The Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioner Mr. Wang Yunfei from Tangyuan County, Heilongjiang Province

Name: Wang Yunfei
Gender: Male
Age: Unknown
Address: Tangyuan County, Heilongjiang Province
Occupation: Unknown

Date of Most Recent Arrest: August 23rd, 2001
Most Recent Place of Detention: Mudanjiang Prison
City: Mudanjiang
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Detention, extortion, interrogation, beatings, torture, forced labour reform, forced labour, force-feedings, denied visitation, imprisonment, fired from workplace

In 2000, because of practising Falun Gong, Mr. Wang Yunfei from Tangyuan County was sentenced to one year in a forced labour camp. In 2001, he was sentenced to five years in prison. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) police officers and agents from the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) brutally persecuted him both mentally and physically. His family members and relatives have also been subject to harassment and mental torture.

Zhou Tiegang, the former divisional manager of the Political and Security Division of Tangyuan County Police Bureau, has been to Mr. Wang's home many times to harass his family. Former director of the 610 Office Liu Shaoxing, who has received retribution by getting femoral head necrosis, has also sent people from Mr. Wang's workplace to his home to harass his family. His mother couldn't stand the pressure, and in the evening, she often ran into the forest nearby to look for her son and shouted his name. In 2003, his father, who was the Secretary of the Discipline Committee of Taiping County, could not stand the long term pressure and harassment, as well as the pressure of his son being sentenced. He developed an acute disease and passed away shortly after.

At the time Mr. Wang was detained, his wife was about five months pregnant. By the time his term was up and he got to return home, his child was already seven years old.

The following is Mr. Wang's account of how he was persecuted:

Detained after Going to Beijing to Appeal to the Government

In December 1999, I went to Beijing to appeal to the government and ended up being detained at the County Police Bureau. After 15 days, when the detention term was up, I was detained for another 30 days before I was finally released. I was fined for 3,000 yuan¹ and got bailed out only after I paid 2,000 yuan. Both my wife and I were fined 8,000 yuan in total. We were only given a temporary receipt. The fine has never been refunded to us. Zhou Tiegang who was in charge of the Domestic Security Brigade, used torture to interrogate me. Police officer Xu Qing from the Domestic Security Brigade beat me.

Tortured in Jiamusi Forced Labour Camp

On May 13th, 2000, I was detained again. In order to oppose the persecution, I went on a hunger strike for five days. After doctors from Tangyuan County Centre Hospital checked me over, they said that my condition was critical. In order not to take on any responsibilities, people from the police bureau notified my family to take me home. Twenty days later, Liu Shaoxing, the person in charge of the 610 Office, led a few people to my home to “visit” me. About ten days later, Zhou Tiegang, the person in charge of the Domestic Security Brigade, suddenly came to my home and said to me, “There is something that we need your assistance to verify.” I was thrown into Jiamusi Forced Labour Camp, and none of my family members was notified.

At the forced labour camp, the person in charge of the administrative affairs, whose last name is Hou, said to the prisoners, “For all of you, we have only one policy, which is 'We will touch your heart, strengthen you, and warm your heart.'” However, prisoners all have to endure hard forced labour. What they have to eat is only steamed dumplings made of mouldy and deteriorated flour and eggplant soup. A dozen prisoners shared one big bowl of soup with no oil in it. There was hardly any eggplant in the soup either.

Between July and August 2000, dozens of prisoners had diarrhoea and became extremely dehydrated. Only a few received limited medication. The rest had to carry on doing hard labour without any medication, including using heavy hammers. In October 2000, a prisoner by the last name Wang from Huangchun County in No.2 Middle Team could not stand this inhuman torture, so he tried to escape. The guards threw something at him and hit him in the head. He died. Practitioners are suffering tremendous torture, both mental and physical, which they should not have to endure.

