(Clearwisdom.net)
14. The Police Said That They Did Not Want to Hold Me in the Forced Labor Camp for Even a Single Day
I had been locked in a vacant building for a full four months. On the evening of June 22, 2001, I was taken back to the "Intensified Monitoring Team." During the four months in the forced labor camp, I met many police from the highest to the lowest rank. I continuously clarified the truth to them. Some police asked me where they could find Falun Gong books . Some told me that they would read the books later. Some tried to persuade me to give up my practice. I told them that Dafa practitioners are willing to endure everything including loss of freedom and even life for the sake of Dafa. A policewoman said: "I would like to make friends with people like you practitioners."
When I came back to the "Intensified Monitoring Team," the environment had changed. Fellow practitioners all sat in full lotus position on beds, reciting Teacher's articles everyday, and practicing the whole set of exercises. Criminal cell-mates would not dare to beat or curse practitioners at will. I once again experienced what Teacher said about "The environment is created by you, yourselves" (Essentials for Further Advancement). Later, fellow practitioners passed around Teacher's new articles to me and I learned them all by heart. I also started sending forth righteous thoughts everyday.
But the evil forces were not willing to resign themselves to this. Gong Chunbo said that she was criticized at the duty-shift meeting because it was said that the "Intensified Monitoring Team" was, on the contrary, the least strict. She told us that we were not allowed to sit on beds but only on little stools. I knew that their purpose was not to let us practice Falun Gong. So I said loudly: "To sit on the little stool is one kind of physical punishment; I won't do it!" Most fellow practitioners still sat on beds in full lotus. Zhu Tiemei and Chen Chunmei asked me to put my legs down from the lotus position. I said: "According to which law am I prohibited from sitting in full lotus? If you cannot stand to see someone sitting in full lotus, why don't you go to temples and straighten the legs of the Buddha statues?" The two guards had nothing to say. Under the circumstance, since no one cooperated with the evil, the police forced the criminal cellmates to sit on the little stools everyday.
I also heard that Liu Guihua had been released from the forced labor camp by going on a hunger strike with righteous thoughts. On the day she left, she was still given an intravenous glucose drip. Previously we held a group hunger strike and Liu Guihua and Luan Xiuyuan continued to intermittently go on hunger strikes. Finally after 5 months of determined righteous belief and indomitable spirit, they re-entered the onrush of Fa-rectification. The cellmates told me that Luan and Liu continuously encouraged each other. After Liu was released, Luan continued her hunger strike for more than one month until she vomited blood and was unconditionally released by the labor camp. After Luan left, her cellmate stayed with me. She immediately told me that the police warned her not to tell me about Luan, otherwise they would choke her to death, but she could not help telling me the story. Luan was really extraordinary. For six months she was force-fed by the police. Later she only ate a little food once or twice every few days, but she did not drink water. She only had some soup when she ate. She was so dehydrated from her hungerstrike that she would dream of looking for water. When she just managed to find a well, the dream became a nightmare when she found that the water from the well was actually urine and excrement. Sometimes, due to severe dehydration she did not have any saliva and her lips were stuck together. On several occasions she vomited blood. The last time when she heavily vomited blood, she was released by the forced labor camp that was afraid of taking responsibility if she died.
For a month, I studied Teacher's new articles. I realized that I should not passively endure nor acknowledge the evil force's arrangement. Teacher told us in "Dafa Is Indestructible," "A Dafa disciple completely opposes everything arranged by the evil old forces." It was time for me to walk out of there with righteous thoughts. I understood that my enlightenment quality was poor and consequently I had wasted so much time, which let the evil conscientiously defame Dafa and poison so many people. People who are deceived are waiting for us to clarify the truth. Those practitioners who were forced to give in were waiting for my help. How could I continue to passively endure the persecution? In the forced labor camp, I had not submitted to the evil's demands, I had not put down a single word in writing, I had not signed anything, not been photographed, not attended one day of forced labor, but I only achieved half of the requirement. Fundamentally, I should not be held in the labor camp at all. I should completely oppose all the evil old force's arrangements! When I improved my understanding of the Fa, I immediately realized that I must get out of the demon's den!
