Imprisoned for 11 Years and Tortured, Wang Yongqiang Suffers Brain Hemorrhage

Name: Wang Yongqiang
Gender: Male
Age: Unknown
Address: Dongan District, Mudanjiang City
Date of Most Recent Arrest: Early 2002
Most Recent Place of Detention: Mudanjiang Prison
City: Mudanjiang City
Province: Heilongjiang Province
Persecution Suffered: imprisonment, torture, detention

In 2002 Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Wang Yongqiang was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his belief. During his 11 years of imprisonment, Mr. Wang suffered a stroke and was sent to Mudanjiang First People's Hospital. The prison officials told his family to apply for medical bail.

In early 2002, officials from the city's 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) and the police from the National Security Team's Aiming Division in Mudanjiang City arrested many practitioners, including Mr. Wang, Zhang Jiliang, Li Qingyu, Gao Ying, Wu Xiuhong, Wu Xiuhua, Cheng Fengying, Lu Yongfeng, Cao Yingchun, Liu Kun, Zhao Xin, and Guan Rian. Mr. Wang was taken back to his hometown in the Dongen District from Daqing City. At that time, he was tortured until his back was injured and his leg and feet were fractured. Without getting any medical treatment, he was sent directly to Jianshanzi Prison in 2003, where the tortures continued.

Mudanjiang Prison is notorious for cruelly torturing practitioners and is called the “death camp.” Five thousand prisoners are held in its 22 divisions. More than 50 inmates crowd into a 50 square foot cell. The head of each division is in charge of all the inmates in that division and for turning in a certain amount of profit each year. As such, inmates are treated like machines to make more profits. The guards are in charge of the prison cafeteria that has a budget of 1.5 million yuan¹. Yet, they only provide steamed bread for all the inmates. As a result, everyone is very weak.

Practitioners are ruthlessly tortured. This was especially so in July 2009, the tenth anniversary of the beginning of the Chinese Communist Party's persecution of Falun Gong. In early July, a document titled “Regarding Forcefully Brainwashing Falun Gong [Practitioners]” was issued in the prison that stated any method could be used to try to brainwash practitioners. The prison officials told the guards they could do whatever they wanted in order to reach a 100% “transformation” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] quota as long as the practitioners didn't die from the torture. The guards would then incite other inmates to torture practitioners using all kinds of tactics that included beatings, sleep deprivation, and forcing practitioners to strip naked before pouring cold water on them and making them stand outside in freezing temperatures.

During the 12 years of persecution,13 practitioners have been tortured to death in Mudanjiang Prison. They were: Yu Junxiu, Wang Jiguo, Li Ruqing, Pan Xingfu, Wei Xiaodong, Ning Jun, Du Shiliang, Zhang Hongquan, Kong Xiangzhu, Wu Yueqing, Jin Yufeng, Kang Yuncheng, and Bai Shuang. At present, Mr. Wang is suffering from a brain hemorrhage and is hospitalized in Mudanjiang First People's Hospital. He is still in critical condition.

Note

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