Ms. Wang Haiqing from Shandong Province Is in Critical Condition As a Result of Being Tortured in Detention

After long-term incarceration and torture, Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Wang Haiqing from Anqiu City in Shandong Province is in critical condition. While in detention, Ms. Wang was forced to sit in a steel chair for five days, and she was tortured by being force-fed for more than three months after she started a hunger strike. She was severely traumatized.

Ms. Wang, who is 45 years old, lives in Anqiu City Flower Mill's residential housing. On July 20th, 1999, when the Chinese Communist Party began persecuting Falun Gong, Ms. Wang (then a non-practitioner) was deeply touched by Falun Gong practitioners' courageous efforts to tell people the true facts about the persecution. At the same time, she was also puzzled by the unprecedented event. In order to further understand the issue and answer her own questions, she read a Falun Gong book. To her surprise, after she read the book, her physical condition dramatically improved. Not long after she began practising Falun Gong in 2000, all of her physical problems (including heart disease, numbness in her hands, and fatigue in her legs) vanished. Her mental state also improved, and she no longer suffered from a hot temper.

In April 2000, she travelled to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. After she realized that no one was willing to listen to her story, she unfurled a banner in Tiananmen Square to publicize her message. The police arrested her and took her to a liaison office of her local government. There she was chained to a radiator for the night. The next day she was picked up by Anqiu Flower Mill personnel and taken to Anqiu City Detention Centre. To protest the detention, Ms. Wang began a hunger strike, and the police tortured her using a variety of methods. Seven days later, the police charged her family 2,000 yuan¹ and released her. In June 2000, she went to Beijing again to appeal for Falun Gong. The same thing happened. After ten days of detention and torture, she was released.

On August 9th, 2000, Ms. Wang Haiqing went to Zhucheng City to distribute flyers that told people the truth about Falun Gong and the persecution. Someone reported her to the police, and they arrested her and confiscated her motorcycle. At the Zhucheng Detention Centre, guards Cao Jinhui and Wang beat her brutally. The guards forced all Falun Gong practitioners to stand in a line and ordered them to sign their names on a paper. Whoever refused to sign was brutally beaten about the face and head. When Ms. Wang refused to sign, Cao Jinhui grabbed her by her hair and pulled out a handful of hair from her head. He also slapped her face repeatedly until her face turned blue. After three days and nights of torture, guards Cheng Shuping, Dong Shulin, Liu Jinlai, and Li Shenghua, with driver Li Jian, took her to the Anqiu Police Department. She was later detained in Anqiu Detention Centre. To protest the treatment, she resorted to a hunger strike. Guards Cheng Shuping and Zhang Yuanting, along with Anqiu People's Hospital nurses Ge Huiqin and Wang Kun, force-fed her. They tied her to a steel chair and inserted a tube into her stomach through her nostril. To torture her, they repeatedly inserted and pulled out the tube, causing her nose to bleed profusely. She couldn't endure the pain and passed out on several occasions. After the frequent torture, she lost so much weight that she was skin and bones. Thirty-two days later, she was released. After that, the police often harassed her at home. She finally had to leave home and go into hiding.

On August 17th, 2002, Ms. Wang Haiqing was arrested again by police officer Ge Jiang and others while she was handing out flyers. At the detention centre, she went on a hunger strike. After repeated torture and force-feeding, her health rapidly declined. The police forced her family to pay a fine of 32,000 yuan before releasing her.

On June 3rd, 2003, on her way home from school after picking up her daughter, she was arrested again. The police beat her senseless in front of her daughter. Her daughter was so scared by the bloody violence that she cried non stop. The police found a key to her house, searched her home, and walked away with 1,000 yuan. They also detained her in the Anqiu Police Department. After four policemen physically attacked her for several hours, she suffered injury to her lower back and lost bladder and bowel control. She could not even open her eyes or raise her head. The next day, she was taken to the Changle Detention Centre. Guards there restrained her on a death bed for three days and nights. She almost died. Finally the police let her family pick her up.

In 2005, the police came to search her house. They took away several Falun Gong books and a cassette recorder (worth 550 yuan). They failed to arrest Wang Haiqing because she was not at home. After that, they frequently harassed her family. In November 2005, Anqiu policemen Sheng Wanbo, Song Yunqing, and Zhang Jinxiao sent to her house to arrest her. She was not home, so they arrested her husband (who is not a practitioner). They also confiscated a CD burner, printer, and computer.

On the evening of November 2nd, 2007, the police went to arrest her. They pounded on the door. Her ten-year old daughter was home alone. She was so frightened that she cried out. Finally, her neighbours came out and told the police to leave. The next day, the police went to the school to pressure her daughter to let them into the house. This time, after searching her home, the police left with a CD burner and some Falun Gong books.

On May 11th, 2008, Ms. Wang Haiqing and five other practitioners were arrested by police from Anqiu City Security Team and Chengbei Police Branch. She refused to compromise her dignity in spite of the police brutality. Policewoman Dong Linfang from the Chengbei Branch threw her weight on Wang Haiqing's back and said, "I want to see how strong you are." Ms. Wang's back was injured. Severe pain caused her to cry out several times, but no one showed any sympathy. The next day, she lost bladder control.

She was carried into a jail cell to have a bowel movement, but she was having trouble because of her back injury. She sat on the legs of an upside down chair, but her back pain prevented her from having a normal bowel movement, and this has continued for three months. It has been a very painful experience for her. Fellow practitioners have to help her every time.

She began a hunger strike to protest the brutality, and three days later, the prison doctor, Zhang Yuanting, force-fed her. With all her strength, Ms. Wang struggled to pull out the tube a few times. Fellow practitioners also protested repeatedly and demanded that the police release her. They also requested that the perpetrators be punished. The detention centre authorities ignored them.

After she was forced to sit in a chair for five days, her back pain became too much for her. Finally, the police let her sleep in a bed. Because she had lost control of her bladder and bowels, her bed sheet was repeatedly soiled. Some practitioners told the police to send her to the hospital, but the police refused, worried that doing so would reveal their crimes. The police also accused Wang Haiqing of faking the situation.

On July 10th, 2008, some senior officials came to inspect work at the Anqiu Detention Centre. After witnessing Wang Haiqing's condition, a senior official told Zhang Yuanting, "Falun Gong makes a lot of noise about human rights. You should be careful and don't let this get out of control." On July 21st, policemen Li Shenghua and Ge Jiang went to see Wang Haiqing. It appears that they want to close her case and transfer it to the Prosecutor's office for a formal charge.

Since her arrest on May 1st, 2008, Ms. Wang Haiqing's condition has deteriorated, and she is in critical condition, but the police still refuse to release her. We are calling on people for help to end this persecution and set Wang Haiqing free.

Responsible agencies:
Anqiu Police Department: 86-536-4383900
Dong Linfang, Chengbei Police Branch: 86-536-4362817
Li Shenghua, policeman from Anqiu Police Department (born in 1963, actively involved persecuting Falun Gong for nine years): 86-536-4383927 (Office), 86-13153632267 (Mobile)

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://minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/9/8/185496.html