(Minghui.org) I was arrested soon after the Communist regime in China launched the persecution against Falun Dafa in 1999. I was detained, brainwashed, and sent to a forced labor camp. My interactions with people showed me that in their hearts, people know that there’s nothing wrong with the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance. They know that Falun Dafa is good, and thus helped practitioners whenever they could.
Police Chief Is Pleased to See Me
To prevent Falun Dafa practitioners from traveling to Beijing to petition the central government, the police arrested many local practitioners at the end of 2000. We were held at a brainwashing center which was set up at an abandoned factory. Our beds were wooden boards placed on the cement floor. Practitioners’ families were furious about the living conditions and blamed the director. He thought his “smart idea” would gain him favor with the higher ups, instead it backfired.
As soon as I arrived, I decided, “This is not where I’m supposed to be. I’m not going to eat or drink anything until I’m released.” I didn’t resent anyone who worked there as I knew they were deceived and used. I didn’t know about sending righteous thoughts, but I focused my mind on Beijing, the origin of the persecution. As my consciousness approached Beijing, I had a clear sense that it encountered a heavy metallic machine—the machinery put in place by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to persecute Falun Dafa nation-wide.
An officer from the Domestic Security Division came to “have a chat” with me about my hunger strike. I listened but didn’t say anything. Eventually, he gave up and left. Next, the chief of the county Police Department came to have a talk with me. He asked why I wasn’t eating, whether I had enough bedding, and if I had any additional comments. I told him, “I know those who work here don’t have a choice. I’m not against anybody here personally. Jiang Zemin (the then head of the CCP) launched the persecution. Dafa practitioners are not criminals and we shouldn’t be here. That’s why I’m not eating nor drinking. I request that all practitioners be released unconditionally.”
The county Party Secretary walked in. The police chief pointed at me and told him, “She is well spoken and intelligent.” The Party Secretary nodded but didn’t say anything.
A year after I was released, I saw the chief just outside the police department. He seemed pleasantly surprised to see me, “I had no clue you’ve been back. How are you?”
Team Leads
I didn’t cooperate with any of the guards’ demands at the brainwashing center. I didn’t eat or drink. I refused to attend lectures designed to brainwash people. I wouldn’t go into the classroom even when secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee came to give a lecture. To show the committee secretary that they were doing their jobs, the guards threatened me and dragged me into the classroom. I stood during the entire lecture and did not sit down.
The authorities exhausted all tactics but I would not renounce my faith. Fearing that I would affect others, they decided to transfer me to a detention center where many practitioners were held.
The guards at the detention center were vicious. They handcuffed practitioners and beat us with electric batons for the most trivial things. As we persistently clarified the truth, most changed their attitude and became friendly. They knew practitioners were wrongfully persecuted, so they treated us differently than the other inmates.
The living conditions were harsh and the food was terrible. However, I didn’t let this bother me, and I was able to maintain a peaceful mind. An inmate told me, “I watched you eat the black buns and there wasn’t even a little bit of unwillingness. This harsh environment does not get to you at all.”
Most inmates from the two women’s cells liked to talk to me. They shared details of their cases and updated me about the latest developments. They told me things about themselves and their families. I tried my best to help them. Some newcomers were upset when they first arrived, or didn’t have the money to purchase basic hygiene items. The practitioners comforted them and shared food and toilet paper with them.
A woman assigned to my cell started crying before she even entered. I comforted her and asked if she was hungry. I made her noodles and asked why she was detained. She stopped crying and said she was detained for financial reasons. She wept because she thought the detention center was a scary place.
The guards knew that practitioners did not commit any crimes and are trustworthy. They assigned two practitioners to be the team leads of the two women’s cells.
Inmates Learn the Exercises
With the help of our families, we obtained a copy of Zhuan Falun, the main book of Falun Dafa, and a hand copied Hong Yin at the detention center. The practitioners in my cell were able to study the Fa together when the guards were not looking. During routine inspections, we came up with creative ways to protect the books. I bought pens and paper from the store and hand copied both books to pass on to practitioners in other cells. Some young inmates were assigned to various cleaning and cooking tasks. We asked them for help since they had more freedom.
When we did the exercises, the inmates watched out for us and warned us when the guards were coming. If the guards caught us doing the exercises, they sometimes handcuffed us, but they usually just scolded us. Most guards just let us be.
I was held at the detention center for almost a year and saw many inmates come and go. Some were given sentences and transferred to other detention centers or prisons. Others were soon released. We told them about Dafa and the persecution, and most of them learned the truth before they left. Some even did the exercises with us.
Before the inmates left the detention center, many told us that they were going to continue doing the Falun Dafa exercises in prison. Some took with them hand copied Dafa books. Some told us that they would look for and join local practitioners once they were released. Most of the inmates from the two women’s cells studied the Fa and did the exercises with us.
