Ms. Zhao Jiayu, a resident of Jingkou Town, Shapingba District, Chongqing City, was sentenced to two years of forced labour and was incarcerated from July 19th, 2000, to August 14th, 2002, simply because she wouldn't give up the practice of Falun Gong. On November 4th, 2002, not long after she was released, Chinese Communist Party member Zuo Jin and a dozen others from the local township government and the Jingkou Police Station took Zhao Jiayu to the Geleshan Brainwashing Centre. She was detained and tortured regularly in the centre for one and a half years and was not released until June 2004. On February 25th, 2005, Ms. Zhao was again arrested by Zuo Jin and sentenced to two years forced labour without due process.
Below is Ms. Zhao's account of the persecution she has endured.
My name is Zhao Jiayu. I live in Jingkou Town, Shapingba District, Chongqing City. Before July 1997, I was known as a person who was always ill. I suffered from hemiplegia, rheumatism and numbness. I had serious rheumatoid arthritis that affected my arms and legs. I could not stretch my fingers out straight and my hands were too weak to grab things. Later the doctors told me that I had a tumour in my brain. It would cost tens of thousands of yuan1 for an operation, but I didn't go to the hospital because I couldn't afford it.
In the middle of June 1997, I was very fortunate to come across Falun Gong, and before long I was striving to be a good person according to the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Soon I no longer suffered from illnesses any more and my whole body felt light. Words couldn't express my gratitude towards Falun Gong. I had only one thought in my mind, which was to listen to the teachings and firmly walk the path of cultivation.
On July 20th, 1999, the criminal gang of Jiang Zemin, [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] commenced its irrational suppression of Falun Gong. In November 1999 I went to Beijing to appeal to the government with another two practitioners. We were stopped before we could reach our destination and taken to the Chongqing local government office in Beijing. We were then taken back to Chongqing and held at Baiheling Detention Centre for 15 days. In June 2000, I went to Beijing to appeal against the persecution of Falun Gong with other practitioners, telling the government that it was a mistake to suppress Falun Gong. I was taken back to Chongqing and detained in Baiheling Detention Centre for a month. Later, the deputy party secretary of Jingkou Township Political and Law Committee, Zuo Jin, and others forced me to pay for the ticket of the person who went to Beijing and escorted me back to Chongqing. They would not let me return home unless I gave it to them. Not realizing it was a trick, I gave them the money, but then Zuo Jing assigned someone to take me to Maojiashan Women's Forced Labour Camp in Chongqing for a two-year sentence. That was on July 19th, 2000.
From May to June 2001 I participated in a group act of protest, which involved not wearing the prison outfit and refusing to work. For that I was given fierce beatings, was forced to stand for long periods of time, was hung up for long periods, had my hands cuffed behind my back before being stuffed into a tiny cell, and was subjected to other forms of torture. Because I persistently refused to write a guarantee statement that I would no longer practice Falun Gong, I was severely mistreated by a male guard whose surname was Li. He had been sent from Xishanping Forced Labour Camp for the express purpose of tormenting Falun Gong practitioners. He called me from my cell and took me to Shen Ling, a woman in her 30s who was the team leader for drug offenders. She brought three to four drug offenders with her, dragged me to the laundry, and started to beat me. They would beat me for a while, take a rest, and then continue. After the beating had continued for some time, Li shouted, "All of you move away, let me have a try!" He beat me fiercely and yelled threats at me, saying, "I will beat you up every day as long as you refuse to be "transformed2"!" After they had beaten me for a long time, they took me to the office of a policeman whose surname was Gao. Several days later, a female in her 40s named Yang Li, who was on duty, told drug offender Liu Chengling, a female in her 30s, to bind my arms and legs with a nylon rope about as thick as a finger. "Are you willing to be 'transformed'?" she asked me? I wouldn't say yes, so she tried to force me to my knees. I refused to kneel so she started to punch and kick me. After beating me for some time she left. After a few minutes the skin on both my arms and hands turned purple. I asked drug offender Wang Shuxiao and Lu Jun to untie me. They obliged and untied the ropes, which I believe spared my life. Later on I could no longer bear the torture and abuse and, against my conscience, cooperated with the institution's demands.
I was due for release on July 18th, 2002, but after the labour camp officials learned from someone at Jingkou Police Station that my family was wealthy, they decided to try to extort money from me. Team leader Zhang said to me, "Our policy has now loosened. You can go home by paying money." I didn't agree to the extortion. Because they failed to get money from me, they didn't release me until August 14th.
After I was released, Zuo Jin arranged for someone from the local Residents' Committee to watch me. His surname was Zhang. Zhang would knock on my door about four times a day, around the time I left for work and arrived back home, to see if I was there. On November 24th, 2002, I was stopped on my way home by Political Instructor Yang from Jingkou Town Police Station and someone whose surname was Jiang. They would not let me go. I made some excuse and managed to get home, where I found Zuo Jin and others waiting for me. They wanted me to go to town with them, saying they needed to discuss a few things with me. I refused. That evening between 6:00 and 7:00 p.m. they forced me into a car and took me to a brainwashing center in the Geleshan Hotel in the Sha District. Due to the brutal treatment I was subjected to, I experienced heavy vaginal bleeding, and my face turned sallow. I looked very ill.
