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Li Huiying (L), a former judge from Dalian, told her story of persecution by the Chinese regime at a May 11 forum on organ harvesting in China held at the University of San Diego, Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice. Shawn Young (R), a spokesperson for the San Diego Falun Dafa Association, served as translator. (Alex Li/The Epoch Times)
SAN DIEGO—She was a judge in China until she, herself, became the victim of an unlawful state-launched persecution and was sent to a labor camp without trial, while authorities forced her husband, a surgeon, to divorce her.
Ms. Li Huiying, 50-year old former judge from Dalian, told her story through an interpreter as part of a human rights forum on May 11, 2011 at the University of San Diego (USD), Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice.
Ms. Li is a Falun Dafa practitioner. Though she and her family have gone through heart-wrenching experiences in China, she seemed unscathed by bitterness or hatred. When the audience warmly applauded several times, she thanked them with a gentle smile and by lightly pressing her palms together in front of her chest.
Ms. Li—or Judge Li, as people respectfully addressed her at the seminar—said she was a judge in Dalian City. In 1994, she and her father started practicing Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong), and both of them became very healthy through the practice.
Her father, a retired district attorney, used to have six very serious diseases, including very high blood pressure, and heart and lung disease. She also had a very serious health problem. Through practicing Falun Dafa, they recovered from all of those illnesses, she said.
But the most important thing she and her father learned from practicing Falun Dafa, was to follow the guiding principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance, and to become a better person, she said.
“For example, I was a judge. In China corruption is common in the judicial system. As a judge, almost every day, we would encounter bribery; almost every one would try to bribe us.
“It was very hard to refuse bribes. Through my practicing Falun Dafa, and being honest and truthful, I was perhaps the only judge that refused bribes and was known as a fair and just judge,” Ms. Li said.
Persecution
During the late 1990s more and more people in China began practicing Falun Dafa, and started to lose faith in communism. So in 1999, the Chinese government started banning and persecuting Falun Gong, Ms. Li said.
Ms. Li said in 2001 her father was locked up in a labor camp for 16 months without any trial and forced to do slave labor and undergo brainwashing. Conditions and treatment were very bad at the camp.
For example, he was only allowed to use the restroom twice a day. His health deteriorated drastically. His high blood pressure returned and became very critical, and he even had difficulty walking, so they finally released him. But within one week after his release he suffered a stroke and became paralyzed.
“I was really sad,” Ms. Li said. “I also encountered very severe pressure [to stop practicing Falun Gong] from the government at my workplace. I think this is terribly wrong, to persecute people like that, so in April 2002 I went to Tiananmen Square and I pleaded with the government to stop persecuting Falun Gong practitioners.
“I was taken to the police station. They punched me, and my nose was bleeding,” Ms. Li said.
She said they sentenced her without a trial to a labor camp for three years. After 30 months she was transferred to the notorious Masanjia labor camp, known for its brutal torture of Falun Gong practitioners. There they extended her term 10 more months.
“In order to force me to give up my belief, they deprived me of sleep for three days and three nights,” Ms. Li said.
She witnessed a lot of torture at Masanjia, Ms. Li said.
“One practitioner insisted in doing the Falun Gong meditation. They taped her entire body in that position [with her legs folded in double-lotus] for two weeks, until she was almost paralyzed,” Ms. Li said.
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