I came back and finally have gained my freedom. First of all I'd like to take this opportunity to once again extend my heartfelt thanks to the Australian government. Due to the unremitting efforts of the Australian government and all they have done for me I have my freedom today. My thanks to the Australian government are beyond words. It is most miserable to lose ones freedom, let alone suffer very cruel and inhumane torture in a Chinese jail.
Why have I risked my life to go to Mainland China again and again? I couldn't understand the impudent acts of Jiang Zemin. As the chairman of 1.2 billion people, he has dared to decide right and wrong, mix up black and white and to suppress tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners. That's why I have been striving for human rights and justice regardless of my own life.
I suffered from serious arthritis three years ago, which caused unbearable pains in almost all my joints. I was not able to walk a long way, and it was hard even to eat and sleep. I was living a life in a state where I would rather die than live. Falun Dafa saved me and offered me a second life. That is why I have risked my life to go to China again and again to say a few just words for our Teacher and for Falun Dafa, and to disclose the evil acts of Jiang Zemin and his accomplices.
Before this time I was detained for eight months. I also encountered unjust treatment, which violates human rights.
1. On Dec. 31, 1999, while I was standing in Tiananmen Square in Beijing watching a national flag-raising ceremony, three policemen dragged me into a police car for no reason and beat me badly, causing bleeding all over my face.
2. On Jan. 26, 2000, I practiced the exercises in Rending Lake Park in Beijing. The policemen arrested me and sent me to jail. They brutally beat me and didn't stop until they were exhausted. I asked them later, "If we are not allowed to exercise in the park, then what is the park used for?"
3. On Feb. 4, 2000, while my husband and I were having a meal in a restaurant of Beijing, a dozen plainclothes policemen from the Security Bureau of Public Security Ministry of China arrested my husband and me and then sent us to the highest criminal prison of Beijing. We were locked up together with the condemned prisoners for seven days. We didn't do anything that violated the law. However, we were detained without due process only because we were Falun Gong practitioners.
4. On Mar. 5, 2000, I intended to hand over a letter to the Party Central Committee during the two meetings (the annual meetings of the People's Congress and the People's Political Consultative Committee). However, once I set foot on Chinesesoil the public security officers searched my bag. When they found the letters to Jiang Zemin and Prime Minister Zhu and Falun Gong books, they beat me up. A slap on my face made me so dizzy that I was not able to hear anything for several days. I was then inhumanely detained for 8 months withoutdue process. When I was released, they declared that I would not be allowed to enter Mainland China for the rest of my life. All my relatives, my parents and my brothers are still in China. Could it be said that there are no rights for visiting ones parents? Where are human rights? Where is the course of nature?
I cannot bear to look back at the 8 months of life in prison where I would have rather died than lived. I was not allowed to write to my family members or give them a call. I was brutally detained in jail, couldnt see the sunlight all day long and had no activity at all. Since I am an Australia citizen, I asked for a meeting with the Australian consul. After delaying a month for no reason they arranged for me to meet the Australian consul.
In the dimly lit jail, I was forced to labor over 10 hours a day. They declined my request of reading my favorite book, Zhuan Falun. In order to protest the inhumane treatment, which violated human rights, I started a hunger strike. During my more than 50-day hunger strike, I became only skin and bones from a fat person of 120 jin (around 134 pounds). The Chinese public security officers didn't show any sympathy for me, on the contrary, they cursed me with a lot of dirty words like "You life is not worth a dog even if you die." They demanded that I sleep on the frozen concrete floor. When the Australian consul came to visit me, he asked the Chinese police why they hadn't allowed me to sleep on a bed. I told the consul about my suffering. The Chinese police next to me prevented me from telling the truth; otherwise they would haveterminated our conversation. The translator dared not translate what I said for fear ofcensure from the Chinese police. The consul urged the translator to continue and not be scared. Due to the protest of the consul, I obtained the opportunity to walk out of my cell during the permitted time of the day.
