My name is Zhang Lianying. My four-year-old daughter and I had just arrived in front of our apartment building on April 20th, 2008, my birthday, when someone jammed an arm under my neck and thrust a black sack over my head. The eggs and umbrella I was carrying dropped on the ground and my daughter screamed, “Mummy!”
I was dragged upstairs. Someone opened the door [to our home], and several people shoved me to the floor, bruising my face. The bag was removed from my head. I saw my husband pinned on the bed with his head in a black sack and handcuffed behind his back. Several plainclothes police officers were rummaging through everything. The room was a total mess. They took our computer(s) and other personal belongings. When I asked who they were, one man wearing glasses said, “We are the evil police.” Then I was dragged downstairs. It was raining, and my daughter cried, “Mummy, Mummy.” She stopped smiling on that day; when someone later on took her picture on her birthday and her aunt asked her to smile, she cried and she could not.
My husband and I practise Falun Gong and lived in Beijing. The Communist Party arrested more than 500 practitioners in Beijing alone and about 10,000 nationwide before the 2008 Olympics Games. More than 20 people died in custody during that time.
That day, my husband and I were taken to Dongcheng Detention Centre in Beijing. The cell was packed. One woman named Zhao Yumin told me five members of her family were arrested for practising Falun Gong, including her mother, in her 80s, and that her one-year-old child was left with no one to take care of her.
My husband and I were soon sentenced to forced labour. My husband was first sent to the Forced Labour Dispatch Division on May 13th, 2008, where 12 police officers shocked him with ten electric batons. The skin on his body was scorched. They even activated the batons inside his mouth and anus and on his genitals. After he lost consciousness they doused him with cold water and resumed the brutality when he came to. The room and front yard were filled with the smell of charred flesh. One practitioner was killed on the spot on August 10th, 2008.
They also forced my husband to eat food laced with drugs, which made him feel dizzy, disoriented, and nauseous and as if his heart was “beating out of his chest." The drug abuse lasted one month.
Fifty female practitioners including myself were taken to Masanjia Forced Labour Camp in Liaoning Province on July 14th, 2008. As far as I know, the officials divided Beijing practitioners into five groups and sent them to Masanjia Labour Camp. Male guards carried out the torture.
I was treated barbarically from the first day. My mouth was repeatedly cut with the edge of a large spoon; there was blood all over the tile floor. Guard Ma Jishan then abraded my bleeding mouth with a coarse rope and clawed my face numerous times, leaving deep, dark bruises. They also force-fed me drugs. Day and night I could hear the crackling sound of electric current and blood-curdling screams.
"The Stretching," where my limbs were pulled in four directions, was most excruciating. My arms and legs were fastened to four poles of two beds with ropes tied to handcuffs. They also attached wooden boards to my legs so I could not move. They then started pushing and kicking the beds apart to intensify the pain. My clothes were quickly soaked with sweat.
To minimise external scarring, thereby eliminating evidence, the guards wrapped my wrists in thick cloth, but penetrating lacerations still left them a bloody mess. I could not move; someone had to feed me and help me drink. I had difficulty taking care of myself for more than a year afterwards. I was stretched more than 20 times. The longest single session lasted three days and nights. My eyes were twice covered with black cloth. I was stretched while the guards shocked my armpits, inner thighs, and other sensitive areas. I went into convulsions, and my flesh was burned. The wounds would not heal for a long time. Non stop they played audiotapes slandering Falun Gong. For some time they would not let me eat, drink, sleep, or use the toilet. The guards tried to humiliate me with extremely vulgar language. I refused to wear a prisoner’s uniform. The guards stripped me naked, hung me up, whacked me with wooden planks, and kicked my buttocks with heavy boots. Four older female practitioners—Ms. Zhang Min, Ms. Sun Shujie, Ms. Liu Shiqin, and Ms. Liu Yanqin—were subjected to the same treatment. The guards also poured cold water on them.
The Olympics did not bring an end to state terror. My husband’s friend, Yu Zhou, died in police custody 11 days after his arrest, as did a number of others. More than ten practitioners died as a result of persecution in Beijing alone. Although the official Chinese Communist Party (CCP) media no longer openly slander Falun Gong, the persecution is still carried out in secrecy, away from public view. It is the longest-running, most barbaric, and widespread persecution in human history.
