Brainwashing Methods used in Shiliping Forced Labour Camp: Beating, Torture, and Psychotropic Drugs

Police officers in the Shiliping Forced Labour Camp, Zhejiang Province persecute detained Falun Gong practitioners using various torture methods, including injecting them with psychotropic drugs. A major increase in the cruel tortures occurred after the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp (a notorious camp with a reputation as "hell on earth" for Falun Gong practitioners) sent a group to teach the Shiliping Forced Labour Camp the evil torture methods they use. To carry out their "lessons," the labour camp seeks to brainwash each newly arrived practitioner. The tactics they use are solitary confinement, beatings and drug injections. The police set the standard for determining that a practitioner has been "transformed" (1)when there is a visible mental collapse. If a practitioner isn't affected mentally, the police would not consider the practitioner to be transformed.

The police fear that their evil deeds will be exposed, so they take advantage of the Falun Gong practitioners' kindness, and tell each practitioner they release that if they reveal to others the horrors they have experienced, the unreleased practitioners will be treated twice as harshly!

Some practitioners, not realizing that these threats were just a ploy, and worrying about the safety of the other detained practitioners, didn't expose the merciless behaviour of the guards right away. Thus, the guards continued their terrible deeds unabated. Now, it is important to expose what I experienced and saw during my two years of imprisonment in Shiliping.

Shiliping Forced Labour Camp used to be the largest forced labour camp in Zhejiang Province for criminals undergoing drug rehabilitation. After the persecution started in July 1999, it was turned into a concentration camp where Falun Gong practitioners are detained and tortured. Under the command of the Zhejiang Province 610 Office (2), from 2000 to 2001, local police stations and detention centres sent all of the steadfast Falun Gong practitioners to this forced labour camp for brainwashing. If the brainwashing failed, the practitioner would be immediately sentenced to forced labour. Around 2000, the 610 Office held many brainwashing sessions in Zhejiang Province. Zhu Zhizao, a police officer at the forced labour camp, is very insidious and deceitful. He travelled all over Zhejiang to teach others his brainwashing methods. He was appointed Associate Head of the Fourth Division at the labour camp for teaching others to be so cruel.

Forced Brainwashing Sessions

Every newly arrived practitioner who refused to give up his or her belief in the principles of Falun Gong was detained in a small, isolated room, and exposed to intense anti-Falun Gong propaganda. The "session" might be as short as one week or as long as a few months. The police did not allow practitioners to sleep for more than 5 hours a night. Sometimes we were not allowed to sleep at all. Whenever our eyes closed, inmates who acted as monitors would force our eyelids open. The police even allowed the prisoners to use toothpicks to prop open our eyelids. Every day, from morning to night, we were tortured by the repeated playing of videos slandering Falun Dafa, and played at an extremely loud volume. Meanwhile, two prisoners held each practitioner's arms to force the practitioner to stay in the chair without moving. While watching the slanderous videos, we were repeatedly coerced to write down our "new understandings." In the little room, which was less than 10 square metres (about 105 square feet) in size, the windows were covered with very heavy curtains. The air inside was stale. Frequently, the officers would rush into the room and start belittling and swearing at us. Each meal consisted of rice with a little bit of pickle. We were not allowed to have any other food. Only when a practitioner wrote a promise to stop practising Falun Gong (against his or her conscience) would the practitioner be allowed to take a shower and have a full night's sleep. Due to the torture, some practitioners became mentally disoriented and were sent to the hospital for treatment.

Confinement Room

After the police failed to "transform" a practitioner, they would put the practitioner in confinement. There were 4 confinement rooms. Each room was about the size of a double bed and it was totally sealed off from the outside world -- without so much as a tiny opening. Inside, it was hard to breathe. In one corner of the ceiling was a surveillance camera. In the middle of the ceiling was a huge light. When it was turned on, practitioners experienced feeling very uncomfortable all over their bodies. When it was turned off, the room was totally dark. With the metal door closed, the police or other criminal inmates were able to beat practitioners without fear of detection. Electric batons were also used to shock the Falun Gong practitioners.

"Stewing the Eagle"

In the coldest winter temperatures, some practitioners were forced to take off their clothes, socks, and shoes and stand on the cold, concrete bed. They were not allowed to move. When police officers torture a practitioner using this "stewing the eagle" method, they don't allow them to sleep. If the practitioner closes his or her eyes, an officer, or the prisoners who are monitoring the practitioners, make a loud noise such as knocking a stainless-steel cup sharply to frighten the practitioner awake. The huge light is on all the time, day and night. Even those who were monitoring the practitioners were frightened to stay there. After being tortured in this way for an extended period, the practitioner would be close to mentally collapsing and may appear to be in a trance.

