Force-Feeding: Cruel Torture Used on Falun Gong Practitioners

Shanghai Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Liu Peng was taken to the Shanghai City Tilanqiao Prison on March 10th, 2009. Mr. Liu Peng had been on hunger strike for more than one year prior. Police force-fed him with fluids by inserting a plastic tube into his nostril. They tortured him by leaving the tube inside his nostril for long periods of time.

Force-feeding is a very cruel torture used by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials. It is never for the betterment of the prisoners, but rather to torture them. Methods such as this one are intended to make practitioners feel more miserable than death.

Police at Tilanqiao Prison force fed hot porridge into prisoner's stomachs and damaged their nasogastric tubes and gastric walls. Moreover, they intentionally added additional salt to the porridge, which made the victims thirsty, and limited their water supply to torture the victims. While force-feeding prisoners, they repeatedly insert and pull out the tube. In this way, the prisoners experience extreme pain. Unknown drugs are also added, which gradually poison the prisoners.

Mr. Liu Peng Force-Fed and Tortured

The Minghui website reported Mr. Liu Peng's case on March 12th and March 20th, 2009. Mr. Liu Peng was arrested on February 21st, 2008, and later detained in the Xuhui District Detention Centre. He started a hunger strike to protest the persecution on April 22nd, 2008.

When the Minghui website reported his case, Mr. Liu Peng had been on hunger strike for one year. The informants said that he had no fat on his body at all, and his stomach had seriously shrunk. During his hunger strike, he had been taken to the Shanghai Prison General Hospital, where he was tied to a bed and force-fed. He was in the hospital for about ten days. He was returned to the detention centre in May 2008, and force-fed again.

Mr. Liu Peng was formerly a teacher at Shanghai Police College. Both he and his wife Ms. Zhang Xumei obtained their Master's Degrees from the Graduate School of East China Teacher's University. They had been married for less than one year when the CCP started persecuting Falun Gong, in July 1999. The couple were closely monitored, and have been detained and arrested many times since.

In early July 2000, when his son was only three months old, Mr. Liu Peng was arrested and taken to Shanghai No. 1 Forced Labour Camp in Sichahe, Dafeng City, Jiangsu Province, where he was brainwashed and tortured. In August 2003, six months after Mr. Liu Peng was released, he was arrested by police officers from the Minhang District Domestic Security Division, and sentenced to one and a half years of forced labour.

He was later detained in the Shanghai City Qingdong Farm No. 3 Forced Labour Camp. Mr. Liu Peng and his wife Ms. Zhang Xumei were arrested again in February 2008 by officers from the Xuhui District Domestic Security Division. That time Mr. Liu Peng was sentenced to five years in prison. Mr. Liu Peng was taken to the Shanghai City Tilanqiao Prison on March 10th, 2009. He should have been released in February 2013, but no one has ever heard of his release.

Mr. Qu Yanlai Force Fed and Tortured

Mr. Qu Yanlai, born in 1977, graduated from the Energy Engineering Department of Shanghai Jiaotong University. He was highly educated and had a great character. He was a National Olympiad Award winner, ranked outstanding in chemistry, and first-class in mathematics. He started practising Falun Gong in July 1999 and disciplined himself strictly according to the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Anyone who met him would say he was a very good person, honest, kind, tolerant, and sincere.

Mr. Qu Yanlai was arrested by police officers from the Putuo District Police Department at his home, at midnight on September 30th, 2002. He was later sentenced to five years in prison. As soon as he was arrested, he began a hunger strike to protest the persecution. During that period, he was beaten severely and force-fed, which caused him stomach bleeding four times. He was in hospital for four months and his life was in danger. Mr. Qu Yanlai, a strong man of 180cm / 70kg (5ft.-11in. / 154 lb.), was tortured to disability. He could only lie in bed or sit in a wheelchair, without any ability to take care of himself.

On their way to the room where he was to be force-fed, the guards intentionally dragged him up and down the stairs. Mr. Qu Yanlai's legs were worn, bleeding, and with bones exposed. In 2007, when Mr. Qu Yanlai had been on hunger strike for more than four and a half years, he was handcuffed and taken from the No. 6 Sub-Prison to the No. 2 Sub-Prison, where the torture continued. His life was in danger in early March 2007 and he was taken to the prison hospital.

Mr. Qu Yanlai's family hired human rights lawyer Mr. Guo Guoting, from Shanghai for him, but Mr. Guo was eventually arrested, and was later left with no other options but to escape abroad.

