Individual Accounts

  • Ms. Li Yuqin Tortured for Five Years at Dabei Prison, Liaoning Province

    Ms. Li Yuqin recounted in this article the torture she suffered at Dabei Prison, Liaoning Province, beginning with describing the injuries she suffered: "My buttocks were covered with wounds. Some were still bleeding while others festered. All I had was toilet paper to cover the wounds, which then stuck to them. Despite being barely able to sit, I was forced to sit on a small stool, one of the many tortures used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials, for fourteen to fifteen hours daily. After twenty days, my wounds changed from festering to bleeding again. When I went to the toilet, blood dripped all over the floor. The guards said that after I renounced Falun Gong their 'task' would be accomplished and only then would I be no longer tortured."
  • Ms. Dang Huiying, 53, Persecuted at Three Different Forced Labour Camps

    Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Dang Huiying had been successively held at the Baoding Forced Labour Camp, the Shijiazhuang Women's Forced Labour Camp and the Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp, and persecuted for six years just for speaking out for justice for Falun Gong to the government. She said about her experience: "In Shijiazhuang Women's Forced Labour Camp, I was forced to be "transformed". The guards force fed me with chilli mixed with essential balm, alkali and salt, which hurt so much that I couldn't help yelling. I once saw the guards pry open the teeth of Ms. Zhang Rongjie. She refused to open her mouth, so the guards pulled four of her front teeth out with pliers. Blood filled her mouth; her screams spread throughout the whole women's labour camp."
  • Mr. Li Shaotie Tortured in Two Forced Labour Camps

    Mr. Li Shaotie, 56 years old and a Falun Gong practitioner has been arrested several times because he didn't give up practising Falun Gong. Three of his four immediate family members were imprisoned. Mr. Li Shaotie recounts: "While I was detained in the Jiamusi Forced Labour Camp, police officers and detainees beat and cursed me frequently. Officials in the labour camp used several torture methods and one of them was called the "iron chair." Once, I was tortured this way for three consecutive weeks. When they released my arms and legs, I couldn't even walk. In the labour camp, practitioners were constantly subjected to all kinds of torture, such as electric batons, the iron chair and the "dead person's bed.""
  • A Summary of My Torture Experiences at the Dalian City Forced Labour Camp and Masanjia Women's Forced Labour Camp

    Because I practise Falun Gong, the police arrested me in 2000. I was eventually given two years of forced labour. Dalian City Forced Labour Camp guards repeatedly tortured me to give up Falun Gong. I was forced to bend down in painful positions and tortured to the point where my whole body was covered with scabies. I had bloody urine and developed a fever. Doctors at the hospital said I would die soon so the labour camp released me. Later I was sent back to the labour camp. Because I refused to recite the labour camp rules they locked me up in a small metal cage. The guards pulled my hands as far away from my body as physically possible and handcuffed each of my hands to the metal cage. Because of the intense physical pain I lost control of my excretory functions.
  • Elderly Lady Experiences Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Police Brutality

    On August 20th, 2008, I went to distribute flyers about Falun Gong near Jilin Prison. I met a guard from the "joint defence." The guard was about 60 years old. I explained the facts about Falun Gong to him. Instead of listening, he beat me. As a result, my face was injured and turned black. There was a big bump under my left eye and my mouth bled. Three policemen held my arms while the other grabbed my hair. They dragged me and threw me against a wall from a distance of five metres. I heard a "thud," and the back of my head hit the wall firmly, making me dizzy. They threw me against the wall repeatedly, four or five times. I was so dizzy that I could not stand up. They ripped out clumps of my hair.
  • Reunited in the Free World after Suffering Ten Years of Persecution

    On June 22nd, the flight from Beijing to Frankfurt was delayed for two hours. For Guo Jufeng, who had waited for 17 months, two more hours of waiting were not the end of the world. Guo is an engineer. He was tortured in China for practising Falun Gong. He came to Germany 17 months ago and was granted refugee status in Germany. That day he was waiting for his wife, Ms. Yu Hailing, a medical doctor, and his son, Guo Fangzhou, whom he had never met. After most of the passengers on the Beijing flight had disembarked, Guo finally saw his wife and their son. She was holding him in one hand and the baggage in the other. Tears ran down his face. As he reached for his son, the boy dodged, for Guo was a complete stranger to him.
  • My Personal Experience with a Media Farce

    The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began its persecution of Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999. I went to the Beijing to appeal for justice and was arrested. I had to read lie-filled literature. Guards kept me from sleeping. The constant threats and brainwashing confused me, and I wrote a guarantee statement to give up Falun Gong. An official told me to talk to the media to restore my work unit's reputation. Thinking that I could explain the facts about Falun Gong to the journalists, I agreed. I told them truthfully that I became a good person because I practise Falun Gong. An article published in Modern Scientific Living lied and said how the regime had "reformed" me. It also said that I "attacked" Falun Gong.
  • Older Practitioner Ms. Lai Zuhua Recounts the Persecution She Experienced in Chengdu City

