Li Fengqin, Beijing

March 2000

My name is Li Fengqin, and I am 46 years old. I used to work in the State Assets Management Division of Beijing Industrial University. From January 3 to January 12 of 1993, I attended Mr. Li Hongzhi's lectures on Falun Dafa in Beijing Nuclear Instrumentation Factory, and started my cultivation practice. I was dismissed from my work in September 1999 for refusing to give up my belief.

On the Lunar New Year's Eve, after I finished taking care of things at home, I took my camera with me and left home to take a few pictures (I used to be an amateur photographer).

I rode a bicycle to Tiananmen Square. Upon arrival, I was completely shocked by scenes in front of me: Falun Dafa disciples and plainclothes agents were all over the Square. Practitioners were unfurling eye-catching banners one after another. Right at 12 o'clock mid-night, practitioners unfurled a banner showing "The great law rectifies the human world" in the middle of the Square. It was held up for several minutes, and guarded by many practitioners. Meanwhile, plainclothes agents in the Square were like vicious wolves rushing very fast towards the practitioners who raised the banners to beat and kick them and force them into police vehicles by dragging them by the hair. Seeing this, I took out my camera and started taking pictures. Then I came to the east- end of the Square to continue taking pictures. At this moment, someone who seemed to be an officer shouted, "Catch the one who is taking pictures!" Then a herd of plainclothes raced like crazy toward me. Since they didn't know who was taking pictures, they ran right by me. In the end, one agent in plain clothes ran over and grabbed me, and asked, "Camera? Where's the camera? Turn in your camera." Then he asked me, "How many years have you practiced cultivation?" I told him, "7 years." Upon hearing this, he told the other party through walkie-talkie, "Detained here is one behind-the-scene who practiced Falun Gong for 7 years and was taking pictures." He then took me inside the Square to hand me over to another person (I wasn't sure if he was an officer). This person asked, "How many years have you attained Falun Dafa?" I answered him, "Seven years." Upon hearing this, he looked for two policemen and told them to send me to somewhere.

On the way, the two policemen's walkie-talkies kept buzzing, and someone was saying something to them. One of them told me, "Your 'rank' is pretty high, even our bureau chief knows about you." When approaching Tiananmen Branch Station, one young man blocked me and asked, "What's the matter?" Since I don't know who he is, I said, "Never mind. Never mind." Then one of the policemen asked this young man, "Do you practice Falun Gong?" That young man answered, "Yes." Right away, this policeman, using the "hooked fist" of boxing, fiercely struck at the young man's lower abdomen. He fell down to the ground right away. The policeman didn't feel he was beating him enough, so he kicked him with leather shoes. When the policeman thought that was enough, he then took me inside the Tiananmen Branch Station. He was stationed on the first floor, and I was taken to the third floor directly. On the third floor, I saw several practitioners who had raised banners. One of them that I know was Bai Lili of Dongcheng District. Then, we were interrogated separately until 12:30 AM.

One plain clothes who was in charge handed me over to another plain clothes policeman. In the first few minutes he was rather polite. But after a little while, my pager rang. I took it out, and it read, "How are things over there on your side?" Then the policeman snatched it away. After reading it, he went out. After a while, he came back, insisted in asking me who was paging me, and what was going on. He then asked if I had cellular phone with me, and asked me to show him my belongings. Then he asked, "Who sent you here?" I told him, "It's myself." He asked me to stand up and move the chair aside. I didn't know what he was going to do. He then asked me to stand in the middle of the room. Standing in front of me, he asked again, "Who sent you here?" I told him again, "It's myself." He slapped me on both sides of my face, and then asked, "Who sent you here?" I told him, "It's myself." He slapped me twice again and then asked again. This time, he not only slapped on my face, but also kicked my two legs with his foot in the heavy-duty leather shoes, mainly on my knees and shins. Thus, one question, one answer, one kick by his foot...

After a couple of hours of beating, he told me, "The relationship between me and you is the one between Nationalist Party and Liu Hulan [a young girl who was killed by Nationalist Party officers for refusing to betray her communist comrades -- by translator]. You are even less compliant than Liu Hulan." I told him, "The relationship between me and you is not the same as the relationship between nationalists and communists. It is the relationship between people and people's police." He then said to me, "Don't confront me so hard, otherwise it's you who will suffer." I told him, "I indeed came by myself, and no one sent me here."

