(Minghui.org) After I started practicing Falun Dafa in 1997, the many illnesses that had tormented me for years disappeared. I could not express my gratitude enough to Master and Dafa.
On October 2, 2000, one year after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to persecute Dafa, the police arrested me and took me to the local police station. While some officers stayed to ransack my home, I asked Master Li (the founder of Falun Dafa) in my heart to help protect my Dafa books. With this thought, the police didn’t see my books, even after going through every corner at my home.
The police attempted to force me to reveal the source of the Dafa materials I distributed, but I did not cooperate with them. I was taken to the local detention center in the evening. The police came to interrogate me again the next day, and I still refused to answer their questions.
A 610 Office agent told me to sign the deposition, but I refused to comply. I asked him: “How did I disturb the law and order, and what’s the evidence?” He didn’t expect that I would ask such a question and he stared at me, not knowing how to answer.
The deputy director of the detention center came over and slapped me in the face. “Why did you hit me?” I asked him.
“You are a prisoner and you ought to be beaten here.”
With strong righteous thoughts, I warned them: “I’m not a prisoner. I’m a law-abiding citizen. It’s you who beat me. I will sue you after I get out.”
After a day of interrogation, I didn’t tell them anything. They took me to a canine training base just east of the detention center and locked me in a two-square-meter dog cage.
They ripped off the cotton cover of my bedding and put it in the dog cage. They wanted me to eat, sleep, and relieve myself inside the cage. I didn’t go along with them and insisted that I use the restroom if I needed to.
The detention center was in the suburbs. At night, mosquitoes surrounded me and rats were scurrying around. I communicated with them, “I am a Dafa disciple and I am being persecuted. If I owed you anything in my past life, I will pay you back. But if I didn’t, please go away.” The mosquitoes were gone in a short while.
Since I was not a criminal, I decided to start a hunger strike to protest the persecution. I was transferred to a lockup five days later and soon released.
I went to Tiananmen Square in Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Dafa in December 2001. I was a bit nervous and my heart beat very fast. I asked for Master’s help to strengthen me. I took a deep breath, walked to the Golden Water Bridge in front of Tiananmen Square, and quickly hung a banner on the bridge.
I turned around to the tourists and shouted: “Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good! Restore my Master’s reputation! The Tiananmen Square self-immolation was a hoax!”
The armed police and plainclothes agents rushed over from all around and snatched the banner. They punched and kicked me, trying to stop me from shouting. I tried to run away but was still dragged into the police car and taken to the Yanqing District Detention Center.
I was picked up by my workplace manager and the local police chief a few days later. I was given one year in a labor camp without any legal proceedings.
I failed the physical examination and was denied admission to the labor camp. The police refused to release me but held me in the detention center. I began a hunger strike to resist the persecution. On the eighth day, I developed tachycardia and low blood pressure. I am 5’4 and only weighed around 80 lbs.
When the 610 Office agents scared me by saying my sister-in-law (also a Dafa practitioner) was dying from her hunger strike, I succumbed to fear and family sentimentality. I stopped the hunger strike and was taken to the labor camp to serve the term.
After I was released, I spent much time studying the Fa and sending forth righteous thoughts. I looked within and tried to make sense of why I was arrested twice within two years.
I realized that I didn’t have a clear understanding of the Fa. After intense Fa study, I finally understood that the police were carrying out the order to persecute us and that they were the real victims. When the Fa-rectification is over, all those who sinned against Dafa will face elimination. As a Dafa disciple, I have the responsibility to help them see the situation clearly and stop being fooled by the propaganda.
I decided to clarify the truth to the officers who persecuted me. I first went to the 610 Office agent who tried to pressure me to sign the interrogation records following my first arrest. At first, he wouldn’t let me talk, so I sent righteous thoughts to eliminate all the evil elements behind him.
As I kept visiting him, he began to change. Sometimes he also asked me to clarify the truth to others who happened to visit him when I was in his office, including his supervisor. I urged them not to follow the communist regime in persecuting the practitioners, because that would be violating the law by infringing on our constitutionally-protected right of spiritual belief.
When the police chief picked me up in Beijing and took me back to the detention center, I clarified the truth to him during the trip. He was very receptive and asked many questions. He often visited me in the detention center and I had the chance to explain how the CCP used various propaganda to smear Falun Dafa.
After the CCP broadcast the Tiananmen self-immolation hoax in January 2001, I explained to him the loopholes in the video and told him that it was staged to incite hatred against Falun Dafa. I also told him that I used to have a heart problem, depression, and other diseases, but after I began practicing Falun Dafa, all my illnesses were gone. Master granted me a second life. How could I not step up and speak up when Dafa and Master were slandered?
