My name is Ms. Bai Minghua. I am a wife, mother of five, and a 59 year old grandmother. I am also blind and have been so since birth. Our family resides in Huainan City, Anhui Province, China. My husband, one of our daughters, and I began to practice Falun Gong in 1994. Falun Gong is a qigong cultivation practice for health, fitness, and spiritual enlightenment, involving special gentle exercises, meditation, and living by the principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance.

On July 20, 1999, Jiang Zemin, then Chinese Communist Party leader in China, started a genocide campaign against any Falun Gong practitioner who would not give up their beliefs. Our family and community were puzzled by these orders that soon were felt in every home, school, business, and public place in China. Falun Gong is such a good practice that has benefited millions of people. It has not harmed anyone and it offers so many benefits to families and society. How could this persecution be happening to such peaceful, good, law bidding people?

Since this persecution began, my family and I have been illegally imprisoned 10 times ranging from seven days to one year in duration. The police have illegally broken into and ransacked our home, stolen a VCR, television, cell phone and other household items, and extorted two years worth of income (10 thousand Yuan) from my family. They threaten my youngest daughter who is mentally retarded with throwing her off the building to her death. My daughter, Hu Yu, and I have been subject to brutal torture, and homelessness along with my daughter’s new born, because we practice Falun Gong. Worse, I have heard the cries of my child being tortured, and now I am without my husband because he is illegally imprisoned for practicing Falun Dafa. I appeal to the world my case.

[Follow-up report: On September 2002, police arrested Bai Minghu and Hu Yu in the room that they had been renting while forced into homelessness to avoid further persecution. For nearly twelve months, the family was unable to visit or get information about them. On August 10, 2003, Bai Minghua husband received a phone call from the court to pick up his wife and daughter at the Bangbu Prison Hospital. When he got to the prison hospital Bai Minghua had by then been tortured to the point that she was just skin and bones and could not sit or walk. Hu Yu was the same. Neither woman had the strength to open their eyes. Five days later, the police came to their house and took Bai Minghua and Hu Yu to the detention center. Later, the court held a secret trial and she was sentenced to nine years in prison. Even though she is blind, at this prison she was placed in heavy shackles while forced to work. This violates the law. She has been reported to frequently fall and faint from her extreme weakness caused by endless torture. An officer of the prison said that she was fully qualified to be bailed out for medical reasons, but "610 Office" supervisors from the city have so far not processed their bail. We appeal to the kind people of the world to pay attention to this case.