Name: Zhang Yingdong
Gender: Female
Age: 55
Address: Heishan County, Liaoning Province
Occupation: Office Dean
Date of Most Recent Arrest: September 11th, 2007
Most Recent Place of Detention: Masanjia Forced Labour Camp
City: Shenyang
Province: Liaoning
Persecution Suffered: Detention, home ransacked, extortion, back cuff, damaging force-feeding, electric shock, forced labour, brainwashing, face slapped, brutal beatings, handcuffed and shackled, sleep deprivation, stretched and hung up, food and water deprivation
Ms. Zhang Yingdong, former office director of Heishan Petroleum Company of Liaoning, practises Falun Gong. She has been brutally persecuted and was tortured in detention centres and forced labour camps. She suffered life-threatening situations several times.
Ms. Zhang began to practise Falun Gong in 1997. Before that she had heart disease, diabetes, neurasthenia, chronic appendicitis, arthritis, lumbar disc herniation, mastitis, and other diseases. After she practised Falun Gong, all of her illnesses disappeared. Those who knew her thought that it was a miracle. After beginning the practice, her character quickly improved. At home she honoured her parents-in-law. At work, she treated her colleagues kindly and helped others to solve problems. As an office director, she never used her power for personal advantage. She was devoted to her work. Her friends and colleagues all praised her.
Below is her personal account of how she has remained a firm practitioner of Falun Gong and therefore been brutally persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
I am from Heishan County, Liaoning Province. Just because I practise Falun Gong and follow Truth-Compassion-Forbearance, I have ended up in life-threatening situations several times as result of the persecution imposed on Falun Gong by Jiang Zemin's, [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] regime.
I. Robbed, arrested, and detained
On the morning of October 25th, 2005, Feng Wenfang, Zhang Shichun, Bi Shijun, and a person whose last name was Liu from the National Security Team of Heishan County Police Station got me to open my door by lying, saying that they wanted to check the electricity meter. They ransacked my home and took my personal belongings: one TV, two printers, one paper cutter, Falun Gong books, and many kinds of Falun Gong materials exposing the persecution. They told me that they were going to take me to the police station. I told them I would not go since I did not commit any crime. Four of them grabbed my arms and legs and, with my back hitting the steps, dragged me down three flights of stairs. Then they pushed me into a police car. Xiao Zhongying, the assistant captain of the National Security Team, was another police officer who dragged me into the police car.
In the police station, Bi Shijun wanted to handcuff me behind my back. I would not allow him to and said, “It's illegal to handcuff me. It will not do you any good.” He broke my right forearm. I could not comb my hair when I was released in April. Bi Shijun said, “Just based on the fact that you made copies of those Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party1, we would be able to sentence you.” I said, “The Nine Commentaries are facts. The CCP has done all kinds of evil deeds and heaven will destroy it.”
In the afternoon, they detained me in Heishan Detention Centre. Because we had not violated any law, another fellow practitioner, Ms. Wu Yongjie, and I started hunger strikes at the same time. The director of the detention centre and the police said that we were causing them trouble. We said, “Falun Gong practitioners consider others in all kinds of situations. We would not cause trouble for anybody. They should not have detained us. You are deceived by the CCP's lies. You are violating the law, not enforcing it. We are holding this hunger strike to protest such unlawful conduct. It is not against you personally.” They ignored us. Meng Xianping, the prison doctor, brought in several officers and criminals and force-fed us. Meng Xianping punched Ms. Wu in the head. Several people held her face down on a board and handcuffed her behind her back. Then they asked me whether I would eat. When I said, “No,” they did the same to me. Then they began to force feed us. Several of them held our heads and then pushed a finger-thick tube through our noses down into our stomachs. I could not breathe and wanted to vomit. Both of our noses and mouths were bleeding. For five hours, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., they would not take out the tubes.
After several days in the detention centre, Xu Heming and Chang Yunku from Heishan County Procuratorate interrogated me. They said I would be sentenced to over three years based on the materials I had made.
II. Sentenced to seven years, frequently unconscious
After I had been detained for two months, Heishan Court planned to put me on trial. When they saw that many practitioners and others planned to attend, they cancelled the proceedings, using my poor physical condition as an excuse. However, on January 16th, 2006, after I had lost consciousness several times, Zhang Fengyou, Ji Dongmei, and Zhang Aiguo from Heishan Court and others secretly sentenced me in the detention centre to seven years. At that time, Wang Lijun was the director of Jinzhou City Police Station.
On February 9th, 2006, after I had not eaten anything for two months and was in the danger of dying at any time, Heishan Detention Centre sent me to Dabei Prison. Because I could not get out of the car by myself, policemen Yao Haitao and Jin Xianxiang dragged me from the car and then over a thousand metres to the prison. I stopped breathing several times on the way, but both of them said I was faking.
