(Clearwisdom.net) March 4th of this year was the one-year anniversary of when Dafa practitioner, Mr. Li Zhongmin passed away. Over a year ago, Dafa practitioner Li Zhongmin was brutally tortured in Dabei Prison in Shenyang City. He died from the persecution on March 4, 2003.
To commemorate him, I will share some stories about him during the Fa-rectification.
The first time I met Li Zhongmin was at an experience-sharing conference in the house of a practitioner in March 2000. Li Zhongmin shared his several experiences of hanging Falun Dafa banners in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. His speech was not long but very uplifting. He left me with an impression of his firmness and trustworthiness.
In the later half of 2000, I started to frequently contact Li Zhongmin regarding Fa-rectification activities. At that time, he voluntarily took responsibility of coordinating the work among Dalian, Jinzhou, developing districts, and Wafangdian, among other areas. He gave up his job in a foreign company in the developing district and merged himself, heart and soul, into the work of Fa-rectification. To let more and more people know the truth of Falun Gong, he established many truth-clarification material resource sites in Dalian, Jinzhou, and developing districts. He worked day and night. At that time, the Fa-rectification work was done very successfully in Jinzhou. He helped to coordinate the work, led a group of Dafa practitioners from Jinzhou to Dalian, and took on the responsibility of printing truth-clarifying materials and VCDs. At the same time, the Fa-rectification work extended into rural areas. At that time, we felt the situation in Dalian was very good. We frequently organized large-scale activities to suffocate the evil. The police felt very helpless as a result of all our activities. They would often pay attention to one place but we would go to clarify the truth in other areas. We upgraded our levels and realms collectively. Many practitioners saved money from their food and daily consumption to make materials which explained the facts about the persecution of Falun Dafa. Most of the money was in the hands of Li Zhongmin. He never wasted a penny of it and only ate a simple meal of noodles in soy sauce.
He was very persistent. He worked from the time he got up in the morning to when he went to bed at night, never showing signs of fatigue. Most of the time, he went to bed past midnight and got up before three o'clock in the morning. He always completed his Fa-study and exercises while others were sleeping. He always sent forth righteous thoughts for 20 minutes. Because he walked out of labor camps openly and nobly, he angered the evil. He became a police target and a prominent name on the local most-wanted list. Despite the situation, he remained calm and tried to save as many sentient beings as possible. Even though we coordinated a large area, he was still responsible for specific tasks such as buying paper, consumables, and printing materials. He was always busy, upstairs and downstairs, inside and outside cars. Yet, he was still always cheerful.
As more and more Dafa practitioners stepped forward, more and more resource sites were created. In searching for practitioners to put in charge of truth material resource sites, he carefully considered each practitioner's cultivation path and status, their understanding of the Fa, and their extent of belief in Dafa and in Teacher. He said, "These things cannot be messy, otherwise, irreparable losses would be incurred for Dafa." His meticulousness and carefulness deeply touched me and helped me mature in that environment. When he saw my changes, he said cheerfully, "Your progress has been very fast. When I first met you, you had a lot of attachments. After all these tests, I feel that you have genuinely let go of many attachments." This 28-year-old young man displayed the caring, loving, and serene manner of a senior practitioner.
From the end of 2000 to 2001, Together with other practitioners, he saved many resource sites. Every time, he acted ahead of police and made their plans fail one after another. They knew that there was a Li Zhongmin in Dalian who was a pain in the neck, but they could not do anything to get at him. He could immediately reinstall the machines he saved from the police and put them to use in the Fa-rectification again. Thus, he avoided wasting a lot of money and protected a large number of practitioners. He constantly corrected his state of cultivation. In 2001, he proposed that we resume group Fa-study. He said that the people like us who were coordinating the work of Fa-rectification must ensure sufficient time to study the Fa, do the exercises, and send forth righteous thoughts. We must often discuss and exchange experiences with other practitioners and adjust any unrighteous environment. We could not let the evil take advantage of our loopholes. Although the group Fa-study was unable to continue under the brutal situation at that time, his solid confidence in Teacher and Dafa touched me greatly.
At the beginning of 2002, he proposed that we establish a holiday to celebrate the spread of Falun Dafa in Dalian City. He said, "We Dalian practitioners received Teacher's favor and protection multiple times. Teacher taught the Fa here twice and held Fa-reporting conferences here three times. We should have our own holiday for the Falun Dafa practitioners in Dalian City." After a lot of discussion, we designated January 9 of each year as Dalian's "Falun Dafa Day." He put forth a lot of effort to celebrate this event. He bought over 50 meters of yellow fabric and made four large banners to tell Dalian residents the magnificence and dignity of this day. On the eve of the holiday, he went to Dalian's Woerma Square to fill up helium balloons and to the highways in the northeast and the developing district, which are where the gates to Dalian City are, to hang up the large banners to appeal on behalf of Falun Dafa. Those actions greatly shocked the evil. There were other reasons behind the police's anger too. Exasperated, the police utilized all the resources and staff from national security organizations, mobilized large batches of police from the 15 police stations in Zhongshan District, and established a "special missions team" that utilized high-tech espionage equipment. Under directions from "higher ups," this special missions team arrested Li Zhongmin after one month of comprehensive tracking and positioning.
In the basement of the Zhongshan sub-bureau of the Dalian City police department, police tortured Li Zhongmin with various brutal methods. They locked up Li Zhongmin in a room that was as hot as an oven for seven days and nights. This "oven" was completely isolated from the outside and was very hot, so hot that a pan of water poured over the floor would evaporate in a short while. In addition, police hung Li Zhongmin up by the frame of a window and made him suffer immensely. To protest the brutal torture, he started a hunger strike for seven days and nights. He was force-fed brutally. He loudly recited Teacher's articles from memory His determined spirit made the police on the scene feel chills and it filled kindhearted people with respect. After an interrogation lasting seven days and nights, police did not get anything from him. In the end, the police fabricated a "confession" as evidence to put him on trial. In the court, the "prosecutors" had to admit, "the confession does not have Li Zhongmin's signature."
In the court, a female practitioner, Li Zhongmin, and other practitioners inside and outside the court sent forth righteous thoughts. At a critical moment in the "trial," the electricity went out and computers died. The trial had to be suspended. The evil prosecutor's words did not make sense and their minds were unclear. They were laughed at by the hundreds of people present in the court. When the prosecution presented the evidence, they held up the banners that Li Zhongmin made, bringing forth laughter from the audience as they were unintentially promoting the facts about Falun Gong. To present more evidence, the prosecution held a truth-clarifying flyer and read aloud, 'Falun Dafa is spreading...,' " causing another round of laughter. Then, the person holding the evidence suddenly fell down to the ground. The audience started to laugh and chatter. The court was in complete disorder and the "trial" had to be called off.
After another 47 days, police fabricated video footage to be used as evidence for sentencing Li Zhongmin. They adopted a secret trial and sentenced Li Zhongmin to 15 years in prison.
Whenever the reason for his arrest was mentioned, Li Zhongmin would feel regret. He looked inside himself and said that he had the "attachment of getting things done," without using wisdom and reason to validate the Fa, and thus, he fell into the den of evil. He regretted that he did not do well in his duties during the Fa-rectification period.
He went on a hunger strike for over 100 days in a detention center. Two months later, police sent him to Dabei Prison of Shenyang City. I never saw Li Zhongmin again.
March 2, 2004