Mr . Liu Yujian has been released from Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp in Hebei Province in very poor condition. His family fears he will soon die, and if he recovers, the labor camp will take him back for hard labor.
Huang Ling describes the arrest of her and her husband, the interrogation of their eight-year-old daughter leading to the arrest of another practitioner, her imprisonment and torture and what she saw others endure, slave labor producing a profit for the labor camp, and more.
Mr. Zhang Xingwu is a former professor at Normal University of Jinan City. His 'trial' was marked by heavy outside security, the absense of his lawyer, no witnesses actually testifying, and false testimony attributed to his wife.
On April 9, 2009, Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Liu Yujian was released from Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp in Hebei Province and sent to his original residence in Xinjiang. A labor camp guard, Zhang Zhenyu, and a doctor from the camp's clinic escorted Mr. Liu home. Mr. Liu's younger sister also traveled with them. Because he was tortured in the labor camp, Liu Yujian was extremely weak and all his bodily functions were near failure. On the train, he was unable to take in any food or water and had to depend on an intravenous injection.
Before Mr. Liu was released from Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp, he was given a thorough physical exam. After the exam the labor camp authorities immediately contacted his family and told them to come get him. They refused to tell the family any of the exam results Despite the family's continued requests for information, the camp did not give any clear explanation besides, "Not very good."
Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp turned an originally healthy man into a person near death. Moreover, the labor camp used Mr. Liu's critical health to force his family to accept its unreasonable demands.
Camp officials told his family that they were processing the paper work to get permission from their superiors to allow Mr. Liu to be temporarily released for medical treatment. According to them, it would take a while for the relevant documents to be mailed to his original residence in Xinjang. They allowed Mr. Liu to leave the camp now specifically to allow him some rest at home and also to visit his ill mother. The camp also made the family sign an agreement making the family responsible for covering all the medical expenses.
On April 11, Mr. Liu arrived in Xinjiang. The two officers from the labor camp went to the local police station to finish the paperwork. When the local police station learned about the state Mr. Liu's health, however, they refused to accept responsibility for him. The labor camp officers then made some deals under the table so that the local police would accept the administrative transfer of responsibility for Mr. Liu.
Although Mr. Liu is now staying with his family, his parents, wife, and sisters are still very worried about him. The first thing the family is concerned about is when Mr. Liu Yujian will recover his health. The second issue is the ambiguous attitude of the Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp. This makes the family nervous. Will the labor camp take Mr. Liu away again if he regains his health?
Mr. Liu's mother is also very ill and confined to bed. Due to the years of the CCP's financial persecution of practitioners, Mr. Liu's family is very poor. It is beyond the family's financial ability to seek medical treatment for him, so now he is staying at home and trying to recover by himself.
The case of Liu Yujian is yet more evidence of Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp's persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Since 1999, Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp has been known as one of the most notorious forced labor camps for its policies of persecution. During the most evil period, the labor camp detained nearly 500 practitioners. It uses cruel methods to torture practitioners, including violent beatings, electric shocks with water, force-feeding human waste to practitioners who are on hunger strike, putting snakes under practitioners' clothes, etc.. Several practitioners have been tortured to death in the camp.
The Persecution Many Others and I Suffered at the Shanxi Women's Labor Camp
By Huang Ling
My name is Huang Ling, and I was an instructor at the Communication University of China. My husband, Hu Chuanlin, used to work at the Division of Academic Affairs at the Second Foreign Language University of Beijing. We both practice Falun Gong. Right now, I am unconstitutionally jailed at the Shanxi Women's Forced Labor Camp. I want to share how my family has suffered as a result of the persecution during the past several years.
More than 30 officers from Beijing City Police Department and Fengtai District Police Branch arrested my husband and me from our jobs on September 11, 2007. They ransacked our home and interrogated us; fabricated criminal charges against us, and took us to forced labor camps. The entire process was kept secret from our families and the public.
I was taken to Fengtai Detention Center at 3:00 a.m. on September 12, 2007. My husband and I were both held at that center between September 12 and October 17, 2007. During this time, Fengtai Police Department officials interrogated me twice. They repeatedly asked me whether I still practiced Falun Gong and what I had done. I told them that Falun Gong is the most righteous and teaches people to be good. We practice Falun Gong, so we should tell people of the facts of the persecution.
At the same time, the Domestic Security agents took my husband to a hotel and pressured him, between September 11 and September 17, 2007, to reveal where we keep our Falun Gong books at home. They threatened him with a chemical spray that could cause suffocation.
