Divorced and Arrested on 30th Birthday, Teeth Knocked Out a Year Later

“Guard Lu tried to pry open my mouth with a sharpened bamboo stick, and I clenched my teeth as tightly as I could. I was soon soaked in sweat, and blood began to ooze out of my mouth. Even the inmates that held me down for the force-feeding turned their heads to avoid seeing my face.

"During the struggle, a stream of blood suddenly squirted out of my mouth, as three of my bottom teeth were uprooted. I accidentally swallowed one of them, and the other two fell onto my clothes.

"The inmates were horrified and instinctively let go of me. That moment felt as if it was frozen in time.”

Above is what happened to Ms. Wang Fuhua (王福花) in Baimalong Forced Labour Camp in Zhuzhou City, Hunan Province, for refusing to give up her belief in Falun Gong, a self-cultivation system being persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party.

As other families were getting ready to celebrate the 2002 Chinese New Year, Ms. Wang's family received a letter from her, detailing what she was going through at the hands of labour camp guards and inmates. More than 10 family members rushed to the labour camp in a rented van to check on her.

The labour camp claimed that it was just an accident and promised to get Ms. Wang dentures. They declined the family's request to take her home, and subjected her to more rounds of torture not too long after her loved ones left.

Ms. Wang's ordeal in the labour camp was preceded by her divorce and arrest on her 30th birthday about a year prior. Before that, she was arrested four times between 1999 and 2000 and was subjected to a form of torture dubbed “carrying a sword” in Beijing.

Divorce and Arrest on Her 30th Birthday

Ms. Wang, an elementary school teacher in Chenzhou City, received two unwelcome presents on her 30th birthday in November 2000.

Her husband finalized his divorce from her that day. He could no longer withstand the police's constant harassment of their family.

As she was packing her things to move out and her soon-to-be ex-mother-in-law was preparing dinner for her birthday, the police rushed in to arrest her and ransack the home.

Her mother-in-law begged the police, “Please at least let her eat her birthday meal before taking her away.”

But the police ignored the plea and took Ms. Wang away. They interrogated her at the police department and beat her after not getting satisfactory answers.

Force-fed at the Detention Centre

The police took Ms. Wang to the Chenzhou No. 2 Detention Centre the next day.

She and another 11 other female practitioners went on a hunger strike on December 29th that year after their written request for unconditional release went unanswered by the Chenzhou Procuratorate. In response, the guards force-fed them a few days later.

Several dozen individuals from different Communist Party and government offices came to direct and watch the force-feeding on January 2nd, 2001.

Eight male inmates dragged Ms. Wang out of her cell and held her down. They pried her mouth open with a bamboo stick, and poured rice soup down a feeding tube that was pushed down her throat. She choked many times during the process.

The guards force-fed two more practitioners before Ms. Wang stopped them from continuing. She blocked the cell entrance, while some non-practitioner detainees joined her in condemning the guards' violence.

Teeth Knocked out at the Labour Camp

Ms. Wang suffered more torture after she was sent to Baimalong Labour Camp. Again, she held a hunger strike to protest.

One week into her hunger strike, the guards ordered inmates to carry her to the clinic for an I.V. injection. She managed to stop the forced injection.

Ten days later, guards decided to force-feed her at the clinic. The horror scene described at the beginning of the article ensued, and she was pale and exhausted by the time she was carried back to her cell. In addition to her three bottom teeth that were knocked out, two other teeth became extremely loose.

Because the labor camp censored every letter written by detained practitioners, Ms. Wang managed to persuade a non-practitioner inmate to mail her letter to her family a month later.

The 2002 Chinese New Year was right around the corner at that time, yet her family was consumed with worry about her condition at the labour camp. They were outraged by the camp's use of violence in how they treated her, but felt powerless when their request for her release was denied.

Ms. Wang served one and a half years in the camp before her eventual release.