(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioners have been subjected to the harshest, most brutal persecution over the past 14-plus years. They have experienced arbitrary arrest, detention, torture, and death at the hands of police, labor camps, and prison and detention center guards. Practitioners have been relentlessly tortured in attempts to force them to renounce their beliefs and reveal information about fellow practitioners. Why, however, are there so many instances of the perpetrators themselves breaking down after severely beating and torturing practitioners?
Dafa practitioners have held firm to their faith in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. This group of unarmed people seems to be overpowered by the regime, but their dignity and steadfastness has won the respect of the Chinese people, including those who would persecute them.
Mr. Zhou Xiangyang, an engineer whose case was documented by the United Nations, was tortured in 2000 at the Shuangkou Forced Labor Camp of Tianjin.
Guard Wei Wei beat Mr. Zhou in a small interrogation room, attempting to force him to give up practicing Falun Gong. Wei knocked Mr. Zhou to the floor and demanded, “Do you still practice Falun Gong?” Zhou slowly stood up and looked at Wei. Wei shouted, “There's no one in this camp who isn't afraid of me!” He started another round of beatings. Mr. Zhou's face was covered with blood.
Wei knocked him down again and asked, “Do you still practice Falun Gong?” Zhou slowly stood up again. Wei frantically struck his face, again knocking him to the floor. After a short while, Mr. Zhou managed to stand up once more. Wei knocked him down again and yelled, “I will beat you to death today.”
Wei began beating Mr. Zhou again until Mr. Zhou lost consciousness, his body twitching on the floor. He eventually regained consciousness and again struggled to get up. As he stood up painfully, Wei then screamed, “Wait! Wait! I give up! I beg you to wait until I get out of here!” He then fled the room.
Ms. Chen Shuxian, a practitioner from Huining County, Gansu Province, went to Yinchuan City to avoid persecution in her hometown. She was arrested by officers from the Yinchuan City Domestic Security Division while trying to hang a banner worded “Falun Gong is Good.” Ms. Chen was brutally interrogated by a group of people including Zhang Yong, Zhang Anzhong, a man surnamed Li, Jin Chunhua, and Yu Guangling.
Ms. Chen held a hunger strike to protest the mistreatment. Li threatened her with a pot of boiling water, “If you don't stop your hunger strike, I will kill you with the boiling water.” He got a cup of hot water from the pot, then forced it into Ms. Chen's mouth. Her face and mouth were severely burned.
The interrogators put handcuffs on her wrists and ankles, and stretched her arms and legs out in a spread-eagle position. Ms. Chen was in excruciating pain, as if torn apart. Li shouted, “Beat her to death and blame Falun Gong for it. If she's driven crazy, blame Falun Gong for making her lose her mind!” They kept demanding that Ms. Chen give them her name and address as they tortured her. [Ed. Note: Because of the Chinese Communist Party's policy of implication, Falun Gong practitioners often refuse to reveal their names and addresses in order to protect family members, friends, and work colleagues.]
Ms. Chen refused to answer. She was then handcuffed with her wrists behind her back and hung from the handcuffs. Ms. Chen cried for help, sweating profusely from the pain. After an hour of this torture, the interrogators changed to a different method. Using handcuffs, they forced her into a half-squatting position with her arms stretched to opposite sides. In this extremely awkward and uncomfortable position, Ms. Chen couldn't stand or squat. Still, she refused to cooperate with the demands of her interrogators.
An entire night passed, and Li was frustrated that Ms. Chen wouldn't give in. In desperation, he hit her legs with his police baton until she was badly bruised and bleeding. Li roared hysterically, “I beg you to tell me something! I have been doing this for 30 years. How can I face others if I can't even get you to tell me who you are?” Though terribly injured, Ms. Chen would not to give up. The interrogators never got any information from her.
Persecutors Provide Zhuan Falun to Falun Gong Practitioner
Mr. Liu Chengjun is a Falun Gong practitioner who once intercepted television broadcasts in order to provide programming about Falun Gong and the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) persecution of the practice.
He was arrested and tortured, but refused to give any information. He began a hunger strike to protest.
The guards tore off Mr. Liu's clothes and handcuffed him to a bed in a police hospital. Nevertheless, Mr. Liu continued to explain to them that the CCP's negative propaganda about Falun Gong was untrue. Despite the torture, Mr. Liu struggled with the persecutors, resisting attempts to force-feed him and force drugs into him. He sustained serious injuries to his face and neck from the punitive forced-feeding, and his body was covered in wounds.
The torturers eventually became astounded by Mr. Liu's steadfast resistance, and ultimately admired him. They ended up begging him to eat something.
Instead of food, Mr. Liu asked for a copy of the book Zhuan Falun, which had been banned by the CCP. Although countless copies of this book had been confiscated and destroyed, Mr. Liu's tormentors finally gave in and found a copy for him.
Dafa practitioners have demonstrated an amazing and unyielding spirit in the face of injustice and torture since the persecution started in July 1999. When the persecutors let down their guards after brutally torturing practitioners, was it because they still had a sense of conscience, feelings of guilt, or was it because they were overcome by the dignity and righteousness of Falun Gong practitioners?