Ms. He Zhiwei Severely Persecuted in Guangzhou Brainwashing Centre

Name: He Zhiwei
Gender: Female
Age: 47
Address: Fenghuang Garden, Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: April 9th, 2009
Most Recent Place of Detention: Guangzhou Brainwashing Centre
City: Zhuhai
Province: Guangdong
Persecution Suffered: Detention, sleep deprivation, brainwashing, beatings, torture, physical restraint, denial of toilet use, home ransacked, extortion

Ms. He Zhiwei was arrested by agents from the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) on the morning of April 9th, 2009. She was initially held at the Sanshui Brainwashing Centre and the Zhanjiang Brainwashing Centre but was transferred to the Guangzhou Brainwashing Centre in October 2009. She was tortured in both the Zhanjiang and Guangzhou brainwashing centres in authorities' attempts to force her to renounce Falun Gong. Ms. He was released on December 23rd, 2010.

While in detention, Ms. He tried to explain the facts about Falun Gong to the guards, who then tied her to a chair and deprived her of sleep, meals, toilet use, and washing. Her hands and legs were restrained, so someone had to feed her. She was not allowed to take a shower. The guards did not untie her even when she needed to use the toilet, so several people had to carry her and place her on the toilet. A monitor was stationed in the corner of the room, and she was monitored by the guards 24 hours a day. She and the room started to smell due to poor hygiene. The guards loudly insulted her and didn't want to get close to her because of the smell. She was tied up for five days.

Ms. He wrote a letter of appeal to end the persecution. She handed the letter to her family during a visit and asked them to make an appeal on her behalf. However, the letter was confiscated by officials before her family departed.

The guards then started another round of persecution. They splashed dirty water on her when she did the Falun Gong exercises. They didn't let her take showers or change clothes for a long time. For a month and a half, they also didn't allow her to go to bed until 2:30 a.m. She was also mentally abused, as about nine people got together to insult and bully her. The guards constantly played loud videos that slandered Falun Gong, even at night, and tried to brainwash her with other propaganda videos. This round of persecution lasted for more than two months.

Ms. He's firm faith in Falun Gong did not waver even in that hostile environment. She rejected the brainwashing propaganda and insisted on doing the exercises, even though the guards beat her when she did. On the morning of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the guards grabbed her while she was doing the exercises and dragged her to the toilet. A male guard kicked her until her head hit the wall. Another guard used a shower head to spray water all over her. Then they tied her to a chair. She shouted, “Falun Gong is great! Stop the persecution!” They later strapped her down on a specially designed chair meant for mental patients so that they could eat, drink, relieve themselves, and sleep on the chair while being restrained. The guards didn't let her wash or shower for 18 days, so the room developed an offensive smell. The guards did not let her drink anything for five days, sprayed water with hot pepper on her, and slapped her face. She was forced to sit on the chair for 21 days. The punishment stopped only after the doctor said that her buttocks had festered after a physical check-up.

The guards also used another torture method in their attempt to “transform” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] Ms. He. They forced her to go hungry and with no drinking water for a long time. They would give her nothing for a whole day or only a little rice at mealtime. They stopped her from using drinking water, so that she could only drink tap water (which is not drinkable in China). This mistreatment lasted for more than a month. Her stomach ached from hunger. She shouted, “You are breaking the law by not giving me food!” but to no avail.

Earlier reports:

http://www.clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2010/4/18/116175.html

http://www.clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2010/7/1/118274.html

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2011/1/27/235355.html