Lili Feng, San Diego

March 2000

Charged, arrested, and jailed for the "disruption of social order" by chatting with friends in a private home? This may be a stretch of the imagination for Americans, but it happened to me: I was jailed in Shenzhen, China for 13 days, slept on a cement floor, and was forced to assemble hair brushes for export to the US, all because I am a Falun Gong practitioner.

I am an assistant professor at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. On December 10, 1999, I went to Hong Kong to attend an Experience Sharing Conference of Falun Gong Practice and to visit my parents in Jiangxi Province afterwards. It would be my first trip to my hometown in eleven years since I came to the US. On December 13, I went from Hong Kong to Shenzhen to purchase domestic flight tickets, and stayed at a friend's home to wait for my flight on December 15. My friend, Mr. Chan, is a Hong Kong businessman and a Falun Gong practitioner. It is only natural for people with similar interests to get together, so some local Falun Gong practitioners whom Mr. Chan has known came to visit us on December 14. We talked about the benefits and experiences of our Falun Gong practices. My friends also asked me questions about applying for graduate study programs in the US. All this happened at Mr. Chan's private home and before 11:00 p.m. At around 1:00 a.m. on December 15, local policemen awakened us, entering the house without a warrant, and took us for interrogation. Two other practitioners from northern California, Ms. Chen Zhao and Mr. Yun Huang, and a Hong Kong practitioner, Ms. Ren, were also rounded up at about the same time. We were released at dawn, but were arrested again in the afternoon when we came back for our travel documents, and handed a 15-day "administrative detention" for "disruption of the social order".

The second arrest was apparently more serious than the first one. I was suspected of "conspiracy of external and internal forces against the government" and questioned for contacts and plots. Apparently, my articles and poems on Falun Gong confiscated by the police during our first arrest made them feel that I could be a dangerous person. At this point, I realized that my local friends could be endangered and therefore claimed that I was the one responsible for calling local people to meet with me. Meanwhile, I insisted that I was not even trying to make a public statement, and asked how could I disrupt the social order at a private home. They did not get anything from me, but I could not get any justification for the detention either. At the end of the day, the three from California were thrown in jail, and the two from Hong Kong were expelled.

The jail in China is nothing that an American can imagine. The moment you are arrested, you lose every right, and practically disappear from the world. I was not allowed to contact anyone, by phone or by mail. My husband, after being informed of the news by Mr. Chan, called from San Diego to find out which detention center I was in. He was promptly told that criminals cannot receive phone calls; when he explained that he was trying to locate his wife, he was told to come in person. During the next few days, he contacted the American General Consulate in Guangzhou, his friends in Shenzhen, and local Falun Gong practitioners, to ask for help in locating me. No one could find out, and all were given the runaround by the police. At one point, he was even told that I was released to the American Embassy in China. It was not until a reporter from San Diego Union-Tribune, Ms. Angela Lau, persevered through the runaround with the Shenzhen police that my location was found.

Being cut off from the world was only a small part of the hardship. Since I was not at all prepared to be arrested again, I did not take any extra clothes with me. Two days after my arrest, Shenzhen was hit by the coldest weather in this century. Sleeping on the cement floor, I could hear the cold wind howling through the prison wall. Worse yet, we were not allowed to wear shoes. As a result, my feet became badly chapped, and I still have a deep sore on one foot that has not yet healed. We were also forced to labor from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. everyday, making hair brushes or shoes for export to the US. After I came back to the US, some people asked me what if someone refused to work. Refuse? I witnessed a girl being beaten up really good for that. An inmate recalled that some slow inmates were beaten up badly and needled in private parts (so they cannot show others). Fortunately, I was able to study and improve the assembly process and prevent more inmates from being beaten for slow work. The forced labor was confirmed by a reporter who called the detention center.

It is in this inhuman environment that I witnessed the amazing power of Falun Gong in the salvation of peoples' minds and bodies. Of the 38 inmates in the cell I was in, most were prostitutes, drug addicts, or both. Some of them were forced into prostitution by their husbands or families. It is when you are there that you realize so-called economic development benefits are enjoyed by the privileged few at the expense of the disadvantaged majority. . Life has been so harsh on them that they had an absolute negative view about life. However, somehow they know Falun Gong practitioners are good people. The first night Ms. Zhao and I walked in the cells, they jumped in excitement: "Hey, Falun Gong!" and stayed up that night listening to our stories of practicing Falun Gong. I was given the name "Falun Gong 21" because I was the 22nd (there was a "Falun Gong 0") to have been detained in that cell (You can imagine how many Falun Gong practitioners have been detained in thousands of Chinese jails). During the next 13 days, Ms. Zhao and I converted most, if not all, of our inmates into Falun Gong practitioners. Fighting, beating and abuse were reduced, and by the time we were released, the three cell-heads, the most powerful and vicious inmates, announced that they were going to adopt Falun Gong's principle of "Truth-Benevolence-Forbearance" to run the cell. A 19-year old girl promised to me: "Professor, I will never sell my body once I get out. The next time I am in jail, it will be for Falun Gong." Her statement silenced the whole cell and moved me to tears. Another prostitute who became a Falun Gong practitioner told me that she would go to Beijing after she is released to tell the government that Falun Gong saved her. There was an inmate who had a three-day overlap with me in the cell. At the time of her release, she begged the police: "Can I stay for a few more days? I want to learn more about Falun Gong." When we first met, she was talking about taking revenge against her neighbors, but told me that she would never do a bad thing after learning Falun Gong. Even a lot of the police there turned sympathetic to Falun Gong.

I was released on the 13th day of my detention. The police refused to give me a reason for my arrest, but they hinted at the reason for my early release. I was told that there were dozens of phone calls everyday from different news media around the world. After I arrived in Hong Kong, I learned that my husband, my fellow practitioners, friends, colleagues, The Scripps Research Institute, world news media, Senator Dianne Feinstein, the State Department, and many San Diegans that I do not know have worked tirelessly for my rescue. It is the love, attention, support and pressure from these people that have won my safe return.

My experience in China is by no means unusual. In fact, compared to others, I was treated well. Falun Gong is simply a popular movement of mental and physical cultivation. The spiritual practice and study we do is no different from the Bible studies and church activities of millions of ordinary Americans, and the meditation exercise we do is no more vigorous than jogging, aerobics or other physical exercises millions of ordinary Americans do. Yet in China, millions of Falun Gong practitioners are stripped of their rights to a peaceful mind and a healthy body, tens of thousands of them are being jailed for their faith, some forced to divorce, some sexually abused, and some tortured to death. What is happening in China is beyond the violation of human rights, it is a violation against the most basic human existence. Here I would like to ask you to give the same love, attention, and support that you have given me to the innocent Falun Gong practitioners in China.

[The article was published on San Diego Union-Tribune.]