Practitioner Mr. Xu Xiaolong Endures Long-Term Torture in Tianjin First Prison

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Xu Xiaolong is 52 years old and is from Tianjin. He used to be employed as an engineer in the Heat Preservation Factory, which belongs to the Bohai Petrol Industry Trading Company in Tianjin. This company fired him unjustly. Because he steadfastly practised Falun Gong, the management of this company, along with local policemen, arrested him on October 28th, 1999. On March 22nd, 2000, the First Level Intermediate Court in Tianjin sentenced Mr. Xu to five years in prison. Since May 2000, Mr. Xu has been detained in the Tianjin First Prison in the Liyuantou Region, Tianjin City.

The following is a report from Mr. Xu Xiaolong about his experiences of persecution and torture while in the Tianjin First Prison in Tianjin.

1. Being beaten for sending the prosecutor a letter

On the first day of the Chinese New Year in 2002, Falun Gong practitioners Li Qiang, Lu Wen and I spoke about how the persecution of Falun Gong conducted by Jiang Zemin's [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] regime was illegal. Afterwards, we recorded in several written forms the illegal nature of the persecution. I wrote down my experiences and what I had witnessed, and I wanted to send this complaint to the appeals office of the Supreme People's Court in Tianjin City. During the clean-up time at night, I put the letter into a mailbox for the prosecutor. During roll call, three criminal inmates came to me and took me to the interrogation room. There, they started to beat me severely until I was no longer able to move even a bit. I knew that the guard Yang Bo, who was on duty that day, had given these orders. According to the law, the prosecutor's mailbox is not allowed to be opened at will.

2. The brutal stool torture

In 2002, from the end of May to early December, I was locked up in a small room. After the guards let me come out, one of the Falun Gong practitioners told me that the guards would "transform¹" people according to the bonus they received; to the prisoner, "transformation" is related to the deduction of their detention terms. For the guards, this policy meant that as long as they persecuted Falun Gong practitioners, they would receive a benefit from it. Guard Yang Bo introduced a special torture method. He made five stools of different sizes, the smallest being only about 2x2x3 inches (width-height-length). Each subsequent size was one inch larger. Normally people's hip bones are about 3 inches wide. Therefore, a person could only sit on this stool with one side of the hip bone. In addition, the stool was very low, so when a person sat on it, the centre of gravity was out of the body. It was very hard to sit in balance. The guards knew that nobody would be able to sit steadily, yet they forced Falun Gong practitioners to sit like this for 16 hours a day. Many people couldn't endure this torture and were thus forced to be "reformed." Among the practitioners, one practitioner by the name of Wang Jiasheng had been tortured with this stool method for two months. Finally, the guards realised that this method did not work on him and they finally gave it up.

3. Standing for 23 days, coughing for three and a half years

On April 22nd, 2002, the guards tried to force us to recite the 58 prison rules. After I refused, they took five of us who didn't recite these rules to the interrogation room and forced us to stand for a long time. From that day on, they forced us to stand every day from 6:00 a.m. Until 8:00 or 9:00 p.m. After one week, only I was left. I suffered like that for 23 days until they stopped this torture. By that time, my legs were swollen. From the tenth day of standing, I started to cough, and the cough lasted several years, until the beginning of 2006.

4. Being put in handcuffs and fetters

From the middle of February 2001, the prison authorities started a so-called study programme in the hallway. They forced us to face the wall and study articles that slandered Falun Gong in newspapers such as the People's Daily, and Tianjin Daily. This programme lasted until June. During that time, I learned that my appeal should have received some kind of feedback within six months. I asked the guard Cao to give my appeal letter back to me, but he didn't do so. The next day, I refused to do any cleaning, and didn't go to the hallway either. After 10 days, Cao returned my appeal letter. I modified it and submitted it again. The prison implemented a tuberculosis examination. I protested against it and also wrote a protest letter. However, in the end, I was forced to go through the physical examination, and then forced to face the wall for four months.

