Personal Experience: The Torture I Suffered at Masanjia Forced Labour Camp

I was illegally detained for "re-education" through labour simply because I went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and was sent to the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp on September 25, 2000.

After my arrival at the Masanjia Labour Camp I was threatened that if I refused to give up my cultivation I would be tortured in the same way as those firm and unshakeable Dafa practitioners suffering from physical punishment I saw in the toilet. I was unwilling to go to the toilet because I did not have the heart to see those practitioners suffering. Later on I learned practitioners were given seven days from their arrival to renounce Falun Dafa and if they refused they would be tortured in the toilet until they submitted.

On the morning of my third day at the Labour camp, a policewoman Zhang Xiurong asked me if I would agree to give up my belief of Falun Gong, and I replied, "Absolutely not!" Then after lunch, I was taken to the toilet by several collaborators [Former Falun Gong practitioners who have renounced Falun Gong due to brainwashing and torture. Collaborators assist in brainwashing and torture in exchange for reductions in their sentences] and was forced to do "body-folding." In this torture the victim stands with legs straight and close together, bending forward from the waist until the head is completely upside down and close to the legs and arms straight on either side. [ For more information on the methods of torture employed by the Chinese authorities, click here] They also forced me to crawl back and forth. Then I was forced to do something called "standing in horse-riding stance" [this is holding a posture with legs spread far apart and squatting down as if riding a horse and it is physically exhausting] One night, several collaborators took me to the toilet and said that they would help me to "eliminate karma," referring disrespectfully and incorrectly to a Falun Gong term. They forced me to cross my legs and then tied my legs with a rope. Whenever they went to the toilet someone would scold me, some would beat me and still some would slam my head against the wall so hard that the ceramic tiles would break. It was about three o'clock in the morning before I was allowed to go to bed. During the day, these collaborators often formed a circle and dragged me inside to verbally abuse and humiliate me. One day the team leader Zhang Xiurong threatened me, "If you still refuse to be give up Falun Gong, I will make you suffer."

One evening in November, they took me to the toilet and started to torture me. Until 11 o'clock when others had all gone to bed several collaborators, took turns, slapping me in the face and on the head with rubber-soled shoes. Some of them even slammed my head into the wall. I was tortured until the next morning when others got up. The bruises from the beatings badly deformed my face and my head had swollen to nearly twice its normal size. All this had made me unrecognisable. The team leader Zhang Xiurong took pleasure in my suffering. She blamed the collaborators for hitting my face. She taught them to hit my body instead of my face so that other people could not tell I had beaten. After that, the collaborators never hit my head again, but instead they kicked me. Once they stripped off my pants and all six of them pinched me on my thighs while insulting me. Then they sat on my neck. The torture lasted the whole morning. The next day I found that where they pinched me (an area about 15 x 11 square centimetres) was festering. The pain I felt was just like my flesh had been torn off.

Several days later, the wicked policewoman Zhang Xiurong summoned me to the on-duty room where she and several of the most vicious collaborators beat me and kicked me to the ground. They specifically kicked the area of my festering wounds and when they got tired they ordered me to do the standing in the horse-riding stance. Then they beat me again. In this way they tortured me the whole morning. In the evening when others went to bed they beat me again. My leg wounds became open sores after they were kicked. Some parts of my flesh collapsed in nearly one centimetre and oozed reeking pus. My legs were full of bruises and scars and normal skin colour could not be found anywhere. All this had made my legs very stiff. However, the collaborators still did not let me off. Some of them pushed me to the ground and held my hand to write "repentance letter". They also drew Teacher Li's portrait on my back and wrote abusive language against Teacher Li on my back, palms and the soles of my feet. The collaborators would not let me say that I believed in Teacher Li. When they found that I did not obey, they repeatedly slammed my head into the wall the entire morning. As a result, I had a lot of bumps and some places were bleeding. I became disoriented and could not even recognize where I was.

There are too many cases of such beatings for me to cite. I endured many forms of physical abuse, torturous positions, daily beatings, and the area on my upper thigh that was festering was extremely painful. Everyday I had to have my meals in front of the toilet. I was not allowed to sleep. The torture lasted for more than ten days. Confused and disoriented as a result of beatings and no sleep I cannot remember exactly how many days I stayed there. One evening, I refused once again to renounce Falun Gong and these collaborators announced in public a labour camp regulation that from that time on I was only allowed to have the meals provided by the camp and nothing else. I was not allowed to use anything and no one was allowed to lend anything to me. They had also taken away the only half roll of toilet paper I had and I did not have toiletries either. Later, some people could not stand it any more so they would give me some toilet paper when there was no one around. At meal times, the collaborators who kept an eye on me would always take away my food before I was finished. They would rather throw it away than to let me have enough to eat.

In January 2001, those "reformed practitioners" who had tortured me all had their sentences reduced and were released. Only after their release had the earlier "regulation" been repealed. In Masanjia Labour Camp, among the collaborators, whoever is more vicious and savage, or those favoured by the policemen, get released quicker. Collaborators told me several times, "Do you think we like to beat you? If it were not for the team leader ordering me to beat you would I beat you?" In order not to let people know the truth that they beat people, they tried very hard to block the news from leaking out. For example, even the people in my dormitory did not know that I had been beaten, so as a result very few people know the inside story of Dafa practitioners being tortured in Masanjia Labour Camp.

I suffered from the wounds in my thighs for 8 months, and there is still a three-centimetre wound and blackened dent with a hard lump. The flesh underneath the hard lump had always caused sharp pain and sometimes it would cause unbearable itching. Lying in bed, I dared not stretch my leg, or I would have to endure the sharp pain. This made moving very slow. The back of my right hand was swollen from the kicks and I could not move my fingers because of the pain. Now five months after the incident I still feel the pain in my whole hand and have not enough strength to even hold chopsticks.

I still remember the "meeting for terminating the re-education program" held last year with more than a thousand people in attendance. At the meeting, collaborator Wang Chunying from Chaoyang, who was the most vicious person in beating people, even dared to give a false statement in the presence of CCTV reporters and provincial officials, "The phenomena of beating people has never existed in Masanjia Labour Camp". At that time Zou Guirong from Fushun stood up and said, "You are lying!" This is because Zou Guirong herself had suffered from severe beatings by this collaborator. I had suffered so much during the several months of my internment in the camp. What I have said is only the tip of the iceberg, so it would not be difficult to imagine the suffering endured by the Falun Dafa practitioners who had been illegally detained for a longer time.

However, Su Jing, the Director of the Second Woman's Department said shamelessly in an interview with reporters, "Masanjia Re-education Centre is using real understanding and love to help to reform its students in the same way as teachers treat their students, doctors treat their patients and parents treat their children."
Above are only some of my personal experiences in Masanjia Forced Labour Camp. The purpose of my speaking out is to let people have a clearer understanding of the crimes committed by the Jiang regime and to awaken their sense of decency.