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TORONTO
(FDI) — The following story is true and every name is real. It is a story
about a successful businesswoman who was illegally imprisoned for nine
months in one of China’s most brutal labour camps — Wanjia. It is
a story of beatings and torture; of survival and perseverance: And it
is a testament to the power of her beliefs.
The
woman’s name is Yuzhi Wang. She is 47 years old. This is Ms. Wang’s
story…
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The
Early Years
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Yuzhi
Wang is a successful businesswoman who suffered
beatings and torture for nine months while imprisoned
in China’s notorious Wanjia Labour Camp simply
because she practices Falun Gong.
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My family came from the
city of Harbin. I was 15 when the Great Cultural Revolution swept through
China. My father was jailed for being an “anti-revolutionist” — Maoist
jargon for anyone with an education, owning lands or holding traditional
values — and my mother was left to take care of eight children, with
no source of income. Fortunately, two of my brothers were able to earn
enough money washing cloth by the banks of the Songhua River to keep the
family fed. My mother was too depressed and sick to cook, so I took over
the cooking for the family.
I used
to take meals to my father in prison, and can still remember seeing him
behind bars — dark and gaunt, but always passionate and positive. In
spite of the extreme difficulties in my life, I was always encouraged
by my father’s attitude.
In 1976
the “Gang of Four” was removed from power and life began to change. My
father was released from prison, and my two older boys were admitted to
university, along with my younger sister. I was left to provide for the
rest of the family, including my sick parents. I got a job making towel
tassels, and was so efficient at my work that I could earn 200 — 300
Yuan a month. This was enough money to provide food for the whole family,
and tuition for my younger brothers and sister.
My
Life Improves
In 1979,
life slowly started to change for me. I was working in an electronics
company, and the company decided to send me to university. After I graduated,
I went back to the factory to work as an engineer. In 1989 the company
went bankrupt and so my husband (who I’d met at university) and I
started up our own business importing office supplies. The business went
so well that the company profits continually doubled. My hardships were
finally over — I had a house, a car, a great business and a happy marriage.
I also
had a beautiful son.
By this
time, my family was doing well financially. My father had started his
own factory and went on to become one of China’s first millionaires.
Two of my brothers left China — one went to Philadelphia, and the other
to the Middle East. My mother moved to the United Arab Emirates with my
two younger sisters. All my brothers and sisters had prosperous businesses.
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Yuzhi
with her son, Pengpeng, in Shenzhen, China, 1998.
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Financially, life was
good.
My life
underwent another incredible change in 1998 when one of my customers handed
me a copy of China Falun Gong — the introductory text of Falun Gong (website).
When I first took the book, I had no idea how dramatically it would change
my life.
I began
practicing Falun Gong and started to notice huge changes in my life. For
years I had suffered from a debilitating illness that would occasionally
cause me to suddenly lose control in my legs, and make walking impossible.
I had visited countless doctors, both Chinese and western, but none of
them could pinpoint the cause of the illness. Three months after starting
Falun Gong, my illness totally disappeared.
I began
diligently studying the Falun Gong books, and did the Falun Gong exercises
with friends at a local park. In the process of practicing Falun Gong
I felt cleansed of many negative thoughts and emotions that I had collected
throughout my life. I felt my body and soul gradually become healthy and
harmonious like never before. My tiring life became happier and I was
finally at peace. I felt so lucky to be able to learn a Chinese exercise
and meditation practice that originated in the ancient traditions of my
country. In Chinese history every dynasty was built on and governed by
virtue and morality. The main focus in life was to think of others first
and always look inside to see where you could do better. The main goal
in life was to strengthen the spirit, to enlighten to truth and return
the body and mind to the original true essence. The profound principles
in Falun Gong empowered me to make purer choices in my life and helped
me to bring the principles of Truth Compassion and Tolerance into my family.
I feel I have truly found the meaning of my life and the answers to life’s
mysteries by practicing Falun Gong. For me, it brought together all of
the pieces of the puzzle.
Crackdown
on Falun Gong
Falun
Gong spread rapidly in China, and by 1999 statistics from China’s
Physical Education Bureau showed that there were
over 70 million people practicing Falun Gong. Jiang Zemin, the leader
of the Communist Party at that time, was threatened by both the sheer
numbers of people and their allegiance to something other than Communist
Party idealology. On July 20, 1999 he ordered a brutal crackdown on Falun
Gong (report).
