Persecution Methods Used in Some Prisons and Forced Labour Camps in Shandong Province

The persecution of Falun Gong practitioners is worse in Shandong Province than in almost any other province in China. I have personally witnessed and experienced the brutal persecution of practitioners at detention centers, prisons and forced labor camps in Shandong Province. The following are brief descriptions of the persecution methods I know of and experienced.

Methods Used to Extort Money from Practitioners and Their Families

Since July 20, 1999, the officials in Shandong Province have been frantically arresting Falun Gong practitioners, especially on and near sensitive dates. For example, more than several hundred police officers were dispatched at once time in a small city of Jining to arrest practitioners. With an order from the local Political and Judiciary Committee, the police from the 610 Office (1), city public security bureau, district police departments, surrounding township police departments, various sub-bureaus and police stations were all involved. They set up traps, used surveillance, or simply went to practitioners' workplaces or homes to arrest them. With every arrest, the police officers involved received both recognition and financial rewards.

First, it was announced that an officer would get a bonus of 1,000 yuan (2) for every practitioner he or she arrested.

Second, once the practitioner is arrested, the police have an excuse to search the victim's home. The purpose of the search is financial gain. Sometimes, several police officers search a home without a warrant. They take money as well as anything with monetary value. Usually they close the door so no one can see what they are doing. Items they normally confiscate include radios, mobile phones, stereos, computers, etc. They also take the bankbooks of every member of the family.

Third, the police can also fine the practitioner's employee. Each time a practitioner is arrested, the fine is usually 10,000 yuan. When the practitioner returns to work, the workplace deducts the fine from his or her salary. Some practitioners cannot pay back the workplace even after returning to work for two years. Some practitioners are fired or laid off after their workplace is fined. If a practitioner's workplace has good revenue, the police intentionally arrest the practitioner many times to get more money.

Finally, the police notify the practitioner's family to bring money for that practitioner's release. According to each family's financial situation, the police demand from 5,000 up to 20,000 yuan. They do not issue any receipts, and the money is privately divided among the police. Although the director of the police department knows this is going on, he quietly approves of it so that more practitioners can be arrested. The police lie to illegally send practitioners to labour camps. They intentionally don't tell the family members so that they will be worried. The Political and Security Unit of the Middle District of Jining City has received many awards for its sinister and vicious persecution of Falun Gong.

Slave Labour at the Labour Camps

1. Concealment of Actual Working Conditions

The average workday in the labour camps is around 10 hours a day. Inmates, however, often work until midnight, so one may work as long as 15 to 16 hours a day. The prison guards fear being exposed, so they force inmates to work in the basements instead of the workshops above ground. Working hours are long, the lights are dim, and the air quality is terrible. The products made in prisons and labour camps are not taxed. No outsider is allowed to investigate the real situation. Whenever there are visitors, the police conceal the illegal workstations and set up large, open workshops above ground. This way, visitors don't see the real working conditions.

2. Poor Work Environment

The work environments in the labour camps are horrible. The labour camps do not care about the safety or health of practitioners. When I was detained at Jinan Women's Forced Labour Camp, I saw one building house 800 inmates even though it only had the capacity to house 200. It was a five-story building with a total living space less than 500 square metres. There were over a dozen detainees to each 10-square-metre room. When all the bunk beds were taken, some had to sleep on the floor under the beds. Usually, newly arrived practitioners had to sleep under the bed. The filthy air made it difficult to breathe. During the day, we worked in the basement under the police offices. There is no ventilation system in the basement, and it is packed with cardboard boxes and all types of pencils. The total area is less than 300 square metres. With hundreds of detainees working in the basement, there is not enough space for everyone and no one can move around. No one is allowed to talk. Everyone is allowed to use the toilet only twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Even then, people still need to take a number and wait to use the toilet. If someone had to use the toilet again, someone else would miss her turn. Consequently, practitioners did not dare to drink a lot of water even with their meals and no matter how hot the weather was.

3. Working with Toxic Materials without Any Protection

The products made in prisons usually take a lot of time and effort to make. For example, at Jinan Women's Forced Labour Camp, inmates package pencils and apply gold powder to decorative vases. At Jining Detention Centre, female detainees work on handmade flowers and male inmates make military products such as rubber washers. Some of the flowers made there are so small that they cannot be seen clearly with the naked eye, and some of the reflective pieces put on the flowers are bright enough to cause injury to the eyes. Because there is not enough lighting or air circulation in the workshop, eyesight damage can occur. Most of the products made in prisons, such as the pencils packaged at Jinan Women's Forced Labour Camp with international labels, are sold overseas.

