Australian Media: Falun Gong Practitioners Tell Their Persecution Experiences

(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioners Frank and Sam [they have asked to have only their new first names printed] had been detained, beaten and subjected to forced labor in China before they came to Australia in 2008.

They were persecuted in China for practicing Falun Gong.

According to West Australia newspaper The Sunday Times’ report published on October 5, 2013. Frank and Sam together with their fellow practitioner Dr. Albert Lin have been raising people’s awareness about the persecution of Falun Gong in China. They told their persecution experience.

The report stated that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started the persecution of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999.

“Frank was detained in 2001 for two years. He was forced to make cheap products, such as Christmas decorations and suits.

“To be sent to a labour camp, it does not need any judge or lawyers, they just have to say you are breaking these rules, you are damaging to society, you need to stay in labour camp,” Frank said.

“When he was not in a sweat shop, Frank said he was tortured. In one instance, police tied him to a chair and subjected him to electric shocks for hours.”

“One night fellow prisoners tied him to a bed and beat him until his arms were black and swollen.”

Sam is a chemical engineer, and his wife, an accountant.

The report stated, “In 2001, Sam was babysitting a friend’s children when he was arrested.

“At the police station, Sam was hung from a window frame, beaten and had ice poured down his pants.

“He was then put in detention for the next nine months where he made plastic flowers.

“Sam said he was never sent to a labour camp because the government wanted him to spy on his friends.”

Frank and Sam both said that Falun Gong practitioners in China are still being persecuted.

Dr Lin said he felt that he must speak out after it was revealed in 2006 that practitioners had their organs harvested when they were still alive.

The report stated, “To raise awareness of about the oppression of Falun Gong in China, Dr Lin has organised free screenings of two documentaries Free China and Transcending Fear at the State Library.”

Chinese version available

Category: Falun Dafa in the Media

Dark Secrets Behind Flashy Merchandise – Slave Labor Products by Sichuan Province Women’s Prison (Part 3)

October 17, 2013 | By a Falun Gong practitioner from Sichuan Province

(Minghui.org) (Continued from Part 2: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2013/10/11/142653.html )

Yue Embroidery

All the sketches shown in the photos are Yue embroidery designs.

Are these embroidery designs not pleasant to the eyes? Certainly, silk bed covers embroidered with these designs, using colorful silk threads, are appealing. At a bargain price, who wouldn’t buy them? After all, it is quite unlikely that anyone would even dream that behind these colorful products with their intricate designs are heartbreaking stories.

Additional patterns: http://pkg2.minghui.org/mh/2013/8/26/yue-xiu.zip

Seventy individual patterns are combined and embroidered on bedcovers by Falun Gong practitioners and other inmates. Yet, they are not paid.

For certain, these embroidered products are elegant and to be admired. However, before becoming delighted by the bargain price one should ask, “Under what circumstances were these products produced?”

Embroidered products are desirable if produced by a willing workforce, but for prisoners who are persecuted for their faith, producing these products is an agonizing process full of suffering. These prisoners are forced to produce large quantities and given a untenable quota. Besides there are deadlines that are very difficult to be met.

The workers are given the bare minimum of raw materials. Any faulty embroidery is cut off and redone. Anyone who doesn’t meet the deadline and quota is subjected to physical punishment and torture. Many relatively rich inmates are paying skilled inmates to do the work and in some cases they bribe prison guards to get a free pass.

When working on embroideries, inmates have to remain in a fixed position for a long period of time with no break. This is devastating to their health. In addition, they are allowed only a short time for eating and restroom visits. Besides, any time away from work has to be approved by a prison guards.

Producing these embroidered products is heartbreaking work. Sitting there and embroidering all day long is already difficult, but the worst is the fear that they may be punished if they don’t meet quotas and deadlines.

It is hard to imagine that these people have to work despite suffering back pain. Also, many develop poor eyesight due to the dim light in the workshop, which doesn’t get better when transferred to other jobs.

