An Innocent Farmer Imprisoned for Nine Years

Mr. Wang Xueshi is from Yinfeng Village, Jidoing County, Heilongjiang Province. He has been imprisoned for nine years only because he practises Falun Gong. He was released on April 24th, 2009, but the village head and the police from Hadaxiang Police Station still broke into his home and threatened him. He can only leave home with permission from the police. The police have also refused to return his identification card.

Forty-year-old Mr. Wang Xueshi is an innocent and honest farmer. He began practising Falun Gong in 1998. Since then, his family has also benefited from the practice - his child became healthier and his relationships with his wife and mother became harmonious. Mr. Wang used to own a grain refinery factory that gained a good reputation and people's trust because he conducted business honestly. Many villagers got to know that Falun Gong is good after they saw the positive changes in Mr. Wang. Thereafter, many villagers also began practising Falun Gong.

In the 10 years of the persecution, Mr. Wang has been imprisoned for nine years - two years in a forced labour camp and seven years in a prison. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) brutal persecution of Falun Gong has also torn Mr. Wang's family apart. Below is more detail of the persecution he has suffered.

Two Years of Forced Labour for Speaking the Truth

In October 1999, Mr. Wang Xueshi went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practise Falun Gong. However, he was arrested and detained at a local government liaison office in Beijing, where he was beaten and whipped. The Deputy Chief of Jidong Public Security Bureau Chao Yang and Li Qinghua detained Mr. Wang in Jidong Detention Centre. Guard Ma Li used a hard white plastic tube (a torture instrument also known as "Small White Dragon") to whip him. He also encouraged other inmates to beat Mr. Wang and punch him in the head. After 81 days of torture, Mr. Wang was transferred to Jixi Forced Labour Camp to serve a two-year term.

There, the guards tortured Mr. Wang by forcing him to stand still for a long period of time, stand outside in the snow, and sit still on a wooden board for 15-16 consecutive hours, causing pain in Mr. Wang's torso and back as well as skin sores. The guards also forced him to watch videos and read books that slandered Falun Gong. One time, a female section head from the Heilongjiang Provincial Education Through Forced Labour Section brought some collaborators (former Falun Gong practitioners that have turned against Falun Gong) to give speeches that slandered Falun Gong at the Jixi Forced Labour Camp. Mr. Wang and another practitioner Yang Xiaoguang took the collaborators' speeches and torn them up. As a result, seven to eight guards beat both practitioners until they bled, then dragged them away and locked them in solitary confinement.

In early 2000, ten practitioners were sent to the labour camp. The guards began brainwashing and torturing them. Once when a guard was brutally beating a practitioner, Mr. Wang stood up to stop the guard. Guard Fan Guoyu pulled Mr. Wang into an office and used an electric baton to hit him on his right eye. Mr. Wang immediately lost his vision in the right eye. Several months later, Mr. Wang still couldn't see things clearly.

When Mr. Wang's wife and his four-year-old child went to visit him, the child tightly hugged Mr. Wang and cried, "Daddy, let's go home, let's go home." His wife was also crying. The CCP 's persecution of Mr. Wang made it difficult for his wife to take care their business by herself. As a result, his wife had to sell their grain refinery factory.

In 2000, Mr. Wang was released after serving his term at the forced labour camp. Soon after his release, officers from the Hada Police Station went to his home to try to arrest him because he was reported by someone for putting up Falun Gong banners. Mr. Wang had to leave home to avoid further persecution. His wife couldn't bear the pressure and pain from the persecution, and later divorced him.

Brutal Tortures

On March 5th, 2002, Falun Gong practitioners from Jilin successfully tapped into cable television to broadcast Falun Gong programmes leaflets exposing the persecution. This helped local residents to learn the innocence of Falun Gong, see through the CCP's deceitful propaganda and find out about the brutal persecution of Falun Gong. Practitioners from Mudanjiang began to use the same method to expose the persecution. At around 7:30 p.m. on April 20th, 2002 when Mr. Wang was installing equipment at Mudanjiang People's Park, people hired by the Radio and Television Group seized him. He was later detained at Yangming Branch of Mudanjiang Public Security Bureau.

