Individual Accounts

  • After Gaining Health from Practising Falun Gong, Ms. Liu Jingxiu Persecuted by the Chinese Regime

    My name is Liu Jingxiu. I'm 60 years old. 1994 is the year that I encountered Falun Gong. Within about two months I regained my health. The good times did not last long. On July 20th, 1999, the Jiang Zemin, [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] regime started to persecute Falun Gong practitioners who had been cultivating their hearts toward kindness. Many practitioners began appealing to the government as the law allowed, since they trusted the regime. They were treated unjustly and severely persecuted. I witnessed practitioners being arrested and taken away when they were appealing to the provincial authorities. From 2006 to 2009, I was detained twice, subjected to forced labour, and incarcerated for telling others the facts of Falun Gong.
  • I Never Eat Food Made by Beijing “Holiland”

    The Beijing Women’s Prison has forced Falun Gong practitioners to make Holiland moon cake boxes since 2005. The forced labour begins in June every year and is extremely hard and tiring. When I was detained there, the guards held practitioners on an empty floor where all the window blinds were kept closed, and practitioners had to make Holiland moon cake boxes which are put together with toxic glue. Every day we had to work from dawn to dark. The toxic glue’s smell was so cloying that many practitioners felt dizzy and some even vomited. The workload was very heavy.
  • Ms. Zhang Weidi Describes the Torture She Received in the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp

    In October 2008, in Masanjia Forced Labour Camp, all of the practitioners, without exception, were beaten and shocked with electric batons. Ms. Qi Zhenhong was beaten, shocked with electric batons, and hung up for many days and nights. She became mentally disoriented. Ms. Zhang Yinglin was beaten and shocked with electric batons. One of her arms along with her hand became paralysed from the beatings.
  • Excellent Teacher Tells of Being Tortured During Nine Years of Imprisonment

    Ms. Lu Jinyu, 49, was an excellent teacher. She was arrested for distributing Falun Gong materials and sentenced to nine years in prison. During her nine years of imprisonment she was tortured physically and mentally, including being kicked, punched, stepped on, slapped, having her mouth stuffed, being hung up, beaten with spiked batons, confined in steel cages, handcuffed, shackled, tied up, forced to sit on a "tiger bench", deprived of sleep, force-fed, injected with unknown drugs, solitary confinement, and being shocked with electric batons.
  • Despite a New "Mental Health Law," Falun Gong Practitioners Still Illegally Held in Mental Hospitals in China

    While the regime is touting the Mental Health Law, Falun Gong practitioners are still being persecuted in its mental hospitals. The new mental health law is thought by many to be a bluff by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to quell suspicion of wrongdoing. Throughout its history, the CCP has frequently made positive statements while actually committing outrageous crimes behind the scenes. This latest smokescreen is no exception.
  • Savage Acts of Torture at the Tiantanghe Women's Forced Labour Camp in Beijing

    I was detained at the helllike Tiantanghe Women's Forced Labour Camp in Beijing. Regardless of age, all prisoners had to do a required amount of farm work, shovel snow on cold winter days, remove grass on hot summer days, etc. Many didn't have the physical strength required and fainted while working. We were forced to pack green beans, tea leaves, children's clothes, sugar, stamps and books into boxes – each of which weighed over 50 kilograms (110 lb). The boxes of books were particularly heavy, so loading and unloading them onto trucks was especially difficult for elderly practitioners. A seventy-year-old woman didn't know how to put together a paper box. She was punished by having to sit on a bench for days until her legs turned purple.
  • Firsthand Account of Atrocities Taking Place in Division 3 of Masanjia Women's Forced Labour Camp

    A 63-year-old practitioner was forced to squat on a brick floor for long periods of time and her feet became numb. Division head Zhang Jun came over and violently kicked her feet. Shi Yu, head of the labour camp at the time, a male head, and a number of young officers rushed in and out of the cells where practitioners were detained every day, abusing and torturing them. Practitioner Ms. Yu Jie was tortured with “stretching.” Her hands were cuffed, and when Zhang Jun shouted, “Stretch,” the guards would pull the handcuffs hard sideways, until she was hanging suspended in the air and passed out from the pain.
  • Detained 14 Times in 14 Years – Farmer Ms. Wang Xingmei Recalls the Persecution She Suffered

