I am a female practitioner from Shanghai. I have been cultivating for almost four years. I used to be a salesperson in a department store in Shanghai. On April 11, 2000, at 9 pm, I was taken away from work by four unidentified persons. Changning District public security bureau personnel tried to extort a confession from me. I was not intimidated by their threats at all and they released me the next day.
My mother and I went to Beijing to file appeals for the first time on June 5, three days after I donated blood. The State Council Appeal Office sent us to Shanghai's capital agency. Shanghai police escorted me back to Shanghai the next day, and held me for criminal detention. Believing I am innocent, I refused to sign the detention certificate. Yet they still sent me to Changning detention center without any legal procedure. I started a hunger strike. Four days later, they took me outside the door of the prison cell to be force-fed. They handcuffed my arms onto a big chair, used for trying criminals, in a way that my hands and arms could not move even a little bit. They then put a shackle that has sandwich boards onto my legs. Seeing that I was still struggling with great force, they asked a large size female cellmate to sit on my feet (I was only 45 kilos). They pulled me backward by my hair, and covered my mouth and nose with a washcloth used for washing feet. The prison doctor forcefully inserted a tube and poured a big basin of not fully dissolved soymilk powder with salt into me. I fainted from not being able to breathe. They pinched me to wake me up. They then let the washcloth that was covering my mouth and nose loose a little bit. The soymilk powder that was just poured into me spurted out from my nose and mouth, yet they wanted to pour again. The cellmate sitting on my feet was scared away. Some female cellmates were so scared that they hid themselves in the corners to avoid watching, and some even cried. Such brutality incurred the disaffection among other Dafa practitioners. They started to recite Hong Yin (Master Li's poem collection) from their prison cells, "No desire, at life; No regret, at death." "The unpardonable are awaiting for the final judgement." They also encouraged me, "Hold on. Hold on and you will win." After they removed the tube from me, the blood and soymilk mixed together, covered my entire body. As soon as the tube was taken out, I smiled and recited loudly, "No desire, at life; No regret, at death." Immediately from other prison cells it came, "Delusions, all blown away; Buddha is not hard to cultivate." I was held for 15 days in Changning detention center.
On June 22, a couple of days after I was released, my work place revoked the vacation rewarded to me for donating blood. They forced me to work from 8:30am to 10:15pm everyday. Because of such unjustness, I went to Beijing again that night. I met over 30 Shanghai practitioners on the train. They are from 20 to 70 years old. We went to the Tiananmen Square to display banners. We had banners displayed by one person, some displayed by two persons, or a big one by several persons. Some ran from the Golden Water Bridge (on the north side of the square). Some stood next to the Golden Water Bridge. Some ran while holding up the banners. At any moment a banner reading, "Falun Dafa is good" appeared here, while in another moment, banners that read "Falun Dafa is righteous", "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance" appeared over there. The policemen kept running after us and could not keep up. They were quite panicked and awkward.
We were arrested. In the yard of the police station, I saw my mother. Several hundred Dafa practitioners exercised, recited Lun Yu (An article by Master Li), Hong Yin, and Jingwen (Master Li's articles) together. The policemen were fuming with rage. They dragged over a dozen practitioners away. They forced their hands behind their backs, handcuffed them onto the metal bannister of the prison cell, and tortured them with electric devices that shocked them. Some fainted several times from the electric shock torture. The policemen thought that they were dying and finally dragged them out of the basement. At about 4pm, we were sent to the 13th police station. They confiscated all of our belongings except toilet paper. The temperature in Beijing was above 40 degrees Celsius. Fourteen of us were held in one prison cell that was about twelve square meters. The days were extremely sweltering. Countless mosquitoes surrounded us to bite us at night. There was no way to drive them away. Some practitioners got hundreds of lumps from the bites. My entire body became red and swollen from the bites. All of us believed that we were innocent and should not be mistreated like this. We started a hunger strike that day. On the fifth day, the policemen had the male prisoners tie our arms and legs onto the bed to force-feed us. In order to force us to tell our names and addresses, they tricked us, threatened us, verbally insulted us, and tortured us. Two practitioners, in their twenties, just came back from overseas three days ago. They were slapped on their faces again and again. Their feet were injured from being kicked. They were forced to squat down and then stand up for over a thousand times, and stand still by the wall bent over, head facing down and arms up in a "flying position". One Zhengzhou (Henan Province) practitioner's body turned a dark shade of black and blue from the beating. When I was taken away to be force-fed, I heard heartrending cries from another prison cell. An officer, Song, called us for a meeting in the afternoon. He said that this was a civilized prison, and that there was no abuse or torture. He asked if we saw him insult anyone. The practitioners immediately lifted up their clothes to show their bruises. He was speechless. Because their inhumane treatment was useless, they threatened me during interrogation the next morning, "Do you know Jiang Jie (a female literary figure who resisted all kinds of tortures)? Do you know the "tiger bench" (torture instrument), brand iron board, and being fed by chili water?" I said, "Aren't these torture methods of the Kuomingtang?" They said, "Yes, we have all kinds of torture methods for dealing with the enemies. Do you know Liu Hulan (a female Communist who was beheaded)?" I replied, "You are still in the fashion of chopping heads? I tell you, you can torture my mind. You can take my life away. But you cannot destroy my soul. My soul will live forever." They were stunned and sent me back to the prison cell.
Over a dozen other practitioners and I were sent to the mental hospital of Beijing Northern Suburb Rehabilitation Center that afternoon. I was kept and held with the patients there. The mental hospital charges each practitioner 150 Yuan per day as hospitalization expenses. We were all force-fed there, regardless with whether the practitioner was on hunger strike in the prison or not. Each force-feed costs 50 Yuan. If the practitioner has no money, then the other practitioners would have to share the expenses. They tied my arms and legs onto the bed. Some doctors held up their thumbs in approval when no others were around and said to me, "You are great! You are great!" Some doctors also told me that the 13th police station was the most brutal, and that everyone sent from there had cuts and bruises all over the body. The doctors couldn't believe it when they saw my entire body red and swollen. Some doctors forced me to take medicine and exams. They drew blood from me. The blood solidified as soon as the blood was drawn. They drew twice and both were useless. Then they examined my blood pressure, and electrocardiogram, etc. When they tried to exam my heart using the cardiac-ultrasonic scanner, they could not find my heart. At first I thought, "What? I don't have a heart?" Then I enlightened, "I shall get rid of all hearts (attachments) of everyday people." They finally found my heart after a long time. Then a police officer told me, "We don't want to detain you, either. It is (Chinese vice premier) Li Lanqing's order: those who tell their names and addresses will be taken back by the local authorities, and all of those who refuse to tell will be detained."
While in the hospital, I enlightened that we are not here to die, but that we come to validate Dafa. I then told the other practitioners that we should try to leave here alive. As long as there is one person to get out alive, he should tell the world that there are innocent Dafa practitioners held in the mental hospitals. Later the police escorted me back to the 13th station. I enlightened that the jail is not our cultivation environment, and that I shall go out to disclose their evil acts.
I was released on August 13. My work place tried to force me to give up Dafa again. I said, "I vow to live with Falun Gong." Someone said he could not believe that there are still heroes like Liu Hulan nowadays. I said, "You are not the first to say so. You will not be the last one to say so, either." Now I have left my work and run away from home. I am telling the truth to the world.
Qiu Zhenli (pseudo-name)
Shanghai practitioner
September 28, 2000
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