Mr. An Renrong from Wuyishan City, Fujian Province, Tortured and Interrogated by Police

Name: An Renrong
Gender: Male
Age: Unknown
Address: Wuyishan City, Fujian Province
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: December 27th, 2011
Most recent place of detention: Wuyishan City Detention Centre
City: Wuyishan
Province: Fujian
Persecution Suffered: Detention, beatings, interrogation by torture, tiger bench, sleep deprivation, force-feedings, extortion.

Police from the Domestic Security Bureau of Wuyishan City, Fujian Province arrested practitioner An Renrong on December 27th, 2011. The police ransacked his home, and then tortured, interrogated, and arrested him. An Renrong explained the facts about Falun Gong to the police again and again and asked to be released, since he was innocent. He later held a hunger strike for 22 days. On January 17th, 2012, he was released on bail. The Domestic Security Division is still constantly harassing him.

The following is a description by An Renrong of the arrest and torture that he experienced.

Arrested and Beaten by a Group of Policemen and Tortured on a Tiger Bench

On December 27th, 2011, I was doing business selling products from a booth at the Sangu Tourist Resort in Wuyishan City. At around 9:00 a.m., police officers Cao Chunfu, Tang Dazhong, and Zhou Guisheng from the Domestic Security Division in Wuyishan City, along with about a dozen officers from the Sangu Police Department, arrested me and took me to the Sangu Police Station.

Once I entered the police station, an officer started to hit me. I asked him, “Why do police officers hit people?” Tang Dazhong then hit my left eye with his fist and said, “We hit people. So what?” He then demanded that I take off my shoes and let them search me. I said, “You are persecuting Falun Gong. It is illegal.” I refused to cooperate with them. Tang Dazhong then kicked my feet. Someone forcefully pushed me down to the ground and many officers kicked me. They took off my shoes, then dragged me to a tiger bench¹. They cuffed all my limbs and interrogated me.

It was very cold that day. After being on the iron tiger bench barefooted for several hours, my feet were in a lot of pain, since it was freezing cold. I told the officers who were interrogating me, “My feet are very cold, I need to wear my shoes.” One of them said, “You can't wear shoes until after you tell us what we want to know.” I said, “Falun Gong teaches people to be good, following Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. There are now more than 100 million people in over 100 countries practising Falun Gong, including in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. Only the Chinese Communist Party persecutes Falun Gong.” I also said to them, “I used to be very ill with many different diseases. I spent tens of thousands of yuan² but could not cure them. Finally when I was near death, I started to practise Falun Gong and follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. My diseases were cured. Can you tell me if this practice is good or not?” The police officers still didn't allow me to wear my shoes.

Police Ransack My Home

In the afternoon after I was arrested, police officer Tang Dazhong, along with many others, ransacked my home. They took away two printers that were used for printing our promotional flyers about energy-saving stoves, new and used mobile phones (including broken mobile phones for evidence, as well as two cell phones that I carried with me, altogether five mobile phones), wireless internet modems, mp3 players, self-sealing bags and printing paper, and a desktop computer that someone asked me to fix. I can't recall everything that they took.

The police left no record of the things they took. Several groups of police officers came to ransack my home. They took away my van, including a laptop computer from the van, an mp3 player, a flash drive, an extra battery for the van, a microphone for promoting merchandise, and more. They also took the five speakers from my car as so-called “evidence.”

Interrogation in a Room Sealed with Foam

At around 9:00 p.m., I was taken to the Wuyishan City Detention Centre and forced to wear a yellow uniform. I strongly protested and refused to wear it. An officer wanted to beat me, but I said, "I didn't break any law. Even if you kill me, I won't wear it." So they gave up.

I was then taken to a very isolated room, where the walls were covered with foam. I was put in a chair and each of my hands was attached to it with handcuffs. I was interrogated for two days and one night, and not allowed to sleep. But the interrogators didn't get anything they wanted. A police officer threatened me, “You don't want to tell us? We will detain you in a cell with many murderers, and teach you a lesson.”

I was taken to cell 106 in the detention centre at around 5:00 p.m. and detained me there.

Police Officers Dared Not Reveal Their Names

On the day I was arrested, I started a hunger strike to protest the persecution. After the first day, I was taken to the foam room again. With a video camera, they started to interrogate me again. I saw many new faces among these officers, and they were not from Wuyishan City. I asked for their names, but none of them would identify themselves. I said, “Are you afraid of me exposing you on the Internet? Or maybe you are afraid of getting yourself on the list of the World Organisation to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong?” If you are afraid of these things, you should not persecute Falun Gong any longer.”

