The Brutal Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners in Jiangsu Province

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began a nationwide persecution of Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999. The 610 Office¹ at various levels within Jiangsu Province carried out the persecution policies of Jiang Zemin's group and the CCP against all Falun Gong in the province. According to an incomplete estimate, nearly 1,000 Falun Gong practitioners in Jiangsu Province have so far been sentenced to forced labour, approximately 100 practitioners have been sentenced to prison, about 100 practitioners have been sent to mental hospitals and 25 practitioners have died as a result of torture. Most people, however, are not aware of these facts under the CCP's information blockade. What we reveal below is only the tip of the iceberg.

Fangqiang Labour Camp in Dafeng City and Judong Labour Camp in Zhenjiang City

Male and female Falun Gong practitioners who were sentenced to forced labour in Jiangsu Province are held at Fangqiang Labour Camp in Dafeng City and Judong Labour Camp in Zhenjiang City, respectively. In these camps, they are subjected to inhuman torture and abuse.

Beginning from late May 2001, the 610 Office and Jiangsu Province Labour Reeducation Bureau not only issued "reform²" quotas for the two labour camps, they also linked the Falun Gong practitioners' renouncing the practice with the guards' bonuses, achievement awards and promotions. According to this policy, each guard can receive several thousand yuan³ for making one practitioner give up his or her belief, and he would also get a promotion and other advantages. As a result, the practitioners were savagely tortured at these two labour camps during the past several years. Below are several of the most commonly used methods to force practitioners to renounce their belief.

1. Beatings and Torture

Article 1 of the "12 Prohibitions in the Process of Administering the Law and Policies" published by Jiangsu Province Labour Reeducation Bureau, clearly states: "Police officers and guards are forbidden from using physical or verbal abuse, or corporal punishment [on detainees]." This policy, however, is ignored at Fangqiang Labour Camp and Judong Labour Camp. Under Jiang Zemin's instigation and tacit approval, torturing Falun Gong practitioners became the guards' common practice.

Guards Zhou Ruihua, Hong Ying, Huo Yan and others in Group 4 of Judong Labour Camp often torture Falun Gong practitioners on the drill ground. They slap the practitioners' faces, pull their hair, and kick them. Jiang Dongmei, a guard from Group 3, forced practitioners to stand and squat day and night without sleeping, sitting or talking. She forces two practitioners to stand back-to-back on a tile at night without going to the restroom or wearing warm clothing in the cold weather. Sometimes this torture lasts 11 days straight. Practitioner Qin Yanqiu was forced to squat continuously for 18 days until she became incontinent, her face turned pale, and she was on the brink of death. Only then did Jiang Dongmei cease the torture temporarily.

Practitioner Ms. Chen Yujie from Nanjing City was 54 years old. Guards Zhao Yulan and Zhou Ying locked her in a solitary confinement cell and didn't allow her to sleep, in an attempt to force her to write a "guarantee statement⁴." Her legs and feet swelled up and she could not wear shoes, and her health deteriorated drastically. She often vomited right after a meal. Zhao Yulan and Zhou Ying force-fed Ms. Chen drugs, which caused her ears to discharge pus and she eventually lost her hearing. Her weight dropped from 72.5 kg [160 lbs] to 44.5 kg [98 lbs]. She became paralyzed and she could not take care of herself. The labour camp authorities released Chen Yujie for medical treatment, and falsely claimed that it was because she had a mental illness.

Practitioner Mr. Chen Longchang, held in Division 4 of Fangqiang Labour Camp, opened a sack of grain and poured out a little so he would be able to carry the heavy sack. Guard Wei beat Chen Longchang until his eyes were swollen and bloodshot, and he could not see. Chen Longchang's body was covered with wounds and blood. Afterwards, the guards forbade him from contacting other practitioners and they ordered the inmates to lie and claim that Chen Longchang threw himself against a wall and hurt himself. They tried to get Chen Longchang to sign this fabricated statement, but he refused. Practitioners Wang Changhua, Lu Xiucai, Zhen Qimin, Zhang Xianming and others wrote a letter to the secretary of the provincial CCP Committee, head of the Provincial Labour Reeducation Bureau, and the prosecutor regarding this savage beating, but Political Head Li Xiaoxiang of Division 4 seized the letter.

2. Intensive Slave Labour

Torturing practitioners by forcing them to do filthy and heavy labour is a method that Fangqiang Labour Camp and Judong Labour Camp most often use against Falun Gong practitioners.

