(Minghui.org) (Continued from Part 1)
On March 5, 2002 the TV signal in Changchun, China was intercepted and eight channels broadcast programs created by Falun Dafa practitioners to explain the truth behind the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution of the spiritual discipline.
The programs were broadcast for 40-50 minutes without interruption. Liu Chengjun, one of the practitioners behind this courageous feat, gave his life for it. On December 26, 2003 Liu Chengjun died after being brutally tortured for 21 months.
Before he and the other practitioners intercepted the TV signals, hundreds of practitioners were persecuted to death by the CCP, so Liu understood the risks, but gave his life to tell people the truth.
I’m Liu Chengjun’s sister. By telling our story, I hope more people will cherish Falun Dafa and their own lives. Many people may have heard of Liu Chengjun and are moved by his story. But few people have heard about the persecution my family endured over the years.
In October 1999, my younger brother Liu Chengjun, my sister, and I went to the Appeals Office in Beijing for the second time, but before we could reach the gate, we were arrested. All three of us were sent to a forced labor camp for one year. Liu Chengjun was detained for one year and 10 months in the Fenjin Forced Labor Camp in Changchun. His wife divorced him.
I was released, but my brother Liu Chengjun was still illegally detained in the forced labor camp. I often went to see him and brought him Master’s recent lectures and encouraged him to read them and strengthen his righteous thoughts. I told him about the efforts of practitioners in China and abroad to expose the persecution. He was encouraged and even more determined to remain diligent.
Liu Chengjun did not cooperate with the labor camp guards; instead he clarified the truth and did his best to save people. The inmates in his cell followed him to study the Fa and practice the exercises. They also helped get Master’s recent lectures lectures to other practitioners. He created a positive environment.
By reading Master’s recent lectures I realized that waiting to be released from the labor camp was going along with the old forces’ arrangements. The next time I saw my brother, I encouraged him to completely reject the old forces’ arrangements and leave the labor camp. I went to see the director and asked for my brother’s unconditional release. Local practitioners also sent righteous thoughts to eliminate all the evil factors that persecute practitioners in the labor camps, and dissolve the old forces’ arrangements
Several practitioners helped me put up posters. Four of us went to the labor camp.
I spoke to the director while the other three practitioners sent righteous thoughts. I said, “I’m Liu Chengjun’s sister. I’m here to take him home today.” The director seemed startled and said, “Do you have a mental problem?” I said calmly and firmly, “It is you who are irrational. You are persecuting Falun Dafa practitioners. You have detained my brother beyond the time limit. If you don’t release him, I will sue you.” My determination shocked him.
I softened my tone and said, “You are a leader. You’ve interacted with all kinds of prisoners in your work over the years. But Falun Dafa practitioners are good people with high moral standards who do not commit crimes.” He said, “Do you practice Falun Dafa?” When I said I did, he asked why I hadn’t been arrested. I said, “That’s wrong to look at it. People who practice Falun Dafa are good people. Why are good people arrested? The people who order you to harm practitioners are bad people. They will eventually be brought to justice.”
I told him how Dafa teaches people to restrain themselves—something that neither laws nor violence can do. He quietly listened. In the end, I said, “Release him or I won’t leave.” He said, “It’s not up to me. It’s very troublesome to fill out all the paperwork and to get his release approved.” I said, “You’ve detained him for a long time. How much less trouble will one less detainee cause you?” He said, “Come back on Monday and bring someone from the 610 Office or the Political and Legal Affairs Committee to pick him up. Then I will release him.”
The director arranged for us to see my brother. We sent righteous thoughts and asked Master to bless us. The ten-year-old practitioner said she saw Master casting a powerful gong (golden light) onto to each disciple’s head, and the golden light instantly merged with each person’s different-colored gong pillar. During our meeting, we told Liu Chengjun what happened and that we planned to pick him up the following Monday.
But Liu Chengjun wrote a message on a wall in the labor camp on Saturday, so he was given another month. He thought, “I’ll leave when I see an opportunity.” The opportunity came on Monday morning. He walked out the door and jumped over the wall.
On Monday morning, I went to the labor camp with my husband (who does not practice), my father, and two other practitioners. The practitioners sent righteous thoughts outside the gate, and the three of us went to see the director. The director was not there, so we waited. My father didn’t believe they would release Liu Chengjun. I was very calm and quietly sent righteous thoughts. When the director came in, he told us to sit down, picked up the phone, and said, “Chief Han of the Management Section, release Liu Chengjun.” My husband was shocked and didn’t know what to say. I was calm and asked, “Where are we going to pick up him?” Director Zhou said, “He’ll be here in five minutes.”
