Practitioners Resolutely Resist the Persecution in Wangcun Forced Labour Camp

I learned that during the cultural revolution (1966-1976) Wangcun Forced Labour Camp became a very busy place, and that many intellectuals were sent there to be persecuted. The camp is situated in a fairly remote area, so even if people were murdered there it would not be immediately known. After the Cultural Revolution ended, many guards who worked there were dismissed. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began persecuting Falun Gong in July 1999 and established the Wangcun Forced Labour Camp as a site to hold practitioners. The camp was ready in three days in 2000 and re-employed many of the former guards. These evildoers, as well as their sons and daughters, all gathered at the camp on the day of completion in no time, as if they had specifically prepared for that day.

Wangcun Forced Labour Camp is also known as Shandong No. 2 Women's Forced Labour Camp. During the first one or two years there was only one old building to house more than one thousand practitioners. The camp was divided into seven divisions and there were a dozen or so prison guards in each division. Since the CCP funds the camp, it has continued to expand. There are new buildings everywhere and the guards' salaries have also been increasing. The guards even force practitioners to do slave labour so that they can earn extra money.

Over the last eight years, the number of practitioners detained in Wangcun Forced Labour Camp has remained at over 200, and the seven divisions have been reduced to four. During the Beijing Olympics, the CCP arrested a large number of practitioners and about three to four hundred were sent to the camp. The guards selected several dozen aggressive female inmates from Jinan Forced Labour Camp and transferred them to Wangcun to help persecute practitioners.

The No. 2 Division imprisons many drug addicts. During the Beijing Olympics, the guards sent these addicts to the practitioners' cells and incited them to attack those who refused to renounce Falun Gong. The guards watched the beatings from a distance.

The guards at the camp usually put newly arrived practitioners in solitary confinement and order other practitioners, who had become collaborators¹, to take turns keeping an eye on them. These collaborators used all sorts of tricks, including lies and threats, to coerce practitioners to renounce Falun Gong. If this didn't work they began forcing the practitioners to stand still for long periods of time and depriving them of sleep or use of the toilet. Subjected to this intense pressure, some practitioners relented and wrote the three statements². Denouncing Falun Gong caused them extreme anguish, and some of them subsequently wrote a "solemn statement" negating the three statements and declaring they would continue practising Falun Gong when they became clear headed. The guards were very angry when this happened so they put these practitioners in solitary confinement. Since 2007, more and more practitioners have awakened.

According to the practitioners who were held at the No. 3 Division, only a few of them made the solemn statements at the beginning of their sentence, but by May or June, almost all the practitioners who had written the three statements solemnly declared that their statements were null and void. Several dozen practitioners stepped forward to resist the persecution.

The number of guards at the camp was increased and several of them patrolled the corridors day and night. Their presence had a limited impact however, so they called a meeting to interrogate the practitioners. When a guard named Chen slandered Falun Gong, Ms. Qu Jiaxiu stood up and said, "What you've said is not right. We have freedom of belief (in this country)." Several guards dashed over to her and dragged her to solitary confinement. Inside the cell there was no bed. Those who were sent there were all hung by their handcuffs from the ceiling. The guards used all kinds of tortures to persecute Ms. Qu, but torture failed to make her submit and she was eventually released.

At one point, the CCP stepped up its persecution and five practitioners in the camp were placed in confinement. Since there were not enough guards, they set up a strictly controlled team. They locked up a dozen or so practitioners in one team. The practitioners were not allowed to use the toilet and weren't given enough to eat. They were also forced to stand still for nearly twenty hours a day and were not allowed to move. If they moved, their forced labour term was extended. The guards read slanderous articles day and night. Whoever resisted was punished. They were either beaten or verbally abused.

Ms. Yu Jingtao refused to participate in one of these teams. Several guards came in and held her down on the floor. Then four guards carried her, each holding one of her limbs, and tortured her as as she lay completely stretched out. Ms. Yu was small and thin. She was kept in a damp, north-facing cell so she was unable to see the sun all year round. She was very steadfast and dared to speak for fellow practitioners whenever they were inhumanly treated.

