Since 1999, torture at psychiatric hospitals has been a well-documented feature of the Chinese Communist Party’s campaign to force Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their belief.

Accounts of forced labor and of torture oftern using regular criminal inmates as enforcers.

FDI: Falun Gong Practitioner Dies from Psychiatric Torture in Southeast China 

New York—A 40-year-old female Falun Gong practitioner in Hunan province has died in custody, apparently due to psychiatric torture, the Falun Dafa Information Center recently learned. The woman had been detained in May 2008 in a local crackdown before the Olympic Torch passed through the province.

Ms. Chen Chunjun, a former accountant at the local railroad company, was arrested on May 10, 2008 in Huaihua city by agents of the 610 Office, an extra-legal task force created in 1999 and charged with wiping out Falun Gong.  She was walking to a bus stop on her way home when she was detained. Chen was one of dozens of Falun Gong practitioners arbitrarily detained that month in Hunan, as part of a crackdown by local officials ahead of the passage of the Olympic Torch relay through the province from June 1-3, 2008.

Sources inside China recently discovered that Chen died in March 2009 at Huaihua Psychiatric Hospital (a.k.a. Huaihua No. 4 People’s Hospital).

Since 1999, torture at psychiatric hospitals has been a well-documented feature of the Chinese Communist Party’s campaign to force Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their belief. It is an extension of a practice that has been used for decades against those who hold views that do not accord with those of the Party.

In recent years, numerous reports have emerged of staff at Huaihua’s psychiatric hospital, under pressure from the local 610 Office, participating in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners, including injecting them with nerve-damaging drugs. Chen herself had been wrongfully injected with a psychotropic drug during a previous detention in the city. 

“This innocent woman’s death is an abrupt reminder of the terrible toll that last year’s Olympics continue to take on ordinary Chinese, months after the games’ closing ceremonies,” said Falun Dafa Information Center spokesperson Gail Rachlin. “But perhaps the most tragic aspect of Ms. Chen’s death is that it could have been avoided given all of the warning signs that such practices occur at this hospital. For every day that passes without practical measures to stop this, more Falun Gong practitioners in Huaihua are at risk of the same fate.”

“We therefore urge the international community to immediately investigate the circumstances surrounding Ms. Chen’s death and the broader history of abuse at this particular institution.”

In May 2008, Chen was initially detained at Zhijiang County Detention Center, where other inmates—primarily drug offenders—beat her at the instigation of the guards, causing injuries to her head. She was subsequently transferred to Baimalong Women’s Forced Labor camp and then Huaihua City Brainwashing Center, where she was forced to undergo sessions at which authorities sought to force her to renounce her beliefs. She was then transferred to Huaihua Psychiatric hospital. It is a widely used practice for Chinese security forces to use psychiatric torture on practitioners who resist “transformation,” the psychological “reprogramming” aimed at forcing them to denounce Falun Gong.

History of Psychiatric Torture

Prior to her death, Chen had been imprisoned on multiple occasions over the past decade because of her faith – including being sent to Baimalong “re-education through labor” camp in 2001 and sentenced in an unfair trial to three years in Hunan Province Women’s Prison in 2002. According to sources familiar with her case, during those periods of detention, as Ms. Chen persisted in her faith, she was repeatedly subjected to torture including being shocked with electric batons, hung for long periods of time by her handcuffs, and force-fed. At certain points during these periods in custody, she was tortured to the point of being unable to see or walk.

During her previous detention at Baimalong camp, Ms. Chen was injected with the psychotropic drug Thorazine, causing her to suffer severe cognitive dysfunction, a known effect of the drug, particularly when administered to those not suffering from psychological disorders.

Psychotropic drugs are often administered to Falun Gong practitioners in labor camps as a form of torture. Such treatments have been known to cause traumatic hallucinations [See case of Li Heping, cited here: http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-faith-column/2008/08/falun-gong-practitioners-china], permanent damage to the nervous system, or death. Of the 103 individuals the Information Center documented to have died in 2007, 11 people—over 10 percent—had passed away after being injected with unidentified drugs during their detention in a hospital, labor camp, or prison.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the World Psychiatric Association have documented the psychiatric abuse of Falun Gong practitioners, political dissidents, and local whistleblowers in recent years. Much groundbreaking work in exposing such abuses has been carried out by Robin Munro drawing on hospitals' own documentation of cases. In his 2006 book, China’s Psychiatric Inquisition: Dissent, Psychiatry and the Law in Post-1949 China, Munro dedicates a chapter to the issue of psychiatric persecution of the Falun Gong in China. [For more info see: http://www.faluninfo.net/topic/148/ ]

Additional information:
Huaihua Psychiatric Hospital
Address: 65 South Hutian Road
Phone: +86-745-2350362 

Gross Mistreatment of Practitioners Continues at the Hebei Women's Forced Labor Camp 

Hebei Province Women's Forced Labor Camp often uses collaborators to carry out violent "reform" of detained Falun Gong practitioners. These collaborators are former practitioners who have turned against Falun Gong under brainwashing and torture. Camp officials make them work under the directives of the guards.

