Unspeakably Ruthless Torture in Changlinzi Labour Camp

The following is an account of ruthless torture I witnessed in Changlinzi Labour Camp in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province. The police use every conceivable torture method in order to try to force practitioners to denounce Falun Gong.

On August 14, 2001, director Hao Wei and instructor Wang Liou, along with police in the fourth division, met with the head of the labor camp Shi Changjing. Under Shi's order, all forty to fifty inmates who were working outside came back. uAlong with more than ten police from each division, they mercilessly beat more than twenty practitioners in the cafeteria.

First, they tied up practitioners with belts, and then beat and kicked them in the head and all over their bodies. The practitioners were scattered throughout the room, lying on the ground after the beatings. The thugs then poured cold water on the unconscious practitioners to wake them up, and beat them again until they lost consciousness again. The worse case was practitioner Zhang Lin from Harbin. He was unconscious for over ten hours and was only sent to the hospital after other practitioners' repeated requests. As soon as he woke up after emergency treatment, he was taken back to the labour camp. He said that he felt unbearable pain all over. His vision and hearing were not clear and had dropped dramatically. He was unable to walk. The people primarily responsible for his case are Supervisor Li from the second division and Wang Feng from the fourth division.

Starting from September 8, 2002, under Shi Changjing's orders, practitioners in Changlinzi Labour Camp have experienced systematic persecution. After learning all kinds of torture methods from other provinces and the notorious Wanjia Labour Camp in Harbin, the police brutally tortured practitioners in order to try to force them to give up their belief.

They forced practitioners to squat from 5:00 a.m. to midnight without moving. They would beat anyone that moved. As a result, practitioners' ankles became painful and numb, and they had difficulty walking. Many need support to walk. After five to seven days of such torture, they would be forced to write articles to denounce Falun Gong. If one refuses to do so, they would start other tortures such as pushing the arms and legs backward and outward simultaneously. Some practitioners lost consciousness due to this torture, and others had blood in their eyes. The first and fourth divisions, with the fourth division being the most vicious, do this. Supervisor Hao Wei, instructor Wang Liou and policeman Sun Qingyu often lead inmates to torture practitioners.

The next step is handed to the fifth division (the so called "transforming team") led by Zhao Shuang and instructor Zhang. Zhao Shuang leads a gang of inmates, including the infamous Yang Xiaodong and Wu. They claim that the police ordered them to torture practitioners, and their terms can be cut short as a reward. They also say that torturing others is fun. As soon as practitioners were sent to the fifth division, the police would start the torture immediately. On the coldest days, they strip practitioners and pour cold water on them, and shock and beat them with electric batons. They then ask inmates to torture them. They force practitioners to squat facing the wall. If the practitioner moves, the inmates would kick his lower back and hit his head against the wall. Some inmates beat practitioners with wooden chairs, some burn their ears with a cigarette lighter, some even put chopsticks or toothbrushes in between a practitioners' index finger and middle finger and twist. As a result, the joint would break, and the injuries would be allowed to fester. They would not even spare practitioners in their 50's and 60's! Other torture methods include pushing needles or toothpicks under practitioners' nails, and handcuffing practitioners' hands on a bunk bed, with their feet dangling. As a result, the handcuffs cut into the flesh, and the practitioners lose feeling in their limbs eventually. They need help in eating or just unbuttoning their pants when using the toilet. Sometimes they only allow practitioners to sleep two hours a day. They sometimes burn practitioner's private parts with a cigarette lighter or smash practitioner's toes with stool legs. The torture would last three to four months.

One policeman told me, "Several days ago, Jiang Zemin sent someone here to check the transformation rate. I know that three instructors in the fourth division will get promoted and a bonus." In Changlinzi Labour Camp, one can get a 200, 300 or 500 Yuan ["Yuan" is the Chinese currency. The average monthly salary of an urban worker in China is 500 Yuan] bonus if he transforms one practitioner.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/11/26/61307.html