; it's not okay if you don't teach your children. You have to teach them. There are different ways of teaching, but you can't let yourself get too angry in disciplining children--how could that be allowed? You can't get mad when disciplining children, don't actually get mad." (Teaching the Fa and Answering Questions in Zhengzhou)
Education is an art. It is not that a government could issue an order and everything would be fine. Some teachers are afraid of breaking regulations and won't discipline students at all. Some teachers got so upset with students that they retired early.
Teacher also said in Zhuan Falun Fajie,
"Children should be disciplined. If you don't discipline them and only indulge them, you will lose virtue. If you don't discipline them you haven't lived up to your responsibilities as parents, so you should discipline them. If your kids don't behave, it's fine if you teach them a good lesson. But you can't treat them like animals--that won't do. This distinction must be clear. When disciplining children, don't lose your temper. It's no good if you really lose your temper, since there is the issue of Ren for you. Ren doesn't mean to forbear after you have lost your temper. Instead it's about not losing your temper in the first place." ("Teaching the Fa and Answering Questions in Yanji")
Education Based on Zhen-Shan-Ren
Since I started cultivating in Falun Dafa, I have been using Zhen-Shan-Ren (Falun Dafa's principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance) and Teacher's words as the foundation for operating the school. Whether it is talking to teachers and students or setting up school regulations, I always remember to inject the Fa into it. With Teacher's Fa, I know that the school will be good. Teacher said in "Touring North America to Teach the Fa",
"Although nowadays the education given in schools can't teach children to be good and it indulges children's thinking, the knowledge that's available can still help them in understanding the Fa later on. Of course, it's better to have schools run by Dafa disciples, but until we have them I think it's better to let him acquire some knowledge. And then when he comes home you can read Zhuan Falun to him and teach him how to conduct himself."
My current goals are to be a good person at work, establish a good school, do my job well, and save people while cultivating myself by following the spirit of Falun Dafa wisely. Even though today's education environment is not very good and children of today are hard to teach and discipline, as a Falun Dafa disciple, it is my duty to do my best. The truth is that since I started practicing Falun Dafa, our school really is getting better and better. The enrollment of students continues to increase. We have 800 to 900 middle school students from as far as Shoushan District of Taipei County. That is the mighty virtue of Dafa.
Ms. Lin Cuimei has taught elementary school for almost three years. She is able to continue teaching with a smile through cultivating Falun Dafa.
Before she started cultivation, no matter how hard she worked, the students wouldn't listen to her. The following is her story.
In the past, I thought of myself as a hardworking teacher. When students did not do well with schoolwork, I would do my best to teach them. When they misbehaved, I would lecture them with deep concern. However, my anxiety did not help the students make much progress, and my health started to show signs of deterioration. Almost every semester, I would take a week off to recover from inflammation of my vocal chord. Because I had a habit of losing my voice, the doctor told me that I should slow down because my life was so fast-paced. I was so surprised. Isn't everyone like that, especially people living in Taipei City? But I also noticed that the children did not seem to care about my efforts. After two years, even though I talked and talked with all my strength, my reward seemed disproportionate to the effort I put in.
Cultivating the Heart - Getting Rid of the Attachment to Self; Doing the Exercises to Strength the Physical Body
By chance, someone told me that a person should cultivate. At the time, I thought to myself: I treat others with honesty and never do anything hurtful to others. My tolerance isn't very good, but how hard can cultivation be? I constantly reminded myself that I should be more tolerant in addition to treating others honestly and doing good deeds. I told myself that I should not get angry at will, so I decided to try to cultivate on my own first. However, when I faced a conflict with a school staff member one day, I couldn't control myself and became very angry. In the heat of the moment, I vented my anger, but I regretted it very much afterwards. So I decided that I needed to cultivate my xinxing. I started to read books about elevating one's character and realized how much I fell short. When I thought I was being considerate of others, deep inside I wanted others to follow my will. I always thought of myself as being correct - no wonder I had so many conflicts with family, students, and colleagues. In the process of studying Falun Dafa's books, I keep digging into my heart to get rid of the root of the problem. I continue to correct myself. Through doing the exercises, I have become calmer in temperament.
