In Those Unbearable Days (Part I)

(Minghui.org) [Editor’s note] In August 2002, Li Wenming participated in the TV signal interception event to broadcast programs about Falun Gong in Qinghai and Gansu provinces. He was illegally sentenced to 20 years in prison by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and sent to Lanzhou Prison in 2003. Li was finally released in August 2021. This is his personal account of the persecution he endured.

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Before I was persecuted, I could not believe that a group of people who follow the universal values of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, a group that only wants to be good and is beneficial to the country and society, would be brutally suppressed and persecuted. But this is still happening in China.

On July 20, 1999, former CCP leader Jiang Zemin used every government organ to brutally suppress millions of people who practiced Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa). Falun Dafa’s founder, Mr. Li Hongzhi, and Falun Dafa were slandered, and practitioners were persecuted. They wished to appeal for justice and went to Tiananmen Square and government departments to tell the world about these injustices and to clarify the truth about Falun Dafa and the persecution.

The practitioners that petitioned were subjected to even more severe suppression. Jiang Zemin implemented a policy to “defame their reputation, bankrupt them financially, and destroy them physically,” and the persecution was launched.

Master said,

“This enormous sin of the ages, this enormous sin whereby the [perpetrators] are brimming with evil and guilty of countless crimes throughout the firmament, has enraged all of the gods in the colossal firmament!” (“Turning the Wheel to the Human World,” The Essentials of Diligent Progress III)

I was arrested by the CCP four times and illegally detained for 21 years and 6 months, during which time I was subjected to inhuman torture and humiliation. When I recall the tragedy of the persecution, I can’t help but weep. I weep for the compassion and suffering that Master has exhausted for all sentient beings, and I am amazed by the magnanimity of Dafa and the perseverance of practitioners. I decided to expose the dark and appalling truth of the CCP’s political and legal system in China, to awaken the conscience of the world’s people, expose the deception and lies, so that people can truly understand Falun Dafa and practitioners.

I Start to Practice Falun Dafa

My name is Li Wenming (or Li Mingyi). I worked at the Lanzhou Locomotive Factory in Gansu Province. Before I began practicing Falun Dafa, I was very selfish. I often took things home from the factory. When it came time to reimburse expenses, I over reported, and reported some costs that should not have been reimbursed. I also suffered from a variety of chronic diseases: respiratory, digestive, and urinary. My lower back hurt, my limbs were weak, malaise and chronic pharyngitis accompanied me all year. I practiced some other things, but nothing helped.

In 1996, I was fortunate to hear about Falun Dafa. Master’s profound teachings immediately attracted me and I understood why we are human. I was moved to tears when I watched the videos of Master’s lectures. My outlook on life changed radically. I realized that I had been searching for Master and Dafa.

After I began practicing, many of my illnesses miraculously disappeared. My morals also improved. I returned the items I took from the factory, and no longer submitted requests for reimbursement unless they were valid. I followed the teachings of Dafa in everything I did.

More Than 20 Years of Brutal Persecution Begin

Lobsang Lingzhidorje, the former secretary of the Gansu Provincial Political and Legal Affairs Committee, publicly slandered Dafa and harassed and expelled practitioners from practice sites throughout the province. He ordered that their homes be raided. On April 27, 1999, practitioners from Lanzhou and other parts of the province went to the provincial government offices to appeal, demanding that the government end Lingzhidorje’s reckless actions and that they be allowed an undisturbed environment so they could practice.

I participated in the appeal as one of the five practitioner representatives. An officer from the provincial government said, “Lingzhidorje’s speech was his personal act and did not represent the government. The government has never banned group practice activities.” However, in the following days, the harassment continued and it increasingly intensified.

In May, practitioners from Lanzhou went to the provincial Party committee to petition again. I once again participated as one of the five practitioner representatives. A secretary general of the provincial Party committee met us. He took a very tough attitude, and avoided talking about harassment. He asked us to have a “clear understanding of the situation” and to abide by the “law.”

We were not intimidated by his tough attitude. In the next few days, more practitioners petitioned the provincial CCP committee.

I Was Arrested, Detained, and Persecuted

I was on night duty at 3 a.m. on July 21, 1999 at the Lanzhou Locomotive Factory, when the Qilihe District Police Department sent more than 10 people to arrest me. I was detained in a room in the corner of the first floor of the Xiankelai Hotel. More than 20 practitioners, including Yuan Jiang, Ge Junying, Peng Jian, Peng Bo, Yu Jinfang, Wang Zhangxiu, Xi Lilin, Wen Shixue, Cao Jun, Shi Xiaoquan, and Hua Jinchuan, were simultaneously arrested but were detained in different locations such as the Pearl Hotel and the Longbao Villa.

Twenty days later, they released some practitioners but jailed Yuan Jiang (who died in November 2001 at the age of 29), Ge Junying, Peng Jian, Peng Bo, Yu Jinfang, Wang Zhangxiu, and me at the People’s Hotel for six months, trying to force us to give up practicing Falun Gong. They released me six months later, but told my workplace to watch me.

