My Experience of Being Tortured for Five Years in the Shenyang Women's Prison in Liaoning Province

On August 22nd, 2002, because of distributing leaflets exposing the persecution of Falun Dafa, I was sentenced to 5 years in prison by the Chaoyang County Court. On December 22nd, I was sent to Dabei Prison in Shenyang (which is now called the Shenyang Women's Prison). During those five years, I witnessed the darkness of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), experienced its brutality and violence, and at the same time saw that the CCP was struggling before its final crash.

On December 22nd, 2002, I was sent to the First Team of the Third District of Dabei Prison in Shenyang. After arriving there, I felt it was indeed a hell. At that time, the captain of the First Team was called Zhao Xiumei. She used inmates to brutally persecute Falun Dafa practitioners and did not allow practitioners to talk with each other. She did not even allow practitioners to look at each other, and forced other inmates to monitor practitioners.

Zhao attempted to force me to recite the "Prison Regulations." I refused, since I believed that Dafa practitioners are not criminals and should not be prisoners. Because of this, at nighttime, she forced inmates Hu Chun (from Anshan), Li Fengrong (from Fuxin) to curse me and beat me. I was not allowed to sleep at all one night. When a prisoner called Feng Shuhua saw that I was sleepy, she went to get a basin of water from the toilet and poured it over my head. My clothes were all wet. It was very cold in the winter and I was frozen.

Once, in the workshop, Zhao tried to force me to recite the prison regulations again. I refused. She took me to the changing room at the back of the workshop and attempted to force me to sit on a stool that was 2 inches wide, 4 inches long and 3 inches high. I refused. She forced an inmate to hold me down on the granite floor. I was forced to sit there for three days. Then I was taken to the toilet. She forced inmate Yu Zhihua to pour water on the ground, then placed the little stool on the ground in the water, and forced me to sit on the stool. Zhao Xiumei said: "Now the ground is wet, so you have to sit on the stool." I refused to sit on the stool or on the ground. I stood there. Zhao Xiumei saw that I disobeyed her orders, so she went to look for director Guo Haiyan. Guo Haiyan handcuffed me and dragged me to the toilet. She handcuffed me to a water pipe and used electric batons to shock me. I did not move. Then she dragged me up from the ground and handcuffed both of my hands to a water pipe. The water pipe was more than 1 metre high. Guo Haiyan said: "I will make two inmates give you a lesson (meaning they would beat me)." After a while, she brought Wang Xia (from Liaoyang) and Bi Zhiyuan from the Fourth Team of the Third District). They beat me violently until I lost consciousness. After that, they loosened my handcuffs, and forced the inmates to pour basins of water over my face. During the beating, my pants were torn and my face became swollen. They used plastic shoe soles to beat my inner thighs until they became purple and black. Inmates Yu Zhihua and Zheng Liying (from Liaoyang) used shoe soles to beat my bladder until it became so swollen that I had difficulty urinating. Both of my legs were injured (there are still scars even now). I was then forced to lie down in water for a whole day.

One night in early April 2004, after cleaning myself up I sat on the edge of the bed. Inmate Yu Zhihua ordered me to wear the prison uniform and to "study" written materials slandering Dafa. I refused. It was almost 10:00 p.m. Yu Zhihua saw that I did not move, so she found Wang Min, Zheng Liying, Zhang Zhaocui (from Heilongjiang), and others, and dragged me to the toilet. I shouted "Falun Dafa is good!" "Falun Dafa is a righteous cultivation!" In the toilet, the inmates rushed towards me together. The toilet was full of inmates. They pushed me into water, the depth of which covered my feet, then kicked me and beat me. Inmate Zhang Zhaocui tried to insert a dirty mop into my mouth (I gritted my teeth tightly and she could not get the mop in). Wang Min used a washboard to beat me and broke the board. Zhang Liying beat me and tore off a piece of flesh from my belly. The guard on duty (captain of the team) Tang Ying heard the noise from downstairs and came to the toilet. I said to her: "Don't let the inmates beat me!" The inmates said: "Guard Tang, please leave. We will take care of it." Tang Ying did not stop the inmates from beating me and left without saying anything. Then, inmate Yu Zhihua stepped into dirty water on the ground with her shoes and wiped her shoes off on me, forcing dirty water into my mouth. Then she stepped on my belly and forced me to lie in water for a whole night. That day I was having my menstrual period. The inmates took turns to watch me. In the morning when other people were going to come to the toilet, they let me go. It was still cold in early April. I was wearing a thin sweater and thin trousers. When I took them off and squeezed them out, water came down like a stream.

