Almost seven years ago, on February 4, 2000, my mother was kidnapped on the way to Tiananmen Square. Two days after that, February 6, 2000, the policemen searched my parents apartment, confiscated all the Falun Gong books and a computer. A couple of months later, they barged into our apartment again to take pictures. A Chinese official newspaper, Legal Daily even reported my parent’s apartment as a “black den of evil cult”.

On October 12, 2000, my mother and eight other Falun Gong practitioners were put on trial under the same charge: for “having disturbed the law from being implemented” and “colluded with foreign anti-China forces”. The only evidence they had for charging my mother was that she participated a Falun Gong cultivation experience sharing meeting with practitioners from Australia.

As a family member, my father attended the trail on October 12, 2000. It’s not an open trial. Each defendant could only have one family member to audit and the courthouse was strictly guarded. Even the bus stops nearby where re-routed on that day. My father couldn’t talk to her on court and he had no rights to lodge an appeal or engage a lawyer for her because the court does not allow it.

Between February 4, 2000 and October 12, 2000, we did not know her whereabouts. Later we learned that she had been detained in Beijing Public Security Bureau Branch Seven where they keep prisoners on death roll. Then she was transferred to Beijing Xicheng District Detention Center. After the trial, she was imprisoned in Beijing Tuanhe Juvenile Prison until she was released on February 1, 2003.

In Tuanhe Juvenile Prison, she and a lot of other Falun Gong practitioners were separated to different platoons with each platoon composed of 100 criminal prisoners. The policemen even encouraged prisoners to harass her while for example waiting in line to get meal. And the policemen would ask the prisoners to give my mother false articles of Mr. Li Hongzhi, founder of Falun Gong, in order to brainwash her.

Even after she was released in 2003, the policemen of Shuangyushu substation are still watching my parents closely. They tapped into our telephone and they would pay a visit to my parents every couple of months. My letters and packages sent to my parents were often times opened and damaged.

My mother’s recent arrest is not an isolated case. I've heard quite a few Falun Gong practitioners were arrested because the 2008 Olympics Games is approaching -- the Chinese communist party has a tradition to start mass arrests before big events.