Ms. Wang Meiling Sentenced to Forced Labour and Brutally Treated

Name: Wang Meiling
Gender: Female
Age: 58
Address: Chuxiong City, Yunnan Province
Occupation: Retired
Date of Most Recent Arrest: March 10th, 2011
Most Recent Place of Detention: Chuxiong Detention Centre
City: Chuxiong
Province: Yunnan
Persecution Suffered: Detention, home monitored, forced labour, brutal beatings, solitary confinement, home ransacked

Ms. Wang Meiling, retired from the Chuxiong Piston Plant, started to practise Falun Gong in February 1999. She has been persecuted many times since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to persecute practitioners. She was sentenced to a forced labour camp and her term was extended on a number of occasions.

On January 28th, 2000, Ms. Wang went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. She was arrested and detained for 56 days, and then monitored at home for another six months. On February 7th, 2001, she was forced to become homeless due to constant harassment from the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong).

Officers from the Kunming Wuhua Police Branch arrested Ms. Wang on July 16th, 2002, when she was seen distributing Falun Gong materials on Shuncheng Street in Kunming City. She was sentenced to three years of forced labour. Ma Bin and another officer from the Kunming Wuhua Police Branch took her to Yunnan Women's Forced Labour Camp on September 5th, 2002.

Ms. Wang was assigned to the third team at the camp, where two inmates were assigned to monitor her at all times. She was then transferred to the first team, which also serves as a food manufacturing plant, in January 2003. Her husband could not withstand the pressure and harassment from the authorities and requested a divorce on April 5th, 2003. Ms. Wang wrote a letter of appeal to the court, asking to immediately stop the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and to release all those being detained. Her appeal was unsuccessful and her term was extended by two months.

The leader of the first team, Li Ying, instructed inmates to criticize Ms. Wang at a meeting on October 5th, 2003. He gave inmates Song Lili and Zheng Shulan 40 bonus points each to carry this out. (Accumulating bonus points is a way of reducing one’s term in the forced labour camps.) About 300 people attended the criticising meeting, with many police officers and guards in attendance. Li Ying slandered Falun Gong and insulted Ms. Wang. When Ms. Wang stood up to refute the slanderous attacks, she was immediately grabbed by the neck and hands, and several inmates dragged her back to her cell.

One evening in April 2003, inmates Liu Suping and Bai Jian saw Ms. Wang doing the exercises on her bed and immediately started to punch and kick her. Wang Xiaofen then came over and slapped her in the face and shouted, “No one will ever know who beat you.”

Guard Liu Xiaofang was very angry at Ms. Wang on August 19th, 2003. She hit the table and kicked Ms. Wang's stool away. Liu insulted Ms. Wang and said that she had requested that Ms. Wang be sent to a mental hospital.

Liu Xiaofang caused trouble for Ms. Wang again on September 19th, 2003, and ordered several inmates bully her. When Ms. Wang went to the toilet as usual with other inmates at 9:30 p.m, Liu did not allow her to go. Ms. Wang said, “It is heaven's law that evil meets with retribution, otherwise why would you be afraid of lightning?” Liu Xiaofang grabbed Ms. Wang by the collar and told Gui Lihua and others to drag her into the storage room. They locked the door and began beating her. When Ms. Wang started screaming, the guards came to see what was happening. Liu had to open the door and let Ms. Wang go. Liu ordered Ms. Wang to stand at attention in front her and the other guards, but she refused. Liu then told Gui Lihua to claim that Ms. Wang had tried to escape and that her term should be extended for three to six months.

Head of the labour camp Yu Xiaonan slandered Falun Gong at a meeting held during the afternoon of April 28th, 2005. Ms. Wang stood up many times to say, “Falun Gong is good!” But before she finished talking, inmates covered her mouth and forced her to sit down. Her term was later extended for a month and she was put in solitary confinement for ten days. Inmate Qian Wenjin sat on Ms. Wang's back and beat her. Ms. Wang's body was badly bruised and she couldn’t straighten her back or take care of herself.

In the winter of 2005, the guard on duty named Li told Ms. Wang and her family that she would be released after 100 days, when security was more relaxed after the local government had held their annual meetings. However, before these meetings had ended, team leader Li Hong ordered Ms. Wang to his office. She was told that she would not be released. Ms. Wang said, “I am a good person but was persecuted. You will not release me even when my term is over. That is not allowed.” Her term was extended for 20 days. Li Hong ordered Ms. Wang to be put in a small solitary confinement again. Qian Wenjin beat Ms. Wang and poured water onto her bedding. She was in very poor health when she was released.

Ms. Wang's term in Yunnan Women's Forced Labour Camp was extended for eight months, and she was severely tortured. She was finally released in mid-March 2006.

On March 10th, 2011, Ms. Wang was reported to the authorities when she was seen talking to people about Falun Gong in Xishan Park in Chuxiong. She was arrested by officers from the Chuxiong Domestic Security Bureau and her home was ransacked. Chuxiong Court sentenced Ms. Wang to three years in prison on May 26th. She is now in the process of appeal.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2011/6/13/42392.html