They took me to the prison hospital for a check-up. I was diagnosed with major illness symptoms such as both heart and renal failure and severe malnutrition. I was in critical condition, and the prison would not accept me. However Yao Haitao and Jin Xianxiang insisted that I remain. (According to regulations, when a local detention centre sends a criminal to a prison, the prison gives the detention centre 800 yuan in return). The detention centre offered to pay the prison 5,000 yuan2 to keep me, but the prison still would not accept me, seeing that I was so weak and they did not want to be held responsible for me. As a result, I was taken back to Heishan Detention Centre.
After returning me to the detention centre, they continued to persecute me. Guard Yao Haitao and prison doctor Meng Xianping taped my hands behind my back and continued to force feed me for four more days. At that time, my stomach could not take any food. I vomited purple black blood.
On February 13th, the detention centre was afraid that I might die, so they voluntarily reported my condition to the procurator and the court, and then they sent me home as a form of medical treatment. The very next day, however, Heishan County Police Station harassed me and my family, demanding some procedural paperwork.
Though I was extremely weak, I was forced to leave home and began a life of being displaced.
III. Persecuted while homeless
On September 11th, 2007, I went to Tieling to visit a fellow practitioner. I was arrested and sent to the National Security Team of Tieling City Police Station. They brutally tortured me.
I would not tell them my name since I did not acknowledge their persecution. Xie Xiangjun, the captain of the National Security Team of Tieling City, and a person whose last name was Wang from the Shenyang 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) used electronic batons to shock some of the sensitive parts of my body such as my knees and elbows. I told them, “What you are doing is illegal.” Xia Xiangjun said, “The CCP has never followed the law with regard to Falun Gong.” I said, “If I record what you said with a tape recorder, would you dare to admit it?” He did not dare say a word. They sent me back to Tieling Detention Centre and detained me for over 40 days.
At Tieling Detention Centre, since I did not violate any law, I would not recite the jail regulations, would not wear the uniform, and insisted on doing the exercises. The guards then instigated drug addicts to beat me up. Those people were ruthless, plus they had been poisoned by the CCP's propaganda designed to stir up hatred against Falun Gong. They vented all their resentment and hatred on me. Seeing me doing the sitting meditation on a bed, four or five of them lifted me up and threw me onto the floor. At that moment my legs were in the full lotus position. When they threw me onto the floor, my legs were not injured. They were surprised. Later I told them about the magic of Falun Gong and the truth about Falun Gong being persecuted. After a while, they witnessed how Falun Gong practitioners treated others and knew that they had been deceived by the CCP. Some of them withdrew from the CCP and its affiliated organisations.
When first seeing me doing the exercises, the guards put shackles on me and then attached the shackles to a fixed iron ring on the bed. I was in that position for seven days and nights. I protested with a hunger strike for over 40 days. They force-fed me. When I was so weak, on October 23rd, 2007, they sent me to Masanjia Women's Forced Labour Camp.
IV. Brainwashing at Masanjia Forced Labour Camp
Brainwashing in Masanjia is normally not done by guards. Instead they arrange for collaborators (former practitioners, brainwashed against Falun Gong, made to assist in brainwashing and torturing practitioners) to try to “transform” you. They would first chat with you and not allow you to sleep. Then, when you are muddle-headed, they indoctrinate you with their evil ideas.
When I first arrived at Masanjia, I was in the No. 3 brigade. In order to get me to write a guarantee statement to renounce practising Falun Gong, they arranged for two collaborators to monitor me and work on “transforming” me. About two weeks later, they arranged for another person to monitor me, Zhang Yingmin, who is from Shenyang. Seeing no obvious results, that person left. Then they arranged for Yuan Suzhen, a former coordinator at the Fushun Falun Gong practice site, who completely betrayed Falun Gong, to give me a weekly lesson. That person has been used by the authorities to “transform” practitioners for several years. The camp pays her salary. Claiming to be a practitioner, she chats with you and tries to indoctrinate you with her evil ideas. After I rejected all her evil ideas, the camp arranged for me and all Falun Gong practitioners in the forced labour camp to listen to Yuan Suzhen speak in a meeting room. She took Falun Gong teachings out of context and then added her own evil ideas. Another practitioner and I exposed her deceptions. The forced labour camp could not do anything and had to stop sending me to hear her speak. After that, whenever their superiors or visitors came, they locked me in a meeting room and would not let me out until the visitors had left.
When I refused to sign the statement that I had been “transformed,” the guards would not let me sleep. I had to go to sleep after 11:30 p.m., long after all the other detainees had gone to bed. They would wake me up at 4 in the morning before everyone else got up . They would not let me meet with other practitioners. That continued for over two months.
