(Minghui.org) Since the Chinese Communist Party launched the campaign of persecution against Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, in 1999, countless practitioners have endured harassment, threats, brainwashing, illegal sentences, and live organs harvesting. The persecution is still going on in China today.
Mr. Zhang Weiyang, 48, from Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province, started practicing Falun Gong in 1997. He and his wife, also a practitioner, were arrested and tortured in police stations, detention centers, and labor camps. A great deal of money was extorted from his family for their release.
Mr. Zhang recalled what they endured.
Tortured in Laoyazhuang Police Station
I started to work for Hebei Yanxing Machinery Plant in 1995. Not long after the persecution began in 1999, I yielded to the pressure and signed a statement asserting that I would not practice Falun Gong. I also handed in an exercise music tape and several Dafa books.
In the morning of December 8, 2001, I went to the Qiaodong District to post Falun Gong flyers and a group of villagers, who did not know the facts about Falun Gong, beat me. They then turned me in to the Laoyazhuang Police Station for a reward. I was handcuffed to a tiger bench and beaten that night.
My wife came to the station to request my release in the evening. She was told that I was not there. She was also deceived into telling them where I worked.
When she returned the following day, she was arrested and searched. The police officers then took her along to ransack our home. They rifled through the entire house and took our Dafa books and materials, a television set, three tape recorders, a DVD player, a bike, and some cash.
In the police station, my wife refused to tell the officers where we’d gotten the Dafa materials. The police wrapped her two arms around a plank in front of a tiger bench and clamped her hands together. They then beat her and shocked her with electric batons.
They tortured her repeatedly. They called in collaborators to try to deceive and confuse her. To force her to give up practicing, three officers dragged her on the snow-covered ground for more than two hours one evening. On December 16, she was severely beaten again and passed out.
I was also tortured physically and mentally in the police station. They deprived me of sleep, shocked me with electric batons, and burned chili to irritate my nose. They tore out the photo of Master Li Hongzhi (the founder of Falun Gong) from my copy of Zhuan Falun, the main book of Falun Gong, and burned it in front of me. To try to make me “transform,” they also pressured my parents and my older brother.
After all their efforts failed, they took me and my wife to Zhangjiakou Detention Center on December 17.
Tortured in Zhangjiakou Detention Center
I was not allowed to sleep in a bed and had to sleep on the cement floor. I was often beaten and kicked. The guards flicked my eyes with their fingers. I was interrogated several times.
My wife went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. She was dragged out of the building and force-fed a saline solution. On one occasion, she was found studying the teachings with other practitioners. The guard pushed her down, stepped on her head, and told several inmates to search her.
Laoyazhuang Police Station officers extorted 10,000 yuan from my family on January 6, 2002. When I was released on January 7, I was forced to pay an additional 2,000 yuan in “release processing fees” and 300 yuan for lunch.
After many setbacks, I was only able to retrieve some of our confiscated belongings. Things related to Dafa, such as books and audiotapes, have never been returned.
The police intimidated and threatened us even more after we were released. They harassed and threatened my parents-in-law several times. They also told our company, Hebei Yanxing Machinery Plant, to threaten my family and closely monitor me and my wife.
Tortured for Clarifying the Truth in Beijing
A few days after the 2002 lunar New Year (February 12, 2002), my wife and I went to Beijing to clarify the truth about Falun Gong at Tiananmen Square. Both of us were arrested and taken to a police station nearby. Many other practitioners were there.
At night, I was taken to an unknown police station. A police officer hit me nonstop with a chair. “I have beaten many practitioners here. You are nothing. I am free to beat you to death. Your death will be reported as suicide,” he informed me.
My wife was taken to a detention center, where she was beaten and kicked by plainclothes officers. They pulled her hair and banged her head against the wall when she did not cooperate to have her photo taken.
After two days of torture, we were taken back to Maludong Police Station in Zhangjiakou City. My wife was forced to sign a fake fine note and pay 1,000 yuan. We were then taken to the detention center. A few days later, we were illegally sentenced to three years and taken to Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp.
Persecuted in Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp
Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp started a campaign to force practitioners to “transform” in March 2002. The steadfast practitioners were handcuffed, with both hands separated, to rings about three feet apart on the floor.
I was stripped and searched when we first arrived at the camp. After the “transformation” campaign started, I was handcuffed to the floor and the guards repeatedly shocked me with electric batons. They gloated, “This is what brainwashing should be, one torture after another. Does it hurt? Are you still alive? You have to keep answering questions so that you will not have time to think about Falun Gong. We will torture you a few times daily. We are not in a hurry. We have plenty of time.”
I refused to talk. The guards instructed inmates to press down on my legs with a hot water pipe and force-feed me water. They then stepped on my bloated abdomen. The torture started with once a day and then progressed to twice a day.
In order to meet their “transformation” quota to receive a bonus, the guards did everything they could to torture us, including depriving us of sleep, shocking us with electric batons, making us squat or stand, and leaving us out in the scorching sun.
In October 2002, I made a solemn statement: “Anything I was coerced to say or do against Dafa is void and null. I will firmly practice Dafa to the end.” I gave the statement to the guard on duty. They isolated me and tortured me, including force-feeding me unknown drugs.
As a result of all the torture, I have been mentally disordered and suffered amnesia. Even now I still cannot remember exactly what happened to me between October 2002 and the date I was released, April 13, 2004.
My wife was forced to undergo brainwashing in the Gaoyang Labor Camp day after day. As a result, she almost collapsed in January 2004. She was completely confused and desperate. Because of her poor health, she was sent home.
After her release, the Hebei Yanxing Machinery Plant again forced her to write a statement that she would not practice. She was also closely monitored by the company. They even forced her father to monitor her when she took a leave of absence to take care of me when I passed out at work a few days after being released from the labor camp.
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Persecution Continues
On July 26, 2008, five Maludong Police Station officers arrested me. They threatened to get me fired and take me to the detention center if I did not turn in my ID card. They also forced me to write a statement, delcaring that I would not go to Beijing during the 2008 Olympics in August.
Over the years, my company has talked to me on those so-called sensitive days. They also have arranged for other people to watch me and do not let me turn off my cell phone so that I am always on standby to receive their calls and be monitored.
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