By Li Gang
How many decades does one have in this life? Yet I have been arrested twice by the CCP for my belief in God, and was robbed of a total of ten years. During those ten years in prison, I was subjected to cruel and inhumane torture. It was the guidance of God’s love that allowed me to emerge alive from prison …
Being sold out by the printer, I was arrested.
On June 16, 1999, I went to deliver the books of the church. However, because the printer sold us out, the CCP police had already laid an ambush outside the printing factory. As soon as I arrived there, I felt that something was wrong, so I immediately turned around and grabbed a cab. However, it hadn’t gone far before being intercepted by the police. Four policemen then ordered me to get out of the car, after which they pushed me to the ground, handcuffed me and beat and kicked me. One of them said furiously, “Go ahead and run! Let’s see if you can run faster than my bullet. If you dare to escape again, I will shoot you in your legs and you’ll never be able to walk again.” This unexpected situation threw me into a panic, and I got so scared that I trembled from head to toe. At that time, I earnestly cried out to God, “O God, please calm my heart and protect me from becoming a Judas….” About ten minutes later, I finally calmed myself and no longer felt that panicked.
During the interrogation by the CCP police, God led me when I was in weakness.
Afterward, I was taken to the Municipal Public Security Bureau. Upon entering the room, I saw several evil cops wielding electric batons. The wild “zapping and popping” noises made by the electric batons struck terror in my heart, and I couldn’t help but step back. Before I figured out the situation, an evil cop sternly asked me, “Tell us! Who else was there with you? Where is your leader? Who keeps the church money? Where did you deliver those books last night?” Seeing that I didn’t say anything, they viciously threatened me, saying, “If you don’t tell the truth, we will imprison you for your whole life. Don’t expect to ever get out!” Hearing the words “whole life” and looking at the furious expression on their faces, I thought: “I’m finished! I am only 31 years old. Could it be that I will spend the rest of my life in prison? What about my wife and three young children? …”
Just when I was feeling scared and weak, these lyrics from a hymn of God’s word appeared in my mind, “You must suffer hardship for the truth, you must give yourself to the truth, you must endure humiliation for the truth, and to gain more of the truth you must undergo more suffering. This is what you should do. You must not throw away the truth for the sake of a peaceful family life, and you must not lose your life’s dignity and integrity for the sake of momentary enjoyment.” Thank God for His timely enlightenment and guidance. I came to understand that my suffering now was valuable, and that it was an act of righteousness to suffer for the truth and for bearing witness to God. In the face of the persecution by the evil cops, I knew I couldn’t betray God like Judas, but should live out the dignity that a Christian ought to possess. At that time, with the strength and courage that God’s words granted me, I said to them loudly, “No matter whether you will imprison me or shoot me dead, I will never become a Judas and sell out the church.” The evil cops interrogated me for a whole day, yet they didn’t get any useful information out of me. That night, they sent me to the Second Detention Center in Tianjia’an District, Huainan City.
The evil cops incited the prisoners to torture and abuse me.
As soon as I arrived at the detention center, the director there made some people strip off my clothes, during which time they forcibly took away the 200 yuan in cash I had on me. Then I walked barefoot into Cell 8, where more than 20 ferocious felons were detained—this was the cell they specially arranged for me. Officer Chen said to those prisoners, “This guy is here for believing in God. He is pretty stubborn. Do me a favor—‘brush his teeth’ and give him a ‘massage.’” He then turned to me and said aggressively: “From now on, stop believing in God. Believe in me. Here, I am God, I am the law. If I want you dead, then you won’t be able to walk out of here alive. So I advise you to be smart and quickly confess before I deal with you myself.” Hearing what he said, the other prisoners in the cell all grinned hideously.
At the instigation of Officer Chen, the prisoners then carried out inhumane torture on me. They said they would like to serve me some “Sandwich Biscuits” first: They put a chopstick with very sharp corners between my two fingers, and then they squeezed my fingers while keeping rotating the chopstick. Every time they rotated the chopstick, it would scrape a piece of skin from my fingers. Being tortured like this for ten minutes, all my fingers became mutilated and bloody. The searing pain made me sweat profusely and scream incessantly, and I almost fainted. Only then did I truly know what a living hell was. I just believed in God, did the things of righteousness and walked the right path of life, yet the CCP tortured me so cruelly—this was something I never expected before. Besides, they used the prisoners to deal with me so that they didn’t have to take any responsibility themselves. These demons are truly treacherous and vicious.
