(Minghui.org) Ms. Cui Ling, a Falun Dafa practitioner who now lives in Canada, was sentenced to 4 years in prison for producing truth clarification materials. As the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution of Falun Dafa has gone on for nearly 22 years, she recounted her personal experiences. She said, “When I was detained, my mother told my 4-year-old daughter that I was working in the prison. She wanted to protect her from the trauma of knowing that I was being persecuted.”

The CCP’s persecution has brought great suffering to practitioners’ children and their family members. “But as a mother I cannot go against my conscience and say my faith is wrong. Falun Dafa is the greatest spiritual gift I leave for my daughter,” Ms. Cui said.

The regime’s suppression traumatized Ms. Cui’s daughter and family. “My mother told me my daughter would ask every day ‘Why doesn’t mummy come home? I want mummy, I miss her.’”

Ms. Cui said, “My mother went through the CCP’s many political campaigns and saw many people killed. Her heart was frozen with fear by the regime’s wanton persecution of innocent, kind citizens and she constantly worried about my safety.”

Ms. Cui’s mother went to prison and demanded to see her daughter. When she saw her face covered in bruises from beatings and her thin, frail body, she broke down in tears. When she returned home, she could not sleep. She wrote a letter to the prison director and management, questioning the Shandong Women’s Prison, which earned the reputation of the Province’s “civilized prison” on many occasions for using coercion and torture on Falun Dafa practitioners who would not retaliate when scolded or beaten. She admonished them for blatantly disregarding prison regulations.

Ms. Cui had already let go of her fear of death. Prison guards instigated convicts to scold, beat and not allow her to sleep. She said, “I had no choice but to go on a hunger strike to protest the abuse. When my mother saw how weak I had become and that I was on the brink of death, for the first time in her life, she swallowed her pride. She went down on her knees and begged the director to grant me medical parole. But she was told if I did not give up my belief, even if I died in prison they would not release me.”

“Devastated, my mother went home and said to my daughter Yujia, 'Your mother is still working at that place.'”

According to a report published on the Chinese Minghui website:

“Cui Ling, female, born in 1973, lives in Xinjiazhuang Residential Area, Southern District, Qingdao City, was illegally sentenced to 4 years in prison in 2005. Her daughter was only 3 or 4 years old. She went on a hunger strike to protest her illegal detention while she was locked up for more than four months in the No. 2 Detention Center in Dashan. Detention center guards got 5 or 6 criminal offenders without any experience to force feed her brutally and give her hormone pills so as to maintain her weight. Her nose was swollen as a result of long term force feeding. Every time the tube was pulled out of her nose, it was covered with blood. In the end, she was sent to Shandong Women’s Prison in Jinan, where she continued to be tortured.”

The report continued: “She suffered even more brutal torture at Shandong Women’s Prison. She was force-fed many times. Every time she was taken to the hospital to be force-fed, her mouth was gagged and she was dragged along the floor. Her legs and feet were covered with injuries as a result. Guard Xue Yanqin took photos of her being force-fed with a tube in her nose and being grabbed by her hair, enlarged them and printed them out to show others. At times, she was beaten up three times a day. When she told her family about the mistreatment during visits, guard Xue claimed her injuries resulted from fights among prison inmates. The day before her release, she was transferred to another area and put under intense torture to make her give up her practice. She was viciously beaten for one day and one night. ”

Illustration of brutal force feeding.

Illustration of a form of torture: dragged down the stairs.

Ms. Cui Ling said, “My husband wept when he saw how terribly I was tortured. When we got married, I did not ask for a dowry or house because his family were poor villagers. He knew Dafa taught me to be a kind and selfless person. He was worried for me but could not do anything to help me.”

The Greatest Treasure I Can Give My Child

When prison guards failed to transform Cui Ling, they angrily shouted, “Because of your faith, you choose to disregard your family and child!”

She answered, “Aren’t you the ones who broke up my family and took me away from my child? One should have freedom of belief. This is a right given by the Chinese Constitution. I have not done anything against the law. If it is a crime to believe in ‘Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance’, and people are afraid to tell the truth, is there hope and trust in a society like that? Will our children be happy and grow up healthy in such a society? As a mother, I cannot lie and say that my faith is wrong. That would be going against my conscience and that is why I must uphold truth and justice. I am fighting for my children and tens of thousands of children so that they can grow up in a healthy environment. This is the greatest gift I can leave my daughter! In future, when she faces hardships and difficulties in life, she can also harness this tremendous courage and the power of virtue!”

Ms. Cui Ling and her daughter Yujia attend a Shen Yun Performing Arts show in Toronto in 2018.

China’s Countless Family Tragedies

Ms. Cui Ling said, “My daughter is fortunate. After all the trauma, my family was reunited in the end. How many Chinese people have been misled by the CCP’s lies in its 22 years of persecution of Falun Dafa? How many practitioners’ families were broken up, how many young children have lost their parents and suffered tremendously as a result of this persecution?”

She continued, “I had just given birth to my daughter in November 2000 when I learned that Zou Songtao, a Falun Dafa practitioner in Qingdao, was tortured to death while detained in the Wangcun Forced Labor Camp in Shandong. He was only 28 years old and his daughter was only over a year old. His wife Zhang Yunhe, who is a practitioner, was also arrested. Her whereabouts are still unknown. Their daughter lost her parents and had to be raised by an uncle.”

“In the CCP’s 22 year long persecution, during Chinese New Year and politically sensitive dates, my family and countless practitioners’ families were harassed by police officers who either made phone calls or paid home visits to warn us not to carry out any protests. Falun Dafa practitioners have no guarantee of personal safety in China, where one has no human rights and is persecuted for one’s belief. Practitioners can be arrested at any time and even children live in fear.”

Chinese Increasingly Aware of the Truth

Ms. Cui Ling began to practice Falun Dafa in 1997 when she was in her fourth year in university. She said, “The first time I read the main book of Falun Dafa, Zhuan Falun, my heart was moved. I wanted to practice cultivation and live by the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance! When I read the book the second time, my body was cleansed. Previous ailments such as infection of the digestive system, arthritis, tonsillitis and so on disappeared.”

“More importantly, I understood the true purpose of life and the truth of the universe! Guided by the teachings, my moral standards improved. In China alone, there are one hundred million practitioners like me who have experienced physical and mental health benefits from practicing Dafa!”

“No matter how ruthless the CCP’s tactics are, the regime cannot stop practitioners from believing in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and resisting the persecution. More and more Chinese citizens are aware of the CCP’s lies. When she got older, my daughter realized that I was not working in prison. She learned the truth about the persecution and became a practitioner too. My mother saw hope and understood my choice after going through so much terror and despair. I can say the CCP’s persecution has completely failed.”