(Clearwisdom.net) I am a resident of Dongguan Village, Laishui Township, Laishui County, Hebei Province. I began practicing Falun Gong in early March of 1998. I gained both mental and physical health through the practice, and therefore my entire family began practicing Falun Gong. After Jiang Zemin started the persecution of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, I went to Beijing to appeal and to clarify the truth. All means of transport and all routes were monitored and checked by officers to prevent Falun Gong practitioners from going to Beijing to appeal. I traveled to Beijing on a bicycle.

Police officers and plainclothes were everywhere, on Tiananmen Square and Chang'an Street. Soon after, several plainclothesmen pushed us into a police car and took us to the Laishui County Public Security Bureau. After writing down our names, we were detained at a meeting room on the third floor of the Laishui Township Government Building and were coerced to write guarantees to renounce the practice. After we returned home, officer Yang Zhenwen from the township government and the accountant Xia Hongshu of our village came to take away our Falun Dafa books and tapes. They threatened that if we refused to submit the books that we would be sent to brainwashing sessions or forced labor camps.

On August 1, 1999, village officers Li Qibao and Xia Shuyan tricked us, saying: "The township government invites you to come to a meeting. It won't take too long." In reality, several practitioners from our village were taken to the Laishui Township Middle School to attend a brainwashing session organized by the township Communist Party (CP) secretary Hu Yuxiang and township head Liu Zhengfu. During the brainwashing session, we were confined in classrooms and were coerced into reading articles slandering Falun Dafa. Even eating or using bathrooms were monitored. They beat practitioners and forced every one to pay 300 yuan (1) after the ten-day brainwashing session. After being released, we were forced to report to the village office three times a day, and write a "thought report" each day.

In March 2000, practitioners from several villages were arrested by township government employees. On March 20, 2000, I went to Beijing to appeal this. In Beijing, I asked police officers directions to the appeals bureau. They asked me what for. I said, "The Laishui township government unlawfully detained Falun Gong practitioners. I came to appeal." The police officers arrested us and sent us to the Baoding City's Liaison Office in Beijing and ordered the Laishui Township to pick us up. As soon as we arrived at the Laishui Township government courtyard, deputy CP secretary Li Dawei forced us to kneel down in the courtyard. After the officers finished their lunch, they started attacking us. We were kicked down and forced to kneel again. Han Jinjiu forced me to raise my hands above my head for over half an hour. Li Dawei forced several female practitioners and me to kneel down in the courtyard together with our hands raised up above our heads. After the officers were tired, they locked us in a dirty dark room.

The next day, my wife visited me with my two children. My kids cried, as they wanted me to come home. Right at that time, township head Liu Zhenfu and Li Dawei came. They stripped the clothes off my upper body and asked me: "Are you going to Beijing again?" I did not reply, so they beat me with wooden canes. Li Dawei hit my back with a cane until my back was bloody. It took half a month before I began to heal.

On April 6, 2000, the Laishui County organized another large-scale persecution. They took practitioners to the Laishui CP School. Officers Hu Yuxiang, Su Sheng, and Township head Cai sent us to the CP school. Officers from the township level cruelly tortured us. They divided us into three groups. Each group was abused using a different method.

I was in the group monitored by the Public Security Bureau, which was headed by Li Zenglin, the chief of the Political and Security Section. The following day, Sun Guijie and Liu Yaohua, together with other officers, told us to line up and tried to force us to curse our Teacher. Since we refused to curse, they kicked our shins to make us kneel down. To assure that we felt more pain, they put sharp small stones underneath our knees. Suffering cruel pain, we were forced to kneel there for the entire morning.

On the third day, officers forced us to line up again. I told them that I had committed no crime. Police officers said, "Go talk with your township officers." After a while, we were taken before Su Sheng and township head Cai. I told them, "We practice Falun Gong for good health. We follow Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance because we want to improve our behavior, and we wish to be good people. My entire family has benefited. What's wrong with that?" They said, "The central government has banned Falun Gong, so we will transform you." Two police officers came to drag me out and slammed my head against a wall heavily. I lost my sight and thought. I felt tremendous pain and it felt as if my head exploded. I lost count as to how often they threw my head against the wall before I was pushed into the bathroom. Two police officers' held my collar, and then slapped my face cruelly. My face swelled immediately and blood began to drip from the corners of my mouth. My eyelids swelled and the skin on my face became stiff. They took a break only when they were tired. There is a one-meter deep toilet bowl in the bathroom. Police officer kicked me down on the ground and then forced me to kneel down at the edge of the toilet bowl. They then pushed my head into the bowl. The pain was excruciating and unbearable. They proceeded to kick my private parts. The piercing pain caused me to roll and twist on the ground. My body was covered with mud and sweat. After I returned to the cell, my lower body was stiff and I could no longer move.

