71-Year-Old Woman Incarcerated for 11.5 Years for Her Faith in Falun Gong

(Minghui.org) Ms. Chen Meiling, 71, has been incarcerated three times for a total of 11.5 years for talking to people about Falun Gong. She was subjected to physical and mental torture while in detention.

Ms. Chen started to practice Falun Gong in September 1998. Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an ancient spiritual and meditation discipline with three universal principles: Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance.

Since the Chinese Communist Party began to persecute Falun Gong in July 1999, Ms. Chen has been incarcerated three times. She was arrested in 2002 for putting up Falun Gong information and sentenced to 5 years. In 2009 when she was talking to people about Falun Gong, when she was arrested and later taken to a forced labor camp to serve a 2.5-year term. She was arrested again on November 8, 2015, and later sentenced to another 4 years.

The following is Ms. Chen’s own account of her experience.

Before Practicing Falun Gong

I lived in the countryside. Because of the shortage of food, I had to eat home-grown cabbage and drink porridge for several months every year. I was extremely weak at the age of 30. My back pain was so bad that I couldn’t do any work. I had to take two injections twice a day for five days to stop the pain. My weight was less than 77 pounds and I had many diseases including gastritis and frozen shoulder. I kept coughing throughout the year.

After I started to practice Falun Gong in September 1998, all my illnesses were gone and I was able to live a normal life. Master Li Hongzhi gave me a second life and I couldn’t be more grateful.

However, in less than one year, the persecution of Falun Gong started, and my life was turned upside down.

First Arrest for Putting up Falun Gong Information Materials

The first episode of persecution was in July 2002, when I was arrested after being reported for posting Falun Gong information. The officers interrogated me for three days. The first night, I was handcuffed to the chair arms and subjected to mosquito and bug bites. My whole body was itchy and I shouted for help. But the police officers simply ignored me. It wasn’t until the chief came at 10 p.m. that they unlocked the handcuffs.

The police officers took turns interrogating me until dawn, when they put me into a dirty and smelly confinement cell. Soon, another round of interrogation started. After three days, the 610 Office personnel ordered me to sign a document and detained me for 15 days. During my detention, eight officers ransacked my apartment and confiscated my only copy of Zhuan Falun (the main text of Falun Gong), over 100 Falun Gong information fliers, a 25-inch TV, tape recorder, cell phone and Master Li Hongzhi’s picture.

I was tortured every day while in the detention center. I had to work from early morning to around 10 p.m. I was forced to sleep on the wet floor or just sat in a corner overnight. Despite the intensive labor, I was only given two very light meals a day. I was given 10 minutes to finish each meal. When the time was up, all the remaining food had to be trashed.

It was especially hard in the winter. I was always cold and hungry. My blood sugar was always low and I fainted several times. No treatment was allowed in the detention center.

No matter how hard I worked, the guards could arbitrarily torture me without reason, including forcing me to squat for hours, stand under the baking sun or do push-ups.

Second Arrest for Talking to Students About Falun Gong

One day in February 2009 when I was talking to students after school about Falun Gong, I was arrested again. The 610 Office agents, Dong Kunsheng and Yan Xiaoyan, ransacked my apartment and confiscated my video player, Falun Gong books and materials. I was taken to a detention center on the same night and held there until April. Then I was transferred to a forced labor camp, where I was detained for two more years.

After I was released in 2011, I went to the 610 Office and asked Dong Kunsheng to return my video player. But he claimed that he only took away a few video disks. I wanted to look around in his office for my video player, but he stopped me by grabbing me by the neck.

Third Arrest for Distributing Pamphlets

I went to a market to distribute pamphlets about Falun Gong and the persecution on the morning of November 15, 2015. When I walked out of the market, I gave an elderly man a copy. He grabbed me and claimed that he was a policeman. He called the police to come and arrest me. Later the police officers ransacked my apartment and confiscated all of my Falun Gong books and Master Li’s pictures. I was taken to the detention center on the same night and held there for 9 months before I was sentenced to four years and six months. I was also fined 2,000 yuan.

When I was in the prison, instigated by the guards, several inmates tried to force me to write a statement to renounce my faith. When I refused, they retaliated by forcing me to stand still for hours. Later the inmates ordered me to copy a written statement. Afraid of being tortured again, I was forced to hand-copy the statement against my will.

I thought the torture would be alleviated if I compromised, but I was wrong. The guards assigned another two inmates to force me to read materials slandering Falun Gong. They ordered me to write down what I “learned” every day, until I passed the 610 Office personnel’s oral examination to make sure that I had given up my faith. After that, I was assigned to do unpaid labor, but was still forced to go through brainwashing for one week every month.