Head Nurse: Atrocities in Masanjia Forced Labour Camp Cannot be Denied

A comprehensive report on Masanjia Forced Labour Camp was published by Lens Magazine in China in April 2013, entitled “Walking Out of Masanjia.” The report exposed brutal torture and mistreatment of detainees at the labour camp, which is located in Shenyang, Liaoning Province. Soon afterwards, authorities in Liaoning Province organized an investigation team, and within a short period of time concluded that, predictably, the report was “seriously inconsistent with the facts.”

I was twice detained at Masanjia Forced Labour Camp and I subjected to cruel persecution there. Four of the people interviewed by the author of “Walking out of Masanjia” were detained in the same team with me. In truth, the brutal torture suffered by Falun Gong practitioners is far worse than was exposed in the report published in Lens Magazine, and the bloody atrocities committed by Masanjia Forced Labour Camp cannot be denied.

My name is Wang Chunying. I am 59 years old, and a Falun Gong practitioner from Dalian City. Before I retired, I was a nurse unit manager of a hospital. I used to suffer from various diseases before I started practising Falun Gong. I had chronic gastritis, colitis, arthritis, and chronic thyroiditis, which required lifelong medication in order to control my thyroid function. I lived my life in constant pain.

I began practising Falun Gong in 1998. In just a few days, my physical ailments all disappeared, and I became healthy and happy. After the persecution of Falun Gong started in 1999, I was twice detained at Masanjia Forced Labour Camp. The first time was between January 2002 and January 2005, and the second time was between August 2007 and November 2009, a total of five years and three months. I was subjected to severe persecution, including being deprived of sleep, beaten, stretched, hung by handcuffs, and forced to do hard labour.

The First Torture I was Subjected To – Diagonal Hanging

On the morning of December 29th, 2007, the third month of my detention at Masanjia, I refused to sign a form required from all inmates, because the first item on the form was an admission of guilt. I practise Falun Gong in accordance with Falun Gong's principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, to be a better person. My practising is not a mistake. I did not commit any crimes, and I exercise the freedom of belief granted by China's Constitution, so I refused to sign. Division head Zhang Chunguang and political head Li Mingyu, assistant Zhai Yanhui, and a total of six prison guards put me through a form of torture known as diagonal hanging. This is done by handcuffing both hands, one to the upper bunk of an iron bed, and the other to the lower bunk of another iron bed. In this way, a person can neither stand up nor squat down. The handcuffs are tightly fastened onto one's wrists.

Shenyang City weather is -17 or -18 C (around 0 F) in the winter, but I was sweating profusely with excruciating pain, and soon my hands swelled up and turned blackish purple.

While I was fastened to the beds, the guards kicked the beds hard with their feet so that my arms were stretched further. My body felt like it was being ripped apart. Every two or three hours, the guards shook my handcuffed hands to intensify the pain. I felt as if fistfuls of salt were being sprinkled on my open wounds.

During the entire time I was being tortured this way, the guards repeatedly urged me to sign the form. I refused, and the torture continued. The entire time I was not given a morsel of food or a drop of water, nor was I allowed to use the toilet.

I was released from the torture at 1:30 a.m. The following morning, I was hung up in the same way for 16 hours. My hands were swollen like risen dough, and the skin on my wrists was cut in many places by the handcuffs, and caked with dried blood.

The Second Time I was Tortured by Being Hung by Handcuffs

I was persecuted every month at Masanjia when I refused to sign the assessment form. Sometimes, the guards instigated a number of inmates to force me to sign the form, and my hands bled from being jabbed by the pen tip.

The second time I was subjected to torture was October 7th, 2008, again for refusing to “admit my guilt” and sign the assessment form. This time Yang Jian, the current head of Masanjia Labour Camp, along with current division head Wang Yanpin, who is in charge of the overall operation of Masanjia, former division heads Zhang Chunguang and Li Mingyu, and two male guards, Peng Tao and Zhang Liang from the education section, put me through another form of torture known as hanging up.

Peng Tao and Zhang Liang handcuffed my hands tightly, wound up both my wrists with long pieces of cloth, and affixed my upper limbs to the head of the bed. They then stood at the foot of the bed, one on each side, and pulled at my feet. My whole body was stretched from the head of the bed to the end of the bed. They handcuffed my hands to the rail of the upper bed. The entire weight of my body was on my wrists.

At that point, a six-inch wide cloth was tightly wound around both my knees and feet. I was unable to move at all. My entire body felt as if it was being torn apart. Sweat poured forth uncontrollably. My clothes were dripping wet. I nearly lost consciousness. My hands and wrists soon turned purple. The ordeal lasted 23 hours. This torture was far worse than the previous one. The piercing pain is impossible to describe even if I were to exhaust all words in the human language.

A nurse appeared and tried to make me swallow some pills for heart attack, but I refused to open my mouth. The nurse pinched my nose and hit my mouth until I could not hold my breath any longer, and had to gasp for air. When I opened my mouth to breathe, the nurse swiftly stuffed nine pills into it.

