Ms. Shang Shiying Severely Tortured in Hebei Women's Prison

Name: Shang Shiying
Gender: Female
Age: Unknown
Address: Tangshan City, Hebei Province
Occupation: Nurse at Tangshan City Workers' Hospital
Date of Most Recent Arrest: January 14th, 2010
Most Recent Place of Detention: Hebei Women's Prison
City: Tangshan
Province: Hebei
Persecution Suffered: Detention, imprisonment, forced labour, torture, electric shock, sleep deprivation, forced injections/drug administration, beatings, solitary confinement, denial of toilet use

Ms. Shang Shiying from Tangshan City, Hebei Province, was arrested on January 14th, 2010, and sentenced to three years in prison. She has been incarcerated in the Hebei Women's Prison, where she has been severely persecuted and tortured.

Tortured and Subjected to Forced Labour

Once she arrived at the Hebei Province Women's Prison, Ms. Shang was placed in Ward No. 13, specifically designed to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. She was detained there for over a year.

Practitioners who refuse to give up their belief are subjected to various forms of torture, such as long-term sleep deprivation, solitary confinement, sitting on a small stool for long periods of time, standing without moving for long periods of time, not being allowed to talk to others, and beatings by prisoners instigated by the prison guards.

Ms. Shang was forced to stand still for more than 18 hours every day, from right after breakfast until after midnight. If she tried to resist or refused to obey, she would be subjected to beatings, verbal abuse and threats by the guards. After standing for an entire day, her legs and feet became swollen and felt very stiff and painful. She had aches all over her body and often felt dizzy.

The prison authorities initially didn't allow Ms. Shang's family to visit her. When her family finally got a chance to see her in November 2010, after going through many obstacles, they noted that Ms. Shang looked very pale, was very skinny and had dark circles around her eyes. Her legs were also severely swollen. Her family questioned the prison guards, including Kong Xiaofei: “How did she became so ill? What have you done to her in the past few months?” Upon not receiving any plausible response, the family expressed their intent to look into this matter.

After being persecuted at Ward No. 13 by the prison guards including Kong Xiaofei, Ms. Shang was transferred to Ward No. 6 and forced to do hard labour.

Kong Xiaofei was transferred to Ward No. 6 on March 13th, 2012, as the political director. He implemented venomous methods of persecution. He didn't allow other prisoners to talk to Falun Gong practitioners, and practitioners weren't allowed to talk among themselves. Practitioners were also monitored by prisoners, and whoever told on the practitioners was rewarded.

In addition, Kong stipulated that prisoners could not use the toilet freely during working hours. If they needed to use the toilet, they had to report to the guard on duty and ask for permission; then, they would get a pass to go to the toilet. If anybody used the toilet without asking, they would be either scolded, cursed at, or beaten. In some cases, they were also shocked with electric batons.

To avoid having to endure humiliation, Ms. Shang often didn't drink any water, or drank very little, so that she could go for half a day without using the toilet. However, she often had stomachaches as a result.

Blood Sample Forcefully Drawn

On the morning of March 16th, 2012, a male guard and three doctors wearing white scrubs said that they needed to test the prisoners for infectious diseases. In order to test for infectious diseases, blood must be drawn intravenously. However, these doctors didn't draw blood this way. Instead, they deployed the method commonly used to test for blood type: They pricked people's fingers with a big needle and then smeared the blood onto a prepared surface, labelling each blood sample with the prisoner's name, criminal charge, and home address.

As a medical worker, Ms. Shang sensed that something was amiss and refused to have a blood sample taken. She publicly exposed the communist regime's crime of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners. (In order to make a lucrative profit, officials in China have been harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners for over a decade, as has been confirmed by multiple international investigators.)

When Ms. Shang spoke out about the organ harvesting, Kong became furious. He ordered more than 10 prisoners to drag Ms. Shang into his office and proceeded to brutally beat her. Ms. Shang's clothes were torn, her entire body became weak, and she couldn't stand or walk. Kong then ordered several prisoners to keep Ms. Shang still and forcibly took a blood sample from her.

As badly as Ms. Shang was beaten, she was still forced to do hard labor that afternoon. After finishing the day's work, prisoners carried Ms. Shang to her cell. Kong ordered the prisoners to monitor Ms. Shang. He didn't allow her to talk to anyone or receive phone calls from her relatives.

Due to long-term torture, Ms. Shang's health has dramatically deteriorated. She often suffers from swelling around her eyes, as well as hyperaemia, aches and pains all over her body, and numbness in her arms, legs and trunk.

On August 11th, 2012, Ms. Shang was transferred to Ward No. 13 again for intensified persecution.

Ms. Shang used to work as a nurse at the Tangshan City Workers' Hospital. Prior to the most recent arrest, she had been detained five times by the hospital authorities for her belief in Falun Gong. During the time she was incarcerated at the First Detention Centre, she was confined to a small cell, her feet were shackled, and she was tortured in an iron chair. Following another arrest, she was sent to the Tangshan Ankang Hospital, where she was injected with unknown drugs and subjected to 40-amp electric shocks.

Hebei Province Women's Prison:
Local Address: Shitong Road, Shijiazhuang City
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 55, 2nd Box, Luquan City, Hebei Province, China 050222
Prison Administration: +86-311-83939635, +86-311-83939708
Zhang Yi, former warden (retired): +86-13832116656 (Mobile), +86-311-83939601