Tang Xuexian, 50, Severely Persecuted and Tortured over the Past Five Years

Name: Tang Xuexian
Gender: Male
Age: 50
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Director of the Improved Variety Sow Reproduction Centre

Date of Most Recent Arrest: June 25th, 2002
Most recent place of detention: Wangling Prison in You County
City: Zhuzhou
Province: Hunan
Persecution Suffered: Detention, beatings, interrogation, extortion, home ransacked, brainwashing, forced labour, sleep deprivation, hung up by handcuffs, electric shocks, forced injections.

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Tang Xuexian previously worked for the Bureau of Animal Husbandry. During the past ten years of the persecution of Falun Gong, he has been arrested seven times and detained in prison for a total of five years. He was tortured in the Changsha Prison and Wangling Prison. Mr. Tang was released two years ago, and was recently fired by his employer.

1. Learning about Falun Gong

Mr. Tang learned about Falun Gong in August 1996. Soon after he began practising Falun Gong, his illnesses, including pharyngitis, hepatitis, headaches, back pains, sciatica and colitis, disappeared.

2. Appealing for Falun Gong

Mr. Tang went to Beijing on December 31st, 1999, to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. He was arrested and locked up in the Tiananmen Square Police Station, where officers slapped and punched him. Many other practitioners were incarcerated as well. On February 16th, 2000, Mr. Tang was transferred back to Lanshan County and incarcerated in a detention centre. During the 105 days of his incarceration, Luo Shecheng and Huang Xiaolan interrogated and tried to force him to write a statement stating that he would never practise Falun Gong again. Guards and prisoners beat and tortured him many times. The food he received was spoiled with mould. The guards took 600 yuan¹ from him before letting him out of the detention centre. He was emaciated from the torture and mistreatment.

3. Harassment Continued

After the persecution started, Peng Liangbao, head of the Animal Husbandry Bureau, went to Mr. Tang's house many times to force him to hand over Falun Gong books and videos. Peng later attempted to force him to give up the practice of Falun Gong and reveal the names of other practitioners, but Mr. Tang refused.

At 6:00 a.m. on July 20th, 2000, Luo, Liao Ruixi and Yang Tongbao arrested Mr. Tang and his wife in front of their apartment, while they were doing the Falun Gong exercises. The couple was accused of joining an illegal organisation and was detained 15 days. They had to pay 100 yuan before they were released.

On December 18th, 2000, Mr. Tang and his wife went to a practitioner's shop to buy rice. Right after they arrived, Luo, Liao, and Yang appeared and arrested the four of them. The four practitioners had to write statements promising not to go to Beijing to appeal, and Mr. Tang's house was searched.

One night in January 2001, Liao, Luo, Yang and Huang broke into and searched Mr. Tang's house, but found nothing and left.

On the morning of January 20th, 2001, Luo and Yang took Mr. Tang to the police station. He refused to write a statement and was detained, having to leave his 15-yea- old son alone at home. On February 1st, he was released, after being forced to pay 80 yuan.

In the afternoon of March 8th, 2001, Peng, along with several officers, broke into Mr. Tang's home, and took him to the county detention centre. At the same time, his wife was locked up in a forced labour camp. Mr. Tang was put in a brainwashing centre, which was organised by Cao Wende and Li Xiaoxing, the secretary and deputy secretary of the Political Legal Commission, which was run by Li Mingshen and Wang Fashun from the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong). During this twenty-day class, practitioners were monitored around the clock and had to listen to Wang's speeches defaming Falun Gong. Practitioners held a hunger strike in protest, and nine days later the session was dismissed because the staff feared that practitioners could die while under their supervision.

4. Sentenced and Tortured

On July 25th, 2002, police officer Chen Xuewei arrested Mr. Tang because he had Falun Gong materials on his scooter. He was detained for 21 days and then released. On the morning of August 23rd, Hu Xiwu from the Animal Husbandry Bureau went to Mr. Tang's house using the excuse to check his water meter. As soon as the door was opened, several officers broke in and arrested him.

On September 30th, 2002, Chen Xin, Tang Zhuguo and Huang Junxin, from the Lanshan Court, secretly sentenced Mr. Tang to five years in prison in the detention centre with no other people present. Mr. Tang appealed at the Yongzhou Intermediate Court, but his case was not processed. On October 21st, Wang from the 610 Office and Li Jinsong took Mr. Tang to Changshan Prison.

Mr. Tang held a hunger strike in the prison. Warden Wang Huixiang and collaborator² Luo (first name unknown) nonetheless forced him to do eight hours of hard labour every day. Three prisoners took turns monitoring him around the clock. He was not allowed to talk to others nor do the exercises. Every Tuesday and Thursday Mr. Tang had to attend a brainwashing session.

On March 7th, 2003, guards took Mr. Tang to the Third Ward to persecute him further. Warden Hu Gang and collaborator Tian Sheng forced him to do 14 hours of hard labour each day, from 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Other than brief meal times, he was not allowed to rest. Prisoners Yang Jianhui, Zhu Qingliang, Hu Zhanghua, Hu Xiaogang and Zhu (first name unknown) were ordered to monitor him around the clock and beat him if he did not follow the rules.

