My name is Ruili Zhang and I'm an electrical engineer in Rhode Island. My brother, Ruifeng Zhang, formerly worked as the chief of the cotton-inspection section at the Cotton Textile Company in Shenzhou City, Hebei Province. His wife, Ms. Yanxiang Xu, originally worked as an accountant in the same company. They were both recognized as kind and honest people in their local community and workplace. They started practicing Falun Gong in 1994 and 1995, respectively. Since then, my sister-in-law became healthier and all of her illnesses disappeared. My brother also quit smoking and abandoned his addictive attachment of playing mahjong, which he previously often spent all night playing. Practicing Falun Gong made them both healthier and happier, and it gave them a more positive outlook on their lives. They started living in accord with Falun Gong's teachings of Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance, and became more selfless and let go of personal gains.
As the eldest son in our family, my brother took the initiative to look after our parents. Especially when my mother became seriously ill, my brother and sister-in-law went to live with my parents in order to take good care of them. Since they started practicing Falun Gong, they became more and more considerate and their family became more and more harmonious. In 1997, my brother became one of the volunteer local contact persons for a Falun Gong practice site in my family's area.
When Jiang began persecuting Falun Gong in July 1999, my brother and his wife were arrested and imprisoned several times. Our family life has been severely disrupted. On the one hand, my parents' home phone has been tapped and consequently my parents are afraid to tell me their situation. On the other hand, my brother and sister-in-law do not want our family, including me, to worry about them and therefore, they often tell us that they are fine and ask us not to worry. However, from pieces of information that I have received from Internet news, as well as from other people who know what has happened to them, I can feel the severe persecution they have been suffering.
On July 20, 1999, Jiang's regime officially started persecuting Falun Gong. After hearing the news, my brother and sister-in-law went to Beijing and wanted to use their personal cultivation experiences to appeal to the government to correct the wrong decision. Unfortunately, their goodwill was not accepted; instead, they were arrested and sent back to Shenzhou City by the police and were detained for a period of time.
In September 1999, my brother was detained for about a month and my sister in law was detained for 15 days. They were charged for continuing to participate in Falun Gong activities. Holding righteous thoughts, they openly and nobly stated in the police station, "Falun Gong is the truth and we will persist in practicing Falun Gong."
In October 1999, as the persecution was further escalated, both my brother and his wife were fired from their jobs, although the company allowed them to work unofficially for another year. At that point, my sister-in-law wrote an appeal letter to the local political and legislative committee. She thought that even if she would be arrested, she would still tell the truth. She was not arrested.
In December 1999, my sister-in-law and my brother realized the importance of safeguarding Dafa and therefore decided to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. Some other practitioners joined them. The Shenzhou government was very scared that so many practitioners would go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. The police arrested them when they were on their way to Beijing and detained them at Daxing detention center for three days, where my brother was violently beaten by the criminal inmates. They were then sent back to their hometown, Shenzhou City, where they were fired from their jobs, interrogated and imprisoned. My brother was held in Shenzhou detention center and my sister-in-law was detained in Yaoyang detention center. During detention, my sister in-law was hung up and handcuffed inside an iron cage during the very cold winter. She was even forced to stand on the ice and snow while being shackled during the course of half a month. Regarding the situation during that period of time, please refer to the article, "More Falun Gong Practitioners Tortured in Shenzhou" [1] Below is an excerpt from the article.
"In the beginning, both the officials and the other prisoners in the detention center were very rude and belligerent toward Dafa practitioners. Displaying a total lack of understanding about Falun Gong, they claimed that Master Li preached 'the end of the world'. When a practitioner politely explained to them that Master Li never said that, he was immediately beaten and abused with instruments of torture.
Many others were treated the same way if they practiced the exercise movements. Often they would handcuff two prisoners together, shackle their legs, then attach the handcuffs to the shackles, making standing and walking impossible. Bound up this way, people could not move around or go to the bathroom except with great difficulty. This form of torture is not even used on criminals waiting for execution, yet it is being used on Dafa practitioners for as long as three months at a time. Using this procedure, they try to force practitioners to swear they will discontinue practicing Falun Gong. Also, in order to change practitioners' beliefs, they threaten to expel them from the Party, expel them from school, fire them (and/or their family members) etc. They even threaten to harm their families and relatives. If practitioners' friends and families want to visit them, they have to bribe the guards. From teenagers to seniors of more than 60, all practitioners have to sleep on the ice-cold cement floor, drink cold water and eat cold corn bread, in which sand and rat droppings are frequently found. Practitioners' sentences are illegally extended, and they are not allowed to appeal.