The next day, the evil cops took me to the interrogation room. As soon as I walked in the door, my gaze was immediately drawn to a room separated by iron bars, in the middle of which there was a tiger bench. I couldn’t help feeling somewhat nervous and afraid, thinking: “Will they brand me with a red-hot iron? Will I be able to stand it? Will I become a Judas?” I kept calling out to God in my heart: “O God, You know that I am too weak to overcome sin. I beg You to protect me from becoming a Judas and selling out the interests of God’s family and the brothers and sisters. Please protect me.” Just then these words of God “You must suffer hardship for the truth” again appeared in my mind, which gave me faith and strength and removed the nervousness and timidity from my heart, and I was ready to be martyred. Subsequently, no matter how the evil cops questioned me, I just replied with “I don’t know.” They kept interrogating me for three days and three nights, yet still failed to get anything they wanted. In a rage, they deprived me of meals and water, and on top of that, frequently threatened, enticed and frightened me. Under the guidance of God’s words, I didn’t sell out the interests of the church. Seeing that they couldn’t get any information about the church from me, the evil cops then sent me back to the cell and asked the prisoners to doubly torture me.
The days that followed were even tougher for me. The prisoners used what they called “Left Green Dragon and Right White Tiger” to torment me: They made me squat and hold a cup of hot tea with two hands, and then more than 20 prisoners took turns to slap me on both cheeks until I saw stars, started to lose consciousness and lay paralyzed on the floor. Even so, they still didn’t let me off and switched to use continuous punches to torture me: They put a book on my head and asked me to sit on the floor and hold it with both hands. After that, they took turns bashing me on my head. I had been beaten so badly that my head was dizzy and I felt the world spin. Being struck like this for half an hour, my head became badly swollen and hurt like hell. Just as I was in pain and weak, I recalled these words from the hymn “I Wish to See the Day of God’s Glory”: “My head may break and blood may flow, but the mettle of God’s people can’t be lost. God’s commission rests on the heart, I determine to humiliate Satan the devil. Pain and hardships are predestined by God, I will endure humiliation to be faithful to Him. I will never again cause God to shed tears or worry.” These lyrics increased my faith a hundredfold. I thought: “Even if I have to die, I cannot throw away the dignity and integrity that a believer in God should possess. I’ll never yield to the CCP government and betray God. Instead, I must steel myself not to be like a spineless weakling. I’m determined to fight the forces of Satan to the end.”
Later, the evil cops transferred me from the Second Detention Center to the First Detention Center. There, we got up at 6 a.m. every day and had half an hour to brush our teeth, wash our faces and make the bed. Those who were slower would suffer violent punching and kicking, and their quilts would be doused with water. Every day we only received a small bowl of congee for breakfast and some stale rice and a bowl of soup made from unpeeled white gourd for dinner. We were supposed to have some meat as extra meals every week, yet the guards sold the meat and pocketed the money, and gave us some dead chickens and ducks which carried virus instead. Besides, we had to do about 12 hours of hard labor every single day, and those who couldn’t meet the quota would be deprived of meals. The heavy physical labor and inadequate food debilitated my body, and I was often too weak to keep my balance. Subjected to the long-term torment, I dropped from 70 to 45 kilos and was reduced to be skin and bones. In such a harsh environment, I spent one year and seven months.
Later, I was sentenced to five years in prison for “using a Xie Jiao organization to destroy the implementation of the law,” and was sent to a farm to serve my sentence in January of 2001. During the imprisonment there, we got up before the dawn every day to pull up seedlings and transplant them. If we couldn’t complete the tasks, we would be beaten or suffer other kind of physical punishment. In the chilling cold of winter when the temperature was below zero, the evil cops asked us to catch fish for them in the river. Standing in the cold water for two hours, our bodies became stiff with cold and were shivering all over, and our faces turned blue. But even more horrible than that was mental torment. They made us memorize the prison rules, the constitution and some other regulations and gave us exams on them, the aim of which was to stifle our thoughts. Those who failed the exam would suffer severe punishment, such as being shocked with electric batons, being forced to stand still or stand under the scorching sun, and there were some prisoners who had been tortured to death. I once saw a brother jump from the second floor because he couldn’t stand the torment anymore. His legs were badly broken and the bones were exposed. The evil cops, however, actually stamped on his wounds and said fiercely, “You want to escape, huh?” There was another brother who was tormented by these demons by using “salting meat”: They slashed his body with a knife and then put salt in his wounds. After witnessing these scenes, I finally knew what it meant to treat human life as dirt. The CCP government wantonly tortured and abused us believers in God. It was simply a demon that brought harm to people.
Being released after completing my sentence, I thanked God for His grace.
Thanks to the mercy of God, I obtained early release later. The moment I walked out of the prison, I was so excited that tears slipped down my cheeks, and I continuously gave thanks and praise to God in my heart. It was all because of God’s protection that I could emerge from the prison alive.
