The Tortures Sun Minghao Endured in a Mental Hospital

My name is Sun Minghao and I am a 26-year-old male. I used to be a teacher in the Children and Youth Palace in Yantai City, Shandong Province, but I was forced to resign due to Jiang Zemin's unconstitutional persecution of Falun Gong. I started my cultivation in Falun Dafa in 1997. Before practicing, I was physically weak and had quite a few problems. Ever since I started the practice, I have been very healthy and have not had the need to visit doctors or take medicine for the past 4 years. I have no history of mental illness. Before July 20, 1999, a group of people led by Qu Fengjia, director of the Children and Youth Palace, often pressured me and others working there to give up practicing Falun Gong. After July 20th, they confiscated our books and held so-called educational classes for us, trying to "help" and "reform" us. They illegally detained us for two and a half months, asking us to write so-called "recantations" against practicing Falun Gong. On Feburary15, 2000, a group led by Qu Fengjia again came to pressure me for a so-called "pledge" that I would not go to Beijing to appeal the persecution of Falun Dafa. I refused. They illegally detained me and attempted to brainwash me with articles slandering Dafa. To protest such unlawful and inhuman conduct, I started a hunger strike that same day and demanded an unconditional release. While I was on the hunger strike, my father requested many times to take me home and that he would sign his name to a pledge saying he would not allow me to go to Beijing. However, Qu Fengjia's reply was "no" after consulting with the Youth [party name omitted] Committee of the Yantai City. On February 19, 2000, the fifth day of my hunger strike, Qu Fengjia asked my parents to sign a paper to send me to a mental hospital; if they refused they would send me to a detention center. My parents talked to them many times saying "our son has no problem, we can bring him home and make sure he does not go to Beijing." But their requests were refused. Qu Fengjia even called in two policemen from the Xinglong Street Police Station to threaten us that either I have to go to the mental hospital or to the detention center. My father could do nothing but sign me into the mental hospital. In the afternoon, Qu Fengjia said he wanted to bring me to the hospital for a check up. I refused. He immediately grabbed me and asked others to help him; they dragged me out of the room. Qu Fengjia along with the Vice Director of the Children and Youth Palace, Jiang Jiamin, a policeman from Xinglong Street Police Station, my father, and a driver, Chi Hongguo, sent me to the Yantai City Mental Hospital. On the way, my father and Jiang Jiamin said to me several times that they would send me home immediately if I would write a so-called "pledge" not to go to Beijing to appeal. In the hospital, they put me in the No. 6 Curing Room. The Director was Ding Yuanlin and the Head Nurse was surnamed Shi. The primary physician for me was Dr. Wang, the Vice Director of the No. 6 Curing Room. They did a series of examinations on me and did not tell me the results. But I overheard the nurses talking among themselves that everything was normal. On the night of February 20th, they began forcing me to take medicine. I refused. The nurse on duty called in several patients who were very rude. They pushed me down and tied my hands and feet to the bed. Several patients from the mental hospital laid down on me. The nurse then forced the tube into my nose, and poured the medicine into me that way. I felt nauseated and vomited. Seeing this, the nurses said, "Are you uncomfortable? If you know how sick it is, then from now on take the medicine yourself." They did not untie me from the bed until the next day. From then on, the nurse on duty watched me take the medicine every time, and asked me to open my mouth to make sure I indeed swallowed the pills. They forced the injections into me and threatened that if I did not comply they would tie me to the bed again. I raised my request to Director Ding and Wang several times that I had no mental problem and should not be taking the medicine. I said that it was unlawful for them to force me to take the medicine and that I should be released from the hospital. They ignored my request completely and said that whether it is unlawful or not is not up to me. In the beginning, the doses were small. There were three kinds of medicine--a tranquilizer, vitamins, and a third one that they refused to tell me what it was. Gradually they increased the doses, and I felt nauseated and vomited; I was also dizzy, distracted, fatigued, and felt an ineffable discomfort in my heart. I told Wang my symptoms and said, "I have no problem but you force me to take so much medicine. If something goes wrong, who will take the responsibility?" He replied, "You were sent in by the Children's Palace and your parents have signed the papers, we did not