At Least 28 Teachers and Students Persecuted at Beijing Women's Prison

Teaching is a profession that has always been honoured respected in traditional Chinese culture. However, since 2000, at least 25 teachers and 3 students have been detained at the Beijing Women's Prison.

Among them are university professors and teachers of all ages and specialisation. Their crime? Steadfast belief in Falun Gong, a peaceful spiritual practice based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

These great teachers and students could have made significant contributions to China and society. Instead, simply because they adhered to Falun Gong and its universal principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and told others about the beauty of this spiritual practice, they suffered brutal persecution.

All were subjected to brainwashing and slave labour, as well as inhumane torture, throughout their terms.

Sadly, many Chinese people remain deceived by the communist regime's lies and refuse to listen to the truth. The regime has robbed China of its brightest and best minds – the hope and the leaders of the future. This is yet another crime committed by the Chinese communist regime.

Below is a partial summary of the persecution that teachers and students have suffered in the Beijing Women's Prison over the past 14 years.

1. Ms. Li Li, an associate professor in the Philosophy Department of the National Prosecutor Institute, was dismissed from her workplace in 2000 because she practised Falun Gong. In 2001, the institute reclaimed her residence.

In 2002, Ms. Li, in her 40s, was arrested while distributing informational materials about Falun Gong in Shenzhen. In 2004, she was sentenced to nine years of imprisonment.

Ms. Li was brutally tortured in the Beijing Women's Prison.

Zheng Yumen, head of Ward No. 10, took her to an empty ward, where she was tortured every day by the inmates assigned to “transform” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] her. They did not allow her to sleep and made her stand for long periods of time, which caused her feet to be swollen for several months. The inmates wrote words slandering Falun Gong on the floor and forced Ms. Li to step on them. They also forced her to wear a high hat and humiliated her.

While held in Ward No. 4, Ms. Li was deprived of sleep for over 10 consecutive days. She was forced to sit on a small plastic stool day and night. She was not allowed to wash or use the bathroom.

Later, she was forced to copy Buddhist scriptures until after the midnight every night, as prison guards attempted to coerce her to switch her belief from Falun Gong to Buddhism.

Ms. Li wrote multiple letters to expose and report the injustice. However, the letters were held by the inmates assigned to monitor her. Ms. Li also made multiple requests to meet with the prison head, but her requests were rejected. By the time she was released from the prison, her eyes were severely injured.

2. Ms. Yang Ying, from Shijingshan, was a Chinese teacher at the Beijing Liyi Elementary School. She was sentenced to eight years of imprisonment in October 2003, when she was in her 40s. Her husband, Mr. Zhang Yanbin, was sentenced to nine years of imprisonment.

Once, several detained practitioners in Ward No. 8 of the Beijing Women's Prison were caught passing around Falun Gong teachings. Ms. Yang took the responsibility for it. Huang Qinghua, the head of the ward, forced her to sit on a small stool and write statements slandering Falun Gong.

Ms. Yang was tortured over and over again. At the beginning of 2007, she suffered a mental breakdown; she would scream out of fear when she saw people. Even so, the guards still continued to physically abuse her.

3. Ms. Dan Ling was an associate professor at the Peking Union Medical University, who won the title of “outstanding teacher” for many years. After July 1999, when the communist regime began to persecute Falun Gong, she was forced to leave the university.

On October 13th, 1999, Ms. Dan was arrested and taken to Division No. 14 of the Beijing Police Department. Later, she was forced to leave home to avoid being arrested again.

After she was arrested in Fujian Province in August 2002, Ms. Dan was sent back to Beijing and was sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment. She was 46 years old when she was incarcerated at the Beijing Women's Prison.

4. Ms.Yuan Lin, from Haidian District in Beijing, was a Peking University Graduate School instructor. In 2002, when she was in her 50s, she was sentenced to eight years of imprisonment for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong.

In a solitary cell in Ward No. 3 of the Beijing Women's Prison, Ms. Yuan was subjected to corporal punishment that caused her to experience cardiac arrest several times.

In the “counselling room,” she was further subjected to bondage, beatings, sleep deprivation and toilet use denial for several days in a row. When she went on a hunger strike to protest the inhuman abuse, she was force-fed.

Head of Ward No. 8, Huang Qinghua, used violent means to attempt to force her to renounce her belief and withdraw her complaint against the prison.

Ms. Yuan experienced all kinds of inhumane cruelty and humiliation while in prison. One of her ears became deaf from the beatings, and her body was covered with many scars.

5. Ms. Li Fengqin, 59, was an instructor at the Beijing Industrial University. On the New Year's Day in 2001, she was beaten by police for over five hours at Tiananmen Square, only because she brought a camera with her. Afterward, she was not able to walk and was unrecognisable.

