Violence, Forced Labour and Deception in the First Women's Labour Camp of Shandong Province

To bring the responsible parties to justice, to proclaim the truth, and to come to the aid of the inhumanely treated Falun Dafa practitioners in various labour camps and jails all over China, we now publish the facts of the persecution within the First Women's Labour Camp of Shandong Province:

The First Women's Labour Camp of Shandong Province, also serves as the Women's Drug Rehabilitation Centre of Shandong Province, and is located at 20 Jiangshuiquan Road, Jinan City. It is remote and access is difficult. Before October 1999, it mainly held thieves, drug-addicts, prostitutes, pimps, as well as accessories to crimes. Previously, the total number of prisoners who were divided into four teams was less than 250, and the number of guards less than 25. After July 1999, when the labour camp started to detain Falun Gong practitioners, the number of prisoners and police guards increased several times. In the beginning of October 2000, a large number of Falun Gong practitioners who travelled to Beijing to appeal were sent here, and so the labour camp temporarily set up the 5th team, assigning it the most brutal team director, and including many criminals who had committed all kinds of bad deeds but tried to please the guards in order to get out of the labour camp as early as possible. These people implemented brutal treatment of Falun Dafa practitioners. In the first half of 2001, at least 800 practitioners from various areas and counties all over the country were brought in. At least 16 prisoners were housed in every cell measuring only 10 square meters. After the labour camp was filled to capacity, additional incoming female Falun Dafa practitioners were sent to the Zibo City Wangcun Labour Camp, where approximately 800-900 people were detained at one time. In August 2001, the Wangcun Labour Camp was divided into the First Labour Camp of Shandong Province, the Second Labour Camp of Shandong Province and the Second Women's Labour Camp of Shandong Province. In order to more strictly supervise Falun Gong practitioners, the number of police guards increased with the number of prisoners detained in the labour camp. At the beginning of 2003, there were at least 100 guards in the First Labour Camp's team; it is considerably harder to evaluate the number of police guards in the Administration and Education Departments of the labour camp. Some of the newly hired police guards were temporarily hired away from the women's jail; some were employed after taking an official business exam; others were hired directly after graduating from school. The newly graduated guards quickly learned to curse, beat and strike people with electric batons; they acquired terrible attitudes, as they cursed ladies in their fifties or sixties.

Greed for Money

Every day, Falun Dafa practitioners were forced to work in the workshop or in their cells. The most frequent type of work supplied by the labour camp was to make ribbons for some factory in Changyi City, Shandong province, Christmas gifts for the Jinan City Arts and Crafts Factory; medicinal packages for the Jinan Donggang Printing Plant; pencils and coloured pens for the Jinan Youai Pen Factory, vases for an undetermined factory, as well as quilts for export. The labour camp took advantage of this type of slave labour to accumulate huge amounts of money. Not only did the guards get a very generous bonus and benefits, but a five-story, fully-equipped and decorated building was constructed between the beginning of 2000 and autumn of 2001, when the most Falun Gong practitioners were detained in the labour camp. The work generated for the imprisoned practitioners detained is endless.

For example, practitioners are forced to slave at sewing machines for 14-16 hours a day making ribbons. After a long day's work, their bodies feel sore and everyone feels dizzy. Whenever someone got tired or could not concentrate, the needle would pierce a finger and very often the needle broke in the process. It is even harder to handle the faster electric sewing machines. According to internal sources, the value of one finished curtain destined for export is about 700-800 yuan; the factory only paid the labour camp 30 yuan. The labour camp receives only 0.1 yuan for producing one cup cushion. It is more exhausting for a worker to work on quilted material. Working in a bent position the whole day, at most, three heavy quilts can be produced. This type of labour is very hard when it has to be done for a long time. Practitioners' fingers are constantly injured by the needles. Every day they have to push their bodies to the limits of endurance. Whenever practitioners slow down a little, the police guards put a big hat on their heads saying they are skirting work. Making Christmas products is especially painful, because it requires working with metal thread for a long time, causing the fingers to turn red and swollen. Practitioners need to tape up their fingers to be able to continue working. As time goes on, the skin on the fingers starts to peel. Some of the college graduates have a workload exceeding their physical limitations; many of their faces start to look sallow and they look pitiful.

