Foreword
In July 2003, I walked out of the Beijing Women's Forced Labour Camp. It marked the end of my two-year-and-four-months hellish ordeal!
Since July 1999, for more than seven years, the Communist regime has employed all of the most evil methods to brutally persecute Falun Gong practitioners. The labour camp is one facility where the persecution is most widespread, most concentrated, most frequent and most ruthless. It is a living hell. Countless Falun Gong practitioners were sent there and held over long periods of time. They are physically tortured and mentally tormented as they are monitored around the clock and brainwashed by various cruel methods. The terror at the labour camp still makes me shudder. The evil Communist regime's officials convey this message via violent brainwashing, "You cannot live your way! You must live as we tell you. You must dump what's in your head and replace it with what we allow you to think. You must replace your belief with the belief we give you!"
After I broke free from the labour camp with the power of righteous thoughts, a powerful force drove me to write about my experiences. I still feel heart-piercing anguish when I relive the nightmare in my mind, but the environment in which I live reminds me of what I once went through, and it reminds me of my responsibilities. After I went home, officials from my workplace and from the street Party Committee still kept me under surveillance, as they do to this day. I encountered various types of interference when writing this article from memory. I was interrupted many times during the writing process. I tried my best to record some parts of my personal persecution experience at the labour camp, though they are only fragments.
All names in this article are real, as it will assist in the exposure of and opposition to the persecution, and also calling for an end to the persecution and investigation of the perpetrators.
Through this article, I record the facts and the period in time that they happened, and if they are still occurring.
1. A Wicked, Complete Brainwashing Mechanism
As of early 2000, large groups of Falun Gong practitioners were being sent to custody centres, labour camps, and prisons. The wicked Party misused the manpower at labour camps to suppress and kill a large group of kind and innocent Falun Gong practitioners who believe in Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance. Everything that is done at a labour camp centres on "reform1." This reform is spiritual murder, as it aims to destroy one's belief, so one is spiritually dead. The labour camps also carry out the "physical destruction" part of the Party's policy regarding the practitioners. They have further developed the existing "psychological reform," a violation of human rights, into endless mental torment and physical abuse. Thus, a complete "reform" system was put into operation since the early stage of the persecution.
(a) Lots of fabricated and slanderous brainwashing information. Since 2000, the labour camps sold several books called "Assorted Teaching Material on Falun Gong" in which they viciously attack Teacher [Teacher Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Dafa] and Dafa with lies. They force every practitioner to buy the entire series. This mind-poisoning information is all over the labour camp.
(b) Deceive and motivate the entire society to participate in brainwashing. The government deceives and encourages social groups and individuals to persecute Falun Gong practitioners.
What is more evil is that the camp officials force determined practitioners' workplaces to suspend practitioners' salary or fire them. If the practitioner is the breadwinner of the family, the whole family will suffer. They lie to the practitioners' families and trick them into crying at the labour camp. The families sometimes kneel and beg the practitioner to give up her belief. They verbally attack the practitioner, or throw themselves against a wall and threaten divorce, which assert tremendous pressure on the practitioner.
(c) Step-by-step reform procedure. The officials have a very evil system that goes step by step and pushes one down the path of no return. Once a practitioner makes the smallest compromise, the officials will continue to torture and torment him to make sure he follows the reform procedures and completely betrays his belief.
The first thing a practitioner is forced to do after entering the labour camp is to write a guarantee statement that promises not to practise Falun Gong, not to teach Falun Gong to others, and not to hurt or kill himself. Dafa practitioners would never hurt or kill themselves; this item is there to make sure practitioners who go on hunger strikes to protest the persecution do not go against the order of labour camps.
The second step: the practitioner is forced to write a repentance statement2. They force the practitioner to say that peaceful appeal, truth clarification and distribution of flyers is illegal, and he is guilty of disrupting social stability.
The third step: the practitioner is forced to write a statement to announce that one has broken away from Dafa.
