Clearwisdom Collection: The Atrocities Committed at Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp (Beijing Special Collection IV)

(Clearwisdom.net)

1. Women Practitioners in Beijing's Xin'an Forced Labor Camp Are Shocked and Stabbed with Electric Needles in Specially Designed Torture Chamber
2. The Crimes Committed by the Beijing Labor Reeducation Dispatching Office and Xinan Labor Camp
3. Torture and Persecution Methods Employed in the Beijing Detention Center, the Dispatching Center and the Xin'an Female Forced Labor Camp
4. Female Practitioners in the Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp Are Subjected to Grueling Military Style Drills, Long Term Sleep Deprivation and Brainwashing
5. My Slave Labor Experience at Tuanhe Prisoner Dispatch Center and Xin'an Forced Labor Camp in Beijing

1. Women Practitioners in Beijing's Xin'an Forced Labor Camp Are Shocked and Stabbed with Electric Needles in Specially Designed Torture Chamber

http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/10/6/27282.html

(Clearwisdom.net)

Falun Dafa practitioner A, female, 32 years old, was kidnapped and sent to the No. 4 team in Beijing's Xin'an Forced Labor Camp (also called the Beijing Female Forced Labor Camp) in July 2001. She has resisted the vicious persecution. For two months, she refused to wear the labor camp uniform, since she is not a criminal and did not commit any crime. She was handcuffed at all times. The camp officials locked her inside the interrogation room, and assigned four people to watch her every day. Labor camp guard Li Jirong forbade her to sleep, take a bath, wash her face and brush her teeth, or use the toilet. At each meal, she was only given a plain and tasteless steamed cornmeal bun made of only corn flour and water [no salt, sugar and oil are added] and some pieces of pickled vegetables. She was beaten every day, so her nose often spurted blood, her eyes were black and blue and swollen, and she had bruises all over her body. Even under this kind of torture, whenever she had a chance to go outside she would shout loudly in the exercise yard, "Falun Dafa is good!" which moved people's hearts. Two months later, guard Li Jirong sent her to the "Extensive Training Team," where she was detained in a small cell. Inside the cell, she could see no light. The door of the cell was always open in winter, so the room temperature was extremely cold. Furthermore, she was handcuffed inside the room in a position in which she could neither stand straight nor squat down. The walls, ceiling and floor of this small cell were covered with some type of electrified needles. If she tilted her body even a little and touched any part of the wall, ceiling or floor, she would receive a shocked by the electric needles. When she was exhausted and sleepy due to the forced long-time sleep deprivation, she was often shocked by the electric needles lining her cell and beaten by the guards. She had needle puncture marks all over her body and her skin looked like a sieve.

She is still being detained under these horrific conditions at the "Extensive Training Team."

Falun Dafa practitioner B, female, 58 years old, comes from Beijing. After she was kidnapped and sent to Beijing's Xin'an Forced Labor Camp in June 2001, she not only resisted the brainwashing, but also openly introduced Dafa in her class and team and clarified the true facts of the persecution. Because of this, guard Li Jirong ordered some people to beat her. One month later, she was sent to the "Extensive Training Team" and put into the dark small cell, where the electric needles were installed all over the walls, ceiling and floor. Inside the tiny cell, she was badly beaten up and shocked and stuck by the electric needles.

Falun Dafa practitioner C, female, 48 years old, comes from Yanqing County in Beijing. She was sent to No. 4 team of the Xin'an Forced Labor Camp in April 2001. She has resisted the brainwashing. The guard Li Jirong forced her to stand at a corner of the hallway and forbade her to take a shower, wash her face, brush her teeth, or use the toilet. Li Jirong also instigated others to brutally beat her, force her to squat, kneel, or "fly" (see picture below). Two months later, she shouted during a sports session, "Falun Dafa is a the righteous way of cultivation." Li Jirong handcuffed her right away, and then sent her to the small dark cell for further interrogation and torture. On the phone, Li Jirong also threatened and verbally abused her family members; Li Jirong claimed that she would extend the practitioner's term by half a year. Now the practitioner is still enduring persecution in the labor camp.