The strange thing is that whenever I have a problem, the answer comes to me naturally when I study the Fa calmly, as if it is reminding me that I need to continue to correct myself. In the process, I found that my chronic vocal cord inflammation was cured without any treatment. I no longer need a week every semester to recover from physical illness. In my interaction with children, I no longer use harsh punishment or scolding to teach them to do the right things. When a child makes a mistake, I am willing to give him a chance to correct himself. I tell him, "Everyone makes mistakes. The important thing is to see our shortfalls truthfully. Instead of defending yourself, why not calm down and take a look at yourself." At the beginning, many children followed their old habits and constantly defended themselves in fear of punishment. Slowly, they found that making a mistake is not unforgivable. They were able to calmly tell me the area that they could improve on.
Continuing to Educate with a Smile
In the recent election of model students, I asked the children to list various criteria for a model student. Some mentioned the ability to examine oneself, admire others' merits, forgive others' mistakes, honesty, responsibility, and others. When a child can truly see the good in others, I think that our efforts in education have succeeded in that area. Teacher said,
"I often say that if all a person wants is the well-being of others and if this is without the slightest personal motivation or personal understanding, what he says will move the listener to tears." ("Clearheadedness" from Essential for Further Advancement)
In the process of teaching students, I am finally able to understand the true meaning of those words. I am now able to continue teaching with a smile.
(Clearwisdom.net) Since Master has said that Dafa practitioners are getting "more and more mature" ("Fa Teaching at the US Capital") and especially when Master's new article "Thoroughly Dissolve the Evil" came out, practitioners in my area were enlightened to the need to catch up with the process of Fa-rectification. We need to follow what Master has said:
"Particularly the Dafa disciples in each region of mainland China--are to concertedly send righteous thoughts toward those evil places, thoroughly dissolving all evil beings and elements that persecute Dafa disciples, clearing away the evil circumstances under which Dafa disciples are persecuted in mainland China, and saving the world's people, [thereby] fulfilling the duties of a Dafa disciple and advancing toward godhood."
We set up a group Fa study in our workplace, where we have a place to send forth righteous thoughts and help those being persecuted.
Below is our small group Fa-study's sharing, offering some initial suggestions, and upgrading as one. If there's anything inappropriate, practitioners should please point it out.
Every Friday, we have our small group Fa-study from 8AM to 4PM. Whenever it is time to send forth righteous thoughts, we all follow Master's guidance to "Thoroughly Dissolve the Evil" and send forth righteous thoughts to all those forces behind the labor camps, detention centers etc.
In our group Fa-study, a couple practitioners gave us their sharing regarding doing the three things.
One of the practitioners is a 60-year old woman. She had a strong attachment of fear, which made her not want to clarify the truth. After many group study sessions, and reading other practitioners' articles on Minghui.org, she realized that clarifying the truth to villages and rural areas was another way to save sentient beings. Master said,
"All Dafa disciples, students both new and veteran, should get to work and begin comprehensively clarifying the truth. This is especially so for the Dafa disciples in Mainland China: each must come out and clarify the truth, bringing it to every field and valley, mountain and hill, not omitting a single area where there are people." ("Let Go of Human Attachments and Save the World's People").
So she obtained 200 flyers and went with another practitioner to clarify the truth to a town that has been persecuted quite strongly. It gave the evil forces a big blow.
Another practitioner was passing out flyers at night, when she and another practitioner got lost. They didn't have a choice but to call a taxi. The taxi driver wanted more money than usual. The practitioner decided to clarify the truth to him and asked him to resign from the Party. This driver soon acknowledged the truth and resigned.
Another practitioner is a 67-year old villager. She lived in an area that didn't have any Dafa practitioners for more than a hundred miles around. She obtained Dafa a little late, she couldn't read, and her farming work occupied most of her time. Because of this, she asked her husband to read Zhuan Falun and Master's articles to her. At the same time, she was learning it word by word. By now, she can read Zhuan Falun fluently. Since she didn't have time to study and practice the exercises during the day, she would wake up at 3AM to do this. Now, even a 30-40 year old couldn't beat her in picking cotton. Sometimes she will go around passing out truth-clarification flyers and will walk more than 10 li (one li is about 1/3 of a mile or half of a kilometer).
