(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Gui Qionghua, 40, is a farmer in Boyishuicao Village in Beichen Town of Yuxi City, Yunnan Province. For six years she had uterine cancer. After a practitioner told her about Falun Gong in 2004, she began to practice and her health recovered within six days. She then started to distribute informational materials explaining what Falun Gong is and how practitioners are being persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), but the police illegally arrested her and subjected her to various forms of abuse. Below is Ms. Gui's experience in her own words.

Practicing Falun Gong Eliminated My Cancer

Six years before I began practicing Falun Gong, I was diagnosed with uterine cancer. I also had edema all over the body, my limbs were weak and I was unable to walk. In order to seek a cure for my cancer, I visited all the hospitals I could find and took all kinds of medicine, but it was all in vain. I awaited death with my whole-body edema. My husband and young daughter worried about me so much. My daughter, who was only 5 or 6 at the time, would put her hands together in a heshi gesture and pray to the heavens, "I beg you, could some divine beings please help my mother!"

One day, in April 2004, a Falun Gong practitioner told me that she had not needed to take any medicine in the seven years she practiced Falun Gong. Hearing what the practitioner said, my husband and my daughter immediately suggested that I try it. I was so weak at the time that they had to help me walk out the door to meet with the practitioner. We did not walk far before seeing her waiting for me down the road. When I began to learn the exercises from her, I could barely stand. My daughter stood behind me, worried that I might fall down. My husband watched me from the front. I continued to learn the exercises for six days and a miracle indeed happened. My lower body had been bleeding for six years, and the bleeding stopped just six days after I began practicing.

I was deeply moved and saw that Falun Gong was so amazing. I wanted to go up and down the street and shout to everyone, "Please do not be fooled by Chinese Communist Party's lies. Falun Gong is indeed good! Everyone should practice Falun Gong!" This was my true feeling. My gratitude towards our Master was beyond description.

I continued to study Zhuan Falun and followed the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. My family saw the amazing changes in me and several of them began to practice, including my daughter, husband, and mother-in-law. Many residents in the village also began to practice. The wonderfulness of Falun Gong began to spread to more and more people in my village.

Persecuted for telling the truth

On November 16, 2006, I went to a nearby village to distribute informational materials about Falun Gong. More than 10 police agents came to arrest me, including He Xiaopei (Hongta District Domestic Security Division head in Yuxi City) and Zhu Jiayong (Hongta District Domestic Security Division deputy head). They took me to the Hongta Police Department. With Master's help, the handcuffs they had restrained me and two other practitioners with fell off the morning of November 17. We thus walked out of the police department. Hongta police officials posted arrest orders across the city, promising 1,000 yuan to anyone who reported us to the police.

On that same day I left the police department, several officials went to my home, including officers from the Hongta Police Department and Yudailu Police Station, Huangguan Residential Committee, village Party branch head Huang Jinliang, and village head He Youwen. They took away my computer, a laser printer, and Falun Gong books. They also pushed my 12-year-old daughter, Wenchen, down the stairs, and arrested my husband, Wen Lianchun. My husband was arrested three times in the past, but each time he was released on the same day. These officials also harassed and threatened my husband's workplace to have him fired. In addition, these officials also threatened my mother, who is in her 70s. They took an MP3 and VCD player from her.

I was forced to stay away from home for several months to avoid further persecution. During those days, Zhu Jiayong led police officers to harass my relatives and demanded to know my whereabouts. Agents from the Yuxi City 610 Office went to my daughter's elementary school. They walked in and interrupted her classes to demand that she tell them where I was. They threatened not only my daughter, but also her teacher.

After I returned home several months later, a group of plainclothes police agents came to my home at 11 p.m. on July 4, 2007. As soon as they entered our home, they began to brutally beat my husband. These agents then took both my husband and me to the Hongta Police Department. I was shoved down and forced to sit in an iron chair. My left arm was pulled upwards across the chair back, and my right arm was pulled downward across the chair back. They then handcuffed my hands together. My feet were chained and hung up in the air. I was immobilized in the iron chair with my head pulled backward. A police agent surnamed Yang forcibly questioned me and demanded to know the whereabouts of two other practitioners, while Zhu Jiayong struck my head with something hard. I had difficulty breathing and was unable to open my eyes. I lost consciousness for more than two hours. The police agents were afraid I might die, so they let me down.

The agents also tortured my husband the same way that night. His wrists became purple and he could not move his fingers for 20 days afterwards.

The police took my husband and me to the Hongta District Detention Center on July 5. When my husband was released one month later, he found out that he had been fired from his job. My niece, who was working at a supermarket, was also fired. After detaining me for more than 20 days, Zhu Jiayong and two other agents sent me to the Yunnan Province Women's Labor Camp on August 2 for two years.

I was kept at the Third Division in the labor camp. Drug addicts were assigned to watch me 24 hours a day. I was not allowed to speak or look at other people, even when washing or going to the bathroom. Every day, the guard forced me to sit on a small stool for more than 10 hours as a form of torture. This continued for over 40 days. The guards prohibited my family from visiting me, nor did they allow me to call home. They told me that eight drug addicts continually beat one practitioner until she gave up her practice. The long-term, constant threats and mental pressure I was subjected to led to memory loss. At one point, I could not even remember my home address.

Every morning, the labor camp officials forced practitioners to listen to and read materials that defamed Falun Gong. They also forced me to do hard physical labor in the afternoon. The intensive physical labor day after day severely damaged my health.

In January 2009, I requested that the officials release me and told them I would continue practicing Falun Gong. They put me in a cell where I was monitored by two inmates at all times, and they extended my detention term by five days.

Labor camp official Li Qiongyun held a campaign in April 2009 to slander Falun Gong. During the campaign, the officials tried to force all of the detained practitioners to sign a document that defamed Falun Gong. I refused to sign, and several days later the officials extended my term by another two months. When my term expired, a guard surnamed Zhang took away from me the paperwork documenting my forced labor sentence, such as the sentencing notice and the release authorization, anticipating that I would expose the persecution online.