Name: Yan Ying (严英)
Gender: Female
Age: 47
Address: Lingwu Farm, Lingwu City, Ningxia Province
Occupation: Sole Trader
Date of Most Recent Arrest: September 下旬,2001
Most recent place of detention: Ningxia Women Forced Labor Camp (宁夏女子劳教所)
City: Yinchuan City
Province: Ningxia Province
Persecution Suffered: Detention, home ransacked, interrogation, beatings, forced labor, sleep deprivation.
(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Yan Ying is from Lingwu City, Ningxia Province. When she was a year old, she contracted poliomyelitis, which left her seriously disabled, and she later suffered from many diseases. She was so tormented by her ill health that she felt she would rather die. After she started to practice Falun Dafa, however, she benefited tremendously, physically and mentally. Since the CCP started to persecute Falun Dafa on July 20, 1999, she has been harassed, detained, and held in forced labor camps. The following is her personal account of her experience.
1. Trying to Survive Hardships
I am disabled. When I was a year old, I contracted polio and had serious after-effects, with muscular atrophy in my right leg and neural paralysis. It was very difficult for me to walk even one step. I made a living by repairing watches and mobiles.
In 1989, after my child was born, I suffered from a strange disease. I was extremely sensitive to cold. As soon as my hand touched cold water, it twitched and became numb. After that I never touched cold water. Even in the hot summer, I had to wear thick cotton tops and pants. I visited every big hospital, but they couldn't determine the cause of this condition, so they were not able to cure it. I then contracted rheumatic heart disease, developed a hepatic cyst that was 0.9cm in diameter, kidney deficiency, superficial gastritis, pelvic inflammatory disease, serious dental periostitis, and peritoneal inflammation. Every time I got another disease, the pain was hard to bear. I also suffered from allergic rhinitis and a slight cold would lead to trigeminal nerve pain and throat inflammation.
In short, I had diseases from head to toe. I went to see doctors everywhere but achieved little result. At that time I was only in my 20s. In 1994, I heard that qigong could cure illness so I started to practice qigong. But that was not effective either. I was so tormented with all these diseases that I didn't want to live.
2. All My Diseases Disappeared after I Began Practicing Falun Dafa
In May 1997, I saw a young fellow holding a book in his hand. On the cover I saw the words Zhuan Falun. I felt like my whole body shook the moment I saw those words. Then a warm current coursed through me. I couldn't contain myself and stepped up and asked him how I could get a copy of the book, but he couldn't help me. Three days later, I managed to get a copy on my own. Since then I have been walking on the path of Falun Dafa cultivation.
Three months after I started to practice Falun Gong, all my diseases disappeared. For the first time, I experienced the feeling of a body without illness. My family was amazed by the miraculous effect of Dafa. I also came to understand why people get diseases and how to behave based on the principles of Truth-Compassion-Forbearance.
I was no longer resentful or complaining, and every day I was happy. I told people how I had changed after practicing Falun Gong and how Dafa miraculous is.
3. Detained for Speaking Out Against the Persecution
In the evening on July 21, 1999, when we were studying the Fa in a group, Cao Bingwen from the farm police station appeared and said, "Do not get together to Falun Gong teachings or do the exercises or you will be arrested."
It is Master who saved my life. The world shouldn't be deceived by lies. I should step up to speak out for Falun Gong and for Master with my own personal experiences.
In March 2000, three local practitioners and I went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. We didn't find the Appeals Office, so we went to Tiananmen Square, where we saw police, plainclothes officers, and police cars everywhere. All the lights on the police cars were on and the sirens were wailing. Fully armed police with guns were staring at the tourists. They were questioning anyone who was carrying a big bag. I was dumbfounded by the scene.
At that time, we saw a strong male Falun Gong practitioner take out a yellow banner from inside his shirt that call out, "Falun Dafa Is Good" while unfurling it. Immediately, two plainclothes officers in leather jackets and sunglasses raced over to him, struck the back of his head, and forced him down on the ground. They stomped on his head and kicked and beat him. Then more policemen came and severely beat him. Another police car quickly came. The police then dragged the practitioner into the car. Onlookers didn't even have time to understand what was going on before the police car drove away.
Because we had nowhere to go to speak for Falun Dafa and also because practitioners had different opinions, several of us then went back home.
After returning home, I learned that on the day we went to Beijing, policemen Xiao Su from the Lingwu Farm Police Station got the news and reported us to the city 610 Office. The 610 Office then sent people to intercept us at the Yinchuan Train Station, but we had already gone. Then they sent people to the Beijing Liaison Office but they didn't catch us there, either. Instead, they brought back more than 20 practitioners to Ningxia. Among them were two practitioners from Lingwu City. They were detained and sent to forced labor camps or sentenced.
As soon as the four of us arrived home, our families told us that police from the farm police station had demanded that we go to see them. I went to the police station and was detained, along with three others, for the night. The next day Zhang Zhanlin, Yang Yuqiang, and Wang Shuqin from the 610 Office in Lingwu City and Ma Yuelin, Cao Juxiang, Cao Bingwen, Dang Linwu, Wang Wenhua, Xiao Su, and Yan Zibing from the farm police station raided our homes. Then they held the three of us at the Lingwu City Detention Center. The fourth practitioner who went to Beijing with us was taken to the detention center as well. We were detained for 15 days.
4. Detained for 37 Days
In April 2001, in my local area, a lot of banners made by Falun Gong practitioners were hung from the trees. Police were not able to find out who did it. Several days later Zhang Zhanlin and Yang Yuqiang from the 610 Office arrested six practitioners from our Fa study group and detained them.
