The Horrific Sexual Abuse of Women in Chinese Forced Labour Camps

The Women's Rights and Protection Act in the People's Republic of China's Constitution states clearly that "Women need special protection during menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, and lactation." Nonetheless, reports of sexual assault, such as rape and forced abortion, frequently surface from Chinese forced labour camps.

According to the "Falun Gong Human Rights Report," ever since the nationwide persecution against Falun Gong began in 1999 in China, labour camp guards have continually abused female practitioners. The "Crimes Against Women" section in the report claims that only a handful of the tens of thousands of detained female practitioners escaped the humiliation of being stripped naked. Practitioners are often forced to remain naked for a very long times. The female practitioners are not allowed to use clean feminine hygiene products. They live under the constant fear of sexual assault. The guards frequently strike practitioners' breasts and vaginal areas with batons and various other instruments of torture. More horrifying cases recount female practitioners being raped or even gang raped. Guards also shock practitioners' vaginas with electric batons, and scrape them with hard-bristled brushes. Many practitioners were also stripped naked and then thrown into male prison cells. A female Falun Gong practitioner who escaped, stated, "The evil in those places is unimaginable to the outside world."

Evidence collected by the Global Mission to Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners indicates that numerous pregnant practitioners were subjected to forced abortions. Wang Hongmei, for instance, was a PhD student majoring in history at Lanzhou University, Gansu Province. The university police arrested her in June 2001 for practising Falun Gong. She was then transferred to Taoshuping Forced Labour Camp in Lanzhou City. At that time, Wang was pregnant and the police forced her to abort.

According to a recent report from the Clearwisdom/Minghui websites, Tan Yajiao, a pregnant Falun Gong practitioner in Benxi City, Liaoning Province, was arrested last year during the so-called "918 Benxi Raid." Personnel from the Dong Ming Police Station barbarically force-fed her, causing a miscarriage. Ms. Tan was force-fed with her whole body stretched out and shackled to a board. Policewoman Zhang Jinjuan then directed prisoner Wang to beat Ms. Tan. The report confirmed that the police often left the force-feeding tube in Ms. Tan's digestive tract for as long as seven days at a time.

Tan Yajiao said, "They continued beating me until I felt the urge to use the toilet. Because I was shackled and could not move, I used a basin. Two blood clots came out of my body. One was sticky. The other had a red circle and fingernail-shaped white object in the middle. The two blood clots were each about 0.7 to 0.8 centimetres (0.3 in.) wide. A prisoner asked if I was menstruating. I replied 'No. I miscarried.' Wang, the prisoner, told another prisoner to quickly flush the clots down the toilet."

In a report in The Epoch Times published in September 2004, journalist Zhou Xin traced the forced abortion of Falun Gong practitioner Wang Guijin from Huaiyang Town, Henan Province. Ms. Wang was nine months pregnant when the police took her to the family planning centre and forced her to abort. It was only ten days before her due date. When the journalist asked the family planning centre in Huaiyang on the phone about Mrs. Wang's forced abortion, the reply was, "The pregnant woman certainly consented. We wouldn't force anyone to have an abortion." Zhou further inquired, "A nine-month pregnancy should naturally have a normal birth." The reply was, "This is our national policy. We had other considerations [in this situation]."

In addition to the abuses of female Falun Gong practitioners in labour camps, Mao Hengfeng, a woman from Shanghai, was persecuted severely in a detention centre for having more than one child. According to a report from "Radio Free Asia," policemen tied Mao Hengfeng's hands and feet with belts and forcefully pulled her limbs in different directions. They asked Ms. Mao while pulling her limbs "Will you stop screaming? Will you acknowledge the fault?" This horrendous behaviour lasted for three days.

On March 7th 2005, Xiong Wei and Chen Ying, Falun Gong practitioners currently in Germany and France, respectively, were invited to visit the European Parliament in Strasbourg to give a first-hand account of the persecution in China's labour camps. They not only described their personal experiences but also gave graphic descriptions of China's atrocious torture of mothers and children in the persecution against Falun Gong. Ms. Xiong recounted her ordeal in the Beijing Women's Forced Labour Camp. She said that she was not allowed to use the toilet or sanitary napkins, even during her menstrual period. When she protested against this treatment, the policemen handcuffed her and threatened to "break your fingers one by one and scald you with hot water, if you don't give up your practice [of Falun Gong]." Xiong Wei also talked about a 19-year-old college girl, whom the police ordered prisoners to strip completely naked and beat. The eight male criminal inmates stuffed her mouth with socks and underpants and then kicked her vagina with hard shoes. Twenty days later, this young woman still looked severely depressed.

Chen Ying described her time in detention. She was forced to squat, naked. She was also forced to take cold showers. The police ordered five or six criminal inmates to beat her and handcuff her to the window. The police then injected her with unknown drugs. As soon as the drug entered her body, Ms. Chen felt as if her heart and blood vessels were painfully split open. The left side of her body twitched, and she lost some memory.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/7/15/106225.html