I am a 16-year-old high school student and I have practiced Falun Gong for more than six years. Falun Gong has benefited me in so many ways. It has taught me true responsibility, to always be considerate of others, and to conduct myself by the principles of “Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance” in my daily life.

On April 25, 1999, my mother and I participated in the peaceful petition to the Chinese government for Falun Gong. Since then, our lives have been turned upside down. The personnel from my local residence office and the police station have harassed me many times at my school and at home. Since I had done nothing wrong, I did not give up practicing Falun Gong. However, I feel pain from the forced break-up of my family. My parents have been detained illegally many times. My mother was forced to leave home to avoid recapture and further persecution. Although I miss her very much, I cannot see her, because it is too dangerous.

Once when the police detained my mother, they also came to my school, took me to the principal’s office, and surrounded me in an intimidating manner. At the beginning, they told me that I could see my parents as long as I agreed to persuade them to renounce Falun Gong. When I rejected this, they started to scold and threaten me. They shouted at me one after another. This happened many times, and once I was so scared that I cried. Fortunately, many teachers at my school encouraged and helped me during these difficult times.

On April 30, 2001, they came to my school again and took me to the local residence committee office. There they handed me a phone. My mother was on the other end. I sensed that my mother had agreed to give up practicing Falun Gong. Eager to find out what happened to her, I agreed to go with the police to see my mother, who had been detained at a forced brainwashing center in Hulufa in the Fangshan District. On the way, I heard from a policeman that this place had once held more than 1,000 Falun Gong practitioners.

I did see my mother, and asked her what happened and why she gave up her belief. She did not answer me. I felt sad for her, but quickly found that I myself had been deceived and abducted by the police, who then tried to force me to write a statement renouncing Falun Gong. They took me to a room and threatened to keep me in the room until I complied. To threaten me, they also pointed to a man who was being forced to run nonstop as a way to torture him.

I felt both angry and strange. I was angry because there could be no reason for them to take away my personal freedom. I did not violate any law! I felt strange not understanding why that man was running nonstop, and why my mother would give up her belief.

That evening, just before going to sleep, when I saw the awful black and blue bruises on my mother’s back, shoulders, and arms, I simply burst into tears. These bruises were clearly marks of torture. I suddenly understood how my mother was forced to give in. In the brainwashing center, the torturers took turns brainwashing and threatening her and did not allow her to sleep for several days. They tortured her by various means, including making her stand facing the wall, kicking her, punching her, and forcing her to run around the courtyard for six hours, just like that man I saw running. They even threatened to have a dog bite her. My mom was finally coerced into acting against her conscience.

I was shocked by the bloody and cruel facts. During the days that followed, the police took turns bombarding and threatening me. I could not even think clearly. I was forced to write notes to “repent” and to renounce Falun Gong.

Once we were released from the brainwashing center, my mother came to her senses and resumed her practice of Falun Gong. To avoid recapture and further torture, she fled from our home. She would rather lead a vagrant’s life than to live against her conscience. The evil officials then came after my father and me. On one evening in September 2002, several women from my local residence office and policemen from the local police station took my father and me to the Hulufa brainwashing center again. There, the police forced me to give my fingerprints and forced me to write 8 pages of lies about Falun Gong. I did it against my will. I just wanted the nightmare to end.

The suffering didn’t stop there. Every day thereafter I was forced go to the brainwashing center. These people also forced me to provide information to them so they could track down my mother. I resisted, but the pressure was so great. I was on the brink of mental collapse. In those awful days, I often wondered: if they did not want me to be truthful to my conscience, then what kind of person did they want me to become?

I was released in early October 2002. I felt humiliated in my heart that I had betrayed my conscience. I wanted to persist in my belief in “Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance.” To avoid being sent back to the brainwashing center, I have now left my home and the school that I liked so much. I’ve been forced into homelessness, just like my mom.

type=Case, Children; type=Case, Family; type=Case, Education;