Mr. Wu Zonglun Recounts Years of Persecution in Xianning City, Hubei Province

Name: Wu Zonglun
Gender: Male
Age: Unknown
Address: Xianning City, Hubei Province
Occupation: Unknown

Date of Most Recent Arrest: October 13th, 2003
Most recent place of detention: Shayang Forced Labour Camp, Hubei Province
City: Shayang County at the junction of Qianjiang City and Jingmen City
Province: Hubei
Persecution Suffered: Imprisonment, extortion, brainwashing, beatings, forced labour, home ransacked, interrogation, sleep deprivation.

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Wu Zonglun has been arrested, detained, fined, forced to do hard labour and had his home ransacked, as a result of the persecution of Falun Gong begun by Jiang Zemin, [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] in July 1999.

Below is the first-hand account, written by Mr. Wu, about the persecution he suffered.

1. Arrested and Home Ransacked

On the afternoon of September 2000, I went to distribute materials about Falun Gong and was reported by a driver. An officer with the surname of Wang and his underlings from the Yong'an Police Station, Xian'an District, Xianning City, Hubei Province broke into my home at around 6:00 or 7:00 p.m. They searched me and found Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution of Falun Gong I had not yet distributed. I was arrested and taken to the police station. Shortly after, I was transferred to the Maoershan No. 1 Detention Centre in Xianning City. I was detained there for more than two months and released in November. The Political and Security Section of the district police department extorted 1,800 yuan¹ during my detention and forced me to pay 500 yuan for room and board while detained. My direct economic loss was 2,300 yuan and the indirect loss can't be ascertained.

2. Brainwashing

On February 9th, 2001, Xu Song, the political instructor from the Guanbuqiao Police Station, Xianning City, came to my home and said that the head of the Xian'an District Police Department wanted to see me. I didn't want to go, but he pressured me and so I went with him. He drove me to the gate of the detention centre where Zou Weiguo, head of the police department, was waiting for me. He said that they were holding a brainwashing session. During the brainwashing the officers forced us to watch, listen, and read material that slandered Falun Gong. They also demanded that we renounce Falun Gong and write a guarantee statement to that effect.

3. Being Stalked

On April 5th, 2001, I returned to my hometown. Before reaching there, one of my relatives caught up with me and warned me that officers from the Shuangxi Police Station and the District Police Department were waiting outside my home to arrest me. My mother, in her seventies, was with me and we hid in the mountains. Later, we went to a relative's home and stayed there for a week before returning home.

One day my brother-in-law told me that Zou Weiguo, head of the police station, wanted to see me. I didn't want to go, but my brother-in-law said it should be alright and offered to come along. After arriving at the police station, Zou Weiguo detained me at the No. 2 Detention Centre. I told the guards that I wanted to go home but he ordered an inmate to beat me. The inmate brutally slapped my face and blood came out of my mouth. I was made to do forced labour. Later, when the police station held another brainwashing session, Zou Weiguo forced me to attend, but I refused. I was then transferred to the No. 1 Detention Centre and released on August 3rd. I was not provided a reason for the detention and told that it was because I had visited a practitioner. That was the only "criminal evidence" they came up with. At that time, the police extorted 800 yuan and the detention centre 640 yuan. The two months detention caused the disruption of my business and an economic loss of several thousand yuan.

4. Detained Again

Late one night in 2002, Fan Zhong, head of the Guanbuqiao Police Station, and a group of officers with Wang Tao in charge, came to my home. My wife trusted them and opened the door. They claimed that someone reported that I had distributed Falun Gong materials, and they detained me again. I was released on October 16th. During the detention the Political and Security Section of the police station extorted 500 yuan from my family and the No. 1 Detention Centre demanded 200 yuan. The indirect financial loss from my business was several thousand yuan.

5. Home Ransacked

Since the year 2000 I have been harassed, arrested and my home ransacked by officers and neighbourhood committee members many times. One night in 2000, a group of officers from the Yong'an Police Station broke into my home and claimed that they were checking the household registration. They ransacked my home and confiscated Falun Gong books. One day in 2001, officers, along with Zeng Guohua from the Political and Security Section in the lead, ransacked my home. One day in 2002, a group of officers from the police station, with guards from the detention centre, and a man with the surname Lu in charge, forced their way into my home and ransacked it. On October 8th, 2003, Wang Tao from the Guanbuqiao Police Station, along with his men, broke into my home and ransacked it. In November, 2005, He Liming and Wang Tao from Guanbuqiao Police Station forced their way into my home in an attempt to arrest me. I struggled, and my neighbours came to stop the arrest. The police let me go. In April 2006, officers from the Guanbuqiao Police Station were monitoring my home hoping to arrest me. In 2007, April 2008, prior to the Beijing Olympics, and in April 2009 during the riot in Urumqi City, Xinjiang, officers from the Guanbuqiao Police Station and members of the Nandajie Community Neighbourhood Committee monitored me around the clock. They also harassed and tried to intimidate me, disrupting my family life.

6. Forced Labour and Brainwashing

One evening in October 2003, local practitioners and I went to Jing-Zhu road to hang banners and write messages exposing the persecution of Falun Gong. The next morning one section of the road was covered with banners, which shocked everyone in Xianning City. The following day, officers from the city and district police stations, as well as the Chinese Communist Party officials from different agencies were terrified. I was told that they called in police from other parts of the country and the atmosphere was very tense. The following day, Wang Tao and officers from the Guanbuqiao Police Station searched my home. They found nothing and left.