The fourth step: the practitioner is forced to write an article to "expose" and "attack" Teacher Li and Dafa. The officials inspect the practitioners' articles, and if they think the practitioner's thinking process is not up to their standards, they will decide the practitioner has not been completely "reformed" and will repeatedly force the practitioners to revise or rewrite the article. They also appoint specialised personnel to brainwash and help revise the statement. Someone will write the statement in case the practitioner is illiterate, and make the practitioner sign her name. They do not rest until the practitioner's statement is considered "qualified."
The fifth step: a large meeting is held to "expose" and "attack" Dafa. The entire process is filmed and kept on file. The reformed practitioner is forced to read aloud her statements in front of the whole division. The labour camp assigns special personnel to videotape the ceremony and put it on file. After all of these procedures, they continue to observe and test the practitioner for a period of time in order to solidify the "fruit" of reform. When the officials think it's time, they carry out the last step.
The sixth step: test and acceptance. The people who administer "test and acceptance" are usually officials from the Education Section higher ranks. They usually ask the practitioner questions and judge, based on her answers, whether she is completely reformed, half-reformed, or pretending to be reformed. They decide whether to accept her answers as pass or fail. Those who pass usually receive a sentence reduction of from two months to seven months, most often two months. If the person actively assists the evildoers, helps brainwash other practitioners and attack other practitioners, she will receive a sentence reduction of from three months to seven months, in addition to rewards such as being allowed to meet with family during holidays and even go for a visit home. If the person fails the test, she will be further brainwashed and placed under constant watch until she is completely reformed. If the person changes her mind some time after reform, such as by publishing a solemn announcement to void the statements, the officials will deprive her of a normal life and throw her back into round-the-clock physical and mental abuse.
(d) The labour camps use two groups of people to aid them to persecute Dafa practitioners. The above describes the format and methods of reform, and the following tells the direct persecution by the guards. The labour camp sets a reform quota of more than 95%, and this standard is connected with the guards' bonus. It is said that a guard will receive more than 1,000 yuan3 for reforming one practitioner. As more and more practitioners are arrested, more and more money is issued to the guards. Financial interest is a strong incentive that drives the guards to persecute practitioners.
In order to improve the reform rate, aside from personally persecuting the practitioners, the guards also use two types of people to assist them in the process. The first type of people consists of detainees - other than Falun Gong practitioners - such as drug addicts, prostitutes, pornography traffickers, robbers, burglars, thieves, and other criminals. The guards rely most heavily on the drug addicts. The drug addicts used to be the biggest headache for camp officials as they have a terrible reputation and are difficult to manage. The guards used to call them scum. These addicts are surprised and excited at the appearance of Dafa practitioners because they found themselves in a different light--they became trusted partners for the guards, as the officials seek assistance from them during persecution.
The guards pick every single one of the most vicious criminals and assign them as class heads, to surround and attack practitioners. With instruction, acceptance, tacit approval, hints and rewards from the guards, these criminals quickly became a special group during the detention of practitioners. Because the guards use and trust them, they enjoy a relaxed environment and privileges not given to labour camp detainees. They don't have to work and are not restricted by camp rules and regulations. They can eat and sleep any time they want, and they steal, intercept, and throw away practitioners' belongings. They verbally and physically attack people. The guards order them to watch and assault practitioners and notify the guards of the practitioners' actions, and they do everything the guards cannot do themselves, including various schemes and tortures.
The second type of people the guards use are collaborators, people who were once Falun Gong practitioners but are "reformed" and now actively assist the guards to reform other practitioners. These people can also do what the guards want but cannot do themselves.
First, the collaborators try to confuse the practitioners by misinterpreting and twisting the meaning of Dafa. They are well educated and boast of their self-proclaimed high-level cultivation status. They are the most deceptive and become the ones who most directly target the "reform" of practitioners.
Second, they await the guards' every call 24 hours a day. They don't leave "their post," have "no off-duty" and are ready to attack at any time on orders from the guards.
Third, they spy on any practitioner who pretends to reform, who announces that her statements are void, or who delivers Teacher's articles. One practitioner who used the time allotted for brainwashing to share experiences with me was later never seen again because the collaborators reported our meeting to the camp officials. The collaborators spy on practitioners, find out information, gain practitioners' trust and report to the guards. They live among practitioners and use every opportunity to create conflict. They provide the guards with firsthand information on the practitioners' every thought and move. To be more accurate, they are devils sleeping alongside the practitioners. The collaborators are able to persecute the practitioners in a way that even exceeds the ability of the guards.
