Once Wrongfully Imprisoned for Ten Years, an Excellent Teacher Again Arrested

Name: Ren Shuxian
Gender: Female
Age: In her forties
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Music teacher
Date of Most Recent Arrest: September 10th, 2012
Most Recent Place of Detention: Harbin Drug Rehabilitation Centre
City: Jiamusi
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Electric shock, forced feeding, sleep deprivation, denial of toilet use, forced labour, beatings, hanging by handcuffs, handcuffing, imprisonment, solitary confinement, home ransacking.
Key Persecutors: Zhu Tiehong, Chen Guohong, Xu Meng, Sang Zimei

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Ren Shuxian from Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province was sentenced to seven years in prison and imprisoned twice at labour camps for a total of three years. During the ten years of imprisonment she was viciously tortured. Two years after her release she was arrested again, on the evening of September 10th, 2012.

Ms. Ren was formerly a music teacher at the Sixth Middle School of the Nancha District, Yichun City. She graduated from the Music Department of Harbin Normal University and recognized as one of the “Excellent Teachers” for five consecutive years. She participated in a TV programme filmed by Chinese Central TV and provincial TV. She was admitted to an arts group and served as a drummer. She was however imprisoned for ten years just for believing in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and being a good person.

Two Years of Forced Labour

Ms. Ren, as with many Falun Gong practitioners, went to Beijing to speak up for Falun Gong when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to persecute Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999. She was intercepted by officers from the Nancha Police Department, including Wang Yakun, at the Harbin Railway Station and taken back handcuffed and imprisoned for ten days. In late September 1999 when the sensitive date of October 1st was near, she and over twenty other Falun Gong practitioners were detained at the Fire Rescue Squad of the police department for over twenty days.

When a practitioner was arrested in October 1999, Ms. Ren accompanied the practitioner's child to the police station looking for this practitioner. She was detained at the Minzhu Police Station and sentenced to two years of forced labour because she persisted in her belief. She was taken to the Xigemu Forced Labour Camp, in Jiamusi City, in November 1999.

At the labour camp the practitioners endured intolerable conditions. They were forced to do hard labour every day, including picking peas and loading and unloading trucks carrying bags that were double their own body weight. They worked 13 to 16 hours each day and were often beaten and punished. Their meals were what was used to feed chickens, including muddy soups without a drop of oil.

On the coldest days in winter, they had to wash themselves and brush their teeth with cold water outdoors. Their fingers were frozen, and many people cried because of the brutal temperature. When Ms. Ren exceeded the allotted time to wash, guard Zhu Tiehong made her stand outdoors for over half an hour. Her wet hair was frozen into an icy ball and her collar and neck were frigid. She also lost feeling in her ears because of it. In order to resist the persecution, the practitioners launched a hunger strike.

One night the guards brutally force-fed the practitioners. They first dragged out Mr. Huang Shaobo and the guards tried to hold him down and force-feed him. Ms. Ren shouted, “Don't persecute cultivators!” The guards let Mr. Huang go and held down Ms. Ren on the concrete ground, kicked and beat her, and inserted a thick purple rubber tube, only used on cattle, into her nose. They even repeatedly pulled it out and reinserted it several times to increase the pain. Blood came out of her nose and mouth.

Guard Zhu Tiehong ordered inmate Zhang Yan to continue beating Ms. Ren. When Zhang didn't move, Zhu fiercely slapped her face. Zhu then told inmate Wang Li to beat Ms. Ren. Seeing that Zhang Yan had slapped her, Wang Li didn't dare to disobey. Wang Li asked Ms. Ren while beating her, “Will you still practise Falun Gong?” Ms. Ren replied, “I will still practise.” Wang Li then continued to beat Ms. Ren. Ms. Ren's face was swollen and turned purple. Zhu suddenly came up and fiercely punched Ms. Ren in the chest, causing Ms. Ren to nearly choke. Ms. Ren could not stand up and collapsed.

The food they force-fed to practitioners was raw corn powder mixed with cold water with large amounts of salt. If the practitioner vomited it out, they were force-fed again. They also pulled open the practitioner's collar to force the practitioner to vomit inside their clothes. They claimed that Ms. Ren and Ms. Zhao Juan were leaders of the practitioners, so they were both force-fed with six more large sized injection tubes. Almost every practitioner was bloody from the feedings. There was red blood and white salt on their clothing. An inmate with the last name Zhou confirmed that one basin of water was added with two bags of salt and the police forced them to add salt to the water.

