(Minghui.org) “It was New Year's eve...Around 10 p.m., police climbed over the wall of our yard and broke into our home. Suddenly, I was surrounded. They punched and kicked me in front of my 7-year-old daughter. She was trembling with fear and crying hysterically,” said Ms. Xu Xiuying about the police's attempt to arrest her in 2001.

Ms. Xu, 47, is a Falun Gong practitioner from Chaoyang City. In the past 16 years, Ms. Xu had been illegally arrested, detained, and tortured multiple times for their belief. She was given two years at Masanjia Forced Labor Camp. After she left Masanjia nearly dead, she left home and went from place to place for four years to avoid further persecution. However, police detained seven of her family members and friends in order to find her.

Ms. Xu recently filed a criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin, former head of the Chinese Communist Party, for launching the violent suppression of Falun Gong. Her complaint was mailed to the Supreme People's Procuratorate on June 11, 2015.

Narrowly Escaping Death at Masanjia Forced Labor Camp

Ms. Xu went to Beijing to petition for the right to Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, the day the communist regime officially launched the suppression campaign. She was arrested and charged with “disturbing social order” and given 15 days of criminal detention.

A month later, Ms. Xu tried to appeal again. This time, she was taken to Changping Detention Center, where she went on a hunger strike with other Falun Gong practitioners to protest the illegal arrest. Police forced them to stand under the blazing sun until they passed out.

After she was brought back to her hometown, she was first sent to a brainwashing center, and then given two years at Masanjia Forced Labor Camp, where she was brutally tortured.

Ms. Xu described her experience at the notorious labor camp that is known to torture Falun Gong practitioners to death. “One can hear the beatings, sounds of electric batons zapping, and screaming every day at Masanjia. Police put practitioners who refused to renounce their belief in Falun Gong in the room next to the torture chamber so that they could hear the screaming of fellow practitioners. Some people had nervous breakdowns,” she recounted.

“To meet the quota for 'transforming' practitioners into giving up Falun Gong, police did whatever they wanted to us,” said Ms. Xu. When she went on a hunger strike, police tied her hands to a bed frame and force-fed her. She was eventually released on medical parole when she was on the brink of death in September 2001.

Torture Re-enactment: Force-feeding

In 2002, Ms. Xu was arrested for telling others about the persecution of Falun Gong. Police viciously beat and tortured her for 25 days, until her life was again in danger. She was then released after her family paid 3,000 yuan to the authorities.

Family and Friends Implicated

After she was released, Ms. Xu left her home and lived in destitution in order to avoid further arrests. Police then detained seven of her family members and friends and coerced them to disclose Ms. Xu's whereabouts. Ms. Xu's brother-in-law was beaten and covered with bruises. Four people were sent to a detention center.

Daughter Lives in Constant Fear

When Ms. Xu was first sent to Masanjia Forced Labor Camp, her daughter was only five years old. The little girl watched police beating her mother, and she saw police taking away her aunt, the only person who would take care of her when her mother was away.

Police even pressured her elementary school to expel her. They followed her around, trying to find out where her mother was. One time, the little girl returned her home after school and saw the empty yard and a lock on the door. She cried in terror until she had the presence of mind to go to her aunt's place.

For years, she lived in constant fear of the police. Whenever she saw a police car, she would run home to see if anyone had been taken away. During the APEC meeting in 2014, police again tried to put Ms. Xu and her husband into a brainwashing center. One evening, the daughter rushed home and searched every room for her mother. When she saw that her mother was home safe, she cried, “You are home! Why didn't you turn on the light? I thought something had happened. Did you know that when I come home every evening, I look for the light in our home from far, far away. I am so afraid that I won't see you when I come home...”

Background

In 1999, Jiang Zemin, as head of the Chinese Communist Party, overrode other Politburo standing committee members and launched the violent suppression of Falun Gong.

The persecution has led to the deaths of many Falun Gong practitioners in the past 16 years. More have been tortured for their belief and even killed for their organs. Jiang Zemin is directly responsible for the inception and continuation of the brutal persecution.

Under his personal direction, the Chinese Communist Party established an extralegal security organ, the “610 Office,” on June 10, 1999. The organization overrides police forces and the judicial system in carrying out Jiang's directive regarding Falun Gong: to ruin their reputations, cut off their financial resources, and destroy them physically.

Chinese law allows for citizens to be plaintiffs in criminal cases, and many practitioners are now exercising that right to file criminal complaints against the former dictator.