I didn't eat anything in the second month and relied on the exercise to supply the energy for sustaining my life. I just sat down quietly to practice the exercise without disturbing others. Whenever they saw me practice the exercise, they beat me, cursed me and splashed water on me. I told them that I was not wrong to practice the exercise, and then they fiercely threw me down on the ground from the bed, beat me and kicked me. My body became bruised because of the beating, and I felt too much pain to fall asleep at night. They also cruelly shackled me. No matter how they beat me, I still persisted in practicing the exercise. They therefore sent me to the male prisoners' cell, which was dark, damp and without sunlight all day long. I was not allowed to walk out, which severely impaired my health.
The prolonged inhumane persecution caused me to deeply miss my family members, especially my daughter. However, the Chinese police brutally took my pen away by force, and confiscated a letter to my husband. In the endless nights I had been longing for my daughter. I was detained for such a long time, which badly hurt my reticent daughter. She became depressed, always crying for her mom. She wrote to the Australian consul to let me return home early to cook meals for her. She was too young to be hurt so much, yet I could not even write a single word to console her. On the night of the Mid-Fall holiday, I leaned against the iron window, looking at the bright moon. With tears in my eyes, I wrote down these words," Looking at the bright moon through the iron window, tears from my breaking heart; I could not stop missing my family.-- When can I return home?" What crimes have I committed? Must I pay such a high price for believing in Zhen Shan Ren (Truthfulness Compassion Forbearance)? Why?
I could not bear the inhumane treatment, so I wrote to the consul and the United Nation as well, to disclose their cruel atrocities of violating human rights. After they knew it, they persecuted me more severely. They took the pen from me, which I picked up in the garbage heap. I could only write words on my cloths by using toothpaste to express my aspirations, " Falun Dafa is good; cultivate Zhen Shan Ren (Truthfulness Compassion Forbearance); I am not afraid of bleeding or other sacrifices; yet I will not give up Dafa." After seeing these words, they brutally pushed me into the cell, forcibly stripped off my clothes, and let me face the closed-circuit television, which was under the surveillance of male police officers. I tried to shield my body. Their indecent behavior made me boil with anger.
On Oct.30, the Australian consul paid a special visit to me in the jail. He asked me what I wanted to say to my husband. I asked him to make sure that my husband knew my flight number. The Australia consul then exhorted the Chinese police to tell him my flight number as soon as possible. However, fearing that their evil deeds would be exposed, Jiang Zemin 's accomplices told the wrong flight number to my husband. The Chinese police confiscated all my personal belongings, including Hong Kong currency and Australian currency. I tried several times to get them back. I didnt have a penny in my pocket. When I arrived at Sydney airport, I borrowed 40 shillings to make a call. Finally I could tell my husband that I had come back. My husband came over from the other corner of the airport and said that he had been waiting for me since 3 o'clock in the morning. With tears in our eyes, my family finally got together. My family once again extends our sincere thanks to the Australian government, the Australian Foreign Affairs Ministry, and the Australian consulate officials. Due to their unremitting efforts, I am free today.
If it were not my personal experience, I never would have imagined that today in the 21st century, in such a country as China, which has over a billion people, there are no human rights, no morality, no justice, and no laws. Tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners are illegally detained in jail. Many people were forced to leave their homes and wander homelessly, and families were broken apart. Female practitioners were stripped naked and thrown into the cells of male prisoners. Pregnant women were forced to have abortions or driven to have miscarriages, and normal and healthy people were forced into mental hospitals. Such evil deeds are still continuing in China.
We urgently call on the Australia government and all kind-hearted people to extend your assistance to us. Your assistance will make kind people enjoy basic human rights. Your assistance will free more kind people from persecution and torture. Your assistance will make those who were forced to leave their homes be able to return to their homeland. Your assistance will stop more innocent lives from being persecuted to death. We hereby once again sincerely ask every righteous person assist us in calling on government organizations of all nations in the world and all kind-hearted people to stop the evil deeds of Jiang Zemin, and also send him to trial.
Australia Falun Gong Practitioner: Cuiying Zhang
November 9, 2000
