Firsthand Account: Wang Ping from Laizhou City, Shandong Province, Brutally Beaten and Tortured

Name: Wang Ping
Gender: Female
Age: 55
Address: Laizhou City, Shandong Province
Occupation: Retired from a Xinhua bookstore
Date of Most Recent Arrest: May 8th, 2006
Most Recent Place of Detention: The No. 2 Women's Forced Labour Camp in Shandong Province (Wangcun)
City: Zibo
Province: Shandong
Persecution Suffered: Detention, home ransacked, extortion, interrogation by torture, brutal beating, forced labour reform, forced labour, brainwashing, forced long term squatting, denial of toilet use, half squat (in saddle position), long-term standing, solitary confinement, torture, wages withheld, job termination

Ms. Wang Ping began to practise Falun Gong in 1996. In 2006, she was arrested by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) police officers and brutally beaten. After that she was sent to Wang Village Forced Labour Camp. Below is her experience in her own words:

Practising Falun Gong, I recovered from many illnesses

Before the age of 40, I already had many illnesses: superficial gastritis, a duodenal ulcer, chronic cholecystitis, and intractable neurasthenia. The worst thing was that I had ankylosing spondylitis, which is listed as one of the five chronic diseases in international medical records with no drugs to cure it. My family was about to fall apart. I felt that there was no hope and was on the edge of dying, when, in 1996, I was fortunate to obtain this eternal Falun Gong.

Through practice, my entire world view underwent enormous changes. I understood the truth of life, and my realm of mind was gradually upgraded. Along with doing the exercises, my body also underwent a miraculous change. Within just a few months, many of the illnesses that I had had for many years were gone. My physical and mental improvements also made my family happy, and we became kinder and enjoyed each other more.

Arrested, beaten, and sent to a forced labour camp

On May 8th, 2006, I went to the Dianzi Brainwashing Centre to visit a family member who was detained there for no reason. On my way home, Liu Jingbing, the assistant team leader of the National Security Team; Xu Qinghua, female, the office director; Shi Bingtao; and five or six policemen arrested me and took me to Dianzi Detention Centre. They took the key to my home and ransacked it, confiscating my computer, my printer, and other personal belongings. After ransacking my home, they began to threaten and interrogate me. An assistant secretary of the city's political and law committee was also present. Since I did not cooperate, they ordered me to stand up. Seeing that I would not say a word, Xu Qinghua took out a very thick hard plastic tube and violently slapped my crotch. Then she ordered two strong young policemen to hold my arms and not let me move. The other police officers took turns hitting me. While they slapped my back, Shi Bingtao would slap my face and verbally abuse me and would not allow me to move. He slapped me until I could see stars in front of my eyes and my heart stopped beating. They then stopped beating me. I could not sit down because the skin on my buttocks was torn to shreds.

Then they sent me to Laizhou Detention Centre. This was the third time I was sent to a detention centre.

The detention centre doctor was very surprised when giving me a physical, saying, “How could they beat you like this?” I lay in bed for over ten days before I was able to get up and move around. After over six months, my buttocks began to gradually recover. Due to the severe beating, I had endometriosis, hip pain, and other serious illnesses, which often caused me to be in great pain.

I was in the detention centre for 37 days. Liu Jingbing and others told several fellow Falun Gong practitioners and me to sign our names on the paperwork of the forced labour camp. We refused to sign. Without following any legal procedures, on June 14th, 2006, they took four female practitioners to the No. 2 Women's Forced Labour Camp (Wang Village) in Shandong Province. I was sentenced to one and a half years.

During the time I was in Wang Village Forced Labour Camp, each day I had to work over a dozen hours on intensive slave labour. Even women in their 70s had to work every day. If they could not finish their work, they had to work extra hours. Some of them could only sleep 2-3 hours a night. Even a physically strong person could not endure that. Consequently those who left that place all had physical injuries. Sometimes some of them had serious illnesses due to fatigue from slave labour.

