Lengthy Litany of Mistreatment, Torture, and Brainwashing Offences at Shaanxi Women's Forced Labour Camp

Shaanxi Women's Forced Labour Camp is located in Fangxin Village, north of Xi'an City, adjacent to Shaanxi Women's Prison.

I. Persecuting Good People for Personal Gain

In the forced labour camp, the officials persecute Falun Gong practitioners for only one purpose, that is, to "transform" [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] them. The officials use all kinds of brutal means to try to force Falun Gong practitioners to give up their beliefs. Every official in the labour camp, from the superintendent to police officers and guards, is quite clear about this: The "transformation" rate is an important quota that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses to assess their work performance. Moreover, it directly affects how much each one of them earns. As a result, the officials make every effort to meet their quotas.

II. Using Every Means of Persecution Imaginable

When a practitioner first arrives in the labour camp, she is detained separately. The officials use every possible means to try to force her to give up her belief. For example, "transformed" practitioners collaborate with the authorities to indoctrinate her with lies They play audio and video recordings defaming Falun Gong 24 hours a day. They deprive her of sleep, attempt to brainwash her, deny toilet and dining privileges, and strictly control her every action.

Some practitioners were handcuffed for a long time. Some were forced to wear specially designed straight jackets. Straight jackets are usually used to restrain someone, but these had the additional purpose of causing great pain. Instead of wrapping the arms around in front, they wrap the arms around behind and pull them tight. This torture was specially created to persecute Falun Gong, and many practitioners have been tortured this way.

In order to keep practitioners from doing the Falun Gong exercises, guards use many different means of torture. For example, they handcuff the person and then chain her to the top of a window or other high place, suspending her in the air. The victim's weight is concentrated at her wrists. Because the handcuffs become tighter and tighter, they cut into the flesh and cause bleeding and mangled flesh.

They have also handcuffed practitioners behind their backs and hung them up on steel shelves two meters high. The weight of the whole body is concentrated on her arms and hands. This kind of torture makes one faint, sweat, and pass out. It causes great physical pain and mental torment.

For example, Ms. Li Cuifang was tortured in No. 2 Group in Shaanxi Women's Forced Labour Camp. Because she practised the exercises inside, she was repeatedly tortured, such as being beaten, hung up in the air, and handcuffed and hung up on the upper level of the shelf. She fainted and collapsed after such torture. When she was hung up in the air, she protested and struggled, but the handcuffs bit into her flesh and she bled profusely. Meanwhile, Liu Peilan, a policewoman, beat her midsection violently with electric shock batons. Her hips were beaten black and blue, which caused her to walk with great difficulty. They also used force-feeding as a means to torture her. They handcuffed Ms. Li behind her back and tied her to a steel shelf, then they used a tool to pry open her mouth. The tool was bent, leaving her teeth broken and mouth badly injured. Finally they stuffed her under the lower level of a shelf. In order to prevent her from practising the exercises, they had handcuffed her to the shelf so that she couldn't move. When she was tortured nearly to death--almost breathless and had no blood pressure--police officers still handcuffed her to the bed frame for several days and didn't allow her to move. In the winter, when she insisted on practising the exercises, the inmates (incited by the guards) threw her blanket into the toilet several times and poured buckets of water on her body, bed, and the ground.

III. Sneaking Drugs into the Food

The officials in the labour camp drugged the food given to Falun Gong practitioners who refused to "transform." The personal cangues [Note: Cangue, the name of an instrument of torture, is used to indicate the person designated to supervise the behaviour of practitioners] followed police instructions to drug practitioners' food. The inmates later admitted this, and a practitioner confirmed it as well. This practitioner once was required to help sort out the prescriptions at the clinic. She found a prescription signed by a doctor of psychology. It included a large dose of a drug that may cause the patient to show symptoms of mental illness and interfere with his central nervous system. The last name of this doctor is Zhao. The practitioner majored in medical science, so she was clear about the scheme as soon as she read the prescription.

It was discovered later that this kind of persecution was extended to many practitioners. They have put poison into practitioners' food many times. The informants said that the harmful drugs had been added to almost every practitioner's food. After eating such food, practitioners exhibited many unusual symptoms, such as weight loss, depression, fear of cold, schizophrenia, were easily distracted, memory loss, dizziness, nausea, loss of appetite, twitching, etc. More seriously, some practitioners showed symptoms of heart, kidney, liver, and other organ and brain damage.

