Mr. Zhao Shuaiqing, Scheduled to Be Released from Prison Two Years Ago, Is Missing

Name: Zhao Shuaiqing
Gender: Male
Age: 35
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Office director at Zhuzhou City Financial and Political Bureau, Hunan Province
Date of Most Recent Arrest: 2000
Most Recent Place of Detention: Wangling Prison, Hunan Province
City: Wangling
Province: Hunan
Persecution Suffered: Electric shock, sleep deprivation, forced labour, brainwashing, beatings, torture, denial of toilet use

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Zhao Shuaiqing, born in 1975, was a former office director at the Zhuzhou City Financial and Political Bureau, Hunan Province. After graduating college with honours, he began his career at the Zhuzhou City Financial and Political Bureau. He was arrested and beaten multiple times. He was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment in May 2001. Currently, his whereabouts are unknown. He was supposed to be released in March 2008. However, it is now March 30th, 2010 and his family and friends still have not heard from him.

1. Appealing Five Times in Beijing; Beaten at the Liling Detention Centre

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started the persecution of Falun Gong in July 1999. Mr. Zhao Shuaiqing went to Beijing to appeal on behalf of Falun Gong five times between 1999 and 2000. He was arrested and taken to Zhuzhou City Detention Centre and then transferred to the Liling Detention Centre where he did the Falun Gong exercises daily. The guards tortured him in different ways and also urged the inmates to torture him. While Mr. Zhao meditated one day in the winter of 2000, the guards urged inmates to beat him and kick him. Mr. Zhao was still calm and continued with the exercises. The guards then used electric batons to shock him. He still refused to co-operate. They then poured cold water over him from the top of his head, soaking his clothes. Even those wearing a heavy coat shivered while witnessing the torture, but Mr. Zhao still did not move a bit, refusing to give in to the torture in any way.

Mr. Zhao was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment in May 2001.

2. Tortured Brutally at the Wangling Prison, Hunan Province

Mr. Zhao Shuaiqing was sent to the Second Ward at the Wangling Prison, Hunan Province in 2002. On arrival he shouted, "Falun Gong is good!" Subsequently, the No. 2 Ward head Wen Weihua led a group of inmates to beat Mr. Zhao and shock him with electric batons. They ordered Mr. Zhao to run. Mr. Zhao refused. Then several inmates pulled him from the front, while other inmates kicked him in the back. Wen Weihua chased after Mr. Zhao with an electric baton.

Four inmates in the cell beat and kicked him. They dragged him onto the floor and kicked him at the same time. Mr. Zhao fell. The inmates pulled him and continued to beat him until he could no longer move and lost consciousness. In order to get their terms reduced the inmates beat Mr. Zhao repeatedly. An inmate named Zhou Zuozhou beat Mr. Zhao so severely he became deaf in one ear.

The guards and inmates tortured him brutally. When the inmates were tired from beating him they forced him to stand straight without moving. He had to face the wall, with the tip of his toes touching the wall. He was deprived of sleep for a long time.

Mr. Zhao refused to work in the prison. Four inmates carried him daily to the workshop. Then they dropped him violently on the floor. It usually took him quite a while to get up. As soon as he got up he immediately began practising the Falun Gong exercises. The inmates then beat him brutally.

He was dragged outdoors and left under the hot sun during the summer. In winter the captors removed his clothes and left him out in the cold. Mr. Zhao still shouted, "Falun Gong is good!" When he returned to the cell at night, the inmates did not allow him to put his clothes back on, hung him up and poured cold water on him. They did this for over a month. The inmates beat him, and the guards shocked him with electric batons daily. That particular month was the coldest part of winter. Mr. Zhao Shuaiqing still shouted daily, "Falun Gong is good!"

He was forbidden to use toilet and had to relieve himself in his trousers. The inmates forced him to eat faeces and drink urine.

Wangling Prison had a water shortage. In the winter, everyone was given only 15 litres (approximately 17 quarts) of water every three days for personal hygiene, brushing teeth, washing dishes and clothes, and drinking. That was it; the same in the summer, and even during the flu season. Mr. Zhao was completely deprived of water. There wasn't even any water in the outside drainage. They used water to flush the drainage only when it was the time for cleanup. There was only dark water with a foul odour in the drainage. Mr. Zhao had not choice but to drink this horrible water.

The police claimed that Mr. Zhao had gone insane. However, they did not stop persecuting him and still beat him ruthlessly. The guards continued to shock him with electric batons. When these guards beat the prisoners with electric batons they liked to shock prisoners' heads. One way to hold the victims was to push them to the ground, and use the legs of a bench to hold victims' head on the ground. The guards sat on a bench, or use their feet to step on the bench, thus immobilising the inmates. Then they used several electric batons to simultaneously shock inmates' heads. After that, the guards forced the inmates to stand, facing a wall. Mr. Zhao still shouted, "Falun Gong is good!" every day.

His parents flew in from Shanghai to visit him. During the first two years, they visited him no less than 20 times. They suffered tremendously seeing their son being tortured. The long-term grief took its toll on the father and he passed away. The family blames the Wangling Prison and the CCP for his death.

Wangling Prison deputy head Xu Biyan often says, "Prison is a violent place." Countless people were beaten to death, or ended up physically and mentally disabled as a result of gross mistreatment and abuse at the Wangling Prison.

Mr. Zhao Shuaiqing was supposed to go home in March 2008. However, no one has heard from him and his whereabouts are still unknown.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/4/1/220783.html