Falun Gong Practitioner Mr. Huang Liqiao Suffers Brutal Torture at the Shuangkou Labour Camp in Tianjin

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Huang Liqiao from Tianjin was arrested while at work on the afternoon of April 20th, 2008. Officers from the Dahutong Police Station and Tianjin Steel Piping Company took him to a district detention centre. On May 25th he was sent to Shuangkou Forced Labour Camp and tortured.

Earlier in the morning, Mr. Huang Liqiao’s wife Ge Xiulan, her sister Ge Xiuju, and Ge Xiuju’s non-practitioner husband, Gang Shoutong, were working in their own store. Without warning, policemen Yang Zhiyong and Shan Xuejiang from the Dahutong Police Station came into the store and arrested the three. The police also took away a new TV-DVD player, 3,000 yuan¹ personal money and 12,000 yuan operating cash. The three were sent to the Hongqiao Detention Centre. The police also searched the homes of Ge Xiulan and Ge Xiuju separately. They took away Falun Gong books, 2,500 yuan cash and other personal belongings from Ge Xiulan’s home. From Ge Xiuju’s home they took 76,000 yuan in cash and a computer. Ge Xiuju’s non-practitioner husband Gang Shoutong was released.

Huang Liqiao was strongly determined to practise Falun Gong. To punish him, police head Yang hit him violently and told criminal inmates to beat and insult him every day. After Huang Liqiao protested the mistreatment with a hunger striker, guards took him to the Police Hospital and performed forced feeding. Later on they ordered Huang’s family to pay 1,600 yuan.

On May 25th, 2008, Dahutong Police Station officials took Huang Liqiao to Shuangkou Labour Camp despite his feeble condition. He was immediately locked up in Team Three in a solitary cell with a surveillance camera on the ceiling.

In the first five days, team leader Wu Mingxing and deputy leader Yang Junyuan tried to brainwash Huang Liqiao. They told criminal inmates Hu Yunfeng and Qiao Changjiang and Lei Wanli to immobilise Mr. Huang in a chair and force him to watch videos that slander Falun Gong. Deputy team leader Tian Zhongyu forced Mr. Huang to wear a set of headphones and played the slanderous recordings at the maximum volume. Guard Qiao Changjiang kept punching Mr. Huang’s head with his fists. Criminal inmate Hu Yunfeng took a pen and wrote dirty words on his body and face. To stop Mr. Huang from practising the Falun Gong exercises, officials assigned inmates Hu Yunfeng and drug addict Dawei to follow him around the clock. They later immobilised Huang Liqiao in a bed day and night except during meal-times and short bathroom breaks. In the hot summer months they covered Huang with a thick quilt. This torture went on for one year.

After October 2008, the following inmates—drug addicts and criminals-- took turns monitoring Huang Liqiao: Yang Baoqiang, Shang Liang, Qiao Changjiang, Zhang Wenge, Tang Jianjun (criminal), Yu Yuejin, Wang Junjie, Yue Lei. When drug offenders Yang Baoqiang, Shang Liang, Qiao Changjiang and Zhang Wenge and criminal Jiang Jilin were designated as personal monitors, they beat Mr. Huang repeatedly. Surveillance cameras recorded these violent acts. People in the labour camp discipline section, administration office, and several monitoring offices all saw it. In addition, officials from the Tianjin Justice Department were working at the labour camp on a daily basis, but no one intervened.

On July 19th, 2009, inmates Qiao Changjiang, Li Guoli and Liu attacked Mr. Huang, hitting his thighs and causing massive bloody wounds. Following the beating, they split his legs by forcibly raising his right leg toward his head. Huang’s right leg instantly lost all sensations. They repeated this same torture on his left leg and called this technique “one step into heaven.” Later on, many inmates said they were watching this scene on the TV monitors.

In August 2009, Tianjin Justice Department officials came to the labour camp to inspect the work. Following the inspection, the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners became worse. Under guard Wu Mingxing’s instruction, a number of inmates began a new round of torture of Huang Liqiao. The inmates were Qiao Changjiang, Tang Jianjun, Yu Yuejin, Ren Wei, Wang Junjie, Yue Lei, Li Gouli, Mr. Liu, Shi Xiaohu, and Zhang Wen. They burned Mr. Huang’s body with a cigarette and inserted it into his nose. They hit his face with a shoe, dripped mint-extract into his eyes, electrically shocked his hands and the soles of his feet, twisted his body into a number of poses and tied up his limbs. They stripped him in the winter, opening the window and chilling him with cold water. Deputy camp head Yang Junyuan even grabbed Mr. Huang’s head and slammed it him into a wall.

In April 2010, in police-directed violence, Li Guangsheng permanently injured practitioner Xiao Shuqing. Mr. Huang went on a hunger strike to protest, and several labour camp doctors violently force-fed him. Inserting the feeding tube through his nose severely damage his nostrils. Inmate Wang Junjie played a hand in the forced feeding: he helped pushed the hose.

The above were Mr. Huang Liqiao’s experiences at the Shuangkou Labour Camp in Tianjin.

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/2011/1/15/234909.html