(Minghui.org)
Summary of Key Persecution Facts: Name: Zhao Jihua (赵继华) Gender: Female Age: 43 Address: Dalian City, Liaoning Province Occupation : Unknown Date of Most Recent Arrest: Late 2005 Most Recent Place of Detention: Ji'nan Prison for Women (济南女子监狱) City: Dalian Province: Liaoning Persecution Suffered : Electric shock, sleep deprivation, forced labor, brainwashing, illegal sentencing, beatings, hung up, imprisonment, force-feedings, physical restraint, home ransacked, interrogation, detention, denial of restroom use
Ms. Zhao Jihua is a Falun Gong practitioner from Dalian. She was arrested twice for speaking to people about Falun Gong in her hometown, Heze, in Shandong Province. She has spent eight years in detention centers and prisons and suffered inhumane torture. In this article she describes, it her own words, what she has endured as a Falun Gong practitioner in China.
Arrested and beaten for speaking about Falun Gong
In 2001, since the CCP had been persecuting Falun Gong at a national level for two years, I wanted people in my hometown to know the truth about the practice.
I went home for the Chinese New Year in late 2001. On my way to the Datian Market one day, I put up posters on trees that said, “Falun Dafa is good” and “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” I told people about the persecution when they passed by the posters.
A young woman called the Datian Police Station and reported me. I was stopped by a police car later on and asked if I practiced Falun Gong. I replied, “Yes.” They said: “Come with us.”
When we arrived at the police station, a six foot tall young police officer asked me: “Do you still practice now?” “Yes,” I replied.
Before I could finish speaking, fists began to fall on me like hailstones. A young policeman punched me in the back and shouted: “So you practice [Falun Gong]!” I was just about to pass out, when the tall policeman lifted me up and asked: “Will you still practice?” “Yes,” I replied. He said: “I'll let you practice,” and jammed his thumb into my right eye. (Then I felt a force dragging me back a big step.)
When I awoke, I saw the tall policeman wiping the corner of my mouth. He saw me awake and showed me his thumb: “Look, you broke my fingernail.” His thumb was wrapped in a blood-soaked bandage.
Sent to detention center after police brutality
I was then sent to the Chengwu County Detention Center. My cellmates were shocked once they heard what had happened—how a police officer could show such aggression and beat a person who believes in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
The Chinese government protects its law-breaking police. A policeman took a one hundred yuan bill from my pocket and never returned it.
On my 80th day at the detention center, the chief guard on duty took me to the courtyard. Over a dozen guards stood there. The chief told me it was my last chance to declare my position. If I said, “I will not practice Falun Gong,” they would let me go home.
I did not say anything. The chief said: “Zhao Jihua, since you want to cultivate, you have to be reeducated in Ji'nan.” I was sent to Shandong No. 1 Women's Forced Labor Camp for “transformation”.
Tortured in forced labor camp
The brainwashing lasted over eight months. During that time, I was allowed four hours of sleep a night and five minutes to wash up. I was made to sit on a small stool for at least 16 to 17 hours a day. There were holes in the rear of my pants from sitting. I was also made to stand from the time I got up until bedtime.
Since I would not “transform,” I was transferred to the No. 1 Division and subjected to more severe brainwashing. A group of new people came to “transform” me every two or three days. They used both the carrot and the stick; some even wrote a “Dissociation Statement” for me and dragged my hands to make a fingerprint on it (a form of signature). I did not yield. Someone hit my head with a small metal folding stool.
With nothing else left for them to try in the No. 1 Division, I was sent to a Training Group. There, I was shocked with electric batons, made to sit on a tiger bench, put on a death bed, and tied down with my arms and legs stretched out.
Once, when I spoke up for the release of a fellow practitioner from prison, I was punished by being hung from a metal bar in the isolation room for four days and three nights without food or water. It was 14 degrees Celcius below zero (7 degrees Fahrenheit), I did not have winter clothes on, and I was wearing thin socks and a pair of canvas shoes. By the time I was released, my fingers had lost feeling and were as black as charcoal.
