Torture

  • Methods of Torture Used on Falun Gong Practitioners in Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province

    Practitioners in Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, have been tortured in a multitude of ways over the past few years. The tiger bench is one such torture method. This torture uses a modified steel chair. The chair seat is a thick steel plate. The original chair armrests are modified with a rounded metal barrier. Sitting on the chair is like sitting in a cage. There are foot shackles underneath each front chair leg, which clamp both feet tightly; a nylon rope is used to tightly tie the person up; the upper arms are tied tightly behind the back, both lower arms are forced to the front to reach armrests on both sides, then two hand straps are used to bind the lower arms to the armrests. The person is tied on the tiger bench like this for long time, while he/she is tortured and brutally beaten.
  • Mr. Zhang Yonglong Brutally Persecuted at Wuwei Prison, Gansu Province

    Mr. Zhang Yonglong, a Falun Gong practitioner, was arrested by police because he persisted in his belif in Truthfulness - Compassion - Tolerance. He was sent to to Wuwei Prison forced to do heavy labour during the day and watch movies that slandered Falun Gong at night. The guards also tried to force him to write the so-called "Repentance Statement" to renounce Falun Gong. When he refused to write the statement, he was handcuffed and hung from the ceiling for a whole morning. He was also shocked with electric batons. Oftentimes, people could smell burning flesh from the electric batons shocking people.
  • Jilin Prison Uses 'Death Beds' to Torture Falun Gong Practitioners

    The death bed, a torture method originating from Jilin Prison, is frequently used to torture imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners at the Jilin Prison and Jilin Province Women's Prison. The death bed involves piecing together two twin-size beds and handcuffing or tying a practitioner's hands and feet onto the four opposite corners of the two beds. After the practitioner is tied up, the beds are moved in opposite directions and bricks are inserted between the two beds. Each brick adds severe pain and injury. Once tied to the death bed, the victim is unable to move her hands and legs. The beds can be pulled in various directions to cause additional pain and injury throughout the body. Blood circulation from the ankles and wrists are cut off as the muscles tear and bones break.
  • Dafa Practitioner Ms. Tian Fang Persecuted in Hohhot Prison, Inner Mongolia

    Ms. Tian Fang, a Dafa practitioner, was arrested in 2004 and sentenced to a four-year prison term. In Hohhot Prison, she was brutally persecuted by guards and inmates, because she did not yield to their pressure to renounce Falun Gong. They ripped off her clothes and forced her to stand naked in cold weather. They slapped her in the face and also used cigarettes to burn her face, electric batons to shock her, and toilet brushes to scrub her mouth.
  • Hu Zhiming Is Paralysed As a Result of Torture; His Family Releases More Details

    Mr. Hu Zhiming is a Falun Dafa practitioner from Dandong City, Liaoning Province. He was a Masters candidate at the Beijing Air Force Headquarters. Because Hu Zhiming didn't give up his belief in Falun Gong, he was dismissed from his job and the military service and sent home in May 2000. Lately, he was reported to have been tortured so much that he lost his ability to walk independently, and then was again persecuted in the prison hospital afterwards. According to his family, Mr. Hu began a hunger strike on April 25th, 2006, to protest the persecution. More than a year and a half have passed. He was force-fed through the nose and tortured with other methods. The longest period of time he was tortured was seven or eight months in a row.
  • Practitioner Wang Xiaoran Sentenced to Eight Years in Prison in Jinan City

    Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Wang Xiaoran was on June 23rd, 2007 detained for over five months at the Jinan City Detention Centre by police from the 610 Office. Both of the 610 Offices in Jinan City and Shandong Province, the Public Security Office in Lixia, the Prosecution Office and the local court collaborated in sentencing Wang Xiaoran to an 8-year prison term. Wang Xiaoran has endured five months of torture. Her condition is serious, as she has a lot of blood in her urine and chronic irregular heartbeats. Her appeal is now in the hands of Jinan City's Second Criminal Court.
  • Mum, When Will You Return Home Safely?

    On the evening of December 15th, 2006, as usual, I called my parents in Beijing from my home in Los Angeles. To my surprise, my father told me in tears, "Your mother was arrested again." At 8:00 p.m. on December 15th, three policemen from the Shuangyushu Police Station in Beijing broke into their home. They ransacked the place and found some Falun Gong materials. Then they arrested my 64-year-old mother. This is the second time my mother was arrested since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started persecuting Falun Gong in 1999.
  • Ms. Qi Guiling Arrested by Yishui County Police; Family Member Beaten Trying to Visit

