(Minghui.org) In the summer of 2008, before the Beijing Olympics, the evil Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched large-scale arrests of Falun Dafa practitioners. I was unlawfully taken to a forced labor camp, locked in a cell with a tightly closed door and window, and was under both audio and video surveillance. The labor camp also assigned one or two inmates (known as baojia) in each cell to closely monitor the Dafa practitioners.
Taking the Fa as Teacher and Dismantling the Persecution
The labor camp had a Special Management Unit, tasked with monitoring and persecuting Falun Dafa practitioners. The unit confined all practitioners in that unit. Every cell was equipped with surveillance devices, and the lights stayed on all night.
The police also selected criminal inmates from each labor team to closely watch, control, and report on us to the police. The chosen inmates monitored practitioners around the clock and tried their hardest to transform us (force us to give up Falun Dafa).
The more practitioners they transformed, the larger the bonuses the police received, and the more likely they would be promoted. As for the baojia, the more brutally they treated the practitioners, the greater the reduction in their sentences, which could result in an early release from the labor camp.
All Falun Dafa practitioners who refused to be transformed were locked in small isolation cells, with windows completely covered in thick paper. We were locked up around the clock, except when we were allowed to use the toilet.
We were allowed to use the bathroom under the baojia’s supervision only after all inmates on the entire floor had gone inside their cells, and no one was in the public area, the corridor, or the bathroom.
When we needed daily necessities, we had to write them down on paper, which the baojia would take to the police for approval. We were only allowed to buy things like toothpaste, soap, toilet paper, etc., and the allowance was very low. We had to wait for someone to be assigned to get things from a convenience store before the baojia passed them to us.
Such restrictions, known as “prison within prison,” were intended to deprive practitioners of all personal freedoms, including the right to family visits.
In the Special Management Unit, Falun Dafa practitioners who were targeted for transformation were locked in isolation in tiny A Cells and supervised by baojia, a handpicked group of hardened, cunning, and vicious repeat offenders.
I was locked up in an A Cell, and to gain favor with the police, the baojia often made things difficult for me. She wouldn’t allow me to use the toilet even when no one was around at lunchtime, and she unreasonably delayed acquiring my requested daily necessities with all kinds of excuses.
She sometimes dumped my meals in the garbage and told the police that I refused to eat. I was often forced to stand still until midnight. When I felt exhausted and hungry, I poured myself a glass of water and drank it. I didn’t know that the thermos had been spiked with unknown drugs.
When the police treated Falun Dafa practitioners so cruelly, I asked whether they had any human decency left. The reply was, “We uphold Party loyalty, not human decency.”
I said, “We’re locked in cells 24 hours a day, without even the most basic personal freedom.” The officer responded, “In this place, the only relationship is that of the oppressor and the oppressed. There is no other kind of relationship.”
When I told the police that a large number of people around the world were practicing Falun Dafa, she said in a sarcastic and sinister tone, “Then, why didn’t your mother give birth to you overseas?”
The baojia watched me closely and would report to the police whenever they thought I did anything out of line. The police would then arrive quickly to reprimand me. They then forced me to stand still for a long time while the baojia kept a close eye on me.
They also forced me to watch videos that slandered Falun Dafa. Each time, I closed my eyes and refused to watch. The baojia would then slam the table and shout at me. I ignored her and kept reciting the Fa with my eyes closed. Feeling helpless, the baojia left me alone.
Every morning, when the police came, they asked me to recite the labor camp disciplinary rules. I always refused, and the political instructor would fly into a rage and verbally abuse me.
I stayed silent each morning when the police ordered me to recite the regulations. One police officer said to me, “You’d better behave yourself. We’ve seen plenty of people like you.” I ignored what she said and held fast to the thought, “I will never accept any tribulations that I’m not supposed to endure.”
Never PassivelyAccepting Persecution
When facing persecution, refusing to reject it is the same as accepting it, and unwittingly acknowledging the old forces’ arrangements. So, whenever the police wanted to persecute me, I would say loudly, “If you persecute me, after I leave the labor camp, I will expose what you have done to the whole world, and the international community will sooner or later hold you accountable for your crimes.”
Most of the time, after I said these words, the police quietly left me alone. The baojia next to me whispered, “I would never dare say such words to the police.”
In the labor camp, each practitioner’s personal belongings were placed in a plastic box in their cell. The police often arrived suddenly, searched the cell, and checked these belongings to ensure there were no Falun Dafa materials.