When I first arrived at the labor camp, the group leader on duty told me that my term was to be two years. By the time I remembered this conversation, I had already been there for two years and eighty days. If I had not questioned the group leader about how long I had already stayed, I probably would not have been released at that time.
Arrested again
In late 2005, I went to visit my mother in my hometown. I gave a student a “To Middle School Students” pamphlet about Falun Gong outside of the school I used to go to. A teacher reported me to the local police and I was arrested. The police confiscated my computer, radio, MP3 player, DVD and borrowed bike.
I was kept at a small hotel for the night and taken to the police department the next morning. At noon, two policemen came to me and said: “Zhao Jihua, you are under arrest, press your fingerprint on this form.” Looking at the form, I asked: “Why am I under arrest?” The police said: “A teacher reported you. You are detained on criminal charges, so you may get yourself a lawyer.”
An illegal trial and sentencing
I later saw article 37 in the Constitution: “The human rights of the citizens of the People's Republic of China can not be violated. Any citizen may not be arrested by police law enforcement without the permission of the prosecutor's office or the court.”
My case did not go through the procuratorate when I was arrested. Two prosecutors came to see me while I was detained. I asked them who they were, but they did not answer. They looked at me, exchanged a look between themselves and left. The court hearing took place in an office. There was no plaintiff present either. I was charged with “using a heretical organization to undermine the implementation of law.”
I was sentenced to six years in prison.
I refused to accept the sentence, and submitted my appeal while still in the detention center. Heze City Middle Court sent me their response two months later. Their ruling was unchanged.
I saw many loopholes in the “sentence” and “ruling” and submitted my appeal again after I was sent to prison. I was released a year ago, but still have not yet heard from Shandong Province High Court. According to article 41 of the Constitution: “Regarding citizens' appeals, lawsuits and reports, related government agencies must investigate, and process them with responsibility and without retaliation.”
Brainwashing tactics fail
At the “training group” in prison, they try to brainwash practitioners. They feed atheistic ideas to force people to give up practicing Falun Gong. I had had sincere faith in Dafa since my first day of cultivation, so I did not believe anything they said. I refused to write a “Dissociation Statement.” and did not want to listen to them slandering Master and Dafa. I also refused to write a “criticism letter.”
They forbade me to step out of my cell. I had to report to the guard on duty even if I had to use the toilet. I often had to wait for half an hour or an hour for permission to go to the bathroom after I reported my needs. Since I had not been “transformed,” they stopped letting me use the bathroom no matter how many times I shouted “report.”
I stopped eating so I would not need to go to the bathroom. They started to force-feed me four days later. I still did not go to the bathroom after four days of forced feeding. I was told that I must go to the hospital for catheterization. I ate one piece of steamed bun per meal. Several days later, the guards noticed that I still did not need to use the toilet and didn't shout “report.”
I refused to wear the prison label, so the guards punished me by making me stand all night until my legs and feet were so swollen that I could not pull up a large size prison uniform. I had to wear bigger shoes as well. I stood until the skin on top of my very swollen feet peeled off.
I refused to be recognized as a criminal inmate, so I was locked in the brig in the basement. It was January, and a red rubber mat was laid on the cold and damp concrete floor. The mat was my floor and bed. People at the prison wiped the mat with a dripping wet mop every morning, so it was always wet. I put a cushion on the mat at night as bedding, and it was wet in the morning.
If I did not practice Dafa, I would not have made it through. Because I refused to say that I was a criminal inmate, I was so severely beaten that my hearing was lost for several days. I was dizzy, and felt as if I were wearing a helmet on my head.
When I first arrived, I was made to do intense labor. At night, the guard on duty would lead over 30 criminal inmates to “accompany me until late into the night.” From the brutal persecution I experienced, I now completely understand the evil nature of the CCP.
Related article: Persecution Facts Regarding Practitioner Ms. Zhao Jihua in Dalian City, Liaoning Province