A few days before the 2008 Olympic Games, they started a new round of brainwashing sessions. I was taken to the No. 2 branch team of the No. 1 brigade. Because only criminals were detained in that team, they arranged for those practitioners who would not be “transformed” to be in with those criminals and forced them to do slave labour. Each practitioner was monitored by two criminals who would watch a practitioner's every movement. The criminals, selected by the guards, were all unscrupulous, especially the drug addicts. Their twisted minds, plus the evil encouragement, made them view practitioners as their enemy. Those in charges would then reduce their term based on how cruelly they treated the practitioners. At first, the two criminals who monitored me would not let me to get in touch with other practitioners. I did not have any personal freedom. It was really like a prison inside a prison. Later I used a Falun Gong practitioner's kindness to soften them. Through constantly clarifying the truth about Falun Gong, I made them change little by little. Slowly their evil thoughts were eliminated and they withdrew from the CCP and its affiliated organisations.
V. Brutal torture methods used in Masanjia Forced Labour Camp
At noon on the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2008, practitioners detained in the No. 1 and 2 brigades shouted in the cafeteria: “Falun Gong is good! Falun Gong is righteous.” The guards were very frightened. On October 7th, they hung up several practitioners, saying that several practitioners from the No. 2 branch team refused to sign a monthly assessment. Fellow practitioner Zhong Shujuan and I wanted to clarify the truth to brigade instructor Li Mingyu (since Li had ordered guards to hang up all of those practitioners from the No. 2 team), and persuade her to treat Falun Gong practitioners kindly for the sake of her own future. She refused to meet with us. The next day before breakfast, we went to see her again, and she still refused to see us. It was time for breakfast, and the other practitioner told me to go down and eat. I replied, “Our fellow practitioners are hanging up now. I will not eat.” At that time over 50 practitioners from the No. 1 brigade heard what I said, and they would not go to have breakfast, either. Since none of the practitioners would go eat, the guards would not allow the other criminals to eat, either. We were at a standstill for two hours. One practitioner said, “Let's go down first. We will think of another method of protest.” It was past 9 a.m. when we had breakfast. Normally began work at 6 a.m. The guards announced that all Falun Gong practitioners should go back upstairs.
After returning upstairs, besides all the guards from the No. 1 brigade, two male policemen showed up. One was Zhang Liang, the other, Peng Tao. Each of them was holding an electronic baton and they began to ask each practitioner to sign their names in the office. Whoever did not sign would be tortured. Zhong Shujuan and I were the last ones. They called my name first. I pushed the office door open. Seven to eight police stood there holding electronic batons. Li Mingyu said, “Who told you to come in without reporting your name first?” I replied, “You told me to come in.” Before I finished, guard Zhao Jinhua slapped my face. I said, “It is against the law to beat us. You have to apologise to me.” Male guard Zhang Liang slapped my face on the right side with a shoe with a plastic bottom. Instantly, I could not see anything out of that eye. (Three days later I saw my right eye was still swollen. For two weeks I could not see anything through that eye.) Then, without any explanation, seven to eight people began kicking and beating me. Seven to eight electronic batons were shocking me at the the same time. They said that I was not cooperative so they held me down to the floor, took off my shoes, and poured water on my feet.
Seeing that I still would not give in, Li Mingyu shouted, “Stretch her! Let's hang her up and stretch her.” Then she pointed at me and shouted, “Zhang Yinglin, we will make you die from stretching! Even if you write all three guarantee statements, it will not be enough to save you.” (At Masanjia, I did not tell the police my name—my fellow practitioners gave me the name.) Then Zhang Chunguang, Feng Tao, and others hung me up for two days and two nights.
This method of torture uses a bunk bed. The person's upper body lays on the bed and the lower part of the body hangs below. First they tie the victim's legs together and then handcuff both arms at the wrist and then hang the arms on either side of the bed. The handcuffs are fixed on the beam of the bed. The victim is not able to straighten the back or legs. The entire body weight is on the arms. It takes only a few minutes for a person to sweat all over. The hands turn black and purple and one wants to die because of the sharp pain. The victim often faints. Over time the handcuffs cut into the flesh and the wrists bleed.
I clarified the truth to them and also shouted, “Falun Gong is good!” Guard Zhao Jinhua and several other guards held my head and wrapped wide transparent tape around my mouth three times. My mouth was taped like that from 9 in the morning to sometime after 7 in the evening before they took that tape off. For a long time, the left side of my chin hurt whenever I ate.
