Ms. Wang Wanrong Upholds Her Belief Despite Relentless Pressure, Brainwashing and Torture

Ms. Wang Wanrong, 55, went to Beijing in 1999 to appeal for Falun Gong. She and her family were then targeted for persecution by personnel from the 610 Office¹ at the Oil Well Drilling Company in Nanyang City. Ms. Wang's husband was forced to divorce her. She was later sent to a brainwashing centre, to the Nanzhao Detention Centre, and to the Xinxiang Women's Prison.

Ms. Wang, a resident in Jianheqiao No. 2 District, Nanyang Oilfield, was a former employee of the Well Cementation Team at the Oil Well Drilling Company. She suffered from many illnesses, including anaemia, gastritis, enteritis, nephritis, mastitis, heart disease as well as an appendix cyst. No matter what medications she took, she did not get better. During 1997 Ms. Wang started to practise Falun Gong. Six months later her mastitis and heart disease symptoms disappeared, while her other illnesses improved. By July 20th, 1999, when the persecution began, all her illnesses had disappeared. Falun Gong saved her life.

1. Went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong but was detained--610 Office agents from her workplace extorted money from her

On July 20th, 1999, Jiang Zemin's, [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] regime started the persecution of Falun Gong, and Ms. Wang went to the Beijing Office of Letters and Appeals to petition. She wanted to let the regime leaders know that Falun Gong teaches people to be kind, and that it is a very good cultivation way that has miraculous healing effects. She also wanted to let them know that Falun Gong was beneficial to the country and to society, and has no harmful effects.

She found that the Appeals Office resembled a police station. No one was allowed to talk about Falun Gong. She saw with her own eyes that anyone who mentioned Falun Gong was dragged into a police vehicle and taken away. She returned home.

Once home again, she was accused of "disrupting the social order" and sent to the Oil Field Police Department by personnel from 610 Office at her workplace. She was sent to the Tanghe Detention Centre on December 30th, 1999 and incarcerated for a month.

Upon her release the police ordered her to pay 3,000 yuan² for "bail" and another 3,000 yuan to the 610 Office. Her employers did not pay her December salary and annual year-end bonus. They also dismissed her. According to the company's policy, if an employee is retrenched, she should be compensated one month salary for every year of service and would be paid 200 yuan per month of living expenses. But she got none of that.

610 Office agents at the Oil Well Drilling Company also implicated her husband. Her husband was ordered to return from his workplace in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region and he was forbidden from working any more. Her husband sought out the company's leader and Jia Songmin, head of the 610 Office, and requested to go back to work. They didn't agree until May 2000. They ordered her husband to go to Xinjiang for work and told him to take Ms. Wang with him.　

Once in Xinjiang, the company leaders refused to allow Ms. Wang's husband to work. They said, "You watch over your wife!" Two months later they had to come back, together with staff people who were rotated (in Xinjiang, the staff was rotated every two years). They stayed there for two months and didn't earn a single penny, but spent more than 2,000 yuan on travelling expenses. Her husband was angry.

In late November 2000, the fourth day after the couple returned home, Jia Songmin, head of the 610 Office, led a security division chief and administration clerk, along with team leader Chen Gongsheng, to Ms. Wang's house to extort ten thousand yuan from them as a "deposit." Her husband said they had already paid 6,000 yuan and asked why they should hand over another 10,000 yuan. Jia Songmin answered it was to deter her from appealing for Falun Gong, from attending any gatherings, and from participating in any Falun Gong related activities. If she did any of these, the money would not be returned. Jia Songmin said, "If you won't hand over the money, you will forever be banned from returning to work." Her husband kicked her twice and said angrily, "For you I have suffered too much. We must divorce." She didn't want to implicate her husband and agreed. She now has no one to depend on.

2. Brainwashing centre officials try to force Ms. Wang to give up her cultivation--She left home and became homeless to avoid further persecution

610 Office officials from the Oil Field Bureau in Henan Province urged all personnel of the various subordinate 610 Offices in February 2001 to investigate all the people who had once practised Falun Gong and make them write a guarantee statement to renounce Falun Gong. All practitioners who refused to denounce Falun Gong were sent to brainwashing centre to undergo forced "transformation." Ms. Wang was arrested at her home on February 24th, 2001 by Guo Huaiqian, from the 610 Office, and sent to a brainwashing centre set up at a technology school. She was incarcerated there for more than five months.

While at the brainwashing centre, each workplace sent two family members to "monitor" every practitioner around the clock. The practitioners were forced to watch video programs, which slandered Falun Gong. The personnel also tried to force practitioners to write a guarantee statement. The practitioners were forbidden from contacting one another and prevented from studying the Falun Gong teachings or doing the Falun Gong exercises. At the later stage, those who refused to "transform" got no food. Their regular daily food consisted of a packet of instant noodles. Ms. Wang had to eat instant noodles for 38 days. She was then transferred to another brainwashing centre located at a politics and law school in Nanyang City for a month. While there, besides being forced to watch slanderous videos, collaborators³ were there to help in "reforming" steadfast practitioners. The situation was more tense, and each practitioner had two escorts who monitored them around the clock.

These "escorts" prevented the practitioners from talking to one another; forbade them to do the exercises, and also tagged along when the practitioners went to the washroom. They also physically attacked the practitioners who refused to be "transformed."

Four days after Ms. Wang's release the 610 Office head ordered her to attend the second-term brainwashing session. She left home to avoid being persecuted.

