(Clearwisdom.net) Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Li Dexiang is an ordinary citizen of Jinchang City, Gansu Province. Before practicing Falun Gong, Ms. Li suffered from different illnesses, such as asthma, cholecystitis, and mild hemiplegia. With two young sons and a husband who had mental illness, her life was unsettled. After she started to practice Falun Gong, she learned the real meaning of life and gained a healthy body. Since the beginning of the persecution of Falun Gong, she has been illegally arrested, sentenced, and put in a forced labor camp. The following is her personal account of what she has had to endure.
Learned about Falun Gong and the entire family benefited
In May 1995, I joined the class to watch Master Li Hongzhi’s lecture videos after my neighbor recommended it to me. A few days later, I received a copy of Zhuan Falun and finished reading it in one day. I was absolutely sure that Falun Gong was what I had been looking for. Since cultivating in Dafa, I have genuinely experienced how it feels to be free of illnesses. In addition, after I started to practice, the health of my husband and two sons improved. Since I have nothing to offer in return for Master’s mercy, I can only cultivate diligently to thank him.
From jail to forced labor camp
On July 20, 1999, the evil Chinese Communist Party (CCP) lunched its brutal persecution of Falun Gong. On July 20, a group of practitioners were forcibly taken away while we were exchanging our experiences in my residence. Police officers headed by Meng Jiaxian arrested Ms. Song Ailing and Ms. Lu Fenglan. They were released the following day.
On December 16, Ms. Lu Fenglan, Ms. Song Ailing, a few other practitioners, and I were studying the Fa and sharing our experiences in my residence when Meng Jiaxian and other officers arrested us. We were detained for 10 days and forced to pay 120 yuan for the cost of food.
When Ms. Yang Chengmei, Ms. Liu Guihua, and I went to Beijing on January 20, 2000, to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong, we were arrested by armed officers who locked us up inside a waiting police vehicle. We were taken to Tiananmen Police Department and later detained at the liaison’s office in Beijing for 7 days.
On the afternoon of February 4, 2000, I was escorted back to Jinchang City and detained in a drug rehabilitation center for 15 days. I was then sentenced to forced labor on March 21, 2000, for one year and six months. Ms. Lu Fenglan, Ms. Guo Qunying, Ms. Li Guiying, and Ms. Chen Ligao were also sentenced to forced labor. The five of us were incarcerated in Pingantai Women’s Forced Labor Camp in Gansu Province on March 24, 2000.
The labor camp guards brutally tortured us
I was held in No. 7 Division. Because I refused to cooperate and recite the rules, they tortured me. I was forced to stand in one position until 1 or 2 a.m. and do the forced labor during the day. Practitioners were forced to manually sand diamonds, which was very time consuming. It also hurt my eyes, and my hands became very rough. The labor camp also tried to force us to write the three statements but we firmly resisted. The guards then instigated a drug addict, Deng Xiaoqin, to hit Ms. Wang Yuxia and me. Deng Xiaoqin also kicked us in our abdomens. We held a hunger strike to protest the persecution. Deng Xiaoqin and some other drug addicts pinned us down and force-fed us. They used toothbrushes to pry open our mouths, which started to bleed profusely. Practitioner Ms. Zhang Youfu was forced to do the hard labor with her hands cuffed.
Torture reenactment: Brutal forced feeding
One day while waiting for our food, all of the practitioners started to do the exercises together and shouted, “Falun Dafa is good!” After that, Ms. Li Dongmei was locked up in solitary confinement, and Ms. Wang Yuxia was tortured so severely that she had to be taken to the labor camp hospital. I was hung up with my hands cuffed behind me. Division head Dai Wenqin hit me in the mouth, and I started to bleed and fainted. Early the next morning, I was put in the trunk of a police vehicle and taken to the hospital. Also hospitalized were Wang Yuxia, Zhu Lanxiu, and Zhao Fenglian (who was tortured to death). In the hospital, I was tortured for more than a dozen days and then escorted back to the labor camp.
The guards frequently tortured us. When guard Li Xiaoqing hung me up, I fainted and lost control of my bowels. Afterwards, I was locked up in solitary and not allowed to wash my face, brush my teeth, or even close my eyes. My hands were cuffed behind me for seven days. The cuffs cut so deeply into my wrists that the bones were even exposed, and my wrists were covered with blood.
Torture reenactment: Cuffed and hung up
In Team 3, because Li Ping, Yang Rui, Zhu Lanxiu, and I refused to write the three statements, we were forced to do the hardest labor. Yang Rui was hung up for four days. I was detained for three extra months because I refused to cooperate with the guards. One year and nine months later, I finally gained my freedom.
Arrested and brutally tortured numerous times
Seventeen days after I came home from the labor camp, on January 11, 2002, I was arrested again by Ma Changgui from Binhe Road Police Station and detained. I started a hunger strike to protest, but was force-fed several times. I also became very frail due to the torture. My family was only allowed to take me home after the police had extorted 1,100 yuan from them.
I was once again arrested by Jinchang City Police Department when I distributed Falun Gong materials on April 20, 2003. I was released after a hunger strike. Before the release, I was brutally force-fed many times, and I could hardly walk. Once again, I had 800 yuan extorted from me.
On October 21, 2003, I was arrested again by Li Xinghua, a police officer from the domestic security team. I was not allowed to sleep and was handcuffed to a chair. My legs were disabled after I was tortured.
I was arrested by the Jinchuan Police Department on November 22, 2003, and was sentenced on December 16, 2004, by Jinchuan District Court to five years. I was then transferred to Gansu Province Women’s Prison on January 11, 2005. Ms. Zhao Fenglian, who was later tortured to death, was imprisoned along with me.
The women’s prison uses different methods to torture us
As soon as we arrived at the prison entrance, the evildoing guards cuffed our hands behind us and covered our mouths with towels so that we could not shout, “Falun Dafa is good!” Inside the prison, we were strip-searched and our quilts were torn open. Because I refused to answer roll call, I was forced to stand for a long time. We were forced to watch and read materials that slandered Dafa. Four months later, we were incarcerated in the No. 1 Ward.
Toward the end of November in 2005, the prison intensified its persecution. We were separated into different rooms and each practitioner was watched by four prisoners. We were deprived of sleep. My hands were cuffed to a five-by-five-inch stool. After that, I was unable to sit straight, and neither could I raise my head. It was winter, and the freezing cold wind blew on me; my hands and feet were frozen. After I was released from the confinement cell, I was brainwashed and coerced into writing a criticism of Falun Gong. No. 1 Ward head Wang Wenhui, political head Dong, as well as guards Liu Yuanyuan, Chen Xiaotong, and Wang Wenjuan, were involved in the persecution.
Practitioners in the labor camp were forced to do hard labor, and we worked for more than ten hours a day producing Arabian traditional hats that are exported to Mid-East countries.
I was escorted back to Jinchuan Police Station on August 21, 2007, and later brought home by my family.
Epilogue
I have been incarcerated numerous times since 1999 in both prison and a forced labor camp. My family has also endured a great deal of misery. I was unable to take care of my husband or my child. My over 70-year-old mother frequently worried about me and cried all the time. As a result, she almost lost her eyesight. I did not even see my father before he passed away.