I faced the video camera and said, “Article 35 of the Chinese Constitution states, Chinese citizens have freedom of speech and press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration. Article 36 states that Chinese citizens have the freedom of belief. More than 100 million people in over one hundred countries now practise Falun Gong, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. Only the Chinese Communist Party persecutes Falun Gong. You must stop the persecution of Falun Gong immediately. You know the law, yet you still break it. Our Teacher [Teacher Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong] is innocent. Release me immediately and let me go home.”

Then I kept shouting, “Falun Gong is good!” A police officer hinted at another to shut down the video camera, and asked all of them to leave. He then jumped towards me and started to beat and kick me. He used handcuffs to hang me on a wall. I was not allowed to leave the room and rest until after midnight.

Police Department Threatens Not to Allow My Daughter to Attend School

After a couple of days, another two police officers I didn't recognise came to persecute me. They had Fuzhou accents and claimed that they were from the police department of the province. They were in their thirties. One of them was insidious and claimed that he had also persecuted practitioners Guan Yujing, Zuo Fusheng, Mao Xiaoming, Nan Ping, and Shao Wu. He said that he had arrested Mao Xiaoming himself in 2007.

He arrogantly demanded that I disclose how many times I had been to Fuzhou, who I had contacted, and what I did. He said that if I refused to tell him, he would go to my daughter's school and let my daughter take a long vacation (which meant not allowing her to study there). He also tried to force-feed me with tea.

Tang Dazhong from the Domestic Security Division also threatened, “This time we will take you to prison.” They could not get anything from me by 2:00 or 3:00 a.m., so they left dejected.

Arrested and Persecuted by Force-feeding

Another dozen police officers arrived on January 6th. They took me to the tiger bench and set up a video camera again. They claimed that they were from section of Politics and Law of the police department and had come to interrogate me. I asked, “Since you are from the section of Politics and Law, let me ask you, Article 35 in the Chinese Constitute states that Chinese citizens have the freedom of speech and press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration. Are you aware of this?” The officer said that he knew about these things. I said, “You still persecute Falun Gong even though you know about these things!” The policeman asked, “What kind of music did you play when you were on the street on December 27th?” I refused to answer him and kept shouting, “Falun Gong is good! Stop the persecution of Falun Gong! Our Teacher is innocent!” The officers from section of Politics and Law left dejected.

At that moment, Cao Chunfu, commander of the Domestic Security Division in Wuyishan City arrived. He wanted me to sign my name on an arrest warrant. I said, "I didn't break any laws, so why should I sign it? You broke the law. Sign your own name and wait for justice.”

On January 7th, I was taken to the fifth floor of the City Hospital of Wuyishan City for an IV, and was subsequently force-fed. Before that, they tied up my entire body with tape, on a bed in the detention centre and force-fed me three times. A tube was then inserted into my nose and I was force-fed with rice soup. I was again force-fed in the hospital.

After these tortures I became very weak and thought I was dying. The persecutors finally became fearful of being held responsible if I died, so they called my family to sign a guarantee that I would not speak out for Falun Gong in the future. I was finally released on bail.

Police Officers Who Participated in the Persecution

None of the things that the police confiscated were returned to me. During this period of time, Zheng Min and Lan Guanliang from the Procuratorate also interrogated me. The Domestic Security Division still constantly harasses me and calls me to the police department for further interrogations. They have not returned the van that I was using for business, so I have not been able to earn income to support my family. My daughter is still in college and it costs 30,000 yuan per year. We don't know how to solve the problem.

Tang Dazhong is one of the officers who arrested me in 2007. Cao Chunfu, Tang Dazhong, and Zhou Guisheng also arrested practitioner Zhang Hongzhang in April 2009, and he was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Wuyishan City:
Commander of the Domestic Security Division: Cao Chunfu, +86-599-5103011 (Home), 86-13960678258 (Mobile)
Tang Dazhong: +86-15059968161(Mobile)
Zhou Guisheng: +86-13859496606 (Mobile)

Note

1. "Tiger Bench": Prisoners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead without movement for long periods of time.

2. "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/2012/2/18/253221.html