During the period when I was interrogated, I suffered all kinds of cruel torment, such as “Sandwich Biscuits,” “Left Green Dragon and Right White Tiger” handcuffs and shackles, the tiger bench, continuous punches and being forced to cling to an electric pole in winter…. Subjected to the long-term physical and mental torture by the evil cops, I thought of committing suicide to end my suffering many times. But every time I was at the edge of collapse, God was always there leading me, and this hymn often encouraged me: “My head may break and blood may flow, but the mettle of God’s people can’t be lost. God’s commission rests on the heart, I determine to humiliate Satan the devil. Pain and hardships are predestined by God, I will endure humiliation to be faithful to Him. I will never again cause God to shed tears or worry.” I secretly made a resolution that I would be devoted to God all my life and forsake this old devil, even at the cost of death. I thanked God for listening to my prayers, and through relying on God’s guidance, I stood firm in my testimony and didn’t become a Judas in this ordeal.
Being arrested again and subjected to brutal tortures made me see clearly the demonic essence of the CCP.
Over twenty days after I was released from prison, I once again fulfilled my duties. Because the CCP government had never ceased to persecute Christians, later I again fell into the tiger’s lair …
One noon in December, 2004, I was making a phone call at a booth when four policemen suddenly pushed me to the ground. They then took me to a hotel for secret interrogation, during which time they took away everything I was carrying and also took photos of me. Afterward, they hung me to a window so that only my toes could touch the floor, and kept questioning me, “Where is the church money? Where are you hiding your books? Where are other believers?” All they did allowed me to see clearly their base intention—to seize our church’s funds. They plundered people’s wealth, oppressed good people and resisted righteousness. They were so shameless and were actually the demons that resisted God. At that moment, I thought of these words of God, “For thousands of years this has been the land of filth, it is unbearably dirty, misery abounds, ghosts roam its every corner, tricking and deceiving, making groundless accusations,[1] being ruthless and vicious, trampling this ghost town and leaving it littered with dead bodies; the stench of decay covers the land and pervades the air, and it is heavily guarded.[2] Who can see the world beyond the skies? The devil tightly trusses all of man’s body, it puts out both his eyes, and seals his lips firmly shut. The king of devils has rampaged for several thousand years, right up until today, when it still keeps a close watch on the ghost town, as if it were an impenetrable palace of demons; this pack of watchdogs, meanwhile, stare with glaring eyes, deeply fearful that God will catch them unawares and wipe them all out, leaving them without a place of peace and happiness. How could the people of a ghost town such as this have ever seen God? Have they ever enjoyed the dearness and loveliness of God? What appreciation have they of the matters of the human world? Who of them can understand God’s eager will? Small wonder, then, that God incarnate remains completely hidden: In a dark society such as this, where the demons are merciless and inhumane, how could the king of devils, who kills people in the blink of an eye, tolerate the existence of a God who is lovely, kind, and also holy? How could it applaud and cheer the arrival of God? These lackeys! They repay kindness with hate, they have long since disdained God, they abuse God, they are savage in the extreme, they have not the slightest regard for God, they plunder and pillage, they have lost all conscience, and have not a trace of kindness, and they tempt the innocent into senselessness. Forefathers of the ancient? Beloved leaders? They all oppose God! Their meddling has left all beneath heaven in a state of darkness and chaos! Religious freedom? The legitimate rights and interests of citizens? They are all tricks for covering up sin!”
God’s words and my personal experiences allowed me to see that the CCP is actually a satanic organization that opposes God. Outwardly, it provides religious freedom in the Constitution and declares that citizens enjoy legitimate rights, but in fact this is just for the foreigners to see. In order to outlaw God’s work, turn China into a godless zone and achieve its aim of ruling people forever, it frantically condemns the church of God, hunts for Christ, and persecutes Christians. As a result, many Christians have been unable to return home and been separated from their families, many have been arrested and suffered brutal tortures and some even have been maimed or killed. I thought of how I just worshiped God and read His words without doing anything criminal, but was arrested twice by the CCP police and sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment altogether, how time after time I was tortured, intimidated, and enticed for confession, and how I was tormented by the prisoners incited by the CCP police. Through such cruel tortures, I came to have some discernment of the evil essence of the CCP. It is actually an evil consortium that wins its fame by deceiving the public and goes against the heavens, which will definitely be cursed and punished by God. I made a resolution to rebel against this evil old demon and stand testimony for God.
Recalling God’s love, my resolve was strengthened.