3. Arrested by police in Nanzhao City and detained for more than two months

In Nanyang, Ms. Wang lived with another practitioner in a rental home. That practitioner was arrested while explaining the persecution and Falun Gong to people, and couldn't tolerate the torture. This woman led police to arrest Ms. Wang on May 8th, 2002. Ms. Wang was sent to the Nanzhao County Police Station and was held in a small, reeking and dark room. The captors didn't give her anything to eat for two days.

At five o'clock on the third day, police officer Miao Xiaopeng took Ms. Wang to the office and tortured her with a metal rod. Ms. Wang was handcuffed and forced to sit on the floor, with her lower legs in an upright position, and her handcuffed arms around her legs. A one metre-long (3 ft.) metal rod was inserted from her left arm (above the elbow), through her legs (under the knees), and beyond the right arm (above the elbow). Two people then lifted up two ends of the metal rod and put the ends on two desks, suspending Ms. Wang in the air. Her thighs were tight against her belly, her legs and hands were up, and her head was down.

Four police officers interrogated her. They poured water on her face, and beat her face and head with their palms and fists. Ms. Wang's whole face was black and blue. When she was almost losing consciousness, they released her for a little while and then suspended her again. She was repeatedly tortured like this for more than five hours.

When they released her, the persecutors often beat her back with rope, making it black and blue. Ms. Wang could no longer walk. They held her by the arms and dragged her to walk around in the room. Finally, when they found that they still could not succeed in forcing Ms. Wang to denounce Falun Gong, they dragged her to a police wagon and took her back to the Nanzhao County Detention Centre.

At first, Ms. Wang couldn't get up from the bed. The supervisor there struck her in the head with a shoe sole and shouted, "Who struck you?" She beat her more than twenty times and didn't stop until she was almost out of breath. Ms. Wang's body was swollen even two months later, but suddenly the swelling subsided. Practitioner Wang became skeleton-like. The detention centre authorities were afraid of her dying there and ordered her employers to take her back. Her ex-husband had remarried.

4. Ms. Want was sent to a brainwashing centre and arrested again by Nanyang police

The 610 Office head at Ms. Wang's head office, accompanied by eight others, broke into her home on July 10th, 2003, and took her to a brainwashing centre. Ms. Wang told them, "My son and his girlfriend just came back yesterday. Please let me take care of them for several days." Party Committee head Wang Lingkui refused her request. He ordered the others to take her to the brainwashing centre within the day. They carried Ms. Wang to their car and took her to the Politics and Law School in Nanzhao County. In two months and ten days, they were unable to force Ms. Wang to denounce Falun Gong. They then sent her to the Nanzhao Detention Centre and sentenced her to three years in prison. Ms. Wang was transferred to the Xinxiang Women's Prison in Henan Province in late July 2004.

5. Grossly abused at the Xinxiang Women's Prison

The guards sent Ms. Wang to the prison hospital for "transformation," to a room with four beds. Ms.Wang's bed was in the middle. Three collaborators occupied the other three beds. Li, who was responsible for persecuting Falun Gong, was in charge of "reforming" Ms. Wang. She ordered the "reformed" practitioners to watch Ms. Wang, not let her do the Falun Gong exercises, force her to read articles slandering Falun Gong, and force Ms. Wang to write "thought reports." If she couldn't meet their requirements, they would not let her sleep, not even let close her eyes.

The persecutors often cursed and beat Ms. Wang. They rotated four groups of people to try to "reform" her in fifty days. In the end, they found it was impossible to make her denounce Falun Gong. She was then sent to do hard labour in a clothing workshop in the Second Prison District. As Ms. Wang insisted on practising Falun Gong at night, they transferred her into an isolated, small cell.

Her daily food consisted of half a steamed bun and a few bits of salted vegetables. In the severe winter, they forced Ms. Wang sit on the ground in stillness for three hours. Her first period of incarceration in the isolation room lasted a month.

After being sent back to the Second District, the guards set up a special "reform" group, with two collaborators and two prisoners working together to try to make her give in. The group was under the leadership of two prison supervisors who were in charge of persecuting Falun Gong. One team took the day shift, the other the night shift. They didn't let Ms. Wang sleep much. Taking turns, they read articles slandering Falun Gong and forced her to write "thought reports." If she refused to write, they forced her to stand against a wall or sit still on a small stool. If she wanted to move even a bit, they would hold her tightly.

Once a prisoner slapped Ms. Wang's face more than ten times. They also invited people who specialised in "reforming" practitioners in Zhengzhou to try to brainwash Ms. Wang. Nonetheless she still refused to denounce her belief more than a month later. Her captors became nervous. Late one night they forced a pen into Ms. Wang's hand, and they tried to force her to sign a statement. Using all her strength, Ms. Wang broke the penpoint. The persecutors held her to the ground while boxing and kicking her.

Ms. Wang was then sent to the Ninth Ward. She practised the exercises at night, and a guard on duty saw it. She was again locked into the small isolation cell. This time she stayed there for 82 days. As she persisted in practising Falun Gong, they handcuffed her from behind, even during sleep, with one of her hands affixed to the headboard. A guard went to the isolated cell to force her to write a weekly repentance statement and threaten her, saying she would never be released from the cell unless she wrote the statement.

Ms. Wang held a hunger strike for eight days and was sent to the Third Ward. She was released on June 23rd, 2006, when her term was up. People from her company's 610 Office brought her back, and the company arranged for two people to monitor her.

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. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

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

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2009/8/11/206295.html