A woman from Inner Mongolia studied the Fa and did the exercises with us. I gave her a copy of Hong Yin and she started memorizing the poems. Two guards came to escort her for interrogation one day. One guard grabbed her arm and pressed her shoulder. She recited the first line of the verse of the first set of exercises.
As soon as she recited the line, the guard took her hands off her. She was amazed at how powerful Dafa is and told me about it after the interrogation. This woman was later sentenced to one year imprisonment but was released after only a few months at the detention center.
An elderly woman learned the truth about Dafa and started studying the Fa and doing the exercises with us. She was also sentenced to one year in prison and released soon after. I met her after I was released and she told me she still did the exercises.
There were many examples like these but I no longer remember the details.
The county jail and the county detention center shared the same compound and there was no clear division between the two. Female inmates on administrative detention and criminal detention were held in the only two women’s cells.
A woman temporarily detained for financial wrongdoings didn’t know anything about Dafa at first. After we clarified the truth about Dafa to her, she was interested and wanted to read Dafa books. Since she was going to be released soon, I told her my babysitter had all my books at a safe place and she was welcome to get a copy from my babysitter. After I was released, my babysitter told me the woman visited her with nice gifts and got two Dafa books.
A few years ago, someone called out my name at a local farmers’ market. I didn’t recognize her. The woman smiled and said she knew me from the detention center. She named me and another practitioner from the cell and said the two of us made a huge impression on her because we were so friendly. We started chatting and she readily agreed to quit the CCP and its youth organizations. I was surprised she still recognized me and even remembered my name after two decades.
Four Young Men Couldn’t Move Me
After a while, most guards and inmates got used to us doing the exercises and sending righteous thoughts every day. The guards just scolded us halfheartedly. Only a handful of strict ones made us stop. Although they knew full well we’d resume as soon as they walked away, they didn’t care.
One time, a guard known to be very strict saw me meditating. He started shouting in the hallway, “Stop. Stop doing the exercises.” I ignored him. He shouted the order a few more times but I didn’t budge. Furious, he charged toward me and tried to move my legs. My legs stayed crossed in the full lotus position and he couldn’t move them so he called for help.
Four young men from the maintenance team came to help but nobody could uncross my legs. The young men had exaggerated facial expressions and big bodily movements but I knew they weren’t actually trying. The guard’s face turned red with anger. He shouted, “Try harder. You guys, try harder.” He joined the young men pulling on my leg but quickly gave up. He then tried to handcuff me, but I wouldn’t let him. In that chaotic moment, he somehow scratched the back of his hand with the cuffs and I remained in full lotus position.
In the end, the deputy director came. I was dragged to the courtyard, cuffed to the iron gate and left in the baking sun in the extreme heat of the hottest days of summer. I shouted “Falun Dafa is good” and the formula to righteous thoughts so loud that the entire detention center could hear me.
The deputy director was outraged. He dragged me to the interrogation room and beat my face and my neck with an electric baton. He shoved the baton into my mouth but I kept shouting even though my words were slurred. He pushed me to the ground, stuffed my mouth with a towel and continued to beat me. My hands were handcuffed and my feet were shackled. The beating lasted for a while before I was let go.
The political commissar of the Police Department came and I was taken to the interrogation room again. The political commissar told me to sit down and ask the director of the detention center to uncuff me. The director said, “Ask the political commissar nicely, you may get your shackles removed too.” I didn’t say anything.
I was still shackled when I returned to the cell. An inmate showed me how to protect my ankles by wrapping cloth around them. It saved me from having the hackles sink into my flesh. I continued to do the meditation exercise in full lotus position, shackles, chains and all. The director eventually removed my shackles.
People Putting In a Good Word for Me
Each time a new lecture was published, a practitioner’s family thought of a way to pass on a copy to us, along with sharing articles from the Minghui website. When we received a new lecture or sharing articles, I always hand copied them for each cell that held practitioners, especially the men’s cells.
There was a small cafeteria at the detention center that provided meals for the guards and also took orders from a handful financially well-to-do inmates. The women’s cells were on the way to the small cafeteria so many new lectures were passed out by the inmates assigned to pick up the meals. We didn’t discriminate and asked anybody who happened to walk by and they usually said yes.
I once hand copied a new lecture and was ready to pass them on to the male practitioners. A male inmate walked by and agreed to help. Just as I handed him the copies through the window, a guard saw it. This is the same guard that caught me doing the exercises a few times. He must have dreaded dealing with me at this point and dodged it by reporting to the director.