The next day, Ms. Ren could not stand up straight. Every step caused her great pain and she dared not breathe hard. Even so, guard Mu Zhenjuan forced her to carry rice bags for the kitchen. She found out the bags had red letters printed on it saying “No. 125 concentrated food for egg laying hens!” This is why the corn cakes the practitioners were given broke apart then they picked them up.

Ms. Ren resisted the force feeding on one occasion, and two strong male guards came in. One grabbed her legs, the other grabbed her arms, and they threw her onto the bed board. When she hit board, she felt like all her internal organs were injured. The section chief with the last name Xu also used electric batons to shock her thighs, stomach, hands, and mouth. She ended up with blisters all over her body.

Another time Ms. Ren and Ms. Wang Junhua were both handcuffed to the death bed. One guard said, “Go get a thick tube for Ms. Ren.” A male doctor then inserted a much thicker rubber tube into Ms. Ren's nose, causing profuse bleeding. Afterward they even said, “No need to pull the tube out, so we don't need to insert it again next time.”

Because she was laying on her back on the bed, blood filled her throat. If she didn't swallow the blood, she couldn't breathe. Prior to the feedings the guard pulled on the tube, causing her great pain. Ten days later when the tube was finally taken out, its original color of red had changed to dark green. Even the guards were disgusted to see it.

When news that practitioners were being fed with food for hens got out, the guards were very angry and locked up several practitioners, including Ms. Ren, into solitary cells. A prostitute, Chen Guohong, was assigned to watch over the practitioners. She was given the authority to enter the cells and beat practitioners at will. She was a sadist and had a three inch long scar on her face.

During the two years of forced labour, Ms. Ren was frequently handcuffed, hung up from the iron window bars, and beaten by chief Gong, Jiang Jianan, Sun Yumin, and others.

Sentenced to Seven Years in Prison

On the night of April 22nd, 2002, six months after Ms. Ren was released from the labour camp, over ten officers from Nancha Police Department and Minzhu Police Station, including Liu Junjie and Wang Yongkun, broke into Ms. Ren's home and ransacked it. When they took away Ms. Ren, they deceived her husband by saying, “There's nothing wrong, we just want to have a talk with her.” They ignored Ms. Ren's daughter crying.

When Ms. Ren was taken to the interrogation room of the Nancha Police Department that night, she realized that it had been an organized, planned action, as around thirty practitioners were already there and locked up. A policeman with the last name Shi entered the rooms one by one and beat whichever practitioner he saw. Ms. Ren was also beaten and tied to an iron chair for five days and nights.

Ms. Ren was taken to the Nancha Detention Centre on April 27th, where she was fed buns contaminated with mice faeces and vegetable soup that had flies, bugs, and mud in it. A warden with the last name of Yang intentionally caused trouble for practitioners by refusing to let them empty their chamber pots, making the room stink and deterring the practitioners from relieving themselves. Some practitioners broke down and cried.

One day in July, the guard put 30 pound shackles on Ms. Ren. These are not used even on the inmates sentenced to death. Ms. Ren's ankles were bruised and bleeding.

In August, the Nancha Court tried the practitioners. When the police ordered the practitioners to wear prison clothes, the practitioners refused. The police then dressed the practitioners by force and put handcuffs and shackles on them. Ms. Ren was dragged by two policemen across the corridor, with one policeman pulling the handcuff, and one pulling the shackles. They stuffed Ms. Ren into a police vehicle and Ms. Ren's wrists and ankles were bleeding.

There was a huge crowd in front of the courthouse and police were carrying loaded guns. They formed a circle with the armored vehicles to separate the crowd. Over twenty practitioners were taken out of the police vehicle. They staggered slowly past the crowd, but their shouts of “Falun Gong is good” shook the ground. Over ten practitioners were sentenced to between three and eight years in prison. Several others were taken to forced labour camps and Ms. Ren was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Nine practitioners, including Ms. Ren, were taken to Harbin Women's Prison in September by the Nancha Police Department. The next day, Wang Yali and Zheng Jie handcuffed Ms. Ren's hands behind her back. Wang Yali slapped her face first and Zheng Jie followed. They then called in guard Xiao Lin who was very intimidating. He kicked Ms. Ren to the ground first and continued kicking her with his sharp toed leather shoes. Soon Ms. Ren's entire body was black and purple. They continued beating her, taking turns without stopping, for the entire day. Ms. Ren had wounds all over and was in great pain. That night she was locked in a small cell and tied to an iron chair.