The police went to the 2nd Elementary School in Dingfu Villege and called my daughter out. They interrogated her for two hours and asked her whose homes her parents had visited. My eight-year-old daughter could not withstand the pressure and said, "Dad and Mom visited Ms. Xuan." They immediately arrested Ms. Xuan Jinge, an instructor at the Media Management School of the Communication University of China, at her home. They subjected her to two years of forced labor, claiming they found a Falun Gong flyer at her home.
While Ms. Xuan was in Fengtai District Detention Center, her father, who lived in Xinjiang Province, heard of her arrest. He was ill already, and the news made his illness worse. He passed away within a few days, never being able to see his daughter again before his death. As of this writing, Xuan Jinge is also being held at the Shanxi Women's Forced Labor Camp.
We were taken to the Dispatch Division in Beijing on October 18, 2007--all labor camp detainees have to be taken there first. Fu, head of Group 16, took me to a room and ordered five drug addicts and prostitutes to attack me and try to coerce me to write the guarantee statement. I refused. They forced me to squat and held me down.
Over time, more than ten officials arrived to brainwash me, which they called "mind work." They wouldn't let me stand up and wouldn't let me use the restroom. I went on a hunger strike to protest the abuse, and the head guard force-fed me water and food. The police instructed the five criminals to write vicious and slanderous words against Falun Gong on a piece of paper. Against my will they pressed my fingerprints on the paper, claiming I had written it, and then taped it to my body. I had to squat from 9:00 a.m. till 8:00 p.m. They would physically assault me whenever I tried to get up. When I finally stood up I could not straighten my legs. My right thigh hurt for nearly a year after this experience. Whenever I got up from a sitting position I would feel intense pain and I would limp along for quite a while. I learned that another practitioner held at the Dispatch Division was also subjected to this torture. Her legs remained swollen for many days afterwards.
I was transferred from the Dispatch Division to the Beijing Women's Labor Camp on November 21, 2007. About 600 practitioners were held there; more than half were over than 50. The officials tried to coerce me to write a guarantee statement and didn't allow me to sleep. Several guards stood around me and took turns bombarding me incessantly with lies and propaganda. They kept me up until past 2:00 a.m. and started all over again at 4:00 a.m. I said to them, "The Communist Party is violating human rights in its persecution of Falun Gong." They could not refute me. They also removed the wall clock so I could not see the time.
Furthermore, I was forbidden to use the restroom and was compelled to stand for a long time. They swore at me and threatened to send me to a prison if I kept my belief. Eventually they didn't let me meet with my family.
I was held at the Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp for 239 days. The only contact I had with the outside world was visits from my family, but soon I was deprived of this as well.
I saw another practitioner, Ms. Yan Yuqin, 49, from Yanqing, who suffered a non-stop torture-induced nervous breakdown. She was brought to the labor camp the same day as me. I tried to stop the inmates from beating her. The guards threatened and verbally insulted me. Ms. Yan was locked in solitary confinement when I left the labor camp, kept under surveillance by an inmate. They hired a psychiatrist to evaluate her but never publicized the result and only claimed she was diagnosed with a neurosis.
The guards woke me up at 3:00 a.m. on July 17, 2008, told me to put on clothes, and took me into a room. They said something was going to happen and sent someone to pack my stuff. At 5:00 a.m. they put me into a bus labeled with the word "judiciary." About 50 other practitioners were also put on the same bus. After a seven-hour drive we arrived at the Shanxi Women's Forced Labor Camp. No one explained why we were transferred there, except one guard who secretly told us, "The Party wants to ensure stability during the Olympics." Sixty practitioners were taken from Beijing to Shanxi; ours was the fourth group of practitioners to be transferred out of Beijing. The first three groups were transferred to either the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp in Liaoning Province or labor camps in Nei Monggol AR.
One hundred-plus practitioners were held at the Shanxi Women's Forced Labor Camp. The oldest is 68 and the youngest is 26. The camp officials resort to violent methods to try to "reform" us. During the first six months of 2008, the guards assigned to the Specially Controlled Group made the practitioners remain standing for nights on end. The torture was exposed online many times, and numerous guards were listed as evil perpetrators responsible for the gross abuse and mistreatment. Falun Gong practitioners inside and outside China called the labor camp officials and told them to stop this abuse. That restrained their behavior somewhat. No longer did they force someone to stay up all night for days, but they still used sleep deprivation on determined practitioners, such as not letting them sleep until past midnight and waking them up at 5:00 a.m. They order inmates to follow the practitioners everywhere and isolate and insult practitioners who persevere in their belief and even extend their terms.
