Jan. 2001 –Chinese Lunar New Year
A woman shows a Falun Gong banner on Tiananmen Square on Jan. 25, 2001 (AP photo) AP photo

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Jan. 26, 2001 – the third day of Chinese Lunar New Year
Wang Huaiying, male, about 60 years old, was a practitioner of Wangdang Village, Dongcheng Branch Office, Mudan District, Heze City, Shandong Province. On January 26, 2001 (after the Chinese New Year), he went to Beijing to validate Falun Dafa and was arrested by policemen from Henan Province. (It is not clear whether he reached Tiananmen Square or not before being arrested by police.) The police detained him in Nanyang City Police Station, Henan Province and tortured him to death. His family members went to Henan Province to request the local authorities to release him. The police lied to his family members, saying that he died of a sudden serious illness and forced the family to pay for the cremation.

Xu Guangdao was a practitioner from Guizhou province. He went to Tiananmen Square to appeal for Dafa around the period of Spring Festival of Year 2001. He was arrested and kept in the Dongcheng Detention Center in Beijing. He went on a hunger strike for the right of doing Falun Gong exercises. He was beaten up many times and abused with electric needles. One day after a beating, he was carried back to the cell by some prisoners. He couldn’t turn in the bed, nor go to the toilet. He started to throw up blood, and died that evening (in February of 2001). In order to cover up what happened, the Dongcheng Detention Center arranged for the inmates to have the same story. They gathered together the head of each cell to say Xu died from illness. Some people were skeptical of his having diseases. Later we learned the truth from a cell head: that Xu Guangdao was beaten to death. The murderers were three people: commissar of Dongcheng Detention Center, vice director Guo, and a guard.

February - March 2001- Appeals continue

Lu Xinghua, female, in her 30s, lived in Wutai Township, Dehui City, Jilin Province. She was a representative of the people’s congress of Dehui City.

In March 2001, Lu and her husband (also a Falun Dafa practitioner) went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Dafa. (It is not clear whether he reached Tiananmen Square or not before being arrested by police.) On March 7 they were sent back to Dehui City where they were held in the Dehui Detention Center.

Lu continued to practice Falun Gong while in detention. She also began a hunger strike to protest the treatment she received. On March 9, four male prisoners held her in a chair and proceeded to force-feed her; however, the tube they used accidentally slipped into her windpipe. As a result of she developed a high fever and died on March 10, 2001. Lu has a teenage son.

April 25, 2001 — anniversary of the Zhongnanhai Peaceful Gathering

Reuters
BEIJING (AP) - Police detained at least 32 people on Tiananmen Square Wednesday, the second anniversary of the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual movement’s first large demonstration.
Scattered protests broke out on the vast square in central Beijing amid crowds of thousands of Chinese and foreign tourists. Police forced American, German and French tourists who had taken pictures to expose film and record over video tape.
“Falun Gong is good!” one man shouted before uniformed and plainclothes police shoved him and two females.
Two women holding a bright yellow banner with red lettering were hustled into a police van. One stuck her head out a window, screaming “Police are beating people!” Two plainclothes police ran up and punched her in the face.
Later, a woman and a man holding an infant started chanting Falun Gong slogans. Police grabbed the man around his neck and snatched the child from his hands. All three were bundled into a van.
After the protests, police stepped up security, checking bags and identification of Chinese people entering the square.
....
http://nrstg1p.djnr.com/ (Dow Jones Publications Library)

May 3, 2001
On May 3, 2001 in a busy crowd on Tiananmen Square, a Falun Gong practitioner opened a banner that read “Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance” and shouted happily, “Falun Dafa is good!”, an act that can easily land a person in a forced labor camp for three or more years.

Someone pulled out a camera and captured this great moment on film. (See attached picture)

After investigating, we confirmed that this practitioner began to learn Falun Dafa while in a detention center in January 2000. She was serving a six-month sentence because of family problems. In the detention center, she met a Falun Gong practitioner who had been illegally arrested. The practitioner patiently explained Dafa to her, told her why Falun Gong was being persecuted, and how to be a good person. ...

May 13, 2001 – World Falun Dafa Day
(Minghui Net)
May 13th was World Falun Dafa Day. Practitioners and other people all over the world were celebrating this magnificent day. Even though Tiananmen Square was filled with police, police cars, and spies and the atmosphere was frightening, hundreds of practitioners still overcame all the difficulties and went to Tiananmen Square to appeal for Falun Gong and clarify the truth to all people.
After 9 am on May 13, 2001, many Dafa practitioners simultaneously unfolded Dafa banners that read “Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance” at the center of Tiananmen Square and shouted “Falun Dafa is a righteous cultivation way,” and “Return our Teacher’s reputation.” The police rushed over to snatch the banners and pull the practitioners to the police vans. The Dafa practitioners were determined not to cooperate with the evil. The police started to beat the practitioners. They seized the practitioners by their throats and forcibly dragged them to the vans. Some practitioners unfolded the banners in the van and shouted loudly “Falun Dafa is good.” Two practitioners jumped out of the van from the window and shouted “Return our Teacher’s reputation” while running through the Square. The police pulled them back in the van and they jumped out again. This lasted for about half an hour....

