My Experience in Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp in Jilin Province

Name: Jiang Wanchen
Gender: Female
Age: 40
Address: Xingyu #5 building, Kaiyun Street, Changchun, Jilin
Occupation: Unknown
Date of most recent arrest: September 2001
Most recent place of detention: Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp
City: Changchun
Province: Jilin
Persecution suffered: Electric shock, forced labour, brainwashing, beatings, solitary confinement, force-feedings, extortion, fired from workplace, physical restraint, detention, denial of toilet use

My name is Jiang Wanchen. I was arrested by Zhao Liang and other officers from the Jincheng Police Station at the end of September 2001, while I was handing out materials about Falun Gong. I was sent to the Shuangyang No. 3 Detention Centre the night I was arrested.

A section chief in the detention centre with the surname of Su, in her 50s, told me that the zipper on my coat was not allowed. Then she said that my sweater which could be made into yarn was also not permitted. She ordered me to take off those clothes and leave them in the warehouse. Later I heard that she kept them for herself. I had only one cotton shirt and would tremble in the cold air. A fellow practitioner gave me a shirt which made me warmer.

About forty people shared a room at the detention centre. There were two cement platforms, and everyone had to sleep on those platforms. The head of the inmates and some wealthy inmates paid 1,000 yuan¹ a month to get a roomy spot. The rest of us were crowded onto half of the platform and everyone lay on their side. It was torturous not to be able to change positions. If someone needed to use the restroom in the middle of the night, their spot would be gone when they came back.

We were forced to "sit on a board" and recite rules all day. The only exceptions were at meal time and for a short break. "Sit on a board" required sitting on the platform with legs crossed and without moving or talking. It was very painful after a while. Falun Gong practitioners refused to recite the rules.

There were only two meals a day. Extra food could be bought at lunch for a high price. We normally had corn flour buns and potato soup. The potatoes were not washed or peeled and there was mud at the bottom of the soup bowl. Flies and ladybugs were often found in the soup. We used unheated tap water for washing and for taking a shower, even during the winter months. Washed clothes would be found hanging in the room all of the time , however they never fully dried. They refused to let my family visit me or bring me any necessities or cash.

After one month in the detention centre, I was sentenced to one year of forced labour and was transferred to the Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp in Jilin Province. After having a physical exam my heart rate was 120 beats per minute, but the labour camp admitted me anyway. They put me in the fifth ward, which was for elders. They sent two employees to monitor me and they attempted to brainwash me with evil theories. They didn't allow me to go to bed until midnight. I started a hunger strike to protest the persecution. The prison guards yelled at me and I was physically abused. They slapped me on the face and made me stand in a corner. My forehead and back of my head swelled up with lumps.

I was locked in a room at the end of the hallway in solitary confinement. The glass door to the room was covered in newspaper so no one could see to the inside. They put me on the death bed² and force-fed me twice daily. Normally the nasal tube would be soaked in hot water to soften it before inserting the tube into the stomach. In order to make people suffer, the prison doctor used a hardened nasal tube which was washed in cold water. The tube was inserted harshly and randomly. Sometimes the tube was not washed and they continued to use the dirty tube on another person. A prison doctor with the surname of Luo was force-feeding me when Wang Limei, the head of the ward, told her to insert a hard tube. The doctor then inserted the tube into my nostril and it mistakenly went into my oesophagus. She pretended that she didn't know what was happening and pulled the tube out. She kept inserting the tube into my left nostril until the inner nostril was swollen. Another doctor came to do the procedure the next day and she wondered why the first doctor couldn't insert the tube. The second doctor put the tube in the other nostril. Another prison doctor with the surname of Chen, pricked me on the hand about six times while giving me shots.

The fluid was full of salt. I felt a hot and burning sensation after ingesting it. Once, Wang Limei tried to force me eat a bowl of cornmeal mush. She grabbed my cheeks to open my mouth and poured the cornmeal mush in. She held my nose to make me swallow. I didn't co-operate and spit everything out. The cornmeal mush was all over my clothes and pillow. I was tied to the bed and couldn't move. Wang Limei told two of the monitoring personnel, "Nobody is allowed to wipe it up for her!" Later one of the monitors wiped the mush all over my face and hair, making the condition even worse.

