Bai Lili, Beijing

November 1999

On October 25, 1999, I went to the Central Committee and State Council Appealing office to appeal for Falun Dafa. After I entered the office, a police officer asked me to register. Then another police officer took me to another room and said, "We are not officers of the appealing office. We are from Beijing police department. You can write down what you want to say and I will help you report it to the higher authorities." I immediately asked him, "Could you report it to President Jiang Zemin?" He repeated, "I will report it to the higher authorities." He gave me a form. I wrote down my three requests on the front of the paper, "1, rescind the arrest warrant for Mr. Li Hongzhi, and return innocence to him; 2, return innocence to Falun Dafa; 3, release all arrested and sentenced Falun Dafa practitioners."

On the back, I wrote the following letter to President Jiang Zemin.

"President Jiang Zemin,

The decisions of issuing an arrest warrant for Mr. Li Hongzhi and banning Falun Dafa are completely wrong. You, as the leader of a country, have violated the Chinese Constitution and violated human rights, in particular, the 18th article of the United Nations Universal Declaration of human rights, which holds that anyone has the freedom of thought and freedom of religious belief. You have treated millions of Falun Dafa practitioners as the enemies of the government, and have made practitioners all over the country suffer inhumane mistreatment. The situation is very urgent. Please be aware of it and do not commit any more wrongdoings.

Falun Dafa has helped me clean up my body without charging me a penny. With better health, I can better serve the country and people, and I have also saved a lot of money for the country in terms of medical expenses. Mr. Li teaches me to be a good person. He teaches me how to become a good person. Falun Dafa brings benefits to the country and to the people."

The police officer took the form away from my hands. At that time, officers from the local police station also rushed in. They took me to the police station. After being interrogated, signing my name and leaving my thumbprint, I was sent to the Dongcheng detention center. At first, they stripped off my clothes to search me, and they found two Falun Gong books Hong Yin (the collection of poems of Teacher Li) and Essentials for Further Advances (the collection of articles of Teacher Li). They put the two books on the windowsill. I immediately grabbed them tightly to my chest.

Then several police officers came over. Some dragged my arms and some dragged my hair. I told them, "I will die here if you seize my books." When a police officer wanted to confiscate my books, I calmly asked him whether I could exchange the books with my life. The police officer then said, "No more explanations. You may go back to the detention center." I said, "Thank you." After I went back to the detention center, the convicted criminals detained there read my books and they liked it very much. On that night when I was interrogated, the first thing I was ordered to do was to turn in the books. I told the police officer, "You can do whatever you want to me. But I cannot give you the books."

On the second day, the police officer again ordered me to turn in the books. I said, "No, I will not. Instead, you should give me all the books you have confiscated." He said, "What did you say?" I repeated, "Give me all the books that you confiscated before." The police officer stepped backwards and told another officer, "She is ordering us to give her all the books we confiscated. She has become our boss." Then he ordered me to stand facing the wall. Then other police officers started to yell at me. They wanted to torture me to force me to turn in the books. A police officer walked back and forth in front of me with a belt. I said smiling, "It is up to you."

Several police officers said that they must get the books before noon. They then came over. Some dragged my hair and some dragged my arms. They tied up my two feet and two arms. Then they pushed me onto the ground. They seized my books and tore them apart. I cried, "You are wrong. You should not have done that. This is a book teaching one to become a good person." They squeezed the pages of the books into my mouth. Then a police officer said, "Someone is coming. Drag her into the room soon!" They dragged me into the room, and covered my head with a quilt. I was almost choked to death.

In the afternoon, two police officers came to see me, for fear that I might do something extreme. One officer asked me, "Do you know me? I am the one who tore up your books." I told him, "I do not know such a person." Another officer said, "Can you see me? I do not know what is written in the books that could make you like this. I have confiscated many books. I can give you some books when you are released. Be sure to see me then." At that time, I felt very sad for not being able to protect the books and to stop the police officers from damaging the books. I told him: "After I am released, I will let you read whatever book you want to read, and I will tell you whatever you want to know about Falun Dafa."

In the detention center, if the officer who was interrogating me slandered Falun Dafa, I would tell him kindly that he could slander me, but he should not have slandered Falun Dafa. Whenever I heard an officer slandering Falun Dafa, I would tell him with a kind heart that it would do harm to himself and he should not do that anymore. Later when other police officers were about to slander Falun Dafa, that officer who had interrogated me would cover his mouth, saying that he dared not slander Falun Dafa anymore.

I stayed in the detention center for 6 days. I always defended, spread, and assimilated to Falun Dafa. I felt I improved very quickly. The criminals also saw the sincere hearts of Falun Dafa practitioners. They were moved by the fact that Falun Dafa practitioners were trying to be good people in any circumstances according to "truthfulness-benevolence-forbearance". Many of them wanted to read Falun Dafa books.