Dafa practitioner D, female, 54 years old, was arrested and brought to the Xin'an Forced Labor Camp in September 2001. She resisted the brainwashing and was cruelly tortured by guards Li Ziping and Li Jirong. The guards also instigated the inmates to beat her, and did not allow her to live normally. During a morning drill, she shouted, "Falun Dafa is Good" and "Falun Dafa is a righteous way of cultivation." The guards immediately covered her mouth and brutally beat and kicked her. The guards then handcuffed her and imprisoned her inside a utility room that provides water; she was squeezed under the sink and forced to remain there. Her ankles swelled and became as thick as her thighs. Even under this condition, the guards still forced her to do extremely heavy labor without any rest. She was forced to do all the dirty and heavy work. The guards also directed other prisoners to brutally kick her while she was working.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2002/9/27/37166.html

2. The Crimes Committed by the Beijing Labor Reeducation Dispatching Office and Xinan Labor Camp

http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2001/9/27/14193.html

By practitioners in China

(Clearwisdom.net) Below are some excerpts from actual stories about the ongoing persecution against several Falun Gong practitioners held in the Beijing Labor Reeducation Dispatching Office (The Dispatching Office) and Xinan Labor Camp. Additionally, I attest to the credibility of these stories as I have been witness to them.

1. Ren Mei is a female practitioner from Jiangsu Province. On the first day that she arrived at the Dispatching Office, the persecutors punished her by forcing her to squat on the ground under the baking sun. By that time, she had been on hunger strike for 6 days. She soon fainted from the torture. The headman on duty thought she was faking her condition and shocked her on her head with an electric stun baton for an extended period of time, yet Ren had no response. The headman then became afraid and sent the practitioner to the emergency room of a nearby hospital. By the time they reached the hospital, the doctor said that Ren Mei's pupils had dilated to 150% of the normal size and she was barely alive. If she were not a practitioner, she might have died. Amazingly, after one day and one night in the emergency room, Ren woke up and became conscious.
2. Hou is a female practitioner from Beijing. In the Dispatching Office, she asked for the right to practice the exercises and went on hunger strike when it was not permitted. Many male police staff tied her up to a chair and used several electric batons to shock her breasts and her genitals. As a result, she lost control of her bowel and bladder, and could not walk for a long time.
3. Ma Ronghong is another female practitioner from Beijing. Because she practiced the exercises in the Dispatching Office, the persecutors cuffed her on a bed for more than 50 days, causing the skin and muscle on her back and buttock to develop festering sores. After she was released, she could barely walk. While she was cuffed to the bed, the guards who watched over her often sat on her and ruthlessly beat her. After Ma Ronghong was transferred to the Xinan Labor Camp, in order to force her to give up her cultivation, the wicked police staff did not allow her to sleep for 5 days and 5 nights. They also ordered Han Shaoqin and other "helping and educating personnel" to beat her continuously. Even one month after the torture, there were still black and blue marks visible on her thighs from the beatings.
4. Liu Shengping is also a female practitioner from Beijing. In The Dispatching Office, because she refused to write a pledge against Falun Gong, the vicious police staff stripped off all her clothes, pushed her against the cold floor, and shocked her with 4 or 5 electric batons. The electric voltage was so high that even with someone stepping on her, forcing her down, her body jumped off the floor involuntarily with spasms. When she was transferred to the Xinan Labor Camp, her chest and back were covered with burn marks left by the electric batons.
5. Practitioner Huang Jian, also from Beijing, was not allowed to sleep for 12 days and 12 nights because he/she refused to give up her cultivation practice.
6. Zhang Shuying is a female practitioner from Beijing. In Dongcheng District Detention Center, she went on hunger strike. The persecutors there tortured her with an "electric needle." [note: this refers to the intentional misuse of electroshock therapy devices whereby a needle can be inserted conducting a strong electric current that can be turned up higher at will] The electric current was so strong, that she lost consciousness. After she recovered, she felt that she had lost her memory and her thoughts were very muddled. While in the Dispatching Office, in her confused state of mind, she wrote pledges against Dafa. After she returned to the labor camp, her mind became clearer, and she realized that she had committed wrongdoings.
7. He Wen is another female practitioner in her 50's from Beijing. On the nights of November 4^th and 5^th of last year, He Wen was beaten by "helping and educating" personnel (Zhong Xianghong and others) in an office of the Xinan Labor Camp. At that time, the officers on duty were Han Xiuying and Zhang Ran. He Wen was beaten so badly that the left half of her face turned black and blue. On November 6th, when Wang Zhaofeng was on duty, she did not allow He Wen to go downstairs to eat in order to cover up the incident of torture. On April 23, He Wen was due to be released from the labor camp. However, since she still refused to give up her cultivation, the persecutors illegally extended her term for another half a year. From last November, she was only allowed to eat corn bread and pickled vegetables.
8. Yong Xu is a female practitioner from Beijing. The persecutors did not allow her to sleep for 4 days and 4 nights in order to force her to give up cultivation. Yong Xu was later beaten by "helping and educating" personnel Yan Haiyan, Li Huiru and others. The practitioner's face was covered with black and blue bruises, and her lips were swollen badly. We do not know if she also had some additional bruises on her body.
9. Zhu Xuanwu is a male practitioner from the northeast. He is 6 feet tall. When he first entered Dongcheng District Detention Center, he weighed 200 pounds. When he came out, he weighed a mere 140 pounds, and one of his legs was permanently damaged by the heavy weight of the shackles cuffed around his ankles (these shackles on average weigh 40 to 80 pounds and are only put on inmates ordered for execution). In the labor camp, he was also beaten so badly that he vomited blood. In addition, his term was illegally extended for 6 months because he firmly cultivates Dafa.
10. Since last November, all the practitioners placed into the labor camps were forced to write pledges or repentence letters against Dafa. Those practitioners who refuse to write were deprived of sleep for extended periods. When I left the labor camp, a practitioner in the No. 7 group had not been permitted to sleep for 13 days! After July, the record became one month!