On the fourth day, Liu Zhengfu told Sun Guijie (the deputy County CP Secretary) that I appealed in Beijing. At 10 p.m., Sun, together with over 10 people from the "610 Office" took me to another place. Sun ordered that I be force-fed. Several people held my hands and someone turned my head so I would face up. Someone pinched my nose so I would breathe through my mouth. Then someone stuffed my mouth full with dry steamed bread. They poured cold water into my mouth. Since my mouth was full, it all ran out onto my clothes. The wet clothes made the cold night more chilling. My mouth became blue since I couldn't breathe and my eyes bulged out. The pain was beyond description. Then they put a metal spittoon on my head. They stopped only when I was close to death.

Before I was even allowed to take a full breath, Sun Guijie forced me to raise up one of my legs and arm, get up and stand facing a wall. He asked me questions. I did not reply. I was too exhausted to talk. Realizing that I did not respond, he became even more cruel. He took several puffs from his cigarette and then burned my lips with it. The pain was excruciating. I cried out while twisting my body, but Sun repeated the burning several times. I got three big blisters on my lips. The burning pain gave me chills and I broke out into a cold sweat.

Sun's people then held me face down on a chair, turned both my hands and feet behind my back until they were touching, leaving only my chest and face touching the chair. I was suffocating from this torture. At 3 a.m. Sun wanted to go home, so they dragged me back to the cell.

The fifth day, Liu Yaohua, the CP secretary of the Political and Judicial Committee of the public security bureau, brought ten people to the Party School to brainwash us. He asked if I would write a guarantee, I said "No." So police officers dragged me to the corridor, stripped me and bound me up, then dragged me back to the room and forced me to kneel down. Cai, one of the heads of the Laishui Township government slapped my face with a book. While beating, he asked if I would continue the practice; I said, "yes," so they kept on beating. After they were tired, they loosened the rope, pushed me down to kneel on the ground, stretched my hands out, then slapped on the back of my hands with a triangle-shaped belt. My hands became very swollen. Believing that the torture method was not cruel enough, they put a spade handle on my lower leg, with two police officers standing on the handle. The excruciating pains forced me to lie down on the ground. This is a torture "invented" by the public security bureau to force practitioners to give up. It was used on male and female Falun Dafa practitioners. They dragged me up from the ground, and slapped my faces. My eyes became dull and my brain was ringing.

I suffered for ten days under these torture methods at the Laishui County Party School. They released me after I was fined 2000 yuan. My family is not wealthy. In the persecution, they extorted a total of 4000 yuan from my family, which makes my life very hard.

At midnight on July 3, 2000, Li Dawei, the township deputy CP secretary came to my home and asked me if I would continue my practice. I said "yes." At noon the following day, Li Qibao, the Village CP Secretary, Han Dianqing, the head of the Laishui Township, and Han Jinjiu, the head of the military department came to my home. They forcibly took me to the Laishui Township, where several fellow Falun Dafa practitioners and I were detained in an unused kitchen with windows nailed shut. There were steel bars outside the windows. The floor, full of oily dirt and coal, was covered with a layer of rice straw. Detained at this illegal jail, we were monitored by officers from the Laishui Birth-Control Office. No family visits were allowed. We were monitored even when using a bathroom. The door was locked all day long. If some of our families brought in some food, then, we could eat a little. Otherwise, we were kept hungry.

To protest the persecution, I went on a hunger strike. Hu Yuxiang, the CP secretary, came. He said, "We are afraid that you will go to Beijing to appeal. After July 20, you will be allowed to go home." But actually, we were detained from July 1, 2000 until April 2001. On the third or fourth day, at 10 pm at night, we were called one by one to Hu Yuxiang's office. When I was there I saw on the floor several spade handles, 14 round steel rods, wooden batons, and some pokers (fire hooks). Hu Yuxiang and Liu Zhenfu were in this room. After I entered the room, they asked, "Are you going to eat?" I said, "No." So Liu forced me to kneel down on the pokers and asked again. I replied. "No!" So Liu beat my entire body with a wooden baton until my body was black, blue, swollen and full of wounds. Back then I wore only shorts and a vest. Several days later after this torture, I went to Hu Yuxiang and told him, "We practice Falun Gong for good health, and to become better people. We follow the principles, ¡®Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance.' You are committing crimes while enforcing your so-called laws." He said, "The Central government has banned Falun Gong. Therefore, you are not allowed to practice." I tried to make him understand the truth about Falun Dafa. Instead, he picked up a fire hook, forced me to lie down on a sofa and beat my bottom. Driver Li Xiujun asked me while beating me, "Are you continuing with your practice?" I answered, "As long as I am not beaten to death, I will practice." Hu Yuxiang became crazy after hearing my words. He insanely beat me, and used his shoes to slap my face. Suffering the pains, I shouted, "Falun Dafa is Good!" Then they stopped. Hu said, "If you do not reform, you will be detained here." The beating left my lower body numb. My legs felt like wood. My head felt as if it would explode. I did not remember how I got back to the detention room. The second day I found my lower body was bruised everywhere and I felt stiff. My face was distorted due to the swelling.