In fact, the cruellest parts were the attempts to “transform” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] us. It was simply a stifling of human nature. Nobody was allowed to speak the truth there, and no one could show any kindness. Spiritual violence is like a subtle and underhanded knife. It is more destructive, more insidious, and more vicious than physical torture.

On September 14th, 2007, after enduring all kinds of tribulations which are hard to express with words, I finally went home.

Prior persecution

On July 20th, 1999, several major Falun Gong coordinators were secretly arrested and detained. At that time I thought it very strange. After all, Falun Gong was so righteous; all Falun Gong practitioners were good people; the practice and the people who practised it were a benefit to society and are no harm at all. Why was the government arresting these people? What law did they break?

The next day I went to the provincial government office to ask the leaders why they had banned Falun Gong. As a result, I was arrested and taken to the No. 2 Elementary School in Jinan. Police officers registered us all. A lady in her 60s from Laixi, Qingdao, was beaten by a police officer from Jinan Police Station when she refused to register because she did not want to cause her family any trouble.

On the night of July 23rd, four fellow practitioners and I were taken by Laizhou Police Station officers to the Wenchang Branch Office (known as Shidong Police Station at that time). It was extremely hot. Five of us were detained in a garage with no windows on three sides. At that time, the other side of the hall was filled with Falun Gong practitioners. Things were very scary.

Then, all of the officers came over and threatened to bury us alive. Most of us were beaten to varying degrees. A male practitioner, Zhao Facheng, was beaten and lost consciousness three times. Then they ordered us to squat along the wall. They ordered us to recite the notice issued by the Civil Administration about banning the Falun Gong Research Association. They would not allow us to use the restroom. No one knew how much time had passed when some practitioners nearly fainted, and they allowed us to stand up. At that time, Jiang Xizhou, the director of Shidong Police Station; Lu Qixin, the political instructor; and all of the police officers participated the persecution. After that, whenever there was a sensitive day, I was harassed by the police.

On February 17th, 2000, because I went to a fellow practitioner's home to listen to a recording of Falun Gong lectures, I was detained at the police station for 15 days. When I returned to my work unit, the leader in my work unit suspended me for three months, with the excuse that I could not give up practising Falun Gong. They also forced me to report what I did in front of all of the employees at a meeting. Then they suspended my job, cut off my salary for six months, and revoked my annual bonus, along with other punitive measures. By then, the majority of my colleagues dared not talk to me.

From March to October of 2001, I was arrested twice and sent to the Dianzi Detention Centre. They forced me to attend brainwashing sessions for a total of three months. The night of October 1st, I was detained by Wang Zengwen and six or seven policemen and put into solitary confinement in a remote room. They kicked me, forced me to stay in a squatting position, made me stand for a long time, blew fans on me, and froze me, etc., for eight and a half hours. Then for two weeks straight, all detained practitioners were forced to sit on a bench and were not allowed to speak or whisper to each other, and not allowed to do anything else (except have meals or use the toilet). With the exception of myself, who was detained in an isolated cell, and a senior practitioner, who was in poor physical condition, none of the other practitioners were allowed to go to bed. After over ten days, their legs and feet were so swollen they could not put on their shoes. After two months of physical and mental torture, my work unit suspended me from my job and stopped my salary for one year.

In short, from 2000 to 2007, my work unit suspended my salary, bonuses, and welfare for over six years. The direct economic losses totalled over one hundred thousand yuan. Moreover, during that time my work unit submitted the lowest social security for me (all the other workers have the highest deduction in the entire city), thus leading to a great loss of my pension.

On April 11th, 2004, when I was distributing several postcards exposing the persecution of Falun Gong, I was arrested by the criminal brigade. Liu Jingbing, the assistant team lead of the 610 Office of the National Security Team, and others then ransacked my home and took away my Falun Gong books, Falun Gong materials, computer and other personal belongings. They detained me as a criminal for 30 days and then detained me for another 51 days. Then they sentenced me to two years of forced labour. Finally they released me, saying I had a serious illness.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2011/8/22/245695.html