(Minghui.org) Forced labor camps were abolished in China several years ago but what Dafa practitioners were made to go through in those places will forever be etched in historical records.
I was incarcerated in Masanjia Forced Labor Camp in 2007, and then in the Inner Mongolia Forced Labor Camp in 2012.
I have witnessed and experienced a lot in these camps, and I am putting some of my experiences down as my testimony for history.
It the evening before the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2008. A practitioner told me that others in the labor camp wanted us to all call out together “Falun Dafa is good!” and asked if I could take the lead. She said that she would follow, then the others would join in.
I agreed, and when the time came, I stood up, full of righteous thought, and called out, “Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good! To persecute Dafa practitioners is a crime!”
The practitioner who asked me to take the lead then stood up and did the same. Then, the other practitioners joined in.
Our voices resonated for a short while. Then I was dragged out and hung up with my arms spread out and feet off the floor.
I was finally let down about three hours later. The head guard told me that she had to go home to celebrate the festival with her family but wanted to talk to me the following day.
She listened intently as I told her about Falun Dafa, and then said, “One of you had recommended that I quit this job for my own safety.”
“If you leave, another will take your place,” I replied. “It’s not really about whether you remain in your position but about whether you participate in persecuting Dafa practitioners.”
In early October, some of us refused to write down our thoughts in a mandatory, once a month, self-assessment report.
The guards either beat us or shocked us with electric batons. Some of us were hung up off the ground. One by one, we were picked out to be tortured. When it was my turn, a male guard punched and kicked me viciously. One of the guards used an electric baton on my back and neck.
I was dragged into a room, where a guard slapped my face with the heel of his shoe. I said to him, “Quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Ensure you have a good future.”
He hit me three times, and I said the same thing to him each time he hit me. He looked a little ashamed and stopped.
Another guard took over and I said the same thing to him. Then, they decided to hang me up. I lost consciousness from the pain that night.
I couldn’t bear it any longer and finally succumbed to the guards' demands the following day.
Another practitioner was being hung up as I was let down. She was as still as a statue and looked at peace. I knew that she could endure what I couldn't.
She was hung up for two days before being let down. Another practitioner was hung up for eight days, and neither succumbed to the guards' demands.
One practitioner protested being forced to do hard labor and was hung up for six days. The guards let her down once they realized that they couldn't get her to renounce her belief.
She was left alone from then on, so she spent the time studying the Fa and sending forth righteous thoughts. She later told me that she didn't suffer any pain after a while of being hung up, and felt that her body was an empty shell.
Master said:
“A Great Enlightened One fears no hardshipHaving forged an adamantine willFree of attachment to living or dyingHe walks the path of Fa-rectificationconfident and poised”(“Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Actions” from Hong Yin Vol. II)
Practitioners have different xinxing and endurance levels. Some practitioners are miles apart from others. Perhaps it is because they trust Master and Dafa completely and so Master can help them to stand firm; perhaps it is because they think of Master in their time of need and seek Master’s help and support, and got them.
Their hearts are pure and calm as still water. With no hatred, and only compassion for the perpetrators in their hearts could they endure the suffering. With ample righteous thoughts, nothing can touch them.
Some practitioners were severely injured from the beatings and electric shocks. One practitioner had her right arm broken. I had been beaten so badly that my nose bled.
After being hung up, I couldn’t recover, even after two weeks. I wrote a letter to the camp authorities to nullify what I had said and written against Dafa under duress.
Master helped cleanse my body as I wrote the letter. The energy in my body began to flow freely. My body felt warm and my face glowed. I soon fully recovered.
Our merciful Master overlooked my past wrongdoing and encouraged me to pick myself up and move forward on my path of cultivation.
I wrote an open letter to the National People’s Congress in March 2012 exposing the use of torture in forced labor camps, pleading that the camps be abolished.
I was arrested and ended up in the Inner Mongolia Forced Labor Camp.
If Masanjia is a hell on earth, Inner Mongolia is hell in hell. Fellow practitioners and I were brutally beaten and shocked with high-voltage electric batons.
One time, my neck was reduced to a bloody mess of pus and two of my ribs were broken. Several times when I called out “Falun Dafa is good,” guards stuffed my nose and mouth up to the point that I almost suffocated.
I was tortured to such an extent that I couldn’t eat for days on end. On those difficult days, I comforted myself with Master’s Fa:
“What many Dafa disciples have shouldered has been simply enormous, and the mighty virtue is, likewise, great. But, why should you shoulder so much? And some people ask me why they are persecuted so severely. Perhaps that person is bearing things on behalf of the many lives behind him. The lives that he needs to protect, and who he needs to save, are simply that enormous and that numerous. Perhaps that is caused by both his own factors as well as the factors of the beings he should save; the amount of karma or the number of factors that he shoulders from the past might also be great; there might also be accumulated old scores that he can’t resolve as well as long-standing grudges that can’t be undone at all—some of which can only be settled by exchanging his own life. So it’s on this account that things are so exceedingly complicated in the persecution.” (“20th Anniversary Fa Teaching”)
I thought some of the persecution must have been induced by my own human notions and attachments to irrationality, impulse, showing off, competitiveness and the desire to always gain the upper hand.
