Tortures that Older Falun Gong Practitioner Ms. Sheng Lianying Was Subjected to at the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp

Name: Sheng Lianying
Gender: Female
Age: 56
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: July 19th, 2007
Most Recent Place of Detention: Masanjia Labour Camp
City: Shengyang
Province: Liaoning
Persecution Suffered: Force-feeding with suffocation, forcibly given nerve-damaging drugs, Death Bed, “Big hang-up”, force-feeding with hot pepper or mustard powder, force-feeding dirty water, mouth stuffed with faeces, shocking with electric batons, beaten, burned under hot sun, and frozen in winter
Key Persecutors: Deputy division manager Shi Yu, nurse Chen Bing, guard Liu Yong, and guard Ma Jishan

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Sheng Lianying from Dalian City, 56, was detained numerous times since the Communist regime began to persecute Falun Gong. She was detained twice at the Masanjia Labour Camp. As a result of the torture, she is physically weak with atrophied legs and deformed teeth.

Ms. Sheng was sent to the Masanjia Labour Camp for the first time on October 8th, 2004, for a term of two years. She was sent there again on July 19th, 2007, for two years. Her term was extended by 70 days and she was released on September 26th, 2009. She was tortured in many ways during those two detentions, including force-feeding with suffocation, forcibly given nerve-damaging drugs, Death Bed¹, “Big hang-up”, force-feeding with hot pepper or mustard powder, force-feeding dirty water, mouth stuffed with faeces, shocking with electric batons, beaten, burned under the hot sun, frozen in winter, as well as many other abuses.

Below are the details.

1. Brutal torture: “Death is nothing. We have quotas for it every year”

There are many different ways to torture practitioners at the Masanjia Labour Camp. Chen Bing, a nurse who force-fed practitioners said, “Death is nothing. We have quotas for it every year.”

(1) Force-feeding with suffocation

When Ms. Sheng went on a hunger strike in the winter of 2007, labour camp officials force-fed her as a method of torture. They forcibly opened her mouth with metal clamps. While deputy division manager Shi Yu pressed her head down, nurse Chen Bing squeezed her nose, and supervisor Cui Hong forced food in between the clamps.

When Cui poured food in between the clamps, Ms. Sheng already had difficulty breathing. But Chen continued squeezing her nose until she was out of breath and near suffocation. The force-feeding was repeated like this four or five times with longer and longer time intervals. This led to Ms. Sheng suffering a myocardial ischemia. Mustard powder was often mixed with food and it was force-fed three times a day. The goal was to fill Ms. Sheng with too much food, causing her to suffer.

Because of the force-feeding, Ms. Sheng’s mouth was torn open with cracks and oral ulcers. The guards then rubbed her mouth as well as the cracks with mustard, making them even more painful and making recovery difficult, even after a long time. Even now, the scars can still be seen on Ms. Sheng’s lips and around her mouth.

(2) Stretching

The guards tied up Ms. Sheng’s legs, stretched her arms to the maximum, and handcuffed her hands above one end of the bed. After about half an hour, both her hands were darkened with bruises. After loosening her arms for a while, the guards stretched out her arms taut and handcuffed her hands again. Ms. Xu Hui was once stretched for such a long time that both her hands were disabled. The guards learned from this how to cause more pain, so they loosened practitioners' handcuffs once every half an hour. The leg muscles collapsed, with skin pulled taut to the bone and the flesh pulled to both sides. The purplish bruises did not fade away even after a long time.

(3) Forcibly given drugs

Once guards Liu Yong and Ma Jishan tortured Ms. Sheng with the “Big hang-up” and force-fed her afterwards. A labour camp doctor surnamed Hu told Ma, “This is drug Number 6.” The doctor then said to Ms. Sheng, “After you take this drug, you will not be able to recognise anyone, even your Teacher or your family. You will have a mental disorder.” Ms. Sheng often had diarrhoea after taking the drug, followed by dizziness and drowsiness.

Ms. Sheng was once forcefully administered unknown drugs through an IV. She immediately felt very disoriented, as if she could lose control at any moment. She was then out of breath.

Guards sometimes mixed drugs with food and in the beginning Ms. Sheng did not know this. However, every time after eating meals mixed with drugs, she was dizzy and had to sleep for a long time. She could barely walk and her entire body was trembling.

(4) Force-feeding with dirty water, hot pepper or mustard powder, and faeces

When Ms. Sheng went on a hunger strike, the labour camp officials tortured her with various means. They opened her mouth with metal clamps and forced-fed her dried hot pepper powder, mustard, or dirty water. They also wore gloves and forced faeces into her mouth.