Loading pencils is a dirty type of work. Ladies already in their fifties and sixties have to handle boxes weighing close to 60lbs. Some of them are allergic to the emulsion or lead used, but are not allowed to rest.

The workshop of the fifth team is located underground, and there are no windows. Thus the lights are on even during the daytime, and practitioners are forced to paint glass bottles. There are many organic solvents such as benzene, known to cause serious damage to the liver, blood and reproductive organs of people. Many practitioners suffered from nausea, dizziness, vomiting, loss of appetite, etc. and police were still forcing them to work hard, saying they needed to earn their own keep. Even practitioners on hunger strike were also forced to work. If they worked only a little bit slower they would be scolded.

In fact, Jiang Zemin has spent a lot of money to use labour camps as his convenient, powerful tool to suppress Falun Gong. All staff members in a camp receive 200 yuan extra salary every month. According to statistics, for every 100,000 Falun Gong practitioners detained in labour camps every year, 0.24 billion yuan are spent. In this way, large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners have been enslaved and forced to work.

Jiangshuiquan Women's Labour Camp not only collects large amounts of money from exploiting Falun Gong practitioners detained in the labour camp, but also from extorting money from the practitioners' families. When families arrive for visits, the office never issues formal receipts. Guards are always watching and listening during the 30 minutes of the visit. Visiting families are charged 20-50 yuan for lunch and 60-100 yuan for accommodations each time. Dinner is charged separately, although it's expensive and meager. In order not to cause more trouble for their loved-ones, the families can only suppress their anger. To prevent families from bringing in 'sensitive materials', all belongings are checked thoroughly. Police guard Huang in the Visiting Office ordered thieves and prostitutes to mess up the clothes of visitors and to drop the food brought to practitioners by their families.

Savage Physical Torture

From July 1999 until now, all the female practitioners in the whole province were abducted and detained here. Before October 2000, the labour camp authorities attempted to force Dafa practitioners to waver in their belief. Almost nobody, though, yielded to the strict management and hard labour.

After early October 2000, illegally arrested practitioners came flooding in with shocking speed. It seemed that the labor camp would be content with nothing less than practitioners' destruction. They temporarily set up the No.5 Division, specialising in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. They even selected the most wicked and the most ruthless and sinister police guards and prisoners in the labour camp to carry out this barbarous persecution.

Dafa practitioners had to get up daily at 5:00 a.m. and were only allowed to go to bed after 12:00 midnight. The practitioners were forced to sit on tiny, folding stools for entire days, with both hands on their knees, and backs held straight at a 90-degree angle. They were not allowed to move, sleep or speak. If any practitioner could not tolerate these tortures, the prostitutes, thieves and drug addicts would immediately beat and kick her. These common prisoners had all experienced extortions of confession by torture. They were experts at knowing how to hit people. The head police officer/guard appreciated those inmates who slapped practitioners' faces, kicked practitioners' bellies, hit practitioners' breasts, stroke practitioners' heads with elbows or heavily crushed practitioners' toes with their leather shoes. The more vicious these prisoners were, the more rewards they would receive from the team leader, and the more their prison terms would be reduced. One prisoner who believed in Christianity was sentenced to two years imprisonment with the excuse of "joining an evil cult" for having attended a family gathering. This woman was a little lenient at the beginning. Afterwards, prompted by material gains, she became very cruel and was the most merciless when she hit the practitioners.

After a period of time, seeing that their present methods were fruitless, the labour camp authorities applied a different torture method. They dragged those who continued practising Dafa to the yard "to walk the parade steps." All the practitioners became aware that they should not cooperate, hence refused to obey. The police unexpectedly called many male guards, who ordered all practitioners to stand against the walls throughout the day, with the tip of their noses touching the wall at all times. Some senior practitioners were unable to stand for that long, so they were verbally and physically abused. Those who refused to walk the "parade steps" would be shocked with electric batons in the small cells. At that time the most ruthless ones were Niu Xuelian, the chief police from Division No. 5, and guard Zhang's husband, both police officers in the camp. They particularly shocked practitioners' palms, arches and the tops of their heads. The misery was beyond words. That night, almost every practitioner's forearm got extremely painful, big blisters. These blisters would fester after bursting. An elderly practitioner from Linqing City has had festers on her forearm about half a year.