When these two groups of people are organised, coordinated and ordered by the guards, the evil acts committed by them all together are unscrupulous and without restraint.
2. Devious, Wicked Psychiatric Consultation
The labour camp carries out systematic and continuous mental torment of practitioners through theoretic guidance. There is a "Psychiatric Consultation Room" at Division 3, and someone said all guards at Division 3 have studied psychology. Normally, psychiatric consultations are aimed to reduce stress, resolve mental suffering and remove mental barriers so people can regain mental health. Yet, the camp staff uses their knowledge of psychology as a way to "open up" practitioners, which goes against the true purpose of psychiatric consultation by turning it into a form of vicious mental torture.
This mental torture lasts throughout the entire time the practitioners are held at the labour camp. It is continuous and systematic. The camp staff observes the practitioners' emotions, and studies the practitioners' thoughts and actions with the evil motives and the eyes of professional trainers. They probe the practitioners' hopes and wants at the labour camp, and every practitioner's willpower and endurance, their personality, strength and weakness, hobbies and pet peeves, and things that make them happy or sad. They also have detailed information on every practitioner's academic profile, career profile, work places and achievements. They know everything about the practitioners' parents, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, children and relatives, and so on.
As soon as a practitioner arrives at the camp, the camp staff at all divisions makes the practitioner take a written psychiatric test. They analyse and study the practitioner based on the test results, and they make a fundamental decision on the practitioner and sort the practitioners into several types. They then make a step-by-step brainwashing plan, based on the characteristics of each individual practitioner before they make the first "breakthrough." At this point they know every tidbit about the practitioner's objective existence, except what goes on inside the practitioner's head.
During the following months, the camp staff puts into use every weapon in their arsenal of mental torment. Dafa practitioners must persevere solely based on their righteous belief and understanding of Dafa. They target the practitioners' weaknesses and find a crack. They decide when to pressure you in a certain way, when to treat you with fake kindness, when to teach you a lesson, when to get your parents and siblings to attack you, when to make you feel guilty through manipulating your children, and when to make your spouse pressure you and threaten divorce. They inflict psychological damage on the practitioners while calling it psychiatric consultation. This direct evildoing continues until the last minute of the practitioner's stay at the labour camp.
I refused to reform and as a result was held in a solitary confinement cell for a long time. The guards watched me around the clock and ordered the inmates to secretly write "surveillance dairies" in which they recorded my mental state after I was rudely awakened in the morning, how I ate and drank water, how many times I used the toilet, what I said during brainwashing sessions and what I said the rest of the time, the issues to which I was sensitive, receptive or resistant, and the things for which I expressed joy, sadness or anger. They secretly recorded my every emotion and every act and reported to the guards once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Sometimes they held several "attack meetings" and "education and assistance meetings" in one day, during which the guards listened to the inmates report every aspect of my life that day. They would quickly adjust their brainwashing plan and change their tactics if a sudden problem arose.
They based their policies on the most recent information on my thoughts and decided on the spot to put me under "strict control," savagely beat or torture me, or scream that they would make me feel "worse than dead." On the other hand, they showered me with insincere praise, sent me food and drink, and brought me out of solitary confinement. The camp head and all guards would celebrate my birthday, and sometimes they even threw two birthday parties for me.
Besides making wild claims and threats, the guards listen, observe and instruct the on-site collaborators to administer brainwashing. After a while the guards secretly call out the collaborators and inmates and give them tips. When the collaborators and inmates return to the cell, they would change their faces and start beating and kicking the practitioners. I endured frenzied torture at the hands of these people because I persisted in my belief.
When I accidentally discovered their "surveillance diary" I was shocked and infuriated by this egregious tactic. They recorded my every word and move, my facial expressions, how many sips of water I drank, how many times I visited the toilet, and other things. I stopped talking to them and looked at the evildoers with a blank face to destroy their omnipresent control.
