Gong Ruiping tried to find out where she was and what had happened to her, but all memories faded after a guard grabbed her hair and repeatedly banged her head against the wall. “I later found out that my knees were bleeding and my face was swollen,” Gong said later in a statement. It happened at the Beijing Legal Education Center, also known as a brainwashing center, when Gong was arrested for the first time in July 2001 for practicing Falun Gong. Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice that originated in China, and involves five slow-moving exercises and moral teachings. Officials estimated 70 million to 100 million people in China practiced Falun Gong by 1999, before its growing popularity frightened the Chinese communist regime. Millions have been detained in prisons, labor camps, and other facilities since July 20, 1999, according to the Falun Dafa Information …