Mr. Yang Baochun Unjustly Imprisoned in a Psychiatric Hospital

Mr.Yang Baochun, 40, is from Handan City, Hebei Province. He travelled to Beijing in July 1999 to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. He was arrested, escorted back to his hometown, and taken to a forced labour camp. He subsequently lost his right leg due to torture in the labour camp. He was then taken to the local psychiatric hospital, Ankang Hospital in Handan City, where he is still being held.

Mr.Yang was a former employee of the Handan City Dye and Textile Factory. Prior to cultivating, he was very arrogant and had a violent personality. He was prone to fighting, and was constantly suspended from work due to poor performance. After he got married, he fought with his wife every other day and sometimes physically assaulted her. In 1997, he and his wife were dismissed from their jobs. One day he was looking at books, and the vendor recommended that he read Zhuan Falun [This book comprises the principal teachings of Falun Dafa]. The minute he finished reading this book, he decided to cultivate in Falun Dafa and live by the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance." Ms. Yang marvelled at the positive changes in her husband, and they lived a harmonious family life from then on.

After Mr. Yang went to Beijing in 1999 to appeal for justice for Falun Gong and was taken to a forced labour camp, staff in the labour camp refused to let Ms. Yang visit him, because she failed to stop Mr. Yang from practising Falun Gong.

Shortly after the 2001 Chinese New Year celebration, Mr. Yang was taken to the hospital because of severe frostbite. Only then was Ms. Yang allowed to see him. At this time, he was skin and bones and could barely sit up. He told his wife at the hospital about the torture to which he had been subjected.

When he told the guards and inmates "Falun Dafa is good," they beat him. To prevent him from practising Falun Dafa, they wrapped him in a quilt, put a wooden board on top of him, and had several people sit on the wooden board. Once, they handcuffed him to one end of a metal bed and pulled his other arm to the other end of the bed and handcuffed him in this position for 24 hours. Once in a while, a guard would ask him if was ready to write a repentance statement. He refused. Then the guard yelled, "We will continue to shackle you." There were innumerable incidents of torture, too many for him to remember.

When Ms. Yang was not allowed to visit, he was being tortured. The guards sometimes tied practitioners to trees and beat them with rubber clubs. Sometimes, they hung them up by their handcuffs and beat them. During the coldest days of 2000, they forced Mr. Yang to stand on the snowy ground without shoes or a jacket. After suffering frostbite in his feet, they put his feet in hot water. It is common knowledge that hot water should not be used to treat frozen flesh.

The doctor decided that his leg had to be amputated or he would die within 72 hours. The doctors suggested that Mr. Yang might die on the operating table because he was in such poor health. Ms. Yang signed the consent form. As they were getting ready to operate on him, the guards brought the TV station crew and demanded that Mr. Yang say on television that he lost his leg because he practised Falun Gong. Ms. Yang was furious and refused to talk to them.

One week after the surgery, although Mr. Yang felt miserable, they took him to a psychiatric hospital for further persecution. Mr. Yang told his wife that they must have given him unknown drugs, as he was salivating uncontrollably, his tongue was numb, and he was drowsy. She protested, so they stopped the drugs. However, whenever Mr. Yang practised the exercises or demanded to be released, he was monitored. He was also shocked with an electric baton and beaten.

For the past four years, Ms. Yang has repeatedly asked their former employer to help get Mr. Yang released. The head of the factory said, "You should know the situation better. [If Mr. Yang returned home], he will only cause you more pressure and trouble [due to the persecution of Falun Gong]." They also claimed that they could only release him if he wrote a letter of repentance¹. They threatened that Mr. Yang would be locked up for life.

In 2004, Mr. Yang was finally released due to his wife's continued efforts.

Even though Mr. Yang was released, people stationed outside his apartment monitored him around the clock. He went to the Petition Office to file a complaint about the torture he suffered at the labour camp. This upset the factory authorities, so they demanded that Ms. Yang watch him closely.

Mr. Yang continued with his efforts to seek justice. He went to the Association for the Disabled and the Petition Office in Beijing and told them his story. Because he practised Falun Gong, he was tortured, and was now, as a result, disabled. He was homeless and lived for six months on the streets of Beijing. Someone found him writing "Falun Dafa is good" and reported him to the police, so he was once again arrested and taken back to Handan City. The factory authorities did not know what to do with him because of the Chinese New Year holiday, so they put him in the psychiatric hospital temporarily. Another two years passed without his being released.

At the psychiatric hospital, Mr. Yang was tortured, starved, shocked with electric batons, and beaten. They also broke his cane, making it difficult for him to get around.

Mr. Yang has been detained and tortured for eight years. Ms. Yang has asked the authorities over and over again how her husband could be imprisoned for eight years without any legal procedures having been followed? Local and central government officials claimed that their hands were tied. They said that it was on orders from higher up and that they could not risk losing their jobs because they released him.

Ms. Yang talked to the head of the factory recently and demanded that her husband be released. She also demanded that once Mr. Yang returns home, they stop harassing him. The factory staff knows that Mr. Yang will not write a repentance letter, so they claim that only the 610 Office² has control over the matter. They even tried to extort 10,000 yuan³ from the family, but Mr. and Ms. Yang refused to give them any money.

Those responsible for persecuting Mr. Yang:

Yongkang Psychiatric Hospital, Handan City, Hebei Province: 86-310-3212320
Handan City Dye and Textile Factory, where Mr. Yang was employed: 86-13932011730
Yongkang Psychiatric Hospital, Handan City, Hebei Province: 86-310-3212320

610 Office, Handan City, Hebei Province:

Cao Zhixia: 0310-7413519 (Office), 86-13803101111 (Mobile), 86-310-3158028 (Home)
Zhao, associate head of the 610 Office: 86-310-7413517
He Xiangping, subordinate of Cao Zhixia, Political and Security Section One of Handan City Public Security Bureau: 86-310-6182581
Li Liang, subordinate of Cao Zhixia, Political and Security Section One of Handan City Public Security Bureau: 86-13313000978 (Mobile),
Gao Fei, subordinate of Cao Zhixia - in charge of brainwashing centre.

Note

1. Repentance Statement: In this statement the practitioner is forced to admit remorse for practising Falun Gong, promise to give up Falun Gong, and never again associate with other practitioners or go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.

2. "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.

3. "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://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/1/27/171170.html