Ms Zhang Fuxiang Almost Tortured to Death at the Shandong Province First Women's Forced Labour Camp

Ms. Zhang Fuxiang, a Falun Dafa practitioner from Laiwu City, Shandong Province, is a farmer. She was illegally imprisoned¹ in the Shandong Province First Women's Forced Labour Camp in Jinan City for more than three years. She was brutally tortured there and was in critical condition several times. She successfully left the labour camp on January 6th, 2006. The following is an account of the torture that she suffered during those three years.

Police officers from the Laiwu City Zhangjiawa Town Police Station arrested Ms. Zhang Fuxiang on the street on the morning of September 25th, 2002. At the police station, she was handcuffed to a radiator. Zheng Bo from the Political Security Section of the Laiwu City Laicheng District Public Security Bureau wanted to search her, but she warned him not to do so. Zheng Bo then picked her up by her hair and threw her back down. A big tuft of her hair was torn out, and her nose was bleeding. Zheng Bo then asked a policewoman to take away the 438 Yuan² that she had with her. They sent her to Laiwu City Detention Centre later that day.

Ms. Zhang Fuxiang began a hunger strike to protest her unjust arrest and imprisonment at the detention centre. Three days after beginning her hunger strike, more than ten policemen came to torture her. They put handcuffs her on and shackled her feet. They held her nose and used a tool made of bamboo to pry her mouth open, and then force-fed her. They force-fed her once a day. Without going through any legal process, Ms. Fuxiang was sentenced to three years of forced labour. She was sent to the Shandong Province First Women's Forced Labour Camp in Jinan City on October 9th, 2002. Her father could not withstand hearing about this, and passed away shortly after.

The guard are given incentives such as promotions and raises to reach a higher "transformation³ rate", and are punished when they don't meet their goals. The guards thus tortured Dafa practitioners cruelly, trying to force them to "transform." Practitioners at the Shandong Province First Women's Forced Labour Camp were not allowed to call, write to, or see their family members. If they refused to be "transformed," the guards did not allow them to sleep and forced them to perform extensive hard labour. Ms. Fuxiang and other Dafa practitioners who refused to bow to the brutal authorities were tortured severely for more than a year. The torture was brought to an even more brutal level after that.

A guard cuffed a Dafa practitioner to the radiator in a room and taped her mouth shut for no reason in the afternoon of February 3rd, 2004. Falun Gong practitioners started a strike to protest this persecution. Starting on February 16th, the guards escalated the physical abuse against the practitioners. They gathered the most vicious guards to the fifth squadron, including Wang Shuzhen and Wang Yueyao. They designed a six-inch-high stool and forced Falun Gong practitioners to sit on it with both hands at their knees. Practitioners were forced to sit on the stool from 6 in the morning till 10 at night. They were also forced to eat, drink, and even urinate and defecate in one small room. The windows and door were closed all the time. There was no fresh air or fan when the temperature was high. Inmates were ordered by the guards to watch the practitioners in the room all the time. One inmate suffered heat stroke in the room. Under such a bad environment, the Falun Gong practitioners were forced to listen to and watch audio or video tapes that slandered Mr. Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Dafa and Falun Dafa. They endured both physical and mental torture.

Wang Shuzhen further encouraged inmates to come up with different ways to torture Falun Gong practitioners. Whoever came up with the most brutal methods would have their term shortened. The inmates viciously beat practitioners so they that could leave the labour camp early. Some practitioners had blue and purple marks all over their bodies. Some were forced to stand from early morning to 10 at night for ten days in a row. This caused their legs to swell grotesquely. But Falun Gong practitioners still refused to be "transformed." Wang Shuzhen came up with another vicious idea. Practitioners were only given one meal a day and forced to perform heavy labour. This torture lasted for a week. Then practitioners were allowed to buy some instant noodles to eat for two meals. But right after that, they were not allowed to eat again. Section Chief Yang said, "The meal issue will only be resolved if you all do what we tell you to do." Several days later, practitioners were allowed to eat again, but not allowed to use the toilet. One practitioner soiled her trousers. The air of the room was so filthy that the guards did not want to go in. They gave practitioners fifteen minutes to wash their bodies and clothes. But they did not allow practitioners to dry their clothes. Practitioners protested this unreasonable restriction. Some practitioners just wore the wet clothes. Wang Shuzhen ordered inmates to throw all other clothes that practitioners had not put on yet into a rubbish bin. He then scolded a practitioner whose term at the Forced Labour Camp had ended, blaming her for not taking care of her sick father. That practitioner replied, "I committed no crime at all, so why did you imprison me here? Wasn't it because you wouldn't let me go home that I couldn't take care of my father?" Wang Shuzhen then dragged her to a cell and beat her.

