Wang Caixia, Who Has Experienced Years of Persecution, Held in Brainwashing Centre Once Again

Name: Wang Caixia
Gender: Female
Age: Unknown
Address: Lanzhou City, Gansu Province
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: May 31st, 2012
Most Recent Place of Detention: Gongjiawan Brainwashing Centre
City: Lanzhou
Province: Gansu
Persecution Suffered: Detention, home ransacked, brutal beatings, brainwashing, hanging by handcuffs, arms handcuffed behind back, squatting cuff, punitive force-feeding, solitary confinement, extortion

At around 10:00 a.m. on May 31st, 2012, Wang Caixia, a Falun Gong practitioner in Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, was arrested as she went to work. This latest arrest is yet another round of persecution against Ms. Wang, who has endured years of harassment, imprisonment and torture at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party. The police confiscated a computer from her house, and at noon, four people from the police station and the Chinese Communist Party secretary office on Weiyuan Road (two men and two women) went to Wang Caixia's parents' home and told them that Wang Caixia was being held in the Gongjiawan Brainwashing Centre. They told her parents that the arrest was not carried out by them, but by the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong). Ms. Wang's family went to the Gongjiawan Brainwashing Centre to see her, however the officer on duty replied, “The supervisor won't allow anyone to see Wang Caixia.”

Five Falun Gong practitioners are being held in the Gongjiawan Brainwashing Centre, including Wang Caixia, Yue Puling, Zhang Luchan, Jing Jilin, and Chen Jianru. There was news that some of the practitioners started a hunger strike on May 31st to protest the detention.

Wang Caixia started practising Falun Gong in January 1996. At that time, she had just been laid off from her job and her marriage had also evolved into a state of crisis. She had become depressed, which resulted in poor health. Soon after beginning Falun Gong cultivation practice, she changed a lot both physically and mentally. Her physical ailments, including asthma, disappeared, and she found a satisfying job. She gave birth to a healthy daughter in 1998.

In July 1999, the persecution of Falun Gong began. The practice was slandered and persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). To show her respect for Falun Gong and the founder of Falun Gong, in October 2000 Wang Caixia went to Beijing to appeal. She was beaten by police at Tiananmen Square. She was later held in the Taoshuping Detention Centre at Lanzhou for two weeks.

In April 2001, Wang Caixia was arrested by officers from the Chengguan Police Station. She experienced horrific torture in Team 14 of the Lanzhou First Detention Centre and started a hunger strike in protest. Zhang Linlin and team head Tian ordered the other prisoners to beat her. Ms. Wang was beaten until she was black and blue. Then, several prisoners held her down, pinched her cheeks, pried open her mouth with chopsticks and spoons, and started the brutal process of force-feeding. The forced-feeding caused Ms. Wang to almost suffocate. The prison doctor later roughly inserted a tube into Ms. Wang's stomach and force-fed her salt water, almost causing her death.

After nearly four months of detention and torture, Wang Caixia suffered from a serious case of scabies in the wet and dirty environment of the detention centre. After her father paid a 2,000-yuan¹ bribe to Wei Dong, the police officer at Office 26 of the Chengguan Branch Police Station, Wang Caixia was released and allowed to return home. During the detention period, her young daughter often hid under her blanket and wept. After Wang Caixia returned home, her daughter also unfortunately became infected with scabies. She felt so itchy every night that she could barely sleep. She also lost her appetite and suffered both physically and mentally.

In August 2001, Wang Caixia's husband could no longer shoulder the great pressure of the persecution and requested a divorce. The Weiyuan Road Court awarded custody of their three-year-old daughter to the husband and gave him the house as well, because Wang Caixia practised Falun Gong.

The CCP police still harassed Ms. Wang regularly. In order to find and arrest Wang Caixia after she was homeless, they went to the school where her daughter attended kindergarten and requested that the teacher announce that the child was sick. The conscientious teacher refused to lie. In September 2002, the police stalked the girl's grandfather, who picked her up at kindergarten, and broke into the old man's home. They forced the family to tell them Ms. Wang's whereabouts. During the ordeal, the little girl was hungry, tired, and terrified. She cried herself to sleep.