But within five minutes the phone rang. The director stood up and shouted, “Oh no, someone ran away!” I saw everyone running down the stairs. The director opened the cabinet door, took out his pistol and ran out. I didn’t hear clearly, so I asked my husband what he was shouting. He said, “It seems that someone escaped.” I stood up and said, “It’s Liu Chengjun.”
We rushed to the window and looked downstairs to see the labor camp in chaos. Police officers ran to the gate as police cars were dispatched and roared out of the gate with their sirens blaring. I sent righteous thoughts and asked Master to protect my brother. As my husband and I were leaving the building, we heard one officer instructing several others, “Go and give Liu Chengjun a wanted warrant!” As we exited the gate, the two practitioners who were sending righteous thoughts ran over and said, “We saw Liu Chengjun jump over the high wall and run into the cornfield.”
We got into the car and went home. Less than an hour after we got there, the director and the police showed up and gave us the notice of release for Liu Chengjun. The director said, “Liu Chengjun’s sister and brother-in-law did the paperwork for him.” Then they hurried away.
My brother later returned home safely. Protected by Master we were able to negate the old forces’ arrangements.
On March 5, 2002, I wrote a letter to my father-in-law to tell him the truth about the persecution. But he used this letter as “evidence” to have me arrested and sent to a forced labor camp for two years for the second time.
On March 5, 2002, Liu Chengjun and other practitioners intercepted the TV signal and broadcast the truth in Changchun. This feat shocked the CCP and they escalated the persecution. When they couldn’t find my brother, they tortured me. Every time I was interrogated, I was whipped with bamboo sticks from head to toe. My face, my hands, and my body were swollen, purple and black. No matter how they beat me, they didn’t get any information from me.
The inmates wept every time they saw me being beaten like this, but I didn’t shed a single tear. I endured the pain so that they could witness the truth, Master’s compassion, and the amazing power of Dafa. I taught everyone to memorize Hong Yin and how to do the exercises. Everyone participated. Some people’s bodies and minds changed greatly, and some people had their celestial eyes opened.
On March 24, 2002, Liu Chengjun was arrested and illegally sentenced to 19 years in prison and held in Jilin Prison. He was brutally tortured (see “Jilin Prison: Described by Inmates as ‘Hell on Earth’”). Liu Chengjun suffered from burns and gunshot and was forced to sit on a tiger bench for 52 days. He was handcuffed to a death bed for several days and severely beaten.
Some insiders said that Liu Chengjun’s entire body was bruised and bloody. I later saw a photo of him handcuffed to a radiator. He could not sit up straight and was bleeding from one nostril and his mouth. One leg was so crippled he could barely walk. But his heart was bright. When my sister and fellow practitioners and I went to see him in the hospital two months before he died, he was dying and unable to speak. He had a severe throat infection, his heart and kidneys were failing, and he was blind and paralyzed. The hospital issued a critical illness notice.
However, Liu Chengjun still recited Master’s Fa:
“Great enlightened beings fear no hardshipTheir will is cast of diamondLife or death, they have no attachmentForthright and broad-minded on the road of Fa-rectification”(“Righteous Thought, Righteous Action,” Hong Yin II)
He told us to save the prisoner who was ordered to watch him. What a compassionate and great life this was! Even though he was dying, he still thought about saving others. That prisoner was moved to tears by his great compassion.
On December 26, 2003, Liu Chengjun died as a result of being persecuted at the age of 33. If such a kind man had lived, how many more people would have been saved! Although he is gone, his spirit and his brilliance will live forever.
My family took the death of my younger brother Liu Chengjun very hard and were grief-stricken. My father and mother were sick for more than a month. I had just been released from the labor camp and didn’t have strong enough righteous thoughts. I felt sorry for Master and sorry for Dafa, and I had no will to live. Along with the grief of my husband having an affair and losing my brother, it seemed the pressure came at me from every direction—I even thought about suicide. I didn’t want to live anymore. I later realized that the old forces were interfering with me.
One day I saw two entities next to my bed. I thought to myself, “The evil wants me to die! No, I have to study the Fa, I have to cheer up, only Master can save me.” My sister had strong righteous thoughts and she helped me.
We studied the Fa together, memorized the Fa, sent righteous thoughts, and went out to tell people the facts and save them. When I got Master’s latest lecture “Stop the Evil Acts With Righteous Thoughts” (Essentials of Diligent Progress III), I read it three times in a row. I felt the intense pain of the persecution dissipate. I memorized the verse. Inspired by the power of Dafa and encouraged by other practitioners, I cheered up.
My sisters and I encouraged our parents to resume practicing. They finally began to study the Fa and practice, and within days, they recovered their health. The light of Dafa shone on us, saving us from the abyss of suffering. Our parents smiled again.