Guards played videotapes that slandered Teacher and Dafa in December 2004. They also asked an inmate named Dai Guihua from Qingdao to pretend to be a "transformed" Falun Gong practitioner to slander Teacher and Dafa. That inmate was given a five-day reduction of her term at the forced labour camp. Guards forced practitioners to sit on little stools to watch videotapes. They didn't allow practitioners to sleep. They arranged inmates in shifts to watch practitioners and ordered them to use flyswatters to hit practitioners who fell asleep. They broke several flyswatters in the process. Practitioners became so exhausted that they fell to the ground. Wang Shuzhen ordered inmates to record the number of times that they had fallen, and then punished practitioners by forcing then to stand for an hour for each time they fell. Some practitioners fell nine times at night and were forced to stand for nine hours the next day. One practitioner was so exhausted that when she sat on the toilet, she promptly fell off. One practitioner had diarrhoea and went to the toilet more than ten times. She was extremely thirsty, so she asked the on-duty guard, Yinghua, for water, but her request was coldly rejected. Another practitioner almost fainted after the long physical and mental abuse. This cruel torture lasted for ten days, and then practitioners were allowed to sleep. But guards then forced practitioners to drill even though they were extremely weak. Practitioners still refused to yield. Wang Liping used her high heels to stomp on practitioners until the heels fell off. Then she punished practitioners by forcing them to stand for ten days.

On August 23rd, Wang Liping told Ms. Zhang Fuxiang to go to the reception room. Three guards in plainclothes were in the room waiting to torture her. One guard named Ma Wenyan tried to force her to admit that she was guilty of a crime. She stood firm in her belief in Teacher and Dafa and refused. Then they forced her to stand and did not allow her to eat, sleep or even go to the toilet. When she could not hold it any more and urinated in her trousers, a guard named Xu threw her trousers into a bin. The guards tortured her in shifts. The evening shift guard, Zhang Hong asked her, "Do you believe in your Teacher, or our squadron leader?" Firmly she answered, "I believe in my Teacher." Zhang Hong said, "OK, you believe in your Teacher? I am going to see how strong your body is. Ask your Teacher to help you." She cuffed her to the radiator and tied her with strips of cloth for a long time, making her legs swell up and causing severe pain in her knees.

Four days later, she was still not allowed to go to the toilet. She urinated in her trousers. Ma Yan threw her two big towels, bed sheets, underwear and trousers into a bin, then threatened her saying, "If you pee in your trousers again I will throw your quilts out." Ms. Fuxiang was forced to watch videotapes that slandered Dafa everyday. On the morning of July 20th, Xu said, "Every single practitioner that came to this room has been 'transformed.' I will not let you be the exception. Criminals who are much stronger than you can't stand the torture for even half an hour. They will say whatever we want them to say. I will see how long you can hold out." She forced her to sit on the ground, tying her arms to the back of a metal chair. She claimed, "I can decide what to do to someone like you. I don't need approval." On July 22nd, they untied her once to allow her to go to the toilet. She was tied up like that for total of fifteen days.

Wang Yueyao was one of primary evildoers at the forced labour camp. She viciously persecuted Falun Gong practitioners.