During the morning of October 27, 2000, practitioners in Division No. 5 protested together against these atrocities and demanded their unconditional release. All the practitioners rushed to the hall way, holding each others' arms and recited teachings of Falun Dafa. They tried to block the endless hits, kicks and electric shocks with their bodies. When they tired they just sat down on the floor and started to practise the Dafa sitting meditation. Guard Niu Xuelian then ordered the prisoners to try their best to pour water all over the floor until the whole floor became a water dungeon. The police had no mercy toward these kind-hearted people and assembled a large groups of policemen to beat them.

The righteous shouts of practitioners shocked the entire building, and practitioners from all other divisions showed support by practising the Dafa exercises. In the evening, officials from the Provincial Forced Labour Bureau dispatched a large number of armed policemen to suppress this incident. The atmosphere was extremely tense for a period of time. All practitioners felt a premonition that more severe persecution would be imposed; therefore, they all held their arms together to prevent any fellow practitioner from being forcibly carried away.

The police started to take action. Based on the plan they had made earlier, the police started wantonly seizing key practitioners. The practitioners nearby rushed out and tried their best to get them back, but the policemen unexpectedly grabbed them by the hair and dragged them along the floor. Other policemen came up at the same time and grabbed these weaker female practitioners' necks, to choke and suffocate them until they were very weak. Wang Xincai, a policeman from the propaganda section, even carried a video camera and recorded this atrocity. The policemen ferociously dragged more than 40 practitioners who were in the front row into small cells and locked them in.

The end of October was near the time of late autumn in Jinan City. These small cells provided no adequate shelter from the cold. The prison guards even had their warm military overcoats on, but the practitioners were not permitted to wear any coats. They were given no food or water, nor were they allowed to use the toilet. They were forced to stand, with hands cuffed to the metal bunk beds. Seeing that the practitioners would still not give in, the guards got nervous. They began to send delicious food and also warm coats to the practitioners. Groups of leaders took turns to attempt to persuade them. It seemed that they were trying to persuade with nice words while actually hiding their murderous intentions. They immediately revealed their true faces to firmly determined practitioners. The policemen would rush over to mercilessly beat and shock the practitioners with electric batons.

In order to protest this persecution, Dafa practitioners took the most silent but solemn way - a hunger strike. This, however, had become the excuse for the evildoers to aggravate their persecution. In each division were practitioners who insisted on a hunger strike to protest the brutal persecution, but all suffered a bloody suppression later on. Force-feeding was their special way to torture practitioners and create horrors. During force-feeding, two tall and muscular policemen would drag a thin and tiny female practitioner to the end of a hallway, kick her down to the floor and push and hold her down with their feet. The others would randomly pry her mouth open. If they were unsuccessful, they would then use those rough and dirty, stinking rubber pipes that were used for industrial purposes to heavily ram them into and through the practitioner's nostrils. Blood spurted out from almost all of the practitioners' noses and mouths. There were unceasing, sad and miserable cries. The agonised cries and shouts reverberated through the corridor all day long. The sounds of those crackling electric batons were unceasing as well. Later on, to cover up their vicious crimes, whenever the police were electrically shocking the practitioners, they would turn on some loud music. It is no exaggeration to describe such a vile, dispirited atmosphere of terror as a hell on earth.

After several practitioners were tortured so severely they died, and others beaten to the point of injury in the Wang Village Labour Camp in Zibo City, the police would no longer torture the practitioners personally; instead, they ordered the collaborators [former practitioners who have turned against Dafa due to brainwashing and torture] to carry out even more secret tortures against the firmly devoted practitioners. Four to five collaborators were assigned to "transform" each practitioner. In order to be released earlier, these people did not mind betraying their own consciences. As long as they could help transform one practitioner, their terms could be reduced by several days. In order to achieve this goal, collaborators often fiendishly attacked the genuine practitioners at will.

