Older Practitioner Ms. Fu Guiqin's First-hand Account of the Long-term Persecution She Has Suffered

Name: Fu Guiqin
Gender: Female
Age: 59
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Textile worker

Date of Most Recent Arrest: January 11th, 2006
Most recent place of detention: Harbin Qianjin Forced Labour Camp
City: Harbin City
Province: Heilongjiang Province
Persecution suffered: Detention, extortion, interrogation, beatings, shackled, torture, force-feedings, home ransacked, forced labour, brainwashing.

Ms. Fu Guiqin, a worker from the Yilan Textile Factory in Yilan County, Heilongjiang Province, has suffered repeated persecution spanning over a decade, including multiple arrests, detentions, forced labour, brainwashing, and torture. The following is her first-hand account of the persecution she has endured and survived to date.

Arrested Three Times in 2000

While we were practising the Falun Gong exercises on March 16th, 2000, officers from the Yilan Public Security Bureau arrested us and drove us straight to the detention centre. We were held for 30 days, fined 3000 yuan¹, and forced to pay another 300 yuan for our food expenses at the detention centre.

On June 16th, 2000, I went to Beijing and was arrested at the Jinshui Bridge at Tiananmen Square. I was sent to the Qianmen Police Station and then transferred to a prison in Congwen District of Beijing late at night. There, I held a hunger strike to protest the detention. Ten days later, Han Yunjie, chief of the Political and Security Section of the Yilan Public Security Bureau, transferred me to the Harbin City Liaison Office and then sent me to the Yilan Detention Centre, where several Falun Gong practitioners were detained in a dark, smelly, and damp cell, with no sunshine all the year round, and a toilet that was jammed most of the time. Director Zheng Jun often told the guards to beat and kick us, lock us in the car garage and strap each of us to an iron chair. He also forced us to run in the scorching sun of summer. We went on hunger strikes to protest the persecution, but Deputy Director Lin Zhong and guard Shang De then ordered the criminal inmates to force-feed us. Lin Zhong led four people, including female guard Su Di and inmate Guo, to search us. They kicked and beat us, and took our only copy of the Falun Gong book, Zhuan Falun. I was detained there for 45 days, and the guards extorted 1000 yuan and 450 yuan for food expenses from me.

On December 29th, 2000, I travelled by bus to Beijing with two other practitioners to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. The police on the bus ordered everyone to slander Falun Gong. When we refused, they took us to the Yilan Public Security Bureau. Long Deqing and Han Yunjie, the chiefs of the Political and Security Section, ordered policemen to search and interrogate us, and then sent us to a detention centre. On the day when the TV station broadcast the fake "self-immolation in Tiananmen Square"² incident throughout China, Lu Zhimin, the mayor of Yilan County, took officials from the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong), policemen, and TV personnel to the detention centre to play the video. Falun Gong practitioners were then forced to speak about the video, and some practitioners told them that Falun Gong is good and that self-immolation was staged. Lu yelled and said that police dealt justly with Falun Gong. The next day, the four of us were sentenced to one year of forced labour without going through any legal procedures, and we were sent to the Wanjia Forced Labour Camp. Our families were not notified.

Tortured at the Wanjia Forced Labour Camp

I was locked in a workshop on the first floor of the Wanjia Forced Labour Camp. Drug-addict inmates watched over me around the clock, and didn't let me leave the room. I had to do forced labour work during the day and sleep on a workbench at night. Section leaders Lin Shunying and Chang Shumei made many practitioners renounce their belief in Falun Gong and they also came to try to "transform" [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] me, but I didn't listen to them or accept their lies. I held firm to my belief.

