A Falun Dafa Practitioner’s Cultivation Story in the Field of Construction

(Minghui.org) The 7.3-magnitude earthquake in Taiwan this year killed only ten people. Buildings tilted over, but did not collapse. However, in Fuzhou City, in China, and far away from the epicenter, many people died, and buildings collapsed. In the 1976 Tangshan earthquake and the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China, which had similar magnitudes, tens of thousands of people died.

The massive destruction happened in China due to the consistent practice of fraud and cutting corners in the construction industry under the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) governance. As a Falun Dafa practitioner employed in construction, I would like to tell my story in the hope that everyone will have a correct view of Dafa.

There are a number of reasons for the poor construction quality in China. For example, in the case of reinforcing steel bars (rebar), the suppliers have connections. The total weight of the rebar should be calculated by multiplying the lengths by the number of bars. But if actually counted, the weight is 10% or more lighter than that stated on the materials list.

Usually, concrete strength should be measured using the sample of a test cement block, which must be witnessed by someone involved in project supervision. The construction company should pour the concrete block on-site and then send samples to a laboratory for testing. But often the project supervisors are bought off, so they do not witness the process. If the test piece doesn’t pass, the construction company will replace it until they find a “qualified” one. To put it bluntly, it is common for inspection data to be falsified. This is just the tip of the iceberg in China’s construction industry.

I study Falun Dafa and work hard. In China, most people know that the CCP is corrupt, but for many, it is hard to imagine to what extent.

A CCP official and his wife were involved in the selection process from three bidding companies. The first-place bidder had to pay them one-tenth of the winning bid that evening, otherwise, they would choose the second bidder the next day. The winning bidder then gives gifts to various management departments. All of these expenses will be added to the project’s cost. The project will be subcontracted out. The suppliers and contractors each have their own backers and will continue to subcontract the project, layer by layer. Some projects have four or five layers of subcontractors, leading to the fact that the actual funds left to complete the project may be inadequate.

CCP officials like to be part of large-scale infrastructure projects to enrich themselves, but they often lack funds. So they delay or even do not pay for the projects. They also like to show-off their achievements and arbitrarily shorten the construction timeline, making cutting corners and shoddy work commonplace. However, CCP officials implement a responsibility system to pass the blame to their subordinates and construction companies. Whoever discovers an issue and steps forward to solve the problem will have to face the consequences if anything goes wrong. So, many of them avoid bringing up any problems and pretend not to know about them.

I work for a company like this. The company has to pay bribes during the bidding process to win projects. When the project is won, the company director wants to squeeze the oil out of the mosquito’s legs, so to speak, and takes part of the funds for himself. Then he bribes the other companies involved. The left over funds are never enough, but he knows how to deal with that. He hires unskilled workers and uses substandard materials. For example, he’s supposed to buy 10 mm steel plate, but will instead purchase plate that is only 9 mm thick. The steel plates made from iron ore are expensive, so he purchases cheap steel plates from recycled scrap that have impurities. The thinner the anti-rust paint, the better it is for him. When that runs out he will replace it with ordinary paint. He also has his way of getting through the inspection process. He gives the supervisors red envelopes (bribe money), and thinks this is a sign of his ability and social standing.

According to the regulations, special operations personnel, such as scaffolders and lift workers, need an operating license. However, the reality is that most of the time, management staff take the licensing test, while migrant workers who are not regular employees do the actual work. The same is true for qualification certificates. For technical jobs such as welding, after the management staff takes the theoretical exam, they find someone to take the practical exam. So, most migrant workers in the company lack the required skills.

Danger Ignored: Cutting Corners

On a city water pipe project, to be selected as one of the National Civilized Cities, the city government ordered the project to be completed in a few days. The contractor actually quit the project under these circumstances, and my company’s leader asked us to rescue the project. Usually, the quality of this kind of project can not be guaranteed. On the last night, the two pipes were about to be connected, but the pipe lengths were off by several centimeters. Therefore the last section of pipe could only be assembled diagonally, and to save time the worker cut the pipe shorter, so there was a two to three centimeter gap between the weld joins. The workers put them together anyway to meet the deadline.