Division head Wang Yanpin and evildoer Peng Songtao grabbed hold of my hair and slapped my face repeatedly. While hitting me, Wang Yanping said, “So, you also reported me on the Minghui website?” Much of my hair was pulled out. Just then, another officer came with pills for heart attack. He grabbed my nose to try to shove the pills into my mouth. Someone shouted, “Don't do it. She was force-fed nine pills already.” The officer said, “That was close! I have nine more pills here.”

A little past 8 o'clock that evening, about 100 people from two different divisions went into a front room to fetch their bedding and get ready for bed. I called out, “Falun Gong is good!” “Falun Gong is righteous!” Former division heads Zhang Chunguang and Li Mingyu rushed over with some duct tape, yelling, “You still dare to call out Falun Gong is good and dare to shout like this?” With that, they set about taping my mouth with yellow tape, five to six inches in width, and wrapped the tape several times around my head. My nose was flattened. It was very difficult to breathe. I was taped up like this until after 10:00 a.m. the next morning. When they pulled off the yellow tape, it came off with my hair stuck to it. Both my nose and mouth were bleeding.

From time to time, the guards shook the handcuffs, which were cutting into my wrists. The skin around my wrists was all torn up. This went on until 2:30 p.m. on October 8th, for a total of 23 hours. During those 23 hours, the guards provided no food or water, nor would they allow me to use the bathroom. When the handcuffs were finally taken off, I had no feeling in my arms and hands. When I used the toilet, I couldn't even use my hands to pull down my pants. The flesh around my wrists was all torn open and covered with dried blood. There were also a multitude of blisters of varying sizes.

The muscles on my upper limbs later atrophied and shrunk, like the arms of a child. Both my hands were also atrophied, the heel portions of my fingers became thin and remain tapered, and the black marks on my fingers are still very much visible.

Other practitioners were subjected to the same torture at the time, including Qi Zhenhong, Zhang Yinglin, Lu Lin, Zhong Shujuan, and Yan Junhua. The torture inflicted on Qi Zhenhong made her mentally disordered right then. As to Zhang Yinglin, after several days, her arms were fractured from the extreme force the guards exerted on her to force her to sign her name on a piece of paper.

Forced Blood Test--Possible Preparation for Organ Harvesting

On May 12th, 2008, about 200 people, including Falun Gong practitioners and detainees from Divisions 1 and 2, were given blood tests. Overseas media had previously exposed the crimes of systematic organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners on March 8th, 2006, so I knew that blood tests were conducted to prepare for organ transplants. Because I refused to have my blood tested, several guards stepped forward to pull me over. I held tightly to the door handle, struggling with all my might, but was finally overcome by nine guards, including the two male guards from Masanjia Hospital who were there to draw blood. I was forced down onto the bed. I could not move a muscle, so I called out, “Falun Gong is good! Persecuting Falun Gong practitioners is a crime!"

Wang Yanping grabbed a pillow and held it over my face. Suddenly, everything went dark, and I was unable to come up for air. I desperately shook my head from side to side and my head hit the wall. I somehow found a little breathing gap between the pillow and the wall, and narrowly escaped death by suffocation.

That was how the guards succeeded in drawing 5 milliliters of my blood. I had 30 years of nursing experience and knew that they only needed 2 milliliters of blood for testing liver and kidney functions. Clearly they also wanted to test for other purposes.

I have spent 30 years in the nursing profession. I have done biochemical tests, and I know that for liver function and kidney function tests, only 2 milliliters of blood is needed. They drew 5 milliliters.

Xin Shuhua, a practitioner from Benxi, was imprisoned with me at Masanjia. She too was tortured repeatedly between 2002 and 2004 for remaining steadfast in her belief. Masanjia's political commissar Wang Naimin said to her, "Aren't you practising being compassionate? So be compassionate and donate your heart." To which Xin Shuhua replied, “I would need to be alive in order to practise.” Wang Naimin answered, "It's not up to you. I will send you off to Sujiatun.” Sujiatun is the name of a hospital believed to be one place where a large number of organs from Falun Gong practitioners were harvested.

Wang Naimin then promptly gave Sujiatun Hospital a call. The hospital said it would do a pick-up at 9 o'clock that evening, and would send over a vehicle. But no vehicles showed up. The next day, Wang Naimin called the hospital again. An afternoon pick-up was scheduled, and again it was a no show. The same thing happened the third day. Finally, Wang Naimin couldn't do anything and let the matter drop.

With me was also Wei Yanhua, a practitioner from Tieling, who knew a lot about the persecution behind the scenes. Wang Naimin told her, “For someone like you, we've got to send you to Sujiatun.” One night in 2005, Wei Yanhua was taken away by several male officers and was never heard from again.

The various forms of torture to which I was subjected at Masanjia represent but the tip of the iceberg of the persecution that Falun Gong practitioners are forced to endure.

I appeal to the international community to please initiate an independent investigation into Masanjia's alleged crimes based on the evidence, and release the findings, so that all those involved in the persecution will be tracked down and brought to justice, so that all the injustices Falun Gong practitioners have undergone and are still undergoing at Masanjia can be redressed.