Issued by Clearwisdom Net

Ms. Chen Donglin was one the two fortunate local practitioners who personally attended one of Master's nine-day seminars. After she attended the 1996 seminar in Jinan, Ms. Chen set up a practice site at her home. she made use of all her vacation and spare time to spread Falun Gong. Thanks to her efforts, we established many local practice sites in a short time; the number of local practitioners soon reached more than a hundred. At several places, because there were too many practitioners, practitioners had to use the daycare center at someone's workplace as the group practice site.

In 1999, Jiang's regime started to persecute Falun Gong. Ms. Chen and several local practitioners determinedly went to Beijing to uphold justice for Falun Gong. On July 23, Ms. Chen, her fellow practitioners from Xuzhou City, and more than 300 other practitioners recited Lunyu at Tiananmen Square at eight o'clock in the morning. Police officers in uniforms and plainclothes officers arrived and beat them brutally. Some of the practitioners' faces were bleeding; some had their clothes torn to pieces; some practitioners had their hair pulled out; many sustained bruises and swelling all over their bodies. The officers dragged the practitioners to a police van by their hair, beat them with their fists, and kicked them. The kindhearted practitioners were taken to a nearby courtyard. Armed police officers were soon dispatched to the courtyard. They forced the practitioners to sit on the ground and divided them into several dozen groups. The armed officers then surrounded them. Among the practitioners, there were elderly people, children, and a woman who was eight months pregnant. It was mid-summer and they sat under the burning sun. When the pregnant woman asked for a cup of water, her request was denied.

After an hour, the police called in several buses to move the practitioners to another location. When the practitioners arrived at their destination, they found out that they had been taken to the stadium in the Fengtai District of Beijing. More than ten thousand practitioners were already detained there before this group of practitioners arrived. A female police head gave orders to the police officers, and food and other things, including watermelon, were distributed to the police officers.

In the evening, the officers started to interrogate the detained practitioners and found out that practitioners came from provinces all over China. After being interrogated, the practitioners were taken by personnel to the representative officers of their hometowns stationed in Beijing. The remaining practitioners had to spend the night in the stadium, without food or water. When they needed to go to the bathroom, they had to report to the police and go to the bathroom under police escort. The police set a limit for the number of people who were allowed to go to the bathroom at a time.

On the second day, different provincial officers stationed in Beijing dispatched their staff members to take practitioners to their respective provinces. Those practitioners who did not follow their orders were held at the stadium. Those who were taken to their provincial offices were sent home. Their local police departments were notified to wait for them at railway stations. As soon as the practitioners got off the train, they were pushed into a police car and taken to the police station. After almost ten days of interrogation, they were sent back to their original workplaces. Their workplaces were required to put them under surveillance and they were not allowed to leave town.

Ms. Chen Donglin used to work as an electrical analyst at the Cement Factory of the Mining Bureau. After she returned from Beijing, she was assigned to a laborious and arduous position.

In December 1999, Ms. Chen was arrested by local police officers for duplicating videotapes of "The Jesus Film." The police took her to Xiaoqiao Police Station where they beat her cruelly. After the beating, officers handcuffed her to a tree to further torture her. On the same evening, when Ms. Chen's family went to visit her, Ms. Chen made a few complaints; as a result, the police deceived her into going into a room, where she was beaten savagely. Later, Ms. Chen and several other practitioners were sent to Sanbao Detention Center in Xuzhou where she was illegally detained for 15 days.

Ms. Chen was released at the end of December 1999. To prevent practitioners from going to Beijing to appeal, local police officers arrested several practitioners without cause. The practitioners were not released until the evening of New Year's Day.

On October 3, 2000, Ms. Chen went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong on her own. In Beijing, she met several practitioners from her hometown. They witnessed how the police officers beat and arrested practitioners at Tiananmen Square and sent them to detention centers. Some practitioners were recognized by their local police officers and then sent back to their hometowns.

Ms. Chen was able to escape the search and arrest in Beijing; however, she had to become a fugitive afterwards to avoid arrest. When she traveled to a place in Anhui Province, she was arrested and sent back to Xuzhou City where she was sentenced to three years of forced labor at Fangqiang Forced Labor Camp. Later, she was transferred to a detention center in Xuzhou. The guards in the detention center kept interrogating her. Because she was firm in her belief and refused to be "transformed," she was sentenced to four years in prison by Jiawang District Court after being held at the detention center for 18 months. she was sent to Hongze Lake Prison in Jiangsu Province to serve her four-year term. Two other practitioners were sentenced prison, one for four years and the other for three.

Practitioners from the northern part of Jiangsu Province are held at Hongze Lake Prison; practitioners from the southern part are held at Suzhou Prison.