At fist, this psychological attack inflicted me with tremendous anguish. I felt an invisible but incredibly heavy pressure weighing down on me when my every thought and act was recorded. It's easy to make someone snap if one is placed in this existence for a long time. It's possible not to say a single word for one day or for one month, but it's difficult not to suffer a mental breakdown if one does not say a single word during over two years of detention! An ordinary person would either lose his ability to think rationally or break down completely.
I was changed into a completely different person after two years. Recently, I accessed all of the information written about me on the Minghui/Clearwisdom website and saw this passage, "She was persecuted over a long period of time at the labour camp...but none of these could make her change her belief. Finally, a guard said, 'We can't do anything with her.' I saw for myself that she wasn't allowed to go to sleep until 2:00 a.m. every day and even when she went to the toilet, she was followed and watched by assigned inmates. When I saw her, she already looked heavy-hearted, with blank eyes and halting speech." It's true that I experienced slurred speech, slow movements and blank looks. However, I had the Falun Dafa teachings in my heart at all times. I got through it with courage and determination. I did not go insane. I recovered quickly through study and doing Dafa exercises soon after I left the labour camp.
In order to gain maximum control over the practitioners and coerce the practitioners to reform, and to also make sure reformed practitioners do not void their statements and return to Dafa, the camp staff requires Dafa practitioners to write a statement about their life, including stories from their childhood.
The practitioners naively pour their hearts out on paper, recounting their experiences and spiritual changes before and after they practised Dafa, and deeply repent the mistakes they made in the past and use this opportunity to bring closure to a time that is too painful to look back on, and to express remorse for their mistakes and therefore find some comfort within their hearts. The camp staff, however, uses this document as a lethal weapon with which to strike the practitioners whenever they see fit. They even publicly ridicule the practitioners with innocent childhood mistakes in order to maximally traumatise the victims and warn the other practitioners. It wasn't until then that the practitioners realised they were deceived and used. This tactic is indeed despicable!
Is murder considered the most evil? Is physical damage considered the only form of harm? No! When a person's thinking is controlled, her innocence is violated, and the small and last space to think freely is invaded. When her belief is killed - what is more cruel, excruciating and miserable than this? It is the biggest crime. I know that the mental breakdown of a practitioner is the direct result of psychological devastation and spiritual murder. During the time I was held at the labour camp, I heard more than once about this - that this practitioner suffered a mental breakdown at this and that division -- it was too many to count. At the Group Drill Division I saw Liu Shuhua, who was tortured to the point of insanity. I have since been unable to erase this from my mind.
We became pure through cultivating Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance. A pure mind manifests itself among people as purity and persistence in upholding the truth. But when our belief is defamed and murdered over a long time and it is peeled from our heart through violent means, "insanity" becomes a most desperate protest and tormented appeal; it is a living death. By having watched Liu Shuhua, I am keenly aware of the pain associated with this spiritual murder that defies description.
I cannot in a single article describe this degenerated and wicked "psychiatric consultation" because this grave spiritual destruction and spiritual murder proceeds from beginning to end to control and run through the whole process of this evil central nervous system - forced brainwashing and "reform."
3. Compelled to Write Statements4 Three Times
The evildoers know very well that for practitioners, Teacher Li and Dafa are supremely sacred and inviolable. This is also what they fear the most. They try extremely hard to find a breaking point and use various wicked schemes to destroy practitioners' willpower and belief in Dafa.
They used omnipresent mind control to torment the practitioners. They forced wicked theories upon practitioners and maximally tormented us psychologically. They forced us to accept a state of mind they thought worked best to destroy us, when we would feel the most mental anguish. They claimed practitioners who refused to "reform" were "possessed by animal spirits" and "mentally manipulated." They screamed that we have ways to beat off your "animal spirits" and break your "psychological manipulation." They actually don't believe in animal possession themselves, otherwise they wouldn't dare to do bad things. They use it as an excuse to carry out the mental persecution.
