The Persecution of Older Practitioner Miao Maoling at the Qinghai Province Women's Forced Labour Camp

Name: Miao Maoling
Gender: Female
Age: Over 50 years old
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Retired

Date of Most Recent Arrest: August 27th, 2002
Most recent place of detention: Qinghai Province Women's Forced Labour Camp
City: Xining City
Province: Qinghai Province
Persecution Suffered: Detention, re-education through labour, home ransacked, beatings, electric shock, torture, forced labour

Ms. Miao Maoling was a retired worker from the Xining City Train Station. She was sentenced to forced labour twice, imprisoned for three years, forced to endure brainwashing sessions for several months, harassed by police officials on numerous occasions, and her home was ransacked several times. She was severely injured, both emotionally and physically.

When Falun Gong was first ruthlessly slandered by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Ms. Miao went to appeal for Falun Gong in front of the Qinghai government office building. At about 10:00 a.m. on the morning of July 22nd, she was taken to the provincial stadium by Public Security Bureau staff. Then, she was taken back home by officers from local police station after going through the so called "registration for inspection." Since then, Ms. Miao has been continuously harassed by the Eastern City Division of the Public Security Bureau, the Dazhong Street local police station, the Neighbourhood Committee, Xining Train Station Public Security Division and the security office of her former work place.

On February 8th, 2000, Miao Maoling went to Beijing to appeal again for Falun Gong. When she arrived at the Tianshui Train Station in Gansu Province, Public Security Bureau staff arrested her along with ten other practitioners, and detained them in the Tainshui Train Station's local police station for a day and night. Later, officials from the Xining Train Station's Public Security Division detained her for another 24 hours. From then on, the persecution of Ms. Miao became more brutal. Her husband proposed a divorce because he could not bear such persecution, and was afraid that the CCP would take away his job and harm their children. Due to the CCP's persecution, her husband lost a promotion at the Xining Train Station, when the train station Public Security Division ruthlessly interfered and announced that his promotion was invalid because his wife practised Falun Gong. The CCP's severe persecution caused the loss of family resources, and extreme psychological stress.

On March 20th, 2000, Ms. Miao travelled to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong again. She went to Tiananmen Square to express her intentions, since the appeals office was surrounded by plainclothes policemen. However, she was arrested immediately by officers on the square, and taken to the Tiananmen Square local police station. On March 26th, the manager of her workplace forcefully took Ms. Miao back to her province. Her home was ransacked, and all of her Falun Gong materials were confiscated. On the afternoon of March 27th, she was taken to the Qinghai Province Women's Forced Regulation Team (the predecessor of the notorious Qinghai Province Women's Forced Labour Camp) and sentenced for the first time, to a one-year term. At the forced labour camp, she was shocked with electric batons, suffered physical torture, intense labour, three months of military training, and overexposure to the sun in the heat of summer.

Some time after Ms. Miao was released from her first term at the labour camp, at midnight on August 27th, 2002, officials from the political security office of the Easter City Public Security Division entered and searched her home. They found several Falun Gong books, then arrested her, and took her to the Xining City Detention Centre on the afternoon of August 28th. On September 19th, 2002, Ms. Miao was sentenced to a two-year term at a forced labour camp.

At about 2:00 p.m. on September 20th at the forced labour camp, Miao Maoling was brutally beaten by two inmates who were drug addicts. Each of them pulled one of her arms and forced them behind her back. At that time, she was on a hunger strike to protest the persecution and was very weak. She called for help as she was being beaten, but the inmates stuffed a towel into her mouth, nearly suffocating her. Three people pushed her to the ground, then two of them sat on her back so that she could not lift her head, while an inmate with the last name of Meng pulled up on her hair and pushed the towel into her mouth again. Ms. Miao could not breathe, and lost consciousness. This torture left her with a damaged trachea and persistent coughing; her chest was injured and in pain for over two months.

At about 2:00 p.m. on November 9th, 2002, Xiang Jianmei, chief officer of the local police station asked Ms. Miao how she was doing. She said that the drug addicts almost killed her. Xiang replied, "It is the right thing to do to kill you."

In November of 2002, Ms. Miao was taken to the team leader's office. There were over a dozen policemen in the office. She did not co-operate with the requirement to wear a badge while being subjected to re-education through forced labour, so they used two electric batons to shock her all over her body. Then, they beat and kicked her. A policewoman with the last name of Duan kicked her hard on the right side of her back, using the point of her high-heeled shoe. Ms. Miao immediately lost her breath.

At about 2:00 p.m. on December 18th, 2002, Zhang Wenjing, the political instructor at the time, forced four practitioners including Miao Maoling, Tan Yingchun, Chen Jiping and Li Yuanping to run or stand still. After that, Ms. Miao was taken to a third floor office by policewomen Zhang Wenjing and Liu Xia. Zhang forced Ms. Miao to remove her cotton coat, then handcuffed her hands behind her back. Zhang kicked her, then Zhang and Liu each used an electric baton to shock both sides of her spine for 10 minutes. Her head involuntarily struck the floor again and again, and after the shock treatment, her head was covered with bruises. Due to the electric shocks, Ms. Miao's mouth was filled with foam, the skin on her back was burned and she was in extreme pain. She was beaten and shocked to the extent that her her body was completely covered with injuries. After the electric batons lost their charge, Liu went to recharge them. Then, they shocked her ears until they were severely swollen.

From that moment on, Miao Maoling's memory started to deteriorate. At times, she experienced dizzy spells. The electric shock to her spine also injured her abdomen, causing pain for several months.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2009/11/10/212324.html