(Clearwisdom.net) My name is Zhou Meilin. Shortly after starting practicing Falun Dafa in 1997, the health problems that had plagued me for more than ten years, such as rhinitis, pharyngitis, acne, and even my gynecological problems all disappeared. My outlook and moral values also improved. In July 1999, however, Jiang's regime started the persecution of Falun Dafa and it's followers. Being practitioners, our whole family suffered from the persecution. The following are our stories.

On July 20, 1999, after hearing that many assistance center coordinators had been arrested, my husband, our child and I went to the provincial government to appeal for an end to the persecution. Across from the Provincial Government Building, anti-riot police officers wearing helmets and security vests, and holding electric batons forced all the Falun Gong practitioners who had come to appeal onto several waiting buses. We were dropped off on the outskirts of the city and were left stranded there. Since the provincial government could not solve our problem, my husband and I and some other practitioners decided to go to Beijing. On the way there, plainclothes police on the train abducted us. We were detained and sent back to Zhuhai City.

After our return, my husband and I were illegally sent to brainwashing centers at our respective workplaces for three weeks. This situation forced us to be separated from our preschool-aged daughter, and she had to stay with a colleague of mine. My husband had a well-paying job working as an interpreter for the government in Macao, but since he practiced Falun Dafa, his employer confiscated his two Public Affairs passports and he was not allowed to go to Macao any longer. Before the persecution, I was in charge of my company's sales accounts, but now I was deprived of that job, and the 610 Office required my employer to keep me under surveillance.

Out of fear, my boss complied with their requirements. In the end, he said to me, "I have no problem with your abilities and work ethic, but because you can't be here all the time, our work is affected. I had to give your job to somebody else."

In December 1999, I decided to go to Beijing to tell the whole world that "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good, and that Falun Dafa is good." When I got to Beijing, I found that the police were guarding the gate of the National Appeals Bureau. Practitioners who attempted to enter were immediately arrested and taken away in a police car, so I decided to go to Tiananmen Square to do the exercises instead. On December 28, as soon as we started to do the exercises, we were arrested by police and detained at the Tiananmen Square Police Station. I was sent back to my hometown and detained in the Zhuhai City Number 2 Detention Center, charged with "disrupting the social order."

While I was illegally detained, I did the exercises. Because of this, I was tied to the "Death Bed" for more than 78 hours by a female guard named Wang Ying. I could not breathe and I felt sick. My arms were not long enough and they were forcibly pulled until my tendons were injured. I lost bladder and bowel control, and I developed a rash on my backside. It was itchy and the skin was peeling off. For six months, I could not use my right arm at all. My fellow practitioners Chen Yanjuan, Li Bantian, Chen Li, and Ouyang Jian also underwent this torture.

In February 2000, two practitioners went to stay in a dormitory operated by my husband's company. One practitioner went out to practice and was arrested. Officials from the Zhuhai City Public Security Bureau and the Ningxi Police Station then ransacked my home and took away my computer, software, and stereo etc. When we demanded them back in March 2003, we were told that Falun Gong practitioners don't get their property back.

In June 2000, I went to a fellow practitioner's home and was abducted by police and taken to the Dognfeng Police Station. For 48 hours, I was not allowed to sleep and they took turns interrogating me. In the meantime, local police from Xiangzhou Public Security Bureau, Dongfeng Police Station, along with the Shishan Neighborhood Office of the Huwan Neighborhood Committee, ransacked my home at 3:00 a.m. in the morning. Criminal officials called my husband and lied to him to get him to come down and open the gate for them. When my husband went down, he realized that they had come to search our home, so he refused to open the door. They took him by force to the Dongfeng Police Station and locked him up behind bars for 10 days, accusing him of "obstructing public affairs."