    Since the persecution of Falun Gong began on July 20th , 1999, because I remained faithful to my belief, I have been sentenced to one year of forced labour, subjected to brainwashing twice, detained four times, and I've been incarcerated 14 times. My house has been ransacked numerous times, my personal freedom has been violated, and I have been threatened, had funds extorted from me, and my family’s phone has been tapped. I hope that after reading what my family and I have gone through, people will better understand the evil nature of the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
  • Firsthand Account of the Brutal Brainwashing Tactics at Xili Brainwashing Centre, Written by Ms. Zhang Fuying Before Her Death

    Ms. Zhang Fuying died as a result of persecution on February 18th, 2013. Her handwritten manuscript exposing the persecution she experienced at Xili Brainwashing Centre in 2006 was found in her remaining belongings and is presented here. The atrocities conducted by the Xili Brainwashing Centre leading to her death are still being investigated.
  • 70-year-old Mr. Zhang Liuqing from Chengdu City Describes the Torture He Endured during a Nine-Year Prison Term

    After elderly Mr. Zhang Liuqing began the practice of Falun Gong in 1997, all of his illnesses disappeared. When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, Mr. Zhang was sentenced to nine years in prison. Officials from the local Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC), the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong), and the police officers from Hesheng Township arrested him again in October 2012 . He was injected with unknown drugs three times.
  • Paralyzed Woman Recovers by Practising Falun Gong, Once Again Disabled after Torture and Abuse in Detention

    Ms. Ma Chunli used to be paralyzed and suffered from many illnesses. All of these conditions disappeared after she started practising Falun Gong, and, miraculously, she was able to walk. After the Communist regime began persecuting Falun Gong, however, Ms. Ma was arrested twice and held for two years in a drug rehabilitation centre, which had been turned into detention centre. In the Harbin Drug Rehabilitation Centre, Ma Chunli suffered a relapse of her prior health problems because she was not allowed to do practise Falun Gong. She thus once again became paralyzed. The guards and inmates brutally tortured her despite her condition.
  • Graduate Student Exposes Crimes and Torture at the Beijing Tuanhe Forced Labour Camp

    I was arrested in 2006 and was taken to the Changping Brainwashing Centre. Staff attempted to transform [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] me by forcing me to watch videos which slandered Falun Gong. On May 14th, 2007, officials decided to take me to the Beijing Tuanhe Forced Labour Camp. I didn't cooperate, so they stripped me, shocked me with electric batons, dragged me to a police car and then took me to the forced labour camp. Guards ordered the prisoners to subject me to sleep deprivation, allowing only 2-3 hours of sleep a day. One prisoner tied threads to my eyebrows, then pulled them off. He eventually pulled all the hair off my eyebrows.
  • Ms. Du Xiuying Sent to Forced Labour Camp a Second Time, Her Husband Persecuted to Death

    Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Du Xiuying recounts her experience of persecution: "They [Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials] killed my husband and caused me great trauma both physically and mentally. I did not have a job originally. With the persecution, they made my life even more miserable. With my being detained and put in forced labour camps many times and forced to stay away from home, my husband’s passing away, and my daughter being home alone only to be taken care of by my family, she was psychologically traumatised."
  • Eyewitness Accounts: Forced Labour Inside China's Labour Camps and Prisons

    I was sentenced to Suihua Forced Labour Camp in Suihua City, Heilongjiang Province, in the spring of 2007 for practising Falun Gong. In June 2007, all the inmates were forced sort and package a large quantity of toothpicks that had been accidentally soaked in sewage. The contaminated toothpicks mixed with faeces and dirty toilet paper were already dried. We could hardly breathe with the stench of urine and faeces. We were not even given any masks or gloves for protection. There were about 80 of us, but it took us nearly two weeks to finish the work.
  • A Practitioner Testifies to the Conditions in a Forced Labour Camp

    When I read the media report about Julie Keith, a lady from Oregon who had bought a box of Halloween decorations and found a letter from someone in a Chinese labour camp inside, I was moved to tears. According to the letter, the decorations were made in Section 8, Division 2 of Masanjia Forced Labour Camp. The letter stated, “If you accidentally buy this product, please kindly resend this letter to the World Human Rights Organisation. Thousands of people here, who are being persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party, will thank and remember you forever.” I was detained in the Beijing Women's Forced Labour Camp in 2001 for 18 months. About 1000 detainees were incarcerated there, and most of them were Falun Gong practitioners serving terms of one to three years. Inmates were often ordered to monitor and beat practitioners.