The policy about the labor reeducation personnel of our country clearly said that the daily labor time cannot exceed 6 hours, study time should be more than 3 hours, and that the living area per person has to be bigger than 27 square feet. However, in the Dispatching Office, 20 people were put into a room less than 90 square feet. In the hot summer when temperatures went as high as 40^oC, many practitioners were not allowed to take showers or change clothes for 5 months. Since there were too many practitioners arrested, and there were not enough summer clothes, some practitioners were forced to wear thick winter clothes in July and August, the middle of the summer. Only when the practitioners were all about to collapse from heat exhaustion, the guards allowed them to stay in the cells naked. Since there was no drinking water provided, and because they were so hot and so thirsty, practitioners even drank the water that they had used to wash their faces.

These are true stories of what is happening in the labor camps of Beijing in the 21^st century!

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2001/9/20/16785.html

3.Torture and Persecution Methods Employed in the Beijing Detention Center, the Dispatching Center and the Xin'an Female Forced Labor Camp

http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/10/18/27687.html

(Clearwisdom Net)

 

I. The Detention Center

1. A policeman forcibly stripped off the outer clothing of a 31-year-old female practitioner, handcuffed her to an iron chair, beat her, and tortured her with an electric baton for the entire night. 
2. In the open air in winter, Falun Dafa practitioners are often stripped and drenched with cold water. Practitioners are also forced to run barefoot with thin clothing outdoors in the winter. In another wintertime torture, practitioners are tied with rope to a chair placed next to a cold air vent, and icy water is splashed over them from the neck down.
3. Practitioners are hung from trees and beaten. Some are handcuffed in iron cages. Some are tied spread-eagled to iron doors, with their feet barely touching the ground.
4. Some practitioners have been force-fed while handcuffed to a bed with over a dozen handcuffs and the rest of their body bound with rope as well.

