Hidden Brutalities in Gongzhuling Prison, Jilin Province

Gongzhuling Prison in Jilin Province is a very vicious place where Falun Gong practitioners are persecuted. Led by director Shen Jixiang and deputy director An Ping, for 8 years the prison officials have willingly served as Jiang Zemin's [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] pawns. They cruelly torture practitioners--who believe in "Truthfulness, Benevolence, Forbearance"--through beating, electric-shock torture, and locking them in small cells that prevent them from standing up straight.

These persecutors also torture people until they suffer mental collapse. Some died as a result of the abuse. To avoid bearing responsibility for their crimes, guards in Gongzhuling Prison even asked the visiting family members of Falun Gong practitioners to bring proof and a letter from the Gongzhuling City 610 Office¹ showing that they, themselves are not Falun Gong practitioners. Only after submitting such documents would the family members be permitted to visit Falun Gong practitioners. Because it has been very difficult to get information about the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners out of the prison, these cruel tortures were not exposed to the public for a long time.

Locked in a small cell	Death bed
Hanging up	Beating

Multiple electric batons deployed at the same time

In fact, before the start of the persecution on July 20th, 1999, the benefits of Falun Gong were known in Gongzhuling Prison in Jilin Province. At that time, some prisoners also learned Falun Gong. Due to the boundless power of Falun Gong, those prisoners who could not be changed by the police underwent fundamental changes after taking up Falun Gong. They learned how to be good people, and strove to follow higher spiritual principles. Witnessing these prisoners' dramatic changes, the police in the prison were very surprised and quite impressed by Falun Gong.

But after the persecution against Falun Gong started, the group headed by prison director Shen Jixiang and deputy director An Ping also launched their own persecution against the prisoners who were practising Falun Gong. Among those persecuted, Mr. Jiang Xiaotian was tortured most severely.

To force Jiang Xiaotian to renounce his belief in "Truthfulness, Benevolence, Forbearance," police hung him on a door for several hours at a time and tortured him in a variety of inhumane ways. In the end, Jiang Xiaotian suffered a mental collapse. Still, the police would not let up in their torture of Jiang Xiaotian. Some prisoners often tied up Jiang Xiaotian, used sticks to beat him up and forced him to smoke. They would especially beat him whenever they saw him doing the Falun Gong exercises. Due to long-term torture, in 2002 Jiang Xiaotian died shortly after he was released from serving a full prison term.

Shen Jixiang, who was rewarded by prison officials for actively persecuting Falun Gong, left Gongzhuling Prison in 2005 and was promoted to director of the Prison Surveillance Division of the Forced Labour Bureau in Jilin Province. Gongzhuling Prison's vicious environment did not improve after Shen Jixiang left. An Ping replaced him, and the deputy director was replaced by Chen Zhongbin, who used to be in charge of "transforming²" practitioners.

From August 2005 to September 2006, over 70 Falun Gong practitioners in Tiebei Prison in Changchun City were transferred to either Shilingzi Prison in Siping or Gongzhuling Prison. Gongzhuling also illegally detained some Falun Gong practitioners sent from Yanji and other areas. Currently it is estimated that Gongzhuling Prison is detaining 30 to 40 Falun Gong practitioners.

Ever since Gongzhuling Prison started detaining Falun Gong practitioners, it has applied severe means to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. For example, the persecutors arrange four criminal inmates to monitor one Falun Gong practitioner, and prohibit Falun Gong practitioners from talking to anyone, otherwise these criminal inmates would be punished on the grounds of "guilty by association." Fearing being affected, the criminal inmates would watch Falun Gong practitioners more closely than death row inmates are watched. They would closely follow Falun Gong practitioners, even to the toilet. The various means of torture make Falun Gong practitioners' daily lives miserable.

Prison police use various excuses to persecute Falun Gong practitioners who are persistent in their belief. In the No. 7 Ward, because Falun Gong practitioner Cai Fuchen did Falun Gong exercises in prison, he was locked up in a small cell by Prison Politics Section police officer Liu Haiyang.

To gain money, Gongzhuling Prison forces Falun Gong practitioners to do slave labour, working over 10 hours per day. For protesting against the slave labour, many Falun Gong practitioners suffered brutal tortures. For example, after Falun Gong practitioner Zhang Hui, detained in the No. 3 Ward, protested against various unfair treatments and slave labour, he suffered severe beating by policeman Liu Haiyang, and was locked in a small cell by No. 3 Ward instructor Wang Jiqing many times.

