A Form of Torture Known as "Confining Clothes"

A method of torture known as “Confining Clothes” is one of more than 100 different kinds of torture techniques the Chinese Communist Party uses on Falun Gong practitioners.

Such clothes, which tighten whenever the person moves, are used to restrain people with mental illnesses, in much the same way “straight jackets” have been used in mental hospitals in the West.

In China, confining clothes are made of canvas. They are put on from the front and tightened in the back. The sleeves are about 25 cm long with a ribbon attached to each end. This form of torture can cause fractures of the shoulders, wrists, and elbows; spinal fractures; or even death.

This form of torture was first used on Falun Gong practitioners in the Hunan Third Forced Labour Camp (also known as the Xuchang Forced Labour Camp). It was used to try to force Falun Gong practitioners to give up their belief and “reform” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong].

The guards put the confining clothes on practitioners, pull their arms behind their backs, and tie them in place with rope. They tie their legs and then hang the practitioners from the window bars. They would usually also put headphones on them with brainwashing propaganda that slandered Falun Gong. They also stuffed their mouths with rags.