Later, the evil cops continued using all kinds of torture to torment and beat me. They also tried to break my will and coax me into selling out the church by promising to let me go home. The long-time torment threw me into a state of high mental anxiety, to the point that my heart would start racing and my body shivering at the sight of these evil cops. Later on, I really couldn’t take it anymore and thought of seeking relief through death. Just when my flesh was at its weakest, God’s words came to guide me from inside, “Perhaps you all remember these words: ‘For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.’ In the past, you have all heard this saying, yet none understood the true meaning of the words. Today, you know well the real significance they hold.” Then the scenes of the Lord Jesus being whipped, tormented, and crucified came to my mind. I thought: In order to save us corrupt mankind, God came to earth from heaven, suffered all kinds of humiliations and even was nailed on the cross, offering His all. God has set an exemplar for us, so what is there for me to be afraid of? Today, I can sacrifice myself for righteousness, which is an honorable thing and I shouldn’t escape. But I actually wanted to die just because of suffering some tortures. Aren’t I too cowardly? Today I can survive those cruel tortures—isn’t it all thanks to God’s protection? Tasting God’s love, I was again filled with faith and strength and had the courage to live on. I also remembered the oath I once made before God that I would defend justice with my life, suffer for the truth and give myself to the truth. Then I knew that being able to suffer along with Christ today was a blessing God granted me. At that moment, tears streamed down my face as I sobbed in silence. I made a vow to God that I would stand in the place of a created being, live as a Christian of dignity, entrust my life to God and submit to His arrangements without my own demands and decisions. When I had the will to stand firm in my testimony, God opened up a way for me. Twelve days later, the evil cops sent me to the county detention center.
After one year and six months in the detention center, I was sentenced to another five years in prison for “participating in illegal gatherings,” and was sent to a farm to serve my sentence, where I was forced to make crystal balls and knit sweaters. During those long five years, I led a really dark and slavish life, where my monthly five-yuan allowance was embezzled by the evil cops, and I had to do heavy physical labor as well as memorize their rules and regulations.
In this dark prison, it was God’s words that gave me strength and light. I often thought of the happy days when I lived the church life and fulfilled the duties with my brothers and sisters, and then my heart would be deeply touched. Although I had suffered a lot during my imprisonment, I gained some true discernment and knowledge of the God-opposing demonic essence of the CCP government. I truly saw that in this country governed by the CCP, there was no religious freedom at all. The CCP practices a dictatorship and applies the policy of “Let those who comply with me thrive and those who resist me perish.” It persecutes Christians, regards their lives as worthless and even kills them with impunity. It is exactly the enemy of God. Meanwhile, I deeply appreciated that only God is love, who was caring for and protecting me by my side all the time. When I was in pain and weak, it was God’s words that led me and gave me faith and strength. Besides, I also gained some understanding and knowledge of God’s authority and saw that my fate is controlled by God’s hands. Although the CCP could torture my flesh, it couldn’t control my life, for it is in God’s hands. It was God who protected me and led me to overcome Satan’s cruel tortures time after time. Whenever I thought of this, I was deeply moved and became even more determined to stand witness for God to humiliate the old Satan.
In June of 2009, my sentence was fulfilled and I was finally released from the hell on earth. Ten years of life in prison enabled me to differentiate between good and evil, right and wrong, light and darkness, and what is great and what is ignoble. I thanked God from the bottom of my heart and wished to spend the rest of my life repaying His love. Later, I once again returned to my church and to God’s embrace. In this big family, I perform duties with my brothers and sisters, we help and support each other and enjoy the love and warmth from God. I couldn’t help singing this hymn “I Wish to See the Day of God’s Glory.”
“1
“Today I accept God’s judgment and purification, tomorrow I’ll receive His blessings. I’m willing to give my youth and offer up my life to see the day of God’s glory. Oh, God’s love has enchanted my heart. He works and expresses the truth, bestowing new life upon me. I’m willing to drink from the bitter cup and suffer to gain the truth. I will endure humiliation without complaint, I wish to spend my life repaying God’s kindness.
“2
“I’ll give my love and loyalty to God and complete my mission to glorify God. I’m determined to stand firm in testimony to God, and never give in to Satan. Oh, my head may break and blood may flow, but the mettle of God’s people can’t be lost. God’s commission rests on the heart, I determine to humiliate Satan the devil. Pain and hardships are predestined by God, I will endure humiliation to be faithful to Him. I will never again cause God to shed tears or worry.
“3
“God’s words give me faith and strength, I will steadfastly follow God to the end. I will always proclaim and testify to the gospel of God till my very last breath. Oh, I praise God heartily, and offer up a new song and dance. I open up and speak from the heart, I offer my sincerity to God. My heart will forever be with God. When the day of God’s glory comes, we’ll gather around the throne and joyfully dance, we’ll enjoy eternal rest in the new heaven and new earth.”
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