    My name is Lai Zuhua and I am 64 years old. I live in Chengdu City. On May 14th, 2004, I took leaflets exposing the persecution of Falun Gong and went to Yulong Street to distribute them. When I had just handed out two flyers, I was captured by police and taken to the nearby Xiyuhe Police Station. From 10:00 p.m. on May 14th to 6:00 a.m. on May 16th, the police did not allow me to go to sleep. They shone three 200-watt electric light bulbs on me and put me in handcuffs. These policemen kept interrogating me about the source of my materials. Later I was taken to a detention centre.
  • Elderly Woman Arrested on Her Way to the Grocery Store

    Ms. Shi Lanfang, in her 70s, was arrested and taken to a brainwashing centre on on April 23rd, where she was held for 42 days. This is Ms. Shi's own account of what happened: "I was about to go grocery shopping when I saw five or six police officers in front of my house. One female officer called out to me and said that she wanted me to accompany her to the community centre to 'have a talk.' I told her that I did not have time. At that point, the police officers dragged me into the car and took me to a place called the 'Law and Order Centre' in Xinjin to try to brainwash me."
  • The Torture I Suffered in Harbin Women's Prison

    My name is Ms. Gao Guizhen. I'm a Falun Gong practitioner from Qitaihe City, Heilongjiang Province. In 2003, I was sentenced to a four-year prison term for being firm in my belief in Falun Gong. I was imprisoned on September 16th in Harbin Women's Prison. Practitioners were inhumanly tortured in the prison. The prison authorities tortured practitioners with the most cruel methods, methods not even used on condemned criminals. We were hung up with our hands cuffed behind our back and with both feet off the ground from the top of a bunk-bed. Once a practitioner lost consciousness from the excruciating pain, the guards poured unknown drugs down her throat. She was hung up again the minute she was revived.
  • "Mum, I Miss You So Much!"

    Mum, How are you doing? I haven't seen in you so long. I miss you so much! I am writing this letter but I am not sure whether you will be allowed to read it. I sincerely hope a kind guard will let you read this letter. The morning of July 20th, 1999, about twenty plain clothes policemen intruded into our home. You and Dad were arrested. Our home was turned upside down. I was the only one left, frightened and crying. No one took care of me for the next fifty days. I was not even ten years old then. I had to wander around. One of my legs became infected and oozed pus. Finally, you came back, but we no longer had a normal life as before.
  • Years of Torture Nearly Killed Me

    During the past ten years I was incarcerated on and off for nearly eight of those years, and I lost my job and my family. I was arrested six times, sent to forced labour camps three times, sent to a psychiatric hospital twice and to a brainwashing centre once. I was subjected to dozens of different physical tortures. As a result of the long-term abuse and mistreatment under the persecution, I suffered tremendously. Even now I have whole-body oedema. I also have severe insomnia and can't sleep for days. I have had a stroke, memory loss, been in a vegetative state, and lost the function of my four limbs. My legs are paralysed. I also lost bladder and bowel control and was near death four times.
  • I Was Tortured in Shibalihe Women's Forced Labour Camp

    In order to resist the detention, in December 2001, many practitioners held hunger strikes. The guards ordered prisoners to "force-feed" practitioners. Some forced open practitioners' mouths with spoons and some of them pinched practitioners' noses so that they had to open their mouths. Several people pushed me down on the ground, some of them pinched my nose, and others pinched my cheeks, held down my arms and legs, and used spoons to force open my mouth to force feed me. They did not care if I swallowed the food, they just kept going through the motions, dumping one spoon after another into my mouth. Sometimes I was not able to breathe.
  • The Naked Truth about Jiangsu Province Women's Forced Labour Camp

    Jiangsu Province Women's Forced Labour Camp has received many awards and commendations from upper-level authorities in the past, won due to falsifications and deceit by camp personnel. In the pursuit of justice and to keep their evil conduct from spilling over into other camps, I'm making public the true situation. Prisoners are forced to get up at 5:45 or 6:10 a.m. These times change every five days. We work until around 10:00 p.m. or even later. When we have a deadline, it is not uncommon that we work until midnight or sometimes until the morning. Everyone is stressed out. Prisoners often beat and curse people. A drug addict beat me. My head was swollen, but the officer on duty simply laughed and walked away.
  • The Torture I Experienced in Shanxi Province First Prison

    One night I did the Falun Gong exercises and was reported. Two guards came. One of them shocked me behind my neck with an electric baton, causing me excruciating pain. After the sizzling sound, I smelled a strong burning smell. I was also cuffed to the bed and deprived of sleep at nights by the inmates assigned to watch me. When forced to stand against a wall and I was not paying attention, and the police officers violently hit my head against the wall. They did not care that I might get injured. I was told they had killed practitioners this way.