The Persecution of Ms. Wang Xiuyan from Shuangcheng City

Name: Wang Xiuyan
Gender: Female
Age: Unknown
Address: Hongsheng Village, Tuanjie Township, Shuangcheng City
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: Unknown
Most recent place of detention: Wanjia Forced Labour Camp
City: Harbin City
Province: Heilongjiang Province
Persecution Suffered: Extortion, Beatings, Force-Feedings, Physical Constraint, Sleep Deprivation, Forced Labour, Electric Shock, Hung Up, Other Torture

Ms. Wang Xiuyan from Hongsheng Village, Tuanjie Township, Shuangcheng City, was arrested three times and twice sent to forced labour camps during the past ten years. She was subjected to gross abuse and mistreatment while in detention. The following is her own account of persecution:

I began practising Falun Gong in 1996. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched the persecution of Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999, I went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practise Falun Gong on February 10th, 2000. The police searched me in Tiananmen Square. They subsequently notified plainclothes officers at the Shuangcheng Liaison Office in Beijing, who came and took others and me to the liaison office. They took us back to Shuangcheng City the next day and locked us up in the Shuangcheng City Detention Centre. They forced our families to try to coerce us to renounce Falun Gong. We went on a persecution protest hunger strike. Five days later, deputy police chief Zhang Guofu selected several practitioners whom they deemed "leaders" and sent the rest of the practitioners to nursing homes. They would not let us go home because we refused to write guarantee statements to renounce Falun Gong. My family had 1,000 yuan¹ extorted from them. I returned home only because my son was critically ill.

I decided to join other practitioners and again appeal in Beijing. The CCP agents set up checkpoints at major thoroughfares and at train and bus stations throughout the country to intercept Falun Gong practitioners. Li Chunling, myself, and five other practitioners were arrested in Shanhaiguan City. The police grabbed us by our hair and slapped our faces. They asked for my name and later took Li Chunling, me, and five other practitioners to the Zhanqian Police Station in Shanhaiguan. We refused to tell our names, and the police savagely beat us. In the evening, the police handcuffed every two practitioners to one chair. Li Chunling managed to pull out of the handcuffs and escape. They recognised our accent and sent us to the Heilongjiang Province Public Security Department. The police hit our faces with bamboo fans, forced us to stand in pairs, and made one of us put our head into the other person's crotch.

Former Yuejin Township Party Secretary Li Qingmin and Liu Changchun, Party secretary from my village, recognised me and sent me to the Shuangcheng City Detention Centre. We held a hunger strike. Detention centre head Jin Wanzhi ordered inmates and guards to force-feed us concentrated saline solution, which nearly killed Wang Shurong from Wujia Town. I went home after 60 days.

Party Secretary Li Qingmin instructed police station head Pei Congtai and Xu Fengshan to arrest me from home because I had gone to Beijing to appeal several times. They took me to the police station. Pei and Xu and another police officer surrounded me and verbally abused me. I was transferred to a detention centre the next day, where I held a hunger strike to stop the abuse. After my nine-day hunger strike, they sent me to a clinic for treatment.

Abuse at the Wanjia Forced Labour Camp

Two days before the Chinese New Year in 2001 Zhang Guofu put more than 80 practitioners, including me, in two buses and drove us to Wanjia Forced Labour Camp.

I was held in Team 9, Division 7, where we were subjected to even more brutal treatment. Wang Wenlian from Mishan and Li Haiyan from Shuangcheng took the lead in reciting Lunyu on the eighth day of the Chinese New Year. Labour camp head Shi Yingbai ordered the male guards to savagely attack us. They kicked me to the ground. They also kicked and broke Li Bingqing's ribs. They dragged Wang Wenlian and Li Haiyan into solitary confinement. We demanded their release. They locked practitioners who initiated the protest into solitary confinement, where they were tied and hung from prison rails with only the tips of their toes touching the ground. They were forbidden to sleep. They threw Zhou Fengying from Shuangcheng into a cold room and did not give her enough food.

The guards also intensified force-feeding since we started to hunger strike. Head Song Shaohua from the Wanjia Hospital beat and severely injured Yang Yuqin and Liu Xiaohua. The police repeatedly inserted feeding tubes and pulled them out, until blood gushed from our noses and mouths. Some were tortured to near death and were taken to a hospital.

My nose bled when guard Wu Baoxia force-fed me, and my head hurt as if it were splitting open. They also ordered inmates to force-feed us and beat us.

They broke Liu Junbo's ribs (from Harbin City). Guo Mingxia from Shuangcheng refused to co-operate with the force-feeding and was injected with unknown drugs.

I recited Falun Gong articles when we sat in a group. Guard Yang Liping poured scalding hot water on us and hit my arm until it was black and blue.

The labour camp officials held a reward and punishment conference on June 16th, 2001, during which camp head Lu Zhenshan slandered Falun Gong and its founder and Teacher, Mr. Li Hongzhi. He extended some practitioners' terms by one year and six months. Xu Lihua shouted, "Restore Teacher's reputation!"

The guards grabbed her hair and whacked her until her eyes were filled with blood. They dragged her down the staircase into a solitary confinement cell. They had pre-planned to mistreat and hurt the practitioners during the meeting, as they brought emergency kits and medical staff to the conference.

All practitioners held at the Old No. 3 Team stood up and shouted, "Stop slandering Falun Gong!"

The guards ran up to them and sadistically assaulted them. They dragged these practitioners out of the room and sent them to solitary confinement. They also used the Big Hang-up and electric batons. The pungent smell of charred flesh permeated the air. They tortured Yang Xiuli from Daqing with the Big Hang-up. She asked to use the toilet, but the guards refused, and she relieved herself into her clothing. The guards mopped up the urine and shoved the mop into her mouth. They took Liu Baibing away in the evening on June 18th and locked us inside the room and closely watched us. We were startled awake and knew something was going to happen. We heard constant footsteps in the hallway and slapping sounds, and soon heard painful moaning.

