Tangshan City Steel Mill Technician Ms. Shao Liyan Suffers Mental Collapse Due to Psychiatric Abuse at Ankang Hospital

Name: Shao Liyan
Gender: Female
Age: 44
Address: Tangshan, Hebei Province
Occupation: Technician of the Tangshan City No. 1 Steel Mill
Date of Most Recent Arrest: October, 2000
Most Recent Place of Detention: Ankang Hospital
City: Tangshan
Province: Hebei
Persecution Suffered: Detention, forced injections/drug administration, psychiatric abuse

Ms. Shao Liyan went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong in 2000. She was later incarcerated at the Ankang [Mental] Hospital, where she was subjected to psychiatric torture and abuse which resulted in her suffering a mental collapse. She has not recovered.

According to another practitioner who was also held at the Ankang Hospital, practitioners' limbs twitched and became numb following forced injections or drugs forcibly administered by mouth, and their minds became sluggish. They encountered overall weakness and restlessness, and were unable to sit down or sleep with ease. Some even fell unconscious.

Ms. Shao was a university graduate. She went everywhere in 1996, searching for a qigong practice that could cure her mother's illness. She was told, "Falun Gong is the best." This chance encounter is how she began practising herself. The practice of Falun Gong enabled her to become physically healthier and elevate her character.

Ms. Shao's appeal for Falun Gong in Beijing in October 2000 resulted in her incarceration and gross abuse and torture at the Tangshan No. 1 Detention Centre, and later incarceration and psychiatric torture and abuse at Ankang Hospital. She was eventually held at the Kaiping Forced Labour Camp where she was tortured to the verge of death in 2001. Camp officials shirked their responsibility and ordered her family to take her home.

Ms. Shao was emaciated and was subjected to physical and mental torment. Her husband was under great pressure and wanted to divorce her, so her brother had to take her to her father's home. Her mother was being held at a detention centre at the time. Ms. Shao's physical health improved after returning home, but her family gradually noticed that her mind was sometimes irrational. She also had a speech disorder, was restless and had trouble sleeping at night, and would sometimes strike at things, like dishes or doors. Her state of mind was sometimes good, and sometimes bad.

When she was clear-minded, she told her family of her experiences being at the Ankang Hospital. She told of her limbs being tied to a bed, making her unable to move, and being injected with unknown drugs. When her mind was unclear, she could not even recognise her parents.

Ankang Hospital is run by the police department, and is supposed to be specifically for treating prisoners and people with drug addictions. However, hospital officials treat Falun Gong practitioners as if they were prisoners or drug addicts, and use toxic substances to destroy practitioners' bodies and minds. Ms. Shao has not recovered, and there is no known cure for her symptoms. Her parents are old, and her adult daughter can't work because she has to take care of her mother at home. On top of this, personnel at the Tangshan No.1 Steel Mill still harass her. Their purpose is to force her to sign the three statements to renounce her belief. She is only paid an 80 yuan¹ monthly income.

To our knowledge, another practitioner, Mr. Song Wenquan, who previously worked where Ms. Shao was also employed, was incarcerated at the Tangshan City No. 5 Mental Hospital after going to Beijing to appeal. He was injected with drugs that damaged his central nervous system, and subjected to high-voltage electric shock on his hands and feet. Two years of psychiatric torture and abuse left him mentally traumatised, with extreme itching all over his body. He left home and went missing shortly after being released in March 2004. His whereabouts are unknown.

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://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/3/19/220045.html