As soon as Ms. Chen arrived at the prison, she was held at the "new prisoners team." she was forced to get up at 3:00 a.m. After a limited time for washing and teeth-brushing, she had to start manual labor. Sometimes she was assigned to sew the pieces of a football together, and sometimes she had to make holiday lights, women's underwear, ribbon bows, or hair bands.

When the detainees had meals or went to the bathroom, they were not allowed to exceed a certain time limit. For example, they only had two minutes to use the bathroom each time. After they finished their daily tasks, they had to recite the prison rules.

The first detained practitioner in this prison was a native of Yangzhou City. she was sentenced to ten years when she was tried in Beijing. Immediately after she was incarcerated in Hongze Lake Prison, two practitioners from Suining were sent to the prison. Because they firmly refused to be "transformed," they were transferred to other divisions to serve their terms. In an attempt to "transform" practitioners, the prison authorities set up a dedicated division and tried to incite the guards by rewarding them with several thousand yuan if they were able to successfully "transform" a practitioner.

By the time Ms. Chen was sent to Hongze Lake Prison, the prison had established tactics to "transform" practitioners. Many of the leaders and guards from this prison were promoted to be officials in other prisons and forced labor camps because they had a lot of experience in brainwashing practitioners. They first of all studied an imprisoned practitioner's background and then asked former practitioners (collaborators) to go to the practitioner's home to pretend to comfort her family members. The whole process was videotaped and then shown to the practitioner involved, in an attempt to "transform" that practitioner by taking advantage of her affection for her family. The officials also had private conversations with practitioners or had several guards threaten a practitioner. Then they ordered the collaborators to force the practitioner to watch slanderous DVD programs and share their "understandings." If the practitioner remained firm, the guards would put her in solitary confinement where the windows and the door are covered with newspaper. The practitioner is completely separated from the outside world and has to eat, drink and relieve himself inside the small cell.

The prison authorities usually ordered criminal inmates to monitor practitioners 24 hours a day. Practitioners are required to write a report on their thinking every day. If the practitioner refuses to be "transformed," the collaborators take turns to instill in her their vicious thoughts day and night. For those very firm practitioners, the guards even call a denunciation meeting, to threaten other practitioners who haven't been "transformed."

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Mo Yongbing is about 60 years old. He has been repeatedly persecuted for practicing Falun Gong and is now detained in Yongchuan Prison.

In 2002, Wang Kaisheng from Qunli Town Police Station and other police officers broke into Mr. Mo’s house and ransacked it. At that time, Mr. Mo did not feel well and was lying in bed. Wang Kaisheng ordered him to go to the police station with him. Mr. Mo said that he was unable to walk and had been bedridden for several days. Wang Kaisheng announced that if he could not walk he would be carried to the police station. Two other officers then carried Mr. Mo out and pushed him into the police car. They took him to the detention center in Moxi County. Wang Kaisheng returned by himself to ransack Mr. Mo’s house and found 600 yuan in a book. At that time, only Mr. Mo’s wife was at home. She has been paralyzed for many years and depended on her husband to take care of her. She could only watch as the police took the only money their family had. She worried about her husband's well being, and had no money and no one to take care of her. She lived under extreme torment. Three days later, she died.

The police let Mr. Mo go home only after his wife had died. After his wife’s funeral, Mr. Mo went to Wang Kaisheng to get his money back. He told Wang that it was the money he earned with his hard work and begged him to return the money to him. Wang Kaisheng said that the return of the money depended on his performance. After awhile, Mr. Mo went to ask for the money again. Wang said that the money had been confiscated because of his poor performance.

In 2003, Wang Kaisheng told Mr. Mo to go to Qunli Town Police Station in an attempt to force him to give up his cultivation of Falun Gong, but Mr. Mo refused to cooperate. Wang Kaisheng then sent him to the Suining Brainwashing Center. After that, Mr. Mo had to live on the streets to avoid further persecution.

On July 24, 2005, Mr. Mo was arrested by Wang Kaisheng and officers from the Hechuan National Security Group of Chongqing City. He was detained in Hechuan Detention Center in Chongqing City. Later, he was secretly sentenced to three years in prison by the Hechuan Court and transferred to Yongchuan Prison in Chongqing City. He is now in the Third Prison District of Yongchuan Prison. Mr. Mo is suffering from inhuman torture in prison. His family members were prohibited from seeing him when they visited.

Jiamusi Prison has always been active in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners.

For instance, in the third prison, prison guard Song Yunlong has been the most active criminal involved in persecuting practitioners. He instigates convicts to monitor practitioners, not allowing them to communicate with each other and recording all their daily activities, including even trivial things like their clothing, what they eat, how they live, and if they take a walk. The guards try to force practitioners to write "Regret Letters" and instigate the convicts (mostly people who have committed homicide) to beat practitioners brutally if they refuse to cooperate. The guards even encourage the convicts, telling them that no matter what methods they use, as long as they are able to "transform" Falun Gong practitioners, their sentences will be reduced. (Convicts Zhang Jincheng and Hu Chuansuo both had their terms reduced this way, and they were released.)