Once, while I was sitting on a stool next to my bed, the door was suddenly opened, and a male police officer burst in. He yanked up the mat on my bed and searched it thoroughly. But he didn’t find anything and left in frustration.
As more Falun Dafa practitioners were brought to the labor camp, I was moved to another cell. Later, a fellow practitioner and her baojia also moved in.
When I was about to go the restroom one day with my baojia following me, the fellow practitioner handed me a glass and asked me to fetch some water for her from the laundry room on my way back.
“But we have boiled water in the thermos flask,” I said. She shook her head and told me quietly, as the two baojia were chatting, “The police spike the thermoses with drugs.”
I remembered that while I was in an A Cell, the baojia had pointed to a red thermos and told me to drink the water in it. I didn’t think much of it at the time and never expected the police would spike the thermos. I remembered that when I poured water from the thermos, the baojia surreptitiously watched me out of the corner of her eye.
The next morning, the team leader was furious when she came for inspection and found that another practitioner was sharing the cell with me. She ordered the practitioner to be moved to another cell immediately.
I haven’t since drank any water from the thermos in the cell. The police told me, “Even though you don’t drink water from the thermos, we can put drugs in your meals and soup. We have plenty of ways to deal with you.”
I remained calm and peaceful in my heart, as if I had not heard anything they said to me. Previously, while I was on the toilet with the baojia waiting outside, a strong medicinal smell suddenly filled the air. Someone passing by remarked, “Goodness! Why is there such a strong smell of medicine?”
I remembered that the police officers often said, “If you feel uncomfortable, you must let us know.” I didn’t know why they kept saying this to me. Now I understood. They were wondering why I showed no symptoms after drinking so much water from the thermos.
I realized that Master had expelled all the unknown drugs and other harmful substances from my body, which had given off the offensive smell of medicine when I was using the toilet.
Reciting the Fa and Sending Righteous Thoughts in My Heart
In the dark den, under intense pressure and persecution, if practitioners’ thoughts strayed from the Fa, even for an instant, they would be engulfed by waves of evil.
I haven’t been able to see anything through my celestial eye since I obtained the Fa in late 1998. I have managed to get to where I am today based on my understanding of the Fa principles.
While in the labor camp, I recited the Fa in my heart every day, despite constant interference. One day, as I recited the Fa, I moved my lips slightly. A police officer noticed and came straight to me. She grabbed my collar, slammed me against the wall, and struck my chest with her fist.
I knew that was evil interference from other dimensions at work and held no resentment or hatred toward the police officer.
The baojia sometimes pushed the volume to the maximum level when playing videos that slandered Falun Dafa. It was extremely irritating. Even she could not stand it and went outside.
I tried to stay calm and recite the Fa. When it became very difficult, I recited poems from Hong Yin instead. Eventually, the baojia had to turn down the volume because people nearby could no longer stand it and complained.
While I was reciting “Lunyu” one night, my mind suddenly went blank and I could not remember the words, so I started again from the beginning. As I recited, I grew drowsy, and when I tried to keep my eyes open, I saw a dark shadow in black clothes standing by my bed, waving its arms at me. I then fell asleep.
When I woke up, my back felt very cold. It was winter time, and I was covered with a padded quilt, but my back was wet with cold sweat. I started reciting the Fa right away, disregarding how I felt. Nothing could stop me from reciting the Fa. I kept reciting “Lunyu” and poems from Hong Yin, and this is how I managed to get through those most difficult days and nights in the labor camp.
In addition to reciting the Fa, I focused on sending righteous thoughts because I could truly feel their power, which manifests only when one’s heart is pure and peaceful.
The baojia once tried to make things harder for me by forbidding me to use the toilet all day. I calmly sent righteous thoughts, and as a result, I didn't need to use the toilet at all that day. Meanwhile, the two baojia had to use the toilet more often than usual. They couldn’t figure out why, and said to themselves, “How strange. What’s happening?”
During the day, whenever I held my palm up in front of my chest, the baojia would stop me and report me to the police. So I stopped raising my palm when sending righteous thoughts during the day.
At night, I sent righteous thoughts with my hands beneath the quilt. In the dark, the clock wasn’t visible, but every night at 10 p.m., two musical notes would sound throughout the labor camp.
To avoid missing sending righteous thoughts at midnight, I checked the time on the TV. At 10 p.m., I recited “Lunyu” and a few poems from Hong Yin seven times. By then it was about midnight, and I would send righteous thoughts.