I could not fall asleep that night, thinking about my experience in the labor camp. It was precisely because I considered myself as a human being, viewed things from the human perspective that allowed me to be held for so long. It was exactly like Teacher said in "Expounding on the Fa,"
"Whenever a tribulation comes, you do not see it with the side of your original nature but view it completely from your human side. Evil demons then take advantage of this point and inflict endless interference and damage, leaving practitioners in long-term tribulations. As a matter of fact, this results from an inadequate understanding of the Fa by your human side. You have humanly restrained your divine side; in other words, you have restrained the parts that have been successfully cultivated and prevented them from rectifying the Fa. How can the uncultivated side restrain your primary thoughts or the side that has already obtained the Fa? Having humanly fostered the evil demons, you allow them to exploit the Fa."
I realized that this exactly described what I had been passively enduring over a long period of time.
I started a hunger strike on July 26, 2001. Then I wrote an appeal letter to the local Procuratorate to expose the crime committed by police officers Guo Zhenshan and Li Xin who beat practitioners and punished them in accordance with the law. I never received a reply from the Procuratorate during the several months from when I wrote the letter until I got out of the labor camp. No justice can be found in the forced labor camp. The evil regime does not follow the law. However everything in the universe and history will be made right! It is the heaven's law that evil will never suppress the righteous!
On the sixth day of my hunger strike, I was subjected to being force-fed through my nose. Having been forced-fed on numerous occasions, I already knew how to prevent them from feeding me. I told them that they would not be able to force-feed me. As a result, they tried four times, three times they put the tubes into my trachea (air way), and another time, they inserted the tube into my nose but it came out my mouth. In the end, they had to give up. When they left, I said to them: "Don't leave, try it again!" The jail doctor dared not turn around.
The next day, they failed again. The police goaded me into eating. Because I still had not given up all my attachments, I thought I could fool them by eating a little bit every several days to avoid force-feeding and I could also get out if I insisted doing so, like Ms. Luan. Thus I started eating a little bit food and having some soup. I had a dream that night. I dreamt that I tried to get out of the camp through a window but I was too fat and I had some fears. When I woke up, I realized that it was not correct to eat, but what was it that I was afraid of? I was not afraid of being force-fed. I had been arrested several times and I do not remember how many times I have been force-fed through tubes. I did not feel that was too difficult for me to endure. Then what exactly did I fear? After a while, I realized that my attachment to food had not been relinquished. I had not put my whole being into the process of Fa-rectification. I still had not given up my attachment to life and death. I still had omissions. So at that time, I only thought that I could lose weight by eating less and thus I could get out.
After going back on hunger strike, I felt completely relieved. Besides, I did not feel at all sleepy day or night and so I slept very little. I always slept for a while in the evening and when I got up I sat on the bed and recited Teacher's articles and studied the Fa. I continuously recited the articles that I had learned by heart. I recited "Lunyu" again and again and I felt that my whole body was spinning. Whenever I recited the Fa, I felt very strong energy moving around my body. In addition, when I felt that I was not able to breathe or it was too hard for me to endure the thirst, I recited the Fa and after I kept reciting the Fa, I immediately became refreshed and clear minded and my mouth became moist again. Sometimes when my hands and feet felt cold, I recited the Fa and immediately my hands and feet became warm, bursts of heat were going through my whole body. Day after day, I felt time went by so quickly.
At night, I often did not sleep but sat on bed reciting the Fa. The police came in to shove me down to sleep, shouting at me the whole time. I got up every time she pushed me down. When she realized that it did not work, she started lying on top of me to force me to lie down. But I was still not affected and eventually they stopped trying. One day when I was lying on the bed, Gong Chunbo came in and pulled my head toward the monitoring camera. I did not obey her. Disregarding my weakened state from my two-month hunger strike, she grabbed my legs and dragged me. I told her to stop. But she only increased the torture by pulling my arms and dragging my legs.
When my hunger strike had gone on for about two weeks, five fellow practitioners also joined the long-term hunger strike to request unconditional release. During our hunger strike, the police ordered the criminal cellmates to read defaming articles from newspapers to us. The cellmates would be beaten if they refused to read. The criminal cellmate who lived with me had also lived with Ms. Luan for over three months. She deeply felt that Falun Dafa is good. She said that would definitely cultivate Dafa when she got out of the labor camp. She told the police that she was not able to read because she was illiterate. Some criminal cellmates were very much afraid and had to read. They were also beaten if their voices were low.
