(Clearwisdom.net) On January 25, 2001, I was escorted and taken to Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp located in Daxing District, Beijing City. Since then, I have been doing slave labor.
Once I entered the gate, a group of armed policemen surrounded and ordered me to squat down with my two hands on the head. They forced me to stand up and squat down several times as punishment.
Then, the police ordered me to strip off my clothes in order to check if I had hidden any Falun Gong materials. My response was not quick enough so the police shocked me in the head with an electric baton.
The police tried to force the Falun Gong practitioners in the jail to write a "Guarantee Statement"* to renounce or stop spreading the practice. Those who refused to write it would be electrically shocked. Some of them were hung upside down from the bed's end for a few days and they still refused to cooperate. Under the baton of Vice Police Group Leader Shen Xiaosheng, the drug addicts and prostitutes in the jail would separately take the practitioners to a small room for the perpetrators to beat and kick, while they held the practitioners' arms and pinned them to the ground. Shen yelled, "Beat him for me, and beat him to death! I want to see how hard his bones are! We'll see if he writes it or not! I will break up his fingers!" Then, the inmates grabbed the practitioners' hands to make fingerprints on the "Guarantee Statement" that was prepared by the police, which included statements such as "no practicing and no spreading Falun Gong in the labor camp."
It was the winter when I was sent to the labor camp. A cold wind whistled over the ground of thick snow bed. Many of us only had on a layer of autumn clothing. Our hands and feet were covered by bloodstains from frostbite. The police forced us to drill outdoors in formations, and we were forced to eat cold food outside in the yard. Within two minutes after picking up the food, our soup mixed with rice froze. The police dressed in their thick cotton uniforms ignored all this. When walking, we were forbidden to look straight ahead. The prisoners were forced to march in a strange pattern of small steps, with their heads drooping down and two hands on placed on their belly. Whenever the police asked questions, the prisoners was required to placed their two hands on their head or to squat down with their head between the two legs. Without any permission of eye contact, the prisoners had to reply to the leader in a loud voice. Then the police would curse, beat or shock them with an electric baton. After being abused, the prisoners were forced to say out loud, "Thank you, leader", or they would be tortured again. Everyday, each practitioner was given a limit of five minutes to use the bathroom, and the police would curse and beat us if we went over. Because of the limited toilets, half of us could not defecate for a whole week. As a result, many of us, including the elderly men, suffered physical problems related to this.
All of the prisoners had to get up early and work until after midnight. They packed "sanitary chopsticks" for restaurants. The ends of the chopsticks were wrapped in a thin layer of paper, and these disposable chopsticks were regarded as "passing the sanitary standard". They will eventually charge six yuan for one box of chopsticks. Each prisoner was given a quota to pack three boxes everyday. With 160 prisoners in each team, just imagine how much money the police have made from this slave labor.
The prisoners packed these chopsticks in their small dormitory, which held many people. The chopsticks were spread everywhere on the ground, and some had dropped into the urine bucket. The police wouldn't allow the loss of these chopsticks, so they were picked up and continued being packed.
When packing chopsticks, the prisoners did not wash their hands. In the labor camp, many of the prisoners were drug addicts and prostitutes. The police used them to earn money as long as they were alive. Some prisoners suffered from scabies all over themselves, and they were packing chopsticks with their hands that had open sores.
Whoever delayed the job or failed to finish the quota would be beaten by the police and inmates. They had to stand in the yard without sleep. The compound was swarming with fleas, and the prisoners couldn't shower for a long time. Many prisoners did not see the sky after being held in jail for several months with the policemen patrolling around.
The police could verbally and physically abuse the prisoners as they wished. In addition, most of the prisoners were not brave enough to reason with the police. Whoever spoke up to protest was thrown into a solitary cell to be beaten and shocked by the few policemen without a word.
For quite a long time, China's propaganda machines brainwashed the people with propaganda. It was never allowed to question the government, the authorities, or the police. Over the years, this mentality built up, and the police developed the mindset of being able to do anything. With direct orders from Jiang and his followers, the police became more rampant than ever in torturing and persecuting practitioners.
If our family members have witnessed all of this, then how would they react to the Jiang regime's propaganda, "Treat the prisoners as teacher to student, parent to child, doctor to patient." What kind of feeling will they have?
At that time, the work section was divided into two yards with wire mesh. The front yard was assigned to female Falun Gong practitioners, the other one for male. The incoming prisoners were forced to stand and strip in the yard. The policemen could clearly see the women through the wire mesh. They suffered mental anguish and humiliation in addition to the physical labor they were forced to do. Those who tried to defend their human rights would be electrically shocked. The police purposely shocked the female practitioners' mouths, ears, armpits, nipples and private areas. They even instigated the drug addicts and prostitutes to sexually assault the female practitioners. After being tortured, some practitioners were covered with bruises and their breathing became feeble. The police yelled wildly, "Don't think you'll get medical parole because you are injured. We have a death quota!"
*"Guarantee Statement" - A statement to declare that he or she is remorseful for practicing Falun Gong and guarantees not to practice Falun Gong again, not to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and never again associate with any Falun Dafa practitioners.
October 29, 2003
Part 1: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/2/23/45389.html
Part 2: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/2/24/45429.html