Later, because she produced informational materials about Falun Gong, she was sentenced to six years of imprisonment. At the Beijing Women's Prison, she was subjected to brainwashing and slave labour, including counting cotton swabs, knitting sweaters, and making moon cake boxes. Sometimes she was forced to work overnight. The work caused her fingers to become deformed.

6. Ms. Li Shuying is a retired teacher at a high school in Zhongguancun, Beijing. She was repeatedly rated as “excellent teacher.” In 2000, when she was in her 50s, she was sentenced to three years of imprisonment due to participating in activities at Tiananmen Square.

At the Beijing Women's Prison, prison guards pressured her husband to make a speech against her. Huang Qinghua, head of the ward, also forced her to participate in theatrical performances to praise the prison guards and communist regime. In addition, she was forced to do labour, such as wash cashmere, package chopsticks and knit sweaters.

8. Ms. Kong Fanfen, 71, is a retired professor from the Beijing Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2007, she was sentenced to three years of imprisonment for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong.

Ms. Kong was detained in Ward No. 8 of the Beijing Women's Prison, where she underwent brainwashing by Huang Qinghua and others. She was forced to watch videos and read books defaming Falun Gong, as well as to write “thought” reports that aligned with the communist ideology and criticised Falun Gong.

9. Ms. Li Jingyan, is a retired physics teacher from the Beijing First High School. In 2002, she was sentenced to three years of imprisonment. She was 60 years old. She was detained in Ward No. 8 of the Beijing Women's Prison.

10. Ms. Wang Chuanyu is a retired teacher from the Beijing No. 119 High School. She was sentenced to three years of imprisonment when she was 63 years old. She was detained in Ward No. 10 of the Beijing Women's Prison.

11. Ms. Ye Hong is a retired Chinese teacher from an elementary school in Beijing. In 2007, she was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment. She was detained, subjected to brainwashing and was forced to do slave labour in Wards No. 1 and No. 8 of the prison.

12. Ms. Liu Jiying, from Huairou District in Beijing, was a teacher at the Hongluosi High School and Jiuduhe Elementary School. She was sentenced to eight years of imprisonment in 2002 because she spoke to people about Falun Gong. She was in her 40s when she was detained at the Beijing Women's Prison.

13. Ms. Liu Fenglian is a teacher from Changping District, Beijing. She was rated as an “outstanding teacher,” but was sentenced to three years of imprisonment for her spiritual belief. She was incarcerated at the Beijing Women's Prison when she was in her 50s.

14. Ms. Li Fengying, was a teacher of German at a university in Shenyang. She has been detained at Ward No. 4 of the prison.

Ms. Li, in her 60s, is from Chaoyang District in Beijing. At the end of 2009, she was sentenced to four and a half years of imprisonment because she wrote a letter to clarify the facts about Falun Gong to a newspaper.

In the prison, Liu Yingchun attempted to force her to believe in Buddhism, so that she would renounce her belief in Falun Gong. At the time, she suffered from cerebellar atrophy. Despite her poor health, the perpetrators Ward No. 4 forced her do slave labour so that they would gain more profits.

15. Ms. Lei Xiaoting, an English teacher at the Beijing Technology and Business University, was in her 20s when she was sent to the Beijing Women's Prison. While she taught at the university, she often won the praise of school administrators and students.

In October 1999, Ms. Lei was sentenced to two years of imprisonment because she had helped to translate information

16. Ms. Gong Ruiping was a teacher at the Chengguan Elementary School in the Pinggu District of Beijing. After the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999, officials from the Pinggu District Education Bureau fired her because she refused to renounce her belief.

In 2002, when she was on her 30s, Ms. Gong was sentenced to four years of imprisonment. Tian Fengqing, head of Ward No. 3 at the Beijing Women's Prison, deprived her of sleep for more than 40 days. The guards then declared that she had a psychiatric disorder and sent her to the psychiatric division, where she was forced to take drugs every day.

The guards also tortured her and shocked her with electric batons. Once, a guard ordered an inmate to sit on her back, while he pulled her legs. Her tendons in both legs were injured.

Guards Xi Xuehui and Chen Jing tortured her in the bathroom where there were no cameras to record their crimes. They pulled her legs so far apart that Ms. Gong was unable to walk normally for a few months afterward. Chen Jing was subsequently promoted for his brutality in the Falun Gong persecution.

Ms. Gong was also not allowed to use the toilet. Every time she asked to use the toilet, the guards ordered her to renounce Falun Gong. She became incontinent as a result of the persecution.

In Ward No. 8, Huang Qinghua forced Ms. Gong to withdraw her testimony of the torture she had been subjected to at the prison. When she was finally released in 2005, she was dull and moved slowly; she continued to have urinary incontinence.