I believe his knowing side wanted to come to me to hear me clarify the facts. Moreover, he probably felt bad for handcuffing me to the handle of the van when he took me back following my arrest in Beijing, which caused my wrist to become black and blue. Maybe he was trying to do something to make it up.
After he understood how the CCP persecutes us and that Dafa practitioners are all good people, he was blessed and got a promotion and left his police station.
After the new police chief took office, he sent a subordinate to my home, where several fellow practitioners happened to be here. He said that he needed a picture of my family for some documents. While talking, he searched around my home and then walked toward the bedroom.
I stopped him, “It is illegal for you to come to my house. If you visit me as a friend, I will receive you; but if you came as a police officer, I will sue you for trespassing.”
He stopped and walked out. Before leaving, he suddenly asked: “Who are those people in your home?”
“Don’t you have relatives and friends?” I said to him.
I thought I should not let him come in vain and I should clarify the truth to him. I told him that the reason I couldn’t give my photo to him was that when Falun Dafa is vindicated one day, the photo would become evidence of his participation in the persecution. He said his aunt also practiced Dafa, but he didn’t want to listen to what she had to say. I encouraged him to learn more about Dafa and stop participating in the persecution.
The next day, I decided to clarify the facts to the new police chief. On my way to the police station, I tried to communicate with his knowing side so he could choose the bright path for himself.
After I arrived at the police station, I told him that an officer came to my home and asked for my picture the day before, but I did not give it to him.
“It's just a picture. Why didn’t you give it to him?” he said.
When I said that wasn't right, he told me to get out, to which I replied, “People in your position should be well-mannered. I would appreciate it if you let me finish and I will leave then.” I told him that the persecution of Falun Gong didn’t have any legal basis and that it was merely a personal decision by Jiang Zemin, the former head of the communist regime.
His response was, “If I were Jiang, I would shoot every one of you to death.”
I told him that we are kind people from all walks of life. Why would anyone want to harm us? I told him that, after the Cultural Revolution, the injustice against those who were persecuted was redressed, but some police officers became scapegoats and were secretly executed. “If you do not know the truth, you are harming yourself.” He lowered his head and did not interrupt me.
As I was talking, I truly felt my compassion for him and my heart to save him. My kindness suppressed my fear. The more I talked, the kinder my tone became. Before I left, I urged him to learn more about Dafa and not persecute the practitioners anymore.
I also went to see the officer who came the day before and asked him not to harass me at home again. Another policeman said to me, “But it is our duty.”
I reminded him, “Your duty is to serve the people. We are lawful citizens and it’s your duty to serve us. Do not persecute law-abiding Falun Dafa practitioners anymore. Do you hear me?”
“Yes, Ma'am,” he replied
During a grand anniversary celebration of a key university in Northeast China, many flyers fell down from the sky as the school leadership was delivering a speech. The attendees thought it was part of the celebration and they picked them up, only to find that it was Falun Dafa flyers.
This incident alarmed the provincial government. They mobilized a large number of police forces and arrested many practitioners. In order to protect other practitioners, a male practitioner took all the responsibility on his own. He was sentenced to seven years in 2001 and suffered brutal persecution.
When we learned about his situation, we decided that we should not allow evil to persecute him. We must rescue him.
The first time I accompanied his family to the prison, I felt uneasy. My negative thoughts surfaced. My mind was unstable and I didn’t know how to speak. We were not allowed to see the practitioner.
We kept going there, sending forth righteous thoughts for him. Our actions restrained the guards and they no longer abused him at will.
As I gained more experience of clarifying the truth to the police, I gradually took on more responsibility in rescuing practitioners. Fellow practitioners and I cooperated very tacitly and alleviated the persecution in the city.
One fellow practitioner was arrested after being reported for talking to people about the persecution. As soon as I heard about it, I called several fellow practitioners and we went to the police station with the practitioner’s family members.
The officer who handled the case was shocked and said, “Wow, you are fast!”
“Of course," I replied, "you arrested a good person and that in itself is committing a crime. There is no law in the country that says Falun Dafa is illegal.”
In fact, after many years of interaction with Dafa practitioners, these police officers more or less knew the truth, but they still had to follow the order against their conscience.
The police said they must respond when someone reported the practitioner. They would at most detain her for a few days and levy some fine before releasing her.
I said, “Officer! You are a sound-minded person who knows the truth, and how can you still do things like that? Keeping her detained for even one day or fining them any amount of money is wrong. It’s enough for your name to be recorded on the perpetrators’ list.”