In summer 2002, the collaborators beat one practitioner to death in the labour camp. In order to prevent the truth from coming out, the labour camp hurriedly transferred those murderers. Other collaborators who knew the truth either disappeared, or they were promised some benefits in exchange for keeping quiet. In order to cover this up, the police claimed that the missing collaborators had already gone home, or that they had experienced some sort of neurosis and were sent to a hospital. It was later learned that the murderers who fatally beat the practitioner had been sentenced to jail terms, making them scapegoats for Jiang's diabolical plot.

The policemen at Shandong's No. 1 Forced Labour Camp arranged for collaborators to eat and live together amongst steadfast Falun Dafa practitioners so that they could attempt to instil the lies of Jiang's regime into the practitioners' minds. These collaborators had orderly divisions of tasks; in their efforts to confuse and deceive practitioners, some acted as villains and others as heroes. Their tricks were all thought up by the policemen of the labour camp, and they would not hesitate to act fraudulently in order to reach their goal.

One Falun Dafa practitioner detained at the labour camp was Liu Congmei, a woman of over 50-year-old. She refused to cooperate with the authorities in any way. She did not participate in the military drill, would not work more than 8 hour per day, and would never complete her production quota. Whenever the policemen interrogated her, she would only respond by saying "Falun Dafa is good!" Consequently, she suffered both physically and mentally from cruel torture. She was shocked with electric batons every day and was punched and kicked on a regular bases by the prostitutes assigned to watch her. However, all these forms of abuse could not change her. One day, she suddenly disappeared from the labour camp. Only recently was it learned from an article by a fellow practitioner that she had been kidnapped to a mental hospital where she has faced persecution to this day.

During her imprisonment in the No 2 Division, a practitioner and undergraduate student of the Computer Department of the Qinghua University developed festering sores and injuries all over her right arm as a result of the electric baton shocks from criminal inmates under the instruction of the division Head Xu Ruiju. In order to conceal her injuries and cover up their crimes, the perpetrators covered her up with a quilt during the scorching hot summer. Because she persisted in practising Falun Dafa, Xu Ruiju ordered the inmates to tie her in between two iron beds with her limbs spread apart in four directions, and they did not allow her to sleep. However, she was still forced to do hard labour as usual on the following day. Xu Ruiju once publicly stated, "My name is on the Clearwisdom Website [a Falun Gong website], but what can they do to me?" This persecutor was chosen as a representative of the National People's Congress and went to Beijing to attend the Tenth Congress of the National People's Congress.

Falun Gong practitioner Shi Ning worked at the Computer Centre of the Shengli Oil Field. In May 1999, when Jiang Zemin went to inspect the oil field, Shi Ning had planned to clarify the truth to him about Falun Dafa. Unfortunately, she was reported and was illegally detained by the Shengli Oil Field for one month. Subsequently, her fiancé left her. Because she refused to give up her belief in Falun Dafa, she was subjected to torture by electric baton. A group of policemen took off her shoes and forced her to lie on the floor as five electric batons shocked her hands, feet and chest simultaneously. A male policeman sat between her legs and used the toe of a leather shoe to push her chin up, asking her with a malicious grin if she would keep on practising Falun Gong. Later, a group of collaborators beat Shi Ning for a whole night. Shi Ning began a hunger strike to protest her treatment. The policemen sent her to the Shandong Armed Police General Hospital from time to time. They said that she was transferred there to receive medical treatment, but in reality this was just another form of persecution. Shi Ning left the forced labour camp in 2001 due to kidney failure. At the time her weight had dropped from 60 kg (132 lb.) to about 35/40 kg (77 to 88 lb.). After practising the Falun Dafa exercises for a period of time at home, she had almost fully recovered. She then stepped forward again to clarify the truth as she had done before and was again arrested by the local Dongying Police Sub-station. At the police station, she was beaten up before being sent to the forced labour camp. Shi Ning remained steadfast and unyielding in the camp and began a hunger strike to protest. Finally, she managed to get released from there. However, her current whereabouts are unknown.