On the morning of November 25th, the brainwashing centre staff took me to Chongqing No.1 Mental Hospital in Kuangshanpo, which is not far away from Geleshan Township. On the second floor of the outpatient department, they held me down on a bed, tied up my hands and feet, and tried to hook me up to an IV drip. I resisted with all my might, and they didn't succeed. The following day the brainwashing centre sent five or six people who took me to the third floor of a building in the mental hospital. One male doctor pretended to be kind. He said he wanted to check my uterus and asked me to drink some water first. I didn't know it was a trick and drank the water he gave me. They then took me to the same room they took me to before, held me down on the bed, tied up my hands and feet, and again tried to put me on a drip. I resisted. I heard Dr. Chen from the brainwashing centre, a woman in her 50s who was a retired doctor from the hospital, whisper to someone else, "Don't worry, we have given her a sedative. She'll be fine in a little while." Later, the nurses hooked me up to the drip using force. Chen told the nurses to take me back to the brainwashing centre after the drip finished. On the way back, I tried to run away from the hospital and get a pedicab to escape, but I was not successful.
After that incident they watched me even more closely. After drinking the sedative at the hospital and being the infused with unknown drugs, my urine turned brown and my stomach felt bloated. I also had a painful lower back, I felt very weak, I had a dry throat, failing memory, and sore eyes. Li Fengjiu, a man aged 55 and chief of the brainwashing centre, told me that he cared about me, which I knew was ludicrous. Dr. Chen hated me from the depths of her heart. She turned Yue Haizhong, who was on duty, against me. He was a cadre from Xinqiao Real Estate Management Centre, in his 30s. She told him I had slandered him behind his back and that he should take revenge on me. Yue asked me what I had said and didn't do anything to me straight away. Later, other inmates told me to copy the eight regulations defaming Falun Gong on the wall. I refused to cooperate. They told me to stand for a long time. They didn't allow me to sleep or to wash myself or to eat sitting down. If I sat down they would take my rice bowl away. I insisted on sitting down to eat, and eventually they left me alone. In the middle of the day while everyone was taking a nap, Li Fengjiu and others wouldn't allow me to rest. Nor did they let me sleep at night. The moment I went to sleep they would grab me, beat me and kick me and step on my hands, back and body. Li Fengjou and Deng, a solidly-built man in his 50s from Chongqing 64 Middle School in Jingkou Township, were mostly responsible for this brutal mistreatment. At night they drank and gambled over games of Mahjong. In drunken elation, Li Fengjiu poured beer into my mouth and sexually harassed me in front of everyone.
Li Fengjiu's son, Li Xing, a young man in his 20s, was a guard in the brainwashing centre who had transferred from the People's Air Defence Office in the Shapingba District. Whenever he was on duty, he would call me to his desk and ask me to stand for a long period of time in order to control me and not let me sleep. When I couldn't stand any longer, I would sit down on the ground to have a rest. When he saw me dozing off, he would pour cold water on the top of my head. This would be repeated many times during the night to keep me from resting. Li Xing even poured a lot of water on the ground where I would stand everyday, to discourage me from lying down and sleeping.
At hot times of the year, Li Fengjiu and others wouldn't allow me to wash. Twice while going to the toilet I quickly washed my clothes and myself. When I finished, I had to put the wet clothes on as I didn't have any clean clothes to change into. But because I had washed without their permission, policewoman Luo Liping, a woman in her 40s who transferred from a police station in the Shapingba District, would endlessly berate me. Li Fengjiu wanted to punish me for having a wash, so he kept yanking me around and verbally abusing me. I had one righteous thought: He can't move my body. With that thought, he really couldn't move me. Seeing that Li wasn't able to pull me around, Luo jumped in front of me and cursed and berated me and then asked, "Why did you wash without permission?" I shouted, "I oppose the persecution!" That really shocked Luo and frightened her off. They also mistreated me when it came to food. I was only given a small bowl of rice porridge without any salted vegetables. For lunch and dinner, I was given a small bowl of rice and some unwashed, small Chinese cabbage boiled in water. I asked to buy a bag of mustard with my own money but was not allowed to. For about a month I became skinnier and weaker day by day. Finally they allowed me to go back to my cell. However, they called Yue Haizhong to harass me because I had gotten rid of the insulting sign they had attached to me. After Yue saw me, he told the chief of the brainwashing centre, "She has become so skinny, if you keep mistreating her, maybe she won't make it. So the chief told Luo Liping to present me with the so-called three statements3, and they tried to make me promise that I would no longer practise Falun Gong. I refused. Later Luo left without doing anything to me.