On October 1st, 2004, a large number of officers were again dispatched from Section 26 of the Chenguan Police Department in Lanzhou, to arrest Wang Caixia. They surrounded her home for two days and used various methods to threaten Ms. Wang and her parents. Thanks to the persistence of Ms. Wang's family, who refused to hand her over, the arrest attempt failed.

When Wang Caixia's husband registered the child for school in August 2005, he was informed that the Public Security Bureau was tracking Wang Caixia. If she went to the school to visit, he was required to report this to the police immediately. The police dispatched an officer to the school and threatened the father again, telling him that he would be arrested if he did not report Ms. Wang.

In mid-May 2007, Liu Tongchang, Liu Bailin, and others from the 610 Office associated with the Lanzhou University Police Station, arrested Wang Caixia by stalking, tracking, and other despicable means. They took her to the Gongjiawan Brainwashing Centre, with the goal to force her to renounce Falun Gong. Immediately upon arrival at the brainwashing centre, Wang Caixia was handcuffed to a bed for three days and three nights. She started a hunger strike in protest. On the fifth day of her hunger strike, she was handcuffed again to a bed on the first floor for four days and three nights, and was persecuted by Sun Qiang, Yang Wentai, and other police officers. A feeding tube was inserted into her stomach.

In November 2007, officer Qi Ruijun claimed that Wang Caixia did not do her cleaning, and used it as an excuse to put her in solitary confinement. The confinement area was approximately 150 square meters in size, with a door facing west and a 20-30-meter-long hall extending the length of the confinement area. About two dozen confinement rooms were located there, each about eight square meters in size. No sunshine, heat, or ventilation existed in these rooms throughout the year, which left them extremely dim, cold, and damp. The toilet and sink were inside the rooms. All the confinement rooms were equipped with iron doors, and iron bars were attached to the doors. The bars were used for hanging practitioners by their handcuffed wrists. Wang Caixia and three other Falun Gong practitioners who were being persecuted in the confinement rooms were hung by their handcuffs from the iron bars night and day, with their backs against the door. Only during three meal times, and at 11:00 p.m., when they went to the bathroom, were the handcuffs removed. Their arms and hands developed severe oedema due to this torture.

During this period, Wang Caixia never gave up her belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Due to her family's continuous rescue work, the police released Wang Caixia after handcuffing her for two weeks. Her feet, legs, and hands were very swollen and she was unable to move her arms normally. Wang Caixia suffered from brutal persecution for about seven months, including forced-feeding, being handcuffed with her arms behind her back, being forced to squat, as well as mental persecution.

During the period that Wang Caixia was detained in the Gongjiawan Brainwashing Centre, her mother suffered tremendous stress and her life was often in danger. Her daughter, under ten years old, looked thin and sickly due to lack of her mother's care. She was afraid of people, and her academic grades fell dramatically. The little girl often missed her mother but dared not express this feeling in front of others. She only quietly wrote on the back her mother's photo. “I miss my mother. My mother will always be the best mother in the world.”

Due to the strong request of Ms. Wang's family, in late 2007, Liu Tongchang, Liu Bailing, Wu Jianqiang, and others from the police station at Lanzhou University released Wang Caixia from the Gongjiawan Brainwashing Centre under the condition that Ms. Wang's father (an older retiree) and younger brother (who worked at Lanzhou University) could be implicated in Ms. Wang's place. Ms. Wang's arms were disabled due to the longtime hanging from handcuffs. Even in this situation, Liu Tongchang, Liu Bailing from the police station, and 610 Office personnel at Lanzhou University still harassed Ms. Wang. They tried to force Wang Caixia to renounce Falun Gong by threatening her that her younger brother would lose his job due to her practice. They went to the home of Ms. Wang's parents to harass and threaten them. Wang's parents are were very old, and had to live in an atmosphere of terror. Finally, Ms. Wang was forced to leave home again and hence could not take care of her completely bedridden mother and her daughter, who was only an elementary school student.

Staff at Gongjiawan Brainwashing Centre, Lanzhou:
Shan Yongsheng, Qi Ruijun, Yang Dongchen, Mou Xiangyang, Wen Jing, Du Mei, and Xu Zhihong
Phone: +86-931-2868792
Dong Jianmin, director of 610 Office at Lanzhou

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.