(Minghui.org) Ms. Cui Xiaoping credits Falun Gong, a mind-body practice also known as Falun Dafa, for curing many of her ailments. But because she refused to give up Falun Gong after the Chinese communist regime ordered the persecution in July 1999, she was repeatedly arrested and imprisoned three times for more than ten years.
Ms. Cui, of Leshan City, Sichuan Province, struggled with poor health since her childhood. She suffered from many ailments, including chronic enteritis, gastritis, migraine, and hypertension. Starting in 1991, she almost had to be hospitalized twice a year and received a blood transfusion every year. The long-term medication caused her to have severe reactions to medicines. She thus became irritable and anxious. She had tried all kinds of treatments but to no avail.
Ms. Cui attended a Falun Gong seminar in Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province in December 1994. Her diseases disappeared completely after the 8-day class, which saved her a lot of medical expenses.
Ms. Cui also greatly changed her outlook on life after the practice. She enlightened to the true meaning of life and strove to live by Falun Gong’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. She worked for the Education Bureau in Leshan City before the persecution started. She worked hard and was very responsible. She took personal gains lightly and did not accept gifts. She was highly praised by her colleagues and leaders.
With the onset of the persecution in 1999, Ms. Cui lost her job and had to do odd jobs for a living. When people around her laughed at her, she was not angry but just smiled.
When she was arrested in August 1999, a prison guard threatened to beat her. She said, “It might be something I did not do well that you wanted to hit me. If hitting me can calm your mood and make you happy, you just do it and I will not fight back.” In the end, the guard didn’t beat her but took away her daily necessities instead.
For more than ten years, Ms. Cui has been repeatedly arrested and sentenced. A thorough raid of her home always followed after each arrest and many personal belongings such as Falun Gong books and materials, an audio recorder, and a video recorder were confiscated. She was placed under residential surveillance after each arrest. She was also harassed, followed, slandered, and had her phone calls tracked.
Ms. Cui was arrested and detained multiple times in 1999 after the persecution began. She was sentenced to three years in prison in 2000 and given two years of forced labor in 2003. The labor camp refused to accept her due to her poor health condition. She was released, only to be arrested again in 2004 and sentenced to six years in Sichuan Women’s Prison. While she was detained, her family often delivered daily necessities and made deposits for her to buy things, but most of the things and money were withheld by the guards.
Detailed below is the persecution Ms. Cui has endured.
Repeatedly Detained in 1999
Ms. Cui was first arrested by officers from Domestic Security Office under Leshan City Police Department on July 20, 1999. Both her home and office were ransacked. She was ordered to persuade other practitioners not to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. When Ms. Cui refused to comply, the police kept her at Shuncheng Street Police Station for two days and then placed her under residential surveillance after releasing her.
In August 1999, Ms. Cui was taken to a brainwashing center located in the police guesthouse, where many practitioners were held and ordered to renounce Falun Gong. Every room was guarded by an armed officer. The practitioners were not allowed to talk to each other. They were also forced to do military physical training every afternoon.
After one month of the brainwashing session, Ms. Cui was transferred to Jianwei County Detention Center and held there for another two weeks, because of her refusal to be transformed. Her mother was shocked and passed out upon hearing about her prolonged detention.
Two days after she was released from Jianwei County Detention Center, Ms. Cui was arrested and held at the Leshan City Detention Center for two weeks. During that period, the head of the cell threatened to beat her and took away all the necessities needed for her daily life.
She was placed under residential surveillance after being released. When she returned to work at the Education Bureau, she was forced to watch “Focus Interview,” a key propaganda news program by the state-run TV station, and to write an “Ideological Understanding” report every day. The local Political and Legal Affairs Committee attempted to have a local TV station interview her for the production of another program to slander Falun Gong, but she refused to comply.
In November 1999, Ms. Cui was arrested again when she returned from an out-of-town trip. Her home was ransacked. She was taken to Shizhushan Detention Center in Leshan City and detained for one month. She was also fired from her job. After her release, she was put under residential surveillance and ordered to report to the police station every day.
Sentenced to Three Years in Prison
In early June 2000, Ms. Cui was arrested one more time and taken to a police station in Chengdu City. The guards repeatedly ordered her to renounce Falun Gong and reveal information about other Falun Gong practitioners. She didn’t comply and was taken to Niuhua Township Police Station three days later.
The living conditions in her cell were very bad. There were swarms of mosquitoes and Ms. Cui was severely bitten. The food she was given was very poor and yet the police charged her 50 to 100 yuan each day for the food.
Six days later, she went on a hunger strike to protest the poor living conditions. She was then transferred to Emeishan City Lockup before being moved to the Emeishan City Detention Center one month later. For doing the Falun Gong exercises, she was beaten by the head of the detention center and had pain in her feet for over a month.
Ms. Cui was later sentenced to three years in Sichuan Province Women’s Prison. She was monitored by two inmates around the clock and repeatedly ordered to renounce Falun Gong. She was kept in solitary confinement for 48 days and also forced to do heavy labor without pay.
Two Years in Forced Labor Camp
Two weeks after she was released in 2003, Ms. Cui was arrested again and taken to Zhanggongqiao Police Station and then to Shizhushan Detention Center. She went on a hunger strike to protest the arrest. Four days later, she was given two years at the Nanmusi Labor Camp.
The labor camp refused to accept Ms. Cui because she was extremely weak back then. The police had to take her home.
In August 2003, Ms. Cui made an appeal to local authorities to have her job reinstated. The authorities did not respond to her request. She then appealed her case to the provincial government.
In March 2004, the director of Leshan City Education Bureau told Ms. Cui that an approval from Wang Zhiqing, the secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee, was needed in order to have her job reinstated. She visited Wang during her open office hour, only to be arrested again and held at the Jiajiang County Detention Center.
Ms. Cui went on a hunger strike to protest the arbitrary arrest. She was handcuffed, shackled, and put on IV drips at the county hospital. Since her health condition was very poor, Ms. Cui was sent home days later.
Two months later, in May 2004, officers from Leshan City Police Department arrested Ms. Cui again and took her to Shizhushan Detention Center. The police claimed that she promoted Falun Gong in her appeal letter. She went on a hunger strike for 13 days and was released on the verge of death.
Six-year Prison Sentence
Ms. Cui was arrested one more time in July 2004 and sentenced to six years by the Shizhong District Court. She started a hunger strike and appealed the verdict. Because of the repeated hunger strikes, she was extremely weak. To avoid possible legal liabilities, the detention center released her.
Not long after she returned home, Ms. Cui was arrested again. She went on another hunger strike and was then released.
In December 2004, police officers took Ms. Cui back to the detention center, while she was walking on the street. They handed her the verdict from the higher court to uphold her original sentence and took her to Sichuan Province Women’s Prison.
Ms. Cui was forced to do heavy labor without pay despite her physical condition. She had to protest the persecution with a hunger strike.
The prison initially allowed her family to apply for medical parole for her 83 days into her imprisonment, yet the police refused to provide the necessary paperwork the prison requested. One police officer even said to her family, “We’ve got the words from above, just to let her die in the prison and not allow her to go home.”
When her family argued with the police, they blamed her for contacting Wang of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee to reinstate her job.
Ms. Cui served a full six-year term and was released at the end of 2010.
While Ms. Cui was imprisoned, the police frequently harassed her mother in her 60s and teenage daughter. Both of them endured tremendous mental pressure and lived in fear.
The police kept harassing Ms. Cui after she returned home. She was unable to have a stable job or have a peaceful life.