Mr. Yang Baochun, a resident of Handan City in Hebei Province, first went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong in August 1999. Following his arrest, the authorities in the Fifth Team at the local Handan Labour Camp tortured him savagely in an effort to force him to renounce his belief in Falun Dafa. He was tortured and injured so severely that his legs had to be amputated. Over the course of the last two years, since he continued to refuse to give up his belief in Falun Dafa and the principle of Truth, Compassion,Tolerance, he had been sent again and again to the Ankang Mental Hospital to be persecuted further. During that period while out on bail, Yang Baochun decided to set out for Beijing in order to appeal to the government for the just treatment of Falun Dafa. Powered by his faith and a sense of justice, He travelled dozens of kilometres, moving with the use of his two hands since his legs have been amputated. The following account is his heroic story:
Mr. Yang Baochun, a man in his thirties, was a worker in a textile manufacturing factory. As Jiang's regime was attempting to eradicate Falun Dafa, Yang Baochun went to Beijing in August 1999, to appeal and explain the facts of Falun Dafa. Once there, he was arrested by the police in Beijing and sent back to Handan City where he was illegally detained in the Handan Administration Detention Centre on September 19, 1999. During his detention he continued to clarify the truth to the guards and criminals there. He continued practicing the Falun Dafa exercises and recited Hong Yin [ Hong Yin is a book of poems authored by Mr. Li Hongzhi, founder of Falun Gong]. The guards threatened and intimidated him, attempting to force him to give up his practise, but he still persisted. He was held for one month in the detention centre without the benefit of any legal procedure.
Yang Baochun continued practising the exercises and studying the teachings that are central to Falun Dafa cultivation practice. On October 19, 1999, he was summarily arrested and detained in Handan's First Detention Centre for one month without being charged. On November 19, 1999, he was sentenced without trial to two years of forced labour in the Fifth Team of the Handan Labour Camp. The team leader of the fifth team was a man named, Wang Feng.
While in the labour camp, Yang Baochun continued to clarify the truth of the persecution of Falun Dafa to the police and inmates. He often wrote letters to the police department, the labour camp and other officials where he explained the positive changes he experienced in his body and spirit since he began practising Falun Dafa. He did not receive any official response to his appeal letters. Without any avenues left to appeal his illegal detention and persecution at the camp, in March 2000, Wang Baochun began a hunger strike to protest the persecution and resisted his detention by persisting in practicing the Falun Dafa exercises.
After Yang had been on a hunger strike for three days, team leader Wang Feng ordered Yang to appear at the Team Office where at that moment Dafa practitioner Qin Jianxue, was being tortured for going on a hunger strike. Team leader Wang Feng pointed to Dafa practitioner Qin Jianxue and said to Yang, " If you don't want to write the guarantee statement [ "Guarantee Statement" is a statement to declare that he or she is remorseful for practising Falun Gong and guarantees not to practice Falun Gong again, not to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and never again associate with any Falun Gong practitioners] and if you continue to go on a hunger strike, you end up the same as him." Yang Baochun said, "There is nothing wrong with my practise of Falun Dafa. I insist on protesting the persecution against me." Before he finished speaking, a group of approximately eight men jumped on him, pulled off his trousers and cruelly beat him with rubber batons for a long time. He was so badly beaten and bruised that his skin turned color.
Yang Baochun did not renounce his belief and continued his hunger strike. Thus team leader Wang Feng ordered that Yang be tortured and hung up with an excruciating method known as "tying ropes"[1]. Yang was in an extreme pain but he still would not go against his conscience and renounce his belief in Falun Dafa. After that, officer Wang Feng cuffed Yang Baochun and Qin Jianxue to a big tree and Mr.Yang continued his hunger strike. The police and inmates, a group of more than 20 persons, held Yang down and force-fed him with a thick mixture of corn gruel that contained a high quantity of salt, which causes severe abdominal pain and vomiting. In the meantime, team leader Wang Feng directed the group of inmates to use leather belts, leather shoes, batons, wooden stools and other objects to beat Mr. Yang Baochun and Mr. Qin Jianxue. After enduring this vicious beating, Yang and Qin's heads and faces were swollen so severely that they could barely open their eyes. Yang Baochun went on another hunger strike for more than 20 days. The guards forbid him to wash his face and brush his teeth during that period.