Also, the trench wall was in danger of collapsing, and it was almost impossible to finish it that night. It was difficult to guarantee the quality. When the team leader saw the situation, he was afraid of being held responsible, so he made excuses and left. We were the only ones left there. We had no auxiliary equipment except the welding machine and welding rods. We didn’t even have a lamp. The construction site was near a museum, and the foundation was all sand. If the welding was not done well, leaks could occur. If steel bars were stuffed into the welds to save time, in violation of regulations, or the weld was not thorough, the weld could easily crack. This situation has happened in other places. The leaking water slowly hollowed out the foundation, and the sidewalk above the pipe would look like videos on the Internet, where the road surface suddenly collapsed into a deep pit, and people fell into it.

I arranged for people to monitor the risk of collapse. For welds with large gaps, laying the base layer is the most difficult and slowest. I used a special method to quickly lay the base layer for the weld, and let others weld the filling layer. Finally, I welded the top layer to ensure it was watertight. It was completed on time overnight.

Another time, we tried to install a component that was dozens of meters long and weighed more than 100 tons. We discovered that the weldable section of the two most important cross-section wing plates were less than half of the original size. I asked the team leader how to deal with the situation. He said he would not deal with it, and left. The responsibility fell on my shoulders again.

Discovering a Way to Resolve the Issue

For a true Dafa practitioner, such irresponsible behavior is never an option. But, what was I to do? I thought there must be a way. It then occurred to me to cut an inlet hole in a certain place. That would allow the other half to be welded on. They didn’t even have the necessary cleaning equipment to ensure the welds were welded through. The inside of the groove was full of paint, and the paint on the other end was squeezed in and couldn’t be cleared out. If it had been welded, it would have made the weld seam prone to porosity and hydrogen embrittlement fracture. It could also lead to bad fusion. I took care of all those problems and made a perfect weld.

The workshop director was the vice president’s brother-in-law in the company where I worked. They formed a clique, and the production efficiency was low. The superiors did not dare to get rid of him, so they limited the number of people working for him or gave him certain production tasks to be completed on a specific timeline. I once saw him asking an apprentice to do a very important weld. The entire structure weighed more than 70 tons on that weld. Although this matter was not my responsibility, I told him it was unacceptable. He was angry and said the company director said it had to be completed today. He meant that no one but the apprentice was available to do the work. He meant that it was none of his business if something went wrong. In fact, he wanted to save trouble and didn’t want to hire other people. After my repeated persistence, he finally found a good welder.

There were several times that a very important beam was made of poor material, and the wrong welding order caused stress concentrations. If it cracked, the crack could expand and cause the entire structure to collapse. The potential consequences were very serious. The relevant personnel pretended not to know, because they all knew that whoever arranged the repairs would be held responsible if something went wrong in the end. I told all the relevant people that the beam was cracked, but they ignored me. Finally, I asked someone to dig it up, completely remove the cracked part, weld it, and relieve the stress.

A few years ago, the CCP boasted that making an aircraft carrier was as easy and fast as making dumplings. It usually takes eleven years to build an aircraft carrier in the US, while the CCP builds them in only two or three years. I think it is very likely that they do not follow correct procedures. For example, they divide it into several large components, build them separately, and assemble them together. If this is the case, and if the correct craftsmanship is not strictly enforced, such as voltage and current, welding sequence, various temperatures, etc., without having to withstand the external force or under even a small external force, the huge internal stress inside the steel plate will cause it to crack.

Another time, there was a shaft that was several dozen meters long. The installer made the mounting holes bigger than they should be. When it was used in the future, with several dozen tons of force, an error of a few tenths of a millimeter could turn into a curvature of two or three centimeters. The other party asked me for a solution. I overcame many difficulties and solved the problem. The other party was very happy. I am serious, responsible, and skilled, while those installers always spent a lot of time playing around.

The supervisor of a brand-name welding machine factory once told me about an incident. When constructing a high-rise building, the welders did not follow the welding process for high-strength steel bars. When the bars cracked after welding, the contractor used something to hang on top to block the project supervisor from seeing it.

