(Clearwisdom.net) Liu Xiaotian will be 19 years old by the end of 2004. He was born in Hunan Province, China. As an only child, he was loved dearly by his parents and led a carefree life. However when he was almost 16, tragedy struck his family. Liu Xiaotian, a child who didn't know what Falun Gong was, or cared anything about the persecution, was forced to become a fugitive. His experience and the death of his parents, of which he was just told by his uncle, made him join Falun Gong's Anti-Torture Exhibit in Northern Europe.
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Photo: Liu Xiaotian acting in the role of victim in an anti-torture exhibit. He said he wanted to let people know about his parents' suffering.
Liu Xiaotian was born in December of 1985. His family lived in Yongzhou City, Hunan Province, China. His father was Liu Qing, an official of the Zhishan Town Government in Yongzhou City. His mother was Yang Yuyan, who used to be employed by the Shanghe Town Textile Factory of Lengshuitan District. She lost her job in October of 1999. Before the year 2001, Liu Xiaotian's family led a happy life. Although they were not rich, they lived a harmonious life. His parents gave birth to him at a late age, and they doted on him. He went to the local middle school and led a good life.
One day at the beginning of 1999, his father came home from a business trip to Wuhan City, Hubei Province and said that he saw many people practicing Falun Gong in the Square of Wuhan. They were beautiful. Soon after, his parents began to practice Falun Gong and follow its principles, Truth-Compassion-Forbearance. They wanted to be good people. They learned to cultivate the mind and think of others first. In the fall of 1999, his mother's work place planned to lay off some of the employees. In order for people who had a hard life to keep their job, she volunteered to be laid off in October.
On July 20, 1999, the Jiang Zemin regime began its persecution of Falun Gong. The massive state controlled media machine churned out lie after lie. The government's propaganda machine disseminated information meant to smear Falun Gong. The persecution soon escalated. Liu Xiaotian's parents had only practiced Falun Gong for less than a year. Nonetheless, their conscience wouldn't allow them to be silent. They went to the streets to tell people the facts about Falun Gong. At that time, Liu Xiaotian was boarding in the middle school and only came back home once a week. He saw his parents practicing Falun Gong, but he didn't really know much about it. It never occurred to him that his parents could face great danger. Most likely, his parents understood the ruthlessness of the persecution, as they did not tell Liu Xiaotian what Falun Gong was and what they were doing.
On November 23, 2001, a Friday, Liu Xiaotian was in the classroom. Police came to his school and told his teacher that his parents were detained. They asked for him. A classmate overheard it and ran to tell him that his parents were in trouble and the police wanted him. Hearing that, Liu Xiaotian quivered with fear. He ran out of the school without taking anything. He hid in the storage room of his neighbor for the night. Around midnight, he snuck across the road to check out his home. He saw that the windows of his home were smashed, and so was the furniture inside. His neighbor saw him and asked him to stay at his place. However, two or three days later, the police went to the neighbor' place, telling them that if they saw Liu Xiaotian and didn't report to the police, they would be punished. The neighbor had no way out but to give him some money and sent him to his only relative, an uncle who is a farmer in Fujian Province.
After a long and hard journey, he finally reached his uncle's place. His legs were injured and he had a big scar on the neck. Five or six months later, one day in May of 2002, the local police came to his uncle's home. Liu Xiaotian immediately hid. He didn't know what the police said to his uncle, but after the police left, his uncle became very quiet. During that night, his uncle asked a friend to send him to Shenzhen, a city that is close to Hong Kong. He hid in a huge warehouse filled with piles of sacks. He dared not speak to anyone and thus spent a year in fear, anxiety, and suffered from depression.
He missed his parents, but his uncle always told him that he had no information about them. He spent a lonely year in this warehouse, suffering many hardships during that time, both physically and mentally.
In June of 2003, his uncle, who did not have an easy life, borrowed a lot of money to pay smugglers to get Liu outside China. On July 1, 2003, Liu Xiaotian arrived in Denmark. Regrettably, several hours later, the smuggler took him to the Copenhagen railway station and left. Having experienced so many threats and deceptions, Liu Xiaotian became very fearful. He quivered at the sight of the police. An old Chinese lady took him to a refugee camp. Deeply frightened, he couldn't speak properly, nor could he fill out forms. He was mostly afraid of being sent back to China and put in the hands of the Chinese police.
With the help of the staff in the refugee camp, Liu Xiaotian got into contact with Denmark Falun Gong practitioners. He cried. The first words he said to them were to ask them to look for his parents. He missed his father. He missed his mother. Because of what he had gone through, he couldn't express himself clearly. He couldn't read books, either. He often cried and had nightmares. It took Denmark Falun Gong practitioners one year before they could really learn from him his story and suffering.
With the help of the Denmark practitioners, Liu Xiaotian began to think about why his parents were persecuted in such a way for practicing Falun Gong. He began to practice Falun Gong himself. At the beginning, he couldn't read Falun Gong books very well, and stumbled over each sentence. Yet he kept on reading one book after another. Gradually, he made fewer mistakes in reading and could read more and more smoothly. In reading the books, he began to understand the reasons for all the suffering, his parents' sacrifice, and the principles of life. He cherished the new life he found from practicing Falun Gong, after all the tribulation. Smiles came back to his face, so did happiness of his heart. The wounds were healing.
While he was recovering, Liu Xiaotian started to think about his parents. He hadn't heard from them for a long time. Where were they? Would his uncle send him abroad without his parents' consent? Did he hide something from him? He began to suspect.
Several days before this article was written, his uncle, who still lives in China, told him for the first time that his parents had died in April 2002 from torture, five months after they were detained. No one knows exactly what happened, or where they died. The uncle told Liu Xiaotian that in May of 2002 the local police visited him, and informed him of the death of Liu Xiaotian's parents. They refused to tell him any details. He dared not ask anything, either, after he heard the police say the word "suicide."
What's more inconceivable is that after the police took two lives in five months, they intended to get rid of the victims' orphan. They forced Liu Xiaotian's uncle to sign papers declaring that he "would disassociate himself from Liu Xiaotian's family." That meant that he would have nothing to do with them. The police also demanded that he report Liu Xiaotian's whereabouts and threatened that their entire family would be punished, should they go against this directive. His uncle was deeply frightened. Therefore, he sent Liu Xiaotian that very night to the warehouse in Shenzhen. He dared not keep Liu Xiantian at his own place.
Liu Xiaotian had no one to turn to in China, nor did he see any way out. Under such desperate circumstances, his uncle had to borrow a huge amount of money, a debt that he could not pay off until now, to send Liu Xiaotian abroad.
Liu Xiaotian said, from the photos provided by some kind-hearted people who have information, he could see that the police first posted seals on the gate of his family home. Later they tore the house down and removed the ruins, leaving nothing there.
The aforementioned is the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners at a time when the Chinese government claims to be the "Golden Age for Human Rights." Their attempt to get rid of the last member of the family is a dark moment, indeed.
The deaths of Liu Xiaotian's parents was finally revealed after two years. Will we ever find out about all of the deaths of other innocent Falun Gong practitioners?
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