Later, in order to expose such evildoings and stop the persecution, some practitioners reported it to Commander Wang Li, who also majored in medical science. Meanwhile, they reported it to Zhao Xiaoyang, then the Discipline Commission secretary in the labour camp, and demanded an explanation. After repeated demands, Commander Wang Li admitted in a public meeting that they did indeed drug Falun Gong practitioners' food. Of course, they made great efforts to cover up their evil deeds, calling it "medicine for psychological treatment."

CCP officials turned healthy people into mental patients by dosing them with harmful and unneeded drugs. They furtively drugged practitioners' food and caused clear-headed practitioners to exhibit symptoms of schizophrenia and depression. Some practitioners suffered memory loss and others were in a constant daze. The effects were sometimes serious and long-lasting.

Officials in the labour camp do such evil things to try to force Falun Gong practitioners to give up their beliefs, to achieve the "transformation" rate set by the CCP, and to reach their individual goals for money, fame, and gain.

IV. Jiang Zemin Sneaked into Shaanxi Province and Allocated 800 Thousand Yuan to Instigate Persecution

At the end of March 2002, the then Chinese Communist leader Jiang Zemin, [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] allocated more than 800 thousand yuan¹ to Shaanxi Women's Forced Labour Camp as funds for persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. Meanwhile, certain CCP officials were specially transferred to the camp to carry out the "transformation." They included Liu Xinwen, head of Shaanxi Province 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong); Feng Xiyao and Wei Qiming with the Shaanxi Province 610 Office; and Zhao Xiaoyang, then the Discipline Commission secretary.

These officials sequestered all of the practitioners on the first floor of the north building and divided them into three groups (classes) according to the severity of the conditions they were meant to endure. Each practitioner's actions were strictly monitored. The officials arranged conversations with each individual practitioner in attempts to control their thoughts and attitude. They isolated practitioners who spoke out for justice for Falun Gong, protesting the persecution, and put them into the strictly controlled group or isolation cells.

Any practitioner who refused to listen or read the propaganda defaming Falun Gong was hung up in the air and handcuffed to the steel frame of the window. Some practitioners couldn't stand after they were let down. Every practitioner was forced to endure some form of corporal punishment such as "facing the wall" or "riding an airplane." (http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/9/29/52921.html)

Someone beat and kick each practitioner at the slightest opportunity.

The practitioners in the strict group all suffered cruel torture. The officials instigated the personal cangues to curse Falun Gong. Every practitioner was forced to sit on a small chair beside her bed and not allowed to go to the toilet. On such occasions, practitioners dared not eat or drink so as to avoid excretion. However, by using this method, the CCP officials wanted to force practitioners to go on hunger strikes, then they would have an excuse to force feed them. Any practitioner who went on a hunger strike was handcuffed to the frame of a double bed and, at set intervals, would be dragged out to be force fed with highly concentrated salt water solutions. This leads to extreme thirst and pain. In their misery, they were also not allowed to go to the toilet.

Many female practitioners were not allowed family visits or to purchase groceries in the labour camp. They did not have toilet paper even during their menstrual period.

Some practitioners were handcuffed to table legs for a long time. Their heads were forcefully pulled out and stuck between two drawers of the table. Some practitioners were hung up in the air from behind and handcuffed to a three-layer shelf over two meters high. Some were deprived of sleep for several months or longer. Violent beatings were common. It often happened that several dozen detainees in one room gathered to beat one practitioner; or several people beat one practitioner; or guards used electric batons to beat practitioners. The guards also instigated several drug offender detainees to choke one practitioner.

Many practitioners were detained in a small isolated cell. The cell doors were locked and the windows were covered with paper. No one could see what happened inside but could hear the sounds. Every night miserable cries could be heard coming from the small cells.

V. Forced Labour, Unwholesome Products, Unhealthy Conditions

The officials in Shaanxi Women's Labour Camp not only earned money by "transforming" Falun Gong practitioners, but also forced them to work as slave labourers, often for more than 20 hours a day. Though there are six working hours every day according to the rules, those in charge deprived practitioners of all their break times, including holidays. When the practitioners did not finish the work on time, they were beaten or their prison terms were extended. Some groups processed expired sunflower seeds as food by mixing poison inside, which gave practitioners headaches. Some groups processed counterfeit honey and other counterfeit products.

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/2010/8/10/228162.html