Germany: A Dissident Reveals that the CCP Uses Psychiatric Hospitals to Imprison Healthy Falun Gong Practitioners

Wang Wanxing, a political dissident who now lives in Germany, was detained in Beijing Ankang Hospital for thirteen years after openly calling to justify the June 4th massacre in 1992. The hospital is a psychiatric hospital which detains criminals, political criminals and Falun Gong practitioners. Last August, with the efforts of the international society, he was reunited with his family in Germany.

For two of three years in Ankang Hospital, Wang Wanxing was looked after by a male nurse working there. He was also a policeman as well as a Falun Gong practitioner. Because of the growing internal pressure from the police system, he was forced to resign. Wang Wanxing once promised this Falun Gong practitioner that, if one day he could leave the hospital, he would tell the whole world about this Falun Gong practitioner’s story. He also met two other Falun Gong practitioners being detained in Ankang Hospital.

At Ankang Hospital, Wang Wanxing also encountered another incident related to Falun Gong. On 16th December 2001 the Chinese Communist Party’s media broadcast a programme called “Fu Yibin murders father and wife” to slander Falun Gong. Fu Yibin himself was sent to Ankang Hospital after the case, and after talking to him when he was fully alert and awake, Wang Wanxing found that that he wasn’t a Falun Gong practitioner.

Below is Wang Wanxing’s personal statement:

“I was arrested in 1992 after openly calling for justice for the 4th of June incident, and then sent to Beijing Ankang Hospital. They said that I was a political maniac, but in other countries this wouldn’t be seen as a mental problem at all. On 22nd July 2002 I was transferred to the third class of the first division, and there I met a male nurse called Jing Guoqiang who was also a policeman and he was responsible for looking after me. He was about forty years old. We have had many deep and meaningful conversations, and he told me he practises Falun Gong. His wife and child also practise. He also talked to me a lot about Falun Gong, for example about Truthfulness Compassion Tolerance and so on.

At that time all of the Ankang Hospital’s nurses were policemen. All over the country there were more than twenty Ankang Hospitals, and the police set them up to exclusively detain criminals with mental problems as well as political criminals like me and Falun Gong practitioners. At the end of 2004, before the start of 2005, all the nurses there were policemen. But afterwards due to external pressure, for example they said that if all the nurses were policemen it would be impossible to align with international standards. Therefore they also recruited people who have graduated from nursing academies.

Everyone knew that Jing Guoqiang practised Falun Gong, but at the beginning the hospital could always tolerate that, maybe because he was so good at his job. He was especially friendly to the patients; he was tactful and had lots of patience too. He was also very good to me and treated me as a friend and held conversations with me. When he wanted to appeal for Falun Gong in Tiananmen Square I really hoped that he didn’t go, because I knew that he was sure to be arrested. I persuaded him that if he was to go to Tiananmen to appeal for Falun Gong, there would be no one so good to look after me. I also said to him, if I could leave the hospital I would tell everyone about his story. In the end he did not go to Tiananmen Square. His wife, I think she was called Li Guifen, she went, and as a result she was sentenced to forced labour for a year and a half. Their child was very small at the time; I think their kid was still going to primary school.

However in 2004, the internal police system issued a document which stated that anyone who persisted in practising Falun Gong would be fired automatically without exceptions. In the end there was an internal conference in the hospital. Lei Guoqiang felt that the pressure was too big, so he was forced to resign.

In the end I lost track of him. I wrote to the Head of the Ankang Hospital, the Police Station, the National Security Bureau, telling them about the story of Lei Guoqiang. I also told them that persecuting Falun Gong would lose the people’s trust. I never stopped writing letters.

Another thing is, a few years ago there was a case of the Fu Yibin murder”. At the time I heard on the radio that this Fu Yibin was a Falun Gong practitioner. Later he was also sent t Ankang Hospital, because all criminals with mental problems were sent here. He was in the class two of the first division while I was in class three. I found an opportunity to ask him whether if he did practise Falun Gong. Because I knew whatever the CCP said could not be trusted, therefore I was looking for evidences. He told me that for a very short time he had practised Falun Gong in the past, but then stopped. When he committed the murders it was already after he stopped practising Falun Gong.

At Ankang Hospital I also met two other female Falun Gong practitioners, who were detained for about a year between 2003 and 2004, but then I don’t know where they are now. Nevertheless there are also lots of other Falun Gong practitioners who I don’t know about.

I can only say this much for them here. Lots of Falun Gong practitioners are still being persecuted in China and nobody knows about them. As for those who have been persecuted to death, they cannot speak out for themselves anymore.