Ms. Chen Zixiu Died from Torture --- Testimony by a Falun Gong Practitioner from Weifang City

My name is Yingxia, a Falun Dafa practitioner from Weifang City of Shandong Province. As a citizen of the People's Republic of China, I would like to tell the world the inhumane treatments I have suffered and witnessed.

I went to Beijing twice to appeal for Falun Gong respectively on July 20th and in last November. In last November, my husband (Song Weixing) and I went to Beijing for the second time. We got arrested in a hotel in Beijing before we could appeal. The police arrested us just because we gave them an affirm answer when they asked us "Are you Falun Gong practitioners?" Later we were charged with the crime of "sabotaging the implementation of laws". I could not understand that charge. What had I sabotaged? Couldn't a Falun Gong practitioner go to Beijing? Couldn't a Falun Gong practitioner get accommodation in a hotel? Was being in Beijing regarded as a crime? As a human, I lost the right of being a human.

I was given criminal detention. During the detention, six of us practiced Falun Gong exercises together. Because of that, we were chained with big fetters of tens of pounds, which, we heard afterwards, were used on criminals to receive death penalty. They chained my two feet together and then chained one of my hands with the feet, which made me only able to pace forward little by little. Once in toilet, I nearly fainted with spasm of inside muscles of the legs. When sleeping at night, I felt unease no matter in what position, sitting or lying down. Facing the four empty walls of the jail, I was perplexed. Our teacher Li taught us to be a good person, to be a better person and to always be considerate for others. I had a happy family and behaved myself as a good person. I had never thought even in a dream that I would be in such a place, a place that was used for holding bad people, and chained with the big fetter that was used for criminals to receive death penalty. How dreadful! I had been chained like that for about 30 hours. There was great pain in the bones of my whole body. The pain in my waist and back was especially unbearable. I did not want to be there, I wanted to go home, but I was not allowed.

Then I was transferred to Han-ting for further detention. Because we practiced the exercises there, I and Ma Yan, a practitioner from Changyi, were hung up on the door with hands handcuffed together for 12 hours. We were not allowed to have foods or drink water, not allowed to go to toilet. We were not untied until we were fainted. On the next day, we were hung up for 14 hours. Ma Yan's legs swelled. On the third day, we were hung up for half of a day. They even confiscated our food bowls, saying that they would rather feed a dog than us. We did not have any food for about four days. I was very hungry and dreamed of having plenty of tasty foods. Later they gave us food. Two days later, my stomach began to ache and I vomited whatever I ate, then I did not have any food again for another four days. During the 21 days of detention in Han-ting, I did not have any food for 8 days. I survived by sheer luck. I knew they were breaking the laws while implementing the laws. However, I don't know whom I should appeal to for the injustice against me.

After I was released on December 28th, I was arrested again because of continuing to practice Falun Gong. Because it was the second time that I was detained there, they ridiculed, cursed and humiliated me. Everyday I suffered mental and physical tortures... But they were not worth mentioning. What was most unforgettable and terrifying was yet to come.

On the afternoon of January 24th, Song Weixing, Pu Yu, Xu Chuanfang and I were officially "released" from the detention center. But actually, the police van took us to a secret place to attend the so-called "Falun Gong Transformation and Education Class" held by the Chengguan Street Office. On the road, they asked us, "Will you practice Falun Gong again?" We answered, "Yes. It's so good a practice, how could we stop practicing it?" They said with a strange voice, "After a while, we'll let you know whether you would practice it or not." I didn't pay attention to their intention because I was very naive. I thought I was released. I had not seen my children for a long time. I should go home to see my parents, parents-in-law... I thought of piles of things. I had a look at my husband, Song Weixing, sitting beside me. He looked very tired and drained, and had dark rings around his eyes, which apparently were caused by beating. I felt sad and didn't speak to him. It seemed that he had got the implications of the words. But I was very happy, I was still talking about the book of "Zhuan Falun" (the main text of Falun Dafa) and how teacher Li taught us to be good persons, to say true words, and to be compassionate to others.