    Falun Dafa practitioner Ms. Qi Guiling was recently arrested by police. In the evening of September 3rd, 2007, Ms. Qi was arrested and a policeman slapped her and then handcuffed her. Police searched her place and confiscated her Falun Dafa books and some leaflets exposing the persecution. The police then dragged Ms. Qi and her sleeping husband, Mr. Zhang Yizhi, were sent to the Yishui County Detention Centre. Ms. Qi was sent to the Jinan Forced Labour Camp. Ms. Qi's mother was very concerned about her daughter's condition, but the police chased her off outside the police station and beat up her daughter-in-law.
  • Practitioner Zhao Jin from Jining City, Shandong Province, Sentenced to Labour Camp

    Zhao Jin is a 37-year-old woman. She started to practise Falun Gong after the persecution began in July 1999. She had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, but soon recovered after learning Falun Gong, She has been completely cured of schizophrenia. Everyone who knows her, including her work colleagues, witnessed this miraculous change. Recently Zhao Jin has been sentenced to a labour camp for one and a half years. Therefore, her employers went to the 610 Office several times to ask them to release Zhao Jin.
  • Tuanhe Forced Labour Camp Officials Accuse Practitioners of Being "Unpatriotic" and Use It as Excuse for Torture

    In 2001, China successfully landed the right to host the 2008 Olympic Games. Chinese officials promised better human rights as a condition for the bid, and then turned around to use it as a tool for justifying its persecution and suppression. I was imprisoned in Tuanhe Forced Labour Camp. Guard Yue Qingjin shouted at me, "You are against the bid for the Olympics. You don't love your country and resist transformation. Even if we kill you, we'll claim that you committed suicide." Several guards put me on a cotton quilt and tied my four limbs down with strips of fabric. They yanked the strips in four different directions, which caused terrible pain. They shocked me with electric batons, shouted at me and ordered me to give up my belief. When they saw that I was about to faint, they stopped and force-fed me with some water.
  • Ms. Yu Jingxia Sentenced to Ten Years and Brutally Beaten in Prison

    Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Yu Jingxia was arrested on January 17th, 2004. After being tortured to the brink of death, she was released and monitored. After two months, even though she hadn't fully recovered, she was arrested again. In the Hebei Province Women's Prison, she was brutally beaten and subjected to brainwashing. She was on the verge of death numerous times, but she has refused to give up her beliefs. Ms. Yu has been on hunger strike many times to protest the persecution. Two months ago, she started another hunger strike to protest her three-year persecution. Her health is precarious, and her life is in danger.
  • Additional Information on the Persecution of Yu Ming at Tuanhe Forced Labour Camp in Beijing

    Mr. Yu Ming, a Falun Gong practitioner, is currently detained at Masanjia Labour Camp in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province. In order to force him to give up his belief in Falun Gong, he was tortured at Tuanhe Forced Labour Camp in Beijing in 2006, including being tied to a chair for three months, resulting in muscular atrophy all over his body and other severe physical damage. The guards in Beijing were unable to shake Yu's strong belief. They transferred Yu to Masanjia Labour Camp in Liaoning Province on May 21st, 2007. Because Yu's health was so severely damaged at Tuanhe Labour Camp he was transferred to the Masanjia Labour Camp Hospital after just a few days. He remains there today.
  • Recent Cases of Persecution in Handan Forced Labour Camp, Hebei Province

    On October 24th, 2007, Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Gu Daping went to the wash room without reporting to the labour camp guards. Wang Zhiming (male), the political instructor of the Specially Controlled Division, viciously struck Mr. Gu with a rubber club several dozen times. On October 15th, 2007, Mr. Li Qiusheng and Mr. Xu Kai were ordered to remain standing for a long period of time. Two weeks or so later, they were ordered to stand from 9:30 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. and subjected to sleep deprivation. Mr. Li's legs are badly swollen as a result. Zuo Tao, a labour camp division head, has viciously beaten numerous practitioners on the grounds that they did not write statements renouncing Falun Gong.
  • Ms. Zhang Xiaojing, MD, Brutally Treated at Forced Labour Camps in Gansu Province

    Ms. Zhang Xiaojing, 47 years old, was a doctor at the faculty hospital of Tongdianlan Factory in Baiyin, Gansu Province. In 1999, when Jiang Zemin's [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] regime began to persecute Falun Gong, she was dismissed by her work unit for practising it. She was sent to a forced labour camp twice and was detained several times. Her home was ransacked and she had money extorted from her. Ms. Zhang was nearly persecuted to death and her family has been torn apart.
  • Hunan Province Practitioners Mr. Xie Wutang and His Wife, Ms. Tan Xiangyu, in Their Sixties Both Tortured

    Husband and wife, Mr. Xie Wutang and Ms. Tan Xiangyu, live in Changsha City, Hunan Province. Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began its persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, the pair have been imprisoned many times. They became homeless to avoid further arrests because they refused to renounce Falun Dafa and continued to expose the persecution. On July 14th, 2007, police officers arrested them. Mr. Xie, 66, was sentenced to term of four years and eight months. Ms. Tan, 60, was taken directly to the Hunan Province Women's Prison. Her relatives tried to see her many times, but the guards refused all visitation rights.