Chinese law states that labour camp detainees should not work for more than six hours a day, and they should not do heavy labour. At Fangqiang Labour Camp, however, Falun Gong practitioners sometimes are forced to work for more than 12 hours a day in the field and for 14 or 16 hours a day at the sewing workshop of Division 1 and Division 4. When cleaning the latrine pits, other detainees are allowed to use a pole to carry barrels of faeces, while Falun Gong practitioners are forced to carry the barrel in their arms. The faeces often spill all over their faces and clothes. The guards do not even spare older Falun Gong practitioners. A 68-year-old practitioner was forced to remove his shoes and socks, and clean the sewage ditch while standing in freezing water.

Practitioner Kong Lingsheng from Gaochun County broke his spine before he practised Falun Gong. Guard Sun Liming tried to force him to give up his belief, but he refused. Sun Liming then used slave labour to torture him. Kong Lingsheng could not carry a barrel of faeces because of his back, so Sun Liming made him dig up faeces with his hands and put it in a barrel. After one week, Sun Liming's hands were covered in open, bleeding wounds. Sun Liming saw that Kong Lingsheng was still determined to practise Falun Gong, so he forced him to carry barrels of silt on the riverbed, which is the heaviest field work.

3. Guards Instigated Inmates to Beat Falun Gong Practitioners

Guard Jiang Dongmei from Group 3 of Judong Labour Camp instigated inmates Xie Lifang and others to drag Falun Gong practitioners one by one into solitary confinement cells between May 3rd and May 6th, 2001. They stripped the practitioners naked and held them down. One inmate sat on the practitioner's upper body and one inmate sat on the practitioner's lower body, and they pinched the practitioner's nipples and stabbed their nipples with needles. They pounded the practitioners' abdomens with a stool and kicked their private parts. They kneed the practitioners' private parts and plucked their pubic hair out. They stuffed paper into female practitioners' vaginas. Inmate Xie Lifang and some other inmates pinched the practitioners' abdomens and acupuncture points on the inside of the practitioners' thighs.

Practitioner Ms. Du Xiuju, a 42-year-old single woman who taught at Lianyugang City Technical School, suffered from vaginal bleeding for over a month after this torture. Xie Lifang and other inmates severely tortured practitioner Ms. Huang Hongping from Nanjing City. They kicked and stomped her head and face, they banged her head against the wall and sexually abused her with the abovementioned tortures, until she urinated and defecated in her trousers. The inmates screamed at her, "It's like killing a dog if we beat you to death! The labour camp won't hold us responsible!" Huang Hongping's abdomen, the inside of her thighs and her lower body turned black and blue. She had to stay in bed for more than a month, during which time she could not walk. Later when she started walking, she had to be supported by two people. When the guards tried to make practitioner Ms. Yu Shuxia write a guarantee statement, six inmates beat her one after another for three days. Her eye sockets turned black, her face and whole body were swollen, and she had bruises all over her body. Instigated by the guards, the inmates pinched the tendons at the inside of her thighs and plucked out her pubic hair. Ms. Yu called for help many times, but no one came to intervene; she nearly lost her life. In order to hide this atrocity from other people, the labour camp authorities locked Yu Shuxia in a storage room for over twenty days until the swelling had subsided.

Wei Honghui, a guard in Division 4, directed inmates to brutally beat practitioner Mr. Wang Changhua for over 2 hours on the evening of March 23rd, 2001. They even broke a heavy wooden bench while beating him. Practitioner Mr. Guo Naitong was beaten many times by inmates under the guards' orders. One time, he was beaten by three inmates for more than three hours until he was left with bruises all over his body and was unable to walk. Practitioner Zhu Yong was injured by inmates under the guards' instruction. He went to the office of the Dafeng Procuratorate residing at Fangqiang Labour Camp to state the situation, but the prosecutor completely ignored him.

The inmates act wantonly in torturing Falun Gong practitioners because of the support and encouragement from the guards, who are in turn instigated to commit crimes by Jiang Zemin and his villainous gang. As said by a guard in Division 2 of Fangqiang Labour Camp, "We have orders from above. We would be held criminally responsible for the death of other labour camp detainees, but not for the torture deaths of Falun Gong practitioners."