During those two days and nights when I was hung up like that, they did not give me anything to eat or drink. They would not let me to use the bathroom and I had to wet my trousers. Because of the pain, I sweat so much that my throat became parched and I could not speak.
The worst thing was that, when some fellow practitioners could not endure the brutal torture and had to sign the “transformation” statement, the guards gave a sinister smile and laughed wildly: “Another one gave up.” At that moment, I could feel the sharp pain that fellow practitioner had suffered. (I truly could not find a better word to express that.) Then they would shout again, “Now you are the only one left. We will see how long you can hold out. If you do not sign your name, we will let you die by stretching you. If you do not die, you will become handicapped.” At that moment, I felt the humiliation Falun Gong practitioners had suffered. It was a feeling that one would rather die rather than live.
I don't know how many times I lost consciousness. When I only had one breath left, they let me down. At that moment, I lost sensation on the right side of my body. I was so thirsty and wanted to drink some water. But I vomited right after I drank it. For several days I could not eat anything. I would vomit whatever I ate.
Due to the prolonged stretching, the muscle tissues were severely damaged. Those who had been tortured like that could not straighten their backs. They almost could not walk. Their bodies swollen and covered with black and blue marks. Their hands were covered with bruises and swollen, and looked black and purple. The handcuffs cut into the flesh of both of my hands. The skin came off and the bones were exposed. When new skin grew, I could not let my hands touch water. Whether it was cold or warm water, I would feel needle-like pain as soon as my hands touched the water. For four months I could not trim my fingernails. As soon as I touched my fingernails, I would feel terrible pains. It felt as if my fingers were connected to my heart.
VI. Forced to sign after my arm was broken
After being tortured, I could not take care of myself. Others had to help me put on my clothes, and someone needed to help me put on my trousers after using the toilet. Twenty days later, Zhang Chunguang, the captain of the guards, asked someone to put on my shoes and forced me to work in the workshop. I could not do the work. Zhang Chunguang said I was faking. Since I could not do anything, Zhang Chunguang told me to stand in the cotton workshop. The workshop was originally a private small mill in 1969. The equipment was old and out of date, and there was no safety equipment. In that narrow space, cotton dust like snowflakes filled the entire room. There were no protective facilities. The choking air made it hard to breathe even with a double-layer mask. They forced me to stand in such a workshop and would not allow me to wear a mask.
I asked to have a check-up. They took me to the hospital in the forced labour camp. I asked the doctor when I would recover sensation on my right side. The doctor said, “It depends on how you exercise. One to two months, or maybe half a year. If you do not exercise, it might take eight or ten years.” I asked the doctor to see if the nerves had become necrotic. They said that they would not be able to tell since they did not have the proper medical equipment. However, after I went back, they stopped trying to make me do any work. The doctor had apparently passed along the information that the nerves on my right side nerves had become necrotic.
In order to convince me to cooperate with them, the police intentionally allowed me to get in touch with a fellow practitioner. They wanted to get that practitioner to induce me to sign an examination form. That practitioner had refused to write the guarantee statement, but she agreed to sign the examination form. I spent time with her for over three weeks. After chatting with her, she understood that the examination form was for criminals. We did not commit any crimes. If we signed that examination form, it would mean that we admitted that we had committed a crime.
On December 30th, 2008, it was time to sign the examination form. The other practitioner would not sign it. The police said, “We asked you to 'transform' her. Now she has 'transformed' you.” Zhang Chunguang, the captain, and two other guards snapped my right hand and made my hand lose sensation. They pressed it onto the examination form for a fingerprint. They broke my right arm at the shoulder. On March 10th, when I finished my term at the forced labour camp, the break was still not fully healed and I still could not take care of myself on a daily basis. (I had x-rays done in the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp hospital, Shenyang Medical University, and Shenyang Orthopaedic Hospital. They refused to give me those x-rays when I was released.)
These acts of persecution were carried out secretly. Only the guards who participated knew about it. Other guards had no idea. In fact, all the torture of Falun Gong practitioners was carried out secretly. This exposes how evil the CCP's persecution is.
Related articles:
“Former Chief of the Administration Office of Liaoning Province Heishan County Petroleum Company Secretly Sentenced to Seven Years”
http://en.minghui.org/emh/articles/2006/2/12/69889.html
“Falun Dafa Practitioner Ms. Zhang Yingdong Leaves Home to Avoid Persecution, Heishan Police Arrest Her Husband”
http://en.minghui.org/emh/articles/2006/3/22/71048.html
Note
1. Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party: Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party is a series of essays published in late 2004 that reveal the true nature of the Communist Party. The Nine Commentaries have led millions of people to renounce their membership in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). "A book that has shocked all Chinese around the world. A book that is disintegrating the Communist Party." http://ninecommentaries.com
2. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.
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