Mr. Yang Xuegui Secretly Sent to Brainwashing Centre After Eight-year Prison Term Expired

Name: Yang Xuegui
Gender: Male
Age: 44
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Administrative staff at the General Affairs Section of the Second People's Hospital in Lanzhou City

Date of Most Recent Arrest: September, 2001
Most recent place of detention: Lanzhou City Prison
City: Lanzhou City
Province: Gansu Province
Persecution Suffered: Beatings, Imprisonment, Solitary Confinement, Torture, Force-Feedings, Physical Restraint, Interrogation, Detention
Key Persecutors: Dong Jianmin (male), Political and Judiciary Committee Secretary of Chengguan District, Lanzhou City

At 7 a.m. on September 11th, 2009, the mother of Falun Gong practitioner, Mr. Yang Xuegui waited at the front gate of the Lanzhou City Prison, expecting to take her son home since his term had expired. She had been travelling back and forth between her home and the prison for eight years. This time, however, she waited for her son for the whole day, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. But she didn't see him. The administrative staff of the prison didn't show up either. When she asked the prison staff, they replied that Mr. Yang had been taken away by the administrative staff from Chengguan District, Lanzhou City early in the morning on that day. They refused to disclose any detailed information about him.

The following day was a Saturday. So when Monday morning office hours began, Mr. Yang's mother went in a hurry to the Prison Administrative Bureau in Lanzhou City and the 610 Office¹ in Lanzhou City respectively to find out the whereabouts of her son. Finally, she learned that her son had been transferred to the notorious Gongjiawan Brainwashing Centre in Lanzhou City. After several tries, she finally saw her son, who was being detained at Gongjiawan Brainwashing Centre by the 610 Office in Chengguan District. Yang Xuegui was emaciated. He told his mother that he had been taken away from the Lanzhou City Prison at 12 a.m. in the early morning of September 11th and was transferred to the Gongjiawan Brainwashing Centre.

In 1994, Mr. Yang Xuegui, when was only 29 years old, he suffered from serious liver disease, and he felt very desperate. In October 1995, a relative of his introduced him the practice of Falun Gong, and later brought him the Falun Gong book, Zhuan Falun. Falun Gong gave Mr. Yang new hope and purpose and purified his mind. He studied the Falun Gong teachings and did the exercises diligently, and totally forgot about the existence of his serious disease. Just two weeks later, he had totally recovered and he resumed his life as a healthy, normal person.

The policemen had targeted Mr. Yang since January 2001, labelling him with such designations as "the stubborn Falun Gong adherent and organiser" and "Falun Gong key person." In August 2001, the Police Department of Gansu Province issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Yang Xuegui. At the beginning of September, Mr. Yang was arrested in Jinchang City, Gansu Province.

The police sent Mr. Yang Xuegui to the Second People's Hospital in Lanzhou City and secretly detained him there. They tortured him so severely that he became emaciated. The police tried to force Mr. Yang to renounce Falun Gong and report other practitioners' names to them. However, Mr. Yang firmly refused. The policemen became furious and they utilised all kinds of inhumane methods to torture him. Mr. Yang was beaten and had bruises covering his entire body. His eyes became swollen and bluish from being punched. The policemen cuffed both of his hands behind his back and forcefully put his feet under his thighs and pressed down on them very hard. Then they locked his ankles to a bench and kept him in that position for several consecutive days.

On January 1st, 2002, the police transferred Yang Xuegui to the notorious Xiguoyuan Detention Centre. He had scabies all over his body from that dark, damp place. His health condition was so poor at that time that he couldn't walk by himself.

At the end of August 2002, without notifying Mr. Yang's family members, the police again secretly transferred Mr. Yang from the prison to the Qilihe Court in Lanzhou City. There they held a secret session and sentenced him to an eight-year prison term.

On November 4th, 2002, seven or eight policemen took Mr. Yang back to the Lanzhou City Prison. In prison, the ward administration ordered criminals there to beat him severely and then locked Mr. Yang in a solitary cell. It was very cold that November, and the temperature was below zero. In such cold weather, the guards didn't allow Mr. Yang to put on his coat. The only clothes that he was allowed to put on were sweaters and cotton trousers. The guards cuffed his hands and feet together and locked him up in a solitary cell, which was extremely cold and damp (there was no heating inside the cell). He was kept there for ten days straight. Meanwhile, all the personal belongs of Mr. Yang were stolen by prisoners. The prisoners also beat Mr. Yang so severely that his clothes were torn. The guards were afraid that Mr. Yang couldn't make it this time, so they sent him to the hospital. After spending three months in the hospital, Mr. Yang was again put in a dark and damp solitary cell in the Lanzhou City Prison for another 24 hours with his hands cuffed and his feet shackled.

In April 2003, Mr. Yang Xuegui was handcuffed and shackled again. Six policemen took him to Linxia Prison. The administrative staff from Lanzhou City Prison told lies about Mr. Yang to the Linxia Prison, "Mr. Yang always wants to commit suicide, so you'd better handcuff and shackle him." Therefore, Mr. Yang was handcuffed and shackled in Linxia City for several days and nights. In the solitary cell in Linxia Prison, Mr. Yang was tied up to the "death bed²" five times, for a total of more than twenty days.

On December 5th, 2005, Mr. Yang Xuegui was tortured so severely that he couldn't walk by himself. The prison administration sent him to the labour camp hospital in Lanzhou City.

On April 25th, 2006, Linxia Prison transferred Mr. Yang Xuegui to the Lanzhou City Prison. On July 5th, 2006, Mr. Yang was again taken from the labour camp hospital and transferred to Lanzhou City Prison. The prison authorities planned to "transform³" him with brutal force. He was forced into a special cell made of plastic foam worth ten thousand yuan⁴. Inside the cell, Mr. Yang was beaten by criminal inmates. As a result of the severe beating, Mr. Yang couldn't move by himself. Several days later, Mr. Yang went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. As the guards were afraid that Mr. Yang would become comatose, they sent him to the hospital of the forced labour camp on August 19th, 2006. There, they force-fed him every day.

For eight long years, in the dark prison of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Mr. Yang Xuegui suffered tremendously. He was tortured with beatings, being locked in solitary confinement and tied up on the "death bed" for long periods of time. He was tortured so severely that he had scabies all over his body and became so emaciated and he couldn't walk by himself. However, he never gave in. Now, his prison term has expired, and he should have been released. However, the prison administration took him away secretly, planning to continue the abuse.

At present, there are six Falun Gong practitioners who are still detained at the Gongjiawan Brainwashing Centre. They are as follows: Niu Wanjiang (from Chengguan District, Lanzhou City); Du Wenhui (from Anning District, Lanzhou City); Hou Yanqing (from Chengguan District, Lanzhou City); Chen Guifang (from Miaotanzi District, Lanzhou City); Su Jinxiu (from Honggu District, Lanzhou City); Zhao Ting'er (from Anning District, Lanzhou City).

Note

1. "The 610 office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

2. "Death Bed" torture: A practitioner is tied to a bed with his hands handcuffed above his head to the bed rails, and his legs tied with thin nylon ropes. The rope is then tightly wrapped around the practitioner's body and the bed, from his legs to his chest. The rope is wrapped so tightly that the practitioner has difficulty breathing and eventually loses consciousness.

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")

4. "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.ca/mh/articles/2009/9/18/208549.html