4. Electric Baton Torture

According to the law, each labour camp division is allowed to have only two electric batons, which are only to be used in the case of violent rebellion, and when other methods of restraint have failed. This policy becomes an empty talk at Fangqiang Labour Camp.

Practitioner Mr. Li Weiping submitted an appeal letter to the guards on May 1st, 2001, on behalf of all practitioners held in Division 4, and asked them to turn it over to the related government agency as required by the law. Later that night, the guards locked up Li Weiping in solitary confinement cell and tortured him with electric batons until 3 o'clock in the morning. Many practitioners held in this division decided to protest this brutal act and confronted the guards the next morning. The guards savagely beat the practitioners in front of nearly 400 detainees. Ironically, Division 4 was awarded the title, "Modernized and Civilized Labour Camp Division."

Practitioner Mr. Zheng Qiming, a 58-year-old university professor, was the first one dragged into the office and shocked with electric batons. Seeing this, practitioner Mr. Zhang Xianming stood up and said, "Put down your electric batons!" Political head Wu and four other guards then pinned him to the ground and shocked him with six electric batons. Practitioner Mr. Cai Shijun then spoke up to stop the abuse, and he was also dragged out and shocked. The practitioners' necks and foreheads were covered with burn wounds from the high-voltage electric shocks.

According to an incomplete estimate, at the end of October 2001, at least 30 Falun Gong practitioners were tortured with electric batons in Division 2 of Fangqiang Labour Camp. One practitioner was shocked simultaneously with six electric batons until his head was covered with blood. Mr. Zhang Qihu, a practitioner who received a Ph.D. in mathematics from Xuzhou Normal University, was shocked three times for very long periods of time. He was tortured for a whole morning on October 4th, 2001. Yu Haiyong, Party secretary of Division 2 at Fangqiang Labour Camp, stepped on Zhang Qihu. He held electric baton(s) and said in a menacing voice, "Although I usually put on a smiling face, I also have a killer's side! I can make you wish you were never born if you don't "reform!"" Falun Gong practitioners' heart-wrenching screams when shocked with electric batons can often be heard throughout Division 2.

Sun Liming, a guard in Division 3 of Fangqiang Labour Camp, handcuffed practitioner Tang Jianxin's wrists behind his back and hung him up by the handcuffs. He inserted an electric baton into Mr. Tang's mouth and shocked him until all of his teeth came loose. Tang Jianxin could not talk for a whole week. Practitioner Kong Lingsheng was hung up, and Li Yongji, political head of Division 3, and guard Sun Liming stuck an electric baton underneath his clothes and shocked him repeatedly, which caused him to lose consciousness and become incontinent. Sun Liming continued to shock him despite his condition. When Kong Lingsheng came to after they poured cold water on him and pinched his philtrum, Sun Liming savagely beat him. One guard secretly told Kong Lingsheng when no one was around, "Li Yongji, political head of Division 3, held a meeting for all guards before this electric shock torture and he encouraged us to use electric batons whenever we want. He said that all labour camp officials would take the responsibility should anything happen, and if the torture results in several 'reformed' practitioners, all of us would share the 'credit.'"

In early 2001, Miao Qi, political head at the women's division of Judong Labour Camp, personally shocked practitioners with electric batons, and Zhao, political head of Group 3 of the labour camp, instructed others to shock practitioners with electric batons. Practitioner Ling from Nanjing City lost consciousness after being shocked for a long period of time. Practitioner Wang from Nantong was dragged into an empty room by Zhao and was shocked for about 3 hours, causing his entire body to turn black and blue. Practitioner Lu from Changzhou City was shocked continuously until he could not stand on his left foot, a big blister filled with blood formed on his forehead, and he lost consciousness in a pool of his own blood. The guards shocked the palms of practitioner Wan Yuanzhen from Nanjing City with electric batons, and he could not wash his clothes for several months. Group head Li forced a practitioner to stand still in a straight-up position for four days and five nights without sleep. He ordered the inmates to beat him whenever he didn't like the practitioner's posture. He didn't allow this practitioner to wash himself, and he poured water on him and shocked him with electric batons. This practitioner's head swelled up and his body turned black and blue. Practitioner Song Weijuan was handcuffed with her arms behind her back and forced to the ground by about eight people including Zhao Yulan and Zhen Qihui on March 16th, 2001. They shocked her to force her into making an "oral confession," and they shocked her mouth when she refused to speak. The guards later stuffed her mouth with dirty rags to prevent her from screaming in pain.