One day, five practitioners were taken from the second floor down to a restricted section. He Qiang ordered his fellow policemen to tie them to the "death beds" to punish them for refusing to watch TV programs and read material that slandered Falun Gong. These five practitioners were tied to the beds for 25 days and they refused to eat for the duration. When they were force-fed, such force was used that some of them bled profusely from their mouths. Some of them experienced strokes and were sent to the emergency room. Even so, He Qiang did not stop persecuting them, and he ordered inmates to read material slandering Falun Gong, to them. Policeman Gao Xiaohua often cursed the practitioners loudly. However, later it is said that when he was fixing a curtain at home he slipped and badly bruised his whole face. Obviously, he just met a small portion of his retribution.
When the five practitioners were untied from the "death beds," they did not want to return to their original section because they found that practitioners detained in this restricted section were free of forced labor and could sit in bed to practice meditation and study the Dafa material. So practitioners in this restricted section actually have earned much more freedom than in common sections. They told us that everyone in the camp knew that any practitioner in this restricted section was left to practice. This indeed convinced me that we could create a cultivation environment.
After the "self-immolation", event officers also forced us to watch the video and discuss it. We immediately revealed the fabrication, and claimed that these people were absolutely not Falun Gong practitioners, and the event was just a set-up. We pointed out that both Wang Jindong and that elderly lady talked about something unrelated to Falun Gong, and we could easily tell that they were not practitioners at all since they ridiculously talked about white smoke and sarira [a lusterous material found in cremated remains that is considered to be condensed energy matter]. This is nonsense. First of all the characteristics of Falun Gong are that we cultivate Falun, rather than internal alchemy. Without practicing internal alchemy, how can practitioners develop sarira? Even policemen know about this and call us simply "Falun" guys, how could those foolish actors in the video deceive any one? After that the officers did not order us to watch those videos any more.
After those five practitioners were untied from the "death beds", He Qiang took down several more practitioners and tied them to the beds. They were sent down because they demanded the removal of the slanderous slogans on hallway walls. Seeing Ms. Zhao, an elderly woman among these practitioners, I couldn't help but yell at He Qiang, "Do you not have an ounce of decency left? Look at how tightly you tie them to the beds for such a long time! And you even did this to an elderly lady!" He did not listen to me, but shouted to a policeman and ordered him to tie practitioners tighter. To support these practitioners, I began a hunger strike. He Qiang threatened me, "If you continue your hunger strike, I will handcuff you to the bed too." I replied, "I am not afraid of death, you cannot threaten me. You had cuffed me before, but what did you get?" More practitioners in this restricted section joined the hunger strike too.
He Qiang once shamelessly asked me, "I have never personally beaten you, aren't I a good man?" I rebuked, "Jiang has not beaten us, but how many practitioners have been killed and how many practitioner families have been broken, under his order. How many people he has deceived? Could you say that he is a good person?" He had nothing to say.
One day, He Qiang brought his daughter to the Labor Camp. Once she entered the restricted section, she was surprised to see so many practitioners there. I told her, "There are more on the second and third floors." Then I asked her, "What do you think about Falun Gong?" She said, "It must be very good. Otherwise, how can so many people practice it?" I concurred, "Yes. You are right. You can suggest to your father to stop persecuting Falun Gong. Otherwise, he will not have a good future." However, He Qiang lied to his daughter, "Don't believe her. She is the worst spy from Beijing." Later, when I met He Qiang I told him, "You could really learn from your daughter in thinking things through. She has a pure, upright mind and thinks rationally. Is maintaining your officer's position worth ruining your future?"
Another day, the Legislation Bureau of the Province sent some officers to investigate the situation at the camp. An officer spoke with each of us individually. I told him the truth and shared my experience with him. I told him that I had achieved all of the things ordinary people pursue, but my mind was still uneasy. Only after learning Dafa, did I begin to understand the real meaning and purpose of life. Now, I can give my life for Dafa if it is necessary, not to mention losing my good job. Then I told him about the inhumane treatment at the camp, and pointed it out to him that although the persecution had been launched more than two years ago, it will never conquer Dafa practitioners, since no one can change peoples' minds through persecution.