In addition to the persistence and cooperation between fellow practitioners, strong righteous thoughts were also important in restraining the evil.
One day, we needed to meet an officer who was responsible for the persecution. When we visited him in the office, he said he had many activities to attend to on that day, but things kept coming up, preventing him from leaving the office. He joked that he was there waiting for us. And it was indeed so as we sent strong righteous thoughts that we must see him that day.
When my younger sister Mei was posting truth-clarifying materials, an officer saw her and arrested her. When I learned the news, I was in the hospital taking care of my nephew’s wife who had just given birth; my home was going through renovation; I also had a two-year-old grandson that I was taking care of. What should I do?
I had to be very clear about the purpose of rescuing Mei. If my mind was not steady, then I would be easily driven by sentimentality and exploited by the evil. Mei’s tribulation might be aggravated.
I kept cautioning myself that I was rescuing Mei as a fellow practitioner, not as my sister. I needed to pay attention to the process, not just focus on the result. And I needed to focus on clarifying the truth and saving everyone involved. As long as we carried out the task according to the Fa and cultivated ourselves, we would achieve our goal.
I arrived at Mei’s city the next day and stayed with our older sister Yan, who also practiced Falun Dafa and lived in the same city. Yan and I studied the Fa and sent righteous thoughts together. In the evening, we went to the local fellow practitioner’s home to discuss how to rescue Mei.
On the third day, local practitioners went to the police station to send forth righteous thoughts outside. Yan and I went in to demand the release of Mei.
We reminded each other that when one clarified the truth, the other would send righteous thoughts to reinforce it.
We found officer Wang, who was in charge of the case, and he told us that Mei had already been moved to the local detention center. He said Mei would be released in a few days, but none of us believed him.
Several days later, we found Wang again and I asked, “Where is Mei? It's been several days. What law has she broken?”
“Do you also practice Falun Gong?” he asked.
“Are you afraid of Falun Gong practitioners? Isn’t it that the more people practicing Falun Gong, the better?” I replied.
He threatened me: “If you say one more word, I will arrest you too!”
When I protested, he said, “Get out of here. I already sent her case to Cheng. You can go find him and ask about her case.”
We found Cheng, the officer who took Mei to the detention center. He handed her clothes to us. When we saw her clothes, we almost broke down. I kept reminding myself, “Do not cry.” Cheng told us that he had completed the procedure and the case had been sent to the third officer, Zhang. We went home to study the Fa, do the exercises, and send forth righteous thoughts.
We found Zhang and he took out the arrest warrant and ordered us to sign it.
“We are not here to sign any document. We are here to take Mei home,” I said.
“Are you joking? If you do not sign the paper, then get out.” He cursed us and drove us out.
Yan and I spent much effort and hired a lawyer to represent Mei. When the lawyer visited Mei, he delivered the message to us: “This is not a place for a cultivator. We are trying our best to help you, and the overseas practitioners are calling the police.” Mei’s righteous thoughts were strengthened.
When Yan and I returned home, we continued our Fa study and sent forth righteous thoughts. Meanwhile, a fellow practitioner got a contact book, which had the phone numbers of all the officers working in that police station. The calls made by overseas fellow practitioners using this directory greatly deterred the evil.
After 15 days, Yan and I went back to the police station to demand Mei’s release. The guard stopped us from coming in. I suddenly saw officer Wang and called out to him. He was furious to see us, “You exposed my name and phone number abroad. These overseas calls exhausted me every day!”
I didn’t talk, but looked into his eyes, sending righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil that manipulated him. He suddenly ran upstairs, and I followed him but was stopped by the security, who begged us not to go in; otherwise, he would be in trouble. We asked him for the police director’s contact information, and on our way out, he stuffed a small slip with the phone number into our hands. I thanked him.
When we got outside, we started calling the police director. “You kidnapped our sister a few days ago, and we’re demanding her release.”
Before we could finish speaking, he laughed and said, “Why do you use the word ‘kidnap’?”
“She did not commit any crime. If it was not kidnapping, what was it? We came to pick her up, our elderly parents and her ailing husband all need her. Her child is about to take the college entrance exam, particularly needing her care and support,” I added.
He directed us to the deputy director, Jiang, and gave us his phone number. But when we called Jiang, he refused to talk to us and hung up.
It had been two weeks since I left home. I decided to go home for a quick visit. I was just about to arrive that afternoon when Yan called me to say, “The detention center had asked us to go pick up Mei!”
Tears ran down my face, and my gratitude toward Master was beyond words: Master, you have done so much for your disciples! As long as our hearts and minds are on the Fa, our words and deeds are in line with saving people, you help us accomplish everything!
Thank you, Master!