Woman Repeatedly Detained for Refusing to Give up Life-saving Practice

(Minghui.org) A once-sickly woman from Zibo City, Shandong Province was told that her illness was so severe that even the most prominent doctor in Chinese history could not save her. Against all odds, Ms. Yan Xiuling recovered and became perfectly healthy after she learned the practice of Falun Gong, an ancient spiritual discipline with five sets of slow-moving exercises that has provided tremendous health benefits to its practitioners. 

After the Chinese communist regime launched the persecution of Falun Gong in July 1999, Ms. Yan has been arrested multiple times and incarcerated for a total of two and half years for refusing to renounce the practice that saved her life. She was also forced to pay nearly 10,000 yuan in fines. 

Life Saved by Falun Gong

Ms. Yan suffered metabolic problems since 1996 and the metabolic wastes accumulated in her body. Her body became a reservoir of puss. All of the western and Chinese doctors she saw gave up. “There is nothing I could do,” one doctor told her. A friend of hers looked up her symptoms in a book written by Hua Tuo, a legendary surgeon in Chinese history, and told her that only a divine being could save her life because all her energy channels were blocked. 

While Ms. Yan felt that she was better off dead than alive, another friend of hers introduced Falun Gong to her in 1998. After doing the exercises and following the principles of the teachings, her metabolism returned to normal and her energy channels were revitalized. She became healthy and a steadfast Falun Gong practitioner since. 

Detained After Trying to Speak Out for Falun Gong 

Less than a year after she took up the practice, the communist regime banned Falun Gong on July 20, 1999. She travelled to Beijing to speak out for Falun Gong and hoped to tell the central government officials that the persecution was wrong. On her way to Beijing, she frequently came across the police, who searched and questioned her. 

After she managed to get to Beijing on July 22, 1999, she couldn’t get close to the central government compound of Zhongnanhai, as it was fully surrounded by the military. The police rounded up the practitioners and put them on bus after bus that transported them to a gymnasium. Some practitioners still held newborn babies with them and others were elderly in their 70s and 80s.

The officials from Shandong Province Office in Beijing picked up Ms. Yan in the evening and put her in a room with 16 other practitioners who all came from the same province. The next morning, the police from Zibo City came to bring them back to Shandong. The police chief made her stand outside overnight while a few officers watched her. She and a dozen practitioners were taken to a hotel owned by the Zibo Paper Mill. They were detained for two weeks and watched by a few staff members around the clock. She was forced to pay 1,000 yuan for her living expenses. 

Fleeing Home Due to Frequent Police Harassment 

Night or day, the local police and officials would come harass Ms. Yan at home. When the central government held an important meeting in March 2000, the local police rounded up Ms. Yan and other practitioners in an attempt to prevent the practitioners from going to Beijing to protest. The police put them in a hotel for a month until the meeting ended. To make things worse, she had to pay 3,000 yuan for the room and board, which put a lot of financial strain on her. 

The 610 Office in Zibo City Police Department discovered that Ms. Yan printed and distributed fliers to tell people about Falun Gong and the persecution. A dozen officers gathered in front of her home on October 1, 2000. They cut off her power and phone line after her husband refused to let them in. Her family was stranded inside and unable to live a normal life. Ms. Yan tried to escape around midnight on October 6 and climbed out her window. She fell from the 5th floor to the 2nd floor balcony and injured herself. 

Despite her injured legs and back, she managed to escape and stayed with a relative who lived far away. Through regularly doing the Falun Gong exercises, she quickly recovered. 

Tortured in a Forced Labor Camp 

To avoid future persecution, Ms. Yan stayed with a fellow practitioner and didn’t go back home. She worked during the day and distributed informational materials about Falun Gong at night. A plainclothes officer spotted her and followed her on January 5, 2001. A dozen agents from the 610 Office arrested her and the practitioner she lived with, and locked them inside a train station hotel. They interrogated her and deprived her of sleep for 5 consecutive days while handcuffing her to a heating pipe. Two weeks later they released her on bail and made her pay 5,000 yuan of bail. 

Within a month of her release, the police arrested Ms. Yan again on February 15, 2001, and arbitrarily put her in Wangcun Forced Labor Camp to serve a three-year term. The guards wouldn’t let her sleep because she refused to sign a written statement to renounce Falun Gong. They often forced her to work until midnight to wrap wires around electronic parts for exports. She was released on April 1, 2003. 

The local officials from Linzi District arrested Ms. Yan on May 12, 2010, and held her at Zibo City Brainwashing Center for a month.