One time, she and her sister (also a Dafa practitioner) went out to distribute truth-clarification materials. When they passed a local police station, her sister said, "We don't need to give truth-clarification flyers here." But this practitioner said, "I have to save sentient beings, they have to know the truth." She left a flyer inside the police station.
This practitioner always uses materials that would suit the needs of a farming village. Every time before she goes out to pass out truth-clarification materials, she will send forth righteous thoughts and ask for Master's help. The truth-clarification materials will be tied on to something a farmer would see (like a cotton plant), there would be one tied on to something for every half li that she walks. When a farmer gathers his crops, he reads the truth-clarification material or brings them home.
Farmers also have a habit of passing news around when they get it. This practitioner does things sincerely, so she is able to finish 10 li. Some practitioners tried persuading her to not hand out truth-clarification materials in her nearby surroundings. She replied, "No, the people that live near me have a greater predestined relationship with me, so how could I not do it? Time is of essence, I need to hurry up and save sentient beings."
After hearing what this practitioner said, we were all very encouraged. We also acknowledged as Master said that sharing can help us upgrade our levels, find our mistakes, and strengthen our righteous thoughts while walking the path towards enlightenment.
(Clearwisdom.net)
An Older Practitioner I Met Recently
Once when I was distributing truth clarification materials I met a 70-year-old practitioner. She stopped and told me all about what had happened to her that day. Her relatives' child had a wedding ceremony. At the wedding the practitioner began to explain the truth to all the guests and the neighbors. A dozen people immediately wanted to quit the evil CCP and its affiliated organizations.
While she was explaining the facts, a police car stopped in front of her. Five policemen got out of the car and viciously queried her. The old practitioner did not worry a bit. She remembered Master's Fa. When the policemen asked one thing she answered about something else. The policemen wanted to push her into the police car. At that important moment, she thought about Master again. She shouted, "Master! Master! That is not the place that I should go. I cannot go." The policemen stood in amazement and then they drove away.
During our conversation, I saw her persistent belief and pure heart towards Master and the Fa.
She showed me her leg, which had been injured walking through tall grass. The injury happened several days ago when she crossed through the grass to clarify the truth. Over the years she has not had contact with other practitioners, but she has done as Master required by not waiting or relying on others. Without a source of truth clarification materials she went out to paste "Falun Dafa is good" on the walls to let people know the truth. Almost all of her clothes were stained with oil paint. She has posted phrases all over the city and the districts. She always explains the facts and urges people to quit the CCP whenever she meets them. She told me, "I have no other thoughts. I benefit from Dafa, so I just want to tell people that Dafa is good. To let them know the truth to save them."
This 70-year-old practitioner is doing the three things Master asked us to do. There are many touching stories about her. I think if all practitioners could strive forward vigorously like this elderly practitioner, the persecution of Falun Gong would end quickly.
An Eight-year-old Disciple Urges her Classmates to Quit the Young Pioneers
My daughter is eight years old. She has been learning Dafa for three months now. After hearing adults talking about quitting the CCP she has actively told her good friends to quit the Young Pioneers.
I asked her how she did this. She told me she asks other classmates to play and helps them. For example, she has a female classmate whose parents don't treat her well and who has to cook for herself, so she never has any food for lunch. My daughter gave her some pocket money for lunch. Afterwards my daughter suggested that she quit the Young Pioneers to save her life. This classmate was glad to quit. Five of her classmates have now quit the Young Pioneers.
I asked my daughter if she still sings the evil national anthem. She said, "Not any longer." When other people sing, she says "Falun Dafa is good" in her heart, or recites the formula of Fa rectification. She also asked me to teach her to sing songs composed by Dafa disciples.
A Compassionate Thought
Several days ago, when I was walking home after handing out truth clarification materials, I saw an older woman holding a truth clarification flyer that I just handed out. After she read it she was going to put it in the trash. As I saw this I immediately thought, "Ma'am, please be saved quickly!"
This is the compassionate heart of our Dafa disciples: please quickly look for the truth. A second thought can determine your future. I then saw the woman put the truth clarification material into her pocket instead of the trash. I felt very happy for her. I also sent out a compassionate thought that all the people who received the truth clarification materials be saved quickly and break free from the evil CCP.
Written on Sep7, 2007