With someone backing them, the convicts have no worries not matter what they do. Practitioners are forced to stand every day against the wall, with their heads bent down, their legs on the table, and a tub full of water hung from their necks, bending 90 degrees at the waist. This is just one of the many wicked methods of persecution that they have used. If they refuse to write "Regret Letters," the guards beat them with their closed fists, and when their fists get tired, they use their batons. Practitioner Mr. Duan Yifa was beaten so badly that he could not get out of bed for a week. His entire buttocks, back, and legs all turned purplish black and did not recover for a month. Some prisoners with a conscience have said, "These guards are inhuman!" Another practitioner, Huang Shisheng, was beaten so badly that he could not straighten his body for a long time. In some prison districts, practitioners were prevented from sleeping for seven days and seven nights. Other districts used the most brutal and inhumane torture methods, such as "Bamboo Sticks" (inserting bamboo sticks into practitioners' fingernails). Some practitioners were tortured to the brink of death.

Deputy Prison Chief Liu Changyu is the most vicious prison guard. He has committed himself fully to persecuting practitioners. Under his instigation, the guards force practitioners to work and perform labor.

When practitioners go on hunger strikes to protest against the persecution, the authorities force-feed them. After Liu Junhua started a hunger strike on December 6, prison guard Peng Lin made criminal inmates carry Mr. Liu to the work area everyday and carry him back at night. This continued for a month, even when he was unable to take it anymore. On a hunger strike for half a month, added to the inhumane torture and brutal force feeding, Liu became very weak. His esophagus was injured by the plastic tube inserted down his throat and he developed a dry cough and vomited blood. Peng Lin even said, "If you do not insert it properly take it out and insert it again." With a plastic tube inserted down his esophagus into his stomach for more than ten days, his esophagus was damaged, and Liu was in a lot of pain. He was on the brink of death and could not be force fed anymore.

Even then, instead of releasing him, he was sent to the hospital for another 40 days of persecution. His elderly parents flew over to visit him from overseas and could not even recognize the emaciated Liu from his handsome and energetic former self. Liu's mother fainted immediately and was only rescued after a lot of effort in the hospital. In order to evade responsibility, Liu's mother was lied to and told that if they had not force fed Liu, he would have died long ago. Liu's mother was deceived into believing the authorities' story and, instead of chiding them for their crimes, began trying to persuade Liu to eat.

Jidong Men's Prison is located in the Fengnan District, Tangshan City, Hebei Province. It is a remote area. Many practitioners are detained and persecuted in this prison.

Since each team in the prison is in a separate area, practitioners are divided among the different teams. Some teams only have one practitioner. Each practitioner is kept with four to six criminal inmates. Due to the prison's remoteness, some practitioners are not able to see their family members for several years, and the prison officials tightly control communications to prevent the persecution from being exposed. Only a few individual cases have become known publicly.

The prison officials use many brutal methods to torture practitioners in order to try to make them renounce Falun Gong, such as shocking them with electric batons, forcing them to stay under the burning sun, beating them, and putting them in solitary confinement in cells without sunshine for several months. They have ordered the criminal inmates to surround and beat practitioners and threatened to beat them to death. Some practitioners were deprived of sleep for a long period of time. They also invited people who gave up the practice of Falun Gong to come to the prison to help force the practitioners to give up their beliefs.

Below are the current situations of some of the practitioners in Jidong Prison:

The 1st Detachment:

Mr. Liu Yongwang, 35 years old, is a practitioner from Baoding City, Hebei Province. He is an electrical engineer. He has been on hunger strike for more than five months and is in critical condition.

The 2nd Detachment:

Mr. Meng Fanquan, 45 years old, is a lecturer at Hebei Technical University in Tangshan City. He was sentenced to seven years in prison and has been detained in Jidong Prison since October 2006.

Mr. Han Xueyu is a practitioner from Fengrun District, Tangshan City and was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2003.

Mr. Kang Yongqiang, about 50 years old, is a practitioner from Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province.

Mr. Wei Haiwu, about 50 years old, is a practitioner from Baoding City.

The 4th Detachment:

Mr. Yang Jianpo, about 50 years old, is a practitioner from Langfang City, Hebei Province. He has been on a hunger strike for over 300 days and should be on parole for medical reasons. However, the prison officials refused to release him, and currently Mr. Yang's life is in danger.

The 5th Detachment:

Mr. Sun Jianzhong is a practitioner from the Fengrun District, Tangshan City, and was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2003.

Mr. Zhang Yunping, 50 years old, is a practitioner from the Tangshan City Iron and Steel Company. He was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2003.

Over 100 practitioners are currently jailed in Jidong Prison.