He said, "We indeed cannot defeat you. Could you tell us what we should do?" I told him, "If all of you officers could keep heart of justice, have a little bit of kindness, and have a little of human nature, the situation would be better. So, you really should not continue to be tools in this violent killing movement, which will only lead to your ruin as you hurt others. You can never conquer Dafa practitioners, since they can give up everything. Deep in my heart I truly feel very sorry for you, and really hope you can change yourselves so that you can have a good future too."
Ms. Liu Fangrang was also called out for a talk. She had been on a hunger strike for a long time so she could not stand up straight up and she even passed out once. Her health had worsened because she was fed rotten food when she refused to eat. Therefore, she reported these to the investigator and asked to be unconditionally released. Later she was unable to walk. She was eventually unconditionally released on the eve of National Day, just a couple of days before the end of her two-year forced labor education sentence.
About a month after we began our hunger strike, we still had some attachments so we were taken advantage of by the evil. They served us porridge, and tried to force us to eat just a little. So we had a little. However, once we started we could not control our desire for more. I felt it was not right, since that is not a real hunger strike. However, as I saw the others eat, I let myself go and had porridge for three days in a row. When I spoke with an officer, I realized that this was not right, so I said that I would not continue eating. She said, "Without eating, how will you survive?" I said, "No problem." I worried about some practitioners outside. Under the pressure, some of them had given up their practice, while some of them believed the slanderous material. I hoped to be released from the labor camp early because of my hunger strike and find them and help them come back to their cultivation. She honestly encouraged me, "Then I also hope you can continue your hunger strike, and go home earlier." I declared, "I certainly will."
Starting September 30, 2001, I refused food and water. The next day, He Qiang and Gong Chunbo tried to force me to eat. However, I had made up my mind, and no one would change it. Finally, He Qiang left, but he ordered Gong Chunbo, "If you cannot get anything into her today, I will deduct 200 Yuan from your salary."
From that time on, some higher-ranking officers often came to visit me. Xu Lifeng also came. I told him the truth and asked him to think about why such a large-scale persecution could not make Falun Gong practitioners give up. Even though the government has utilized so much manpower, and spent so much time and money, Falun Gong is actually spreading. Now people in more than 50 countries practice it. Why? Shouldn't this phenomenon be worth considering deeply? He listened to me thoughtfully, but when he saw Gong Chunbo walk in, he immediately changed to a serious face and said, "I am a party member, and I listen to the party's instruction." What a pitiful man. Why do you try to fool yourself?
Since that time, they force-fed me everyday until my throat bled. Sometimes, when they added a lot of salt I coughed the whole night. They also added some strange things that caused vomiting and a lot of diarrhea. Sometimes they could not insert the tube deep enough into my stomach. Then they used the thick syringe to inflate my esophagus like a big tire ready to explode. I struggled to have the tube removed from my nose and it took a long time before I could breath. It almost killed me that time.
Because I refused to eat for more than two months, I had almost no stool, but sometimes I urinated blood. I quickly lost a lot of weight so that I was less than 50 kilograms.
I knew clearly that I would either be released or die but I would not give up. So they force-fed me everyday, many officers came to try and force me to eat, but I refused. Following my example, Ms. Wang Junhua began her hunger strike on October 3, and Ms. Li Shuhua also joined in later. The officers were unable insert the tube in through her nose, and she howled with pain. To conceal their brutal feeding act, officers turned a radio on loudly whenever they fed her. Later, they would simply leave the tube in her esophagus. Ms. Li Shuhua is still in the camp, and she has become emaciated too.
One morning after a staff meeting, a guard said to me, "You cannot go. We discussed this at the meeting, especially those who are on hunger strikes. Otherwise everybody will be on a hunger strike. Also your family is not here and your behavior is... It's impossible that you, in particular, leave here"
It was another test for me, but I immediately realized that it was up to Master Li to decide and it also depended on whether I was qualified. Gao Jie arranged for an inmate to watch me. One day, the inmate was called out and when he came back, he said to me, "You cannot leave here. No matter how long you have been on a hunger strike, they will not let you go"
On October 14, ordered by the labor camp authorities my brother came to visit me from Beijing. He Qiang said to him, "As long as your sister refuses to eat, you cannot leave."