One day, I told Cao that I refused to face the wall any longer. The next day, the guards put me in a small room. In order to maltreat me, Cao created many difficulties for me without any reason. Just because he saw me murmur something once, he said that I violated the rules by doing the exercises. Then he put handcuffs and fetters on me and wanted to control my mind. After a week, I started a hunger strike to protest the handcuffs and fetters. The next day, they wanted to force-feed me. They ordered about 10 prisoners to force-feed me, but instead of force-feeding me, they just kept beating me up.

5. Beaten for speaking

Practitioner Mr. Song Zhishan, 59 years old, was locked in the same room with me. One day in the morning, after getting up, prisoners were ordered by the guards to watch Falun Gong practitioners around the clock, and beat Mr. Song in the face several times. I told them not beat the old man. Then a group of people started to beat me for a long time, and they beat me over and over again. My head was bleeding, and my hands were also bleeding. My face was swollen very badly as well.

In order to cover up their crimes, they locked me into a small room.

6. Forced me and my wife to get a divorce

In 2001, after my wife, Xu Jie and Mr. Chen Xi's wife, Wei Xiuqing were "transformed," the authorities used them to try to "transform" Mr. Chen and me. In May 2002, after my wife Xu Jie was released, she came to see me. She didn't talk about anything else, except trying to persuade me to also be "transformed." When she noticed that it did not work, she told me that she wanted a divorce. One day, guard Fan Yasheng asked me to follow him without telling me the reason. When I met my wife Xu Jie and two other people from the court, I realised that they were there to implement the divorce process. After we filled out the form, the two of us were given 15 days to make a decision. Fan Yasheng was afraid that we would change our minds. He told my wife that people who are not "transformed" will receive an additional one or two years of prison time. After she heard this, Xu Jie signed the form immediately and just like that we were divorced.

7. Tortured because I refused to read slanderous propaganda

On the afternoon of October 21st, 2002, guard Lu Wenyuan ordered inmates to force me to read news articles that slandered Falun Gong. I refused to read them, so they made me sit on a small stool. When I refused to sit, they pulled me into the interrogation room and started to beat me up. I refused to sit on the stool, no matter what they tried. Then they grabbed me and pushed me onto the stool, thereby breaking the wooden support on the side of the stool. They beat me again and again. They used rotten bean water (used to water flowers) and made me smell it, poured cold water over my clothes, and then turned on an electric fan to blow cold air on me. In the middle of the night, I went to the toilet. I ended up struggling with a person who was monitoring me out of self-defence, and he started to shout very loudly. All of a sudden, a lot of people came out and beat me severely. In the end, they put me on torture instruments and dragged me up and down the stairs. They did this sometimes once a day and sometimes twice a day. Every time they dragged me, my body was horribly mangled and bleeding. After several days, my wounds started to fester and generated odorous fumes. They did not treat my wounds until they had dragged me for several days. Every time they dragged me, my broken wrists were bleeding. I couldn't take a shower for about 50 days, because my wounds couldn't heal. My wounds finally started to heal slowly after about three months.

Another time, because I refused to read newspaper articles slandering Falun Gong, the monitors started to beat me up. They kicked my lower back and I felt a sudden pain that was so intense and extremely sharp. However, the prison doctor told me that it was not serious. He said I would not die and suggested that I drink some water. He said it was not because of the beating but rather gallstones.

8. The persecution situation of other Falun Gong practitioners

In 2000, five Falun Gong practitioners were sentenced to the First Prison. Guard Li Qiang tried several times to forcefully "transform" them, but to no avail. Then he ordered prisoner Zhang Jun to continually beat up Mr. Zhao Guang for 50 days. Mr. Zhao's face was beaten out of shape and was swollen very badly.

After that, the similar cases of beatings were countless. Practitioner Mr. Zhao Zhishan was more than sixty years old. Guard Dong Kun beat his head. Practitioners Mr. Cao Chengming, Mr. Wang Jiasheng and also many others practitioners, of whom we don't even know their names, had their teeth loosened due to the beatings. Many experienced extreme pain when they were eating. One prisoner called Li Jin put a stainless steel cup filled with boiling water on the back of practitioner Mr. Cao Baoyu's hand. The skin on Mr. Cao's hand suddenly burned very badly.

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://minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/9/25/163314.html