On the afternoon of October 13th, when I was leaving my home on my bike, He Liming and Wang Tao, from the Guanbuqiao Police Station, not in uniform, grabbed me and tried to pull me to the other side of the street. I struggled to free myself, but without success. They put me into a police car and took me to the Guanbuqiao Police Station. That evening they took me to the No. 1 Detention Centre. My arrest was part of an organised mass arrest of practitioners by city and district police and government officials because of the banners incident. The Guanbuqiao Police Station and the Criminal Detection and the National Security Division set up a special case team. I was interrogated to force a confession that I and other practitioners were involved in the banner incident. On December 19th, the Xian'an District sentenced me two years of forced labour and I was taken to the No. 3 Division of Shayang Forced Labour Camp, Hubei Province, where I was tortured and forced to undergo intense brainwashing.

The day after arriving at the camp I was summoned for a "talk," which in reality was intense brainwashing. This method was more concealed, more insidious and more deceiving. The plan was to bring victims into their traps, and force them to renounce Falun Gong by the end of the day. The contents of the "talk" mainly included discussion about lies made up by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to frame Falun Gong. They also tried to link evil sects with Falun Gong. They jumped to conclusions and slandered our Teacher Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong. They quoted our Teacher out of context and made falsified comments. This brainwashing method included talking, watching video programmes and visiting painting exhibitions.

Many male practitioners who were held at the No. 3 Division since 2000 were subjected to intense pressure to renounce Falun Gong. If the so-called "discussions" failed, the prison guards resorted to brutality. They assigned "personal monitors," which were the most vicious inmates, to torture practitioners. These people were ordered to monitor the practitioners to restrict the practitioners' freedom. They watched practitioners closely and forbade them from talking to one another. They were assigned to pressure the practitioners into renouncing Falun Gong. Practitioners who refused to give up their belief were tortured.

The most vicious torture was the "pedal position." The victim's head, neck, waist and upper body were forced upright, with the body in a squatting position. The left leg was bent at 90 degrees and the right leg tilted to the right with the toes touching the floor, with the weight on the front part of the right foot. The victim's hands were on the knees, with eyes looking straight ahead. When holding this position for a long time, the front right foot and the toes of the right foot would become numb. Some could take this torture method for thirty minutes, while others couldn't. After remaining in this position for some time, the pain would increase and one could no longer straighten up. The personal monitors forced the practitioners to hold this position for a long time. From time to time they kicked and punched the practitioners on the back to keep them in the upright position. When the victim could bear the pain no longer, the monitors threatened to continue the torture unless the practitioner renounced Falun Gong.

Another torture method was sleep deprivation. The "aides," which are former practitioners who renounced Falun Gong and were now involved in the torture of practitioners, along with the personal monitors, divided into two shifts to watch each practitioner around the clock. There were two aides, along with the monitors, on each shift trying to brainwash the practitioner. This continued until the practitioner was exhausted, could not distinguish day from night, and was delirious. One session could last for ten days. When some victims were mentally and physically suffering unbearable torture they unwillingly renounced Falun Gong. I was one of them. For that I feel extremely remorseful. Those who pressed me to renounce Falun Gong were disciplinary guard Wei Peng and personal monitor Li Bing.

After renouncing the practice, practitioners are forced to follow orders and not allowed to show any sign of discontent, hatred, or any other emotion. Otherwise, the "aides" and the personal monitors continue the mistreatment until they think the practitioners have passed their standards.

After the intense brainwashing there is the so-called studying, which was an even more intense type of brainwashing. Those who renounced their belief are forced to undergo a systematic brainwashing with wider-ranging content. Besides the general "talks" the victims are brainwashed about many aspects of society, family, affection, law, science and technology, as well as qigong. This was to stop the practitioner from believing in qigong, and cultivation and believe only in science.

If the practitioners refuse to give up their cultivation they are put under strict control, and monitored around the clock. They are accused of not being good persons and of being a source of unrest for their families, work units, government and the country. Victims who were forced to give up their beliefs and cultivation, and did things in line with the guards' requirements were treated well, allowed to sleep, and the intense pressure and constant supervision was reduced. During this thirty-plus days of brainwashing, practitioners were forced to write reports slandering Falun Gong, and weekly, so-called ideological reports. Even when the practitioners who had renounced Falun Gong were released, they still had to write reports slandering Falun Gong.

In the forced labour camp, all the detainees must do slave labour while undergoing brainwashing, and they were always tired. They were soaked with sweat but still ordered to work harder by the supervisors, who were drug addicts.

During the later part of my time at the No. 3 Division, the guards became more lax in monitoring practitioners. Therefore, practitioners wrote solemn statements declaring their intention to resume practising Falun Gong. In writing reports I did not slander Falun Gong, but instead wrote words to safeguard Falun Gong. The guards and the personal monitors were very shocked. As a result I was forced to go through brainwashing once again. I was taken to the "strict control group" and tortured with the "pedal position" method, and forced to compromise again. I dared not make a solemn statement until I was released. This time the persecutors who forced me to write a "disassociation statement" included officer Yu Bangqing and drug addicts Wang Qingjiu and Jiang Jijun.

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/2010/1/1/215435.html