Suzhou Prison in Anhui Province Forces Falun Gong Practitioners to Do Hard Labour

Suzhou Prison in Anhui Province is known as Huateng Company. To outsiders, it advertises itself for foreign trade processing jobs. Falun Gong practitioners who are detained there are forced to make clothes in the prison. The workload is very heavy and the work hours are very long. Normally, practitioners have to start work every morning at 6:00 a.m. and work until after 11:00 p.m. Sometimes the work hours are extended even longer. The practitioners are tortured if they do not work or do not reach the production goals.

In the No. 6 division, practitioner Mr. Wang Yu was sent to a solitary confinement compartment because he did not finish the work requirement. This spring, in the No. 4 division, practitioner Shen Xuean did not work, and because he did not want to give up his belief in Falun Gong, he was handcuffed to a window frame for three or four months. Shen Xuean's entire body became swollen because of this torture.

Ordinary criminals in the prison cannot handle such heavy workloads. On October 9th, 2007, criminal inmate Li Qizhong from No. 5 division, (whose nickname is Xiao Yunnan) was beaten by other criminals when he did not finish his work. Then he was beaten by the guards. He committed suicide by jumping off the building.Practitioner Li Lin from Hefei City was also detained in this section. The director of the No. 5 division is Deng Hongwu and the political assistant is Chen Lei.

Criminal inmate (non-practitioner) Li Fumin from the No. 1 division was put into a solitary confinement compartment for one month because he did not finish his work (making weft) in February, due to being ill. He was forced to work the day after his release from solitary confinement. He could not endure the hard labour work and committed suicide by jumping off the building. The prison told outsiders that he had committed suicide. The director of the No. 1 division is Wang Huaiqiang and the political assistant is Lei Po.

Practitioner Fei Zhangjin was persecuted to death at around 11:30 a.m. on September 23rd, 2003 in the No. 5 division. Practitioner Fang Yingzhou was also detained in the same section. Practitioner Ji Guangjie developed high blood pressure due to the abusive treatment.

The ball team has to finish making 6 balls each day. Once, there was a job to produce several hundred thousand sets of clothing for foreign trade. The cost to make each set was about 60 yuan¹. Other companies did not want to do it, as they thought the price was too low. However, Lu Young, the director of Suzhou Prison, accepted the job for only 20 yuan per set. No one knew how much bonus or benefit the prison officials got from accepting that job. They got rich by exploiting the detained people's hard labour to make huge profits.

Likewise, Anhui Women's Prison is known as the Central Anhui Company. Most of its clothes and cloth are exported to Europe, United States, Japan, South Korea, and other countries. The ball team makes soccer balls and it provides products for a company in South Korea.

Note

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

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/11/17/166710.html