The persecution escalated when there were only Yue Chunhua, a female practitioner, and myself left in the brainwashing centre. Yue Haizhong dragged me out of my cell and took me to an empty room downstairs. Luo Gesong, a male in his 60s who was a retired officer from Geleshan Police Station, burned my palm with a cigarette butt. The solidly-built Deng stabbed me with a pin, then tied my hands and feet to a big wooden bench and used a very strong light bulb of several hundred watts to burn my face. I asked them to turn the light off. Guard Zhao Yuhai, a male over 50 who was a retired pilot from Chongqing Baishiyi Military Airport, said, "This is our method of torture just for you." They burned me that way for a whole day. They didn't untie me until dinnertime. When I went to the toilet later, my urine was like blood. It was really terrifying.
Early next morning, Yue Haizhong began to drag me downstairs again. I firmly resisted. Deng grabbed me by my hair and started to hit my head against the wall. He would stop for a while when he got tired and then continue to hit my head hard against the wall. Suddenly I felt as if my head was about to explode. He tortured me for the whole day. After torturing me like this for a long time, Deng told Zhao Yuhai to question me, "Are you going to renounce Falun Gong?" My only thought was, "Falun Gong gave me my life. I will not do anything against my conscience." Zhao left after he saw that I didn't reply.
Deng started to torture me again. When I sat down on the ground, he stomped on my hand with his heavy shoes and kicked me. He sexually harassed me, muttering foul, obscene words into my ear. He beat me up until I was full of wounds and my feet were bleeding. I couldn't move my neck and body; I was numb. My head also became numb after being hit against the wall. The scars on my feet are visible to this day. While hitting my head against the wall, Deng yelled at me, "So many people have been 'transformed.' I don't believe that I can't transform you. You dare to go against the communist party, so I want you dead! Even if I beat you to death today, your death would mean nothing." He also said, "After I beat you to death, I will burn your body and it will be no problem."
The next morning when I woke up, my body was covered with wounds, but I didn't feel any pain. I was able to turn my neck and could get out of bed.
Deng wouldn't leave me alone. He would blow air into my mouth and punch my head whenever he felt like it. As time went by I developed the attachment of fear. I would become very nervous as soon as I heard Deng's voice. Li Fengjiu arranged a group of people to beat me, but I still wouldn't give in. Several days later, they played a trick. Li, a female inmate told me, "Your son is sick. He has diarrhoea and is vomiting. Where is your compassion?" She had tears in her eyes as she told me this. Then she said, "If your son dies, how are you going to live with yourself?" I felt lost. They brought a pre-written guarantee statement and told me to copy it. The inmates passed me a pen but there was no ink when I tried to write. They brought me another pen. After I copied a page the pen wouldn't work. I told them that I wasn't going to copy any more of the statement. They took what that I had copied and wouldn't give it back to me. In order to go home and take care of my son as soon as possible, I wrote everything they asked me for in the end. After I met their requirements, policewoman Luo Liping dialled my son's mobile number. It turned out that he was simply on a business trip and there was nothing wrong with him. I regretted deeply what I had done.
I was detained in the brainwashing centre in the Geleshan Hotel without due process for one and a half years. I was released in July 2004. After I was back home, Jingkou Township Political and Law Committee arranged for me to be a cleaner at Jingkou Square.
On February 25th, 2005 at around 11:00 a.m., two old friends of mine came to visit me. We went to pick xiangcong, a wild herb, on a hill and were discovered by Zuo Jin and others. I was sent to Baiheling Detention Centre for the crime of "illegal gathering." I was then sentenced to two years of forced labour.
As soon as I arrived at Maojiashan Women's Forced Labour Camp, I wrote a statement explaining that I had been wrongly accused. Political Instructor Shu Chang handed my statement in, but I received no reply. As soon as I arrived, I had to squat for a long time like a soldier, and I was not allowed to sleep or go to the toilet. I had to say things slandering Falun Gong just to use the toilet. This time around I did extremely badly: I gave in very quickly. Though I had been so-called 'transformed,' they still didn't release me any earlier. I was held until February 24th, 2007.
From February 24th, 2005, to February 24th, 2007, the Chinese Communist Party members who participated in persecuting me included: Zuo Jing, a male over 40 who was deputy Party secretary of the Township Political and Law Committee, and Chen Qijun, a male around 40 years old who was a cadre at Jingkou Township Local Government. Those from the forced labor camp included: Tan Qingyue, a female over 30 who was a team leader in the labour camp in charge of the persecution; Su Chang, a woman over 30 years who was a political instructor in the labour camp; and Hu Xiaoyan, a woman over 20 who was a team leader in the labour camp. Tan, Su, and Hu are the chief policewomen in Maojiashan Women's Labour Camp who persecute Falun Gong practitioners. Others who participated were Zhang Xuelian, a woman over 30 years old who was a supervisor in the labour camp; Wang Yan, a female drug offender over 30 years old; and Liang Yuanwei, a female drug offender over 30 years old.
Note
1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.
2. "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")
3. "Three Statements": Practitioners are coerced under brainwashing and torture to write "Repentance Statement," "Guarantee Statement" or 'Dissociation Statement" as proof that they have given up their belief. In the 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.
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Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/10/8/187262.html
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