Brutality in the Brainwashing Centre in Huangpu District, Guangzhou City

(1) Creating a terrifying environment

When practitioners are arrested and taken to the Huangpu Brainwashing Centre, they are first isolated in a room adjacent to a practitioner who has been there awhile. This is done so the new arrival can hear the practitioner's screams when they are tortured. If the new arrival refuses to give up his or her belief in Falun Gong, the guard's then force the practitioner to watch another practitioner being tortured. If they still remain steadfast in their belief, they will then be tortured themselves.

(2) Brainwashing

Within the first month of a practitioner's arrival, they are usually forced to stand still and are denied sleep for long periods of time. If practitioners do not renounce their belief by the second month, they are forced to watch videos slandering Falun Gong 24 hours a day. They are constantly monitored and not allowed to look away from the TV screen for even a few seconds. This form of torture and brainwashing will last for over 10 days.

Practitioners are also forced to write down their thoughts after watching the videos, and their essays are submitted to the head of the division. If the essay is considered unacceptable, the practitioner is forced to write even more.

(3) Forced to hold strenuous positions for long periods

The guards try to physically wear new practitioners down, and force them to maintain a stance in strenuous positions for long periods of time. The guards also stuff dirty towels into the practitioners' mouths, hang cardboard signs with slanderous writing around their necks, and put dirty trash cans on their heads. When practitioner Mr. Peng Lin, who worked for the Guangzhou Municipal Government, was forced to remain in a strenuous position, his head was not considered to be bent low enough and so he was severely beaten, causing internal injuries.

(4) Fatigue strategy

Practitioners are not allowed to sleep for several days in a row, or they may only be allowed to sleep for two to three hours a day. If practitioners become too tired to remain awake, they are severely beaten. Sometimes practitioners are struck with iron bars or metal chains. Male practitioners sometimes have their penises clamped shut for long periods of time.

(5) Beatings

Sometimes guards beat practitioners around the head, face, ears, mouth, feet and hands, and stab them with thick needles. They take turns so that practitioners are beaten every hour until dawn the following day, so each practitioner gets beaten three or four times in a night. They also try to scare them by saying, "I will beat you to death. Many Falun Gong people have already died."

After the beatings, practitioners are forced to strip naked and have freezing cold water thrown all over them.

(6) Heads thrust down the toilet

A mop is used to block the toilet, and sometimes faeces is floating in the water. Practitioners have their hands held behind their backs and their heads forced into the toilet. While the practitioner's head is under water, guards kick them until they almost drown. Then their heads are pulled out of the water and then pushed back into the water again. This gets repeated many times. The guards once said, "We will not let you die. Our purpose is make you feel that you would rather die than go through this again."

Ms. Li Hongling, an English teacher in Zhencheng High School, was frequently tied up and had her head thrust down the toilet.

(7) "Flying upside down" and head lowered into bucket of water

Another brutal torture method is called "flying upside down." Practitioners are hung up by their feet, swung back and forth, and then have their heads lowered into a bucket of water. They are left there until they are nearly drowned. They are raised up again for a short time, and then the process gets repeated. Guards then violently kick their stomachs.

(8) Forced feeding

The guards in brainwashing centres have said, "You cannot go on a hunger strike here. If you don't eat, we have many ways to torture you." If a practitioner goes on a hunger strike, they are handcuffed, their mouths are pried open, and they are force-fed. Practitioner Ms. Lin Shaohua, in her sixties, was force-fed with alcohol and pepper water. When practitioner Ms. Lu Xianming was transferred to Huangpu Brainwashing Centre, after being on a long-term hunger strike at the brainwashing facility in Guangzhou City, she had spoiled rice stuffed into her mouth.

Practitioners were also force-fed items such as strong detergent, washing powder or shampoo, causing severe vomiting. Sometimes they tied practitioners to a chair and stuffed a mop in their mouths, then force-fed two or three bottles of alcohol through the nose. They also smeared mustard over their eyes and nose.

(9) Bamboo under fingernails, pierced by needles and dragged by the hair

Practitioner Ms. Fan Meixia had bamboo sticks inserted under each of her fingernails, and the guards then pried off the nails. She was pierced with needles, causing excruciating pain, and she was force-fed toilet water until she lost consciousness. The guards them dragged her by the hair, pulling clumps of her hair out in the process. She was beaten with iron rods, deprived of sleep and forced to watch videos slandering Falun Gong. Ms. Fan was tortured this way for seven months.

(10) Strapped up tightly

One hot summer day, guards closed all the doors and windows, and wrapped Ms. Zou Suyun in two thick blankets, with only her head exposed. She was then tied up tightly with a piece of rope and thrown onto a bed. It wasn't long before she was drenched in sweat. They didn't initially allow her to drink, eat, or use the toilet, but later they gave her food and drinks but only to make her urinate more in the blanket. While she was tied up, they pierced her feet with needles, forced pepper water into her eyes and nose, and hit her head with a pipe. She was tortured like this for 50 hours.