Individual Accounts

  • Repeated Persecution Suffered by Ms. Dong Xiuqiong from Huili County, Sichuan Province

    In March, 2007, a fellow practitioner and I went to a small town to distribute leaflets and tell people the facts about Falun Gong . We were reported by a villager and police tried to arrest me. I would not go with them. Yang Shaoliang dragged me on the ground for several metres. Later they detained me in the detention centre. On March 12th, Liu Jianping interrogated me. They handcuffed both of my hands. When they could not get answers for their questions, he took a book and slapped my face hard with it twice. At the detention centre, since I did not agree to give my fingerprints, the director of the detention centre ordered criminals to put shackles on my feet.
  • Li Yuhua from Yilan Town of Heilongjiang Tortured Brutally

    Li Yuhua has been detained four times since 1999. She was detained in the No.2 Detention Centre of Yilan Town for 267 days, where the food, such as corn buns and cabbage soup, was dirty and contained grass, soil, rat faeces, flies and other contaminants. She was also sentenced to a four-year term at the Wanjia Forced Labour Camp in Heilongjiang Province. Between 1999 and 2003, she was detained at a detention centre or forced labour camp. In a detention centre she was force-fed. She recounts: "Two prisoners held my hands and others pinched my nose to stop my breathing through the nose. Another pinched my face. One used a chopstick to probe my teeth and another brushed my throat with a tooth brush. Then, they poured salt water into my mouth and I was almost asphyxiated."
  • An Elderly Mother's Appeal

    I am a mother in my 70s. In September 2009, my son, Lu Zhiyong, came to visit me but was arrested on his way home. I have been worried about his well being ever since. Recently I heard that he will be tried in Heishui County Court. In 2001 police arrested Zhiyong for going to Beijing to make an appeal for Falun Gong. They sent him to the Xinhua Forced Labour Camp for an 18-month sentence. Zhiyong was tortured in many different ways in the forced labour camp. He was forced to stand still from 6:00 a.m. to midnight. The next day, he was beaten in the chest so brutally that he was unable to talk or even move without a great deal of pain. He was tied up with very thin ropes eight times within ten days; he was shocked with one to four electric batons at a time; and he was beaten with a club covered with nails.
  • Ms. Jiang Zongping Tortured in the Neijiang Brainwashing Centre in Sichuan Province

    On August 26th, 2009, Jiang Zongping, a Falun Gong practitioner from Neijiang, Sichuan Province, was sent to the Neijiang Brainwashing Centre by local Chinese Communist Party (CCP) personnel. Ms. Jiang recalled the torture she endured in the brainwashing centre: "I was detained in the brainwashing centre for more than forty days. During those days, I was forced to watch the videos that they produced to condemn our teacher and Falun Gong. They employed all kinds of lies and dirty words to defame Falun Gong and our teacher. I was forbidden to make a single movement."
  • Mr. Wu Zonglun Recounts Years of Persecution in Xianning City, Hubei Province

    Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Wu Zonglun has been arrested, detained, fined, forced to do hard labour and had his home ransacked, as a result of the persecution of Falun Gong begun by Jiang Zemin, [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] in July 1999. He recounts the persecution he experienced: "On December 19th, 2003, I was sentenced to two years of forced labour and I was taken to Shayang Forced Labour Camp, where I was tortured and forced to undergo intense brainwashing. I was summoned for a "talk," which in reality was intense brainwashing. The plan was to bring victims into their traps, and force them to renounce Falun Gong by the end of the day. The contents of the "talk" mainly included lies made up by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to frame Falun Gong."
  • Ms. Zhao Ruilan, 58, of Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province, Persecuted Multiple Times

    I began practising Falun Gong in March 1997. In the past ten years since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started its persecution of Falun Gong in July 1999, I have been detained five times, forced to attend brainwashing sessions, sentenced to forced labour, fined, and harassed multiple times. On February 16th, 2000, my husband and I went to Beijing to appeal for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong. The police arrested us and forced us into a vehicle that took us to Tiananmen Square Police Branch. A policeman slapped my husband's face and punched him four times. Then they forced us to stand facing the wall and didn't allow us to use the toilet. At a detention centre when I did the Falun Gong exercises, guard Fang stomped on my hands, causing blisters to form on the backs of my hands. Many practitioners were beaten and tortured by guard Fang.
  • Ms. Wu Xiujie from Jiamusi City Recalls Acts of Abuse and Mistreatment by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)

    On July 29th, 2008, I was arrested and sent to forced labour for 15 months. I had to pack 5,000 pairs of "Sterile Chopsticks" each day. If I could not meet the quota I would be physically and verbally abused. [My left hand is still swollen now and hurts.] At night I had to memorise the prison rules and regulations. My food consisted of three daily portions of soup that were frequently mixed with bugs and dirt. Prison guards forced practitioners to be "reformed [forcibly renounce Falun Gong]." They forced practitioners to sign three prepared statements.
  • 60-Year-Old Ms. Guan Peixia Tortured in Heizuizi Women's Prison for Six Years

