Ms. Chen Zhilian and Her Daughter Repeatedly Imprisoned and Tortured

Ms. Chen Zhilian and her daughter from Pingxing County in Leshan City, Sichuan Province, have been repeatedly arrested, detained and viciously beaten since July 1999, because they practise Falun Gong. In 2003, Ms. Chen was sentenced to six years imprisonment by officials from Renshou County Court, and her daughter was sentenced to three years imprisonment.

Mother and daughter recovered from illnesses after practising Falun Gong

Ms. Chen Zhilian, 50, used to suffer from numerous illnesses, including a stomach ulcer and inflammation of the spine. Ms. Chen's daughter had suffered from frequent headaches since the age of six. Doctors at the Sichuan Province Renmin Hospital diagnosed her with a tumour, but considered it too risky to operate, so she could only survive by taking medication.

In February 1998, Ms. Chen began to practise Falun Gong and learned about the guiding principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. It wasn't long before all her illnesses disappeared. Her daughter also started to practise Falun Gong in 1999. Although she was only 19 years old at the time, her physical appearance was that of a 10-year-old, but with perseverance in the practice, and despite being arrested and detained over several years, her body began to develop to that of a healthy young adult. She is now even taller than her mother.

1999-2001: Detained and beaten many times

When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began its persecution of Falun Gong in July 1999, Ms. Chen and her daughter were arrested and held at the Leshan Drug Rehabilitation Centre for 15 days. They also had several hundred yuan¹ extorted from them.

In January 2001, Ms. Chen and her daughter went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. They were beaten, arrested and then returned to Leshan City, where they were further detained in Suji Police Station with a dozen other practitioners. The officers there forced them to crouch down and remain in that position for long periods of time every day. In the cold winter, officers poured water on the ground and used a fan to blow it at them. They were also kicked and whipped with a leather belt. The practitioners were handcuffed together and forced to do dirty, filthy jobs. They were not allowed to wash, comb their hair or shower for 20 days. All of the practitioners were later forced to pay 200 yuan and held in Leshan City Detention Centre for three months.

Ms. Chen and her daughter were arrested by officials from Pingxing County in January 2001. Zhang Tinghuai, the party secretary of Pingxing County, viciously beat them. He tied them and another practitioner to a car, put a sign around their necks, and paraded them through the streets to humiliate them. The practitioners were not given anything to eat for the whole day. The three practitioners were then taken to Leshan City Detention Centre the next day. Several months later, they were transferred to a drug rehabilitation centre, where they were ruthlessly beaten by drug addicts. The practitioners were released on September 1st, 2001, but only after having 2,000 yuan extorted from them.

2001: Ms. Chen and her daughter beaten and tortured

On the eve of National Day, October 1st, and less than a month after being released, Ms. Chen and her daughter were asked to go to the County office. When they did, they were arrested again. That night, they were tortured by Zhang Tinghuai, Xu Junjie, Shuai Shiqing and two other male officers. Shuai Shiqing stood on one of Ms. Chen's legs, while Zhang Tinghuai kicked her other leg. She was then forced to stand with her arms outstretched, and was not allowed to move. When her arms got tired and started to lower, she was whipped with branches from a tree on both the front and back of her body. The officers then pulled up her pants and whipped her around the legs until her flesh was ripped apart.

Ms. Chen's daughter suffered the same treatment. Her face was bruised and swollen, and her hands, ears and head were bleeding from the beatings. Zhang Tinghuai kept shouting, "If you are beaten to death, we will cremate you and nobody will appeal for the injustice you suffered." They were tortured until the officials got tired at 3 a.m.

Both mother and her daughter were handcuffed to a stool for the night and then to a metal gate in the morning. The following evening, another group of officials came and handcuffed Ms. Chen to the top of a large door to the dog kennels under the steps to the government building. The officials were: Hu Tailin, head of the local 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong); Chen Jiaquan, discipline commission officer; Zhou Li, a police officer from Mazhu County; a woman with the surname Du, head of the county; and Wang Huirong, supervisor of the Women's Federation. Ms. Chen was suspended off the ground with only the tips of her toes able to touch the floor, and her daughter was handcuffed to the outside railings of the building, in a excruciating position where she could not stand up straight or bend down to rest on her knees. Both of them were left there for the whole night. Hu Tailin even put a poisonous caterpillar on Ms. Chen's daughter's skin so that it could bite her. Ms. Chen strongly protested their treatment, and both mother and daughter were released after a week of torture. Ms. Chen was held in custody for another two weeks, and was forced to work in the day and locked up in the government building at night. One morning, Ms. Chen escaped, and along with her daughter, they hid in the mountains and only returned home at night.

2001: Locked up in a dog kennel and tortured

When Zhang Tinghuai went to Ms. Chen's home and saw her reading a Falun Gong book, he called a group of officials, broke into the house and confiscated all of her Falun Gong books and 7,800 yuan in cash, which was all her savings. Ms. Chen and her daughter were arrested and locked in a small dog kennel situated under the government building steps. It was dirty and smelly, with dog faeces and fur everywhere. They had no blankets and had to sleep snuggled up together on the ground because it was winter and very cold. They were only given a small amount of water and popcorn every day. One night, they were able to escape.

As they could not return home, they had to wander from place to place to avoid being arrested again. During this period, Ms. Chen and her daughter picked up rubbish and polished shoes for a living.

2002: Ms. Chen's daughter was tortured and interrogated

At the end of November 2002, Ms. Chen's daughter was detained by security guards while giving out Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution in a residential area in Renshou County. She was arrested by the police and taken to Renshou County Detention Centre, where she was tortured and ruthlessly beaten. Zheng Benqiang, political head of Renshou County Detention Centre and He Qingxia, a guard, ordered inmates to forbid Ms. Chen's daughter from wearing clothes. She only had a blanket and toilet paper to cover herself up with. The inmates were ordered to kick her legs while wearing leather shoes. They also pinched her, made her stand facing the wall, forbade her from sleeping, forced her to take medication, hit her with clubs, pulled her hair, and threw her against the wall. She was also tied to a death bed for four days.

2003: Ms. Chen was brutally tortured

Ms. Chen was also arrested and taken to Renshou Detention Centre in March 2003. The police ordered inmates to throw her onto a bed and tied her hands and legs to the four corners of the bed with wire, wrapping them very tightly around her wrists and ankles. Her blood circulation was cut off from her lower body and her abdomen became unbearably swollen. She was tortured like this for four days. Ms. Chen and her daughter were finally sentenced to six years and three years imprisonment, respectively, by officials from the Renshou County Court.

2003-2008: Persecuted in prison

Ms. Chen and her daughter were transferred to Chengdu Women's Prison in November 2003. Both of them were restricted to a cell for long periods of time and monitored by inmates 24 hours a day. Inmates and police officers would torture them at will.

Under the pretext of providing security for the Beijing Olympics, the guards forced practitioners to wear prison clothes in June 2008. A group of inmates, led by policewomen Wen Xiuqi and Zhu Yan from the No.6 Ward, where Ms. Chen was being held, stripped the clothes off all female practitioners, leaving them in their undergarments. They were only allowed to wear clothes four months later, in October. By then, the weather had already turned cold.

Those responsible for the persecution in Chengdu Women's Prison are: Wu Zhongbi, Le Hong, Yu Aiping, Wen Xiuqi, Chen Xiu, Chen Hongmei, Zhu Yan, Zhou Ying, Zhang Xuemei, Zhou Hongyu, Tian Xia, Qiao Xia.

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/2010/7/27/227583.html