Liu Guifu Recounts Her Suffering at Daxing Women's Forced Labour Camp in Beijing

Written from Liu Guifu's verbal recollections

The photo is of me, taken after my release from my second stay in a forced labour camp. My family and friends could no longer recognise me. My weight had dropped from about 10.7 stone to less than 7.9 stone due to the abuse I suffered at the labour camp. My hair turned grey, and much of it fell out. My face is full of wrinkles. I look 20 years older than I am.

Practitioner Liu Guifu in 1998

Practitioner Liu Guifu in 1998	Liu Guifu was severely mistreated at Daxing Women's Forced Labour Camp in Beijing. Her hair turned grey, and much of it fell out. Her face is full of wrinkles and she looks 20 years older than she is.

Below are details of the suffering I was forced to endure at that labour camp.

Fifth Unconstitutional Police Arrest

In February 2005, officers from the Qinglongqiao Police Station, without showing any identification, forced their way into my home and arrested me. They also confiscated two pieces of leaflets exposing the persecution. This was the fifth time that I was arrested.

Even the officials at the Haidian Detention Centre were aware that it is against the Chinese Constitution to send a person to a labour camp based on their having a small amount of leaflets exposing the persecution. To my surprise, they deceived me into filling out three blank forms. The final reason they gave to put me into a labour camp was "Hiding 21 Falun Gong propaganda materials." I was sentenced to two-and-a-half years of forced labour. The camp enforcers placed a rope around my neck, pulled my hair, and dragged me along a gravel road to the camp's Beijing dispatch office.

Once there I had to remove my clothes. It was humiliating for a woman to have a male officer conduct a body search. I heard of many people being frisked. Later, I was transferred to the Seventh Division of the Beijing Women's Forced Labour Camp. I had to sit on a small stool for 17 hours every day. They started to starve me from the second day on. I was given only one bowl of vegetable soup a day.

Brutal Persecution in the Second Division

Seventeen days later I was transferred into the Second Division. It is a separate prison within the camp.

Song Lili from the Second Division was in charge of me. She restricted me and deprived me of my basic human rights. All normal basic biological needs and activities were used to torture me. Song Lili cut all my connections to the outside world.

1. Sitting torture

I was compelled to sit in a military posture, one of their methods of physical abuse. I was forced to sit on a high stool for nearly 21 hours, with my legs pressed tightly together, looking straight ahead, not even moving my eyes. Walking around an area of one meter counted as taking a rest. "Personal cangues," those detainees assigned by the division head to implement close surveillance on me, hit me if my eyes moved and poured cold water on me if I fell asleep. They used a ruler to hit me and broke four rulers. My buttocks were bloody from prolonged sitting and developed scabies. Sitting on the stool felt like sitting on broken glass. It is extremely painful to sit this way, especially as I was starved and emaciated. The long sitting caused my legs to swell, up to my thighs. The strain on the lumbar muscles sometimes made it difficult for me to stand up. I had to report whatever I did, even drinking water. I was forbidden to wash my hair for several months and was not allowed to scratch my head.

2. Restrictions on toilet use and washing and changing clothes

The "personal cangues" usually prevented me from going to the toilet for the whole day, even when I had diarrhoea. When I did get permission, I had only one minute, the same amount of time they allotted for a bath. Sometimes, as soon as the faucet was turned on, the inmates monitoring me would turn it off even before my feet were wet. I was forbidden to change my underwear for a long time. The inmates beat me whenever they smelled an odour. When the weather turned warmer I was forbidden to take off my winter coat. They closed the window and closed the curtain when it was hot. On days that it was 38 degrees Celsius, some of the inmates monitoring me had heat stroke, but they kept the room arrangements to make me suffer. When it got cold, they turned fans on to blow cold air toward me. They used all kinds of tactics to torture me.

3. Withholding food

From the moment I got to the camp, they started to gradually skimp on my food, reducing the quantity day by day, from half a piece of steamed bread per day to one-third of a piece of steamed bread per day. Eventually all I got was one-fourth of a piece of steamed bread. Sometimes they gave me the wrapping of a Baozi [steamed bread with meat/vegetable stuffing] that others threw away. It was very rare to eat vegetables. No salt at all. Coupled with sleep deprivation, my hair turned grey. I was called a "mummy" because I was so emaciated.

4. Sleep deprivation

From the moment I got to the Second Division, those in charge gradually reduced the time I was allowed to sleep to three hours per day, but even then they prevented me from sleeping soundly. They disturbed me in all kinds of ways: shaking the bed, putting pests on my bed, or kicking a chair to make noise. When I was sleepy, Song Lili would instigate "personal cangues" to kick my legs or stomp heavily on my feet. They kicked my swollen legs until they bled. They also poured cold water over my head. Due to lack of sleep and food I often had hallucinations and started to lose my memory. That made them brand me as being psychotic. They took me to the psychology clinic and tried to say I was psychotic and had depression. This was merely another tactic to further persecute me.

5. Force-fed unknown substances

Besides depriving me of sleep and restricting my sleep, they also force-fed me mood-altering substances. When I refused to comply, several of them grabbed my neck and pried my mouth open to force-feed me. I had diarrhoea and vomiting once after being given a capsule of an unknown substance. I asked them to stop the drugs and said I wanted to see the doctor. The division head refused my request and said, "You must take it. You cannot refuse!"

6. Suffering verbal abuse and beatings

The "personal cangues" usually used filthy words to taunt me and thought of despicable ways to torture me. For example, they gagged me with a wet rag or toilet paper they had dunked into the filthy toilet bowl. My mouth was usually injured in the process. Sometimes they would use towels to tie my mouth, make me stand facing a wall, and beat me. I had bruises everywhere.

