Ms. Huang Yanzhen's Story: Arrested Seven Times and Brutally Tortured for Practising Falun Gong

Name: Huang Yanzhen
Gender: Female
Age: Unknown
Address: Shuangcheng City, Heilongjiang Province
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: October 8th, 2004
Most recent place of detention: Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison
City: Harbin
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Detention, Brainwashing, Beatings, Extortion, Torture, Imprisonment, Solitary Confinement, Physical Constraint, Force-Feedings, Drug Administration, Forced Injections

Ms. Huang Yanzhen from Shuangcheng City, Heilongjiang Province, started to practise Falun Gong in 1997, and she was cured of numerous diseases within only a few months. During the past several years, however, she was arrested seven times because of her practice. During her detention, she was subjected to brutal tortures and was on the verge of death numerous times. Below is her account of the maltreatment she went through during these years.

Two days after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to persecution Falun Gong openly on July 20th, 1999, the local authorities came and knocked on my door in the middle of the night. They wanted me to turn in my Falun Gong books and give up my cultivation. With a firm and unwavering belief in Falun Gong, I refused to open the door and I vowed to never allow them take away my books.

The next morning they came again and still, I didn't co-operate with them. Later, they gathered everyone at the village committee and asked which one of us practise Falun Gong. I thought at the moment that I couldn't deny the fact that I am a Falun Gong practitioner. So I stood up and said that I am a Falun Gong practitioner. Everyone laughed at me immediately, believing me to be stupid to admit to the authorities that I was a practitioner. Even though my understanding was not very developed, I knew clearly that Falun Gong teaches people to be good and follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. There is nothing wrong with my cultivation and I should of course practise Falun Gong openly.

Arrested Seven Times

I decided to go to Beijing to appeal. My son feared that I could be persecuted so he did everything in his power to prevent me from going to Beijing. Nothing could shake my determination though. My son then reported me to the village leaders hoping they could make me change my mind. He also requested that the village leaders and he take turns watching me.

Despite the interference and pressures, I was able to go to Beijing in May 2000. From then on, I became a primary target for persecution. The local authorities sent me to the Shuangcheng City Detention Centre, where I was held for eighteen days and they tried to force me to go through brainwashing sessions and write guarantee statements to renounce Falun Gong. I went on a hunger strike for six days. They couldn't achieve their goal and had to release me.

I went to Beijing again on December 12th, 2000 and was arrested for the second time. I was sent to a detention centre in a suburb of Beijing, where I got to know another detained practitioner from Shaanxi Province. She was a teacher. Since the two of us kept shouting "Falun Gong is good and there's nothing wrong with practising Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance," we were brutally beaten by the police. After midnight, they drove us to the countryside and dumped us there.

After I returned to my village, I bought a lot of colourful construction paper on which I wrote with a brush "Falun Gong is good." Then I posted them up everywhere in my village.

One day I was posting up signs in Zhiye Village when someone reported me to the police. Na Zhenkuan and another man knocked me down and kept kicking my chest with their heavy leather shoes. Later, I heard someone yell, "She's going to die!" Only then did the two men stop kicking and then took me to Shuangcheng City Detention Centre, where I was kept for seventeen days.

Not long after that, some practitioners and I decided to go to Beijing again to appeal against the persecution of Falun Gong. We were intercepted at the Shuangcheng City Rail Station. One of the men was Wu Zhongge and he gave me two hard punches on my right eye. I immediately felt as though my eye was going to fall out. One can never imagine the excruciating pain I experienced. They took us to the Xiqin Police Station, where the police beat us savagely. One practitioner passed out due to the beatings. As soon has he regained consciousness, the police cuffed our hands to a heating pipe. We went on a hunger strike for four days and they finally released us.

The night I returned to my village, Zhang Yanwu, Guan Xiaojun and Liu Zhongli took turns beating my head and face, which caused me to have numerous bruises and excruciating pain. On January 17th, 2001, Wang Jiwen, the Xiqin Village legal section head, dragged me out of my home and took me to the Xiqin Police Station. The next day, they transferred me to the Shuangcheng City Detention Centre. This was the fourth time I was arrested and no reason was ever given for my detention. They didn't release me until more than three months later and after they extorted 2,700 yuan¹ from my family.