However, they did not take us to home, instead, they took us to a strange place, which was like a residence building. I was really unwilling to go into the building. I felt a bit fearful in heart, I didn't know why; I just felt it was gruesome.

This was on the ground floor. When we entered the room, Song Weixing was led to the kitchen; I, Puyu and Xu were led to a storage room in the courtyard. Through our door, we could see what happened in the room opposite. Soon they ordered Song to come over and demanded that he pledged not to practice Falun Gong and asked him to swear at Teacher Li. Then we heard noises of beating and snapping and cracking. Everyone in that room took part in the beating. After a long period of beating, Song said that he would not practice anymore. But they still would not stop beating him and kept on beating him until they were tired. Then they let him go.

Then a person came to our room. I took a look at the few people with me. Pu Yu was still a kid, 22 years old. Xu Chuanfang is a lady in 50s. I realized there was no way for me to escape the torture. I then mustered my courage and stepped out of the door as soon as they opened it.

After I entered that room, I saw a fat person. Later, I knew he was called Liu. Officer Liu roared to me, "Sit on the ground." He stepped on my feet and asked me whether I would continue to practice Falun Gong or not. I said that I would. Then, he started to shock my head using the electric baton. My head then felt like being cut by tens of thousands of knives. I could not stand that pain and started to scream. Four of them tortured me together. Some beat me up using leather batons, some kicked me and punched me. I lied on the ground and trembled because of the electric shocks and beatings. They still did not stop torturing me. I started to lose consciousness. The lady named Deng Ping dragged me from the ground and beat me up. I was scared to death. Officer Liu asked me to take off my shoes and he used the leather shoes to strike my feet. I could not stand the torture longer, and said that I would not practice Falun Gong anymore.

Later, Pu Yu and Xu all suffered the torture. I thought of fascists. They were committing sins by torturing good people like that!

Afterwards, they beat us again and forced each of us to give them 2,000 Yuan. If we didn't give them the money, they would torture us by electric shocks everyday. They would not give us any food. I got afraid. I wanted to leave there as soon as possible, left this hell. But we had no money. My husband and I would have to pay 4,000 Yuan, what should we do? I almost begged to them, "Our house is rented, you can take anything you want in our house. Please let us go." They became more rampant and said, "You two poor wretches, what do you have? Either antique or gold is good. Do you have them?" I realized that they were the same as those robbers. Later on, I knew they had searched my house, but couldn't find one cent. They forced my parents-in-law to send all our belongings to their homes. Even they themselves said that, "The police and the robbers are from the same family." That's true!

I had no choice. I wanted to borrow money from fellow practitioners, but I was afraid that would get them into trouble. I asked them, "May I borrow money from other practitioners?' They were very happy after hearing this and said, "We don't care who you are going to borrow from, as long as you can get the money." Secretary Gao laughed loudly after he got the money. His laugh was so scary. It was really like a monster in hell! I wished to leave there as soon as possible. However, they asked me to write a pledge that I would not practice Falun Gong anymore and that I have "not" been tortured here and that they have been really "nice" to me. I was really unwilling to write that fake pledge, but I was so frightened, then I wrote. They still said that it wasn't good enough. I would need to go back again to attend the "education class" after the Chinese New Year.

What I experienced during this period I can never forget. But these people who tortured us were praised by their supervisors because they did a good job in "transforming" us. At the same time they collected money from us. Therefore, they became more daredevil and aggravated; they feared nothing and made the situation even worse and more hopeless.