Tortured in Jixi Prison

On August 23rd, 2001, I left home to travel. When I arrived at Jixi, I was arrested and detained in Hengshan Police Sub-Bureau in Jixi City. One night when I was being interrogated, there were three shifts of guards. They put me in handcuffs and foot shackles and striped me naked. One stepped on the handcuff, another sat on my thighs, and another used a “white dragon” to hit the centres of my palms and soles of my feet, until both my hands and feet were swollen, and I was shaking so hard that I couldn't stand up. One guard set fire to a paper box, then used it to burn me. Much of my hair was lost.

In November 2002, I was thrown into the No.3 Ward in Jixi Prison. Under the instigation of the CCP, guards persecuted practitioners severely. We were only allowed one meal a day, and we went from being allowed three hours sleep a night to only two hours of sleep. When we were asleep, they woke us up twice. At 1:30 a.m., right before we went to bed, we were forced to take an ice water shower. In the shower room, the temperature was about freezing. When the water hit you, it penetrated into your bones. We instantly jumped, as if electrified. A few times the guards instigated prisoners to brush my skin with a hard brush, which injured my skin. When Wang Jintang, the team leader of No.2 Team, saw what was going on he left grinning. Every day, we were handcuffed to an iron fixture. When we were released, it felt as if our arms were broken, and we were afraid of moving them even a little bit. Sometimes we were handcuffed to a big iron cage in the public washroom and had to stand on the dirty floor in our bare feet. We were not allowed to put on winter clothes or wear shoes. The windows were open, and there was a layer of freezing ice on the floor. During this period, I was beaten many times by political instructor Huang Hui and Team leader Wang Jintang. I was hit with shoes and slapped on both sides of my face. As a result, I could not eat properly for more than ten days. My teeth were loosened, inside the skin on the inside of my mouth was broken, so I had difficulty eating. I had to soak steamed buns in soup so that I could eat them. Prison leader Wang Xingyan, secretary of the CCP Committee by the last name of Wang, another person in charge of the prison Zhang Shan, Divisional manager of the Political Department Ma Hongren, Divisional manager of Educational Transformation Department Jiang Zhiying, and the Divisional manager of the Food Department were all aware of what was happening to me. They all talked to me, and then they gave silent permission for others to continue to cruelly torture me. What they said was, “If you die, it will count as a normal death from disease.” This cruel torture lasted for four and half months.

In order to resist this cruel torture, I went on a hunger strike three times. On the sixth day of my third hunger strike, I was taken to the hospital affiliated with the Jurisdiction Bureau, where I was inhumanly force-fed. One doctor hit my eyes and nose so hard that blood spurted out and hit a bed two metres away. After a tube was put in through my nose, he used a lot of force to twist it into my stomach. The pain was beyond description. Three days after I was taken to this hospital, I was transferred to Mudanjiang Prison. Before I left, I was told that they were going to take me to Qincheng Prison in Beijing. After I was taken there, people from Jixi Prison lied to my family and said that I was doing very well in Jixi Prison. Not until they insisted on seeing me did Jixi Prison officials have to let them know that I had been transferred out of their prison a few months before.

Forced Labour in Mudanjiang Prison

In Mudanjiang Prison, I was forced to do long term hard labour. Since 2003, I have been doing hard labour 15 to 16 hours every day. Since 2004, in order to compete in a nationwide “civilised prison” contest, we were forced to work at least 12 hours every day. Even though we worked for such a long time, many of us still couldn't finish the assigned targets, so after we got back to the cell, some of us would be beaten with “white dragons” or wooden boards. What makes practitioners different from other inmates is that practitioners are not allowed to have visitors. Also, collaborators watch their every move. In August 2006, my term was up and I was released, so people from the Tangyuan County 610 Office and Jixi Prison came and took me home. After I got home, I found out that I had lost my job because of the persecution and had no means of supporting myself.

Arrested Again after Being Released

In June 2009, there was an explosion in Tangyuan County. People from Tangyuan County Police Bureau couldn't find the cause, so they attempted to frame Falun Gong. People from the county 610 Office, the Domestic Security Brigade, Military Police Troop, and Dongcheng Police Station arrested me, then ransacked my home, and harassed my workplace and neighbourhood.

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/2011/2/6/235929.html