Persecution Suffered by 59-Year-Old Ms. Wang Li

Name: Wang Li
Gender: Female
Age: 59
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Grain packing company employee

Date of Most Recent Arrest: 2002
Most recent place of detention: Wanjia Forced Labour Camp in Harbin
City: Yilan County

Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Detention, extortion, forced labour, force-feeding, interrogation, beating, brainwashing, solitary confinement, hanging up, electric shock, torture, denial of toilet use

I am Wang Li, a former worker at a grain packing company. Because I have persisted in practising Falun Gong I have been detained three times for a total of six months, sent to forced labour for two years, and forced to pay 3,800 Yuan¹ since 1999. My older son was laid off during my detention, and my husband divorced me.

Persecuted for Appealing

Shortly after July 20th, 1999, a practitioner and I visited the provincial government office to appeal for Falun Gong. Many policemen blocked practitioners from entering the building. They pulled practitioners one by one, including myself, into police vehicles and relocated us to a stadium, where we were forced to listen to a false propaganda attacking Falun Gong. After that, county propaganda department head Liu Yueling sent us to the county police department and forced us to pay 50 Yuan. We were to be brainwashed and detained for seven days.

On January 6th, 2000, we attempted to petition once again at the Appeals Bureau in Beijing. Many police officials from local regions were waiting for practitioners arriving from their regions. Two of us were captured and detained at the Harbin Liaison Office in Beijing. A policeman surnamed Cheng took all our money, which totalled over 1,000 Yuan.

We were held at the Yilan County Second Detention Centre as of January 8th, 2000. Detention centre head Zheng Jun, deputy heads Lin Zhong and Wang Yutao, and guards punished us whenever we read the Falun Gong books and practised the exercises. We ate steamed corn buns containing cinder ash and soup made of frozen cabbage mixed with sand, leaves and grass. We were forced to remove snow or carry cinder blocks from early morning to 4:00 pm before we could get food. We worked more than twelve hours per day.

Force-feeding at County Second Detention Centre

I met policeman Liu Xingtao on the street on June 20th, 2000. He tricked me into going to the Nanzhen Police Station. Later on I was held at the County Second Detention Centre. I held a hunger to protest. They began force-feeding me on the eighth day. Five criminals and the centre's deputy head handcuffed me onto a chair. One pulled my hair up against the chair, two held my arms, and one held my nose so that I could barely breathe and had to open my mouth. Another criminal inserted an empty water bottle into my mouth with the bottom cut off, and then poured water containing much salt into my mouth. I almost suffocated.

While I was in detention, my practitioner son went to Beijing to appeal and was detained at the same place where I was. To make both of us give up our belief, one of the county heads Zhang Binghe visited the centre and said that my practice would interfere with my husband's work. My son's employer, the city road construction company, dismissed him during his detention. My husband could not withstand the pressure. He visited me at the centre and asked for a divorce.

Search and Arrest

Chengan Police station officials broke into my house by climbing over the wall in July 2000 when I was not at home. They confiscated Falun Gong books. I went to the police station and asked to get my belongings back. Policemen threatened to detain me. My company leader eventually showed up at the station and kept me from detention.

Tuanshanzi Township Police Station head Zhang Huanyou and a policeman, county National Security Division member Han Yunjie, arrested us. It happened on December 29th, 2001 as we worked at the information production site. We were detained at a county hotel. Two police officials, Sun Huei and Liu Xingtao, later brought me home and conducted a search. They discovered two Falun Gong information tapes. I was able to escape.

I decided to leave home for a while and lived at a fellow practitioner's home. I was arrested again the second day when we studied the Falun Gong teachings and police arrived to arrest the fellow practitioner's daughter and son-in-law. I saw police official Liu Xingtao at the police station and asked him to return my books. Instead of returning the books, he punched me in the head and chest, and kicked me in the ribs. I almost lost consciousness. I was later sent to the Second Detention Centre and was unable to move for three weeks. Another practitioner and I had to do forced labour. Policeman Liu Yunjie grossly abused one practitioner, and eventually she died as a result of the injuries.

Persecuted at the Wanjia Forced Labour Camp

I was transferred to the Wanjia Forced Labour Camp in March 2002, originally assigned to stay at the camp hostel and forced to undergo "reform" [forcibly renounce Falun Gong]. Several collaborators who attempted to shake my faith attacked me. One week later, I was assigned to team No. 12. I did not co-operate with anything the camp arranged, and that resulted in physical abuse, including beating and having to stand straight for a long time. I was then transferred to Division No. 7 (strictly controlled division) for further abuse.

We held a group study in that division. The guards attempted to separate us from each other, beating us. Guard Liu Yeng was involved in the abuse. The guards gagged practitioners with mops. Guard Men Xianzhi beat me brutally using sticks, dumped urine on our beds and denied us restroom use at night.

In July 2002, several male guards joined Division No. 7 and, together with female guards, continued the abuses. We were forced to wear signs, and memorise rules and regulations. We were tortured for refusing to do it. The methods included sitting on a chair for a long time, electric shocks, being hung up, solitary confinement, and squatting or standing for a long time. I was sent to a solitary confinement cell for refusing to memorise the rules, and hung up with hands cuffed and feet off the ground. The guard dragged me by my collar and hit me against a wall, and shocked my neck, hands and the arches of my feet for more than hour.

I was transferred to the training team in late September 2002. Guard Zhao Yuqing used various torture methods to force practitioners to write the "three statements" to give up Falun Gong. Those torture methods include hanging up, electric shocks and being splashed with cold water. We were forced to watch slanderous TV programmes. Many of us developed scabies due to the camp's bad environment. The guards scraped scabies on our bodies with spoons, which broke the skin. I had scabies on my wrist and the guards scraped it off with the spoon. The blood shot out and I was so terrified that I lost consciousness instantly. They dragged me to the toilet and rinsed my wrist with cold water, and the bleeding was not stopped for a half hour despite wrapping with gauze.

I returned to Division No. 7 in March 2003, doing forced labour. We made slippers and selected white melon seeds from 6:00 am to 11:00 pm or midnight. Older, sick practitioners needed a break in the middle of the work, but they were not allowed to rest on beds. They could only sit on the concrete floor when taking a break.

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/2/8/217777.html