In September 2000, Jia Yongbao transferred to Laishui Town from Zhaogezhuang Town and took the CP secretary position of the Laishui Township. Falun Dafa practitioners helped to clean his office to welcome him. But he was worse than his predecessor. He ordered the windows welded shut with steel bars and mesh, locked us inside the room, and forced us to read a book which was focused on defaming Falun Dafa. I burned that book. After Liu Zhenfu, the township head, heard about this, he rushed towards me. He pushed me to the ground, and kicked me very cruelly. Then they dragged me to the courtyard where over ten people, including officers from the local police station started beating me, all at the same time. Li Dawei used a broom handle to hit my shins until its handle was broken. Jia Yongbao, Su Sheng, Han Dianqing and others kicked me. Liu Zhenfu used a rafter to beat me until it broke. Han Dianqing holding a stick in his hand, stripped me, so he could beat my stomach. After he got tired, he dragged me up and asked, "Are you still going to practice?"

I said that as long as I am alive, I will practice. They left after being tired from beating me. I went back to the room with the help of others. I was trembling and my mouth was filled with blood. My teeth had loosened, and I went into a comatose state for a few days.

At the end of December 2000, three fellow practitioners and I were again arrested and taken to the Laishui County Detention Center. On December 27, 2000. They publicly held a meeting to unlawfully sentence me and over 20 other Falun Dafa practitioners. The meeting was chaired by Sun Guijie. We were all shackled and paraded around the county town on military trucks.

On March 5, 2001, about 30 Falun Dafa practitioners were again arrested and detained into the Laishui Party School for brainwashing. This time we went on a group hunger strike. The third day, their townships picked up most practitioners. Sun Guijie held several practitioners in the Party School for further persecution.

That day, Sun Guijie ordered guards to beat two young practitioners, only 16 or 17 years old. Han Jinjiu from Laishui Township took me there. Sun Guijie asked me to watch him beating the kids. I shouted "Falun Dafa Is Good" and urged them to stop beating the kids and rather beat me. So five or six of them left the two kids aside and rushed at me. They knocked me down, shackled me and then beat me with a lash made from several ropes. My body twisted as they beat me. The pain was excruciating, and felt like knives cutting my heart. My hands became numb and very painful as they were bound too tight.

After quite some time, they pulled me up and forced me to kneel on the ground. Han Jinjiu ignited a bunch of tree branches and said: "I'll let you have a self-immolation." I warned him, "You are responsible for what you do!"

Thereafter, I realized that I could not let them torture me anymore, so I escaped. I stayed at a relative's home for over a month, and then went back home. But someone reported me to the perpetrators. One late night at about 3 a.m., around May 31, 2001, Jia Yongbao, Li Xiuliang, Su Sheng and other officers from the police station broke into my home and took me to the police station. They then called Sun Guijie. They once again brought me to the Laishui Township. Liu Xinjian stepped on top of my body and slapped my face with a shoe. Others all beat me one after the other. After the beating, I was left with injuries all over. My face became distorted and all my five sensory organs were drastically affected. My teeth loosened, and mouth was full of blood. I could not eat.

On June 30, 2001, I began a hunger strike, and was released after being fined 1000 yuan.

One night after midnight in May 2002, village CP secretary Li Qibao and Liu Xinjian came to my home. I asked them what they wanted. They said, "We are just paying you a visit." I told them that Jiang Zemin would surely receive his just desserts for persecuting Falun Gong. It's against the law of the universe to persecute Falun Dafa practitioners. They did not allow me to speak, and tore up the "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" signs and Fa-rectification formulas on my wall.

One day in May 2003, I was not at home. Xia Shujin and officers from the Township government and police station broke into my home and confiscated my Falun Dafa books, practice music tapes, cassette players, and bags. After I heard about this, I went to the police station to ask for my property. But they stopped me at the door, and beat me with rubber batons.

In March 2004, the Township head Liu Dagang went to my home to look for me. Since I was not at home, they left.

This is a partial record of what I have suffered.

August 4, 2004

Note:

(1) yuan - yuan is the Chinese currency unit, monthly salary of a Chinese urban worker is about 500 yuan.

(2) "610 Office" - an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.