I Was Arrested When I Went to Beijing to Appeal

Every Wednesday afternoon, we had to go to the city’s police department to participate in a brainwashing class. When Chinese New Year was approaching, I took advantage of the loosening of my supervision by my work unit and escaped. I took the train from Lanzhou to Beijing. Practitioners in Beijing took me to a rented house in Huilongguan, Changping District. Many practitioners were there from all over the country. They brought banners that read “Falun Dafa is good,” and “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” to Tiananmen Square to appeal for Dafa.

I made banners for the next two or three days. When the police discovered our location, officers from the Huilongguan Police Station in Beijing surrounded the place and arrested us, about forty or fifty practitioners. They took us to the Huilongguan Police Station and shoved the male practitioners to the ground. They kicked our heads, and stomped on our faces.

It was winter in Beijing, but the police stripped our clothes off, and made us stand outside and hold chunks of ice. What they did was vicious, but we were not frightened and we did not feel any pain. The miraculous thing was that we did not feel cold, instead we felt comfortable. The female practitioners who were inside called out to encourage us, and asked the police to release us. Only then did they stop beating us. We recited Lunyu and began a collective hunger strike to protest their illegally arresting us.

The police soon interrogated us. Some practitioners refused to give their names and addresses, so they were detained in detention centers in Beijing. I was taken to the Lanzhou Liaison Office in Beijing, where the director handcuffed me. The next day he handed me to a captain of the Lanzhou City Police Department and the head of the security department of the Lanzhou Locomotive Factory, who came to get me.

Persecution in the Xiguoyuan Detention Center in Lanzhou

On Chinese New Year’s Eve I was sent to the Lanzhou City Detention Center in Xiguoyuan.

A cell usually held between 20 and 30 people, sometimes more than 40 people. It was so crowded that the air was suffocating. Some cells had no bunk beds, so people had to sleep on the floor. When they got up to use the toilet, their spot was usually taken by someone else. The place was infested with rats and lice, and people were covered with scabies. There was no medical treatment, so they exposed their skin to the sun to sterilize it. Some inmates’ flesh rotted.

We were forced to do hard labor. We peeled melon seeds in winter. Those who could not complete the task during the day had to work overtime. Some used their teeth and fingernails to peel the seeds, causing them to lose their teeth or fingernails. We were beaten if we failed to complete the task. When people were beaten to death, they were recorded as “death due to natural causes.” There were one hundred and eight ways of beating people, which the guards referred to as “dishes.” Each dish was a beating technique.

After I was illegally detained for nearly three months, I told He Bo and Wei Dong from the Lanzhou City Police Department when they interrogated me: My detention sentence already expired, and it was illegal to detain me beyond the time limit. When I was detained for 97 days, they changed my status to residential surveillance.

When I left the detention center, I heard that my wife, Xiao Yanhong, was given a one-year forced labor sentence and was detained at the Ping’antai Forced Labor Camp. I visited her and saw her complexion was sallow and her body was swollen. Just like that, our brief meeting ended.

Imprisoned and Tortured in a Forced Labor Camp for Mourning Yao Baorong

In May 2000 I heard that practitioner Yao Baorong was persecuted to death by officers from the Anning District Police Department. I told the other practitioners that we should put up a mourning banner and hold a memorial service.

Because of this, I was again arrested by the Qilihe Police Department. I was taken to the detention room of the Qilihe Police Department, where I was held for 48 hours. I was then transferred to the Xiguoyuan Detention Center for 21 days. I went on a hunger strike. I was sent to a forced labor camp for eighteen months.

Afterwards He Bo and another young policeman took me to the Ping’antai Forced Labor Camp. The young policeman whispered to me: This suppression of Falun Gong will not last more than three years. I was happy for him—he was the first police officer I met that understood the truth.

During those five months in the Second Squadron, the Third Brigade in the forced labor camp, I repeatedly went on hunger strikes to protest the persecution. They did not allow me to practice the exercises. When the guards saw me doing the exercises outside, they carried me back to the cell. Squadron leader Zhang Quanxing sent seven inmates to monitor me.

That fall, I started to have diarrhea, and repeatedly went to the toilet. I lost weight, but my mental state was very good. Instructor Duan Jiping ordered some inmates to hold me down on the ground. They pried my teeth open with an iron spoon and forcibly poured medicine into my mouth. In the process they broke my teeth.

The labor camp guards assigned the dirtiest and most exhausting work to practitioners. We had to pull feces from the toilet and shape it into square stacks to ferment. When it was time to eat at noon, our hands were filthy, but we weren’t given water to wash them.

Watching the Staged Tiananmen Self-immolation on TV in the Labor Camp

At 7 p.m. on January 23, 2001, the brigade said there was “important news” and told us to watch the television. I was taken to the first row, pushed to the ground, and made to sit down. I knew it was another slander against Dafa, so I closed my eyes. The guard instructed two inmates to pull my eyelids open.

The staged “Tiananmen self-immolation” was broadcast on TV. Practitioner Shen Shiyong stood up and explained that Falun Dafa sees suicide as a sin, and that practitioners are not allowed to kill or commit suicide. He said the people who were the “self-immolators” were not Falun Dafa practitioners. Shen Shiyong was forcibly taken to the brigade office, and tied up with a very thin rope for more than an hour.