I was arrested again on March 3rd, 2002, while distributing Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution. Guan Futong and Liu Zhongli forcefully took me to the Xiqin Police Station before the police there took me straight to the Shuangcheng City Police Department. I was then transferred from there to the Shuangcheng City Detention Centre, where I went through four months of torture. The guards took me to the Wanjia Labour Camp on June 18th, 2002. I shouted "Falun Gong is good" and the labour camp guards put me through various tortures. I eventually passed out and they couldn't detect any blood pressure. At around 2:00 a.m. or 3:00 a.m., they took me to the hospital.

The next day, they called my family wanting 600 yuan before they would release me. After I returned home, in order to awaken the world's people I wore a badge reading Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance on my coat and went to street fairs in various villages.

Sentenced to Seven Years for Exposing the Persecution of Falun Gong

I was distributing CDs exposing the persecution of Falun Gong in the Tongxin Village in August 2004 when a villager reported me to the police. For the sixth time, I was sent to the Shuangcheng City Detention Centre. Because I passed out upon arrival and was found to have very high blood pressure, they released me home after midnight that day.

I was distributing informational materials in Wujia Town on October 8th, 2004 when I was reported and arrested again. For the seventh time, I was sent to the Shuangcheng Police Department. After being held in the detention centre for two months, I was sentenced to seven years on December 22nd, 2004 and ordered to serve time in the Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison.

The prison guards utilised criminals to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. More than a dozen criminals monitored me around the clock. Every night at 8 o'clock, the guards came to do roll call and they wanted me to also put my hands around my head when my name was called. I am a person cultivating Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, how could I be treated like a criminal?

Therefore, instead of following the guards' orders, I shouted "Falun Gong is good and there is nothing wrong to cultivate Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance." Those criminals held me down and showered me with punches and kicks. Later when the guards did roll call again, I still answered, "Falun Gong is the best." Once more, they gave me a severe beating. But the more they beat me, the more I shouted, "Falun Gong is good." They gave up on beating me into submission and put in a solitary confinement cell. At that time, it was very cold and there was no heat in the cell. I could see frost everywhere on the four walls. There was no bed or any coverings in the confinement cell. The criminals cuffed my hands behind my back to an iron ring on the floor.

I went on a hunger strike to protest and the guards ordered criminals to force feed me with drugs. They pried open my mouth with a tool, to the maximum they could go. I felt as though my mouth and head were split open. The days there were long. However, no matter how they tortured me, I held my firm belief in Falun Gong. I practised the Falun Gong exercises.

Once the prison head spotted me practising the exercises, and then he ordered criminals to "transform" [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] me. They tried to read me a slanderous book, and I stopped them, "You can't 'transform' me no matter what." The criminals swarmed at me and beat me. While they kept beating me, I never stopped shouting "Falun Gong is good." Later the prison head asked the criminals to seal my mouth with tape and they forcefully injected me with drugs, which damaged my central nervous system. Since I was given these drug more than once, I became muddle-headed and disoriented. My memory deteriorated and I suffered from bad headaches. One day I even passed out due to a severe headache.

The guards saw that I was in danger and took me to the prison hospital. The hospital director Zhao Yingling asked criminal Wang Xinhua to keep an eye on me. Every time Wang spotted me practising the exercises, she hit my head. As a result, my head bled and I passed out. Wang Xinhua beat me numerous times for practising the exercises. I had bumps everywhere on my head and I felt pain all over my body. I also had great difficulty walking around. Once Zhao Yingling came to check on me, and I told her that Wang Xinhua had beaten me. Zhao replied, "We'll beat you every time you practise the exercises."

Several days later my son came to see me at the hospital. Fearing that my son would find out about my beatings, Zhao Yingling deceived him saying, "Your mother does not want to see you." As a result, my son had to return home without being able to see me. As a matter of fact, I was never told about my son's visiting. Later, the doctor at the Heilongjiang Provincial Hospital gave me a CT scan and found that I had a haemorrhage in my brain and a bad heart problem. I could die at any moment. On December 20th, 2007, the prison informed my family to come pick me up for medical parole, on the condition that they pay 2,000 yuan before my release.

Note

1. "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/2009/11/26/213320.html