Ye Xiufeng, a 65-year-old lady who is affiliated with the Administrative Station of the No. 1 Oil Extraction Plant in Daqing City, had been practising Falun Dafa since early 1995. A lay Buddhist before she started cultivation, she had suffered from many different illnesses including tuberculosis. Her health improved dramatically after she started to cultivate Dafa, and her faith was very strong. She often said: "its Dafa and Mr. Li Hongzhi who saved me, gave me my second life. Dafa is so precious, following my Teacher on the path of cultivation is definitely my choice." She would tell every person she came across about Dafa, and introduce Zhuan Falun to them.
She journeyed to Beijing to validate the Fa around mid-December 2000. Coming into Tiananmen Square, just as she got hold of one end of her banner, the police rushed up to tackle her. As the police grabber her arm, the banner she was holding opened up displaying "Falun Dafa is Good." At the same moment she exclaimed "Falun Dafa is Good" and her mouth was immediately covered. She was kicked and beaten while being dragged into a police vehicle, to be sent to the Qianmen Police Station. The police threatened to shoot her several times. She said: "Even if I am shot, I am determined to follow my Teacher to the end of my cultivation." That evening, she tidied up her clothes and dressed up her hair, waiting for the execution. Two nights passed; the execution did not come. A week later the police picked her up from The No 1. Oil Extraction Plant, and transferred her [back to Daqing] to the Saqu detention centre. In total, she had been on a hunger strike for 44 days. No matter how she was induced or threatened, her faith in Dafa was not shaken. When she was being interrogated, the policed asked: "Will you still practise?" She said: "Dafa is such a good way, most definitely I will." Seeing that her health condition was very poor, and yet she was so determined, the police gave up. They notified the police in charge of the local residence to come and pick her up. Police from the residential station came, and asked her would she still practise; she said: "Yes. I will practise." The police did not want her. They sent her away to yet another centre.
By then she had become very weak, even food could not be forced into her. On the day of the Chinese New Year, when the doctor came to administer the force-feeding, nothing could be forced down even though both the stomach and her esophageus had been punctured by the feeding tube. The doctor complained: "Because of you, we could not join our family for New Year." She answered: "I also would like to spend my New Year's Day at home. I did not keep you away from home on the New Year's Day; they did it to you." When the doctor left, the police ordered her to drink by herself but she did not. When the police found this out later, and said: "Why did you not drink it, isn't that a waste?" She replied: "How does wasting a class of powdered milk compare to wasting a human life?" The policeman was enraged, and poured it on her. A Dafa practitioner jailed in the same cell spoke up, saying: "Old granny is a Dafa cultivator, she is a good person, you must not mistreat her." Others all joined in: "Stop mistreating the old lady." The policeman vented his anger at the practitioner who spoke up first; she was dragged outside, "to be shot". The old lady said: "This matter does not concern her. If you want someone to blame, then blame me. If you want to shoot someone then shoot me, but we are all good people." The police still insisted on taking the practitioner away. Moments later, two shots were heard. The old lady felt very sad. She tidied up her dress and hair, and prepared for her own execution. In a little while the other practitioner was pushed back in, alive. The old lady felt much relieved, and introduced Dafa to the policeman. The police transferred the other practitioner away.
On the 45th day, the lady's condition was extremely poor. Being afraid that she might die in the centre, the police released her. Before letting her go, she was put through another round of threats.
When she finally returned home and fellow practitioners came to visit, she asked: "Did the Master write anything new?" Fellow practitioners showed her the Teacher's new scripts, and recited them together with her since she could not read by herself. This way, she studied and practised at home. During this period, police from the station came and said to her: "The total cost of going to Beijing to pick you up amounted to 7,000 Yuan RMB, and you are responsible for its repayment." She said: "I have no money." The police contacted her unit and the management from the unit came to her again. She said: "My living expenses each month are 45 Yuan; adding all the subsidises on top of that, it comes to about 1,000 Yuan a year. You can make deductions from there if you want, until you've deducted enough." Leaders from the neighbourhood unit also came to accuse her: "Because of you, we've been fined 2,000 Yuan." She was also constantly disturbed by a policeman who came knocking at her door at night. One night he rang the doorbell for half an hour. (At the time, the elderly lady was very weak, plus the lock from inside the flat was broken, but she did not have the strength to go downstairs to answer the door.) The police continued to harass her, even installing a monitoring device in her residence.
In this way, even the tiny amount of monthly living allowance for the lone elder was cut; prolonged detention and torture caused the elderly lady constant severe chest pain. Unable to eat, she was extremely weak. On the evening of March 18th, past 7:00 pm, witnesses saw a dark figure falling down from the old lady's flat.
One day eventually, the complete truth of the elder lady's sad death will be known.
Dafa Practitioners from Mainland China
22nd March, 2001