Nerve-Damaging Injections

Those who refused to be coerced into renouncing their beliefs in Falun Gong were injected with psychotropic drugs, and then locked in the confinement room. The police used the surveillance camera, or opened the little window on the metal door, to monitor and/or frighten the practitioners.

One practitioner who was injected with such drugs described the experience this way:

"After I woke up, I felt indescribable fear. Every face I saw was distorted and looked like a ghost. I felt that I was in hell and was alternately cold and hot. I felt like a laboratory rat. When I heard the mewing of a cat outside, I thought that the cat would immediately become as big as a tiger and would be released inside the cell to tear me apart. Shadows on the walls were alive and looked like snakes and other poisonous insects that jumped off the walls. The dark purple traces on the floor looked like blood marks left by those who had died there. Every pore of my body gave off the terrible smell of the drug. My saliva and urine also smelled like the drug. The guards and prisoners watched me rolling all over the concrete bed and struggling. Sometimes I cried uncontrollably. I couldn't tell how long I was in this state. At the end I couldn't tell time any more. Every second seemed like it was thousands of years long. Every time I blinked my eyes, it felt like a few hundred years had passed. My mind and heart were totally exhausted. My brain was so tired that it was beyond the limits of my endurance. My spirit was struggling to stay alive and was on the brink of collapse. The torture seemed endless.

Every day, my food was a tiny bit of pickle and some rice that had sand in it. If I couldn't eat it, I was sworn at. When I was thirsty, and asked for some water, I was given only a little after repeated requests. Sometimes, the water was laced with some powdered chemical too.

The police frequently rushed in to the room to swear at and ridicule me. My mind was under constant pressure."

Intense Labour

After the practitioner was mentally weakened, he or she would be endlessly told to report what they were thinking, and had to study the brainwashing materials. The inmates around them would also be asked to report everything about the practitioner. Meanwhile, one had to complete long hours of intense labour, and was told, "If you can't meet your work quota, your term will be extended." They used all these means to force us to work faster and faster. In fact, the police wanted the prisoners to be more productive so that they would be paid extra bonuses! The working and sanitation conditions were very poor. Some practitioners' legs became oedematous and lame because they stood up for so long. Some practitioners' hands were severely chafed. The products we produced were knit sweaters, lighters, quartz clock components, toys and decorations. Some of these products were exported to western countries after officials covered up the fact that they had been produced by slave labour.

What follows are some descriptions of the tortures endured by Falun Gong practitioners who were detained in the Fourth Division:

A Falun Gong practitioner who used to be a reporter for Linan Daily became mentally disordered after being injected with the hallucinogenic drugs and being confined in the small room for a long time.

Falun Gong practitioner, Li Heping, from Hangzhou City, was injected with the drugs and beaten in the confinement room. The guards then claimed that Li went insane from practising Falun Gong!

A retired elderly Falun Gong practitioner was detained in the confinement room for 2-3 months. After the long period of isolation from people, the practitioner appeared numb.

Practitioner, Wang Dawu, from Hangzhou City, has been confined in the tiny isolation room eight times. His last term at the labour camp was extended by six months. He used to be a very strong person. After serving his term, he was emaciated due to the torture. However, he was abducted again and sentenced to ten years in prison.

Many Falun Gong practitioners were hung up in the air for over ten days at a time. While suspended, they had no choice but to relieve themselves on the spot. Practitioner Chen Zhongsheng from Wenzhou City was tied on the tiger bench and his feet and toes suffered frostbite. Yu Bin, a college student, was left with a lame leg because of the forced labour. Zhang Jianbo, a student from Zhejiang University of Technology, was injured when he was force-fed.

When a practitioner became mentally unstable because of the torture, the police would say he or she went insane from practising Falun Gong. If a practitioner died from the torture, the police would say the practitioner committed suicide. They concealed the physical decline of the practitioners by not letting their family members visit them. Visitors could only see a façade of normalcy that the labour camp presented them. Ironically, Shiliping Forced Labour Camp is called the Provincial Civilized Forced Labour Camp. Because the Communist Party strictly controls the media, it is very difficult for people outside to know what happens inside the labour camps.

Note:

(1) "Reform or Transform" Implementation of brainwashing and torture in order to force a practitioner to renounce Falun Gong. (Variations: "reform", "transform", "reformed", "reforming", "transformed", "transforming", and "transformation")

(2) "The 610 office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/5/31/102969.html