Zhang Hongqin, Chen Limei, and Li Huixiang are female Falun Gong practitioners who live in Beijing, originally from Hebei Province. They felt badly for the people of their hometown who were fed propaganda from the Chinese communist regime against Falun Gong. Out of benevolence for the people of their hometown, they gave up their comfortable life in Beijing and came to the rural area in Hebei to spread Dafa.
These three ladies passed one village after another to distribute materials that explain the truth about Falun Gong and tell how practitioners are being persecuted. They brought the blessing of Dafa to the people of their hometown. However, on August 5, they were thrown into a county detention center and began their seven-day-long tribulation.
In order to force them to give up practicing Falun Gong, the police arrested and tortured them. The police first shackled them together so they could only walk together or lie down together. Then the police asked several strong inmates from the men's ward to force the three women into the detention center yard in the pouring rain. Those male prisoners pushed them into the mud and beat them using a big board. After repeated blows, the mud was stained red with the women's blood. The police officers then dragged them back to the cell. The prisoners in the same cell all showed sympathy toward them and changed their clothes for them. But several hours later came the second round of beating. In this way they were beaten three times within two days. Each time it was in the same place with the same type of torture, and the blows fell on the previous wounds. The prisoners witnessed this miserable scene, punishment in the pouring rain, through the windows. Many female prisoners were so scared that they wept in the corner.
The police no longer used this punishment on the third day because they found this wasn't effective in changing these women's belief even a little bit. Therefore, they used a more vicious methodelectrocution. They tied the ladies to chairs. One woman's hands were pulled to her back from the top of her shoulders, while another woman's hands were also tied behind her back. The third woman's hands were tied together under her legs. The police attached an electrical cord to the women's fingers, and then asked four male prisoners to take turns spinning the handle of a generator. The electrical current went through the women's bodies. The faster these men spun the handle the stronger the current. The police shouted: Whoever spins faster will get his sentence shortened. The men, driven by their own personal interest, didn't care about those women and they spun the handle until they were exhausted. Then the police stopped that day's punishment. This is how these three female practitioners passed their days in the detention center. However, the harsh punishment did not change their belief in Falun Gong.
Li Huixiang suffered most from the electrical shock since she endured the longest period of electrocution. The strong electrical current made her lose her ability to control her urine. She struggled actively due to the huge amount of pain, and the back of the chair was even broken because of her struggle. She fainted twice but the police kept electrocuting her after she regained consciousness.
Zhang Hongqin had once gone to Tiananmen Square, at the end of July, to unfurl a [Falun Gong] banner. The police took her to the Tiananmen police station, and she continued to try to unfurl the banner in the station. As a result, the police pushed her to the ground and stomped on her chest, causing a fractured rib. One month later in the detention center, she got a new wound, although she hadn't fully recovered from her old wound.
Chen Limei had a much more amazing experience. Once, because she rejected the guard's unreasonable request, the guard yanked on her ear. The guard pulled her so hard that her left ear was torn apart from the bottom to the top with only a bit of skin left connected to the head. The blood ran down her neck. Being harmed in this way she still kept a peaceful mind and even joked with another two fellow practitioners: well, I can only go to heaven with one ear missing. But two days later when her fellow practitioner cleaned her wound she was surprised to find that her torn ear had grown complete again, with only a slight mark left behind. This is another miracle that Falun Dafa has manifested in the human society. No matter where the practitioners are, our Master is always taking care of us and helps us go through hard times. Within our every bit of progress exists Master's enormous effort and care.
Later these ladies were sent back to Chaoyang detention center in Beijing and they were arrested again after they were released. Now they are detained in the 7th Branch of Beijing Police Station (this branch is reserved for "serious cases"). We don't know what kind of torture they are experiencing right now, and we hope all kind-hearted people in the world will pay close attention to this issue.
Practitioners in Mainland China
September 17, 2000
