Qiao Yunxia, 37, lived in West Bridge Village in the township of Xin-Dian (Ren County, Xin-Tai District, Hebei Province). She was sent to a labor camp for being a Falun Gong practitioner. She now is being held at the Shijiazhuang 4th Female Labor Station (Group 2, Section 4).
In the beginning, I was somewhat wary of her because she is a Falun Gong practitioner, and I had heard nothing but the negative propaganda by the Chinese government on Falun Gong. Yet, I could not help but like her, and wanted to get to know her better. She treated people with such gentleness and kindness. She always thought of other people first, while enduring her own suffering quietly. While in the camp, she took such good care of her fellow inmates. Like a ray of light, she melted away the ice from peoples hearts, and shined a guiding light onto their path of life. After spending some time with her, I began to understand who she is and what Falun Gong is. There is only one sentence that I can use to describe her: She is as beautiful as a lotus flower with such purity, brilliance and greatness.
Around mid-March 2000, Falun Gong practitioners who were being held at the labor camp asked the guards to follow the Chinese labor laws, which specify that a person should only work eight hours a day. Their request was refused, and this caused quite a stir at the labor camp. What made some people even more afraid and angry was that Falun Gong members began to perform their exercises and study the Fa (the teachings of Falun Dafa) openly. They were punished for their actions. They were told to stand in the corner, facing the wall, and this went on for fifteen days, 17-18 hours every day. In addition, they had to stand up straight and not move at all. The feet of most people began to swell. Yunxia's feet were especially bad, to the point where she could not walk at all, yet she never complained and always suffered in silence. She said that she was ready to die at any time, and that even if she died, she would have no regrets because she was doing it for Dafa. After I heard what she said, I felt really sad yet developed a deep respect for her convictions. I admired her courage in giving up her own life for what she believed to be something higher than herself.
Fifteen days later, the practitioners were forced to march in a military style and run every day. During that time, they were often called into the office, where they were bound with ropes, hit with police batons, slapped, and kicked. Even their hair was pulled out. Once when Yunxia was called to the office, seven people surrounded her. Some people hit her, while others grabbed her by her hair, and big patches of her hair was pulled out. One person repeatedly kicked her down to the ground. Every time she was kicked down, she was asked: "Are you going to practice Falun Gong again?" She would get up and say "Yes!" Then they'd beat her again, her answer grew more and more determined with each round of beating, "Yes! Yes! I will practice until I die!" Seeing how determined she was, the captain ordered her to kneel on the ground, and put her two hands behind her back. The captain then wrapped a thin rope around her neck, then around her hands. Her tormentors began to pull on one end of the rope. The tighter they pulled the rope, the more difficult it became for her to breathe. Additionally, her hands and arms were severely strained as well, and could have been seriously injured at any moment. This form of torture causes prolonged, excruciating pain, without killing the person. Initially she felt as if the rope was cutting into her muscles. Then it felt as if the rope cutting into her bones, and her bones would break. When the rope was released, she did not have any feeling left, and she felt numb all over. Her captors asked her again if she was going to continue to practice Falun Gong, and again she said "Yes!" Then they commenced torturing her using the same procedure with the rope. At the end of the second round, even though the rope had left bloody marks all over her body, and she could not even walk, her determined reply was always, "I am going to continue to practice Falun Gong!" In the end, her tormenters became very tired themselves and chased her out of the office.
Several days later, she was again called into the office. Several people surrounded her, and each began to hit her with a police baton. The harrowing sounds of the baton hitting her body were so loud that people could hear them clearly outside. Many people thought she would get severely injured and were very afraid for her life. The only thing they could do was to say a silent prayer on her behalf. Yet all through this, she never made any sound. The only sounds were from the police batons and angry curses from the captain. When it was all over, the bruises covering many places on her body turned a deep shade of purple. It was painful for her just to walk, but she was still forced to stand facing the wall, march forward in a military style, or even run. It is hard to imagine how she endured through all the pain and suffering. The passing of every second must have been painfully slow, yet her inhumane treatment lasted for a total of 47 days. Each time I think of this, in my mind she seems to have grown taller and taller. No matter how much abuse she was put through, she always stood tall and faced everything with a smile on her face and kindness in her heart. At this moment, her life seems to be even more priceless and everlasting, and she has become larger than life. She is like a beautiful flower after a heavy shower, even more shining and beautiful than it used to be. I could not help but want to be more like her.
On April 28, 2000, all 58 Falun Dafa practitioners held at the labor camp began to conduct a hunger strike to ask for an environment where they could legally practice Falun Gong and study the Fa. On May 1st, eighteen practitioners, including Yunxia, were secretly transferred to the 3rd Labor Station. There, everything they did was closely monitored. In fact, they were not even allowed to look at each other. It was a common practice to stuff a wet towel into the mouth of a practitioner then repeatedly slap her. Sometimes the prison officials held the practitioners down and fed them water mixed with hot pepper flakes, or tried to strangle them by tightening towels placed around their necks. Yunxia was hit so severely that her mouth was totally bloody, and then she was sprayed with cold water. The cold-water treatment continued for more than two hours, and during that time she continued to recite the Fa aloud. Every morning after the practitioners finished their practice, they would be beaten severely. The beatings always were on the most sensitive body parts where serious damage could occur. Their hair was pulled out in big patches. Some practitioners' nipples were seriously injured or even torn off. Their inner thighs were pinched to the point that it caused severe bruising. Several practitioners' clothes were forcefully removed, and the guards and fellow inmates then used the bottoms of their shoes to hit their private parts. One person hit the practitioners so hard with her own shoes that the heel of one shoe flew off. She became so angry that she demanded the practitioners buy her a new pair. One inmate spit large mouthfuls of phlegm onto tissues then stuffed the tissues down the throats of the practitioners. One inmate specialized in putting her hands around the necks of the practitioners and tried to strangle them. She claimed she wanted to practice how to kill people so when she got out, she could seek revenge on her enemies outside. Inside the labor camp, evil deeds like these are allowed and even encouraged, and the perpetrators march around with a great deal of pride as if they committed some great deed. Kindness is being buried and destroyed. Decent people have become targets of terrible persecution and are turned into punching bags.
All these facts that I observed first-handedly will probably surprise and alarm those people with a kind heart. But inside a labor camp, that is how things are. It is a corner filled with unspeakable darkness. Do you remember the lotus flower? Even though it grows out of water filled with black mud, it can rise above the dirty water and shine upon the world with its beauty. It comes with such a gentle fragrance, and bears no trace of the mud whatsoever. People watch it with deep reverence and utter amazement. This is how I think of QiaoYunxia.
A Practitioner in China
July 30, 2000
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