Overnight, those 70 million people, including myself, became the “enemy
of the people” and “followers of an evil religion”.
My life
was about to take another dramatic turn — full of incredible hardships
that I could never have imagined.
As the
crackdown on Falun Gong continued, the media was saturated with lies and
propaganda. In order to justify the persecution, all kinds of bloody crimes
(immolation, suicide, homicide) were used to frame up Falun Gong practitioners.
The sensational propaganda demonizing Falun Gong permeated the entire
country. It was like reliving the Great Cultural Revolution — only worse.
Arrested
three times
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“Memories
of my father’s time in prison came back to me
like a bad dream. Here I was, 46 years old, being
jailed for my beliefs, just as he had been.”
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The sudden persecution
of Falun Gong stunned me and all my friends, and so I went to the local
Appeals Office — following the legal rights guaranteed by the Chinese
Constitution to register appeals with the government. But I quickly found
out that these rights no longer applied to Falun Gong practitioners. Ironically,
the Appeals Office became the detention centre, where all practitioners
who went to appeal against the vicious persecution were arrested instead.
I was arrested three times. The first time was in January 2000 in Beijing
— I was ordered to sign a pledge promising not to return to Beijing to
organize support for Falun Gong. I refused to sign it, so the guards ordered
other inmates to beat me. The second arrest was in July 2000, for photocopying
Falun Gong flyers. The police officers beat me repeatedly, trying
to find out whom the flyers were for. In spite of the vicious slander
against Falun Gong, I stood firmly by my beliefs and decided to help reveal
the facts of the persecution to people who had been deceived by the government’s
propaganda.
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“Falun
Gong practitioners were routinely beaten or whipped,
tied with ropes and hanged from the ceiling, given
electric shocks, forced to sit naked on iron chairs,
or raped by male criminals.”
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In October 2000 me and
a few other practitioners prepared over 100,000
leaflets explaining the truth about Falun Gong. With the help of other
practitioners, we distributed the leaflets throughout the entire Province.
People who had previously believed the propaganda suddenly understood
the facts of the persecution. Revealing the facts was what the authorities
feared most, particularly Luo Gan (the highest leader in the central government
in charge of the “6-10”
Office — a Gestapo-like entity of the government in charge of persecuting
Falun Gong). I was placed on the “most wanted list,” and my name and photo
were posted everywhere with a reward of 50,000 Yuan offered for information
leading to my arrest.
On July
16, 2001 I went to the bank to withdraw my money and was arrested for
the third time. The police confiscated US $50,000 from my savings and
froze my bank accounts. Memories of my father’s time in prison came
back to me like a bad dream. Here I was, 46 years old, being jailed for
my beliefs, just as he had been.
Wanjia
Forced Labour Camp
In November
2001, I was transferred from the Second Detention Centre to the Wanjia
Forced Labour Camp of Harbin — infamous for its brutality towards Falun
Gong practitioners. All practitioners detained in the detention centre
or the forced labour camp had to endure brainwashing. Every day, we had
to sit in one position and watch anti-Falun Gong propaganda on TV or listen
to the guards for over 8 hours. No one was allowed to move. Sometimes,
a brainwashing session would last for days and we weren’t allowed
to sleep the entire time. Often, we were not even allowed to use the toilet.
In addition to the intense brainwashing and sleep deprivation, Falun Gong
practitioners were routinely beaten or whipped, tied with ropes and hanged
from the ceiling, given electric shocks, forced to sit naked on iron chairs,
or raped by male criminals
Most
Falun Gong practitioners refused to give up their beliefs. Some of them,
including me, went on hunger strikes to protest our unlawful arrests and
the inhumane torture and persecution.
Brutal
Force-Feedings
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“My
mouth was filled with blood and my body was covered
in bruises after every force-feeding….
I
always knew that if I would simply write a letter
denouncing Falun Gong… I would be released immediately.”
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I vividly remember my
first hunger strike at the Harbin City Detention Centre. In order to
force feed me, the doctors at the Harbin City Detention Centre used
a metal clamp to pry open my teeth and then pushed a thick rubber tube
down to my stomach. My mouth was filled with blood and my body was covered
in bruises after every
force-feeding. Several people were there to beat and subdue me for
these
force-feedings. They would pour two big bowls of cold water mixed
with corn flour into me, saying that it was for ‘stretching the stomach’.