On the night when the police took my husband and me away, my 8-year-old daughter woke up and found us gone. She was so scared that she went to her school at 6:00 a.m. and waited there for two hours before she went in. Police officer Li Feng from the Dongfeng Police Station tricked my daughter into giving him the key to "clean up my house." They ransacked my home and confiscated our Falun Dafa books and Teacher's pictures. I requested that my friend look after my daughter. They refused me, citing the fact that my friend also practices Falun Gong. Finally, my daughter was put in a neighborhood committee member's home. When the police finally brought my daughter to see me, she didn't believe that she would be allowed to see me. She was mumbling, "I don't believe you." When I picked her up, I could see the dried tracks of her tears on her face. My fellow practitioner and I were both sentenced to 7-15 days. Wang Yulan and Lin Yongxu were sentenced to two years.

Since July 1999, when the persecution began, all my telephone and cell phone conversations were monitored. Every year, around April 25, July 20, and October 1, the so-called sensitive days, we were rounded up and taken to our workplace, or a place designated by the 610 Office to be detained. Around the first anniversary of Macao's handover to China, all Falun Dafa practitioners were rounded up and detained like criminals. During the year 2000, whenever we left home, we were followed, and we were under tremendous pressure. Many of our fellow practitioners were illegally imprisoned. Given no choice, for the well being of our child and in order to do a better job in accomplishing our mission, we left our daughter with my parents.

On December 17, 2000, the police followed a practitioner who came to visit us. Officers from the Guangzhou City Public Security Bureau broke through our iron gate to abduct us. In addition, the Number 1 Department of the police took away my private belongings, including my computer, cell phone, antiques, appliances, and clothing, which were worth 200,000 yuan. 30,000 yuan in cash was also taken. They said our video camera and camera were to be held for safe keeping by the city's Public Security Bureau. They returned them to us later, but the camera was missing it's lenses and the video camera had no battery charger. There was no documentation at all. I was sent to the Guangzhou City Chatou Forced Labor Camp for two years. Lu Pingyi was sent to the Number 1 Forced Labor Camp in Huadu City, Guangzhou, for three years. In the Guangzhou Huanghua Detention Center, we were forced to labor for about 15 hours a day. Sometimes we had to work through the night. Lu Pingyi continued to read Dafa books, so they put shackles on his feet for more than a week to punish him.

In November 2001, while I was sending forth righteous thoughts at the Chatou Forced Labor Camp, a guard named Hua Shaoxia ordered her subordinate to shackle my hands to the iron window. When we went on a group hunger strike to protest the treatment, we were force fed by Zhang Haiyan and Hua Shaoxia. Inmates watched us around the clock. They sat right in front of me, no more than a meter away. I was locked in a room for a long time. I only had a few minutes in the morning to use the washroom, and 10-15 minutes to take a shower in the evening, amidst the yelling of the people watching me. Every day I was forced to sit on a plastic stool for more than twelve hours and made to watch VCDs that defame Falun Dafa.

In August 2002, Hua Shaoxia, a female guard at the detention center, took a group to the Beijing Forced Labor Camp to learn how to persecute Falun Dafa practitioners. When they came back, they set up several dark rooms and selected a group of cruel inmates from among the drug addicts as monitors to watch us. They covered the windows with newspapers and for two weeks they deprived practitioners of sleep. We were made to stand for extended periods of time. Then our hands and one of our legs were tied and we were hung so that all our weight was on the tip of one foot. Practitioners Zhong Zhihui, Lu Yirong, Xie Kunxiang, and Xue Jun also underwent this torture.

On October 1, 2002, three so-called brainwashing specialists from Beijing were invited to torture me. They told me their names were Xu Shaoqi, Zhang Lifang, and Tian Ping. The three surrounded me and screamed at me from about a foot away. They screamed and yelled at me, feeding me nonsense. When I did not accept it, they locked me up in a solitary room and Xu sat on my head, squeezing my head with his thighs. Zhang Lifang and Tian Ping tied my arms behind my back and put my legs in the cross-legged position and tied them. I was tied in this position for 40 hours. During that time, I could not use the washroom, I was not allowed to sleep, nor even close my eyes. They slapped me in the face and screamed at the same time. The purpose of this torture was to make me give up the practice. When I was released, my feet were dark purple with blisters everywhere. My feet were misshapen and I had lost feeling in them. I was disabled. I could not even turn over on my bed.