I was detained for five days and then transferred to the Lingwu City Detention Center, where police from the Domestic Security Division took turns interrogating me. Li Ming, the director of the Lingwu City Public Security Bureau, went to the detention center several times to try to force me to write a guarantee statement to give up my practice of Falun Gong. He threatened that if I didn't write the statement I would be sentenced. But no matter how severely the police threatened me, I refused to write such a statement. The detention center fined my family 3,000 yuan, but my family refused to give them the money.
On the 37th day, the police let me go home. Before leaving, I said to them, "I did nothing wrong in practicing Falun Gong. It was you who arrested me wrongly." I didn't have any money to get home. I reminded them that they brought me to the police station in a police car and they would need to get me home the same way. They drove me to the main road and got a taxi to drive me home. After I got home, I learned that the police had taken my husband to the police station and had questioned him about whether I had made the banners. He was held for over an hour.
5. In a Forced Labor Camp for Three Years
In September 2001, the police were stationed around my home and monitored me 24 hours a day. I left home as soon as I discovered this. Policeman Wang Wenhua came to my home and lied to my family by saying that if I came home before October 1, I would be safe. I believed this lie and came home.
The second day after I returned home, the police took me away to the Lingwu City Public Security Bureau. They then took me to the Ningxia Women's Forced Labor Camp and gave me the "Notice of Forced Labor" there. On the way to the forced labor camp, policemen Zhang Zhanlin and Yang Yuqiang lied to me, saying that they were driving me home. On the same day, three fellow practitioners from my city were also sentenced to three years of forced labor.
While I was in the labor camp, Zhang Zhanlin and Yang Yuqiang came to interrogate me three times and asked me where I got my Falun Gong materials. Every practitioner in the labor camp was watched over by two drug offenders, who had control over when practitioners were allowed to eat, sleep or go to the toilet. We were not allowed to speak to each other. We were often locked in solitary confinement, beaten with electronic batons, made to do slave labor, were not allowed to have family members visit, and were not allowed to receive necessities from our families. We had to buy poor-quality necessities from the shop in the forced labor camp where prices were unreasonably high.
In November 2002, the police who actively took part in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners formed a so-called "Helping and Educating Team." They came to the Ningxia Women's Forced Labor Camp and established the Fourth Brigade of "Helping and Educating Team" (actually a forced "transformation" team). Their intent was to "transform" Falun Gong practitioners. Those in charge were Director Tang Ning, Political Commissar Ma Yan, Deputy Political Commissar Ma Yan, and Ma Liping from the Management Department. Also actively involved in the persecution were Second Team team leader Ma Li, First Team team leader Zhang Xiaoyan, Cai Xiaohui, team leader Xiao Li, and Wang Lijuan from the Second Team. Ma Li was responsible for "transforming" me. In front of me she was relatively calm, but behind my back she instigated drug offenders Dai Xiaoli and Shen Hong to beat me. In order to "transform" me, they didn't allow me to sleep at night, forced me to watch videos or read articles slandering Dafa, didn't allow me to wash or go to the toilet, and made me stand facing a wall for long periods of time.
In the freezing winter I was forced to stand on the cold tile floor in bare feet. My feet became so swollen that I was not able to put my shoes on. My disabled right leg lost all sensation. My left leg had to take all my body weight, and it became swollen and painful. I was beaten the moment I closed my eyes. Inmates Dai Xiaoli and Shen Hong took turns torturing me. They hit my head and shoulders. After I was tortured for several days, I became so disfigured that the inmate who was assigned to monitor me was terrified as soon as she saw me.
I was tortured non stop for 13 days and hardly had any sleep during that time. I felt as though I was in a trance. Under such horrific and cruel pressure, I signed my name on the three statements when I was nearly unconscious. I slept until 11 a.m. the next day. As soon as I woke up, Zhang Xiaoyan, dressed up and wearing make-up, led those who had been "transformed" and other inmates to come and congratulate me. She told me that I had been "transformed" the night before. I didn't believe her and was very surprised. I said to her immediately, "If I signed anything, I am now declaring that my statements are null and void." As soon as she heard this, Zhang Xiaoyan turned around and left with the others. After a while, inmates again came and forced me to stand facing a wall.
Practitioner Ding Ying was tortured for 40 days and Dou Jianmei for 32 days. Ms. Dou had to squat for seven days. She was beaten brutally if she didn't obey.
6. Repeatedly Harassed and Persecuted
After July 20, 1999, team leaders Chen Wansheng and He Yucheng from the Second Landscape Team of Lingwu Farm, where my household registry was, often came to my home to harass me. After my release from the forced labor camp on September 16, 2003, Zhang Zhanling, Yuang Yuxiang, Ma Jianmin, and Liang Jihu from the Lingwu 610 Office and Wang Zhiguo and Qi Zhijun from the Farm Police Station have come to my home many times to harass me.
On February 24, 2009, I was not at home. My family later told me that the team leader of the Second Landscape Team of the Farm, He Yucheng, came several times and asked where I was. I later learned that the Lingwu 610 Office had received notification from Yinchuan that on that day, the Yinchuan Court would put Falun Gong practitioners on trial and gave orders that all local practitioners be monitored and not allowed to leave their homes.
On March 7, 2009, practitioners in other areas of Ningxia were arrested for distributing Falun Gong materials. Early in the morning on March 8, Zhang Zhanling and Yang Yuqiang came to my home to ask for information about the practitioners.
In March 2009, Zhang Zhanling, Yang Yuxiang, Ma Jianmin, and Liang Jihong came to my home again and tried to force me to sign the "Revisit Form."
Falun Dafa gave me a second life and enabled a disabled person like me obtain good health and a healthy mind. It also allowed me to understand the meaning of life. I am exposing the crimes of the CCP so that the people of the world can see the real nature of the CCP, which is evil, deceitful and brutal, and also show the huge crimes they have committed.