Two sisters of He Junhua came to Jiamusi City before my brother. They took He to the hospital for a checkup and found that he had a tumor in his liver. He was released on the second day. My brother was so sad when he saw me because I had become very skinny as a result of the torture. Being scared of the evil forces, he appeared very weak and helpless. He said, "Your term will be up in six months time. We'll just put up with it. He said that he would not leave me and that he would rent a room nearby and bring me food everyday. He also gestured that it cost money to get me out and that he didn't have much money. I said to him seriously, "Even if we have the money, we should not spend it that way. I should not be in here in the first place. I also told him that I would not put up with this one more day and that I would continue my hunger strike until I died. Influenced by my determination, he said, "I no longer care [about the labor camp's demands]. I will help you get out of here."
We were put in a room with surveillance. Both the Associate Political Commissioner and He Qiang were watching me. I knew that they were watching for my attitude. My brother started to look for the Director and the Management Section, and told them, "If my sister dies here, it will be me instead of the state emblem that will be hanging in front of the gate of the labor camp."
Three days after my brother arrived, I was still not eating. On the third day, specialists from the local hospital came to conduct physicals in the camp. They found that my blood pressure was 210 and that I had coronary heart disease. The director said to my brother, "Your sister is really sick. Take her to the hospital and have a checkup. Bring the doctor's note back. The Head of the Management Section also said, "We don't want to keep your sister here for one more day!"
We went to the hospital and got a note on my high blood pressure, but they couldn't find any problems with my heart. One day, the administration invited a coroner to examine me. He found that my blood pressure was 135/180, and the rhythm of the heart was 138/minute, and my legs were extremely swollen. The coroner told me that I was seriously sick and was in danger of dying. I heard that the administration was afraid that I would continue hunger strike, and they almost tried to bribe the coroner to get rid of me. They had wanted to extort some money from my brother, but when they saw the result of the medical checkup, they decided to leave my brother alone. They sent the report to the provincial government and had them approve bail for me on medical reasons.
However, the 610 Office in Beijing refused to accept me. Even though the administration said to them that I was about to die, they still refused to budge. In the end, the administration requested the provincial government to send me directly back to Beijing. My brother, who did not have warm clothes with him, waited for me for 24 days in the cold weather of this northern most city of China. The police from the management department said to him, "You have moved God."
When Gao Jie heard that I was leaving, he said, "You have achieved your goal." Of course, I am a disciple of Falun Gong.
On November 6, two section heads from the labor camp took me back to Beijing. One of them, Wang, was still receiving intravenous treatment. The administration felt that we got along all right. On our way, she kept asking me not to expose what happened in the labor camp on the Internet. I told her that I know what I should do.
After we arrived in Beijing, the local police station refused to accept me. My escort, Zhao, argued with them for the whole morning. He said that they had all the legal documents for parole on medical reasons. They could have released me back in Jiamusi had I not been a Falun Gong practitioner that needed to receive continued "re-education." The local police still refused, so they decided to negotiate in the afternoon.
At lunch time, Zhao said to Wang, "So she is good everywhere." In the afternoon, the police station refused their request for another meeting, saying that according to the higher officials, they couldn't take me. In the end, the two section heads called the labor camp, and in front of the director of the local police station, handed the certificate for bail to my brother. I was free!
During the 17 months when I was illegally detained, I was on a hunger strike for about six months. I finally negated the arrangement of the evil forces and walked out of the forced labor camp. Just as Master Li said, "...as long as you're able to understand the Fa from the Fa, there's nothing you can't achieve." (Fa-Lecture at the Conference in Florida, U.S.A) I know that things will not be smooth in the days to come. I can only steadfastly cultivate Dafa, following Master in the Fa-rectification to keep the vows I made ages ago.
March 21, 2002
P.S.
It took me a long time to finish writing this, stopping intermittently because sometimes I couldn't bring myself to remember the ugly scenes. But I knew that I should and I must write to expose the evil so the public could see the true colors of Jiang's regime.
Looking back, however, all the trials and tribulations I have been through are really nothing. I didn't feel like writing about them. But since I came out of the forced labor camp and while I was writing, I have received hints from Master Li many times in my dreams urging me to expose the evil. With Master Li's guidance and encouragement of my fellow practitioners, I finally finished it.
I sincerely hope that when going through trials and tribulations, fellow practitioners can truly understand what Master Li said, "As long as you study, any problem can be solved. As long as you cultivate and as long as you're able to understand the Fa from the Fa, there's nothing you can't achieve" (Fa-Lecture at the Conference in Florida, U.S.A.).
(The end of the whole series.)