During the first two months at the labour camp, the evildoers ordered the collaborators to brainwash and take turns attacking me around the clock. They let me sleep for only two to four hours each day, to exhaust me mentally and physically, without giving me a second of a break. When I refused to accept their devious theories and remained rock-solid, they lost patience and turned into monsters. The collaborators shouted in my face, "We'll see how long you'll last. You have to reform, whether you want to or not! If you don't reform, we'll make you! It's a battle of good versus evil between us and you!"
They persecuted me as a group by coercing me to read articles that slander Teacher and Dafa. They wrote curse words against Teacher and Dafa on my face and clothes. They also wrote them on slips of paper and hung them from my clothes. They drew a circle less than a foot in diameter on the ground and forced me to stand inside it, and wrote vicious words attacking Teacher and Dafa outside the circle. For a while they didn't let me sleep or even close my eyes day and night. They made me stand up straight. I would accidentally step on those slanderous words when I dosed off and waddled outside the circle. They did all of these things in order to achieve control over my mind.
When all of their tactics failed, the evildoers said to me, "You suffer from the most serious case of psychological manipulation as well as animal possession, and that is why you are most stubborn!" Those wicked people said that they must break the "shell" that exerts mind control over me and beat out the animals that possessed me before I would take the first step toward reform. They escalated the persecution of me. They used violence, framed me and grabbed my hand to write guarantee statements and vulgar words cursing Teacher and Dafa, making it appear that I had compromised, hoping I would break down and submit to their will.
Violence thus began.
One day three female drug addicts named Duan Huizhen, Liu Fengqin and Luo Jinfeng swaggered into my room, although the labour camp policy clearly states visits to other cells without permission is strictly forbidden. All three of them came at once. I had a bad gut feeling. The collaborators assigned to watch me put a piece of paper and a pen on the bed board and said to me, "Let's put everything on the table. You didn't reform, even after such a long time, so you must take punishment since you didn't take our kind advice. You are controlled most severely, and the government [guards] told us to help you. You must write it [guarantee statement] now and we won't do anything to you. I'll ask you again: will you write it?"
I said, "I already told you a long time ago I won't write anything!"
"Fine, then we'll just make you!"
The three addicts and three collaborators, Hao Lihua, Chen and Wang Yan ran up to me, pushed me to the ground and held me in place. One person stood on either side of me, pinning down my knees with their feet. Two other people grabbed my shoulders and arms, and one person stood behind me grabbing my neck. Yet another person grabbed my hair. They held my body because they were afraid if I had struggled I would not write the statement.
They put a blank piece of paper on the floor, and one person grabbed my hand that I had made into a fist, and tried to put the pen in my hand by violently poking my hand, to open it. With the point of the pen, they poked a hole in the area between my thumb and index finger and it bled. They seized my arms and hands with a death grip and pushed my hand downward, toward the paper on the floor. I flung my arm and the pen flew out. They picked it up and stabbed my hand with it repeatedly. I ignored the pain and tried to my best to free myself. I pulled my arm back in the opposite direction where they were trying to make me move. They spent a lot of time, but I didn't write a single word. The six of them were exasperated and all laid on me. They used all of their strength trying to manipulate my body, right arm and right hand. They were very strong and energetic as they got plenty of food and sleep each day, but they still could not make me write it.
I was fighting with all my might. I had no other thought but "I cannot let them succeed." They sweated and panted heavily, but the paper was only filled with squiggly lines that didn't make sense. They knelt on my body and starting beating and twisting me. I shouted in order to expose their crime. Drug addict Liu Jinfeng hurriedly shut the windows, and the others viciously shoved a towel used to mop the floor into my mouth.
I knew I was going against six people, but I must persevere until the end. Even if I had died I would never let the evildoers write slanderous words attacking Teacher and Dafa through my hand. I struggled against them, and my hand was bleeding everywhere from being stabbed and scratched. They frenetically wrestled me, and we rolled on the floor. I was gagged with a dirty towel and I was soaked in sweat but I still persisted, and the paper had only random lines on it.
I felt none of the exhaustion accumulated over the previous days and had only one thought in my mind, "I absolutely cannot write a single word!" I'm still amazed that I had the strength to resist them and persisted until the end with such fortitude. They used up all of their energy but still could not achieve their goal. Eventually they gave up. They got up from the floor, cursing.
