Facts About the Persecution of Falun Gong at Yangjiang Prison in Guangdong Province

Guangdong Province faces the South China Sea and contains some of the most fertile land in all of China. Guangdong contains the Pearl River Delta region, which for hundreds of years was nourished by the North River, the East River, and the West River. The provincial capital city of Guangzhou also grew at the juncture of those three rivers. Westerners may know Guangzhou as the city of Canton. Many Western tourists enjoy visiting this region of China because of its natural beauty and wonderful history.

Unknown to Western tourists, terrible atrocities are secretly ongoing in a prison very close to their site-seeing tours. Indeed, Yangjiang Prison in Guangdong Province is a diabolical lion's den for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) persecution of Falun Gong. Some officials boast that Yangjiang prison has the "honour" of being selected for holding Falun Gong practitioners.

Over the years, officials at Yangjiang Prison have imprisoned and tortured scores of male Falun Gong practitioners. Currently, there are between 20 and 30 practitioners still held there. News from inside the prison has revealed that the prison officials use extreme torture techniques to coerce Falun Gong practitioners into giving up their beliefs. Falun Gong practitioners' core principles are Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance. Many officials seek rewards from their government for successfully persecuting these practitioners. One can only wonder how torturing good people into giving up their faith can produce any good results.

Officials at Yangjiang Prison have worked for years enhancing their sinister techniques of brainwashing and torture of the Falun Gong prisoners to maintain the CCP's favour. Five prison practises used to maintain the persecution success rate are revealed and outlined here.

First, the Communists impose the notion that "transforming¹" Falun Gong practitioners is a prison official's "political duty." Championing this notion is Cai Xipeng, the CCP secretary of Yangjiang Prison. He insists officials must perform this "political duty." In today's Communist China, greed and corruption are rampant, and Yangjiang Prison is no exception. Prison officials make large profits from exploiting forced labour from prisoners. Those who do not produce sufficiently are beaten. The pressure from Cai Xipeng and the CCP to "transform" Falun Gong practitioners is so great it even exceeds the greedy desires of the prison officials. Practitioners are continually brainwashed, harassed and tortured. Prison officials even use some of the cruelest criminals to do their dirty work. These criminals are designated as the "Falun Gong Monitoring Group." They are assigned special duties and are thus excluded from work so they can devote their full attention to harassing practitioners. Prison officials realise that the CCP will reward them with promotions, power and prestige if they are successful with Falun Gong.

Second, Yangjiang Prison officials have created their own 610 Office bureaucracy to deal strictly with Falun Gong. Prison officials call it their "610 group." The group consists of the prison governor, the deputy governor responsible for "education," section heads and staff members from the "Education Section" and torture execution section, heads of various monitoring areas, officers over the monitoring tasks and even the common criminals in the "Falun Gong Monitoring Group." As with the larger assault by the CCP against Falun Gong, many resources are used to try to eliminate Falun Gong. Indeed, all activities in the prison follow the rules regarding persecuting Falun Gong. While many officers are disgruntled and look down on those in the "610 group," those in "610" get promoted ahead of them.

Third, the Yangjiang Prison governor himself is under a scrutiny from higher officials that tie his performance and rewards with how successful the prison is at "transforming" Falun Gong practitioners. The prison governor has in turn propagated this detestable requirement to motivate all prison employees and selected criminals. The requirement warns that if a Falun Gong practitioner is not "transformed" in a given amount of time, the unit can't be named an "Advanced Unit," and the responsible official won't be promoted, but will be criticised and even demoted - regardless of his overall performance. Even prisoners in the "Falun Gong Monitoring Group" won't have their sentences reduced--regardless their overall performance--unless the Falun Gong practitioners recant. Naturally, these prisoners want their sentences commuted, so they often go to any lengths to force Falun Gong practitioner to give up their beliefs. The Communist government can't hide from this evil. The CCP is effectively making these prisoners torture and brutalise practitioners.