ask you to come." After that, they still forced me to take the medicine, which I refused. Director Ding stopped the medicine when he saw that I strongly refused. At that time I had already been in the hospital for 21 days. It was extremely depressing in the mental hospital. There were over 40 patients in the No. 6 Curing Room. During the day, all the patients stayed in one big room. All the windows had bars to prevent patients from running away. The entire room was dark and scary because boards covered all but one window. The patients could not go to the bathroom freely. The door would be open for bathroom time, and when everyone came back, the room would be locked again. The tableware was dirty and the food was poor, but they charged a lot, over a hundred RMB per day. I lived together with all sorts of mentally ill patients all day long. It was harder to endure these mental tortures than the physical abuse. My employer even notified the hospital that I was not allowed to see any visiting family members. My parents begged my employer; finally they were allowed to see me once. I told Director Ding and Director Wang many times that I was not ill. I requested to see my employer and to be released from the Hospital. But Director Ding said, " Do you have a written pledge? Without a written pledge you must stay here. Your employer won't come to see you. If we did not know that you were not ill, we would have tied you up on the bed long ago! If you make any more requests, we will tie you up!" After another useless talk, I started a hunger strike. I told them, "I will end the hunger strike as soon as you release me from this hospital." The very next day, they began to force the food down my throat by a tube, giving me intravenous injections. They used several people to pressed down hard on me, so that I could not move. Because I was not co-operating, they violently inserted the tube in my nose many times. When they had to pull the tube out in order to insert it properly, I threw up food and blood. When they did the intravenous injection, they used a pillow to cover my face and pressed down very hard. I could not breathe. Many people were holding my legs and arms down. Because I refused to cooperate, my arm had made many bleeding scratches on it from the syringe. The needle was bent due to the pressure, so they had to change to another syringe. I was unconscious for 24 hours after the injection. I do not know what kind of drugs they put in my veins. My father tried to talk to my employer Qu Fengjia, who avoided seeing him with the excuse that he was too busy. Qu told my father that they sent people to visit me and that I was fine in the hospital. (Actually nobody from my work place ever came.) On March 19, 2000, my parents heard my situation and came to the hospital, requesting to check me out; the hospital refused to release me. They wanted my employer to show-up. My father called Qu Fengjia again, and he still tried to avoid my father. Eventually, my father said to him, "Director Qu, are you going to let him die inside?" They waited until that afternoon; Qu Fengjia sent Vice Director Liu Lumen and Vice Director Wang Yanning to the Hospital. I had been tied up on the bed for five days by that time. As a result of the hunger strike, drug abuse, and physical constraints, I became weak and skinny. Despite my condition, the two vice directors still demanded my written pledge of not going to Beijing to appeal, without which they would not release me. I shook my head. They asked Director Ding what would happen if I kept up the hunger strike. Ding said that my life could be saved by intravenous injections, but my digestive system would shrink, this would result in intestinal adhesion, and I would become a vegetable. Despite all this, they still wouldn't let me go. My father wrote a pledge that said I would not go to Beijing to appeal, and he made me write a sentence, which a Dafa disciple should never write, "I pledge not to go to Beijing," and I signed my name. Under my parent's strong request they finally released me. I could not stand straight. Staggering along, my mother held my arm and I walked out of the Hospital, ending the 28 days of that nightmarish experience. They did not issue any medical diagnosis statement or give me any follow up treatments. My girlfriend, Sun Xiangshu, who was also my colleague, was admitted into the same mental hospital the same time I was. She was still being tortured there when I left because she refused to write any pledges. My former employer Qu asked us to pay more than 9,000 RMB medical costs. They deducted all of our salaries and lecture fees. They even took away the money in an envelope, which I was going to give to my father. And they took away the money that the police returned to us. (Police Zhang Yong took 1,400 RMB, deducted 400 RMB for food, gave us back 700, and took away 300 RMB for no reason.) They took all this money and still said that we owed them. March 2001