One common tactic guards and collaborators use is to put practitioners in separate rooms specifically reserved to conduct the so-called reform. Each Ward has 2-4 such rooms, where several or even more than a dozen collaborators surround one practitioner and bombard her with warped notions or fabricated teachings. They monitor her around the clock and deprive her of sleep, often for several days straight. Contact with other detainees is prohibited. To keep the practitioner awake and make her suffer, the collaborators resort to various tactics, including grabbing her neck and choking her, pinching, poking, shaking, clutching, and hitting her body. If she ever dozes off, they pry her eyelids open and pull on her ears. Sometimes they also force her to stand for long periods. The practitioner's "reform status" is reported to the guards on a regular basis.

The guards in Ward 4 began to implement corporal punishments in early August 2008. They forced practitioners to sit on small benches from morning till midnight. After a few days, one's buttocks became swollen with the skin broken. Even before it healed, the continuous sitting made it swollen again, eventually developing calluses. Many practitioners were subjected to this torture for extended periods, with Li Shuli made to sit for 20 days, Meng Sufen 14 days, Li Zhuan 14 days and Yang Liyun 30 days. Meng Sufen was further kept in a separate room for one month after this torture.

Camp officials set up a so-called "die-hard attack team" in late August 2008, to intensify its "reform" of steadfast practitioners in Ward 1 and 4. These practitioners were transferred to the camp's north building where the new team was housed. One punishment the guards used was to have practitioners stand from dawn to one or two o'clock or well into the night, for many days in a row. After the torture, the victims' legs and feet became extremely swollen, and they had great difficulty walking, several completely unable to walk and had to rely on others to help them with toilet use. A young woman in her 30s, Zhang Zhuting, had much of her hair turn gray hair after she was made to stand for seven days and nights. Ms. Li Xiuxia was already over 60, yet the guards didn't spare her and had her also stand for several days. Collaborator Hua Shen pinched and grabbed at Ms. Li's body and even put her entire weight on Ms. Li, sitting on top of her. Ms. Li was beaten frequently, sometimes twice a day - once in the morning and the other in the afternoon. When people saw her one month later she was so thin that she was beyond recognition.

In early June 2009, Ms. Pu Yueqin was made to stand for seven days around the clock, only to find out she had to sit on a small bench for another 12 days straight, without any sleep allowed.

Perpetrators at the Labor Camp

Most camp guards have actively participated in practitioners' mistreatment, many of whom had been transferred from the Baoding Labor Camp or Gaoyang Labor Camp, notorious for their brutal persecution of practitioners.

Ward 1 head Li Ziwei was transferred from Baoding Forced Labor Camp and Ward 4 head Zhao Yuan (about 27 or 28 years old) was from Gaoyang Labor Camp. Both women often beat and cursed practitioners.

Seven collaborators were selected to come to the labor camp in 2008 to aid in the persecution, including Shi Jinhua, Wang Jinxia and Li Yufang.

Collaborators Wu Yongxin, Hua Shen, Yu Xiufan, and Zhuo Wenning spared no effort assisting the guards in the persecution. They each received a term reduction of more than four months and often plotted how to abuse and "reform" practitioners. They monitored practitioners and reported their every move to the guards. Hua Shen once said viciously, "Let them die if they refuse to reform!"

Five other collaborators in Ward 4 were Chen Xiuying, Wang Guijun, He Yinshu, Wang Chaoying and Gao Junhong.

Ward 4 head Zhao Yuan directed the collaborators to take turns monitoring practitioners. Collaborator Wang Chaoying twisted practitioner Zeng Qixiang's ear. Wang Chaoying went astray after Hua Shen and other collaborators made her stand for long periods and deceived her with warped notions. After she embraced an evil path, in order to get early release, Wang Chaoying promised Ward head Zhao Yuan to "reform" practitioners, one after another. She was even more brutal than other collaborators. In early February 2009, practitioner Xiao Xiuying was made to go through intensive "reform" process, during which she pleaded for her right to sleep. For this, Wang Chaoying beat her. She then handcuffed Ms. Xiao to the rail of the top bunk bed and made her stand for dozens of hours.