Falun Dafa practitioner Li Xiaoping, a former employee at the Jinan Television Station, was sent to a detention centre in January 2003 and was later formally charged because he persisted in believing the truth and refused to be "transformed." A deputy head with the surname of Yang said publicly at a meeting, "There is only one thing to be done with people like Li Xiaoping, which is to sentence them!"

Practitioner Zhang Yanyuan was extremely weak after going on successive hunger strikes for a year. Her family bailed her out of the labour camp in September, 2001, so that she could receive medical treatment. The policemen at the local police sub-station could not set their minds at ease, and decided to kidnap her to the police substation in November, 2001. It is learned that four members of the Zhang Yanyuan's family have been sentenced to forced labour. Zhang's sister in law was an acrobat with the Shandong Acrobatic Troupe. Her performance involving a bicycle carrying 13 people won awards in the international arena. She had performed in the United States, Japan and Germany. The police now use the fact that she has been deceived by lies to boost their feeling of achievement. According to her prison term, Zhang Yanyuan should have been released in October. However, the forced labour camp recently created a new rule stating that those practitioners who refused to be reformed would not be allowed to go home.

Due to the enormous mental pressure and the extremely hard manual labour that practitioners were forced to endure, many practitioners were sent to mental hospitals when they were on the verge of mental collapse or were not in their right minds. Because of the information blockade, it is very difficult to ascertain the exact number of practitioners who have been sent to mental hospitals.

Ruthless Deceit and Sinister Methods of Brainwashing

Some practitioners were not defeated by the extremely heavy load of forced manual labour, nor were they crushed by the inhuman torture tactics, but were deceived by the lies created by the Jiang regime. This reveals that some Falun Dafa practitioners failed to persist in maintaining righteous thoughts and righteous actions, and they also failed to make a rational evaluation of things in such a complex situation.

1. Cutting Off Messages from Outside

We have already mentioned that all the family visitors and their items had to go through strict search and inspection. Their cell phone could not be carried into the visiting room. Occasionally practitioners could watch TV but the programmes allowed were News, Focus Talk and such-and-such Conferences that successfully took place, etc. Whenever a working day ended before 7:00 p.m., the reason would be that there was news on Falun Gong. At the beginning the police officers announced that, "We have got word from the TV station, there will be important news tonight. You must watch it carefully and you need to write about what you think afterwards." After that, it became a rule. When you were about to forget the bloody violent scene aired on TV to slander Falun Gong, they would immediately put on an even more evil bloody story to slander Dafa. They made it so that those incidents always happened around sensitive dates such as 7.20, 10.1 (National day) and Chinese New Year. It seemed that there was someone controlling the entire flow.

Starting from the summer of 2001, they did not allow any TV at all. There was only hard labour both day and night; the purpose was to prevent Dafa practitioners from having any time and energy to think due to their busy workload and the need to survive. This way they could cover their conspiracy. In order to destroy the will power of Dafa practitioners, the labour camp disallowed family members to visit if those practitioners did not cooperate. Family members came to beg them time after time but they could not move them. However, only those family members who were deceived by the labour camp's lies were allowed to visit and help to "convert" Dafa practitioners. In the visiting room, there were often heartbreaking scenes: an elderly man with grey hair calling his daughter; children crying out for their mother; a husband beating his wife; some husbands just sitting quietly with tears in their eyes. The police officers would stir up things on the side. Dafa practitioners were not only abused by the police officers, they also suffered the pain of being separated from their family members.

Since April this year, the labour camp has been using the excuse of "preventing infectious disease" to disallow anyone to visit. The ban was lifted in August. That was an excuse to perform further persecution. During this period they increased the workload and intensified the "brainwashing conversion" process on the diligent practitioners without reservation.

Dafa practitioners were never free to write letters. Each practitioner could only send out one letter per week at the most; they could only mail it to their home; the letter could not be sealed, and the police officers had to inspect each letter to make sure that there were no sensitive words before it could be mailed out. Incoming letters also had to be inspected by police officers. Those practitioners who did not cooperate were not allowed to send or receive any letters. Family members couldn't even find out if they were still alive.