In a large-volume concrete project, the formwork was bulging. So the concrete was pumped out, and the contractor covered it with a tarpaulin to prevent the supervisor from seeing it. The formwork was filled up again later. In fact, the supervisor knew about it, but pretended not to know.

Personal Responsibility: Whether a Job Is Done Well of Not

Falun Dafa is all about cultivating people’s hearts and minds. Whether a job is done well or not ultimately lies with the person. If people’s hearts do not change, they will still be the same when others cannot see it. No matter how you check, there are ways to cover things up, especially in relation to welding, as many things are difficult to see. For example, if we do not control the linear energy, interlayer temperature, or stress, etc., the surface of the weld may look good, but it will break as soon as it is put under stress, or can even break on its own. I have taught many apprentices but never accepted anything from them as gifts or bribes. I always observe them first, find those responsible, and then tell them that I have only one condition: Whether anyone knows it or not, they must ensure quality first at all times. If they agree, I will start teaching them.

Instead of mechanically ordering what they should do, I show them the principles graphically. For example, "Why can’t we weld from top to bottom?" I weld a few corners from top to bottom and then use a press to break them to show the pieces were not fused. In contrast, things welded correctly will not break under stress. The apprentices will then naturally follow the correct welding procedures.

They naturally don’t do the wrong things again from the bottom of their hearts, and I find that no more corrections are needed. I sometimes tell them stories, and they listen to them with great interest. I am not only a teacher who teaches them techniques but also a mentor in the workplace. In this way, the teaching goes well, and I also have a good relationship with them. I never need to worry about how to manage them. And I never have to worry about the quality of their work, as they are all very good.

Following the Appropriate Welding Process

Everything has its laws, and the same is true for welding. The CCP likes to fight against nature and ends up losing repeatedly. The CCP promotes aiming high and going all out, rejoicing in grandiose deeds, which often goes against the laws of nature. People in the welding and engineering circles all know this. However, the relevant leaders are often from administrative backgrounds. The non-specialists lead the experts. While accepting bribes, they need to cover their faces. It is difficult for a person with a conscience to gain a foothold in this environment. So everyone knows it, and they don’t care. A vice president had nominated me three times to manage quality, but the brother-in-law of another vice president said that if my quality was good, then the process would be slow. The vice president didn’t pursue his proposal. In fact, I have exceeded many production records by improving the process, some of which have not yet been broken.

There was one project where the job was not done well because the workers had poor skills and the management was not good. Many problems accumulated in the initial process, and people in the subsequent processes complained a lot. During the inspection, many problems were found. The deviation was nearly ten times greater than the specification, but no one was willing to take care of it. After I took over, I kept improving the process, and the efficiency increased by several times. The quality was excellent. I solved all of the problems that had accumulated in the past and dramatically reduced the workload of subsequent processes.

My supervisor, nicknamed “coward” by the workers, was very scheming and good at confusing right and wrong. He kept ostracizing me, making things difficult for me at every turn, and finding fault with me. The company director saw what was happening, and scolded him. When this supervisor was about to retire, the company director specially arranged for him to work with me, so I could get revenge on him for his mistreatment over the past ten years. I said, “No need to embarrass him.” The supervisor went to the workshop for a month to work on welding. He quietly left on the day he retired.

Since then, his attitude toward me has changed drastically. When those who excluded me for personal gain encounter difficulties at work, they come to me for advice, and I help them. The vice president’s brother-in-law ostracized me the most, and a few others felt uncomfortable when they saw me, but I treated them well all the same.

Let the World Witness the Beauty of Dafa

Most people admire me, as I am never indulgent with food or alcohol. Everyone knows that morality today is going downhill. Some of my colleagues are taking drugs or have even been detained for prostitution. However, they are labeled as outstanding Party members, and very few don’t bribe others. My conclusion is that different people have different ways of living. I understand in my heart that I am a Dafa practitioner, and I need to live a righteous lifestyle for future generations, and let the world witness the beauty of Dafa.