Under these conditions, Dafa practitioners have been rock-solid in their beliefs. With no discontent or hatred, they take hardship as joy. They continuously spread Dafa to the officers and the other prisoners. Little by little the guards and the other prisoners started to understand the practitioners." [1]
In June 2000, my brother was sentenced to three and a half years in jail. When he refused to admit any wrongdoings and resisted being handcuffed, police beat him in the courtroom [1]. The only excuse for the court to convict my brother was that he was 'appealing in Beijing,' which is supposed to be a right ensured by the constitution. Thus he should not have been sentenced. The people from the local legal system were all aware of this. Judge Zhilin Yang said on July 18 after my brother's trial that my brother and another practitioner who was also wrongfully sentenced were enduring the punishment on behalf of all Falun Gong practitioners in the city. On the same day, the Judge, Mr. Yang said, "Throw away their letters appealing for justice as they are useless." Other people later saw that the letters my brother and the other practitioner wrote were thrown into a pigsty. After the sentence, my brother was sent to and imprisoned in the Hebei Yidong Prison in Fengnan City, Hebei Province.
Late in the year 2000, my sister-in-law was sent to a labor camp in Shijiazhuang for one and a half years without trial. "In the forced labor camp, they often use brutal means to persecute Dafa practitioners, including isolating the practitioners, beating them up, depriving them of the right to sleep for long periods of time, and not allowing them to have contact with others." [2] The leaders of each brigade in the labor camp used all kinds of means to force Dafa practitioners to speak according to the rumors from the propaganda machine. The police cruelly persecute the kindest citizens. [3] Because she refused to sign a letter renouncing the practice of Falun Gong, she was detained for an extra month. My sister-in-law was finally released in late July 2001 with the help of our family's efforts. Her company was not allowed to resume her job unless my sister-in-law wrote a statement to renounce Falun Gong. But she refused to do so. Later the local 610 office became afraid that she might go to Beijing to appeal if she had no job. Thus, they let her company take her back and give her only a temporary position with a very low salary, no bonus or any other benefits.
At the end of 2001, people throughout Shenzhou City of Hebei Province were forced to fill out a form declaring their view on the issue of Falun Gong. It was said that the order came from high-ranking officials. The lawless officials originally planned to detain all whose attitude towards Falun Gong didn't meet the requirements of the authorities. They would then be sent to brainwashing centers. However, since there were so many people who would not renounce Falun Gong, the authorities were unable to arrest all of them. However, some Falun Gong practitioners were sent to brainwashing centers. One evening around midnight, after she was asleep, seven or eight policemen broke into her home, abducted her and took her to the brainwashing center. In the brainwashing center, the detained practitioners were not even allowed to go outside and take a break. In January 2002, she was set free, but she was not allowed to resume her job. She has no income at all. I sent her a check to help her out.
One day at midnight in late April or early May 2002, a few police officers broke into her home again and arrested my sister-in-law. It is said that authorities arrested her with the excuse that she had an "overseas connection," perhaps because I sent her money. This time, they ransacked her home and confiscated her Falun Gong book and tapes. They also took away her savings book claiming that the money was provided by Falun Gong.
I have received very little information about my brother after he was sentenced and jailed. My sister-in-law visited him in 2001 and 2002 and took him some clothes, but their entire conversation was monitored and tape-recorded. The guards did not allow my brother to keep the clothes except for the underwear.
The brutal persecution against Falun Gong has torn apart my whole family. All of my family has suffered a great deal. My father especially has had to endure the most. He seems to have aged during this ordeal. He feels a great weight in his heart and the strain may be too much for him. My father was taking care my brother's daughter while both of her parents were forced away from their home. In addition, my father has been forced to pay the fines. My father told me once that even the officials in the detention center and prison knew that my brother is a good person and that he should never have been sentenced at all.
I am writing this letter to appeal to the whole society to help to rescue my brother, his wife and all Falun Gong practitioners who have been illegally and immorally imprisoned in China. They are enduring the persecution simply because they persist in speaking the truth and cultivating themselves in accordance with the principles of 'Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance". They benefited from practicing Falun Gong and they sincerely wish that people all over the world will know that "Falun Dafa is good" and benefit as well.
While enduring such a hardship, they really hope that they can get some help and someone can defend them, appeal for them and stop the brutal persecution. I hereby appeal to the entire society to help rescue my brother, my sister-in-law and all practitioners persecuted in China.
Reference:
[1] http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2000/11/7/6270.html
[2] http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/5/1/21545.html
[3] http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/5/9/21827.html
Category: Rallies & Protests