Related report: “Ms. Gong Ruiping, a Teacher from Beijing Who Suffered Repeated Persecution, Imprisoned Again”

17. Ms. Yu Jia was a lecturer at the Tsinghua University. In 2001, while in her 30s, she was sentenced to three and a half years of imprisonment. At the Beijing Women's Prison, she was subjected to intense brainwashing.

18. Ms. Guo Zhi was a lecturer at the Chinese Media University. In early 2001, she had already met the eligibility requirements to emigrate to Canada. At the Capital International Airport, while going through customs on her way out of the country, she was arrested. Later, she was forced to become homeless in order to avoid getting arrested again.

In 2002, Ms. Guo was sentenced to three years of imprisonment. She was 42 years old. The university dismissed her, and she was incarcerated at the Beijing Women's Prison, where she was forced to undergo brainwashing.

19. Ms. Liu Qian, was a teacher at the Beijing Foreign Language University. In 2001, she was sentenced to four years of imprisonment. She was only 24 years old when she was sent to prison.

20. Ms. Wu Yueping, from Xuanwu District in Beijing, was a biology teacher at a high school in Beijing. In 2000, she was sentenced to four years of imprisonment and sent to the Beijing Women's Prison. She was in her 40s.

21. Ms. Xu Ruohui, a teacher at a high school in Beijing, was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment in 2002, when she was in her 30s. She, like all the others, was subjected to brainwashing at the Beijing Women's Prison.

22. Ms. Gu Xifang, an English teacher at a high school in Beijing, was sentenced to nine years of imprisonment in 2002, when she was in her 20s. Her mother, who was also a Falun Gong practitioner, passed away due to the persecution.

23. Ms. Wang Yanfen, from Chaoyang District and a math teacher at High School No. 119 in Beijing, was sentenced to 11 years of imprisonment in 2002. She was 32 years old. She was sent to the Beijing Women's Prison in 2003. The same year, she was taken to a bathroom that had no cameras and tortured by Tian Fengqing, head of Ward No. 3.

24. Ms. Chu Tong was a lecturer at the Institute of Microelectronics of Tsinghua University in her 30s. In October 1999, she went to the Tiananmen Square and put up a banner that said, “Falun Gong is good.” For this, she was sentenced to 18 months of imprisonment for the so-called crime of “illegal demonstration.” She was detained at the Beijing Women's Prison.

After she was released in April 2001, Ms. Chu exposed the prison officials' crimes of torture and persecution on the Minghui website and wrote letters to some female prison guards to clarify the facts about Falun Gong to them. As a result, she was arrested again in 2002, along with her husband, Mr. Yu Chao. She was sentenced to 11 years of imprisonment.

In September 2002, she was taken to the prison hospital and tortured by Huang Qinghua.

25. Ms. Liang Bo, 45, was a teacher at the Central University for Nationalities. Because she persisted in practising Falun Gong, the school denied her the right to lecture, stopped her benefits and salary, and took away her campus apartment. Ms. Liang was arrested on campus and sentenced to three and a half years of imprisonment in 2010.

At the Haidian Detention Centre, she suffered inhumane torture, leading to chest cartilage fracture, bleeding, repeated shock, and, at one point, loss of the ability to walk. Afterward, she was detained at Ward No. 4 of the Beijing Women's Prison, where guard Liu Yingchun and inmates Wang Ran and Li Xiaoli tortured her and forced her to do slave labour.

26. Ms. Kong Xuesong, from Tongzhou, Beijing, was a college student. She was expelled by her school and sentenced to three and a half years of imprisonment in 2001, when she was only 21 years old.

27. Ms. Yao Yue was a graduate student at the Institute of Microelectronics of Tsinghua University. In September 1999, she was arrested by the Tsinghua University police because she did Falun Gong exercises on campus. She was interrogated until the next morning. Later, she was expelled from the university.

In December 2001, Ms. Yao was sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment for distributing Falun Gong informational materials. In 2002, she was sent to the Beijing Women's Prison. She was about 27 years old at the time. Her husband, Mr. Liu Wenyu, was sentenced to three years of imprisonment at the same time.

28. Ms. Lu Jing was sentenced to two years of imprisonment in 2005. She had already been detained when she received her college acceptance letter.

These great teachers and students could have made significant contributions to China and society. However, simply because they adhered to Falun Gong and its universal principles of Truthfulness- Compassion-Forbearance and told others about the beauty of this spiritual practice, they suffered brutal persecution and inhumane torture.

Sadly, many Chinese people remain deceived by the communist regime's lies and refuse to listen to the truth. The regime has robbed China of its brightest and best minds – the hope and the leaders of the future. This is yet another crime committed by the Chinese communist regime.