Octogenarian Woman Saved by Falun Gong But Repeatedly Persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party

(Minghui.org) Ms. Wang Dongxiang, an 82-year-old Guiyang City, Guizhou Province resident started to practice Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, in March 1996 at the age of 57. After the practice, her multiple diseases disappeared without any medical intervention.

Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to persecute Falun Gong in July 1999, Ms. Wang has been repeatedly harassed and persecuted, including three years in a labor camp.

Ms. Wang describes her life and recalls the persecution she has suffered as follows:

Bitter Life

I was born into an extremely poor farmer family in an outlying mountain region in Sichuan Province. I have worked hard on the farmland every day since I was little. In the lonely memory of my life, I was accompanied by poverty, hunger, coldness, fatigue, and sickness.

I went to elementary school intermittently for a few years. Every day, I was allowed to go to school only after I cut enough grass to feed the cattle and sheep.

After we got married, my husband went to serve in the army and was deployed afield. He worked in a different city after being discharged from the army. I gave birth to three children, one daughter, and two sons. My husband did not support the family except for giving me an allowance of 10 yuan a month.

I raised my three children alone. I did not get enough rest or nutrition after each birth. I had to do the housework, farm the land, and raise the cattle. I was busy from early morning to late at night every day. Because of the lack of sleep and nutrition, my health went downhill quickly. I started to have all kinds of health problems at a young age.

By the time I was 27, I was suffering from headaches, dizziness, postpartum cold, low back pain, rheumatoid arthritis, a herniated lumbar disc, stomach issues, and gynecological problems. I looked very old for my age.

My husband had an affair and stopped supporting the family. I had no money for medical treatment and only burned herbs for temporary relief when I was in unbearable pain.

I was in despair until March 1996 when I started to practice Falun Gong. One month after that, all of my diseases completely disappeared. Falun Gong saved me from desperation.

I was astonished when the persecution started. I decided to tell the government about the goodness of Dafa with my personal experiences. I wanted the government to stop framing Falun Gong and its founder, Master Li, and asked for the restoration of a normal practice environment.

Arrested for Appealing for Falun Gong

I went to Beijing by train with two fellow practitioners on May 1, 2000, to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. As soon as we sat down to meditate at Tiananmen Square, the crowd surrounded us. A group of police officers then broke through the crowd and took us to the Tiananmen Square Police Station, which was already crowded with practitioners.

After the interrogations, we were taken to the office of the Guizhou officials in Beijing and locked in their basement. I was taken back to Guiyang three days later and then detained for additional 15 days. My husband was told that his monthly wage would be deducted for a total of 6,000 yuan to cover the expenses of four officers who took me back to Guiyang.

Two More Arrests and Forced to Sleep Next to Toilet

I was arrested and taken to a brainwashing class, where I was held from March to April 2001. A female guard named Hu Juzhi bombarded me with fallacies and heresies that slandered Falun Gong. She ordered me to sign a statement asserting that I would no longer practice it and threatened to torture me if I disobeyed her order.

On the evening of June 9, 2001, a group of police officers broke into my daughter's home. I was at her home with my 7-year-old granddaughter at that time. They handcuffed my hands behind my back. They also kicked me down on the floor. The house was ransacked and many Falun Gong materials and Master's photo were taken away. My granddaughter was petrified. I was taken to the Zunyi County Detention Center at around 2 a.m. I was forced to take off two outer layers of clothes and shoes. The policemen then searched my body and confiscated my keys and some money.

The detention center guards instigated inmates to beat me and pull my hair on the second day when I refused to memorize the detention center rules. I was ordered to sleep on the concrete floor next to a toilet for more than one month. This small cell was crowded with dozens of inmates. When they used the toilet at night, sometimes the urine would splash onto my face and body.

The guards emphasized again and again that practicing Falun Gong was against the law and any violator would be taken to a labor camp. They repeatedly ordered me to sign the statements to renounce Falun Gong, but I refused to comply.

Three-year Labor Camp Term

I was detained in the detention center for more than one month before being sent to a deserted drug rehab center. It was an old house near the woods. The house was empty and had no lights. I was detained there for two weeks and then transferred to Guizhou Provincial Zhongba Labor Camp to serve a three-year term.

In the Zhongba Labor Camp, the guards attempted to use my marriage as leverage to force me to renounce Falun Gong. When I refused to give in, my husband indeed divorced me.

Continuous Harassment

After I was released from the labor camp on June 9, 2004, the harassment did not stop. Police officers often knocked on my door or called to “greet” me on holidays and sensitive days every year. After 2013, they came to my home several times and forcibly collected my blood samples.

I have been frequently harassed after I filed a lawsuit against former Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin in 2015.

In March 2020, the authorities launched the “Zero-out” harassment campaign in Guiyang in an effort to force every Falun Gong practitioner on the government’s blacklists to renounce their faith. The police often knocked at my door and asked me to sign the statement to renounce Falun Gong. They also hired four people and paid each of them 80 yuan per day to monitor my daily activities from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day. These people followed me when I went out. The daily monitoring lasted for six months and ended in September.