Miao Shuqing from Fushun City, Liaoning Province Suffers Years of Persecution

Name: Miao Shuqing
Gender: Female
Age: 60
Address: Fushun City, Liaoning Province
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: October 8th, 2002
Most Recent Place of Detention: Shenyang Women's Prison
City: Shenyang
Province: Liaoning
Persecution Suffered: Detention, interrogation, extortion, food deprivation, denial of toilet use, beatings, sleep deprivation, brainwashing, inserting toothpicks between fingernails, solitary confinement, shocked with electric batons, forced labour.

Falun Gong practitioner Miao Shuqing has been arrested by Chinese Communist Party officials multiple times since 2000. Throughout the ordeals, Miao Shuqing has refused to give up her beliefs. She was detained at Jianglu Police Station, Fushun Police Station, Qianjin Police Station, and Shenyang Women's Prison. The following are accounts of the persecution suffered by Miao Shuqing in past years.

I. Arrested and Taken to a Police Station in June 2000

One day in June 2000, at around 6:00 a.m., someone reported Miao Shuqing and Zhao Xiuying, while they were posting flyers that explain the facts about Falun Gong. Agents from the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) arrived, beat and kicked the two practitioners, arrested them, and took them to Linjianglu Police Station. Police officers interrogated Miao Shuqing and Zhao Xiuying separately and asked which one had written or provided the fliers. The practitioners then explained about Falun Gongs to the officers. At around noon, a police officer contacted Miao Shuqing's family and told them to bring 500 yuan¹ “deposit,” claiming that the money would be returned if Miao did not go to Beijing again to appeal (however, no receipt was provided). The officer extorted the money and Miao Shuqing returned home.

II. Arrested by Beijing Police in 2001, Taken Back to Fushun for Detention

Miao Shuqing went to Beijing in late November 2001. In the morning, she held a banner in Tiananmen Square, and shouted “Falun Gong is Good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!” When she shouted the second time, she was arrested by the Beijing police. She was detained in a police station not far from Beijing. That same day, the police arrested 70-80 practitioners and detained all of them in a large metal cage. Practitioners were not allowed to eat or use the toilet. However, after the practitioners protested, they were allowed to use the toilet during the night.

The police separated the practitioners at around 9:00 p.m. They took Miao Shuqing, Hu Yanbo, and several practitioners whose names were unknown, to a suburban area that was far from Beijing, and interrogated them for the entire night. The police officers figured out that they were from Fushun, so on the second day they let the Fushun police officers who were in Beijing take them back. At that time, Hu Yanbo escaped when the officers were not paying attention.

After Hu escaped, the police put the remaining practitioners in handcuffs. At midnight, Miao Shuqing's handcuffs came off, so she tried to escape. In the process, she was found by some officers and beaten. They took off her jacket and threw it with her backpack out of the room, then handcuffed her to the heating pipes. Right before they returned to Fushun, Miao found that more than 500 yuan was gone from her pocket.

When they returned to Fushun, Miao Shuqing was taken to a detention centre. On the afternoon of the 15th day in the centre, Jingyu Police Station officials took Miao to the Fushun Forced Labour Camp. Since Miao was in poor health, the labour camp refused to accept her, so she was taken back to the police station. The officer in charge of handling her said, “I must take you to a labour camp. Since this one did not accept you, I will take you to the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp.” However, doing this required a statement from the city hospital. Since it was already late, the hospital checked Miao Shuqing on the second day. Miao was diagnosed with major heart problems and had to be hospitalised. Thus the police could not take her to the labour camp. The police officers then extorted 5,000 yuan from Miao Shuqing's family (no receipt was provided, and later 2,500 yuan was returned). Before she was taken to the labour camp, Gong Wei, who was the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) secretary of the Jiangjun Community, extorted 500 yuan from Miao Shuqing's family and claimed that it was required by the labour camp. He gave the family a receipt hand written on a piece of white paper. The family later tried to get the money back, but with no success.

III. Arrested and Taken to Qianjin Police Station in 2002

The First Fushun Police Team arrested Miao Shuqing, Jia Naizhi, and Gao Guirong at around midnight on October 8th, 2002, and took them to Nanzhan Police Station. The officers dumped out everything from the practitioners' purses. Miao Shuqing's purse contained a mobile phone, a pager, and 1,300-1,400 yuan in cash. Jia Naizhi had three cell phones, one pager and several thousand yuan in cash. Gao Guirong also had a mobile phone and money. Later the practitioners were separated, and Miao Shuqing was taken to Qianjin Police Station.

After they arrived at the police station, the police took off Miao Shuqing's jacket and shoes. They had her stand on the cement floor barefoot, with her hands separated and handcuffed to the metal rails. They dipped a towel in cold water, placed it on her neck, and let the water drip to the ground, so that she would feel very cold and not fall asleep.

At around 9:00 a.m. on the second day, a police officer had her put on her shoes, and started to interrogate her. She refused to answer the questions and only explained the truth about Falun Gong to the officer. The officer slapped her with floor tiles, and did not allow her to eat or use the toilet. Only in the afternoon did they allow a female temporary worker to take her to the toilet.