Ms. Ren was then taken to the so-called “Wolf Team” of the Eighth Prison Area. This area was for the violent criminals. Over 300 inmates were all murderers and burglars who had been sentenced to life imprisonment or death. Over 40 Falun Gong practitioners were monitored by four or five inmates each. Ms. Ren was monitored by three murderers and one murder accomplice. She was not allowed to talk. If she even smiled at another practitioner, she was yelled at.

One day, at the guards' behest, inmate Wang Fengchun wanted to stamp “Inmate” on everyone's clothes. Falun Gong practitioners refused, saying, “We're not criminals.” Wang Fengchun held the practitioners down and stamped their clothes anyway. The stamped characters later all washed off. She then took away the practitioners extra clothes and burned them, leaving many practitioners without a spare change of clothes.

In the spring of 2003, the prison forced the inmates to do perform labour, often until midnight. The criminal inmates were allowed to talk but not practitioners. The practitioners had to work silently, without stopping. This made them really depressed, almost to the point of a breakdown. The practitioners had committed no crimes and should not be lower than the criminal inmates, so the practitioners started to refuse to work.

The prison started to mistreat the practitioners. Guard Zhang Xiuli incited inmate Wang Fengchun to tie Ms. Ren's hands with a thin rope, and she was hung up from the bed frame. Guard Zhang Xiuli then used all her force to whip Ms. Ren's face with a metal chain with keys attached. Ms. Ren's face was covered with trails of blood. The rope was so thin and tight that when Ms. Ren was let down the rope had sunk into her flesh and could not be cut even with scissors. Ms. Ren was hung up for several days and nights without rest afterward. Her feet were so swollen that she could not take off her shoes. Her ankles were even thicker than her thighs and were dark purple. Her ankles and hands had many bloody cracks. Her feet hurt terribly.

Wang Fengchun asked Ms. Ren one night, “Are you willing to work from now on?” Ms. Ren said, “Practising Falun Gong is not a crime and I don't need to do the labour.” Wang Fengchun yelled at her and took a handle of a spade to beat her. Ms. Ren was still hung up and could not move out of the way during the beating. Many inmates were so frightened that they covered their faces with their quilts and cried silently.

On the twenty-second day, Zhang Xiuli implicitly agreed that the practitioners who were beaten for not doing the slave labour were allowed to return to their cells and skip the labour. Every day, the practitioners sat on the cushions they brought to do the exercises and study the Falun Gong teachings. They had created a new, better environment for cultivation through their sufferings.

In the winter of 2003, guard Zhang Chunhua led a group of inmate thugs into the cells to beat the practitioners who were doing the exercises. They tied pairs of practitioners back-to-back with handcuffs and forced them to sit on the concrete floor on the coldest days of winter. They even opened the windows. If a practitioner closed their eyes, the thugs would force their eyes open by putting toothpicks between their eyelids. If a practitioner recited the Falun Gong teachings they stuffed a dirty shoe pad into their mouth.

The practitioners started a hunger strike. One day, guard Xu Meng led the cruellest inmates, Sang Zimei and Zhao Yanhua, to handcuff Ms. Ren and other practitioners behind their backs and forced Ms. Ren onto a big chair. Zhao Yanhua pulled Ms. Ren's head backwards by her hair. Ms. Ren's neck was against the top of the chair back so her head was immobilized. Sang Zimei used a device to pry open her teeth and adjusted the device to the maximum setting. Sang inserted a large sized purple rubber tube into Ms. Ren's nostril. Blood came streaming out. The onlooking Zhao Yanghua was startled. Even Sang also hesitated a moment, but she continued to insert it in preparation for the force feeding.

Ms. Ren realized that the tube was inserted into her trachea and that she was suffocating. She wanted to shout but her mouth was fixed by the device, and she wanted to shake her head but her head was pressed hard against the chair back. She wanted to struggle but her arms were tightly bound in handcuffs. She felt her head was swelling, her eyeballs were protruding, her ears were roaring, and her heart almost burst out of her chest. Ms. Ren used her last bit of energy to stomp on the ground once and then again. Feeling something, Sang Zimei pulled back the tube and murmured, “Seems like the tube went into the trachea.” Ms. Ren finally was able to get a breath, but then Sang Zimei started inserting the tube again. Xu Meng was monitoring the whole process on the side but she didn't say a word.

