(Minghui.org) Baimiao Forced Labor Camp in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, was built specifically to help carry out the persecution of Falun Gong. On May 12, 2008, all the doors and windows suddenly started creaking and popping, and the water in the cups on the tables shook. People got dizzy and realized it was an earthquake.
Watching through the windows, the people detained in the cells saw all the students from Henan Province Shiyan Middle School next door run screaming out onto the playground. After a short while, the guards told everyone in the cam to quickly gather outside.
Ten days after the TV broadcast the news about the Wenchuan Earthquake, the labor camp held an event to collect donations. The detainees had no way to control where the donation money would go, but at least they felt this was an opportunity to express their concern for the earthquake victims.
The head detainee stood in front of Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Bai Shaohua and asked, “Will you make a donation to the disaster area?” Mr. Bai didn't hesitate and said, “I will.” “How much?” Mr. Bai answered, “I can donate 300 yuan.”
Mr. Bai really wanted to donate more. Ever since he started practicing Falun Gong, he had donated several thousand yuan at every charity event for flood victims, the poor, Hope Project, and so on. He graduated from Renmin University and used to have a very good job in Beijing. But he lost his job after the regime launched the persecution. For eight years, he made very little.
The communist regime spent millions on building so many solidly-built labor camps to persecute Falun Gong practitioners, while slapping together shoddily-built schools that easily collapsed, burying children during the earthquakes.
Who feels confident about giving money to "officials" no matter that the cause? For years it's been common knowledge that officials take disaster donations and line their own pockets. How could Mr. Bai help the victims of the disaster? The only thing he could do in a labor camp was to donate 300 yuan.
To everyone's surprise, the head detainee said, “You can't make a donation because you haven’t admitted your guilt yet.” Mr. Bai was startled and didn't know what to say. He asked, “Why is there such rule?” The head detainee didn't know how to answer and left. Later on, other detainees told Mr. Bai, “He was carrying out the director's order. They are playing a trick.”
In fact, the guards were trying to determine a Falun Gong practitioner's attitude. The reason they chose Mr. Bai was that he had never given up his belief even though he was tortured. He was beaten, hung up, shocked with electric batons, had his mouth pried open during force-feeding, etc. But he never yielded. Everyone in the labor camp knew that he was a steadfast practitioner. So, if a steadfast practitioner refused to donate to earthquake victims, the regime could slander Falun Gong, saying Mr. Bai was heatless.
The regime agents in Flushing, New York, made up slanderous lies about Falun Gong after the earthquake, claiming, “Falun Gong doesn't make donations.” If Mr. Bai did not donate anything, the regime could use it as an example. They could use it to incite people's hatred against Falun Gong, and the officers would get a bonus.
At that time, Mr. Bai himself was having a hard time. Before the earthquake, he was tortured and had sustained many injuries. His own situation was no better than the earthquake victims, but he still wanted to donate something to help them. And the amount he wanted to donate more than any of the other detainees.
That was not what the guards expected. They were afraid of the positive influence Falun Gong practitioners doing good deeds would have on others, so they wouldn't allow Mr. Bai to donate anything.
Once during a division gathering, Mr. Bai asked in front of everyone, “Why wouldn't you let me make a donation to the earthquake victims?” No one dared to respond.
From then on, whenever Mr. Bai heard anyone repeating the slanderous lies against Falun Gong about donating to disaster victims, he would tell his own story, that the regime agents didn't allow him to donate. Knowing how corrupt the regime is, as soon as people heard this, they immediately understood. One man named Huang He was a Christian. After he heard Mr. Bai's story, he said straightforwardly, “It's very clear. They're afraid of Falun Gong because you have a good influence. That's why they were trying to defame you.”