In the original No. 4 Ward, Falun Gong practitioner Yang Huiyong protested against various inhumane treatments and slave labour. Consequently, he was locked up in a small cell by former head of Detention Division He Qingguo, who also detained him on a "death bed"³, and instructed other police to shock him with nine electric batons at the same time. Yang Huiyong lost consciousness from the electric shocks. Falun Gong practitioner Fu Hongwei also suffered from the same kinds of torture.

In the No. 6 Ward, Falun Gong practitioner Liu Wentiao, Xu Guijun and others were also locked in small cells.

The following is an incidence of a severe torture.

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Chen Guangwu, detained in the No. 1 Ward, was transferred from Yanji Detention Centre in 2005. When transferred to Gongzhuling Prison, he was in poor health. A prison doctor did a health exam on him and said his poor health was due to the tuberculosis he had suffered from in the past. In May 2006, No. 1 Ward instructor Liu Bing ordered Chen Guangwu to do slave labour from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Consequently, Chen Guangwu felt severe chest pains. However, instructor Liu Bing said Chen Guangwu was pretending and told him to go to the hospital to get x-rays done. The next day Liu Bing told Chen Guangwu that his tuberculosis was completely calcified and his chest and heart were both healthy. Chen Guangwu immediately knew Liu Bing was lying, because heart defects would not be detected via an x-ray; people need to have an electrocardiogram (ECG) or other tests to examine heart defects. Thus, Chen Guangwu requested to have an exam done in hospitals outside of the prison, under the custody of his family members.

Instructor Liu Bing not only refused his request, but also locked Chen Guangwu in a small cell the next day, and restrained him on the death bed. Afterward, Liu Bing went to the prison factory and called staff Ma Yiwen. Both of them used two 10,000-volt electric batons to shock Chen Guangwu who was immobilised on the death bed. They directly shocked Chen Guangwu's face until the two batons ran out of power, and threatened to continue shocking Chen Guangwu the next day.

Several days later, these two policemen again went to the small cell to shock Chen Guangwu. At that time Chen Guangwu's face was severely disfigured from the electric shocks. There were big blisters all over his face. His whole face and ears were severely swollen and deformed. Witnessing this, the two policemen still shocked Chen Guangwu with electric batons. Chen Guangwu was already weak. After suffering electric shock torture, the death bed, and being locked up in a small cell for over 20 days, he became very physically and mentally unstable. Yet the prison police did not give up. They forced Chen Guangwu, who just been released from the small cell, to do slave labour.

Thus by August 2007 when Chen Guangwu was released from prison, he was extremely weak and emaciated due to persecution. Due to the electric shocks by those two policemen, many scars were left on Chen Guangwu's body and face. Because of long-term death bed torture, Chen Guangwu's right arm was atrophied. The electric shocks also caused Chen Guangwu's teeth to become loose, such that it was difficult for him to eat food. It was said that when Chen Guangwu's family members saw the cruel torture done to him, they were shocked and outraged. They have since started taking legal action against all who were involved in the persecution of Chen Guangwu.

The cited cases of torture are just a few among countless such cases. There are many more appalling persecution cases that have not been exposed due to the severe information blockade.

The following are the phone numbers of work units or individuals who participated in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners:

Operator of Gongzhuling Prison in Jilin Province: 86-434-6287281, 86-434-6289063

When you dial the above operator, you will hear voice instruction, "Please dial extension ... For enquiries, dial 0."

The extensions to dial are:

2001 is for director: An Ping
2002 is for deputy director: Su Baochen
2003 is for deputy director: Fu Guodong
2004 is for deputy director: Chen Zhongbin

When you dial the extension, you can continue like this: 2005, 2006 ... and so on. You will be able to reach various divisions and wards in Gongzhuling Prison.

The home phone numbers are:

An Ping, 86-434-6452267
Chen Zhongbin, 86-434-6288637
Su Baochen, 86-434-6201399
Fu Guodong, 86-434-6287043
Liu Haiyang, 86-434-6287869
Liu Bing, 86-434-6285255
Ma Wenyi, 86-434-6229137

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. "Death Bed" torture: A practitioner is tied to a bed with his hands handcuffed above his head to the bed rails, and his legs tied with thin nylon ropes. The rope is then tightly wrapped around the practitioner's body and the bed, from his legs to his chest. The rope is wrapped so tightly that the practitioner has difficulty breathing and eventually loses consciousness.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/9/13/162604.html