The Brutal Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners in the Tilanqiao Prison in Shanghai

The Tilanqiao Prison in Shanghai has played a significant role in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners in the Shanghai area. The Tilanqiao Prison is directly controlled by the Chinese Communist Party's 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. Most steadfast practitioners in the districts and counties of Shanghai area have been sent to the prison to be “transformed” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong].

Each of the nine wards in the prison has four or five divisions, and each division usually occupies one whole floor of a large building. However, these floors are only used to imprison one Falun Gong practitioner at a time to create a sense of isolation and the feeling of desperation for the practitioners. Criminal inmates sentenced to death with a reprieve or life imprisonment are assigned to watch and torture practitioners.

The whole prison is ghastly and frightful. Having been brainwashed with lies and propaganda defaming Falun Gong, some inmates have developed hatred towards practitioners. Wardens will tell these inmates to “educate him or her and watch them closely.” Some inmates who were assigned to do this work told practitioners, “You believe in truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance, but the Party doesn't allow you to practise these beliefs.”

Usually two criminal inmates are assigned by wardens to be in charge of one practitioner. Wardens instruct and encourage inmates to abuse practitioners by swearing at them, locking them in isolated cells, beating, and other forms of physical and mental maltreatment. Once an inmate succeeds in “transforming” a practitioner, he or she will receive merit points toward sentence reduction. Therefore, inmates readily torture practitioners in an attempt to “transform” them. Due to the severe torture, some practitioners have agreed, against their will, to provide statements renouncing their belief in Falun Gong. The inmates put together a statement combining lies about Falun Gong from newspapers and distorted opinions from former practitioners, then forced practitioners who became shaky in their belief because of the persecution to hand-copy the statement and sign it at the bottom. This is the so-called “transformation.” Wardens can receive awards, while inmates receive benefits from such “transformations.” It is common in the Tilanqiao Prison that wardens manipulate inmates to “transform” practitioners instead of persecuting practitioners themselves.

With wardens' instructions and encouragement, inmates do not hesitate to be cruel in torturing practitioners.

One young male practitioner from Hangzhou had worked as a post-doctoral researcher on environmental protection at a university. He refused to write a statement renouncing his belief in Falun Gong, so the assigned inmates forced him to sit still on a small low stool for extended periods of time. The practitioner was forced to keep one posture all the time with his hands behind his back. He was deprived of sleep as well, with inmates watching him in turns, hitting him with a stick on the head, back, arms, and legs every time he closed his eyes.

Another middle-aged male practitioner was tortured for five days and five nights consecutively. In order to protest the persecution, in desperation he grabbed and swallowed a hard object while an assigned inmate was not watching. [Note: The teachings of Falun Gong prohibit harming others or oneself. Such desperate measures are never condoned by Falun Gong, but are a direct result of the severity of the persecution]. The practitioner was sent to a hospital for surgery, and consequently he was not pushed to write a statement renouncing his belief any more at that time.

A third young male practitioner had been sentenced to 12 years in prison. He was urged to write a statement but refused to do so. Therefore, an assigned inmate tortured him severely, which led to him suffering two broken ribs, prolapse of his kidney, and palsy of a testis. Other torture methods such as “bending the fingers” were applied to this practitioner as well.

As for practitioners who went on hunger strikes to protest the persecution, assigned inmates carried out punitive force-feeding. Because of their lack of medical training and hatred toward practitioners, the inmates force-fed practitioners brutally, often resulting in other forms of physical damage to practitioners.

Practitioners who had been steadfast and unshakeable in their belief in Falun Gong and had not given up their belief under torture were taken away from the prison by 610 Office agents. Nobody knows where they have been taken to. There has been a rumour in the prison that those practitioners were taken away to have their organs harvested.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2011/10/4/247484.html