My name is Chen Zheng, a young Chinese boy. I was born in October 1993 and have been practicing Falun Gong since April of 1999. Since practicing Dafa, I have become very healthy. Many people tell me that I am a well-behaved child. I tell them that it is practicing Dafa that makes me behave so well.
I would like to tell the world about an unforgettable experience I had when I was a little more than six years old. My story is told below. I am also making the following appeal: "Please support and help Falun Gong practitioners in China, because our situation is extremely perilous, especially the situation of Falun Gong practitioners in prisons."
Since July 22, 1999, three months after I began practicing Falun Gong, the police began to harass my family. In early August of 1999, I agreed to go to Beijing with my mother. On August 19, we meditated in Tiananmen Square. We were caught by the police and sent to the Tiananmen Police Station.
At the police station, a woman already there was being interrogated. She refused to tell her name, to protect her family and people in her company. The policemen took her to a room, closed the door and began to beat her. Another practitioner attempted to stop the policemen's ferocious conduct. As a result, that practitioner and was also taken into that room. We could hear the sound of "pa, pa, ...", from people's faces being slapped. We heard the practitioners kindly tell the policemen without any resentment, "We are good people. What you are doing is not going to do you any good." The police became defensive and shouted loudly, "Who saw us beat you?" From my school I remember the kindergarten teacher saying that the police were all good people and they would protect us. I realized that the kindergarten teacher was wrong. The police were bad people; worse than bad people. They publicly shout curses, they beat people, and they are bad mannered. At that time, I told my mom that they were demons. They did not allow us to use the bathroom and gave us nothing to eat at that police station.
Later, the woman who refused to tell her name to the police lost consciousness from the beating. I heard a policeman outside the cell saying, "Check her to see whether she is still breathing." A policeman answered, "She's still breathing." After that they carried the woman into the cell. She was lying on the ground and was totally unconscious. I was scared and started crying loudly. After a long time, the woman practitioner regained consciousness. She slowly sat up. Her face was full of black bruises from the police slapping her. She smiled at me and told me not to be afraid. I felt that this place was hell and the policemen dared to do anything. When they saw that the woman had regained consciousness, they pulled her out of the cell and began to beat her again. She still refused to tell them her name. While I heard the sounds of the beating, I was worried about the woman and was also scared. They again beat her unconscious. When they brought her back to the cell, they asked my mother to cover my eyes. The woman remained unconscious.... Later the local government officers came to bring my mom and me out of there. We do not know what happened to the unconscious woman and we are very concerned.
After I returned home, I felt disgusted with those policemen and felt scared whenever I thought of them. I no longer trusted them because I saw their evil conduct, their lack of discipline and bad manners.
On July 15, in Tiananmen Square, my mom and I unfurled a banner printed with "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance." Because there were too many people around, the policemen did not arrest us. On July 20, I asked my mom to go to Tiananmen Square again, to appeal. At around 9:00am of July 20, mom and I unfurled a banner reading "Law Rectifies Heaven and Earth." We spoke loudly, "Falun Dafa is good. Falun Dafa is a righteous Law." The policemen put us very roughly into a police van. In the van, my mom kindly introduced Dafa to the policemen. One policeman twisted my arms on my back with one hand and pulled my ear with the other hand. I felt so much pain and cried loudly. He continued to drag my ear and demanded that my mom to stop talking. Other practitioners stood up and said, "Stop hurting the child. Stop beating the child. The child is innocent." In response, the policemen closed the door of the van and pulled down the curtains. They started beating my mom forcefully on her face, her head and her ears. My mom's face started swelling. The other practitioners all asked them to stop beating and pushed us to the back of the van and used their bodies to protect us. I saw that a male practitioner's head was bleeding. Another policeman kept kicking a woman forcefully in the stomach. After they beat the practitioners for a while, the van finally started moving.
We were sent to the Tiananman Police Station. Many practitioners were already there and many of them refused to tell their names. My mom and I didn't tell our names, either. The policemen threatened me and demanded me to tell where I came from. They urged me to curse Dafa and the Teacher. They also said, "If you say you will not practice Falun Gong, we will send you and your mom home immediately." I didn't say anything and didn't show any interest in their words. They asked another boy next to me who was a little older than I, "Which elementary school do you study in? Can you tell us where it is?" The little boy was smart and told them, "I study in a Chinese elementary school." Later on the policemen brought all of us young practitioners to a separate room to interrogate and threatened us. That nine-year-old boy still refused to tell them anything. Finally they started to beat him. His face turned blue. He cried loudly. In the end he told them his address. The policemen yelled at us. They didn't look like human beings. They didn't give us food and didn't allow us to go to bathroom. I saw many boys and girls, men and woman, and grandmas and grandpas there. They were very kind and tried to be good people anywhere. By about 10:00pm, most practitioners had been sent to other police stations. The practitioners even cleaned up the garbage on the grounds before they left. I asked my mom, "Why do they treat us in such a way? We didn't do anything bad? Why...?"
At night I felt very hungry and scared. The policemen had no smiles on their faces and spoke no kind words. There was only the sound of beating and cursing... I felt bad and started to cry. The policemen found they couldn't get our names and were also irritated by my crying. So they released us. Since we didn't have any identification, we couldn't spend the night in a hotel. Mom and I went to an older woman's home. Next day, while we were still sleeping, the policemen came to check the home. They found we were Dafa practitioners and detained the grandma and us in a police station again. It was hot and dirty there. The policemen told us there was only one condition for releasing us - we should say, "We will not practice Falun Gong." We didn't agree to their condition. They kept beating my mom's head. Next day my nose kept bleeding. They asked me to curse the Teacher. I couldn't bear their attitude any longer and swore at them. Later my mom criticized me for that and told me that the Teacher teaches us, "don't hit back while being beaten or curse back like ordinary people." It made me feel bad that I had lost my temper. We got arrested while we didn't commit any crimes. They detained us for two days and three nights before releasing us.
After we arrived home, the local police came to harass us again. They claimed that if we said that we would practice Falun Gong, they would arrest us. We had no choice but to leave our home. But we keep in mind the Teacher's words, "Regard hardship as a blessing." No matter where we are, we have Dafa, and "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance" in our mind.
Teacher is good! Dafa is good! The practitioners are good!
A young practitioner, Chen Zheng
(This article was compiled with the help from Chen Zheng's mother.)
November 2, 2000