Verbal Abuse and Humiliation

To prevent practitioners from shouting "Falun Dafa is good," Ward 4 guards gagged their mouths from time to time. Practitioner Yang Liyun had her mouth taped shut with one-inch-wide tape the morning of August 18, 2008 for shouting "Falun Dafa is good!" The female guards wrapped the tape around her head several times before dragging her to a bathroom where several male guards beat her savagely and shocked her with electric batons. Then they handcuffed her to a heating pipe of the radiator until midnight. The tape was not removed until the next morning. Practitioners Wang Hongmei and Li Yifen also were gagged.

The guards also lured non-practitioner detainees to aid in the abuse by promising reductions in their detention terms.

One day Ward 4 head Zhao Yuan found practitioners in one cell sharing experiences and ordered everyone to stand for long periods. Ms. Yang Liyun didn't want to see senior practitioners suffer, so she gave 64-year-old Yin Yanxin a small bench to sit on. Her kind act, however, resulted in beatings and curses from several guards who also ordered criminal Li Hua to press Ms. Yang down, to be shocked with electric batons. Another criminal, Yue Kuiling, held Li Yifen so the guards could beat her freely.

Practitioners Yang Liyun, Fang Hua and Wang Xiumei were beaten and forced to stand for a long time. The guards also wrote slandering words on the faces of Yang Liyun and Fang Hua. Moreover, as additional humiliation, the guards cut their hair so it looked as if dogs had chewed on it. Under the directive of Ward dead Zhao Yuan, team lead Wu Yanling and criminal Yue Kuiling participated in the torture.

Camp officials compelled practitioners in Ward 1 and Ward 4 to pack disposable chopsticks as of November 2008. The first day 17 practitioners from Ward 4 refused to perform the slave labor. They were all forced to stand for one day and night. The next day more practitioners joined the strike. Camp officials mobilized its male guards equipped with stun guns to monitor practitioners. Practitioners Yang Liyun and Fang Hua did not yield to the pressure. The guards had both women stand for three days straight without any sleep. Fang Hua lost consciousness, passed out, but as soon as she was awake she was made to stand again, despite her suffering from congenital cerebral palsy and one of her legs being shorter than the other.

Practitioners Xi Yonghong, Wang Xiumei and Wang Hongmei eventually also refused to continue the slave labor. Ward head Zhao Yuan and deputy head Liu Yamin took Wang Xiumei, Wang Hongmei and Li Yifen to a room on the east end of the hallway where no one else could see or hear the three practitioners. They had them lower their heads and bend over, with arms stretching up behind their backs. This painful torture position is known as "flying an airplane." Criminal Li Hua was order to monitor them, forbidding them to change positions. Zhao Yuan and Liu Yamin also instigated Li Hua to further physically abuse the practitioners. Though it was winter, Li filled the restroom bucket (used as a trash can) with cold water and poured it all over the practitioners, soaking their clothing. Yang Liyun, Fang Hua, Wang Xiumei, Xi Yonghong and Wang Hongmei were made to stand in the courtyard to suffer the cold.

On December 15, 2008, practitioners Yang Liyun, Hong Mei, Fang Li, Wang Xiumeil, Xi Yonghong and Wang Hongmei were handcuffed and forced to stand for a long period of time because they refused to wear the camp uniform. They were stripped of their clothing and left with only their underwear on. Ward head Zhao Yuan brutally beat practitioner Yang Liyun whose nose started to bleed as a result. Afterwards the practitioners were kept in a confinement cell with their hands cuffed and feet shackled. They were so heavily restrained that they could neither stand up nor lie down. They suffered edema all over their bodies and the flesh on their hands peeled. With no blankets, and being unable to even lie down, they had to sit on the floor leaning against each other's backs to rest a little at night. They were forced to eat, drink and relieve themselves in the same small room. The room was filthy and the air was extremely putrid.