    It is hard to describe all of the daily physical and mental tortures I have suffered in Heizuizi Women's Prison over the past six years. I went on a protest hunger strike on October 20th, 2006. During each forced-feeding session, they forced between 1.5 kg and 2 kg of unknown food into my stomach, followed by pouring water down my throat to the extent that the water nearly came out of my mouth. They held me down to prevent me from vomiting or moving. When I struggled to get up, they grabbed my hair and smacked my head against a wall, causing several bumps. I did not want to open my eyes and felt dizzy all the time. I suffered from bouts of headaches and always wanted to sleep. When they could not insert the feeding tube, they blamed me for holding the hunger strike. Later on I vomited blood.
  • An Elderly Man's Plea

    Since July 20th, 1999, my wife, Luo Yuying, has been arrested and detained more than a dozen times because of her belief and her telling others about the benefits of practising Falun Gong. She was also sent to the forced labour camp twice, once for one-and-a-half years and another time for two years. My wife almost died in the forced labour camp after suffering all kinds of torture. I have colon cancer and rely on my wife to take care of me at home. Despite my illness, I went to the police station several times and begged for the release of my wife. Not only would they not release her, but they did not permit me to see her.
  • Ms. Yang Hongmei from Shulan City, Jilin Province, Recounts Years of Mistreatment

    In 2003, for the second time I was sent to the Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp of Changchun City for a one-year term because I distributed Falun Gong informational materials. In the labour camp, working overtime is routine. Most of the raw materials used for making items are harmful to the human body. For instance, dyed feathers are used to make small butterflies. When the raw feathers arrive, we have to dust them to make them unfold As we are dusting, our bodies and clothes become completely covered in the dye. Because we are inhaling the dust, even our phlegm is coloured by the dye.
  • Ms. Huang Yanzhen's Story: Arrested Seven Times and Brutally Tortured for Practising Falun Gong

    Ms. Huang Yanzhen from Shuangcheng City, Heilongjiang Province, started to practise Falun Gong in 1997, and she was cured of numerous diseases within only a few months. During the past several years, however, she was arrested seven times because of her practice. During her detention, she was subjected to brutal tortures and was on the verge of death numerous times. She was sentenced to seven years in December 2004 and ordered to serve time in the Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison. As a result of cruel beatings and being force-fed with harmful drugs she developed a brain haemorrhage and a bad heart problem.
  • Ms. He Aier Repeated Arrested, Harassed and Brainwashed

    Sixty-one-year-old Guangzhou resident Ms. He Aier used to suffer from severe heart disease until she began practising Falun Gong in 1997, after which she miraculously regained complete health. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began persecuting Falun Gong in 1999, the officials constantly harassed her. She was held in brainwashing centres five times and subjected to both physical and mental torture. She recalls one detention centre: "I heard gut-wrenching screams (of practitioners) throughout the night."
  • What On Earth Is My Mother's Crime?!

    My mother Yang Taizhen, 53, went to Beijing three time to appeal for the rights of Falun Gong, and was intercepted by the authorities. She was detained twice and sentenced to forced labour once. In the forced labour camp, the authorities beat her on a regular basis, dragged her by the hair, forced her to stand facing the wall for long periods of time, and forced her to sit on a chair for extended periods. When my mother refused to wear the prisoner uniform and the number tag, the guards took away all her clothes except for a very thin piece, even during the cold winter.
  • A Mother Writes to Her Son from Prison

    My son, how are you doing? Time flies. It's been seven years since I was taken away from you. You were a boy back then. Now you are a bright and sophisticated college student. I'm so glad! The electric net and the high wall separate me from you. I can only walk towards you in my dream, bringing you my firm belief in truth. One night when you were fifteen years old, we were suddenly awoken from our sleep. Policemen broke into our apartment and searched our home and took me away. Since then, I haven't been back home. I was worried then about the hundreds of Falun Gong books in our home. You were so clever that you took a few with you every day on your way to school and passed the precious materials on to fellow practitioners.
  • Persecution Suffered by Ms. Wang Hongxia from Anyue County, Sichuan Province

    Ms. Wang Hongxia, a teacher in Anyue County, Sichuan Province, was sentenced to forced labour on two separate occasions, for a total of five years. In December 1999, when she found out that the governor of Sichuan Province was coming to Anyue County for an inspection tour, she decided to hold up a banner in front of the County Government Office to protest the persecution of Falun Gong. As a result, she was sentenced to two years at the notorious Nanmusi Women's Forced Labour Camp. Later again she was taken to the Nanmusi Women's Forced Labour Camp and kept there for two and a half years. She was forced to stand still all day and night given only two to three hours of sleep a day and beaten frequently and tortured on a "tiger bench".