Around 8:00 am on October 15, 2007, right after I got out of bed, I noticed four cars parked behind the Service Center, and more than 20 men and women at the southwest corner of the Center. I was wondering why there were so many people and cars and yet it was so quiet. Feeling anxious, I watched to see what would happen. A little while later, Liao Songlin and his wife walked out of the Service Center, one carried a basket of fruit, and the other an umbrella. As soon as they walked towards the southwest corner of the road, the group of people quickly surrounded the couple and without showing any ID, arrested Mr. Liao and his wife.
Liao was kicked to the ground while someone took his keys and then handcuffed him. He was then pushed into a white car. Meanwhile, his wife Meng Qianglian was also handcuffed and pushed towards their home. About 10 minutes later, the white car drove off.
Later, I heard that the Chenzhou City National Security Bureau was responsible for capturing the Liaos. With the help of police stations from both Beihu and Suxian, they took away the couple, and Liao's son and daughter-in-law. Liao's daughter-in-law was caught right in front of her mother's house.
When they dragged her into the car, she did not even have her shoes on; her four-year-old child was left crying. Her captors told her, "Hurry up. We won't be able to leave if the villagers see us."
Mr. Liao retired in 1993 after sustaining a brain injury at work. After practicing Falun Gong, all of the ailments he had suffered from disappeared, including neurosis, tuberculosis, sinusitis, prostatitis, a stomach ailment that had tortured him for over 30 years, and even the neurological damage from the brain injuries. Mr. Liao no longer needed to spend several thousand dollars in medical bills each year.
As his health improved, Mr. Liao started doing maintenance work for the housing unit and his neighbors, and refused to accept gifts or special treatment in return. What's more precious was that since he moved to our neighborhood in November 1999, the housing unit officials have entrusted him with oversight of the neighborhood. In all that time, he has not accepted a single dime for his time or services.
Despite the fact that he is quite elderly, he has volunteered to take care of the grounds, cleaning, planting, sanitizing two local wells, removing weeds, and managing pest control. Giving like this is especially rare in a time when people believe that money is the most important thing in life.
Because he practices Falun Gong, Mr. Liao has not only regained his health, but also corrected his infamous bad temper. During a neighborhood meeting led by the Service Center officials, someone brought up the issue of the odor and sanitary hazards caused by using manure for fertilizer.
It was decided that three local vegetable growers, the Liaos, the Zhous, and the Luos, were not to grow vegetables next year and to either grow grass or cement over their few square meters of garden space. Mr. Liao was the first one to accept the decision.
The Luos still usually grew beans. The following May, when the area was covered with cement and the beans were pulled out, Mr. Luo was furious. Because Mr. Liao was helping with the cementing, Luo scolded him for more than half an hour. Mr. Liao was silent the whole time.
Liao's wife was watching from some distance. I could not help but ask her, "Mr. Liao's known for his bad temper. Why is he able to behave this way today?" She said, "Teacher Li (the founder of Falun Gong) teaches us to be tolerant and that we shouldn't hit back when struck, or talk back when insulted. Otherwise we are not true practitioners." I don't understand why someone like Mr. Liao, who has not only gained good health through practicing Falun Gong, but who also behaves like a model citizen should be treated like a criminal and kept in prison simply because he refuses to stop practicing Falun Gong. Why would someone want to punish him for being a good person? After he was taken away, his abductors stole two cars full of items from his home. I had no idea what they had taken. I visited his home after he returned and discovered that they had ransacked his home. Even the hitting, smashing, and looting that occurred during the Cultural Revolution could not compare with the mess that was left.
Cabinets and desks were turned inside out and in a complete mess. The floor was scattered with cartons, food bags, papers, broken MP3s, and so forth. They took away the Liao's TV, DVD player, antenna, three MP3 players, a moped, eight bank deposit books, more than 4,000 yuan cash (of which only 1,900 yuan was returned), and Falun Gong books and articles negating the defamation of Falun Gong.
They even took away a diary Mr. Liao had kept since he was a youngster, and a few dozen collectable coins kept in the diary, his daughter-in-law's expenditure book, grandson's growth chart, travel expenses saved for the November trip to his hometown, and the red envelope of cash his sister-in-law intended to give to Liao's mother. Nothing was spared and nothing was saved.
The police also confiscated a total of four sets of keys. According to the neighbors, while the Liao's were being detained, the police visited the Liao's home three times and stole all of their valuables. I don't understand what type of activities the police are conducting. Is this how kindhearted citizens should be treated?
I am someone who's awakened. I know Falun Gong practitioners and understand their characters. They are a group of genuinely good people. The Chinese Communist officials simply cannot compare to their goodness.
Mr. Liao Songlin is known for being kindhearted in our neighborhood. Simply because he insists on practicing Falun Gong, his home has been searched by the local 610 office, the police, and the national security, and he has been illegally captured, brainwashed, and detained, many times.
I cannot understand why the Chinese Communist regime would trample on human rights and violate both natural laws and fellow humans in such a manner.
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