Sometimes Ms. Sheng did not go on a hunger strike, but the officials nonetheless deprived her of food and began to force-feed her substances mixed together with unknown drugs.

2. Kicking, beating, electric shocking, handcuffing, freezing, and forced fingerprinting

When Ms. Sheng was detained at the Masanjia Labour Camp again in 2007, she was isolated from other detainees for several months. During that time, Zhang Zhuohui, Zhang Huan, Zhang Jun, and Zhang Xiurong kicked her and beat her.

Beating: When Ms. Sheng was isolated from other practitioners, supervisor Pan Yixi forced her to do slave labour. Pan kicked her in the ribs, causing her to be out of breath. Pan then claimed Ms. Sheng was pretending, and Zhang Liang hit her hard on the chest. After returning to the cell, Ms. Sheng vomited blood and she had pain when breathing for more than one month.

Electric shocking: Liu Yong shocked Ms. Sheng with electric batons, either through the handcuffs or directly shocked her on her armpits, eyes, mouth, neck, hands and other parts of her body. The guards threatened Ms. Sheng with electric batons, forcing her to eat. When she was in extreme pain after being tortured and slowly dragged herself upstairs, Liu Yong shocked her with an electric baton from behind. This made her dizzy and she fell down.

Freezing: The temperature is very low during winters at Shenyang City. The guards deprived Ms. Sheng of even one quilt and hung her up to freeze her.

Handcuffing: Ms. Sheng was kept in a storage room in 2008, and handcuffed to the iron stairs for 10 days straight, without being allowed to wash herself or her clothing. Her feet and legs became very swollen. Liu Yong and Zhang Zhuolin nonetheless shocked her with two electric batons. Ms. Sheng had been on a hunger strike, and she only weighed about 40 kilograms (90 pounds). Her face was pale and swollen, and her mouth was covered with blisters and wounds. During the Beijing 2008 Olympics, guard Liu Yong often handcuffed her to the gate or walkway fence, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Since everyone had to pass by that area, they all saw Ms. Sheng being tortured this way. Thus the guards not only humiliated her, but also threatened other practitioners.

3. Torture between 2005 and 2006

Three practitioners in Division 1 went on a hunger strike from December 22nd to 26th, 2005, including Ms. Sheng, Meng Guiqiu (Goubangzi Town, Jinzhou City), and Dong Jingya (Shenyang City). Guards put them into a freezer storage room, which was very cold. They also forced the practitioners to eat, saying that they would be continually detained there until they agreed to eat. Seeing that no practitioners yielded after two days, the guards offered to move them to another room as long they stopped calling out “Falun Gong is good”. Still none of the practitioners gave in. In the end, the three inmates assigned to watch them had frostbite due to the cold, and their feet and ears were damaged. The guards had no choice but to move the practitioners to another room. By then, Ms. Sheng’s feet were covered with blisters due to the cold.

In 2006, guards wrapped Ms. Sheng’s head with clothes. They also tied up her face and head with rubber tubes. As a result, her face became red and was very painful.

4. Tortured in the “strictly guarded” section

Guards gathered several practitioners together, all of whom had been severely tortured, and formed a “strictly guarded” group. Five guards were assigned to watch these practitioners. Labour camp officer Ma Jishan went there many times to terrorise and threaten the practitioners.

One day in 2008, Ma Jishan and other officers came back. They ordered the practitioners to stand up, but none of them did. Watching Ma yelling and unreasonably verbally abusing them, 61-year-old practitioner Ms. Wang Ling patiently explained that they were innocent people. Infuriated, the officers dragged Ms. Wang around as she called out, “Falun Gong is good!” They hung Ms. Wang up, handcuffed her hands onto the upper level of a bunk bed, and sealed her mouth shut with tape. Ma then grabbed Ms. Xu Hui out of the bed, forced her to sit on a stool, and tied her up. When Ms. Xu called out, “Falun Gong is good”, Ma grabbed her by the shoulder and threw her onto the floor, together with the stool. Ma repeated this several times until the stool legs were broken. Ms. Sheng was also mistreated this way, and guards sealed her mouth as well after she called out, “Falun Dafa is good”. Zhang Xiurong also kicked her hard. Division head Zhang Jun loudly swore at 58-year-old practitioner Ms. Zhou Guimin. After Ms. Zhou called out, “Falun Gong is good”, Zhang Jun hung her up by her handcuffed hands onto the upper level of a bunk bed.

Above are some of the tortures that Ms. Sheng suffered at the Masanjia Labour Camp. However, she cannot recall everything she was subjected to due to the forced drug administration.

Note

1. "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/2011/6/17/42580.html