On the second day, while going to the toilet at the workshop, I heard people saying: "Someone shouted 'Falun Dafa is good!' last night." Zhao Xiumei and Guo Naijuan heard that I said "Falun Dafa is good!" so they called me to their office. The two inmates Zheng Liying and Zhang Zhaocui were also there. They told the two inmates, "If she says that again tonight, you should seal her mouth." After that, the inmates took turns to torture me. I was held in Room #3, which had video monitors installed. They were afraid that their bad deeds would be monitored, so they moved me to Room #4, which did not have a monitoring device. They tried to force me to study those books that slander Dafa. I refused. Zhao Xiumei tried to force me to sit on a little stool, and I refused. Inmate Wang Min kicked me. Yu Zhihua pressed me against the ground, lifted up my thick jacket, and pushed the little stool with its legs underneath my jacket, so that the legs and back of the stool were touching me. Wang Min was wearing a new pair of athletic shoes at that time. She used the shoes soles to rub my eyelids until my eyelids tore. After more than an hour, since I was being squeezed against the little stool, both of my hands started to become numb, and my fingers became so stiff that they could not bend any more. Then Wang Min pressed my hukou acupressure point (the location on the hand where the thumb and index finger connect; I still bear scars from this abuse). Later, the inmates found Zhao Xiumei and said that they were too tired because they were not getting enough sleep at night and they still needed to work in the daytime.

After the brutal persecution, I started to experience severe pain in my abdomen and gradually I was able to eat less and less. When standing up from a stool, I had so much pain in my intestines that it felt like they were ruptured. My whole abdomen was so swollen that it became stiff. Both of my legs were so swollen that I could not wear shoes. After I put the shoes on and walked for a while, the shoes tore. I had many bloody wounds on my body. I could not lift my left leg and I had to walk on the tips of my toes. I was very weak and my face became yellowish. I was extremely thin. I was sent to the hospital for examination. They checked me for many days, but besides the swollen abdomen, they could not diagnose anything. The hospital director said I needed to be transferred. So they sent me to Dazhong Hospital in Shenyang. They tried to do an X-ray but I could not get onto the bed. The doctor helped me onto the bed. I asked, "If someone stood on my belly and stomped on me. What would happen?" The doctor said, "Someone stepped on your belly?!" Zhao Xiumei said in panic, "What? Who stepped on you? How come I did not know that?" I said, "It is not too late for you to know that now." The doctors sent the examination results to specialists. It was clear that they held a dim view of the guards. Later I saw that the first line of the examination result read: "This person was stepped on six months ago." This is enough to prove that my condition was caused by torture. Later, I was sent to Medical University of Shenyang and Specialised Hospital, where they said I had "tubercular peritonitis."

I did not admit that I was sick. My condition was caused by torture. Later, they sent me to the prison hospital. I refused to admit that I was sick. Those people wanted to shed their responsibility for injuring me and I would not let them do so. I was not sick, and they could not avoid their responsibility. Before I was hospitalised, Zhao Xiumei wrote letters to my husband, brother and sisters, saying that I was very weak and I was urinating blood and it was very serious. My husband, brother and sisters all came. After they saw that I, a healthy person, had been tortured into such a state, they were all shocked. My brother and sisters all cried. My oldest sister said to me, "It would be understandable if you did something wrong. But you just practised Falun Gong, how could they treat you like this?" I told them, "You know that I did not do anything wrong. That is enough. Although I look bad at this moment, I will be fine. Don't worry." Zhao Xiumei was very afraid. While I was hospitalised, she moved to the First Team in the Fourth Prison District.

While in the hospital, I refused treatment. I spent more than 3 months in the hospital. On March 16th, 2005, the new captain of the First Team, Li Yanxia, got me back to the workshop. In October 2005, I stopped wearing my prison name badge. In November 2005, I stopped working. Li Yanxia saw that I did not wear my name tag nor work, so she went to report me to the branch director, An Rei. An Rei called me to her office and deceived me by telling me that I could go back to my room to rest. Li Yanxia had me bring my belongings and told me I would be brought back to the prison district. I was housed on the fourth floor. On the first floor, they stopped me, and told me to wait there. I looked back, and saw An Rei and clerk Chen Jie bringing four big strong inmates, Cai Bo (from Jinzhou), Shen Cheng (from Benxi), Wang Xia (from Haicheng) and Zhang Xiaoyan (from Dalian). They dragged me outside and held me down on the ground. They used ropes to tie my hands and legs. I shouted, saying that they could not do so. They used tape to seal my mouth. The four of them carried me to the hospital. I struggled against them. They held me down onto the bed. A doctor tried to measure my blood pressure and heart beat, but he was not successful. It was 2:00 p.m. when we left the hospital. An Rei had Li Yanxia send me to the "little cell," which was a solitary confinement cell.

Living conditions in the little cell were very poor. The cell was a 5 x 7 foot room with a black iron door. I was not allowed to use warm quilts (only allowed to use cotton covers). I was given a tiny bun for breakfast and dinner. At noon time, there were two buns. There was not a single drop of water the whole day. Practitioners were not allowed to wash themselves. Li Yanxia arranged two inmates to watch me. In the daytime, it was Xue Lin. At night, it was Shen Cheng. On the eighth day, Li Yanxia brought four inmates to take me to the hospital and forced Yang Lan (from Shenyang) to watch me. Yang Lan was very mean. She cursed at me and beat me. I did not yield to their orders or requests and refused all examinations.