My husband, my daughter, and I left China on January 27th, 2011, but my heart aches for my compatriots who still struggle daily between life and death. The persecution has lasted 12 years and is still ongoing.
I call upon good people around the world to extend a helping hand toward suffering people in China!
Attached: Letter to Mr. Edward McMillan-Scott, Vice President of the European Parliament, and the European Parliament
Dear Mr. McMillan-Scott and members of the European Parliament:
Greetings! My name is Zhang Lianying. I was released from Masanjia Forced Labour Camp on November 3rd, 2010. This was my third release from a forced labour camp. My husband, Niu Jinping, left Xinan Forced Labour Camp in Beijing on October 19th, 2010, and together with our daughter, seven-year-old Qing Qing, we came to the U.S. on January 27th, 2011.
Mr. Scott-McMillan, you met with my husband in May 2006. You and other members of the European Parliament provided us with strong support in the past. You overcame interference from the Chinese Communist Party and personally interviewed my husband in order to raise awareness in the international community regarding the persecution.
Now, please allow me to tell you about the persecution of my family.
The deputy mayor of Beijing issued an order that I had to be arrested before the 2008 Olympics. My husband and I were arrested on April 20th, 2008. We later learned that, since my husband met with Mr. Scott-McMillan and my letter to him was published on the Minghui/Clearwisdom website on January 30th, 2008, the communist regime wanted to prevent us from further exposing the facts about the persecution to the world and had put us on a blacklist. We were each sentenced to two-and-a-half years of forced labour and were savagely tortured in the camps. My husband was sent to Tuanhe Labour Camp in Beijing. I was taken to Masanjia Labour Camp in Liaoning Province.
Our daughter, Qing Qing, was only four years old at the time and witnessed the police manhandling us and ransacking our home. She was terrified when the police threw a black sack over my head and dragged me upstairs. Afterwards I saw a picture of a crying Qing Qing at her birthday party.
According to partial estimates, within the six months leading up to the Games, more than 500 practitioners were arrested in Beijing, and about 10,000 were arrested nationwide. Many died in police custody. Those already detained also suffered more brutalities before and after the Olympics, and practitioners held in Beijing labour camps were covertly transferred to other provinces.
I was taken out of Beijing and sent to Masanjia Labour Camp on July 14th, 2008. About 50 practitioners were divided into five groups and taken from Beijing to Masanjia at the same time. I know Zhang Yinying, Wang Lixin, Mao Guizhi, Lang Dongyue, Qiu Shuqin, Su Wei, Wang Lijun, and Tao Yuqin were among them.
Ma Jishan, head of the Administration Section, and Liu Yong, head of the Security Section, led
male guards in carrying out violent assaults. I could hear screams and the popping noise of electric sparks on a daily basis. Many practitioners lost the use of their limbs afterwards; Tao Yuqin and Xu Hui’s arms hung stiffly by their sides even after they were released at the expiration of their two-year terms.
I was subjected to the Big Hang-up as many as ten times within two months between July 14th and September 2008, in addition to sleep deprivation, electric shock, and beatings.
Masanjia is the regime’s “model unit” and receives major and continued government funding that rewards their “experience and expertise” in “reforming” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] Falun Gong practitioners. Those in charge are then promoted to other labour camps and prisons.
The Ministry of Justice issued a special grant of one million yuan to Masanjia, and 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) heads Luo Gan and Liu Jing made visits just to oversee the persecution and make sure it was effective. Female camp official Su Jing was issued a “Second Class Award” and the title “National Hero and Role Model” and received a 50,000-yuan1 bonus for her active role in committing atrocities. Female guard Shi Yu, who hit my mouth with a spoon, was promoted from a team leader at Women's Camp's Division 3 to an official at the Administration Section of Mashanjia Labour Camp, to later deputy head of the Women's Camp before I left the labour camp. Guard Pan Qiuyan was appointed head of the Special Control Division, and, after it was disbanded, she was promoted to a higher position in Masanjia Labour Camp.
