Wang Weihua is a primary school teacher in Inner Mongolia who spent time in a detention center. Her husband, Du Wen, is the former executive director of the Legal Advisory Office of the Inner Mongolia District Government of the Communist Party of China. After carrying out the government code-named “Milk Tofu” operation, the authorities sentenced Du Wen to 12 years and eight months for embezzling public funds. He was released from prison in January 2023 and subsequently went into exile in Europe with his wife, Wang Weihua.
During Du Wen’s imprisonment, Wang Weihua persisted in seeking justice for her husband. As a result, she was arrested by the authorities and detained in Hohhot No. 1 Detention Center on May 5, 2010, for more than 580 days before being released. During detention, she met a Falun Gong practitioner named Aunt Yan, and they formed a deep friendship.
Over the past decade, Weihua has been under tremendous pressure and mental stress due to her relatives’ long-term imprisonment and the personal injustices she suffered. As a result, she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder by doctors, causing severe loss of any memories, except for her vivid, detailed recollection of meeting Aunt Yan while in prison. Weihua recalls this time as if it happened yesterday.
First meeting with Aunt Yan
In 2010, when Wang Weihua was sent to the detention center, it was late at night during the heat of summer. The cell was small, stuffy, and hot, and she was squeezed into a corner where more than a dozen people were already detained. After 24 hours of sleepless tossing and turning, Weihua eventually fell asleep.
The following day, Wang Weihua found that she had nothing, not even a towel or a toothbrush. In this detention center, she was required to buy all these things by herself, and since her family didn’t have time to send her money, she couldn’t buy anything.
At this time, a woman came over and handed Wang Weihua a half-section of a toothbrush (long toothbrush sticks are not allowed in the detention center, so they were all broken into half). The woman said, “You can use this!” “I know you are a teacher!”
In front of her, Weihua saw a woman in her 60s with a kind and gentle face and warmth emanating from her heart. She took the toothbrush and thanked her. Later, Weihua learned that this woman was a Falun Gong practitioner imprisoned for practicing her faith. Everyone called her Aunt Yan.
Aunt Yan was very concerned about Weihua and told her that most people imprisoned here were robbers and thieves. She said, “You are a teacher, different from them.” Aunt Yan often taught her to recite a nine-character Mantra, “Falun Dafa is good; Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forgiveness are good.”
Weihua’s bed was right next to Aunt Yan’s bed, which was tucked into a corner and out of reach of the surveillance cameras. She noticed how Aunt Yan got up at 3:40 a.m. every day to meditate and do the Falun Gong exercises, and everyone turned a blind eye and didn’t say anything to the guards since she was kind.
One day, Weihua asked her, “Auntie, how come you are so self-disciplined every day?” Aunt Yan said, “Most Falun Gong practitioners practice now and insist on practicing daily, so the righteous thoughts they generate are powerful. Before the persecution, everyone practiced the exercises in a large square, and someone saw a red light coming out of that place.”
Aunt Yan also said, “I regret that I didn’t read more of my Master’s books when I was outside. After coming in, I want to read but can’t. Now, I can only rely on memory and recollection.”
A mysterious voice
One night, as Weihua was soundly asleep, she suddenly heard a loud voice. Aunt Yan yelled, “I want to go out! I want to go out! I want to go out!”
Anxiously, she thought, “Why is Aunty so loud? She might get beaten if the people on duty outside hear it.” Thinking that Aunt Yan must have woken everyone up, Weihua looked around, only to find that the room was quiet and everyone was fast asleep. “What’s going on with such a loud noise? Why didn’t anyone wake up?” Weihua felt very strange. She turned around and looked at Aunt Yan and saw her meditating quietly.
She looked around again, and it was still quiet; the corridor and the entire detention center were tranquil, without a sound. Puzzled, Weihua thought, “Am I hallucinating?” “Am I dreaming?” “But why is this dream so clear?” “The sound was so loud that it woke me up. What’s going on?” Weihua was very confused.
The next day, she asked Aunt Yan, “Did you speak last night?” Aunt Yan just smiled and said nothing. “I heard you say — I want to go out!” Aunt Yan said, “I was saying this in my mind then, and you heard it. You can imagine how strong my intention was.” Weihua thought this whole incident was beyond belief and incredible.
Everyone avoids drug addicts except Aunt Yan
One day, a middle-aged woman who was a drug addict and her husband, the drug dealer, came into the detention center. Both were arrested, and their child was left wandering outside. It was a very pitiful sight to behold.
There were no drugs in the detention center, and as a result, the woman had a strong withdrawal attack and felt very uncomfortable. Her reaction was so strong that she vomited all over the floor, leaving a strong, dirty, and smelly stench. Everyone in the cell avoided her except Aunt Yan. She went to take care of fetching water and food and helping her clean up and wash.
Why do you want to help her when everyone else is avoiding her?” asked Weihua, who didn’t understand. “She’s a drug addict and not a good person!” Aunt Yan said, “Our master said we should be good people and help others.”
There was also a mental patient in the detention center. She was mentally unstable and would curse and beat people from time to time. Usually, everyone was afraid of her and stayed away from her. Strangely, she was polite to Aunt Yan and never hit or scolded her.