At first, my parents were frightened and didn’t dare to go out or let us go out to talk to people about Dafa. My sister and I studied the Fa with them. Their understanding gradually improved and they realized what they needed to do.
My father and I drafted “A Letter to Law Enforcement Agencies at All Levels—Return My Son.” We made many copies and mailed them to local law enforcement agencies, government agencies, people’s congresses, and other institutions, as well as provincial and municipal government departments. My father went to the local prosecutor’s office to file a lawsuit, but they would not accept it. We distributed it locally, door-to-door. This letter was like a bomb—it frightened and greatly deterred the evil, exposed the lies, and told the truth about Liu Chengjun’s death. Many people recognized the evil nature of the CCP.
That night, blood suddenly began spurting from my father’s nose. He couldn’t stop it. My sister and mother asked Master to help, and the bleeding stopped.
In December 2004, I returned to Beijing and distributed CDs with information about Falun Dafa. I was arrested in Beijing’s Tongzhou District and sentenced to seven years in prison. My husband divorced me. Two months later, my eldest brother, the only one in my family who did not cultivate, was sentenced to five years in prison over a traffic accident, which dealt another heavy blow to our family.
My parents were saddened by their eldest son’s imprisonment. My younger sister was also depressed. However, they did not let up in their efforts to assist Master in rectifying the Fa. My sister and father made multiple copies of the letter “Return My Son,” mailed it to various government departments, and posted the letter on Minghui.org. In retaliation, the police intensified their harassment.
When my father announced his resignation from the Party, the evil spirits and rotten ghosts intensified the persecution of my father’s body. His body was covered in dense purple-black spots from his lower abdomen to his feet, and he coughed incessantly. Some practitioners saw entities attacking his neck. They intensified their efforts to send righteous thoughts, but the evil was still rampant. My father collapsed, but he didn’t lose consciousness. When my relatives took my father to the hospital, he asked to go home. He sent righteous thoughts but was unable to completely reject the old forces’ arrangements. Nine days later, my father died on March 28, 2005.
It was a terrible tragedy for my mother and sister. Especially my mother, who’s lost her husband and son and had had another son and daughter tortured in prison. She was grief-stricken. My sister was also grief-stricken but she maintained righteous thoughts. She helped my mother study the Fa, send righteous thoughts, and clarify the truth.
About a month after my father died, my mother developed symptoms of a stroke. Her mouth was crooked and she had difficulty swallowing. She persisted in going out with my sister every day and passing out information about Falun Dafa.
One night when they were distributing flyers, she fell and injured her foot. Despite the pain, she and my sister finished passing out all they flyers. My sister asked her, “Mom, can you do it?” She replied firmly, “It’s okay. No one can stop me from saving people.” My sister was touched by her strong will. Because of her firm righteous thoughts, she soon recovered from her stroke and her injured foot quickly healed.
But later, due to financial difficulties, my sister had to find a job. My sister used to work, but when she was sent to a forced labor camp, her employer fired her. Because my mother was alone, she slacked off her cultivation. She missed her deceased family members, did not eliminate her attachment, and went along with the old forces’ arrangements. On December 4, 2009, my mother became ill and died.
My sister was the only one left. It was really a huge disaster, and it felt like the sky was about to fall. She’s lost her parents herand younger brother, and her older sister and her eldest brother was imprisoned. Her relatives and friends blamed her and stayed away from her. She didn’t have an income. Unable to pay the heating bill in the winter, she lived alone in a cold room, helpless and in pain. When she really couldn’t hold on, she shouted in her heart, “Master!” She studied the Fa intensively. Whenever she read the ninth lecture of Zhuan Falun, the section about “being able to endure the toughest hardships of all,” she wept.
Master said,
“The Fa can break all attachments; the Fa can destroy all evil; the Fa can shatter all lies; and the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts.” (“Drive Out Interference,” The Essentials of Diligent Progress II)
Dafa gave my sister infinite strength. Master once again rescued her from the abyss of suffering. Her righteous thoughts rose in the Fa, and her wisdom was opened by the Fa. Under Master’s compassionate care and with other practitioners’ help, she got out of her depression. My sister has cultivated very solidly. She is firmly and maturely walking on the divine path of assisting Master in the Fa-rectification.
I later worked as a nanny in a practitioner’s home. On July 18, 2014, the police came to the house to arrest her, and I was arrested, too. I was held in a detention center for a year and a half.
I’ve repeatedly stumbled in my 27 years of cultivation. I know that only by studying the Fa well and cultivating ourselves can we move forward.
In the limited time we have left, I want to cultivate more diligently and do the three things that Dafa practitioners should do so that I can repay Master’s compassion and return to my true home with Master.
If I said anything that is not in accordance with the Fa, please kindly correct me.