After the staged “Tiananmen self-immolation” was broadcast, the Ping’antai Forced Labor Camp began to suppress practitioners even more cruelly. Police brigade leader Ma Wu ordered the inmates to torture practitioner Jin Jilin by passing one hand between his legs and to handcuff the other one for a long time. As a result he was unable to stand or walk.

They handcuffed Wang Maolin’s hands and hung him from a wire. They instructed inmates to slam him in the abdomen, causing him to become incontinent.

The Death of Qian Shiguang

Qian Shiguang was 60 years old. They beat him so hard that his face was deformed. Whenever he went to a crowded place or other brigades passed by, he shouted “Falun Dafa is good!” For this reason, he was beaten again. He said, “No matter where I am, I have to tell the world that Falun Dafa is good.”

Before he was imprisoned, Qian Shiguang always carried truth-clarifying materials and passed them out. He was reported, arrested and taken to the Gongjiawan Brainwashing Center. When he was dying he did not forget to remind the other practitioners to send righteous thoughts. He died as a result of the injuries he suffered due to torture.

Song Yanzhao’s Death

Song Yanzhao’s face was deformed, and five ribs were broken as a result of torture, but the guards still forced him to do heavy labor. Guard Bao Ping instructed two inmates to hang Song Yanzhao by his hands from a wire and beat him severely. His ribs were broken. We asked the guard to send him to the hospital, but he was even more brutally abused by guards Kang Shicheng, Wang Wenchang, and Bao Ping. Kang Shicheng told Song Yanzhao, “I heard that your ribs are broken. Come here, we will treat you.” They threw Song Yanzhao to the ground and grabbed the injured part of his body, causing him to scream.

Song Yanzhao was persecuted to death, but he never gave up believing in Dafa.

I Was Tortured Again

I was dragged into a bathroom and beaten by one of the inmates, who then pulled my arms parallel to my back. My chest felt like it was torn. They handcuffed my wrists together, and pinched the handcuffs vigorously in order to immobilize them. I was locked into the cuffs with my arms pulled up behind my back and hung from a wire. My arms became numb and I passed out.

The inmates later grabbed the handcuffs and ran back and forth. My feet could barely touch the ground and my arms, pulled up behind my back, hurt severely. After I was run back and forth like this several times, I was paralyzed and unable to stand. I was hung like this for more than forty minutes.

We Resumed Practicing the Exercises

I suggested to the other practitioners that we practice the exercises as a group. So, we started practicing at 5 a.m. The first morning the guards did not stop us. That evening the new brigade captain Zheng Jiguang told me, “As long as you do not practice openly we will not do anything to you.” I told him, “Why won’t you let me practice such a good exercise? I will definitely practice!” He said, “Li Wenming, you are too bold.” They took me to a small courtyard. I was surrounded by four inmates and two guards on duty. They handcuffed me to a bed frame. I went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution.

The next morning more practitioners were brought in and handcuffed to bed frames. On the third day of the hunger strike, they took us to the hospital to force feed us. Two weeks later, they released some of us. When I was the only one left, they handcuffed me to a chair and I could only squat. They released me a week later.

We resisted the persecution many times; we did not participate in the labor, and did not cooperate with their discipline work. Brigade captain Zheng Jiguang said he was going to hold a symposium on civilized law enforcement, and asked all Falun Gong practitioners and some of their guards to participate.

At the symposium, Zhang Rong and other practitioners described how they persecuted practitioners and how Song Yanzhao was persecuted to death. Zheng Jiguang assured us that there would be no more beatings of practitioners during his tenure. Due to our efforts and righteous thoughts, our environment improved. We could pass on Master’s articles, study the Fa, memorize the Fa, and communicate with each other without interference. Some inmates even helped us to pass Master’s new articles.

Incarcerated in a Psychiatric Hospital

In December 2001, I was released from the Ping’antai Forced Labor Camp and was taken to the security office of the Lanzhou Locomotive Factory. I was still under surveillance and had no freedom.

They later sent me to the Hualinping Brainwashing Center in the Qilihe District, Lanzhou City, and I was forcibly brainwashed. This was the Gansu Provincial Traditional Chinese Medicine Rehabilitation Center. The fourth floor was for the mentally ill, and the windows and corridors are covered by welded iron bars. You had to pass through a large iron gate to enter the stairs. The layout was the same as the prison building. This place was a brainwashing center where Falun Dafa practitioners were forcibly transformed.

As soon as I arrived, I started a hunger strike to resist the persecution. When I realized there was a possibility of escape, I ended the hunger strike. I observed the terrain from the window every day. After I recovered my strength, it was Chinese New Year in 2002. Few people were hospitalized, and most of the medical staff went home to celebrate the New Year. With Master’s strengthening and protection, I broke the iron bars which were welded to the window, and jumped from the fourth floor. I successfully escaped. After I escaped, the Lanzhou City Police Department posted notices offering a 50,000 yuan reward at the roads exiting Lanzhou. They set up a surveillance team in front of the building where I lived and at the house of a friend, in an attempt to arrest me.

(To be continued)