II. The Dispatching Center

1. In the summer, the policemen on the female team stripped the clothing from newly abducted practitioners in the open air. They nearly tore practitioners' clothes to pieces before beginning body searches. Then they forced the practitioners to stay in the scorching sun for long periods of time. If a practitioner moved at all, the policemen would instruct common prisoners to beat them up. Some elderly practitioners in their 60s and 70s fainted in the sun. The skin on the knees of several practitioners began to fester due to abrasion and sweat, resulting in gaping wounds about 6 inches in diameter that have not fully healed even as of this time.
2. In the early morning in winter, newly abducted practitioners were forcibly stripped for a body search. Then they were ordered to lower their heads or put their hands on their heads, or recite "the regulations of the center." They were not allowed to go inside until nine or ten o'clock in the evening. In addition, the police force practitioners to work at hard labor from 5:00 a.m. until after midnight, sometimes even until two or three o'clock in the morning. The work load is often arbitrarily increased. Practitioners are not allowed to use the bathroom, forcing them to have to urinate and defecate inside the workshop. This of course causes the working environment to be extremely filthy and smelly. Practitioners are not allowed to wash their underwear.
3. Practitioners who refuse to write the "statement of guarantee" [to give up practicing Falun Gong] are brutally beaten immediately or tortured with electric batons. Several policemen physically forced a female practitioner to press her fingerprint to a so-called "statement of guarantee," injuring her hand.

III. The Forced Labor Camp

1. Practitioners are tortured with sleep deprivation, hunger, or else they are forbidden from washing or going to the bathroom. Practitioners are only granted permission to go to the bathroom if they slander Falun Dafa or write the so-called "Three Statements" [renouncing Falun Dafa]. Withholding bathroom privileges under these circumstances has caused practitioners to develop bladder and kidney problems.
2. The forced labor camp administers bodily punishment, including standing or squatting for extended periods of time, and "riding an plane" [in this torture, the head is bent down until it cannot go down any further, while the hands are pulled up and held up to the highest point. The hips have to point up. One is forced to keep this position unchanged for a long time]. Other physical punishments include marching in formation, running, or copying books defiling Dafa for a long time.
3. Personal attacks on practitioners include being sworn at, forcing practitioners to read books slandering Dafa, beatings, torture with electric batons and sexual assault.

The policewomen beat practitioners in separate rooms, and their screams can be frequently heard. In order to cover their crimes, the police sometimes order the common prisoners to beat practitioners' private parts, and then not allowing them to see a doctor when they are injured. The police specifically kick the calves of practitioners' legs, causing broken blood vessels and severe bruising. When the blood flows down, the feet become swollen and black. The police also beat practitioners' chests to cause internal injuries. Practitioners beaten this way become black and blue both on the chest and in the back, and have problems breathing. Policewoman Huo Xiuyun instructed prisoners to stuff a practitioner's mouth with a rag and cover her head with a quilt, then kick and beat the lower part of her body. They hit her private parts with a flyswatter violently and created a large wound, causing swelling and making it difficult for the practitioner to urinate. Some policewomen even instructed prisoners to sexually assault unmarried female practitioners.

List of policewomen involved in the torture at the Xin'an Female Forced Labor Camp:

Li Jirong, Head of the No. 4 Team
Li Ziping
Guo Lina
Xu Yanlin
Jiao Xuexian, Vice Director of the No. 3 Team
Huai Chunhong, Vice Director of the No. 3 Team
Yang Jie
Du Jinbin

Dispatching Center:

Sha Xuemei, female, Director of the Female Team

Drill Team:

Li Xiuying, policewoman

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2002/10/9/37740.html

4. Female Practitioners in the Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp Are Subjected to Grueling Military Style Drills, Long Term Sleep Deprivation and Brainwashing

http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/3/22/46308p.html

(Clearwisdom.net)

Hidden inside the Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp (formerly known as the Xinan Forced Labor Camp) is a secretive section known internally as the "Disciplinary Zone." This section is situated on the far east end of the labor camp behind a two-story building, and is impossible to view from the outside. This place was built to isolate and punish prisoners who were deemed to be difficult but it is now being used exclusively for persecuting Dafa practitioners. This area has never been opened to public inspection, and unauthorized personnel are not permitted to gain entry or even be near the building.

