Testimony of John Meng, a Falun Gong practitioner

_{Illustration: Vô Vi / Pixabay}

My name is John Meng, and I was born in the 1970s. I am an IT worker now, and I like reading, swimming, and meditating. I finished middle school in 1991 and then went to the Tsinghua University of China, where I studied Electronic Engineering. After I got my Master’s degree, I worked as an associate teacher at the university.

My life changed dramatically in 1999 when the Chinese Communist Party started to crack down on Falun Gong, which is my belief. I was evicted from my work and was later arrested for clarifying the truth about Falun Gong to people in China. I was jailed for more than nine years until early 2010 when I was released from prison. In 2012 I came to Australia as a student, and I obtained my Ph.D. at the University of Queensland.

I gained Australian citizenship in the year 2017, so I am now Chinese-Australian. Most of my friends are Falun Gong practitioners, and we share the same core values of Falun Gong (truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance). Although the Chinese government has persecuted us for more than 20 years, we have never changed our beliefs. We continue to uphold our core values.

I remember the night of the 31st of December 2000. I went out to post some flyers on the street. I did not notice the two police officers hiding underneath an overpass. They suddenly swooped at me and pushed me down onto the ground. They then forced their knees on the top of my chest near my neck, which nearly choked me. They then took me to a police station, where I was interrogated and beaten severely by several police officers. They used an edged wooden stick to hit on my knees and shins, which was agonizing. They also stomped on my legs with their boots, shocked me with an electric baton, slapped my face, and did other things. They even threatened to kill me and then throw me out of the building, stating they would claim I committed suicide.

The police searched through my pockets and grabbed my wallet. Inside my wallet was a utility bill that had my rental apartment address on it. As a result, the police then raided my apartment. They also took other Falun Gong practitioners, who were staying in my apartment at the time, to the police station. These other Falun Gong practitioners had come to Beijing from other provinces to appeal for Falun Gong at Tiananmen Square. We were all kept in the police station for two days before we were taken to a detention center.

I stayed there for two months, and during that time, the police further interrogated me. They would call me out during the night and cross-examine me all night, and then let me back to the cell the following morning. By doing this intentionally, they were using fatigue to torment me. I was also tortured by other inmates who had been instructed by the police to do so. They poured cold water on me from head to toe until I chilled and shivered out of control.

Two months later, I was transferred to the detention center in Beijing, which was said to be the detention center for felons and prisoners of conscience. I stayed there for thirteen months, during which I was interrogated, prosecuted, and sentenced to ten years in prison.

In March 2002, I was sent to a different prison, where all of the male Falun Gong practitioners from Beijing were locked up. There I was forced to go through the so-called “transformation” process. The guards assigned a few inmates to surrounding me. They forced me to read books and fake news published by the Communist Party and watch television programs made by the party. The content was all lies, defaming and demonizing Falun Gong. If I refused to accept the content, the guards would reduce my sleeping time by forcing me to stay up long into the night until I could no longer stand the pressure and had to unwillingly accept the “transformation”. After that, I was forced to do manual slave labor.

During those years doing physical slave labor, I experienced a few strange health checks. These checks were only done on Falun Gong practitioners. Our hearts, livers, lungs, and eyes were checked by doctors. I did not know the purpose of these checks at the time, but now I think they might have been for collecting information for the Communist Party’s organ database.

In January 2010 I was released from prison, but I was still monitored by the local police. They also assigned a neighbor to monitor my daily activities. I was not able to apply for a passport because they placed a so-called “two-year deprivation of political rights” upon me. After two years, when the deprivation expired, I went to the passport office to apply for a passport. With the help of one of my schoolmates I applied for an Australian student visa, and in 2012 went to Australia.

After sharing these experiences, I hope the world will know that the Chinese Communist Party is the gravest human rights abuser and the most powerful evil force in the world. It uses lies and propaganda to demonize Falun Gong practitioners and harvest organs from Falun Gong practitioners and other minority groups in China. It uses its strong economic power to infiltrate the world and erode politicians in democratic countries.

We must be aware of the challenge we are facing and tackle the communist party. Otherwise, we will lose our freedom and democracy, and our children would end up living under a socialist tyranny someday in the future.

About the source:

The International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China (ETAC) is a coalition of lawyers, academics, ethicists, medical professionals, researchers and human rights advocates dedicated to ending forced organ harvesting in China.