I wanted to be at the forefront. I wanted to build mighty virtue. I thought of myself as somebody. I was proud but also arrogant.
I realized that the root cause of my attachments was sentimentality and selfishness. I put my firm trust in Master and Dafa and was the last one to walk out of the Inner Mongolia Forced Labor Camp in the middle of 2013 when the labor camp system was abolished.
Having undergone evil persecution, I came to the realization that if our thoughts and actions are righteous and in accordance with the Fa, Master will come to our rescue.
One day, the head guard ordered a body search, and I had Master’s new lecture in my pocket.
I remained calm. I sent forth a strong righteous thought, “Let them find Master’s lecture. Perhaps after they read it, they will stop listening to the CCP's lies and will treat Dafa practitioners kindly.”
Practitioners are severely beaten when the guards find something on their person, but this time was different. The head guard just said a few words and let me go.
My work assignment at the camp was to spray paint the artificial flowers. The paint is made of poisonous chemicals, and constantly breathing in the fumes affected the body.
I started coughing frequently and even spat out blood. However, I wasn't worried, knowing that they were only illusions. I kept only one righteous thought, “I am a practitioner. I have Dafa to protect me. Nothing can harm me.”
And nothing did.
I even found that my hair had turned a darker and brighter color. I came to a clear realization that when we face things with righteous thoughts and actions, even bad things will become good.
On the 10th anniversary of the persecution of Falun Dafa, I went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution.
On the third afternoon, the guards force-fed me some “food” that induced so much phlegm in my throat that I almost suffocated. My mouth became a bit crooked. Saliva flew out uncontrollably. I couldn’t move my body at all. The food must have been contaminated with something.
In my heart, I called out loudly, “Master! Please save me!”
I suddenly felt something moving throughout my body, and I soon stopped drooling and I could move again. I thanked Master in my heart.
They hung me up again in October. The extreme pain caused my thighs to twitch and spasm. I felt nauseated and threw up.
The guards said that if I slandered Master and Dafa they would let me down. But I told them, “Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good! To persecute Dafa practitioners is a crime!”
They produced a document for me to sign. It was a confession and agreement to stop practicing Falun Dafa. I sent forth a strong righteous thought: “Burn!”
Right away, there was a burning smell. I knew the document was being destroyed in another dimension.
I couldn’t lift my arms when they finally let me down, so I couldn’t change my clothes. Also, I could only walk with my knees bent.
One day, a female guard was laughing at me, “Look at the way you walk. And you call yourself a Dafa practitioner.”
I thought, “She’s right. How can I allow them to see me, a Dafa practitioner, reduced to such a state? I need to straighten my back and walk tall and with dignity.”
I then straightened up my knees and back and stood up tall and straight. The female guard saw my change and said, “A righteous thought is all it takes, eh?”
In 2012, I wrote my open letter to the National People's Congress to request the abolition of forced labor camps and was arrested. I was taken to the forced labor camp.
Because I called out “Falun Dafa is good”, an assistant head guard took away my bathroom privileges. That evening, my stomach was so painful that I couldn’t sleep.
People felt sorry for me and even some of the guards suggested that I relieve myself in the room. I told them, “No!” Even if my belly were to burst I wouldn't do it, as it would badly affect the others. After midnight, one of the guards agreed to take me to the toilet.
One time, a practitioner was tortured to the state of mental collapse. When I saw her lying there, I thought about the suffering practitioners have gone through, and burst into tears.
One of the guards witnessed this and covered her eyes and face with both hands. I could tell she was emotionally affected.
I made a decision to sue Jiang Zemin, after reading the topic of dissolving the Chinese Communist Party and stopping the persecution from the “Fa Teaching Given at the Fa Conference Marking the Tenth Anniversary of the Minghui Website’s Founding.”
A practitioner helped me print out my criminal complaint in 2011, but when I took the documents to Beijing to submit them to the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, my submission was rejected.
However, it was finally accepted by city Procuratorate several days later, on my third attempt.
I later received a call saying, “We have no authority to handle your case suing Jiang, but you can sue the police who were involved in your persecution.”
I felt a little comforted. At least somebody had taken the time and trouble to read my complaint. I was sure that person would share the documents with their supervisors, and my complaint might even be scrutinized by others. Then, I would have done what I set out to accomplish.
To be able to become a practitioner, to be able to fulfill our mission of rectifying the Fa and saving sentient beings, is a rare opportunity that is solemn and sacred.
Master is offering us a future full of incomparable goodness and beauty, with mighty virtue that is glorious and lasts forever. My sufferings pale in comparison to the rewards that Falun Dafa brings.