Mr. Qu Yanlai's younger sister, Ms. Qu Yanyan, came from far away to visit him on March 20th, 2007, but was arrested by police officers from the Shanghai Domestic Security Division on the night of her arrival. She was later sentenced to prison.

Mr. Xiong Wenqi Force-Fed and Tortured

Mr. Xiong Wenqi, 40, a graduate from the Energy Engineering Department of Shanghai Jiaotong University, was a National Olympiad Award winner, and recognized as outstanding in chemistry and first-class in mathematics. He was formerly an employee at the Putuo District Industrial and Commercial Administration in Shanghai. He worked very hard and was honoured as an advanced employee for three consecutive years. He started practising Falun Gong in October 1997. Mr. Xiong Wenqi has been arrested several times since the CCP started persecuting Falun Gong in July 1999.

Mr. Xiong Wenqi was arrested again on May 3rd, 2001, in the Yangpu District of Shanghai. He went on hunger strike to protest the persecution. Guards in the Shanghai Putuo District Detention Centre tortured him inhumanely for more than six months. He was later sentenced to prison for four and a half years, and taken to the Tilanqiao Prison.

Because he held a hunger strike, the guards tortured him using the death bed torture¹. They tied his arms and legs to the bed using five long ropes, then forcefully inserted a tube into one of his nostrils. Mr. Xiong Wenqi was subjected to this torture for more than a year. In attemps to force him to give up the hunger strike, all possible means of torture were employed. In Tilanqiao Prison, he was isolated, and deprived of family visitation. He was tied to the bed around the clock, seven days a week, and not allowed to use the toilet. The prison head said to Mr. Xiong Wenqi, “When you admit that Falun Gong is a cult, we will release you immediately.” Mr. Xiong refused to give up his belief.

In March 2005, Mr. Xiong Wenqi was transferred to Group 4, Prison District No. 1, where serious criminals were detained. Police officers appointed several criminals who had been given death sentences with reprieve or life imprisonment to monitor Mr. Xiong. The guards ordered these criminals, “Even if you leave him with only one breath, it's all right, as long as you don't beat him to death.” The criminals were also promised that they'd receive two years of term reduction for complying. As a result, they very actively and cruelly tortured Mr. Xiong.

Mr. Xiong had been tied to a bed for more than one year, which resulted in the onset of muscular dystrophy. He was very weak. Guards punished him by making him sit on a small, round plastic disk from 5:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. The round disk had a protruding surface to cause discomfort and pain. Mr. Xiong was forced to sit still until the evening, or he was not allowed to sleep. The purpose was to grind down his will. They bashed his head against the cement floor, hung him up by his handcuffs, then hit him against the wall, scratched his ribs, waist, and back with their fingernails, and violently kicked his legs, knees, and chest.

Mr. Xiong was beaten black and blue all over. He was force-fed with pepper powder, and perfumed toilet water and essential balm were put into his mouth, nose, and eyes. They pried open his mouth, inserted a plastic tube, pinched his nose, and poured water into his mouth. He couldn't breathe. The substances entered his trachea, which caused it to inflame, and his lung to become seriously infected.

Conclusion

There are still hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners imprisoned in the Shanghai City Tilanqiao Prison. Their living environment is awful. During this year's hot summer, when the highest temperature was 40 degrees Celsius (104 F), three practitioners were detained in each small cell, of only 3.3 square meters in size. The practitioners were deprived of their most basic human rights, and their lives were all in jeopardy. We call on the people of the world to help rescue them!

We also want to warn those police officers and criminals who participated in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners that heavenly principles dictate that good will be rewarded with fortune and evil will be met with retribution. You must stop your evil doings and compensate evil with good. Otherwise your evil doings will meet with justice, and your lives will be phased out.

A vow quoted from the website of the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong reads, “To investigate the criminal conduct of all institutions, organizations, and individuals involved in the persecution of Falun Gong, to bring such investigations, no matter how long it takes, no matter how far and deep we have to search, to full closure to exercise fundamental principles of humanity, and to restore and uphold justice in society.”

Parties involved in the persecution:

Shanghai City Tilanqiao Prison: +86-21-55589900

Dai Weidong (戴卫东), warden of Tilanqiao Prison: +86-21-65848922, +86-13701851126

Wen Yong (文勇), political commissar: +86-21-65378143

Director of the Prison District No. 1: +86-21-65412374

Note

1. "Death Bed" torture: A practitioner is tied to a bed with his hands handcuffed above his head to the bed rails, and his legs tied with thin nylon ropes. The rope is then tightly wrapped around the practitioner's body and the bed, from his legs to his chest. The rope is wrapped so tightly that the practitioner has difficulty breathing and eventually loses consciousness.