Also, many of the materials we work with are health hazards. For example, the prison guards care only about their own profit and don't provide any work uniforms or gloves for inmates working with pencil lead. Everyone is given only an apron to wear. The guards claimed that wearing gloves slowed down the work, so everyone used bare hands to touch the pencil lead everyday. Workers frequently passed out from lead poisoning. Only then would the guards take the person outside to get fresh air. The gold powder we applied to vases is poisonous as well. One time, several hundred inmates all passed out. The prison guards thought they were pretending and dragged several inmates outside to beat them. Only when no one responded to their beatings did they stop. The prison doctor verified that it was indeed a case of poisoning. The guards finally had to give everyone injections. Working in such an environment, many practitioners are being slowly poisoned. They have symptoms of chest fullness, lung and respiratory infection, low-grade fever, dizziness and poor vision. Some practitioners have difficulty urinating or having a bowl movement.

4. The Pay in the Labour Camps

Practitioners who are "officially" sentenced to forced labour camps receive 60 yuan a month for their work, but they are only given money tickets that can be used at the stores inside the labour camps. The prices of materials sold at these stores are usually several times higher than stores outside the labour camps. Practitioners who are sent to the forced labour camp for several months of brainwashing do not receive any money tickets. As long as they refuse to be "transformed" (3) and sign a repentance statement, their families do not even know where they are. They are not allowed to send letters, use the telephone or have visitors. Some practitioners do not even have money to buy undergarments, because the police confiscated all their money. For several months in the labour camp, they do not have an extra change of clothes. They usually end up wearing clothes that no one wants. Of course, there is no personal hygiene. I later found out all the prisons and forced labour camps in China operate the same way.

The Psychological and Physical Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners

At Jinan Women's Forced Labour Camp, practitioners are put into five brigades, each with around 10 prison guards. Under special circumstances, the organization is different. One time, all the practitioners went on a hunger strike. Within half an hour, two hundred fully armed solders arrived. They lined up in the hallways, courtyards and dormitories. The prison guards take shifts; however, they are all present during the evening shift. That is when they force practitioners to watch videos that slander Falun Gong and listen to their propaganda. By doing so, they try to control practitioners' minds.

A 72-year-old professor from a university in Jinan City was shocked with electric batons because she refused to renounce Falun Gong. I saw that her body was covered with burn marks. For over six months, she had a high fever. She was hung to the heating pipe so that only her toes touched the ground. Her legs and feet were black and purple. Still, the guards kicked her feet and asked her if that hurt and if she would still practise Falun Gong.

Some practitioners were dragged to the toilet and splashed with urine. Another practitioner's buttocks festered and rotted from being beaten with a whip made of wires. After that, she still had to sit down for over ten hours a day to work. As a result, she could not sleep on her back. She had a fever of 104 F. Finally, the police notified her family and claimed that she got sick because she practised Falun Gong. The family sent 8,000 yuan for her medical treatment. According to the practitioner, the doctor extracted two large jars of puss from her buttocks. She was told that she would not have survived if the treatment had been delayed any longer.

Male prison guards also beat practitioners. They usually beat them in a separate room to cover up their acts. Only when practitioners are brought back can people find out what had happened.

When we were working, the prison guards were afraid of being poisoned and only came to the basement once in a while to exam the products. Some inmates were appointed by the police to take turns monitoring practitioners. As an incentive for being strict with practitioners, they can get their sentences reduced.

In addition, practitioners can be transferred between different labour camps. For example, when a practitioner refuses to be transformed or to write guarantee statements after being persecuted with every torture method, the prison guards would transfer the practitioner to a different labour camp to be persecuted all over again. They sent practitioners from Jinan Women's Forced Labour Camp to Wangcun Women's Forced Labour Camp, and vice versa.

I have been imprisoned in labour camps and detention centres many times. I was physically and mentally humiliated and viciously beaten. I spent three Chinese New Years in detention centres. I was not able to have a family dinner with my husband and child. My elderly parents and my child have suffered tremendously. In China, many families are being persecuted. The entire country is under the red terror. One of my fellow practitioner's children became an orphan at less than two years old. Many practitioners cannot go back to their homes because of the persecution.

Note:

(1) "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.

(2) "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

(3) "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")

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/7/5/105471.html