Fourth, at Yangjiang Prison, Falun Gong practitioners are treated as prisoners' prisoners. Practitioners have no freedom or privacy. Selected criminals watch Falun Gong practitioners' every movement. They even go to the toilet with them. Bed assignments have been arranged so that monitoring criminals are on both sides of Falun Gong practitioners while they sleep. Monitors are required to report daily on every detail about their assigned practitioner. A practitioner is not allowed to talk with other prisoners. Any communication from a practitioner must go through his assigned monitor.

Fifth, practitioners in Yangjiang Prison are completely deprived of freedom. The desire of the CCP to control even people's minds is no more apparent than in Yangjiang Prison. Guards in the prison tell practitioners, "I know you are all good people but if you insist on practising Falun Gong, you will stay in prison, your family will suffer, we will be in trouble, and the prisoners monitoring you won't get reduced sentences. If you just say you give up Falun Gong, all problems will be solved. You will not be tortured, you will get a reduced sentence, your family will be happy, and we will be rewarded." If these more subtle efforts do not work as the transformation deadline nears, the attitudes of the guards change. The guards keep practitioners awake and continue using brainwashing techniques around the clock. The guards also force "physical training" on practitioners by making them run, jump, or do push-ups all day. If all this fails, the guards begin torturing the practitioners. They beat them or subject them to "flying an airplane" (a practitioner's hands are cuffed behind their back and a rope pulls the practitioner off the ground. He is left suspended in this position). The guards may even resort to dragging practitioners on rough concrete ground so their flesh is torn off. For practitioners on hunger strikes, the guards brutally force-feed them and claim they're not responsible if the practitioner becomes disabled or dies.

Yangjiang Prison officials responsible for the persecution of Falun Gong:

Cai Xipeng, head of the Yangjiang Prison and the 610 Office. He embezzled a lot of money from the prisoners. Since Cai arrived the Yangjiang Prison, the number of practitioners imprisoned increased sharply.

Xie Long used to persecute Falun Gong when he was director of the Education Division. Later Xie was transferred to be deputy head of the Eighth Prison Ward. He still persecutes Falun Gong.

Xu Ying is a prison guard in the Yangjiang Prison who works hard to torture practitioners. He often comes up with new ways to torture practitioners and was hence promoted to the prison's 610 Office. Since then, Xie has done everything possible to "transform" practitioners.

Address of the Yangjiang Prison: Box 135, the Yangjiang Prison, Nalong Town, Yangdong County, Yangjiang City, Guangdong Province, Zip code 529935

Two of the practitioners locked in the Yangjiang Prison:
Practitioner Chen Wenjie is locked in the Eighth Prison Ward
Practitioner Li Jinghui is locked in the Third Prison Ward

Phone numbers:

Xu (first name unknown), head of the Reconnaissance Division, is one of the guards who tortures practitioner Chen Wenjie: 86-13827058589 (Mobile)
Cai Xipeng, head of the prison (phone number to be investigated)
Zuo Jianzhe, Xie Long: Guards of the Eighth Prison Ward (phone number to be investigated)
Ruan Shihai, head of the Education Division of the Yangjiang Prison (phone number to be investigated)
Rao Wulie, head of the Reconnaissance Division and deputy secretary of the prison Disciplinary Committee (phone number to be investigated)
Office of the Guangdong Province Prison Bureau: 86-20-83830247
Liang Guanhong, prison guard: 86-662-6380835 (Home), 86-13809720938(Mobile)
Fan Xing: 86-662-6922383 (Home)
Director Chen: 86-662-6380610
Shi Guoliang, guard at the reception room, badge number: 4439611
Shao Hanquan, badge number: 4439290
Xu Ying, guard

Yangjiang Prison 610 Office: 86-662-6380610
Address: Director Liang (male) and Director Chen (female), Box 135, Yangjiang Prison, Nalong Town, Yangdong County, Yangjiang City, Guangdong Province, Zip code 529935

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/2007/11/3/165777.html