Miao Shuqing was taken to a small room at around midnight on October 10th. The room was completely closed off. They made her sit on a chair with shackles on both of her feet, with her hands stretched apart and tied to metal rails, and her lower body tied to the chair. Her legs were then lifted up until they were above her head, then let down, then lifted up again. This was repeated several times. This kind of torture was also used on others, to injure the thighs, causing the practitioners to be unable to walk.

The director of the police station later used electric batons to shock Ms. Miao. He specifically picked sensitive areas on the body, such as her breast, genitals, eyes, mouth, back, neck, arms, and the insides of her thighs. The electric shocks caused Miao Shuqing to wet herself, and also burned her skin. When the director was tired, he left. Another officer then arrived and inserted toothpicks under the fingernails of her left hand. All the officers who came by eventually went to sleep, with only two people watching her. The next day, there was a pool of blood on the ground about the size of a handkerchief.

IV. Details of the Abuse at the Second Detention Centre in Fushun City

Miao Shuqing was later detained in the Second Detention Centre in Fushun City. In February 2003, policewoman Guan Jing had criminal inmates Wang Xiuyun, Zhao Kun, and convicted murderer Zhang Yahong beat practitioner Jiang Xiuhua. When Miao tried to stop them, they grabbed Miao and threw her to the ground, causing serious injuries. She was not able to sit or walk for the following four months, and even had problems turning in bed. During the four months, Wang Xiuyun continued to harass her.
There was also a practitioner named Wang Xiuxia from Qingyuan City at the detention centre. She shouted “Falun Gong is good!” daily. Criminal inmate Wang Xiuyun had other inmates stuff her mouth with dirty socks. Sometimes they taped Wang Xiuxia's mouth, beat her, and insulted her. This practitioner was later transferred to another cell and was killed.

V. Details of the Abuse at Shenyang Women's Prison

1. Pressured to Write the Three Statements to Renounce Practising Falun Gong

In July 2003, Miao Shuqing was taken from the Fushun Detention Centre to the first branch of the second team of Shenyang Woman's Prison. Wang Dan, who was a policewoman and the team leader, arranged two convicted murderers to monitor her. They did not allow Miao to speak, look at others, or walk around. In the daytime, she was forced to read materials slandering Falun Gong. At night, after the team leader left work, convicted murderer Shi Xiuli took Miao to a place with no one else around, and pressured her to write the three statements. If Miao Shuqing refused to write, she would be tortured or beaten with sticks. She was not allowed to sleep until midnight and had to sleep without a quilt or clothing covering her. More than ten days passed like this. One day at almost midnight, Shi Xiuli took Miao Shuqing to a conference room, and had more than ten people there strip off her trousers and socks. They stripped her naked and prepared to write Falun Gong's founder's name on her buttocks and feet. Miao would not allow them to do thus and struggled with them. They said, “If you don't allow us to do this, you have to write statements and announce that you are giving up Falun Gong.” Starting from that day, Miao Shuqing became depressed. She had to write “reports” every month, in addition to forced labour. They still took every opportunity to beat and insult her.

2. Beatings

On January 1st, 2004, Miao Shuqing wrote a “report” to team leader Wang Dan. But this time, she decided to write her beliefs, explaining the facts to the police. She wrote a solemn declaration that all her past statements were invalid and that she would resume practising Falun Gong. Policewoman Wang Dan then arranged Shi Xiuli to deal with Miao again. On the morning of January 3rd, Shi Xiuli found two criminals with last names Zhang and Bai to beat Miao. Bai twisted Miao's arms behind her body, while Zhang and Shi Xiuli each stepped on one of Miao's feet. They stomped on her chest and slapped her. When Miao cried, they covered her head with a thick cotton jacket and continued beating her. They didn't stop until they became tired. They then made her perform forced labour and did not allow her to report it to the team leader. After the police came to work and finished a meeting, Miao found the team leader and reported the incident. The policewoman pretended not to believe it and called the three of them in to inquire. The three women all claimed that they didn't beat Miao, and asked Miao if she had any witnesses. Miao said that her face and chest were the evidence. The meeting ended with the perpetrators not being punished.

3. Threatening to Extend the Detention Time and Solitary Confinement

Miao Shuqing was scheduled to be released on April 7th, 2007, however policewoman Li Jing notified the Fushun Political and Judiciary Committee to go to Miao's home, in order to prevent Miao's family from picking her up. They said that they were going to send her directly to the Fushun Brainwashing Facility, because Miao did not “behave well” in prison.

At night, policewoman Chen Xuena and two criminals deceived Miao Shuqing into walking into a solitary confinement cell. The cell was about two square metres in size. One side was a metal gate, and the other three sides were walls about three or four meters high, with a big glass window on the top. After Miao entered the cell, she was stripped naked. Then they threw a thick cotton jacket at her and got her to stand barefoot on the cement floor. They said, “Even though your term is up, we can still punish you.”

VI. Miao Returns Home

Miao's family came to pick her up at around 9:00 a.m. on April 7th. No one from the 610 Office came, so the prison had to let her family take her. After she returned home, she learned that both of her children went to the Political and Judiciary Committee for her, and told the officials, “Our mother is a good person, while you are breaking the law.” Thus, the 610 Office agents did not go.

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://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2011/7/17/243998.html