The police interrogated and tortured Mr. Wang. They tied Mr. Wang to a metal chair and repeatedly hit his head with water bottles until he was bleeding; used twisted electric wires to whip the top of his feet until the flesh was torn; tightly sealed his mouth with tape; and put mustard oil into his nose and then covered his mouth and nose with a hand towel to suffocate him. Mr. Wang immediately felt burning pain in his chest and he was unable to open his eyes. At the same time, the police beat and cursed at him. They also put a plastic bag over his head to try to suffocate him. Then the police covered his eyes, rubbed his rib cage forcefully with their fists and squeezed his penis. Mr. Wang lost consciousness from the unbearable pain.

On April 25th, the police transferred Mr. Wang, who was on the verge of death, to Mudanjiang Detention Centre. Mr. Wang was very fragile, unable to stand or sit by himself and his shirt was soiled with blood. A guard with the surname Hou ordered Mr. Wang to sit still on a wooden board. Mr. Wang explained to him that he felt dizzy and couldn't sit still. Hou immediately instigated inmates to hold Mr. Wang down on the wooden board, strip off his trousers and whip him with the "small white dragon". The inmates crazily whipped him on his buttocks and back until they were exhausted. The inmates called this type of torture "Tear Up the Skin."

Hou then dragged Mr. Wang to the women's cell. In front of many female practitioners, he whipped Mr. Wang with the "small white dragon" in an attempt to scare them and force them to give up the practice. With tears in their eyes, the female practitioners asked Hou to stop and told him, "You also have a family. Your mother practised Falun Gong, didn't she?" Upon hearing this, Hou stopped.

Imprisoned for Seven Years

On November 25th, 2002, the CCP's Mudanjiang City Intermediate Court sentenced Mr. Wang to seven years of imprisonment. Mr. Wang's appeal was turned down by the court. On December 31st, 2002, he was sent to Mudanjiang Prison.

In the prison, the guards didn't allow Mr. Wang to practise the Falun Gong exercises, assigned other prisoners to monitor him, didn't allow him to make phone calls or write letters to his family, and purposefully made it difficult for him every day.

At the end of October 2004, the guards deprived Mr. Wang and Liu Xiaolong of sleep for five consecutive days and nights, while forcing them to do hard labour. The money that practitioner Yu Zhonghai's family mailed to him was confiscated by the guards. When Mr. Yu went to ask for the money back, the guards ordered the prisoners to beat Mr. Yu, causing his mouth and nose to bleed.

At the end of 2004, team head of the Fifth Prison Area Guo Baolin, instructor Han Guobing, and deputy team head Zhao Xihe came up with a plan to "transform¹" practitioners using violence. Guard Zhao Xihe shocked practitioners with electric batons and forced all the prisoners to participate in the torture. In the evening, the prisoners took turns monitoring practitioners to not allow them to go to sleep and in the daytime, the prisoners carried the practitioners to the workshop to force them to do hard labour. Practitioner Li Fengquan firmly refused to write the "transformation statement" and was deprived of sleep. The guards and inmates beat him so viciously that he couldn't walk without others' help. The guards prohibited others from helping him. As a result, Mr. Li fell from the third floor and lost consciousness. Two days later, Mr. Li was sent to the Public Security Hospital for emergency treatment. Four prisoners watched him and didn't allow other people to approach him. The guards blocked every channel to avoid any leak of the situation.

In early December 2007, newly appointed team head Gao Haiping ordered a search of all the seats in the workshops. They found Falun Gong books under Mr. Wang's seat. He was then locked in a solitary cell that was cold and dark. The weather was extremely cold at that time, but the guards still opened the window of the cell, forcefully took off Mr. Wang's clothes, and only gave him a prison winter coat. It got so cold at night that Mr. Wang had to keep moving the whole night to keep from freezing. The guards also starved him by giving him only a small amount of food. Being locked up in solitary confinement for 23 consecutive days almost caused Mr. Wang to suffer a mental breakdown and lose the ability to take care himself. It took a year for him to recover.

From 2008 to the spring of 2009, Mr. Wang's family travelled 500-600 miles to Mudanjiang Prison twice to see him. However, the guards stopped them at the gate and refused to let them visit him.

The current team head of the Fifth Prison Area is guard Qi Wei. He often forces practitioners and the prisoners to do hard labour from 6:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m., and sometimes even longer.

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")

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/6/3/202102.html