I wasn't surprised at all when the underground brick factory in Shanxi Province was exposed, though it seemed to shock the media inside of China. However, if someone said that such inhumanity had been completely eliminated and would never occur again, that would surprise me.
In the face of such a barbaric occurrence, the media's surprise both inside and outside of China seemed to convey to the world that such atrocities are extremely rare, and therefore nothing to worry about.
Underground terrorism is horrible. But what's even worse is that these kinds of Mafia-style tactics are so common, they have become completely routine in our country. This is but one more example that today's tyranny has fostered an environment that's extremely inhumane, especially with the power the police wield under this national terrorism.
In the past two years, the torment that my entire family and I have endured from the Committee of Political and Legislative Affairs of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the Domestic Security and Defense Bureau of Public Security Ministry, and the National Security General Team of Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau clearly demonstrates that the secret police force are essentially gangsters of the Chinese communist regime. Consider the behavior of these individuals: They come and go without any name. They're expressionless, never say a word, and openly demonstrate the behavior of thugs in my own home. Some occasionally wear sun glasses or even face masks to hide their identity; their vehicles either don't have license plates, or their plates are covered or fake (I can be repeatedly followed by the same car, yet its plates change every few days.)
At the beginning of September, 2006—a half month after I was illegally detained—those Mafia-style policemen from the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau's National Security General Team built a one-floor house outside my window. In fact, they originally planned to actually occupy my room for a long time, but on August 20, a visiting friend found that policemen were illegally lingering inside my house. After continuous condemnations from the international community, and a non-stop rebellion from my daughter, their initial plan of in-house surveillance was foiled. My entire family observed that the secret police force exhibited gangster-style behavior on a regular basis. On the wall of their small surveillance quarters, they even hung a detailed record book to keep track of shift changes over their three months stay. Every day this group dutifully carried out their Mafia-style agenda and recorded the hours they logged in.
The last few weekends of my surveillance were not true weekends to me. When the weekend came groups of visitors arrived at my door, but they had to contend with the secret police. I have nothing to hide, but all those secret policemen who watched us so closely know in their hearts what they put us through. Apparently, these secret police officers who take orders from the Committee of Police and Legislative Affairs are hostile to any kind of recovery and do their best to prevent it. Unfortunately, my visitors had to pay a price.
Many people who tried to visit me were violently kidnapped and locked away in that small house. The majority of the kidnapped victims endured the same ordeal: the kidnapper took a form from a drawer, and presented it to the captive. The upper left corner of the paper read, "Gao Zhisheng is a bad guy."
Without a trace of emotion, these kidnappers said to their victims, "Copy this sentence and fill the entire page. It will demonstrate that you keep yourself on the same path with the Party and government. If you have no connection with Gao, it is no big deal to copy one page of sentences. If you don't do this, it demonstrates that you are with him, and you will be responsible for the outcome." But their intimidation didn't always work. One visitor from Jiangxi Province said, "I refused to write any thing and they tortured me for 11 hours. But what was the point? They were not able to frighten me."
In my opinion, the plain-clothes officers are very hostile to people who wish to see me and they intend to stop them through threats and violence. Having to meet with these visitors does affect my schedule; after all, my time spent in jail has injured my body and I still require a great deal of rest to recover. While their presence is somewhat inconvenient, their visits are also encouraging.
Since I receive so many visitors it indicates that the authorities have failed in their efforts to discourage people from seeing me. These individuals face the possibility of violence, proving that the courage of our nationality can still be found among some Chinese people. Plus, these visitors helped provide me with valuable information during my isolation. These folks share a common feature in that although they come from different areas of China, the Mafia-like police force they face can be found throughout the country.
One of these brave souls is Zheng Mingfang—a resident of Tianjin. For her continued effort to expose local corrupt officials and their abuse of residents' human rights and property, Zheng has been illegally detained several times, her longest detention was two years.
I remember visiting her two years ago. The torture she suffered was horrifying. I trembled as I pictured the swelling she developed from the injuries her body sustained. Even after she was released from prison having suffered this inhumane torture, the local police still pursued her. Every day for over half a year local authorities positioned several vehicles and over 20 officers outside her home. It wasn't until receiving a visit from Beijing human rights activist, Hu Jia, that police withdrew their constant surveillance. Before that, Zheng was beaten many times and authorities succeeded in completely bankrupting her family. "I'll keep on suing them until I die!" This was the last sentence Zheng uttered before leaving my house.
When another group of visitors came to see me, they put Duan Huimin's photo on my coffee table. The photo, taken just before Duan died, was so frightening it made my daughter scream, but the visiting guests seemed to ignore her reaction. While their hearts were filled with grief and indignation, my little daughter was overwhelmed by the violence of the image.
At 1 a.m., on November 3, 2006 in Beijing, Duan Huimin and his sister, Chunfang, were dragged from their hotel beds into a car waiting outside. Scores of thugs led by Gao Weiguo, a division chief from the Shanghai Authority Beijing Office, beat the Duan's for a long time.
Chunfang, who survived the ordeal, said the experience was horrifying. The perpetrators were vicious and brutal. After beating their victims, these black-mafia officers dialed "110" [the emergency phone line in China], claiming that the Duan's were "stirring up fights and causing trouble."
Beijing police instantly knew what really happened when they saw the crime scene. Still, the vicious Beijing officers put Duan Huimin into the squad car and cuffed his hands behind his back even though he was out of breath and vomiting blood, and the perpetrators were not questioned at all.
Even more disturbing with several serious open wounds, Duan Huimin was sent to Shanghai that afternoon and did not receive any medical treatment. During his trip to Shanghai, Duan's family requested that Jin Jun, the deputy director of Huangpu Detention Center, give him medical treatment. But he refused their urgent request, claiming, "Duan Huimin was arrested in Beijing, so he must be sent back and charged there."
On January 2, 2007, Duan died, while his parents prepared for an appeal. "How can we tolerate our son's tragic and unjust death when he was only 48 years old?" they wrote. "We are his elders but we have to lay him to rest. Just because he appealed for his right to work, authorities killed him. Where is the justice? Where is the human decency? Where is the law?"