The director came looking for me the next day. All the practitioners sent righteous thoughts for me as I stepped out of the cell. I saw two guards across the courtyard, sitting on the long bench outside the interrogation room, and one of them was fiddling with his electric baton. My heart dropped, “Is this electric baton waiting for me?” I caught this thought immediately and nipped it in the bud. I walked right by the two guards and nothing happened.
The director cuffed my hands to my back and hung me onto the iron gate. My toes barely touched the ground. He asked where I got the new lecture from and I said, “I’m not going to tell you so please stop asking. It doesn’t matter what you do, I am not going to tell you.” He tightened my cuffs by a notch and asked me again. I told him not to ask because I would never tell him. He tightened my cuffs again.
Two visitors seemed to recognize me. They were government officials there for work related purposes. They walked over and told the director to let me down. I was soon let down and nothing worse happened.
In fact, the director knew all along about the new lectures we copied and passed around and probably wondered how we acquired them. Some practitioners even shared the content of new lectures with the guards.
When we got a copy of Master’s “Deciphering the Last Three Stanzas of the Plum Blossom Poem,” I felt that we should share Master’s insight of the prophecy with the guards. Some practitioners showed this lecture to the guards who were friendly.
The practitioners clarified the truth to the guards about Dafa. They told the guards if everyone practiced Falun Dafa, then no one would do bad things. There wouldn’t be any crime and there would no longer be a need for police. I heard that when the director heard this, he responded, “If it really would be like what—nobody commits crime and there is no need for police anymore—I’d welcome that wholeheartedly.”
I ran into the director after I was released and he was happy to stop and chat.
A young female doctor worked at the detention center clinic while I was there, but we barely talked to each other. Shortly after I was released, I saw her and she was glad to see me. She was happy for me and said, “We were destined to meet again. Who knew we’d run into each after so soon after you were released.”
A Tribulation Quietly Resolved
Another practitioner and I attracted attention from the county Public Security Bureau for being unwavering in our faith. In order to make us renounce our belief in Falun Dafa, a task force of eight officers was formed. These officers were pulled from the Criminal Investigation Division, Public Security Division and other divisions.
I was held in a hotel room and not allowed to sleep. The officers took turns monitoring me, and tried to convince me to transform. They used every tactic they could think of and incited my family to beat me and verbally insult me. I was made to stand up straight like a soldier standing at attention while they threw cup after cup of cold water on me. No matter what they did, nothing changed my mind. After exhausting all options, they resorted to torture. It was later in the day and was already getting dark. One officer told another, “Go grab the equipment from the headquarter,” and named a few torture devices. I didn’t let it scare me and didn’t remember the names of the devices.
The moments followed were quiet, yet menacing like the calm before a storm. All of a sudden, the silence was broken. An officer called my name out loud and said repeatedly, “Wow. You’re in luck. You are so lucky.” Turns out, one of my husband’s friends happened to suggest that he would like to take the entire task force out to dinner on that night, completely unaware of the situation I was in. The team immediately gave up their plan to torture me and gladly went out to a meal together. I’m so grateful to this friend of my husband’s whom I never met before. Thanks to Master who resolved the seemingly inevitable tribulation for me.
The restaurant they went to that night was owned by three partners and I didn’t know them at the time. More than a decade later, I met one of the three owners. He was very talkative and told me that during a trip to Singapore, a Dafa practitioner clarified the truth to him. When he figured out who I was, he told me he was there that night when the task force got together over dinner and brainstormed ideas on how to crack me. He told me he was so impressed with me as he knew their tactics and the tremendous stress it could bear down on people physically and mentally. He said an average person could not withstand that kind of pressure and would eventually give in, even tough men would be intimidated. He could not believe that, as a young woman at the time, I did not show any fear and remained resolute with such strong conviction. He joked I should have been more direct with the task force at the time, “Why didn’t you just tell them straight up to quit the CCP? Tell them to get all their family members who have joined the CCP and its youth organizations to quit the Party.”
People Are Innately Righteous
Whenever I think of my experience at the detention center and the people that I met there, I am grateful for their innate righteousness and the kindness they’ve shown practitioners. If it weren’t for the CCP’s lies, and slander, people would all come to learn how wonderful Dafa is. If it were left to their own judgment, people would all know Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good and Dafa practitioners are good people.
The righteous thoughts and kindness that people have shown to Dafa and practitioners shows that Dafa is rooted in the hearts of good people—it is Dafa’s inherent mighty virtue and cannot be swayed by what happens in this human world. The hearts of those who know the truth about Dafa are the light of this world. The evil CCP’s persecution exposes its own evil nature to the world and is a lesson for humankind for generations to come. Dafa will inevitably be passed down in the human world forever.
Views expressed in this article represent the author's own opinions or understandings. All content published on this website are copyrighted by Minghui.org. Minghui will produce compilations of its online content regularly and on special occasions.
Category: Perspectives