For instance, Group heads Lei Hongzheng and Liu Zhongmei extended a practitioner's term of forced labor because she refused to give up Falun Gong. At first they added one month to her term, but extended it by another two months eventually. She refused to sign the document and confronted the officials about the unconstitutional term. The officials claimed they reported the extension as one month but said the Labor Reeducation Bureau agents changed it to three months. The practitioner was eventually isolated from other practitioners.
Thirty practitioners who were brought here with me were taken to the Specially Controlled Group. Practitioners Li Xiuzhen, Feng Yunqing, and others firmly withstood the brainwashing. Lei Hongzheng did not let Li Xiuzhen sleep for three days and three nights, and she sent Li Xiuzhen and Feng Yunqing to the isolated group on the fourth day. The location of the isolated group is known for its filthy rooms and vicious abuses.
Practitioner Hao Jinjing from Beijing and I were sent to the isolated group on September 19, 2008. The guards assigned two criminals to watch one practitioner. We were forbidden to speak with each other; they watch our every move. The guards would reward any inmate who succeeded in preventing contact among practitioners. If they could not prevent us from conversing or failed to report what we said and did, the guards would punish the inmates. The inmates observe the slightest change in the guards' moods and try to please them as much as they can.
Countless practitioners are physically and mentally attacked under this system and are completely deprived of rights and freedom. The inmates are used as tools and are turned into scapegoats when the guards need to shirk their liabilities.
Practitioner Gao Suying wrote an appeal on August 8, 2008, to demand an annulment of the forced labor term unconstitutionally imposed on her. The guards ordered five drug addict inmates to beat and kick her. She was terribly bruised from the beating. Her chest hurt for three months from repeated sadistic kicks. Guard Chen Chunxiang told the inmates to lie-- "Change the story and say that Gao Suying beat you!"--and subsequently extended her term by three months. When she tried to write another appeal, guard Chen Chunxiang ordered the inmates to take her pen and paper. They tore up her paper whenever they saw her writing something. She is still without pen and paper, even now.
The law states detainees have the right to communicate with their families, yet Falun Gong practitioners are prevented from making phone calls to their families or answering their phone calls. I didn't talk to my family on the phone for nearly six months.
The regime allocates 140 yuan per person per month for food at every labor camp, but the labor camp uses less than 60 yuan of this per person per month, which means the officials keep more than half of the official funding. Many detainees are so starved that they smuggle steamed buns from the cafeteria back to their cell. Once the guards discover this, they not only fine the detainees but also torture them ruthlessly. One person was forced to eat 12 buns in front of everyone until she vomited uncontrollably.
The regime officials arrest old people in their 60s and people with infectious diseases such as hepatitis and skin diseases, and keep them in the same room with healthy detainees. They never allow treatment for the sick and ignore protests from the healthy. They force ill detainees to do the same heavy manual labor as the rest. One 14-year-old girl was also held at the labor camp. The guards knew she was a minor, but they still accepted her. She did the same amount of work as the others until her father bailed her out two months later.
Our work hours increased again before the 2009 Chinese New Year. We worked standing up for eight hours a day. The Shanxi Fen Wine Factory established a profit-sharing relationship with the labor camp. Three labor camp divisions were assigned to make wine package boxes. We made 40,000 boxes before the Chinese New Year. The labor camp's profit from this venture was at least 24,000 yuan. People held in the Specially Controlled Group also made 200,000 pairs of antithetical couplets and lucky characters for the New Year holiday season, adding another 20,000 yuan in profits to the camp's treasury.
At least 200 detainees are forced to do hard labor here. In a regular factory, each worker would be paid at least 500 yuan a month. Taking all the detainees, the total monthly salary for all of them would 100,000 yuan; and if they work ten months a year, the annual salary a company would have to shell out would be one million yuan. Yet, the detainees didn't get any pay, and the labor camp officials, wine factory owners, and other regime officials divided all those profits among themselves.
