(Minghui.org) More than ten officers, most of whom were in plainclothes, broke into Ms. Zhang Guixiang’s home at around 6:00 a.m. on October 20, 2020. They ransacked her residence and arrested her for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Zhang, a Changchun City, Jilin Province resident, was first held at the Changchun City No. 2 Detention Center. The authorities said she would be released in ten days, but when her family went to pick her up ten days later, they were surprised to learn that she has been transferred to the Changchun City No. 4 Detention Center and is now denied family visits.
Ms. Zhang, 57, used to suffer many physical ailments, including heart disease, migraine, breast hyperplasia, inflammation of the tendon sheath, neck issue, and lumbar muscle strain. She often woke up at night due to intense pain. She saw many doctors, but her condition still persisted. A colleague later introduced Falun Gong to her, and three months into her practice, most of her conditions disappeared.
After the persecution started, Ms. Zhang was arrested on October 26, 2000 for going to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. After 15 days of detention, she was given two years at the Heizuizi Women’s Forced Labor Camp.
The labor camp guards deprived her of sleep and shocked her with electric batons. She was forced to write a statement renouncing Falun Gong against her will. After being released four months later, she learned that her employer, the Changchun Automobile Import and Export Company, had fired her.
To make a living, she worked at a restaurant owned by a relative. The police constantly harassed her and called her in the middle of the night.
On the evening of July 21, 2002, a group of officers broke into her home, ransacked the place, confiscated her Falun Gong books, a photo of Falun Gong’s founder, and an audio player that she used to do the Falun Gong exercises. Her daughter was terrified by the police raid and burst into tears.
The police took her to the basement of the police station, locked her in a metal chair, and interrogated her. When she refused to answer their questions, they slapped her in the face and hit her head with a hard object, which caused her to pass out. When she woke up, she realized that her nasal bridge had been fractured, and her face and clothing were covered with blood.
After 15 days of detention, she was transferred to the Heizuizi Women’s Forced Labor Camp again. The guards forced her to watch slanderous videos attacking Falun Gong all day long and didn’t allow her to sleep. She was on the verge of mental and physical breakdown. With strong fear, she was forced to write another statement renouncing Falun Gong.
About four and half months later, the guards began forcing her do unpaid labor, often from 5:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. She was also forced to write thought reports every week, or the guards would consider that she had failed to pass the “transformation test” and threaten to send her to brainwashing sessions.
The guards also asked her to persuade other practitioners to give up Falun Gong, but she refused to comply. Her term was extended by 50 days as a result.
When she was released on September 9, 2003, her husband had lost a lot of weight and a fourth of her daughter’s hair had turned gray because they both had been under tremendous stress during her detention.
The police and residential committee staff still constantly harassed Ms. Zhang and asked her to sign statements renouncing Falun Gong. Her family was always terrified when the police knocked on the door. She was forced to move six times between 2003 and 2007 to hide from the police.