7. Deprived of visitation rights

Song Lili deprived me of all my rights to connect to the outside world, including writing letters, making phone calls, and receiving family visits. None of my relatives' phone calls were transferred to me, or those in charge simply hung up on them. They used all manner of excuses to prevent my relatives from visiting.

At one point, because of persistent intervention and appeals from my relatives and the international community, Song Lili let me take a bath and change my filthy, vomit-and dirt-stained clothing. They let me have half a piece of steamed bread for 20 days before my older sister came to meet me.

To exert pressure on me through my husband, Liu Baoguo, Song Lili urged him to divorce me, attempting by this tactic to achieve my "transformation¹". My husband refused. Consequently, they deprived him of the right to visit me.

How officials at Daxing Women's Forced Labour Camp Hide the Truth

When I was put in the "Intensive Training Team," I was detained separately. Gamblers and drug addicts Yang Zhimin, Li Liuxing, and Zhang Fengxiang monitored me closely. I had to sit on a stool all day. They even designated my sleeping pose: no facing toward the wall, and my mouth was not allowed to touch the quilt. If I did this incorrectly, I had to correct the posture again and again.

When reporters visited or inspectors arrived or relatives were visiting, all staff--from "personal cangues" to any others--would all do their best to pretend that all was well and in accordance with prison regulations. They would take me to the toilet to wash up. They would let me sleep more. The food suddenly included fish and pork. They would even buy coloured paper to let me make a folded paper rose or a peacock, to take photographs or make a videotape, to show others.

Once a guard let me take a bath and change clothes. They brought a desk and let me sit on a chair to read. They even brought cooked rice, stewed pork, and tomato and egg dishes. These were actually all used for "show" while an inspection was in progress or visitors were around. Once the inspection and visits were over, those in charge resumed their usual rounds of torture and abuse.

Another time, the guards and "personal cangues" were busy early in the morning. They transferred me to the residential department of the Tiantanghe Hospital. Five policemen and four inmate monitors took me for an exam. This time they did not place me in handcuffs but supported me with their hands. I was eventually taken to the manager's office to speak with Manager Chen Li. I told her of the abuse and mistreatment I had been subjected to at the hands of Song Lili from the Second Division. However, Chen Li excused all of Song Lili's crimes. They transported me back by automobile to the Intensive Training Team, but all other "personal cangues" and Falun Gong practitioners were transferred to other places. I eventually learned what had had happened: the international community had sent someone to investigate my abuse in that camp. The Intensive Training Team played a trick. They found someone from another team that looked like me to stalemate the investigation and conceal the facts.

Until the time I was released, I remained steadfast in my principles and never yielded--neither from physical abuse nor mental pressure. I told them, ""transformation" would be a stain on my cultivation path. I made this mistake once. I cannot make the same mistake twice. For several thousand yuan² in bonuses you have persecuted us and not let us to tell anything about this to the outside world. How can we stop distributing leaflets? The mission statement--'Educate, Convert, and Salvage'--in your Beijing Women's Forced Labour Camp should be changed to 'Physical punishment, Abuse, and Reform.' Your false mottoes, 'Spring wind, summer rain,' and 'Sisterly friendship' are but cruel jokes."

I exposed the camp's abuses anytime and anywhere. I often complained loudly about the Party's crimes. I also no longer cooperated with the monitors' irrational requests. They were at their wits' end. The guards and "personal cangues" were afraid of me. Later on they faked kindness and treated me the best they could, superficially taking care of me. I understood their aim--to hide their cruel abuse of me and other Falun Gong practitioners. I insisted on exposing the persecution all the time.

Once I heard Zhang Lianying scream when she was being beaten in the guardhouse. I confronted the guards. The guards said that I was psychotic. I refuted them, "If I am suffering from psychosis, why would you arrest me and detain me?"

Before I was released, the camp decorated the Intensive Training Team area and installed a heating system in the guardhouse. All they were doing was trying to cover up the truth.

The "Personal Cangues" System Must be Eliminated

All the abuse I was subjected to in that camp was at the hands of the "personal cangues." Their responsibility was to monitor my every movement and every word, including how many times I turned over in one night, what my sleeping pose was, how I breathed. Everything was recorded. They often secretly held meetings to discuss ways to deal with me according to my status. "Personal cangues" said that they were highly "disciplined." Even beating people was "disciplined." All things needed permission from the team head. Beating whom, how to beat, beating to what degree--all were done according to instructions from the police officer in charge. Second Division head Song Lili rarely showed up. However, she often watched the video that monitored me around the clock.

She didn't implement anything in person. When the "personal cangues" beat me several times, I called the guard in charge, but she said she had not seen anyone beating me. I showed them my bruises. Their eyes opened wide, but they said they did not see any bruises. Song Lili admitted that the inmate monitors were following her orders. "Personal cangues" Niu Yuhong, Zhou Ping, Ren Rongfen, and others beat and verbally abused me at will. They made up rumours and said I had a tendency for self-mutilation and psychosis. They gave me scant food to eat, restricted my basic human needs and rights including relieving myself. These drug addict inmates dared to do anything. Those in charge took advantage of their weak human nature and wills. The officials could make those inmates commit all kinds of atrocities to gain a reduction in their sentences.

The use of inmates to monitor and abuse practitioners is, in fact, an attempt to rid the labour camp authorities and guards of responsibility. Brazenly using "personal cangues" as a systematic way to persecute Falun Gong practitioners is a deed that severely tramples human rights. Being monitored by "personal cangues" is an inhuman, excruciating experience.

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")

2. "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.org/mh/articles/2008/1/27/171175.html