He started beating and kicking me again. When it was getting to 3:00 AM as he was beating, the plain clothes who was in charge came in, and he told the policeman who had been beating me to send me to the cage downstairs. After his boss left, this policeman didn't want to give up, and continued to ask me, "Who sent you here?" I told him, "It's myself." He started beating me again. And I could hardly take it anymore. My entire face was out of shape and severely swollen. Clogged blood marked my face with streaks of blue and purple. Flesh on both sides of my mouth were squeezed in between my teeth upon being hit, and were bitten into small flesh tumors, and blood oozed out. I saw people beaten to bleed from the corner of the mouth in movies, but this time I got the real experience. However, the most severe part wasn't my face. Both my lower legs were swollen as big as my upper legs. Not only were they blue and purple, even the surface on them became uneven. Those places kicked more were dented, and there were wounds on the surface. My knees and their sides were completely blue and purple, and hurt extremely. Many areas on my legs had clogged blood.

Even though I was hurt like this, things were still not yet over. That policeman grabbed my clothes by hand, and holding his fist with his middle finger pointing to my throat he asked, "Who sent you here?" I answered, "Myself." Pulling me, he suddenly mustered the strength to stab on my throat with his fist by the middle finger. I felt as if something terrible was plugged into my throat. He stabbed over and over for 7 to 8 times. Later I heard from an orthopedic nurse who was detained together with me that an ordinary person would pass out after being stabbed like this for a dozen or so times.

After stabbing my throat, he started kicking and slapping me, and in the end I was beaten to crawl on the ground. He then kicked my spine with his leather shoes. At most he would let me rest for one minute, and would then say, "Rest enough? Stand up." After I stood up, he would resume kicking. This way, from midnight till 5:00 AM, he beat me for over 4 hours. When he saw that no answer could be extracted, he let me go downstairs. Walking one small step at a time, I went down from the third floor with great difficulty. I was sent to the iron cage where practitioners were locked up. I wasn't let in the cage but was held outside instead. I was asked to sit on a cushioned chair, which was next to a heating supply. At that time all practitioners in the cage were those who had unfurled banners in the Square. Many of them were from Beijing, and I knew some of them but they might not recognize me because my face was out of shape. They didn't know who I was till I called for one among them. Practitioners were feeling very sad when seeing that I was beaten like this. They were all anxious to give me water, food and candies.

At 3:00 PM, the policeman who beat me took me to the third floor, and started to interrogate me again. This time he didn't beat me, and also softened his tone. From the record of interrogation, I saw two signatures by police officers, and I remembered one of them: Li Zhong.

At 4:00 PM, I was taken back by the police officer from my residential area. When arriving at the station, I was immediately locked in an iron cage. In the cage, I felt extremely cold, so I removed my socks, and rubbed my feet with my palms. Once my feet got warm, I immediately put on socks, and then put shoes close to my mouth to blow warm air into them before putting them back on my feet. Sometime past 7:00 PM, two elderly ladies were brought in from Changping. One was 60 years old, and the other 68. The three of us were sent to a detention center after 11:00 PM. During the physical examination in the detention center, the doctor asked me, "Any external injuries?" I told him there were on my legs. He said let him take a look. So I took off my pants to let him examine. He was very surprised and asked, "What happened to your legs?!" I told him that was caused by police beating. He then said, "How come you were beaten like this?!" I didn't say anything. For some reason that I didn't know, after my physical examination, this doctor didn't perform examinations on other practitioners for a long time, although many were still waiting for examination outside.

Finally all the formalities were done, and we were sent to the female ward. A policewoman on duty asked, while looking at my face, "How come your face was beaten like this?" Since I had never seen my own face, I didn't know how it had become. She then said, "Look into the mirror by yourself." I turned around and took a look. I opened my mouth, and inside my mouth, it was all blue and purple. My face was swollen like a pumpkin, full of bruises in blue and purple. I told her that my legs were swollen even worse. She asked me to remove my pants for her to take a look. When she saw my legs, I could tell she was feeling very painful. She asked me, "You were beaten by police?" She then asked me, "When the police beat you, did you scream?" I said I didn't know how to scream.

Then I was sent to the cell. One of the two guards conducting the body search was also a practitioner. She felt very painful upon seeing me beaten like this. Since it was already 4:00 or 5:00 AM, she didn't wake up anyone. She took off her goose-down clothes to put it on me, and let me sit down on the ground against the wall. I fell asleep this way. In the morning, the head prisoner in the cell asked all new comers to register. Seeing my situation, she arranged for me to sit on the first row of wooden board. This way I could have my legs straightened up instead of bent over.

On February 23, I was set free, without any charges, together with two elderly ladies. It was the police from our local police station who took me out. At 4:30 PM, we were still locked in the iron cage before being released. Around 10:00 PM in the evening, the family members of the two elderly ladies took them home, and I was locked up for the whole night. Fortunately, the 68-year-old elderly lady left me her own cotton vest and cotton trousers before leaving. Otherwise I really don't know how I could have endured the chilly night. My legs and feet felt extremely cold. Coagulated blood on my legs was not diffused yet, and my feet were still black. I wasn't released till10:00 AM on the 24th. It took me two hours to get home, although normally it should take only about 20 minutes.