The Life of Zhao Yougang from Shandong Province in His 30s Is in Danger Due to Severe Persecution

Zhao Yougang, a Dafa practitioner from Weifang City, has been tortured in a prison in Wuxi City for several years, and his life is now in great danger.

Zhao Yougang is from Weifang City, Shandong Province. His original name on his identity card was Zhao Jianshe. He is over thirty years old. On the day he was arrested and put into the custodial station in May 2003, he went on a hunger strike to protest the detention. Several days later he was sent to the custodial station in Nanjing City. From the beginning, guards at the custodial station tortured him physically. They cuffed him using foot shackles and waist shackles so that he couldn't move for over twenty days. They put him into different cells and instigated different inmates to beat him. They force fed him, and on a few occasions they purposefully inserted the tube through his nose several times. They force fed salt into his mouth and tightened his mouth with a respirator. Though all of this was extremely painful, Zhao never wavered in his belief. Eventually his determination subdued many of the vicious people's tortures. Even the prison doctor, who tortured him most, eventually came to admire him and said that he would no longer torture him.

Seeing that the torture didn't work, the prison doctor adopted a hypocritical approach in addition to the physical tortures. But usually Zhao saw through these tricks and pointed them out squarely and reprimanded them for their hypocrisy. Whenever someone was reprimanded by him, the news would spread quickly and many people would know about it the next day. The wardens were all very afraid of him. There were several groups of wardens. Some of them were familiar with him and said to him: please don't reprimand me in front of others so that I lose face. Or they said such and such people were very good, so please don't scold them. Or such and such were very bad, so yes, you should scold them.

When he was force fed, Zhou Yougang would fight back with all his strength. He believed that if he cooperated with the force feeding, how could it count as a hunger strike? He was extremely weak and couldn't even walk two steps. But every time he still fought back when he was force fed. He exhibited so much strength that seven or eight people were needed to contain him. Once, he grabbed the tube from the prison doctor and broke it into two pieces. In order to prevent the tube from being broken, they changed the tube for a plastic one. When he was force fed, he often shouted "Falun Dafa is good." His voice pierced through the prison and most of the inmates knew of him. They learned and passed on his stories. Many of them admired him with a thumbs up. They were terrified, so they changed methods. When they force fed him, the prison doctor would tie him to an iron chair¹ and tighten his mouth so that he couldn't say anything.

Half a year later, Zhao was sent to a prison in Wuxi City. On the first day there, he was tied to an iron chair. The long-time hunger strike had made him very weak. Half an hour later he fainted. He was then sent to the hospital in Zuze Prison, Liyang City. This hospital was notorious for its violence and mistreatment of prisoners. Many people sent there would be tied to the beds and couldn't move for the first three days. Those that didn't cooperate with them would be tied till they were subdued. If a person was tied for too long, this person would become numb and that wouldn't help with their work of "transforming²" the person. So they would loosen the restraints on him after one month, tying to provoke him, and then they would continue tying the person for a long time. Lots of people were not able to move even several months after they were untied.

Zhao Yougang weighed very little, but because of the torture, his body was swollen like a balloon. He was sent back to the prison in Wuxi City. He was put into a solitary confinement cell on the top level of the building. The perpetrators had two possible strategies to reform him. One was that they would transform him at any cost. The other was that they would transform him, but still had to consider the safety of his life. However, the second strategy was not adopted. So under the strategy of "if he isn't transformed, let him die," the prison launched one campaign after another to torture him. The prison wardens instigated the inmates to torture him. Six prisoners held one of his legs and tied his other leg to the edge of the bed. They used every means to torture him. They reduced his sleeping time. They swore at him and beat him savagely. In the Wuxi Prison, there was a secret torture method called "Putting onto the Plank" which was previously unknown to the outside world. They used this torture method as an ultimate weapon to subdue an inmate. They stripped the inmate and tied him tightly to the plank (there was a hole in the middle of the plank and the urine and stool went from the body and dropped through this hole). They put bricks under the feet so that the feet were higher than the head. In the summer, mosquitos bit, and in the winter, only one thin layer of quilt was given to the inmate, and the inmate would lose consciousness because of the cold. Within two or three days, the inmate would became disabled.

There were guards on duty on the top level of the building. No unauthorised personnel could come near so that the outside world wouldn't know what happened there. But the stone wall couldn't prevent the news about the persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners from coming out. Their atrocities were revealed bit by bit to the outside world. Zhao Yougang continually fought hard to protest the force feeding. Though he was extremely weak and had no strength after each battle, he wouldn't give in to their demands.

The prison in Wuxi City: 86-510-2625061 ext 8237 ask for Section Chief Wang Hongkai and Xu

The hospital in Wuxi Prison: 86-510-8915865

The address of Wuxi Prison: 121 Wuqiao Road West, Wuxi City 214044

Note

1. Iron Chair: The "Iron chair" is made of iron pipes. Victims are restrained on the iron chairs with both arms and legs tied for a long period of time, see illustration at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/1/9/17577.html

2. "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/2006/11/3/141638.html