As the Chinese government began its persecution and slanderous campaign against Dafa in July 1999, my parents joined a few other practitioners on a trip to Beijing to speak the truth and to appeal to the government. However, they were detected and stopped by the police 30 kilometres before their destination. At the time, they were not very sure of what they should do and therefore did not try to get away by using their judgment. All of them were sent to the Guan Police Station where they were detained for a few hours. Due to the intervention of our county government, they were supposed to be released. Instead, the police tricked them into a re-education centre by saying that the officers were sending them home. There, my parents and the other practitioners were denied food for two days and one night. A 70-year-old practitioner was tormented to such an extent that he coughed continuously and could not even speak. After another night, all these practitioners were transferred to and detained in the detention centre of the county. There they were given some food. After that, my parents and the other practitioners were treated very inhumanely and were interrogated many times. But they all stood up for Dafa and insisted that they voluntarily planned the trip to Beijing to exercise their rights as citizens, and that their journey was strictly their own decision. My parents refused, outright, to sign the "guarantee statement," totally ignoring the tactics used by the police who were utilizing force and bribes. The police officers ended up having to sign the statement themselves in order to fool their supervisors.
On one occasion, the police ransacked our home. While doing that, they blamed Dafa and hypocritically asked us children not to worry about what was happening. When we responded to them with the truth of Dafa, they were speechless and vehemently issued threats before leaving us.
While my parents and the other practitioners were detained, we were left alone at home with nobody to take care of us. My grandfather's illness came back and my grandmother cried all day long. My neighbour, also a child, collected wild plants from the fields and cooked them for food.
While my parents were detained, my extended family members (who are not practitioners) were full of anxiety. They bribed the police with gifts, beverages, and health food. But the police wanted much more. Initially, they asked for 6,000 Yuan (approximately one year's salary for an average urban worker), but reduced this to 2,700 Yuan after some negotiation. My parents were released after the money was paid.
But things did not stop there. On their way to Beijing, my parents had rented a car and had the owner drive. That man was detained as an accomplice. They fined the man 1,000 Yuan, then drove his car around and eventually damaged it. My parents, as a result, had to pay for the fine and the repairs to the car, a total of 40,000 Yuan.
We have been subject to all these sufferings due to Jiang Zemin's persecution.