The cardiac rescue medication Suxiao Jiuxin is regularly administered to practitioners who suffer heart attacks due to torture. This has become a measure that the authorities use to continue the torture as the officials want to keep us alive but make sure we suffer maximally without letup.
Sometimes, camp head Yang Jian and deputy head Zhou Qin would even attack me in person. Zhou Qin sunk her long nails into my temples and my hands until she drew blood.
The guards often threatened us by saying, “You can forget about getting out alive if you don’t 'reform.'”
Many practitioners died or suffered mental breakdowns or permanent injuries at Masanjia over the past decade, and labour camp guards from other parts of the country went there to study their ruthless tactics. In October 2000, 18 female practitioners were thrown into a male cell. Among them was a young woman practitioner who was raped and became pregnant. The child is now ten years old, and the practitioner has yet to overcome the psychological aftermath.
Up until December 2005, at least 11 practitioners had died there, and many others were injured or experienced nervous breakdowns. More than 4,000 practitioners have been held there over the course of six years.
It was summer 2008 when I was first driven there from Beijing. They put a thick winter hat on me, hogtied me with black elastic straps, gagged me, handcuffed me, and closed all the window curtains in the car. The trip took more than 10 hours. I vomited several times so they had to remove whatever they had shoved into my mouth.
After getting out of the car I was greeted by fully armed guards standing in front of the labour camp building. When they dragged me out of the car, I struggled, shouting, “Falun Gong is good!” They jumped on me and pushed my head down. One male guard covered my mouth with his hand so tightly that his nails cut into my face. They yanked me into a room on the ground floor, where several male guards beat me and then hauled me upstairs. Zhang Jun, head of Division 3, covered my mouth, and her nails deeply cut into my face while dragging me upstairs and blood ran down my face from the deep scratches. After taking me to the third floor, they cuffed one hands to the metal rail on the upper bunk, and a male guard started hitting me with his fists and handcuffs. They found a large cooking spoon and took turns hitting my mouth. There was blood all over my clothes and the tile floor. My face was black and blue with deep nail marks and blood.
I was put on the stretching torture more than 20 times, and sometimes I was hung up for several days and nights. They even tore my clothes and hung me up stark naked. Pan Qiuyan pinched my nipples and swatted me with wooden planks until I passed out. She also videotaped me saying, “We’ll send your nude shots to the Falun Gong website so they can all see it.”
They established a Special Control Division with a secret torture chamber where I was stretched and hung by my cuffed hands. They let me down only after I lost consciousness. Due to prolonged brutality I could not straighten my back or fingers for a long time. I cannot count how many times I was hit with electric batons, wooden planks, wooden sticks, or handcuffs. I was hung up in various positions. I was blindfolded twice while they shocked my inner thighs, armpits, neck, face, fingers, and lower back with electric batons until the flesh was burned. In the winter they poked the batons inside my clothes to shock me. They grabbed my hair and smashed my head against a wall and a table; they pried my mouth open with a metal mouth opener (similar to the device used to open an animal's mouth to give it drugs) until I bled. They chopped at my mouth with a large cooking spoon, causing profuse bleeding. Ma Jisha rubbed my mouth with a rope. He and female guard Chen Bing from the Medical Section force-fed me drugs, after which Chen Bing shouted, “Now you’ll go home and be a mental case!” I was given heart pills several times a day, so they could revive me in order to torture me more. Guard Peng Tao gagged me with a towel even as I struggled to breathe.
Wang Yanping, head of Division 2, whacked and jabbed me with wooden sticks while I was hung up. She also hit me with her fists, kicked me with heavy boots, and ground on my toes. Sometimes more than 20 guards came upon me at once, bending my toes and fingers backwards, pulling my hair, twisting my nipples, pinching my inner thighs, and prying my mouth open. They cuffed my hands and legs in different positions daily and had to send me to the hospital many times to be revived after the torture.
Zhang Liang also hit me with a mop handle. After I was stripped naked, Zhang Jun, head of Division 3, kicked my genitals with heavy boots and yanked my hair. When I was on the floor, she dragged me over to the heating pipe to cuff me to it. In the fall, I was hung from a window frame with my legs split open and tied to two separate heating pipes.