One evening in September 2003, Mr. Tang did the sitting meditation on his bed. Five collaborators (prisoners) poured cold water on him, covered him with a blanket, and fiercely beat him. Two collaborators pulled him off the bed and continued beating him. Four collaborators grabbed his arms and legs, lifted him up and threw him down. This was repeated many times and his buttocks and back were in excruciating pain from hitting the ground.

Hu Zhanghua later instigated other collaborators to drag Mr. Tang to the bath, attempting to drown him. After seeing there wasn't enough water in the water tank, they dragged him out of the bathroom and two collaborators forced him to run, pushing him from behind. Mr. Tang fell and hit his head on a door frame. He passed out immediately, and needed six stitches on his head.

Irregardless of Mr. Tang's condition, Hu Gang and Tian ordered a prisoner to carry him to an office. They verbally abused him and forced him to sit in the office, not allowing him to rest. A prisoner told him afterward that he was bleeding a lot in that office. The next day, they forced him to perform hard labour again.

Guard Tian instigated prisoner Yang to disturb Mr. Tang during his sleep by pulling his blanket and his legs. When he did the exercises, Yang repeatedly slapped him.

In September 2004, Mr. Tang was transferred to the Wangling Prison in You County, Zhuzhou City. The water used in the prison came directly from a fish pond. Every year from November to January, there was a limited supply of water that could be used. In January, to ensure that enough water was available for production, twenty people were allowed only two buckets of water per day for washing their faces and dishes. The guards forced everyone to use this water for cleaning dishes in order to ensure that the prison stayed clean. Nonetheless, the hygiene in the prison was awful. Every summer, bedbugs were everywhere. On an average there were over 1,000 bedbugs on each bed. Many prisoners had anaemia, were thin, and looked pale.

The food served in prison was bad and goods sold in the prison canteen were expensive, and most were of inferior quality.

Collaborators in the first brigade, Peng (first name unknown), Liu Sheng, Wu Hongwei, and Peng Chunsheng forced Mr. Tang to perform hard labour for dozens of hours. Prisoner Shen Jianjun monitored him around the clock. Wu often slapped and punched him and told him that no one knew about the abuse he was experiencing.

5. Brutal Brainwashing

In May 2005, the guards in the First Brigade started to "transform [forcibly renounce Falun Gong]" Mr. Tang. They first had Li (first name unknown), a union chairperson, brainwash him for two hours and try to force him to write what was on his mind. The guards ordered prisoners Shen and Yuan Yang to keep a close eye on him. Mr. Tang refused to write anything and the two prisoners deprived him of sleep.

The guards then forced him to read books that slandered Falun Gong every night for a week. He had to write what he learned from the books, otherwise they did not allow him to sleep, and they still had him perform forced labour the next morning.

The third step was forcing Mr. Tang to admit that he was wrong for practising Falun Gong. Every night prisoners Shen and Yuan attempted to force him to memorise the prison rules, and when he refused to do so, he was beaten. Ten days later collaborator Peng Chunsheng insulted Mr. Tang by saying that he was worse than an animal because he did not think about his wife and child. Peng also threatened to kill Mr. Tang and bury him in the back of the prison.

The fourth step was torture. In May, Wu Hongwei punched Mr. Tang, causing his nose to bleed profusely. Wu and Liu Sheng stripped him and handcuffed him to a window frame. They used electric batons to shock his neck, ears, arm pits, arms, palms, and other sensitive areas, until the electric baton battery was depleted. The guards charged the batons and continued to shock him. Mr. Tang had difficulty breathing due to extreme pain from hours of torture with electric shocks. Both his ears were scorched, his neck was as swollen to the size of his head, and his arm pits and chest were burned and severely swollen as well. Guards then cuffed him to a bed frame for five hours.

Peng later instigated Shen, Yuan, and the prison doctor to inject Mr. Tang with unknown drugs for an entire week. This caused his physical condition to severely deteriorate. They tried to force him to wear prison clothes, but he refused, and they tore off all his clothes.

Mr. Tang refused to give up Falun Gong, and guards Peng and Wu instigated prisoner Yuan to torture him at night. When he fell asleep, Yuan jumped on him and held him down with the weight of his body. Yuan first held his elbow against Mr. Tang's chest to hurt and suffocate him. Then Yuan pressed his knee down into his groin. Later, Yuan took off Mr. Tang's trousers and pinched and pulled his penis. The pain was excruciating. Yuan pulled out all his pubic hair and stuffed it in Mr. Tang's mouth. In the end, Yuan fiercely punched his left temple a dozen times, causing him to become dizzy. Mr. Tang's left temple was very swollen, and as a result he could not open his left eye. A prisoner told Yuan that this might kill Mr. Tang, and Yuan finally stopped.

Mr. Tang could not get up the next day, and he could hardly use the toilet in the afternoon. Three days later guard Peng made him resume forced labour.

Note

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

2. "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://minghui.org/mh/articles/2009/12/21/214775.html