The guards and collaborators were resentful. They clenched their teeth and screamed, saying they must "fix" me. With orders from the guards, these six people went ahead and violently attacked me two more times, each time more sadistic than the last. They failed all three times. My mouth was bleeding from being rubbed with a towel, and my knees were injured from being stomped on. My back was sprained during the struggle, and my right hand was bleeding and ulcerated from being stabbed repeatedly. My right arm shook uncontrollably, and tufts of my hair were pulled out. They couldn't get anything from me after three attempts. They looked at the paper filled with chaotic lines, although the paper was almost reduced to a pulp and screamed, "Look, what this looks like!"
I said, "It's nothing! If it is really the words you forced me to write, you would have committed a huge crime! Besides, you wrote it, and I didn't!" I was calm and collected. They cursed me but couldn't do anything about it.
I felt the crucial importance of willpower after resisting three incidents of violent coercion with my life. During the long struggles, if the thought of giving up had flashed across my mind for even one instant, I would have broken down completely! When our willpower is strong, the evildoers can't do anything to us. I was physically weak at the time after a long period of malnutrition and sleep deprivation. My body trembled like a leaf in the wind after each struggle, but still I had unimaginable power each time. Usually I would not be able to fight off even one of them, not to mention the frenzied attack of all six. It would have been beyond me!
At first I didn't believe the guards wearing badges would instruct common criminals to beat me. I could not accept the psychological torment and physical torture as well as insults to my dignity as a human being. I looked for an opportunity to escape during all three struggles. I wrestled myself free and ran out the door or I shouted, hoping the guards would come and stop the atrocity.
Once I broke free and ran outside. When I described the violence to the guards on duty, they looked indifferent and listened half-heartedly. One guard stood up and walked away. Their office was only a few steps away from my cell. They heard my voice and protests, but they ignored me. Why? They had themselves meticulously arranged the assaults and instructed the inmates to carry them out. When I showed them the hole on my hand and my bleeding mouth, they coldly peered at me and smirked.
I suddenly felt the shame of having been deceived. Human nature and conscience were being destroyed here, the law was being unscrupulously violated here, and I felt so stupid!
The collaborators and drug addicts yanked me back into the cell right in front of the guards saying, "So you are appealing against us? Who do you think you are? You can't take it anymore? 'Reform' if you can't bear it! If you don't, you'll get something much worse later on, and this is nothing compared to what's to come!"
Collaborator Wang Yan, who said I was fine-skinned and therefore would not last long commented, "Liu Shaoqi [former Chinese president who was tortured to death during the Cultural Revolution] held a high position and he had to bow his head. Who do you think you are? You are fighting against something much bigger than yourself! You won't like what's going to happen to you! Do you want to oppose the Party? Hahaha!"
A drug addict said, "You have pretty good endurance, but you will simply have to reform in the end, no matter how good you are! I've seen too many like you. If you don't reform we will slowly kill you!"
I wiped away sweat with my trembling arm and bloody hand and I quickly subdued the anger in my mind. Instead, I felt great compassion, tolerance and fortitude growing. Although I had been sent to custody centres several times before and had similar experiences, I still had illusions about the Communist Party, which boasts of greatness, glory and righteousness. The inhumane treatment and humiliation at the labour camp had changed my perceptions from shock and sadness to courageously facing the tribulations with determination.
To be continued
Note
1. "Reform or Transform" Implementation of brainwashing and torture in order to force a practitioner to renounce Falun Gong. (Variations: "reform", "transform", "reformed", "reforming", "transformed", "transforming", and "transformation")
2. Repentance Statement: In this statement the practitioner is forced to admit remorse for practising Falun Gong, promise to give up Falun Gong, and never again associate with other practitioners or go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.
3. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.
4. "Three Statements": Practitioners are coerced under brainwashing and torture to write "Repentance Statement," "Guarantee Statement" or 'Dissociation Statement" as proof that they have given up their belief. In the statement, the practitioner is forced to admit remorse for practising Falun Gong, promise to give up Falun Gong, and never again associate with other practitioners or go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/11/16/142459.html
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