Maintaining Strong Righteous Thoughts and Refusing To Be Led Astray
Someone was always on night duty in our unit. When it was the instructor, the team leader, or the police officer in charge of me, they always called me to the office to try to transform me. They seemed quite nice on such occasions. Sometimes the instructor also praised me and said she wanted to be my friend, etc.
Regardless of how they treated me, whether swearing at me in anger or pretending to be nice to me while trying to transform me, I remained calm and at peace in my heart, thinking, “You absolutely cannot make me give up cultivation in Dafa, no matter how hard you try.”
After failing in all their schemes, a police officer said to me, “The Chinese Communist Party will eventually clear your names.”
“But they are in no position to do so,” I said firmly. The police officer fell silent for a long time. Later, she began to treat me much better than before.
The labor camp authorities also arranged for some former practitioners who had been transformed to speak with me, hoping they would persuade me to transform. I found their remarks utterly absurd and laughable, and told them to go away.
The labor camp once called a number of transformed practitioners to talk with me, thinking that with so many of them exerting pressure, I would give in.
At first, they didn’t say much and felt rather awkward. One of them said quietly, “Looking at you, I felt quite ashamed.”
Later, one of them started talking about how she went to Tiananmen to appeal for Falun Dafa in the early days, and others also said a few words. Then, another one started talking about how she obtained the Fa. It felt like we were having a cultivation experience sharing session.
The police noticed on the surveillance camera that things were not going as expected, so they rushed in and removed the transformed practitioners. They never again arranged such a meeting.
Four police officers came to my cell one day, each carrying a chair, and sat down around me. One of them pulled my arm and tried to get me to sit in line with them. I refused and went back to sitting on a stool. No matter what they said, I just closed my eyes and kept quietly sending righteous thoughts, not responding to their words.
I don’t know how much time passed, but it eventually became quiet. Then I heard my baojia shout, “Hey you, they’re all gone!” Later that day, I overheard my baojia saying to another one in the hallway, “Wow, I’m truly impressed. No matter what the police said or how loudly they shouted at her, she stayed completely silent and motionless.”
One Can Only Walk on the Path Arranged by Master Through Solid Cultivation
When I was unexpectedly placed in solitary confinement in a dark, terrifying cell, unable to see or talk with any fellow practitioners, and under extreme pressure, it would have been very hard for me to pull through without Master’s protection and my solid cultivation based on the Fa principles. I was locked up in such horrible conditions for over 100 days.
I remember one day the team leader came to me with a few police officers and said, “Get your things together, you are moving to an A Cell.”
I proclaimed to the team leader, “I’ll never be transformed!” She knew I wouldn’t, and said to the others, “She’s got a head as hard as granite. There is nothing we can do with her.”
They later moved me out of the terrible solitary confinement cell. Although they still arranged for a baojia to watch me closely, I was free to walk in and out of the cell, and it was much more convenient for me to use the washroom and the toilet, and to buy the daily necessities I needed.
A transformed practitioner once came to me, lifted the hem of her shirt, and pretended to ask me to help untie a knot in her belt. While I pretended to help, she whispered, “My term is up and I’m going home tomorrow.” She also told me to be careful about something in the labor camp.
When I saw her heading to the washroom, I followed her and quickly said before the baojia caught up with me, “Please read Master’s new articles when you are back home.” She stared at me blankly, then nodded slightly.
Afterword
Before I was released, three police officers warned me in different ways that once I was back home, the local police would keep me under even closer surveillance because the 610 Office knew I refused to be transformed.
The labor camp originally planned to extend my term or send me to a brainwashing center, but in the end they decided to let me go home and to tighten their monitoring of me.
One police officer showed some sympathy when my mother passed away, which made me feel that even though they had participated in the persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners, some still had a conscience.
My mother was devastated when I was sent to a forced labor camp. At the time, she was terminally ill with cancer and had no one to care for her. Before I was released, she passed away without ever seeing me leave the labor camp. I had thus lost the last member of my family.
At times, I felt deep pain in my heart and found cultivation incredibly difficult. But no matter how difficult or painful it was, I never gave up cultivation and kept going forward.
I deeply feel the seriousness of Dafa cultivation, and I know that I must cultivate my heart solidly based on my rational understanding of the Fa principles.
I feel that as long as we understand the Fa principles based on the Fa and focus on truly cultivating our xinxing solidly, we will be able to break free from the old forces’ arrangements and interference, and walk firmly, step by step, on the path arranged by Master.
The path is narrow and full of difficulties. The only way to make it through is to cultivate steadily and diligently. There is simply no other choice.
(Selected submission for the 23nd China Fa Conference on Minghui.org)