The guards in Group 4 of the women's division of Judong Labour Camp would play loud music over a loudspeaker when they were torturing Falun Gong practitioners, in an attempt to cover up their crime. Sometimes the practitioners' screams could be heard even with the music on.

5. Term Extensions for Falun Gong Practitioners Who Refused to Give In

According to related policies, only detainees who caused severe injuries to others in a fight or who have severely violated laws and regulations would receive term extensions. The Fangqiang Forced Labour Camp, however, uses the threat of term extension as a common tactic to try to force practitioners to give in and renounce Falun Dafa. The Provincial Labour Reeducation Bureau issued a secret document in May 2001 for the two labour camps, which states that Falun Gong practitioners who refuse to write guarantee statements would have their terms extended by up to one year. According to this document, Fangqiang Labour Camp extended Falun Gong practitioners' terms when they expired in June. Practitioner Ms. Wang Changhua, held at Fangqiang Labour Camp, had her term extended by five months, and practitioners Chen Jian, Di Jinhua, Chen Hanchang, Chen Guoliang, Hua Jianguo and Li Qin, whose terms expired, had their terms extended by three or four months.

6. "Cartwheel" Brainwashing

Several guards who specialize in brainwashing take turns trying to brainwash the practitioners. During the intense brainwashing sessions, they only allow the practitioners to rest for one or two hours a day. They bombard the practitioners with questions when they are tired and unfocused. This torture lasts from days to months in an attempt to destroy the practitioners' will.

At Fangqiang Labour Camp, several guards would take turns talking to a Falun Gong practitioner who refused to give up his belief until midnight or even later, then they would force the practitioners to stand and they ordered the inmates to monitor the practitioners. They force the practitioners to stand until 2:00 a.m. or all night long, while holding so-called "study sessions" that slander Falun Gong, and they force the practitioners to write their "understandings" after each talk session. Many practitioners are not allowed to sleep for 20 days or 30 consecutive days.

The Judong Labour Camp escalated their brainwashing after 2002 and uses about five people to brainwash each practitioner. The practitioners were forced to get up at 5:00 a.m. and stayed up until 3:00 a.m. the next day. They were not allowed to sleep while enduring insults from the guards and inmates. Each brainwashing session lasts from 40 to 50 days or as long as 80 to 90 days.

7. Persecution in the Name of "Humane Efforts"

The officials deceive the practitioners' families and ask them to coerce the practitioners to give up their belief. They would threaten and intimidate the families, who would kneel before the practitioners, screaming, crying and tugging at the practitioners, begging them to give up cultivation practice. Practitioner An Zhenbing's mother was tricked into going to the labour camp and she was intimidated by the guards until she had a heart attack. She was sent to a hospital for emergency rescue and was later taken home in an ambulance. An Zhenbing confronted the guards, saying, "You will take full responsibility if anything happens to my mother."

8. Verbal Abuse

The guards force practitioners who renounce Dafa against their consciences to write four statements and five copies of an article that attacks Dafa. The four statements are the guarantee statement, the break away statement, repentance statement, and the self-criticism statement. They force these practitioners to read these statements publicly on a platform and they take pictures of the practitioners. Officials from the Provincial Labour Reeducation Bureau would come to inspect the "reform" outcome. During the inspection, the officials force the practitioners to publicly curse Mr. Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong, and walk on, write on and or spit on Mr. Li's portraits. Practitioner Mr. Yang Kui, who once gave up Dafa due to torture, refused to do it, and he was brutally shocked with electric batons.

Liu Xiue, a 59-year-old practitioner, refused to wear a prisoner's uniform. The guards stripped her naked and forced her to stand in the courtyard. The guards also stuffed into her crotch slips of paper with slanderous words against Dafa.

Local 610 Office agents pick up Dafa practitioners when their sentences expire, and practitioners who had not yielded are directly taken to mental hospitals or other facilities to undergo more torture and brainwashing. Local police officers threatened practitioner Chen Guoliang when they picked him up at the labour camp, saying, "We'll send you to a mental hospital if you don't "reform." If we can't fix you, the mental patients will."

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. "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")

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

4. "Guarantee Statement": A statement to declare that one is remorseful for practising Falun Gong and guarantees not to practise Falun Gong again, not to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and never again associate with any Falun Dafa practitioners.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/8/25/136385.html