One day, when the mental patient was resting at noon, she said to the person beside her, “I saw Aunt Yan walking on flowers.” Everyone thought this comment was strange coming from this mental patient.
The female police officer said, ‘When I retire, I will also practice Falun Gong’
One day, Weihua inquired, “Auntie, why do you insist on practicing? And why do you believe in it so deeply?” Aunt Yan said, “I once suffered from a serious heart disease. At that time, my company had just opened for business. There were many guests downstairs, and my husband wanted me to go downstairs to entertain them. I didn’t even have the strength to go downstairs. Later, someone gave me a free copy of Zhuan Falun by chance. After reading the book and practicing the exercises, my heart disease was cured, and now I feel very comfortable.”
“You don’t know what it’s like to have a heart attack until you experience it!” said Aunt Yan. “Later, no matter who told me not to practice, I would not listen. Because no one could cure my disease, and no one could make my body feel better.” Wang Weihua said that Aunt Yan looked very healthy and young, with smooth and delicate skin. She didn’t look like a person in her 60s at all.
The detention center lacked medical care and medicine. One day, an inmate had a sore throat and caught a cold, so he called the doctor from the detention center. The doctor said, “Look at you guys. You are so young, and you get sick so often. Look at the Falun Gong practitioners; they never get sick and don’t even want to take medicine!” The female police captain who was present later said, “When I retire, I will also practice Falun Gong.”
True faith
Everyone in the detention center knew that Falun Gong practitioners only needed to write a “confession and a guarantee statement” to be released and go out to live a normal life. Aunt Yan never wrote it. She said, “I will never write a single word. I cannot do anything to let my Master down, and I cannot go against my faith.”
Weihua said Aunt Yan would rather go to jail than give up her faith. She asked Aunt Yan, “Do you Falun Gong practitioners not tell lies?” Aunt Yan said, “True practitioners and true Dafa disciples will not lie, and the Master does not allow lying.” “Your faith is too amazing,” Weihua told her in disbelief. “I see true faith in you, and your faith comes from the heart. It will remain unchanged and steadfast even when society changes, and personal interests are at stake. This is so rare.”
Before meeting Aunt Yan, Weihua had never been exposed to Falun Gong. She remembered that when she was in high school, the news had broadcast about the self-immolation in Tiananmen Square, which was all negative and scary. Because of this, at the time, she had a certain prejudice against Falun Gong.
“Since I met Aunt Yan, I found that this biased belief was false as she proved to be a very kind person with genuine deep faith. Although we have only been together for three months, we formed a deep friendship,” said Weihua.
Aunt Yan was released after spending three months in the detention center. She went to Weihua’s home to visit her children upon her release. Later, Aunt Yan went to London, England. The two friends have been in contact ever since.
Du Wen’s encounter with a Falun Gong practitioner
Wang Weihua’s husband, Du Wen, was in prison for 12 years. He also met many Falun Gong practitioners in prison. Weihua asked Wen, “What kind of Falun Gong practitioners did you meet?” Wen responded that they were all good people, very kind and willing to help others. In the end, they influenced all the inmates in the prison. Weihua heard the following stories from Wen.
A Falun Gong practitioner in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, is a doctor. He was sentenced to more than ten years in prison. The authorities arranged for felons to torture him. They tied him to a tiger bench, beat him, tortured him, starved him, and spat on his face. Whenever this Falun Gong practitioner was taken down from the tiger bench, he would say, “Sentient beings, you are so pitiful!”
These prisoners also stole his food, but he never said anything and let them steal. Later, one prisoner was moved and changed completely from a cruel character to a gentle and decent person.
There was also a director of the 610 Office who was sentenced to death with a reprieve. Speaking from the bottom of his heart, he once told Du Wen that Falun Gong practitioners are awe-inspiring. They are people of faith, very remarkable, and do not do bad things. It isn’t politically necessary to suppress them. They are a very kind group with a bottom line and do many good things. He said that the most shameful thing he has done in his life was the suppression of Falun Gong.
The authorities wanted to use the wife of this former director of the “610 Office” to convince him to convert Falun Gong practitioners in exchange for reducing his sentence by six months to one year. He flatly refused and said, “I would rather spend one more year in prison than do this. It’s evil. Is there anything more evil than oppressing good people?” He said to Du Wen, “After you are released from prison, and if you have a chance, please convey my regret and apologize to Falun Gong practitioners.”
The prison was granted funding to be used specifically to convert Falun Gong practitioners. The police once asked Wen to write a fraudulent so-called “guarantee letter not to practice” on behalf of Falun Gong practitioners. Wen refused and advised the police that even if they felt that they had no right to refuse orders from their superiors, they could still raise the muzzle of the gun by one centimeter and not persecute good people.
Weihua and her husband are both Christians. She said, “Although we have different belief systems, the words and deeds of Falun Gong practitioners have reversed our negative thoughts instilled by the propaganda we have seen through the media. We feel that they are very good people. We see from them that their belief is steadfast. This true belief comes from the bottom of their hearts.” Wang Weihua said, “One day, if there is no Internet firewall, more people will come to know what kind of group Falun Gong is.”
Translated by Chua BC and edited by Maria
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