When I screamed, the police were afraid of others hearing me. They ordered
inmates to gag and beat me even more.
The
force-feeding at the Wanjia Forced Labour Camp was even more violent
and cruel. The doctors there used
force-feeding as a torture method and didn’t care whether practitioners
survived it or not.
Before
force-feeding me for the first time, I saw them grab a female Falun
Gong practitioner named Shang by the hair and knock her head against the
wall and floor. When she was finally unconscious, they forced the tube
into her nose to
force-feed her. There was no sterilization — they simply brushed
the tube around in a basin then forced it through her nose and down into
her stomach. Then they injected ground corn grain mixed with cold water.
After
they’d finished with her, the two prison doctors turned around and
looked at me. They stood there with their forceps and tools in their hands
and said, “You see that? You’re next.” After that, I was subjected
to this kind of
force-feeding every day in jail.
They
would beat us to the point where we were almost unconscious before tying
our arms and legs down and forcing the tubes through our noses and down
into our stomachs. We were tied up to prevent us from pulling the tubes
out because of the excruciating pain.
On one
occasion I witnessed a female practitioner named Minxia Guo being
force-fed. The nurses grabbed Minxia’s hair and pinched her face
and body. She was black and blue everywhere. Her whole body began to twitch.
When I condemned the guards and doctors for what they were doing, they
turned on me and beat me up as well.
One day
I heard the desperate cry of a man in the woman’s ward. It was the
husband of a Falun Gong practitioner named Yanhong Ding. He had begged
to be able to visit her, and when he finally was allowed to come in, they
force-fed her right in front of him. This man cried terribly while
his wife struggled in pain.
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“When
good men and women renounce their beliefs under pressure
from a dictatorship, something much greater than ourselves
dies.”
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I always knew that if
I would simply write a letter denouncing Falun Gong, denouncing its teachings
and promise to never practice again, I would be released immediately.
But if it is wrong to believe in ‘Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance,’
what hope does humanity have? This persecution was forcing people to choose
between their lives and their conscience. I knew that I was being forced
to make that choice, and I chose my conscience because I knew that when
good men and women renounce good, wholesome beliefs under pressure from
a dictatorship, something much greater than us dies.
Torture
at the Labour Camp Hospital
Due to
the filthy conditions in the labour camp, many practitioners developed
purulent scabies. They had pus cysts and blood all over their skin. The
worst ones were as big as a peach. During the day the sores were continually
discharging pus and mucus. During the night they became so itchy that
it was impossible to fall asleep.
Every
practitioner that developed scabies would be sent to the hospital run
by the forced labour camp — but it wasn’t for medical treatment.
When practitioners arrived at the hospital, they were dragged into a small
closed room, and forced onto the ground. The doctors would violently remove
their clothes, and use sharp steel knives or metal spoons to scratch the
pus cysts. They would scrape the spoons back and forth through the flesh
and blood, while the practitioner on the ground would be screaming in
pain. When they finished with the digging, they would force the practitioner
to stand against the wall so that they could clean the blood from their
bodies. The water from the faucets was not normal tap water; it was filthy,
freezing cold and full of rust.
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“The
guards told all the practitioners that if they were
beaten to death, it would be counted as a suicide
and their bodies would be cremated immediately.”
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I remember a new prison
doctor who came — a university graduate. Whenever he treated a practitioner,
he would follow the correct medical procedure to prick open and wash each
of the vesicles. When the chief of the Wanjia Hospital saw what he was
doing, he pushed the doctor aside, picked up a steel spoon and started
using the spoon to dig into the pus cysts.
This
kind of murderous “medical treatment” would be repeated every few days
along with daily beatings and
force-feeding through the nose.
Any
Practitioner Tortured to Death will be Counted as a Suicide
After
enduring such torture, many practitioners ended up on the verge of death.
I know of at least 8 Falun Gong practitioners who have been tortured to
death in Wanjia Forced Labour Camp since the persecution began. The guards
told all the practitioners that if they were beaten to death, it would
be counted as a suicide and their bodies would be cremated immediately
— before informing the families, so there would be no evidence of any
torture.
Although
I lived in this extreme horror every day, I was determined to survive
without compromising my beliefs.
A
Struggle to Let the Outside World Know About the Persecution
My husband
and children cried and begged the guards to be allowed to visit me on
many occasions, but to no avail. Family members of Falun Gong practitioners
were not allowed any visitation rights.