In this place, there are ten cells in total that have been built adjacent to each other in a semi-circle around the disciplinary arena. Each cell is tiny, measuring about 2 x 1.2 meters (approximately 4 x 6 feet), and is fitted with a waste basin, and a 50-60 cm wide bed (approximately 20-24 inches wide), some 40 cm (15 inches) off the ground. When a person lies on it, the narrowness of the bed makes it practically impossible to turn over. The cell entrances face north, so they catch the freezing northerly wind in the winter and the scorching heat from the sun in summer. The semi-oval arena outside the cells is where the Dafa practitioners are tortured.

The Disciplinary Zone is under the command of three officers, Chai Guohong, Liu Liping and Li Xiuying. Chai is responsible for the overall disciplinary program. Liu is responsible for the brainwashing sessions, and Li is responsible for the constant bombardment of propaganda materials defaming Falun Dafa. In addition, the officers were encouraged to use any techniques, however ruthless, to achieve their end of brainwashing the practitioners. In fact, they subjected the female Dafa practitioners to some of the cruelest torture imaginable.

Normally, before any Dafa practitioners were admitted to the Disciplinary Zone, the officers would be informed beforehand which practitioners would be put under their supervision. As part of their tactics, the officer-in-charge would immediately strip the incoming practitioners of all their basic rights in order to demoralize them.

1. Stripping away all basic rights

Female practitioners are first subjected to a humiliating body search, and all personal belongings would be thoroughly inspected before the practitioner was locked up in the tiny cell. As a measure to prevent information about the abuse of Dafa practitioners from leaking to the outside, the officer-in-charge chose two assistants to constantly monitor and guard each practitioner. These monitors were usually prisoners who were serving time in the labor camp for crimes such as prostitution or drug addiction, instead of regular police. No one else was permitted to have a conversation or inspect these practitioners, not even "collaborators" [former practitioners who renounced their belief under severe pressure and torture and now have been enlisted by the authorities to persecute their fellow practitioners] who now work for the labor camp authorities. During each practitioner's detention, the basic right to having three meals a day was taken away. When the officer was in a good mood, a practitioner would receive a small and nutritionally poor meal consisting of a bun and a few pieces of salted vegetables to go with it. However, if the officers were in a bad mood, the practitioner would have her already tiny food rations reduced by half. Any Falun Dafa practitioner protesting this mistreatment by going on a hunger strike was targeted for even more brutal treatment. The authorities would force-feed them with highly concentrated salt-water, which caused extreme agony and potential poisoning.

2. Restricting food, water, sleep, visitation, and severe brainwashing

The Disciplinary Zone authorities took additional measures to restrict practitioners from using the toilet or drinking water to promote extreme discomfort. Brushing one's teeth and washing one's face or clothes were strictly forbidden, including the use of a shower for personal bathing.

Female Dafa practitioners were not permitted to sleep for extended periods, and they were forced to stand with their eyes open around the clock. If any practitioner dozed off, the two criminal assistants, under orders from the officer-in-charge, were standing by to beat her.

To further erode the Dafa practitioners' willpower, the officers constantly incited hatred against Falun Dafa among the criminals enlisted to help persecute the practitioners. This environment of hatred encouraged the criminals to use violence against the practitioners. Whenever a practitioner was beaten by these convicts, the officers simply turned a blind eye to it. At times, they would bring in a practitioner's relative, a friend or a former colleague from work - someone that did not know very much about Falun Dafa, and pressure that person to defame and slander Falun Dafa in front of the practitioner. As Falun Dafa practitioners practice the principle of Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance, watching these innocent people being pressured by the authorities into repeating propaganda and lies was agonizing. Mentally these women felt helpless, isolated and pressured, on top of all the physical abuse they have to endure. In addition, they were not allowed to receive visitors under normal circumstances.