One month later, I was transferred to a larger workshop on the second floor. All of the Falun Gong practitioners were on a hunger strike to protest the detention. On the sixth day, the guards gathered all the practitioners into a queue and tried to stop our hunger protest by force-feeding us. Criminal inmates and male guards dragged us one by one to the warehouse, pinned each of us down to a chair, and forcibly fed us with corn paste from a small plastic basin. Sometimes they also inserted a rubber tube into our noses and down to our stomachs to force-feed us. The food came out of my nose and blood came out of my mouth. I felt light headed but was still not allowed to lie down. They tortured me like this every day for about a month. Guard Hua threw boiling water onto us, and at one time pulled practitioner Yang Lixia's hair and smashed her head against a wall. Liu Baibing often hit and beat Falun Gong practitioners with wooden clubs and mop handles. She kicked me and severely beat Meng Xianzhi, a 60-year-old Falun Gong practitioner from Harbin. Ms. Meng was tortured to death not long afterward.

We were given a hard and tasteless corn cake, a small plastic bowl of corn porridge, and preserved vegetables every day, and were allowed to eat a bun made of dark flour or rice only two times a week. The menu on the blackboard in the dining room was only showcased for visitors.

The forty of us who refused to be "transformed" were locked in a dark, damp garage without any sunshine all the year round. The walls were covered with green and black moss, and the roof leaked. The garage was infested with flies and mosquitoes in the summer, and it was so crowded that there was also no place to hang our washed laundry, and the dampness inside was unbearable. There was also no room to walk around except when we went downstairs for meals. We had to sit on small plastic stools all day long. As a result, our physical health deteriorated, and many of us developed blisters and pustules all over our bodies. Some practitioners were no longer able to get up and take care of themselves. The skin all over my body, except my face, was infected, and my feet were so swollen that I couldn't walk. I also could not hold chopsticks with my hands and needed others' help to eat. My body ached all over, was itchy and secreted pus, and I was not able to sleep at night. I was later sent to stay with inmates who had severe scabies.

Arrested Four Times in Three Years

I was released from the Wanjia Forced Labour Camp on December 29th, 2002. My husband and I became unemployed due to the persecution and had no income, so we went to a relative's home in a remote mountain village. Officials from the 610 Office, the town mayor, the director of the Community Committee, and police often came to harass us and even arrested us at one time.

Due to the constant harassment, my husband and I were forced to move again and went to stay with my sister in Jiangsu Province. Shortly afterward, officials from the Yilan Public Security Bureau, the 610 Office, and the Community Committee came in several cars to arrest me in the remote mountain village where we had previously stayed. When they found I was not there, they pressured my relative to tell them my whereabouts and then notified the Hehuacun Police Station in Jintan City, Jiangsu Province, to arrest me. The police took me from my sister's home, and after an interrogation sent me to Jintan Prison, No. 9 Ward. In the prison, I was made to stand for a long period of time with my hands handcuffed to an iron window frame in the prison corridor. I was not allowed use the toilet for four or five hours each time. Nine days later, the deputy director of the Dongcheng Police Station in Yilan County transferred me from the Jincheng Prison to the Yilan Detention Centre. During my detention in Yilan, the head of the 610 Office, the county mayor, and the head of the Community Committee came and pressured me to write a guarantee statement, promising to give up Falun Gong practice. They told me that I would be released if I wrote a guarantee statement to renounce practising Falun Gong, but I refused. I was detained for one month, and officials also extorted 2000 yuan from my family.

I went with another practitioner to visit a fellow practitioner on April 5th, 2004. The director of the Guanyue Street Community Committee knocked, and as we opened the door, policewoman Su Di from the Guanyue Police Station and other police officers forced their way in and searched the house. They tried to arrest us, but we didn't co-operate. They then summoned a group of policemen from the Domestic Security Division, led by Zheng Jun, and forcibly took us away. They also ransacked my home. I was detained for 15 days and fined 300 yuan.

At 6:00 p.m. on January 11th, 2006, the Yilan County Mayor Liu Wenbin, Deputy Party Secretary Liu Fengren, and Party Secretary of the Political and Legal Committee Zhang Wen ordered officials from the Public Security Bureau and the Domestic Security Division, Ge Bin from the Xicheng Police Station, and Sun Zhihui, from the Wuguocheng Police Station, to surround my home with several police cars. Officers climbed over the wall from a neighbour's home to my home, searched my house, and confiscated my Zhuan Falun book, mobile phone, and MP3 player. They then forcibly took me away. They held me for 19 days and then sentenced me to two years of forced labour at the Wanjia Forced Labour Camp. A physical examination showed that my physical condition was not good enough for hard labour, so the labour camp refused to accept me. However, Cui Gui, director of the Yilan Detention Centre, guard Gu, and prison doctor Meng talked to the person in charge at the Wanjia Forced Labour camp for a long time and finally left me and two other practitioners there. I suspect that the police bribed the Wanjia Forced Labour Camp officials so that they would keep us.

