Ms. Cao Yingchun Imprisoned and Tortured after Recovering from Myasthenia Gravis

Name: Cao Yingchun
Gender: Female
Age: 56
Address: Room 204, Building No. 3 Huayuan Area, East Pingan Street, Yangming District, Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang Province
Date of Most Recent Arrest: Mid-May 2002
Most Recent Place of Detention: Harbin Women's Prison
City: Harbin
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: sleep deprivation, beatings, imprisonment, solitary confinement, torture, forced-feedings, extortion, physical restraint, home ransacked, interrogation, detention

Ms. Cao Yingchun used to suffer from a neuromuscular disorder called Myasthenia Gravis 13 years ago. Feeling hopeless and in despair, she came across Falun Gong and obtained a new lease on life. However, over the course of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) persecution of Falun Gong that began on July 20th, 1999, Ms. Cao endured inhuman tortures.

The following is an account of the persecution Ms. Cao suffered.

1. Living in Deep Sorrow

I worked as a bookkeeper at the Yangming District Welfare Home, but had to leave the job in 1992 because of my illness. My physical condition worsened daily until I lost the ability to talk or control my bodily functions to the point that it was even difficult to use chopsticks to eat. I went everywhere to seek medical help and was finally diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis at Harbin Medical College in 1995. I tried every kind of treatment, including spirit healing, but to no avail. I felt hopeless. I was bedridden and couldn't talk to people, but only to a small, white dog, which quietly licked the teardrops that fell on my hands.

2. Practising Falun Gong and Walking Out of the Abyss

In the beginning of 1998, a former classmate brought me the Falun Gong book Zhuan Falun. I was in critical condition at that time. I read the book in bed even though I struggled to do so. Although I couldn't do the exercises at the time, on the seventh day of reading the book, I was able to swallow food! My daughter was so happy that she was jumping with joy.

Through studying the Falun Gong teachings and doing the Falun Gong exercises, I gradually regained the ability to take care of myself again. In less than a year, I completely recovered from Myasthenia Gravis and was able to carry a 25-kg gas tank upstairs. I felt I had walked out of the abyss. The joy of practising Falun Gong can't be expressed in words, I could only shout from the bottom of my heart, “Falun Gong is great!”

My recovery was a miracle. I had spent nearly 100,000 yuan¹ to try to find a cure, yet after practising Dafa for over a year and without spending any money on medicine, I recovered completely. My friends and relatives witnessed the positive physical and mental changes in me and exclaimed that Falun Gong is miraculous and wonderful. In fact, many people who practise Falun Gong have experienced the same miraculous recovery from their illnesses.

3. Detained and Tortured

After the persecution started, I went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong towards the end of October 1999. As soon as I arrived at the intersection in front of the appeals office, I was arrested by plainclothes policemen, taken to the Mudanjiang City Beijing Office and held for three days. I was then transferred to Mudanjiang City No. 1 Detention Centre. Towards the end of November, a judge at the Yangming District Court colluded with the 610 Office's (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) Politics and Law Committee and sentenced me to three years of forced labour. I was sent to the Wanjia Forced Labour Camp in Harbin City the following month.

At the Wanjia Forced Labour Camp, because I did the exercises, guard Yu Li slapped my face so hard that I became temporarily deaf in one ear. My health began to deteriorate. I couldn't eat and vomited for a period of time because I wasn't allowed to do the Falun Gong exercises or study the Falun Gong teachings anymore. Guard Song Shaohui then wanted to force-feed me. When I refused to cooperate, someone pulled me down from the top bunk, injuring my lower abdominal area and making it difficult to urinate. Then guard Sun dragged me out. I vomited while they force-fed me.

I was released on medical bail on August 21st, 2001.

On the morning of February 1st, 2002, Li Wei, officers from the Yangming Police Station and more than ten people from the local 610 Office, the Municipal Political and Security Section and the Aimin community forced their way inside my home. Then they held me on the sofa while they confiscated everything valuable from my home, including a TV, a big and a small tape recorder, a DVD and CD player, and over 1,000 yuan in cash. Afterwards, they took me to an office on the second floor of the Aimin Police Station to interrogate me and extort “evidence.” They put mustard oil into my nose and eyes, and then put a plastic bag over my head. Only after I couldn't breathe and was in extreme pain did they loosen their grip on the bag to allow air inside.

That afternoon, I was taken to the Domestic Security Division on the ground floor for further torture. Two people put me on an iron chair, shackled my ankles, put an iron rod in front of my abdomen and then cuffed my hands behind the chair. The individual holding the shackles on my feet pulled on them very hard, while bricks were being put underneath my arms. When I fainted from the pain, they poured cold water on my face. After I regained consciousness, they continued torturing me like that three times. Three days of continuous torture caused serious injuries to my body—my hip bone and a bone in the left side of my chest were fractured, both of my hands, including my left arm, were injured and my whole body was in so much pain that I couldn't even pull up my pants. Several days later, I returned home with scars still visible. They also detained my daughter for three days.

In mid-May, after I was slightly better, police Chen Liang from the Aimin Police Station arrested me again at home. I was then taken to the Mudanjiang Detention Centre. They held a secret trial several months later and sentenced me to ten years in prison. I was taken to Harbin Women's Prison in September, but was rejected and sent back to the detention centre because I failed their physical examination.

They sent me to Harbin Women's Prison again in 2004. At that time, I had difficulty walking, so the on-duty prison guard shouted for them to carry me in. He ordered two inmates to drag me to the cold, damp confinement room where I was held for 15 days. They did not care about the injury to my hip area and still cuffed my hands behind my back, locked them to a fixed ring on the ground, put a shackle on my feet and forced me into a sitting position. I was in so much pain that I couldn't sleep for three days.

I was beaten by inmates who monitored me because I did the exercises. As a result, my face became swollen and bruised, and my chest was injured in February 2010.

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/2011/7/25/244439.html