While I suffered from physical pain, I had no resentment for other people. I don't hate anyone because of the brutality inflicted on me. I feel lucky that I am a Falun Dafa practitioner. While I was lying in the solitary room, I did not feel any sadness. I was peaceful, compassionate, and held no resentment. I could feel the power of compassion when a being is assimilating to Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. I felt that Master was beside me, looking after me and strengthening me. Falun Dafa has changed me from a narrow-minded, bitter person into someone who can face brutality and vice with compassion. I enlightened to the understanding that Falun Dafa is the most righteous law in the universe. It can change people from the root, ridding them of their demon natures and increasing their Buddha natures, so they can return to their original, true selves.

Other practitioners at the Chatou Forced Labor Camp who underwent similar tortures by rope tying were Tang Yiwen, Chen Hua, Si Bing, Xu Juhua, Xie Yan, Luo Jiangying, and Chen Hua. They were tortured by Yue Huiling (from Masanjia Forced Labor Camp) and Zhang Yijun. Sources said that Xu Shaoqi, Zhang Lifang and her husband Ren Renjie, and Tian Ping made a living using torture to transform Falun Dafa practitioners, as commissioners sent by the central 610 Office. Other perpetrators are Liang Huiping, Associate Head of the camp, Lu Dongmei, Section Chief of Management, Hua Shaoxia, Head of the Special Management Group, Xiang Fan, and captains Zhang Weixin and Chen Yunlian, associate captains.

In January 2003, having been imprisoned for more than two years during a four year period, I went home. In February, I went to Beijing to see my parents, who had suffered so much for me. While I was in Beijing, Wang Guangshan of the Zhuhai City Xiangzhou District 610 Office took me back home because it was during the time when the People's Congress and the Chinese Communist Party's plenary met in Beijing, therefore, I was not allowed to live in Beijing. I was deprived of my right to visit my parents simply because I practice Falun Gong.

After we were released, we were in a plight. My husband knows a foreign language, so he applied to leave the country with different employers, but the Public Security Bureau did not approve his application. The department head told us, "You guys are all well-educated. As soon as you go abroad, we are afraid that you will be used by Falun Gong organizations outside China."

On July 14, 2004, as soon as my husband left home, the local Shishan Neighborhood Office Manager, Chen Fu, and Nanxiang Neighborhood Committee member, Zhang, along with police officers Chen Bin and Li Jianjun of the Dongfeng Police station, as well as several unidentified persons and security officers from Zhuguang Garden abducted him and took him to a brainwashing center set up at the Minfu Hotel by the Zhuhai City 610 Office. My daughter and I were placed under constant surveillance.

I called Chen Fu, the Office Manager of Neighborhood Committee. Our conversation went as follows:

I said: "My husband went missing yesterday. Do you know where he is?"

Chen said: "Several Transformation Specialists came from the province. The city authorities wanted him to go with them. I know you are not going to go on your own. So we used some measures to send him there. I am part of this."

I said: "What you did was against the law. You didn't follow any legal procedures."

Chen said: "Stop talking about laws with me. Be practical. The Public Security Bureau has evidence that you guys did something."

I said: "Please show me the evidence."

Chen said: "If we had evidence, then we'd do more than just take him to the brainwashing center."

From this conversation, we can see that the authorities are not acting within the law concerning Falun Gong practitioners. They go by the policies, "Ruin their reputation, bankrupt them financially, and destroy them physically," and "Death from beatings will be counted as suicides and bodies will be automatically cremated." Some leaders from the National Security Bureau said to me, "China is not a society ruled by law. Often, policies are more powerful than the law."

Strictly speaking, what Falun Dafa practitioners are doing is simply exercising their rights to speak and to defend themselves. Using the most stringent laws as a guide, we haven't done anything wrong. As a witness and a victim of the darkest period in Chinese history, I write this to wake up the conscience of people, to uphold justice, and to resist the persecution that tramples human rights and conscience.

January 3, 2005