Later, Mr. Yang Baochun went on a hunger strike on two other occasions. Each time the police pried open his mouth with pliers and force-fed him.
Whenever Yang Baochun and Qin Jianxue started practicing the Falun Dafa exercises, the guards would shackle them to either a tree or to the bed, and then beat them with rubber batons. The appeal letters they wrote to expose the police' crimes never made it to the higher authorities as team leader Wang Feng tore them up. Mr. Yang Baochun's hand was often handcuffed to the head of one bed while the other arm was forcibly stretched out and cuffed to the head of another bed. Mr. Yang would be cuffed like this for one day and one night. He once wrote a letter to complain about the police atrocities being committed against him. Team leader, Wang Feng discovered the note and had dozens of inmates surround Yang Baochun and beat him with rubber batons, electric batons, and kick him. The beating and torture lasted for more than half an hour, resulting in wounds covering his entire body.
When visitors came to the labour camp, the policemen led by Wang Feng would hide Yang Baochun and other firm Dafa practitioners away from the visitors. Because Yang Baochun was frequently brutally tortured with various torture devices, his face and body had become unrecognisable. For fear of his injuries exposing their cruel persecution against him, the police didn't allow his family to visit for a long time.
Yang Baochun was transferred to the Handan Labour Camp New Arrival Education Team around October 2000, where he continued to practise Falun Dafa exercises and was often beaten by the police and inmates. However, his firm determination in Falun Dafa was never shaken and he kept on practising the Falun Dafa exercises. The left side of his chest still bears a scar that is about 10cm long (4 inches long) as well as other multiple scars, which are still visible today. When a police officer beat him, which happened frequently in this team, the officer would shout while beating, "I am the fascist! I am beating you! What I want is to prevent you from succeeding in your cultivation practice! If you reach Consummation, I have to go to hell!" [Falun Dafa cultivation practice is a process of practicing traditional exercises and assimilating to the principle of Truth, Compassion, Tolerance which over time allows a person to improve themselves to be good people and constantly increase their wisdom until they reach enlightenment, or consummation].
In late 2000, the police torture tactics were focused on Yang's legs, which eventually resulted in severe injuries that required the amputation of both legs.
In the winter, the temperature at night could reach -15 to -16 degrees C. It often snowed and the wind was bone-piercingly cold. In order to prevent Yang Baochun from practising the Falun Dafa exercises, the police confiscated all his clothes, hid them and threw his cotton shoes onto the roof. As a result, he could only wear thin clothes suitable for the autumn climate and walk around in his bare feet. However, in spite of these measures he still kept on practicing the Falun Dafa exercises. The police poured ice water over his head and soaked him. Due to this brutal abuse for such an extended period of time, his health deteriorated. Furthermore, as a result of the ice water torture, his legs sustained frostbite. The police, without medical consultation, then forced his legs into hot water. This further aggravated the circulation in his injured legs. Additionally, the police also tore off his thin clothes and wrapped him with a blanket while several people sat on him so that he was unable to move.
The injuries to Yang Baochun's legs got worse. Due to the severe frostbite and lack of proper medical treatment, his legs began to fester and gangrene set in. Yang lost the feeling in his legs. At that time, he was emaciated from the hunger strikes and his life was in danger. His white blood cell count went down below a safe level. In order to evade responsibility for his physical condition, the labour camp released Yang Baochun on medical bail in order to have amputation surgery at a hospital affiliated with the Handan Textile Bureau. Notice of his critical condition was sent to his family. The doctor diagnosed that Yang would die if amputation surgery was not performed within three days. So his family had to agree to the surgery.