2. Eliminating Any Internal Communication

In the labour camp, it was impossible to communicate between teams and relatives could not be in the same team. People who knew each other could not be in the same class. Even when having dinner, one team went first and then the other team would follow separated by over a dozen meters. One extra look would incur vicious cursing. There was almost no chance to communicate between classes. Eating and working were fixed on the same tables. A few labour camp detainees viciously surrounded one Dafa practitioner. Whether they were eating, living, washing or going to the toilet every moment was monitored. Later on, the number of Dafa practitioners greatly outnumbered the other detainees. One team had 180 people with only 10 non-Dafa practitioners. The police officers picked the collaborators who were willing to help them to be group leaders. At the same time, they set up very detailed rules. The number of rules increased from twenty to over forty something; by the end of 2002, there were nearly seventy rules. They completely restricted people from having any free space.

Take the example of going to the toilet: in order to prevent Dafa practitioners from talking to each other in there, the police officers always had a set time for them to use the toilet: two times in the morning, two times at noon and two times in the evening. Anyone with a special situation had to report it first. Every class had to line up to use the toilet. If they did not line up neatly, they would be yelled at. After one group was completely finished, another group was then allowed to go. If only one person was not done, people from the other groups would have to wait. Many elderly people suffered from constipation or haemorrhoids. They were afraid to eat or drink because they did not want to affect other people. Some people were constantly in a state of high tension; the more restricted they were, the more frequently they needed to use the toilet. As a result they became ill. After returning home, they could not be cured for a long time. In the evening, they were not allowed to go to the toilet; every cell had a large plastic barrel and they had to use it there. They whole room smelled very bad and the police laughed about it behind their backs.

3. Well Planned Deception

In the labour camp, there was an internal newspaper called "Xinyuan Monthly." It was used to attack Dafa and create rumours to deceive people. In order to encourage the collaborators to write more articles attacking Dafa, the labour camp set up a rule to reduce one's sentence by one day for each published article. However the police officers were afraid to publish the truth there. Since the initial visit of the "Masanjia Labour Camp Lecture Team" led by an ex-assistant principal from an unknown elementary school from Jiutai City, Jilin Province in November 2000, the labour camp has been arranging similar liars to come visiting to deceive people.

From rough recording, those who came to spread untrue information and the so-called inspectors are:

China Science Technology House Director: Wang Yusheng
Anti (Falun Gong) People: Zheng Xiaolin, Li Anping
Jinan City Buddha Association Director, Linyan Temple abbot, Qianfo mountain and Xingguochan Temple supervisor: Jueyin (After graduation, this person worked at Hainan police bureau. Later on he was accepted to study for a Masters degree in Beijing Foreign Language College and then went into Buddhism. He said due to his busy schedule, he seldom read classical Buddhist scripture.)
Ex Shandong Province party Committee Secretary: Wu Guanzheng (came 3 times)
Shandong Province Party Committee Assistant Secretary: Lei Jianguo
Shandong Province Science Technology Association Vice President: Zhou Zhongxiang
Shandong Province Party Committee Assistant Secretary: Wang Xiuzhi (In charges of persecuting Falun Gong)
Shandong Province Judicial Bureau Director: Liang Dechao
Shandong Province Judicial Bureau Assistant Directors: Zheng Chuanlin, Yao Chenglin
Jinan City Anti (Falun Gong) People: Shang Jinggong
Jinan City Party Committee, Political and Judicial Committee Secretary: Xie Chuanren
Shandong Province Labor Camp Bureau Director: Li Tinglu, Assistant Directors: Bi Hua and Li E.
Shandong Province Labor Camp Bureau Education Division Director: Yang Zhengen
Shandong Province Labor Camp Bureau Management Division Assistant Director: Li Zhongxing.

These people generated rumours and slandered Dafa and wanted to destroy Dafa practitioners' righteous thoughts through this method.

More and more Dafa practitioners who have deviated onto the wrong path are recognising right from wrong, good from bad. They are re-establishing their righteous thoughts. Not only are those practitioners arrested again hard to deceive, but even many of those collaborators who were used as tools and gained the trust of the police have clearly expressed where they stand. When the police officers are more panicked, what follows is crueller exploitation and persecution.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.cc/mh/articles/2003/11/9/60325.html