Tortured for Seven Years: Falun Gong Practitioner Ms. Zhang Yinying from Beijing

Ms. Zhang Yinying, 52, an employee of Beijing Dongcheng District Environment and Health Bureau, started practising Falun Gong in February 1998. She has been detained in a forced labour camp three times for her firm belief in the practice. Ms. Zhang was tortured in Daxing Women's Forced Labour Camp in Beijing and Masanjia Forced Labour Camp in Shenyang, Liaoning Province. As a result of the torture, she lost almost all of her teeth.

Below, she tells about her experiences.

I. Detained in Daxing Women's Forced Labour Camp

I was taken to the Beijing Dispatch Centre of Forced Labour on August 23rd, 2003. I was transferred to Group No. 5 of Daxing Women's Forced Labour Camp on September 1st, 2003. Chen Xiuying was the head of that group. I was punished and forced to stand up all day and night because I refused to give up my belief. Sometimes I was not even allowed to use the toilet and was forced to go in my trousers. Each meal, I was given only a walnut-sized piece of steamed bread and a little bit of vegetable or broth. Later, they didn't even give me steamed bread for breakfast.

Sometime in mid-November, I was taken to the "rock attack" group. They locked me in a small room with six detainees who were ordered to beat me. Some hit me, while others stomped on my stomach. One of them used a water bottle to hit my legs. I got two black eyes after the beating that night.

I have had black eyes twice from being beaten in the "rock attack "group. The guards all knew about the beatings, but turned a blind eye. They also beat my face with their shoes and punched my jaw over and over, knocking out my teeth. The head was Du Jingbin and the guards who monitored me were Gao Yuhong, Tang Jingjing and Yang Fan. Li Xiuying was the head for a period of time.

The meal in the "rock attack" group consisted of a walnut-sized piece of steamed bread, a spoonful of vegetables and a small amount of congee (rice porridge). The window was often intentionally left open so I would get very cold. They also put the food or water next to the windowsill and allowed me to eat only when it was cold. A detainee by the name of Zhang Yumin sometimes poured water on my neck and other detainees would spit on me for no reason.

Once in December, I suddenly lost consciousness. When I gained consciousness, I realised I was at Daxing Renhe Hospital, where I was given blood intravenously. I was later transferred to Tiantanghe Hospital, which is affiliated with the forced labour camp. I was emaciated. Commander He later told me, "You looked like a dried corpse when I saw you there."

Because I persisted in doing the Falun Gong exercises, Ma Jun poured a bucket of water on me and then held me in the water. I was wet from head to toe including my shoes. I later went on a hunger strike to protest. As a result, they force-fed me a highly concentrated salt solution. They didn't allow me to use the restroom, so I had to defecate and urinate in the room. The windows were also purposely left open since it was winter. I was very cold and had a difficult time falling asleep.

One of the inmates would always wear a pair of shoes with a hard plastic sole during her shift because it caused more pain and made it easier for her to kick practitioners. She kicked me so hard that my legs began to bleed. Several other inmates also stomped on my hands.

I was later transferred to the training centre in the forced labour camp when they realised that I wouldn't "transform" [forcibly renounce Falun Gong]. There, I suffered beatings when I did the Falun Gong exercises or shouted out, "Falun Gong is good." Sometimes they tied my hands together and covered my mouth with a towel.

When I went on a hunger strike to protest the torture, an inmate would sometimes scratch my gums with a spoon. Any practitioner who yelled out, "Falun Gong is good" was detained in an isolated cell at the back of the training centre. The cell was very stuffy and small with a sofa-sized stone bed, a toilet and a tiny window.

I was released on November 5th, 2005.

II. Sentenced to Forced Labour for the Third Time

Dong Zhiguo and about eight other policemen from Anwai Police Station ransacked my house and dug a hole more than two feet deep on February 14th, 2006. One of them said, "Someone in your workplace reported you to the police." When they couldn't find what they wanted, they took me to the police station. They ransacked my home again in the afternoon. That same night, Dong Zhiguo sent me to a detention centre where many practitioners were detained. The guards lied to us by saying, "Anyone who writes a repentance statement [renouncing practising Falun Gong] will be released after the two sessions." Two practitioners in the same cell as I wrote the statement, but they were still sentenced to forced labour.

At the Beijing Dispatching Centre and Women's Forced Labour Camp, the guards tortured us in many ways including starvation, forcing us to remain outside in the winter cold, forcing us to stand for a long period of time, beating us, and not allowing us to use the toilet. I was detained at the dispatch centre for a period of time before being transferred to the women's training centre.

III. Tortured at Liaoning Masanjia Forced Labour Camp: Hung Up and Shocked with Electric Batons

When China hosted the Olympic Games in 2008, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) used it as a pretext to persecute practitioners. Five practitioners should have been released that year, but their term was extended to another six months. We were taken to the notorious Liaoning Masanjia Forced Labour Camp.

Immediately after we arrived at the labour camp, I shouted out loudly. "Falun Gong is good!" A male superintendent of the labour camp said, "I will beat you if you shout again. This isn't Beijing." A superintendent dragged me upstairs because I walked too slowly. After suffering torture for many years, I couldn't walk as fast as before.

The guards at Masanjia Forced Labour Camp all wore their regular clothes. The informants said they were from the bureau and administrative level. They took turns (4 in a group) to hang me up and beat me. Then they cuffed my hands to the upper bed frame, tied my ankles to the lower frame and tied my body to the opposite bed frame. They didn't release my hands until they were black and blue. After a while, they hung me up again. They tortured me like this for a whole day. That same night, guards Ma Qingshan and Lao Fan put my fingerprints onto the three statements they had prepared on my behalf against my will. They wrote Teacher's [Teacher Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong] name on a board and tried to force me to step on it. I then told them, "What you are doing is committing crimes." They replied, "We're not afraid of anything. We have been doing this for years."

I was later detained in a storage room separate from other practitioners. They handcuffed me to the folding bed and said, "We will send you to the crematory tomorrow." I wasn't afraid, even though I was held in the storage room for about five days. During that time, they hung me up or defamed Falun Gong. On the fifth day, Ma Qingshan and Lao Wang took turns hanging me up. My legs had black and blue bruises and my hands were swollen. I had difficulty walking to the toilet. My chest hurt for a long time.

The guards cruelly tortured practitioners until they cried and felt as though their hearts had been ripped open. However, the guards said anyone who cried was crazy.

One day I shouted loudly, "Falun Gong is good!" As a result, guards Zhang Guirong and Zhang Liang kicked and hit me. Then they hung me up and said they wouldn't release my hands unless I wrote a statement to stop practising Falun Gong. That night, I was taken to the hospital because I began to spit out a lot of blood.

For the past several years, I have suffered severe torture. When I was released in 2009, I lost all of my teeth except for the four molars. The local CCP officials who participated in the persecution knew about me and closely monitored me at work and at home. After I retired, the police officers hired people to monitor me 24 hours a day.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/8/23/228674.html