On December 12th, I was taken from the hospital back to the prison dorm. Inmates Liu Yan and Song Yang took me to the toilet on the third floor of the dorm. An Rei arranged for Liu Yan and Song Yang to torture Dafa practitioners. They gave me a temporary bed about 1 metre long that was built of plastic stools. In the morning of December 14th, Liu Yan ordered Song Yang to take the bed apart, saying that I was not allowed to sleep on the bed any more. Song Yang threw me from the bed to the ground, and forced me to sit on the ceramic floor for the entire morning. Li Yan realised that I did not listen to them at all, so she called An Rei and took me to the toilet on the fourth floor. They sent inmates Zhang Wei (from Fushun) and Yang Lan to watch me and they forced me to sleep on the ceramic floor. Every day, four inmates (Zhang Wei and Yang Lan and others) grabbed me and tried to force-feed me medicine. Of course I refused. They could not force the medicine into me at all and it spilled all over the place. Because I refused to be force-fed, under the instruction of Liu Yan, Yang Lan and Zhang Wei started to beat me. Yang Lan beat me extremely hard. In the morning, after people left for work, they beat me violently again. After two days, they gave me a military mattress but still nothing to cover me. In the cold winter, the inmates slept on beds with hot water bottles and thick comforters, and even so they were frozen. But every night I was so warm that I sweat while sleeping.

Liu Yan forced Yang Lan and Zhang Wei to try to "transform¹" me. I told them that I did not come here to be "transformed." One day, Zhang Wei brought a sheet of paper with questions slandering Dafa and Teacher. Zhang Wei read them loudly, then read my name and fabricated my answers. Once she started this, I started to shout, "Falun Dafa is good!" again and again. She could not continue. Zhang Wei and Yang Lan came to beat me and threw me to the ground. Zhang Wei saw me lying there with my eyes shut, so she stood in front of me and started to read loudly again. I struggled to sit up and tore the paper apart, which prompted another violent beating.

After being persecuted for more than 20 days, I did not remember how many times my face was slapped. Later, as soon as they started to beat me, I would shout "Falun Dafa is good!" until they stopped. They realised that could not "transform" me, so they gave up. They did not force-feed me medicine any more, nor did they beat me. I explained the facts about Falun Dafa to Zhang Wei and Yang Lan. They understood the truth and said they were deceived by Liu Yan. After 20 days, I told Zhang Wei that I had to do the exercises. She agreed. After doing the exercises, my physical health improved tremendously. The miraculous effect of Falun Dafa made them believe. Every day, I did the five sets of Falun Gong exercises. I slept on the ceramic floor for 34 days during the coldest time of winter. Zhang Wei told me that she would explain to her supervisors the reason that I could not be "transformed." I told her, "Go ahead."

On January 20th, 2006, I came back to the workshop. On November 15th, I stayed in the prison dorm and refused to work. They used fellow practitioners to try to force me to wear a name badge and write "Prisoner" on my clothes. I shouted, "Falun Dafa is good!" and I was violently beaten by inmates Liu Yan and Song Yang. On December 23rd, they used a mattress to carry me from the third floor to the recreation room on the fourth floor. They used my sweater to stuff my mouth, and sealed it with tape. I had difficulty breathing. When lunch arrived, I asked Song Yang to loosen the sweater in my mouth. She asked me, "Are you going to shout or not? "I replied, "If you do bad deeds, I will definitely shout." Lu Guiying immediately came forward and loosened the sweater, saying, "No one will beat you again." Since then, for more than 5 months, I had a normal life of studying the Falun Dafa exercises and doing the exercises. All the abnormal problems of my body disappeared.

On May 25th, 2007, I finished the five-year term. On the day I was released unconditionally, my husband and younger brother came to pick me up. When they saw me walking nobly from the prison with a healthy body, they were shocked. After I got back back home, my family members all gathered together. I told them how evil the CCP was, and talked to them about quitting the CCP. Everyone quit. They said that Falun Dafa was indeed great. They said that after seeing my situation in 2004, they thought I would not come out alive. Now that they saw that I was healthy, they believed that Falun Dafa was indeed miraculous.

Although in the later period of my sentence the Shenyang Women's Prison was less severe in torturing me, other practitioners still suffer severe torture. With the support from practitioners and kind people inside and outside of China, the Shenyang Women's Prison may stop its brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Under the instructions of the CCP and seduction of personal gain and power, the guards completely sold their conscience and dignity (not including some individuals who got to know the truth). As a practitioner who was brutally tortured by them, I still sincerely hope that they will wake up. I want to tell them: "In the future, when the crimes of the CCP are exposed to the whole world, how will you face it? Good will be rewarded and evil will receive retribution. Eventually you will know you sold your future, and you will become the funerary objects of the CCP."

The CCP promised the world that they would improve the human rights situation in China before the 2008 Olympics. Look at the Shenyang Women's Prison as an example: the evil deeds there have never stopped. This is only the tip of the iceberg. This is the typical way that the CCP persecutes the Chinese people - through deceit. But we believe that justice will eventually prevail. Here I want to call on all people of justice to pay attention to the persecution suffered by kind-hearted, law-abiding people in China.

Note

1. "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/2007/6/12/156756.html