Using the excuse that Ms. Fuxiang had some stomach problems, Wang Yueyao, Li Yinghua and Ma Wenyan force-fed her with some 'medicine' three times a day. Ma Wenyan used soup made from vegetables that had gone bad and leftover tea leaves from their teacups to force-feed her. Ms. Fuxiang resisted the torture. They then tied her arms to the metal chair and put earphones on her head to force her to listen to recordings that slandered Mr. Li Hongzhi and Falun Dafa. The recording kept insulting Mr. Li while shouting his name, along with loud noises of smashing metal. The guards repeatedly tortured her for three days by forcing her to wear the earphones, tying her arms back, and forcing her to squat. They wanted to keep her awake so that she would yield. Wang Yueyao claimed, "This method has been very effective across the country. Some people were 'transformed' after three days. The really firm people were 'transformed' after seven days." They forced her to sit in urine and did not allow her legs to move. Wang Yueyao often stepped on her legs. Wang said, "I do this because I enjoy it. I have some shoes whose heels are as thin as a finger. I will wear them tomorrow." Then she threw Teacher's picture into the urine.

These guards came to kick her whenever they had some time, and used Dafa books to smash her head when she fell asleep. When the urine under her dried, the guards dragged her to another wet spot. Her buttocks started to fester. She asked for toilet paper when she had her period. Wang Yueyao said, "We will only give you toilet paper after you write the 'transformation' statement." She refused and never asked for it again. Wang Yueyao said, "If your vagina is festering, I will bring antibacterial medicine for you because I have a humanitarian spirit." Wang then smashed Dafa books onto her nose, making her mouth and nose fill with blood. Wang arrogantly said, "Aren't you stubborn? There is nothing that I can't get if I really want it. Anyone who enters this room cannot come out without being 'transformed.'" She also boasted, "My father is a martial arts teacher in Shandong Province. My brother is a policeman. My mother is an instructor of a Qigong exercise approved by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). If I make you disabled, the hospital will not say anything. Even if I kill you, you will be counted as one more case on top of the 1700 suicide cases for Falun Gong. I will not be punished. The worst is that I will lose my job as a guard." On September 14th, Wang said, "Let me see how your heart will be without food and water for three days." While charging an electric baton, she said, "If the electric baton does not work for you, I will bring in a bed spring, remove all your clothes and tape your body to the springs. This method can 'transform' thirty stubborn people like you in one month."

Ms. Fuxiang was tortured almost to death on August 4th. When she was untied, she couldn't even crawl. If not for her firm belief in Teacher and Dafa, she would not have been able to endure all these horrible things. Doctors dragged her in for an electrocardiogram and found that her heart was injured. Still the guards continued to brutally beat her. After this, they forced her to stand facing a wall. Then Wang Yueyao sat on a bed, using her feet she stepped on Fuxiang's back, making her unable to squat. She was released from the Strictly Watched Room on September 18th. For five months from March 18th to September 18th, more than ten Dafa practitioners were tortured in this room. She was still forced to do hard labour such as kneeling down to clean floors for two to three hours every day. Guards also took her to the so-called "psychological consultation room," another way to torture Dafa practitioners. They forced her to do extensive hard labour, and then tied her to a bed after 10 p.m. She would wake up in great pain several times during the night.

Having been tortured for seven days there, Ms. Fuxiang lost feeling in three fingers on her right hand. Her arms were nearly disabled. She could not raised them up or stretch them out. The tissue on her legs that had been injured by the guards repeatedly stepping on them was slowly dying, and her feet became infected. When she went back to her group, she was still forced to clean the guards' toilets, clean the glass door and windows, and bring hot water in thermos bottles for everyone in her squadron. It was very difficult for her to carry even a single thermos bottle full of water, but she was forced to do that for her whole group. She was also forced to fetch all three meals for her squadron. When she finished her three-year term in the forced labour camp, the labour camp authorities extended her sentence for several more months.

The guards used a variety of torture methods against Ms. Zhang Fuxiang, but they were not able to "transform" her.

Note

1. Illegally arrested: Contrary to what former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, who initiated the persecution, and the Chinese Communist Party would like the world to believe, practising Falun Gong is NOT illegal in China. Although the Public Security Department issued an unconstitutional set of restraints on the practice at the onset of the persecution in 1999, no laws have been passed by the only legislative body in China, the People's Congress, banning Falun Gong or granting the police the authority to arrest Falun Gong practitioners for practising the exercises or distributing flyers. For a more complete discussion of the illegality of the persecution of Falun Gong, please refer to the article "The Ban on Falun Gong—A Dictator's Whim, Not the Rule of Law". (Variation: "illegally sentenced")

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.org/mh/articles/2006/5/15/127817.html