During summer nights my torso was tied down on top of a nurse’s cart, which the labour camp bought for the sole purpose of torturing Falun Gong practitioners, while my arms were tied to the wheels on the sides, causing excruciating pain. They opened the door and windows to let the mosquitoes in. Wearing thin clothes late at night during the fall, I was tied to a cart with the windows wide open and the cold air blowing through the room. Sometimes both my arms and legs were cuffed, and the cuffs cut into my ankles. Then they jerked the cuffs upward repeatedly, making the metal burrow even deeper into the flesh, causing unbearable pain. This lasted several months until the day before I was released.
They force-fed me corn porridge mixed with large chunks of lard and drugs. The guard grabbed my hair and pinched me. I was forbidden to write letters or make phone calls. Section head Wang Xiaofeng tore up letters from my family in my face. They also ordered collaborators (former practitioners, brainwashed against Falun Gong, made to assist in brainwashing and torturing practitioners) to torture determined practitioners. They refused to let practitioners do the exercises. They gagged me and wrapped my head with tape. They forced us to wear a prisoner’s uniform and beat us if we refused.
Labour camp guards said the deputy mayor of Beijing personally issued an order for my arrest, which took place on April 20th, 2008. Beijing Forced Labour Bureau officials sent me to Masanjia and planned to immediately take me back to Beijing, to be used as a “model for 'reform'” as soon as I renounced my belief. They told me, “The labour camp has death quota, and your death will be caused by illness.”
My husband, Niu Jinping, was transferred from the Dongcheng Detention Centre in Beijing to the Dispatch Division on May 13th, 2008. He kept shouting, “Falun Gong is good!” A police officer at the Dispatch Division said to him, “You met with the vice president of the European Union! You caused lots of trouble for the government.” Then, an officer with badge number 153064, said, “Now!” A group of officers and four inmates jumped on him and stripped him of all clothing except his underpants. They spread his arms and legs and pinned him on the ground. Ten officers shocked him with ten electric batons at the same time, holding them against his back, buttocks, the backs of his hands, fingers, the soles of his feet, anus, head, and behind his ears. The same officer with badge number 153064 said, “Turn him over!” The inmates flipped him over so he was facing up, then the officers shocked his genitals, chest, face, ribs, soles, and head and put the batons inside his mouth for a long time. He got blisters on his tongue, throat, and gums. He lost two teeth, and his lower teeth became loose. After they exhausted the ten batons, they went to bigger electric batons. He got large blisters on top of his head, forehead, the back of his head, and behind his ears. After the scabs came off, the skin underneath was white; it slowly faded after a year. The same officer again shouted, “Get him on all four sides!” The ten batons showered him with electric shocks, and his body bounced up uncontrollably. They kept at it until he could no longer move. The skin all over his body was charred and he lost consciousness. They poured cold water on him and continued shocking him when he came to. He vomited blood for two days and defecated blood for a week. His chest ached, and his entire body trembled in pain when he coughed. He could not turn over in bed for two weeks and it did not improve until two months later.
Our daughter suffered tremendously. Her voice was reduced to a whisper due to fear, and she could no longer smile. We secretly left China for the U.S. for the sake of our child’s wellbeing. As the plane was about to land on U.S. soil, seven-year-old Qing Qing smiled for the first time in a very long time, waving her small hands in the air and shouting, “Mum, we are in America now!”
My heart was relieved when I saw she was happy and that she was going to be OK. But I still worry about fellow practitioners still held in labour camps. Five days after arriving in the U.S. I ran into Ms. Jia Yahui, who was also held at Masanjia. She recognised me, embraced me, and cried. She left one year before me and was tortured many times. She suffered a nervous breakdown for six months after her release and still cannot bring herself to talk about what happened. There are still many practitioners held at Masanjia. After I came to the U.S. I heard that practitioner(s) who were held with me were arrested again and sent back there.
Lies and persecution continue. I call upon all good people in the world to support and help us, and I also ask Mr. Scott-McMillan and other EU parliament members to continue to pay attention to the persecution.
Please allow me to express sincere respect and gratitude to Mr. Scott-McMillan and other EU parliament members on behalf of all persecuted Falun Gong practitioners.
Zhang Lianying
Niu Jinping
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/2011/4/16/39139.html
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