On February 18th, another practitioner was brought here, her name was Chen Zixiu. Officer Liu asked me to talk to her. She was about 60, kind and healthy. I talked a few words to her. She said she kind of knew me. Next, they started to torture Ms. Chen Zixiu, while Xu Chuanfang, Wei Dehui, Ding Youlan and I were in another room. Hearing that she was beaten, my heart was also suffering, my mind was almost collapsed. On the second day, she still said that she would continue to practice Falun Gong, and they tortured her again. I was punished one day because I tried to give her a few pieces of salted vegetable (she couldn't eat anything for those two days). Secretary Gao asked officer Liu to beat me up. I became afraid again. That day Ms. Chen Zixiu was tortured by electric shocks and beaten up. She was in such a great pain that she screamed "mother" for the whole night. Her voice was so heartbreaking. The next day, Officer Liu even cruelly forced her to run. I saw her crawling painstakingly out of the room through the window. That day she vomited whatever she ate. Officer Liu asked me to carry her to another room. Pu Yu and I had slept in that room for 8 days and the quilts were frozen up because of our own breathing. The room was too cold for Ms. Chen Zhixiu, who was about 60, and who had been tortured for two days and run for a whole day barefooted. I got my degree in medicine science. I found that she was dying and then I carried her on my back to another room. Officer Liu asked practitioner Yu Chuanfang and me to help her take 5 tablets of medicine. Officer Liu said it was "San-Qi-Pian", medicine for injury. However, Ms. Chen was unable to take these tablets and disgorged them. I reminded them, "You'd better send her to hospital." At that time, Ms. Chen was already in a coma. Officer Deng Ping pushed me away and said, "It is not your business. She is just pretending!" Practitioner Wei and I asked Ms. Chen if she wanted to have some water. She couldn't speak, only nodded her head. When I took off her trousers, I saw all her buttocks were black, which was very frightening. Officer Deng Ping asked her to show her tongue when feeding her with water, and asked if it was okay now. I guessed that her mouth was tortured with electric shocks. Then, officer Deng Ping asked practitioner Wei to look at Ms. Chen's head; her head was injured too. After a while they got a doctor to see Ms. Chen. Officer Liu said, "No problem, her heart, blood pressure are all normal, no need to worry." I was thinking, her health must have been extremely good, but she was beaten to such a stage. Afterwards, they ordered me, practitioner Wei and practitioner Xu to move Ms. Chen to our room and take care of her. She was unconscious all the time, had no word to say, vomiting a kind of black-coffee-colored mucus, which might be caused by internal injuries. The next day, officer Liu touched Ms. Chen's pulse and he became worried. Officer Liu instantly made a phone call. Secretary Gao came in immediately. Officer Liu even swung Chen's arm and said, "All over! She is dead." A lady doctor came soon after. We went to another room, but we could hear the doctor said, "She is dying." Therefore, they called the ambulance of the People's Hospital for the emergency treatment. When I tidied Ms. Chen's bed, I saw a watered piece of the urine, I knew it was "urine incontinence"; it was hopeless to save her life. Later I heard that the legal medical expert identified her as "having died of a heart attack". It's too ridiculous!

On the second day, they suddenly went to a new place, from the ground floor to the third floor and hid away the electric battens and rubber battens. The police who came to investigate always asked irrelevant questions and did not mention at all about the beatings. I knew that they were trying to cover up.

On the third day, they claimed that they would free us and somebody would come to pick us up in a moment. The four of us felt something wrong. As we were the witnesses, they probably intended to eliminate us as well. The four of us were determined to stick together alive or dead. Many of them came. They first took practitioners Ding and Xu to another room. Then two big men dragged practitioner Wei by force. Wei resisted. Then some came to drag me. I was terrified and said: "We demand to go home on our own, don't corner me, one person has already died, it wouldn't make much difference to have a second, right?" Then I dived towards a wall. When I woke up, I found myself on the floor of a wet and cold room. I decided to resist till death. If I was not released, I would fast to death, and I would not want to stay there any longer. I didn't know how they would handle me. I had been illegally detained for over a month. My children wanted their mother, and my aged parents and parents-in-law were waiting for me to go home. But they still kept me in detention. I didn't know what would be my fate. I heard that another fellow practitioner was cornered and driven to jump out of a building and broke her bones. Her husband intended to bring this to court. My father also intended to take my case to a court.

The sufferings of these practitioners have made many people sad and angry. Injustice to one is injustice to all.

[Translated from the Chinese original on March 5, 2000]