Ms. Li Ruizhen, in her sixties, wrote the Chinese characters, "Walking on a righteous path" on her shoe pad. When the prison guards searched her bag and found the shoe, they brought Ms. Li to the strictly controlled group where she was not allowed to use the toilet. She wet herself when she was unable to hold back any longer. The prison guards extended her term of detention. Ms. Li asked, "What's wrong with me walking on a righteous path? You don't want people to be good. Do you want people to become bad and walk an evil path?"

When guards found that Ms. Liang Hongzhi was very steadfast, they forced her to stand all day long for several months, then denied her of sleep. They ordered the inmates to torture her around the clock. After several months of such torture, her legs and feet were very swollen. She couldn't wear her shoes, but she still firmly believed in Falun Gong.

The guards locked Ms. Liu Hongixa in a small room and forced her to stand still for a long time every day. She was tortured like this for several months. Her term of forced labour was also extended, but when her original term was up, she showed some unusual symptoms so she was released and didn't have to serve the extended time.

The guards at Wangcun Forced Labour Camp committed huge crimes against practitioners, and the methods they used were extremely cruel. They carried out atrocities of unparalleled savagery. Ms. Zhu Huizhen and Yang Shuping were blinded as a result of inhuman torture. When Ms. Zhu's son went to visit his mother and found she was blind he choked up with tears. The guards claimed that Ms. Zhu was pretending to be blind, but a hospital examination confirmed that she was blind.

Ms. Zhang Min, Ms. Wang Xumei, and several other practitioners were locked up in a small room, where they were subjected to inhuman torture beyond the imagination of everyday people. When visitors were allowed to see them, they were already mentally disordered as a result of severe torture. Doctors diagnosed them with psychiatric disorders caused by extreme stress.

One of Ms. Qi Dongmei's legs was crippled as a result of the brutal torture and she could no longer walk properly. However, the guards and their hatchet men often laughed at her and called her a cripple.

Ms. Chen Guangxia's legs were paralysed as a result of torture. The guards gave her injections of unknown drugs which left her extremely weak and lethargic. Only then did the labour camp ask her family to carry her home.

Practitioners who were detained in this damp and cold small room also included Ms. Wang Xunlan and Ms. He Lingdi. They could not use the toilet and sleep normally. Those who worked in the hall would often hear the clicking sound of handcuffs. They appeared to be struggling from the pain. Ms. He in particular was struggling, because she was handicapped and needed to lean against the wall just to walk. However, the guards still persecuted her aggressively. Since she firmly believed in Falun Gong she was held secretly for a long period of time. No one saw her after she was taken away.

Ms. Lin Kuimei was a practitioner from the countryside who refused to renounce Falun Gong. When the guards realized that banning her from using the toilet was no longer effective, they incited inmates to push Ms. Lin to the ground and beat her until she could no longer move, then grab her hands and force her thumb print on the pre-written "transformation³" statement.

The guards locked Ms. Yu Xiuhua in the strictly controlled team and then isolated her from other practitioners when they found out that she still firmly believed in Falun Gong. The evildoers didn't allow her to see her family or have any contact with them. The guards were afraid that her status might affect those who had already renounced Falun Gong.

A practitioner suddenly disappeared from the detention centre in late 2007. The news hit the forced labour camp like a bomb. The guards counted the detainees again and again. One guard named Li was trembling with fear. All the guards worked day and night in an attempt to find the missing practitioner. It was learned that the guards also went to that missing practitioner's home town to harass her family. They also raided her family during festivals and holidays. Regardless of what they did, they failed to find the practitioner.

Since that incident the guards were even more unbridled. Wang Yonghong, who was in charge of brainwashing, played video programmes that slandered and demonized Falun Gong every day, or forced the practitioners to read slanderous articles. He often created new deceitful tricks used for brainwashing. The guards were at their wits end, so they often beat and swore at the practitioners.

Wangcun Forced Labour Camp has committed the most heinous crimes, been the cause of numerous tragedies, and cruelly injured countless innocent people. What is mentioned here is only the tip of the iceberg. As you read this article, the inhuman torture of practitioners is still going on in China.

Note

1. "Collaborators": former practitioners who have turned against Falun Gong under brainwashing and torture. They are then made to assist in brainwashing and torturing practitioners.

2. "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.

3. "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")

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/12/27/192355.html