(Minghui.org) Ms. Zhang Daike, an 80-year-old retired water resource engineer, has been repeatedly arrested and detained over the past 20 years for not renouncing her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
She was sentenced to four years in prison and had her pension suspended in 2006. To this day, her pension hasn't been reinstated, which makes her life after prison even harder as she has been forced to live away from home to avoid further persecution.
Ms. Zhang, a resident of Anyang City, Henan Province, used to suffer from heart and stomach problems. She also had tuberculosis and lumbar muscle strain. Her lasting low-grade fever wouldn't go away no matter what medication she tried.
Shortly after she started to practice Falun Gong in 1997, her health miraculously recovered. Her life was renewed and she was full of energy. She took on many household chores and became more considerate of others.
Arbitrary Detention
Because Ms. Zhang volunteered to play the Falun Gong exercise music at the practice site, she became one of the key targets when the authorities launched the persecution in 1999.
On the morning of July 18, 1999, she was arrested right after she finished doing the exercises. She was held at a hotel for a week.
The local 610 Office extorted a significant amount of money from her employer, the Anyang Water Resource Bureau. The amount extorted was more than several people's lifetime salary, according to those familiar with her case.
Arrested for Appealing for Falun Gong
Ms. Zhang appealed for Falun Gong in Beijing on June 26, 2000. She was arrested on Tiananmen Square and pushed into a van full of Falun Gong practitioners who had come from around the country to speak out for their faith.
The police slapped them in the face and took them to a police station. The station’s detention facility was at maximum capacity.
After Ms. Zhang revealed her name and address, she was taken back to Anyang City and held at the Anyang City Detention Center for 40 days. The police extorted 5,000 yuan from her family before releasing her.
Ms. Zhang went to Beijing to appeal again in December 2000. She was arrested on the train and held in a detention facility at Shijiazhuang, the capital city of Hebei Province, about 200 miles from Beijing. She was restrained on a chair with no food or water for a day and then taken back to Anyang and detained for another 15 days.
Not long after she was released, she was seized from home and taken to Tiexi Brainwashing Center. Because she refused to renounce Falun Gong, she was transferred to Anyang City Brainwashing Center.
The Anyang City Brainwashing Center was located in a local hotel. Each Falun Gong practitioner was held in a separate room and watched around the clock by two people. No family visits were allowed. Except for a short meal time, the practitioners were restrained in the rooms and subjected to full-day brainwashing sessions. She was held there for about ten months.
Meanwhile, the brainwashing center extorted more money from her workplace and forced them to suspend every employee's bonus in order to incite hatred against Falun Gong practitioners.
Forced Labor
Only a few months after Ms. Zhang was released, the police harassed her and searched her home. Finding that she had a copy of Zhuan Falun, the main text of Falun Gong, she was arrested again and held in the Anyang City Detention Center for six months. She was forced to make joss paper items for burnt offerings and to clean the restroom for four months. The guards often verbally abused her and forced her to stand for long hours.
The authorities extorted another 5,000 yuan from her and held her at a brainwashing center for another two months.
Four Years of Imprisonment
On March 1, 2006, while Ms. Zhang was taking care of her husband in the hospital, eight officers came to look for her.
To keep from disturbing her ill husband, she went out to meet with the police. As soon as she stepped out of the hospital, they arrested her, even though her husband was in immediate need of her care.
The police ransacked her home and confiscated all of her Falun Gong books. They threatened her family that she would be sentenced to seven or eight years in prison if she didn't give up her faith. In addition, they forced her husband to make phone calls to her and pressure her to renounce her faith. Her husband was under tremendous stress and his condition deteriorated quickly. He passed away in less than two months.
Ms. Zhang later stood trial in the Yindu District Court. She testified in her own defense.
When she said that she didn't violate any law by practicing Falun Gong and that it was Jiang Zemin, the former head of the communist regime, who violated the law in persecuting good people, the judge and prosecutor made fun of her.
They said, “You are still so stubborn and don't admit wrongdoing even when you are about to be thrown into prison. Who is Jiang Zemin? He is the former chairman of the country!”
Ms. Zhang replied, “Jiang isn't the chairman anymore. Justice will be served for what he has done.” They all laughed at her again.
The judge later sentenced her to four years in Xinxiang Women's Prison. Her pension was suspended at the same time.
After she was released, she was forced to live away from home to avoid the persecution.