Nearly all practitioners at the labour camp developed scabies from the horrible filth. The guards claimed to treat us, but in fact they ordered inmates to pin us down and scrape our healthy and infected flesh with knives. We nearly lost consciousness from pain.

I went home after one year and ten days at the labour camp.

Arrested again

The police ransacked my home during a city-wide, large-scale search in Shuangcheng on February 28th, 2004. They confiscated Falun Gong books and arrested me. Plainclothes police officers from Shuangcheng City and officers from the Tuanjie Township Police Station including Ai Changyan participated in the arrest. Village Party secretary Liu Changchun led the officials to the practitioners' homes.

I went on a hunger strike upon being taken to a detention centre. I heard heartrending screams from fellow practitioners when the guards force-fed them. Two practitioners died from the atrocities, and another practitioner was taken to the Wanjia Forced Labour Camp when he was near death.

I went home after nine days of a hunger strike. Officials, including plainclothes officers from Shuangcheng City Court, Ai Changyan and Liu Changchun, came to my home two days after my release and tried to arrest me. I was not home at the time, but village officials Liu Changchun and Fu Guolu extorted 400 yuan from my husband.

Forced labour

When I returned home and heard about the extortion, I went to the officials and asked for my money back. Someone called the police. Later on, three plainclothes officers from Tuanjie Township Police Station, including Ai Changyan and village head Fu Guolu, arrested me from home. They took me to the detention centre overnight. I protested by holding a hunger strike. They force-fed me and added a great quantity of salt to milk powder. They left the feeding tube in, so they could feed me repeatedly at any time. Political head Wang ordered the guards to handcuff me behind my back to prevent me from pulling out the tube. They force-fed me three times a day and stirred the tube around in my stomach each time.

I foamed at the mouth while enduring horrible pain. Since I could no longer bear the pain I finally agreed to renounce my belief, as they had demanded.

Soon, I was taken to Wanjia Forced Labour Camp, but the officials refused to accept me because a physical exam revealed I had severe cardiac arrhythmias and ischemia. The officials told labour camp official Jiang to send me to Heilongjiang Province Police Hospital for another physical exam, then try again to send me to Wanjia.

While at Wanjia, the guards forced me to squat and denied me sleep to make me "reform²."

They also made practitioners do hard labour. They watched us closely. We had few opportunities to talk among ourselves. They followed us, even when we used the toilet. They beat and kicked us, forced us to stand and squat, used the Big Hang-up [the hands are handcuffed and then pulled from behind the back and hung up on a hook high above the ground. The feet are made to hang just above the floor], electric batons and the Airplane [the practitioner's body is bent at 90 degrees while both hands are outstretched similar to the wings of an airplane. Sometimes a cup of water is put on both hands. If the water is spilled, prison guards will beat the practitioner brutally. See illustration photo at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/9/29/52921.html], among other methods of torture.

Ms. Shi Guizhi, 64, from Shuangcheng City was beaten until her eyes were swollen shut and her face was beyond recognition for saying "Falun Gong is good." Ms. Song Wenjuan from Wuchang was tortured with the Big Hang-up several times a day. She never regained full function of her arms from this torture, even after her release.

The guards also made us do heavy manual labour to make money for them. We worked past 8:00 p.m. and then had to take our work to the cell. I was slow, so I often worked past midnight.

Officials from the Harbin City Labour Re-education Division often came to the labour camp for an inspection. The guards would order us to hide our work; they would curse us if we were slow in concealing it. Officials at both the city office and the labour camp exploit detainees. The city officials turned a blind eye to the violations. One time, the toxic fumes from the disposable slippers we were making for a Sino-Japanese joint enterprise caused reactions on our skin, making it crack, and a large number of us were nauseated and dizzy. Our sentences were extended if we did not finish the assigned workload.

The guards used implication policies against practitioners who publicly announced their renewed determination to practice cultivation. They forced these practitioners to sit on narrow stools, stand or squat, and did not allow them to sleep. They did the same to other detainees held in the same cells. They would tie the punishment of four inmates to one practitioner and punish the four inmates if the practitioner did things such as explaining Falun Gong to people.

Wanjia Forced Labour Camp was disbanded, and CCP agents transferred us to Qianjin Labour Camp, where they would not let us study Falun Gong articles or do the Falun Gong exercises. They conducted strip searches and also rummaged through our clothes and personal belongings looking for Falun Gong related materials. They also regularly tested whether we had memorised the camp rules.

Practitioner Ms. Qi Jinling refused to comply with those in charge, so official Huo Shuping beat her until she was bruised all over and could not get out of bed. Guard Cong Zhili dragged her out of bed and out of the door, claiming she was "feigning illness."

During a meeting on October 1st, 2004, practitioner Ms. Gao Guofeng shouted, "Falun Gong is good!" Division 2 heads Zhang Aihui, Sui Xuemei, and Wang Min and guards Li Peihuan and Wu Baoyun and one male guard from Qianjin Labour Camp violently abused her, which resulted in a gaping wound on her head and injuries all over her body. They locked her in a metal cage afterwards.

I returned home on October 3rd, 2007. I wrote my experience to serve as evidence for the World Organisation to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG). I hope conscientious people around the world will help to end the Chinese Communist Party's violation of human rights and the persecution of Falun Gong, which has lasted more than a decade.

Note: Li Qingmin is the former Party secretary of Yuejin Township and currently an official at the Shuangcheng City Population and Birth Control Commission. Pei Congtai, the former head of Yuejin Township Police Station, is now an official at the Shuangcheng City Detention Centre.

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")

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/9/12/208188.html