Ms. Xu Zhen Tortured to Death in a Labour Camp in Just 20 Days

The last scream from Ms. Xu Zhen was heard at 9:00 am on October 20th, 2011. It was the day that she was smothered to death at the Division 4 building of the Chongqing Women’s Forced Labour Camp. The discipline officer on duty that day was Mi Mei.

Ms. Xu's body was carried on a stretcher secretly through the hall and the captain’s office on the second floor to avoid being seen around 2:00 pm. She was already dead at the age of 46.

Ms. Xu was about 5'7” tall and lived in Hechuan District. After cultivating Falun Gong, she became more energetic and felt like a new person. She followed the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and became a much better person. She was always nice to people, and worked hard at her company. However, being a good person did not prevent her from being injected with central nervous system damaging drugs in the forced labour camp, and being tortured to death.

Arrested and Home Ransacked

She was arrested on September 20th, 2011 when she was distributing Falun Gong informational materials in a community in Hechuan, and later taken to the Hechuan Detention Centre. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agents ransacked her home, and seized a notebook computer, an MP3 player, all her Falun Gong books, and some materials exposing the persecution.

Ms. Xu was taken to Division 4 of the Chongqing Women’s Forced Labour Camp around 3:00 pm on September 30th, 2011, which was a division specifically for persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. Four to five inmates dragged her directly to Room 4-1 on the fourth floor, locked it and started physically abusing her there. Three female camp officials directed the action: Tao Xin (captain), Zhu Yu (team lead) and Yang Yi (team lead).

Brutal Torture and Force-Feedings

Ms. Xu was tied to a beam over the bed with hands stretched straight to the sides that same night. Inmates Zhen Linmei, Qin Fang, Xeng Xiaomin, Li Zuhui, Zhouyi, and Tang Hongxia used a milk bottle to force feed her with water, beat her, and ripped off her big toe nails. The pain, the force feedings, and the beating caused her to pass out. Chen Lin said that she was pretending, and continued to force feed her with water until they couldn't do it anymore. They then reported to Captain Jia Zheng, and carried her to the camp medical office for emergency rescue. They continued to torture her in an isolation room on the third floor after she came back. She had difficulty eating afterwards, but she did not give up her belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

Ms. Xu’s big toes were very bloody after her toenails were ripped off. When she refused to squat as ordered, she was tortured. To prevent her screaming from being heard, the police dragged her to Room 4-1 and taped her mouth shut. The police would not take the responsibility for ripping off her toenails in the camp, and claimed that it had been done previously in the detention centre.

To reach 100% “transformation” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] rate, the police would not let up on the torture. They ordered a few inmate-helpers to pull her pants off and pried open her legs, and used a brush to brush her genital area. They then stuck card board into her vagina and forced her to squat, which caused her to bleed profusely. Even though her mouth was taped shut around the clock, her screams could still be heard once in a while. The same methods were also applied to the other practitioners.

20 Days After Her Arrival, She Was Tortured to Death

It took only 20 days for Ms. Xu to die as a result of the torture. During this period she suffered many different horrific tortures, and she died in great pain. Without orders and coercion from the police, the inmates would not have dared to carry out such atrocities.

Ms. Xu was persecuted in Chongqing (Maojishan) Women’s Forced Labour Camp in 2000 and was rendered mentally disordered. She was held in Division 1 in the camp, and was tricked into “transforming.” Afterwards she knew she had made a big mistake, and felt very sorry and depressed.

The captain thought that she was mentally disordered and forced her to take nerve damaging drugs. They handcuffed her on the bed around the clock and beat her frequently. They did not undo the handcuffs even during meals or when she needed to relieve herself. This made the inmates around her angry and abuse her even more.

When her company officials came to take her home, they found that she was in such horrible shape. They said, “When we brought her here she was fine, and now she is like this. We cannot take her, as we don’t have people who can take care of her.” The camp ended up taking her to a psychiatric hospital.

Ms. Xu was sentenced by the Xihu District Court in Hangzhou City to four years in prison in 2006, and was imprisoned and persecuted in the Zhejiang Province Women’s Prison. She was taken to solitary confinement many times, and stayed in the prison medical quarters four times and in the Zhejiang Province Prison Hospital once.