A Practitioner’s Account
Upon arriving at the Tiananmen police station, the police started cursing profusely. They spit on the practitioners, kicked their heads and stomachs, and punched their faces. Some practitioners’ eyes were swollen from the beatings. Some were beaten so badly that their faces were deformed. A female practitioner who was about 30 years old had a 4mm deep cut on her chin which resulted from the beating by police. She bled profusely. The police were so inhuman that they poured boiling water on the Dafa practitioners. The arms of practitioners were badly burned and covered with huge blisters, and some practitioners even had muscle exposed from the burning (see the photo). Many practitioners were covered all over with cuts and bruises from the beatings.

Many Dafa practitioners did not tell the police their names and home addresses because they refused to cooperate the illegal detention. In the afternoon, police forcibly separated the practitioners and sent out two vans full of practitioners. About 13 practitioners were sent to the Mentaogou District Police Branch of Beijing. The whereabouts of the other practitioners was unknown.

“When we arrived at the Mentougou branch, we were sent to different police stations to be interrogated. A 20-year-old practitioner and me were sent to Junzhuang police station. A policeman named Chen Guowei (police badge number 045261) and two others came up saying: “Do not mention anything about Dafa. I do not believe it nor do I want to hear about it. Our duty tonight is to find out why you came to Beijing, your name, and where you came from. It will save all of us time. Do not make us beat you.” We firmly refused to tell our names and addresses, only saying that we came to appeal for Dafa.

Chen became very impatient and slapped me on the face suddenly. He then punched me on my head and chest. He then went out and came back with electric batons. He shocked us on various exposed areas. Another practitioner is a quiet college student and he was shocked until he had spasms and he had to lie on the floor, breathing heavily. However, we still did not tell them the information they need. There was nothing they could do. They sent us to the Mentougou detention center.

When we were in the detention center, we thought that we were not criminals. Therefore, we refused to carry out the rules and refused to eat and drink to protest their suppression. Some officers in charge incited other criminals to beat, chain, and shackle us. There were always sounds from every cell of practitioners being beaten. After three days, we went on a hunger strike. They beat me until I fainted. They let the doctor examine me. I had a very rapid heartbeat and high blood pressure. I fainted almost every day because of the hunger strike. They feared that I was going to die there and finally released me. ”

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May 23, 2001

Falun Gong practitioners open up banners that read “Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance” on May 23, 2001 on Tiananmen Square (Minghui Net)

Since late April 2001, more and more practitioners have gone to Tiananmen to appeal for Dafa. The majority of practitioners who stepped out were captured by police on their way, and very few reached Tiananmen Square.
Falun Gong practitioners were tortured in Tiananmen Police Station on May 23, 2001 (Minghui Net)
A practitioner’s personal account on May 23, 2001

At around 10am on May 23, 2001 in Tiananmen Square, several Dafa practitioners unfurled banners and shouted, “Falun Dafa is good. Falun Dafa is a righteous practice. Restore our Teacher’s reputation.” The yellow banner with large red words, “Truth, Benevolence, Forbearance” was held high above their heads. Then the practitioners put back the banners and walked towards the People’s Hero Monument.

When we came to the center of the square, a police vehicle rapidly caught up with us, and policemen dragged the three of us onto it.

The police vehicle drove us to the Tiananmen police station. The policemen dragged us onto the second floor, cuffed us onto the iron chairs in the passageway, and interrogated us. Four policemen beat us as they asked us for our addresses. They kicked us on our torsos and legs and slapped us on our faces. The oldest practitioner was 59 and male. Two female practitioners were around 45. We kept clarifying the truth of Falun Gong even as we were being tortured.

Another policeman came to interrogate us after 7 o’clock in the evening. He kicked us without restraint. He kicked our heads, faces, legs, and backs. Since his kicking couldn’t make us tell our addresses, he fetched a black bottle from his office. We don’t know what kind of liquid medicine was in it. He grabbed and held up our faces one by one and tried to pour the liquid into our mouths. Not being able to pour the liquid into our mouths, he then poured it into our noses and onto our heads. In the meanwhile, he kept yelling, “I’ll let you increase your cultivation energy.” The liquid smelled strong and was irritating; it burned the areas around our lips and noses, and made us really thirsty. The pain at that time was beyond words.

He kicked a female practitioner, who was cuffed to one side of an iron chair, to the floor. The liquid was all over her head. Fearing the liquid would burn his own hands, he wrapped her head with our banner, dragged her up and continued to kick her. He tortured us this way for about an hour. It wasn’t until another policemen said, “OK. Don’t beat them anymore,” that he stopped.

The three of us didn’t tell them our addresses, and resisted their further persecution. Had we told them our address, we would have brought trouble to our local government, police, neighborhood committee, work units, and our relatives. The next night they released us.