Within ten days after the surgery, when he was still in an extremely weak condition, people from the Handan "610 Office" [ The "610 Office" is an agency specifically established to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems. ] and from the labour camp, together with people from the textile factory fabricated a claim that Yang Baochun suffered from a mental illness. So, on February 26, 2001, these authorities conspire together and sent Yang Baochun to Handan City's Ankang Mental Hospital where he was persecuted further.
During his time at Ankang Hospital, Yang Baochun could not walk. He had to use his hands for support and dragged himself forward little by little, only supported on his hands. All he had on his mind was how to break out of the Mental Hospital to validate Dafa in Beijing. The doctor urged several mental patients to drag him back. They lifted him up and dropped him heavily onto the floor. Yang ignored the pain and continued to attempt to leave the mental hospital moving inch by inch. He was again dragged back and lifted up and dropped onto the floor. This procedure was repeated several times. Later, a doctor tied Yang Baochun onto the bed and used an instrument to give him electro-convulsive therapy [known as ECT]. It made him twitch, convulse and caused him extreme pain.
In more than two years of torture at this mental hospital, Yang Baochun always stood firm. He kept on practicing Falun Dafa. The doctors put drugs in his food that were harmful to his central nervous system and tricked him into injesting them unaware. After eating, the drugs made Yang salivate profusely, tremble and feel as though he had no strength in his body, become mentally disoriented and his movements would become slowed, like that of an old man. He eventually discovered that the cause for these symptoms was the drugs that the doctor had secretly put in his food. Yang strongly protested to the hospital several times. They finally stopped using these harmful drugs. It was then that Yang's health started to show signs of recovery.
Around 3:00 p.m. on December 28, 2001, Yang Baochun was released and returned to his home. About 1:00 a.m. on December 29, Yang Baochun set off from his home, step by step, toward Beijing to appeal by using his hands to support himself. His hands and buttocks became bloody from the abrasions of dragging himself along, leaving a big scar. By 6:00 a.m., he had only moved a dozen miles. Unfortunately, authorities from the textile factory where he worked came to arrest him and took him back. Factory director Bai Dun and Party secretary Zhang Qin decided to send Yang Baochun to the mental hospital again.
Yang Baochun made a second attempt to appeal in Beijing, using only his arms as motive power. Having only traveled two to three miles, he was again arrested and sent back to the mental hospital.
Yang had received notification of his release for some time, but he had yet to be released and regain his freedom. The Handan City "610 office" and Textile Bureau "610 Office" authorities manipulated the Textile Factory officials directly. They continuously and unlawfully detained Yang Baochun without any due legal procedure. They are also the ones responsible for losing his legs.
Related phone numbers:
Head of the "610 office", Cao Zhixia: 86-310-7413519(W), 86-13803101111(C), 86-310-3158028(H)
Deputy head of the "610 office", Zhao XX: 86-310-7413517(W)
Handan City Congtai District Police Department: Chief Shi Baozhong
Main Switchboard: 86-310-3010944
Office: 86-310-3016470
Handan City Textile Group Company,
Address: 61 ZhongbBe Street, Postal Code 056002
Main Switchboard Numbers, 86-310-3025545, 86-310-3025844, 86-310-3025981, 86-310-3025983
Phone number for the General Manager: 86-310-3023660
President's phone number: 86-310-3023373
Office phone number: 86-310-3017812
Handan Textile Factory Office: 86-310-7025539
Administrator: Bai Dun; Secretary: Zhang Qinchi
Handan City Ankang Hospital phone: 86-310-8564307
Administrator: Wang Yanbao
Handan Labour Camp mainline: 86-310-4010037, 86-310-4010707, 86-310-4010158
[1] "Typing ropes" is a torture method whereby the police tie up the practitioner with a thin rope, circle the rope around his neck, and tie his hands behind his back. Then the police would use all the force they could muster to tighten the rope. The rope becomes tighter and tighter around the body of the practitioner, and makes it more and more difficult for him to breathe. The pain is so intense that the practitioner sometimes loses control of his bladder. There are instances when the rope was tightened enough to break a practitioner's arm.
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/11/20/60857.html
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