The labor camp officials and their cronies abuse, mistreat, and grossly torment Falun Gong practitioners, making huge profits from their labor at the same time. Many practitioners refused to work. Group heads Chen Huiru and Chen Chunxiang forced them to stand for long periods of time. When the practitioners sat down, the heads would order drug addict inmates to take the stools away. Once a drug addict took practitioner Li Xiuzhen's stool and shoved her to the ground. Other practitioners went to Chen Chunxiang and asked, "Did you tell the inmate to do that to her?" She refused to answer. When we told her what happened she shouted, "I didn't see anything; I don't know anything." Another time we confronted guard Chen Huiru about instructing inmates to bully practitioners. She refused to acknowledge what she had done and said, "I was borrowing her stool." Once, she made a practitioner on work strike stand facing a wall. Guard Chen Chunxiang made several practitioners stand outside after they refused to work on the morning of November 25, 2008. She screamed, "If you don't want to work, get out and freeze!" They remained outside for more than an hour; one of them was in her 50s.
Officials from the Judicial Department came for an inspection on December 1, 2008. The labor camp officials forced detainees to lie about their life at the labor camp and ordered them not to tell the truth about working long hours. Instead, they told the detainees to say they studied in the morning and worked in the afternoon for two or three hours at most, with a 15-minute break. They also prepared a party for the judicial officials.
All three members of my family--my husband, my daughter and I--are still
separated as a result of the persecution. This is the personal story of an
ordinary Chinese citizen who is being persecuted for her belief.
67-Year-Old Mr. Zhang Xingwu Sentenced to Seven Years in Prison
Professor Zhang Xingwu, 67, is a Falun Dafa practitioner in Jinan City, Shandong Province. His family was notified that Mr. Zhang was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment. Practitioner Ms. Yang Suhua was sentenced to five years.
In the morning on March 31, Shizhong District Court in Jinan City illegally tried Mr. Zhang Xingwu. They not only prevented Professor Zhang Xingwu's defense attorney from attending the proceedings, but also keep his family from being present in the courtroom. In addition, 70 armed, anti-riot police and nearly 200 other officers (both uniformed and plainclothes) were deployed around the courthouse. One of Mr. Zhang's relatives, Ms. Liu Lijie, was "illegally detained" for fifteen days and later sentenced to 21 months' forced labor just because she wanted to attend the session. Practitioner Mr. Zhu Xiaodong only asked a question: "What happened?" He was then arrested, held for ten days at a detention center, and later sentenced to 21 months of forced labor. Practitioner Mr. Miao Peihua left home and was arrested before he even arrived at the courthouse. After being detained for fifteen days, he was sentenced to 21 months of forced labor.
Xie Yajie, the head of Shizhong District Court, personally gave orders to the police and ordered them to keep Professor Zhang Xingwu's defense attorney, Mr. Li Subin, from entering the court. Xie Yajie attended the trial in person. Only two detained Falun Gong practitioners and one person from each of their families were allowed to be present for the proceedings. Aside from them, there were all the officials from the 610 Office and the head of each court in Jinan City.
In the absence of his defense attorney, Mr. Zhang Xingwu rationally and logically used the law to explain that he should be released immediately and submitted a "not guilty" plea. Wang Limin, the Court Chief, and Zhang Xiaohui, the prosecutor, had nothing to say, but they claimed that Mr. Zhang's attitude wasn't good so that they were going to sentence him to a heavy prison term.
The verdict in Mr. Zhang Xingwu's case generated more concerns. What's more, during the trial, none of the witnesses was called in, and nobody even knew who they were. The name of Mrs. Liu Pinjie, Mr. Zhang Xingwu's wife, appeared several times as a witness. However, in investigating the case of Mr. Zhang, his wife had never accused him of anything. Mr. Zhang's defense attorney recently planned to appeal to the supreme court.
Mr. Zhang Xingwu is a former professor at Normal University of Jinan City. At around 11 p.m. on July 16, 2008, instigated by the 610 Office, more than twenty officers from Weijiazhuang Police Station in the Shizhong District broke into Mr. Zhang's house, ransacked it, and confiscated his belongings. They illegally arrested Mr. Zhang and his wife, Mrs. Liu Pinjie. That night, Mrs. Liu had severe stroke symptoms. After they extorted a 10,000 yuan bail from her, she was released the following morning.
After she regained the ability to walk on her own, she immediately went to the judicial system in Jinan City to clarify the truth about Falun Gong to CCP officials and try to rescue her husband. On August 6, Mrs. Liu Pinjie was "Illegally detained" again by the officers from Weijiazhuang Police Station. Agents from the 610 Office reported to their superiors and wanted to arrest her. However, the procuratorate refused to have her arrested, noting that she had had the severe stroke symptoms and there was no solid evidence for her so-called "crime." Later on, the 610 Office detained her in a brainwashing session for 37 days. After they again extorted of a lot of money from her as bail, they released her.