After each nostril-feedings, the Falun Gong practitioners had blood all over their faces and bodies. They fell down with barely a breath and their hands were cuffed behind their backs. They felt their lives were hanging by a thread and that they might die any moment. They were not allowed to sleep day or night. Such persecution lasted for a month.

In August 2004, some practitioners including Ms. Ren declared that they would not respond to the head count, wear prison uniforms, or eat the prison meals. They were handcuffed behind their backs and forced to sit on the concrete floor in the daytime and sleep on the concrete floor at night. They could not fall asleep due to the cold and had aches all over their bodies. Ms. Ren had symptoms of kidney disease, including bloody feces and whole body oedema. Her face was so swollen that it was almost level with her nose. She was force-fed twice a day for over four months until December 2004.

Due to the long term handcuffing, Ms. Ren could not move her arms and felt they were almost non-existent, as they had become disabled. Her arms could not bear any weight and hurt all day. She could not move them. It's a living hell in Harbin Women's Prison.

Third Time, Another Year of Forced Labour

On September 18th, 2009, shortly after her release from prison, Ms. Ren was arrested at a practitioner's home by officers from the Nangang Police Department of Jiamusi City. The police didn't know her name, so they called her B and took her to the Xigemu Forced Labour Camp in Jiamusi on October 22nd for one year of forced labour. At the labour camp she was forced to package one-time-use chopsticks. The wood chips would fly into her eyes, causing her eyes to become red and swollen. She was in pain and her eyesight worsened. Two months later, she was taken to Harbin Drug Rehabilitation Centre.

At the drug rehabilitation centre Ms. Ren was forced to sit still on a small stool from 4:00 a.m. to midnight without rest. She was frequently berated and beaten, as well as tortured. The practitioners were humiliated by having half of their heads shaved. Ms. Ren was locked to an iron chair for five days and nights. Practitioner Ms. Liu Shuling was tortured to death here.

The police reduced inmates' rations at mealtime. The posted rations on the kitchen wall was just for inspection. When the inspectors came, there would be four or five dishes, but normally, only radish and cabbage soup was provided. Occasionally when there was noodles, the inmates would eat so much that their stomachs became fully stuffed.

Other means of torture included forbidding practitioners from using the toilet. Many practitioners were in tears and had to urinate in their trousers. Oftentimes the police would strip off all of the practitioners' clothes to do a body search and laugh as they did. They also extended practitioners' terms at will. For example, Ms. Ren was imprisoned seven days past her term.

Conclusion

Ms. Ren had changed considerably due to practising Falun Gong. Originally she had been capricious, stubborn, didn't do housework, and didn't want to interact with her husband's family. After she began practising, she was caring towards her husband, did all the housework, and was respectful towards her parents-in-law. At work, she was widely acknowledged as an excellent teacher. In the autumn of 1998, her school was laying off employees. An older teacher who had worked at the school his whole life was about to be laid off for not having a college degree. However, he was one year away from retirement so he implored to the principal to give him one more year. The principal felt this situation very difficult to handle. On her own initiative, Ms. Ren proposed to be laid off in place of that teacher. Her selflessness received high praise in the local education community. The school and education bureau made repeated promises that she would be immediately restored after one year.

However, when Ms. Ren was released from the labour camp and asked to return to work in 2001, the Nancha Education Bureau refused to fulfill its promise, and the school principal, Wang Jincheng, only granted her 200 yuan¹ for living expenses. After Ms. Ren was put into Harbin Women's Prison in 2003, the school fired her.

Through her over ten years of cultivation, Ms. Ren has been subjected to all kinds of brutal tortures and has lost everything. Her family has also had to deal with extreme fear and the bitterness of separation. Her elderly father went to prison to visit her many times, but was turned away, and returned home in tears. Ms. Ren's daughter had witnessed her arrests many times and was very fearful. As a consequence, she contracted severe heart disease and became destitute and homeless. Ms. Ren's husband left her and went to remote places. Ms. Ren's elderly parents are now plagued by diseases. Her entire family has suffered tremendously.

Ms. Ren has now been arrested once again. The CCP's persecution of Falun Gong has destroyed many good people's families like Ms. Ren's family

Note

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