Chinese version available

Category: Accounts of Persecution

Laizhou 610 Office Persecutes Elderly Ms. Lu Aizhi

October 17, 2013 | By a Minghui correspondent from Shandong Province, China

(Minghui.org) On June 28, 2013, 70-year-old Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Lu Aizhi from Laizhou City, Yantai, Shandong Province, was arrested again at her home by the Laizhou City 610 Office. She was detained in a brainwashing center for 15 days.

Ms. Lu is a farmer from Laizhou City. After she started to cultivate Falun Gong in 1997, all her illnesses were cured and she greatly benefited both physically and mentally.

Since the Chinese regime launched a brutal persecution campaign against Falun Gong in 1999, Ms. Lu has been the target of frequent harassment and persecution by the Laizhou City 610 Office for not giving up the practice.

Previous Incidents of Harassment

In October 2000, Ms. Lu went to an office supply shop in a nearby village to photocopy Master Li’s new articles and was reported to the police by the owner of the shop. Shi Bingtao from the Laizhou 610 Office and a few others from the Miaojia Town Police Station broke into her home and took her copy of Zhuan Falun and Master new articles. Ms. Lu told them, “Falun Gong teaches us to follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and think of others first all the time. What’s wrong in practicing Falun Gong?”

Chief Xu of the police station snarled, “We know you are all good people. But if the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) does not allow you to do something, you just cannot do it, even if it is a good thing. If you don’t give up, the CCP will smash you like they smashed the students into sausage with tanks at Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. Aren’t you afraid? In the past, people talked about implicating the entire extended family. But what the CCP does is ten times worse.” The police detained Ms. Lu in the Miaojia Police Station from 2 until 8 p.m. before they released her.

In May 2001, Zhuqiao Town Police Station officers arrested a dozen Falun Gong practitioners including Ms. Lu. The practitioners were taken to the Dayuan Town Brainwashing Center and subjected to intense pressure to make them give up their belief, turn in their Falun Gong books, and watch a video that slandered Falun Gong. The police, led by Yang Xuandi and the CCP leaders of the town, collaborated to try to “transform” the practitioners.

On the morning of August 2, 2009, Shi Bingtao and other police officers broke into Ms. Lu’s home. They took her computer and materials containing facts about the persecution of Falun Gong that other practitioners had left at her place. The police arrested her and detained her in the Dianzi Brainwashing Center.

Officer Liu Jingbing arranged for people to monitor her in turn and did not allow her to sleep, even at night. The police verbally abused her and knocked her bed with a wooden stick as soon as she closed her eyes. They did not give her anything to eat and did not allow her to go to the restroom. Liu Jingbing handcuffed her for an entire afternoon. Shi Bingtao and another officer, Cheng Haitao, even beat her because she did not cooperate with them. They also tried to force her to stand on Master Li’s photo. Instead, Ms. Lu knelt down in front of the photo. The officers finally gave up and walked away.

On April 18, 2013, Ms. Lu and another practitioner were reported to the police while clarifying the truth about Falun Gong on Pinglidian Street. Officer Guo Feng from the Pinglidian Police Station arrested them and confiscated their materials. The police also took all the cash they had on them, which was 800 yuan, along with their motorcycle, which they never returned. The same day, Liu Jingbing and others from the Laizhou 610 Office detained the practitioners in the Laizhou City Detention Center for ten days.

Most Recent Arrest

On June 28, 2013, Laizhou 610 Office and Zhuqiao Town Police Station officers broke into Ms. Lu Aizhi’s home and arrested her again. She and three other practitioners were taken to the Dianzi Brainwashing Center. Cheng Haitao tried to force them to write the three statements, but they refused. Cheng snarled, “You cannot go home without writing a ‘confession.’ We will send you to the Jinan City Prison and use the tiger bench and force feed you with pepper water to torture you.” He also did not give them anything to eat for a day and a half.

Cheng Hai wanted to set the practitioners against each other, so he gave the other three practitioners food but none to Lu Aizhi. The other three practitioners said that if the police don’t give Ms. Lu anything to eat, they would all go on a hunger strike. After 15 days, the practitioners were released.

Related article: Laizhou Police Arrest Two Women

Chinese version available

Category: Accounts of Persecution