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Yuzhi’s
sisters seeing her off to Canada at the International
Airport of United Arab Emirates on November 10, 2002
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On one occasion during
my hunger strike, I was lying in bed in the Labour Camp Hospital. Through
the window by the side of the street, I could see my relatives standing
at the door, begging the guards to be allowed in.
On another
occasion, my two younger sisters came from overseas to visit me. They
stood at the door, crying and begging to be let in, and they refused to
leave. Suddenly it started raining. They covered their faces with their
raincoats and went straight past the security guard, and quickly ran inside
the hospital. By then I had been on hunger strike for over 50 days.
When
I saw them I somehow found the strength to get out of bed. I got outside
the door and grabbed the guardrail in the corridor with all my strength.
I stared at my two younger sisters. When my sisters saw how emaciated
I was, they began crying loudly in the corridor. I was crying too. I told
them, “You need to contact international organizations and let the world
know what is happening to me!”
In March,
2002, I started writing letters on tissue paper within the Labour Camp
to the Harbin Justice Bureau, the Harbin Public Security Department and
to the Province’s Public Security Ministry. The letters I wrote were
each five feet long. On several occasions they were almost taken away
by the warden.
The day
after I finished the letters some people from the Justice Bureau came
to inspect the labour camp. When they came to my ward I personally handed
the letters to them.
Finally
Released
After
nine months in prison, my health had deteriorated so much that I couldn’t
even stand up. My eyes and nose were festering with blood and pus from
the
force feedings and my eyesight was almost gone. My hunger strike lasted
more than 100 days. Towards the end of it, my nose was so swollen that
the doctors could no longer force a tube into it. I was on the verge of
death, and the doctors knew it. They called my relatives and gave them
the responsibility of nursing me back to health.
When
I was finally released in May 2002, I had been in jail for nine months.
Nine months that seemed like an eternity…I felt as though I had just
emerged from hell.
After
my release, I immediately began practicing the Falun Gong exercises again.
My body and eyes quickly recovered. When the police realized I was healthy
once again, they wanted to send my back to the labour camp.
In June
2002, to avoid further persecution, I went to visit my family in the United
Arab Emirates. On the way, I used every opportunity to tell the Chinese
people at the airports the truth about the persecution. Eventually, someone
from the Chinese Embassy saw me and persuaded the local police to arrest
me, telling them that I was a dangerous criminal. The Chinese Embassy
asked the United Arab Emirates to deport me back to China. Miraculously,
through around-the-clock efforts by Canadian Falun Gong practitioners
and the Canadian Government, I was given special permission to move to
Vancouver, Canada in November 2002, to be with my son.
The rescue
efforts of the Canadians probably saved my life.
What
I have been through in the past three years is a nightmare. Although the
nightmare is over for me, there are still hundreds of thousands of bloody
nightmares like mine on-going in China. I hope that by publishing my story,
I can help end these nightmares as well.
I attribute
my ability to survive the horrific torture to the principles of Falun
Gong: ‘Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance’ exist deep in my heart,
far beyond the reach of any electric baton, far beyond the reach of a
prison guard’s fist. Lies and slanderous propaganda dissolve when
faced with the truth. Brutality and torture is no match for compassion.
Violence and hatred cannot penetrate tolerance.
For nine
months, they tried to make me believe these principles are not true.
They
failed.
I feel
real freedom is not obtained externally, but internally within the realm
of ‘Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance.’ Even when faced with
extreme torture and persecution, true Falun Gong practitioners can withstand
the unimaginable — even to the end of their life — in order to defend
a common good greater than ourselves: the universal principles of ‘Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance.’
Yuzhi
Wang is currently living with her son in Vancouver with a Minister’s
Permit for Canada. She spends her time letting people know about the persecution
of Falun Gong in China.
At
the time of Ms. Wang’s release from Wanjia Labour Camp in May 2002,
reports had been verified by the Falun Dafa Information Center of eight
Falun Gong practitioners who had died inside the labour camp from severe
torture. Since her release, six more have been reported dead inside Wanjia
Labour Camp.
To
arrange an interview with Ms. Wang, please contact in Canada Cindy Gu
+1 647-999-8530 or Joel Chipkar +1 416-709-8678.
Posting date: 15/Feb/2003
Original article date: 14/Feb/2003
Category: World News
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