They were kept there until sometime after January 1, 2009. Then Yang Liyun and the other seven were transferred from the confinement cell to Ward 4's storage room. Kept under similar circumstances as before, they had to do everything inside the small room. They slept on the cold, bare, cement floor. Yang's hands and feet were shackled to the heat pipes. Even though the weather was bitterly cold outside, inside the little room the heat was turned off, but the windows were kept wide open. With only light clothes on, the practitioners were freezing. In addition, they were prohibited from even talking to each other, but were forced to stand for a long period of time. To make their suffering worse, Ward head Zhao Yuan instigated criminal Yue Kuiling to pour cold water over the practitioners. The practitioners were tortured in this way for more than 40 days. Right before the Chinese New Year of 2009, they were finally transferred to another confinement cell. Nobody was allowed to contact them. They were prohibited from brushing their teeth, taking showers or even washing their faces. They have not taken a shower for almost nine months now. They are only allowed to use the bathroom during certain times of the day, and only for a short length of time.

On December 28, 2008, the guards from Ward 4 including Zhao Yuan and Liu Yamin, gathered the practitioners who had refused to wear the camp uniforms into the main hall and forcibly made each one of them put on the uniform. Whoever refused to do it, the guards would drag them into the guards' office, or out into the hallway to have some male guards threaten them. The guards slapped the practitioners' faces, and forced the practitioners to stand for a long period of time. The guards also cut up the practitioners' clothes with scissors. Guard Liu Yamin forcibly stepped on Tang Zhijie's hand and foot with the heal of her leather shoes. Instantly, Ms. Tang lost all feeling in her hand and foot, and she needed people to hold her up to walk. Her mouth was bloody. Zhao Yuan and Liu Yamin also jabbed Zeng Qixiang's face with their finger nails. In addition, Zhao Yuan shoved a filthy toilet brush into Zhu Pingxuan's mouth and scrubbed her mouth with it. Liu Yamin filled a dirty trash can with cold water and emptied it out over Zhu Pingxuan's head.

On February 8, 2009, practitioner Hong Mei reported an instance of mistreatment. Because of this, Liu Yamin who is the deputy head of Ward 4, and guard Liu Fang brutally beat Hong Mei. Afterwards, they kept Hong Mei shackled to an iron bar inside a small dark room for nearly two weeks. Ms. Hong had been so severely beaten that her face is now deformed. However, this was still not enough for the guards. Zhao Yuan and Liu Yamin also forced Hong Mei to sit on a small stool every day until April 23. On that day, they escorted Hong Mei to Ward 2 to continue torturing her.

In the evening of April 22, 2009, practitioner Li Jianying did not go watch TV because she did not feel well. Four guards rushed into the cell and Wang Qian covered Ms. Li's mouth with tape so that no one could hear her screams. Then the four of them carried her out of the cell and locked her up in a small dark room where they brutally beat her, and shocked her with the electric batons. Ms. Li was also force-fed, and she was hung up with her hands cuffed behind the back. After being hung up for a long period of time, her wrists and ankles all had one-inch wide wounds that were infected. The skin was gone, and yellowish and whitish pus flowed from the rotting wounds. Her mouth was also bleeding.

In early July of 2009, practitioner Li Mei was brutally beaten because the guards Cong Shujuan and Gao Xinlei suspected that Li Mei had practiced Falun Gong exercises. They used electric batons to shock her. After that, they hung Li Mei up in a small, dark room for an entire day.

In May 2009, practitioner, Li Yujie (a graduate student), was just transferred to the labor camp from Beijing. When she was being force-fed, she shouted, "Falun Dafa is good!" For this, inmate Zhang Huiqing forcibly hit Ms. Li's head. Practitioner Yang Lifang shouted, "Stop hitting people!" As a result, her term was extended for one more month.

Forced Labor

Practitioners have been forced to do extremely hard labor that is beyond the their physical endurance. The practitioners in Ward 2 and Three have to load and unload products from the first floor to the second and third floors. They also have to make cell phone covers and shower curtains. It is said that the shower curtains are to be exported overseas. The practitioners at Ward 1 and 4 do random labor including sorting chopsticks and picking out cotton seeds (the seeds are for the Academy of Hebei Province Agricultural Science and the Academy of Shijiazhuang City Agricultural Science), pasting labels onto the bottles of chemical fertilizers and instant noodles, making lanterns before the Lantern Festivals, making brochures for some land developers, making bags for chemical fertilizers, and seeds (for the Academy of Hebei Province Agricultural Science and the Academy of Shijiazhuang City Agricultural Science), and making origami, etc. Almost all of the jobs require lots of manpower to accomplish. Practitioners normally have to start working in the mornings, but they are forced to work throughout the day until late in the night, and are not allowed to stop until 10 or 12 midnight. Wang Xiaomian is 67 years old. Because she cannot see well and was unable to make the lanterns, guard Liu Fang slapped her face. Her face was swollen from the beating.