I was tied to the death bed for eight days. Someone would come to take away my urine and excrement. They put a water basin under me. It was painful because it was against my waist. It was hard to urinate when someone was present. Once, I was unable to urinate or defecate for a long time and then finally lost control of my bladder. It was winter and it was cold in the room. My hands were cuffed to the bars of a metal bed and I felt my body suddenly get a chill. Sometimes the comforter would slip during the night and I couldn't pull it back on. I would be very cold and wake up during the night. My wrists turned black and blue. Wang Limei usually asked the monitors to take the blanket away in the morning. They would open the window and door to let in cold air. The monitors would tremble even when they wore blankets. Every second and every minute seemed like a year. Every day they sent groups of brainwashers to attempt to brainwash me using different methods. They threatened me, insulted me, deceived me, scoffed at me and bullied me. The guards even forced other inmates to beat or swear at Falun Gong practitioners. The inmates' term would be extended if they refused to take part in the persecution.

I stopped the hunger strike and was sent back to the ward. I was forced to do hard labour. We were up by 5:00 a.m. and worked all day until 9:00 p.m. We carried bags of beans up and down stairs. We picked the beans, folded papers, made flags, and other things. They didn't allow the families of the practitioners to send them daily necessities. We had to buy supplies from the camp and everything was priced high. Our families sent clothes, however, we never received them. The labour camp often refused visits with our families, and they often extorted money from our families using different excuses.

The labour camp used many different forms of torture to try and transform Falun Gong practitioners. Li Wenna, head of a ward, declared, "She said that we persecute people. Then let her experience it." She told some of the family members, "We won't claim any of the responsibility, even if she dies. The government has given us a quota of four for death row."

Wang Limei took a very active role in persecuting people. Of the two hundred people in the ward, whether they were transformed [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] or not transformed, young or old, almost every person was shocked by her using electric batons. I was shocked by her twice. She shocked my head, neck, and heart with an electric baton. My heart rate jumped to 140 beats per minute. Another time, she cuffed my hands to a metal bed. Then she shocked my palm and arms. I started another hunger strike to protest the persecution in March 2002, which lasted for more than 40 days. Wang Limei lied to my family by telling them that I would be able to go home if I had heart problems. She took me to the hospital for a physical. The doctor looked weird and dreary. Wang Limei asked him, "Do you think surgery can be done?" I was surprised by that statement. Why would they give me surgery if I was healthy? I never had any heart problems. The doctor didn't want to do surgery because he knew that I wasn't sick. I didn't know anything about the organ harvesting at that time. It gives me chills when I think back on this.

The prison guards and other personnel acted nice in front of the family members, and it did deceive many of them. They even provoked the family members to take part in the persecution. They said, "These practitioners don't need affection and they don't want to go home." The same situation occurred in the brainwashing centre. They would not allow our families to visit or bring us any necessities or change of clothes.

The spouses of Falun Gong practitioners were provoked into divorce. They threatened the spouse by telling them they would lose their jobs. Parents were forced to sign guarantee statements to renounce practising Falun Gong. After I was released, my husband divorced me because the pressure and fear was too much. I was also fired from my job, which made my life even harder.

What I have experienced in the forced labour camp is only a tiny part of the entire persecution. The labour camp experience brought me a tremendous amount of pain and it has been hard to let go. I just hope my story will help people to understand how evil the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) really is. Please do not assist in the persecution.

Note

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

2. "Death Bed" torture: A practitioner is tied to a bed with his hands handcuffed above his head to the bed rails, and his legs tied with thin nylon ropes. The rope is then tightly wrapped around the practitioner's body and the bed, from his legs to his chest. The rope is wrapped so tightly that the practitioner has difficulty breathing and eventually loses consciousness.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/11/25/32936.html