Detained in the Wanjia Forced Labour Camp for a Second Time

While I was detained at the Wanjia Forced Labour Camp for the second time, section leader Zhang Bo led the guards, another section leader Wu Hongxun, and deputy leaders Zhao Yuqing, Yao Fuchang, and Wu Baoyun, to form a team specialising in abusing practitioners.

The guards often screamed and shouted at practitioners. Many practitioners were so severely tortured that they couldn't stand up, as their legs and arms were paralysed. Inmates dragged practitioners by their feet to the toilet per instigation from the guards.

Guards Wu Hongxun and Wu Baoyun tried to force me to write the three statements. They threatened to not allow me to eat or use the toilet, making me sit on the torture chair and hanging me up by handcuffs. Under their repeated intimidation and torture, I became so fearful that I unwillingly wrote statements to renounce practising Falun Gong.

I was forced to stack stools until 11:00 p.m., and listen to videos slandering Falun Gong, and was also often forced to stand for long periods of time each day for seven or eight consecutive days. I was then sent to do forced labour, such as putting sticks into ice cream bars, loading and unloading, and walking long distances while carrying 40-50 kg (88-110 lb) boxes. The forced labour started at 6:00 a.m. and didn't end until 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. If I couldn't finish the workload, I was not allowed to sleep or my sentence was extended.

Harshly Treated in the Qianjin Forced Labour Camp

In the winter of 2007, Wanjia Forced Labour Camp moved to be combined with the Qianjin Forced Labour Camp facilities. Before moving, section leader Zhang Bo told us that we didn't need to take our quilts, as everything would be provided at the new facility, but that turned out to be a lie. We were forced to work in a vacant building without heat during the winter. The heat in our cells at night was also inadequate and the quilts given to us were very thin, so we often could not sleep because of the cold.

Practitioners were forced to do heavy labour, including loading and unloading from trucks. We also had to plant trees and work in the field in the spring, and build roads under the scorching sun in the summer. Many elderly practitioners suffered from exhaustion.

When I was not able to get up due to a relapse of my illnesses, Zhang Bo and Yang Guohong still forced me to do hard labour by ordering several inmates to drag me to the workshop. Yang Guohong said that if I didn't go to work, I would be put into solitary confinement. Because I was unable to walk up the stairs to have meals, she didn't allow me to eat and also didn't allow other practitioners to bring me food. We had to arrive at the workshop, which was very far away from our cells, at 6:00 a.m. and were not allowed to leave until 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. every day. In order to instigate animosity toward practitioners from other inmates, guard Zhang Yanli forced me to stand in the front of the queue when we finished work, knowing that I was not able to walk. Practitioners wanted to carry me but Zhang didn't allow them to do so, and Yang Guohong also didn't allow anyone to put me in a cart.

Section leader Zhang Bo also ordered guards Zhou Muqi, Liu Chang, Cong Zhixiu, and Yu Fangli to take elder practitioner Zhou Rongqi to a vacant building, where they tied her to a stair rail and beat her.

The forced labour camp had a special area set up for when officials came to inspect the labour camp for their products to be produced. Since these officials only saw this area, they got the impression that the place was clean and met the basic health requirements.

Family Also Suffers Due to the Persecution

Due to my repeated, long-term detention, my husband had to bear enormous pressure from family and society in general, and the physical and mental suffering he has experienced is hard to describe in words.

Note

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

2. The "Tiananmen Self-Immolation" an incident on Tiananmen Square in January 2001 whereby four people set themselves alight and the Chinese Communist claimed they were Falun Gong practitioners, yet there was video evidence to strongly disprove this claim

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/7/12/226824.html