The most unbearable times for these practitioners were the continual brainwashing sessions. These practitioners were forced to listen to propaganda tapes, watch propaganda videos containing fabricated articles and lies, and forced to read magazines, newspaper and other publications that defamed their belief and Teacher. The authorities would even go so far as to strip these women naked and write defamatory words against Falun Dafa all over their bodies to further humiliate them.

3. Subjected to grueling military style drills

The third type of torture these practitioners were subjected to was more extreme. The women were subjected to a combination of disciplinary routines, consisting of grueling military style drills. Although during these drills the practitioners were not required to wear chains on their hands or feet, the effect in breaking down their spirit was greater.

The military drills included repeated squatting, frog leaps, single and double hopping, marching drills in the knee-high stepping style, running laps, and holding excruciating positions with names such as "riding a horse" and "flying the airplane", as well as various movements imitating animals. For example, the "flying the airplane" posture required the practitioner to hold her arms at 180 degrees behind her back, until both arms, outstretched, were touching flat against the wall, while the head was forced to bend down towards the ankles and stay in between both knees. Meanwhile, the arms and the buttocks were required to form a straight line against the wall. A normal person would have difficulty holding oneself in that posture for longer than a couple of minutes. But the practitioners were forced to remain in that position from ten minutes to sometimes two or three hours on end. It is difficult to imagine the suffering these women were forced to go through.

The drills were grouped in sets, and the practitioner was required to perform a set at a time, with a five-minute break in between.. Starting from 5 am until 2 or 3 am the next day, a practitioner actually went through 20 hours of physical torture. At the end of the 20 hours, every ounce of energy was sucked out, and physically and mentally, these female Falun Dafa practitioners were pushed to the limit. Many of them fell asleep in the middle of carrying out these drills. After the training, they were further punished by being forced to stand against a wall for two to three hours in the chilling wind. At times, these practitioners were not allowed to sleep for several days at a time.

To hide these atrocities from the public, all of the torture was carried out either inside the practitioners' cells or in a sealed off location.

The temperature in Beijing during the winter generally falls below zero during the day, and towards dusk, it gets even colder. The extreme temperature is brutal for a person in poor physical condition, covered only by thin cotton clothing as was required by the authorities. To create intolerable conditions so that Falun Dafa practitioners would agree to renounce their belief, the camp officers purposely left the vent doors open to let the chilling wind into the women's cells. The accumulation of constant sleep deprivation, forced starvation diet, brutal physical torture and exposure to extreme cold made the practitioners appear unrecognizable.

During the summer, the high humidity created a breeding ground for mosquitoes, flies, moths and other insects, which were attracted to the salt accumulated on the women's bodies left over from sweat of the torturous exercise drills. There was an unbearable odor, which resulted from the women not being permitted to wash for a prolonged period.

During spring, the yellow sand and dust is everywhere. Often, the practitioners were forced to stand facing the wind. By the end of the day, they were covered with sand and dust all over their clothing, hair and bodies. They look like statues of mud from a distance. Even the rice they were given was covered with sand and dust.

For the whole year round, Dafa practitioners imprisoned at the above camp have been suffering extreme brutality and torture. The authorities do not seem to care whether they were dead or alive once they are taken to the Disciplinary Zone. Today, there are still some female Dafa practitioners imprisoned inside these cells.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/2/29/68798.html

5. My Slave Labor Experience at Tuanhe Prisoner Dispatch Center and Xin'an Forced Labor Camp in Beijing

http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/3/19/46194p.html

By Chen Yin (a practitioner from Beijing, China)

(Clearwisdom.net) I was imprisoned between November 2000 and November 2001 for refusing to give up Falun Gong practice. During that period of time, I was held in servitude at the Tuanhe Prisoner Dispatch Center and the Xin'an Forced Labor Camp in Beijing.

Products Made

(1) Beijing Tuanhe Prisoner Dispatch Center

1. Packaged large quantities of disposable chopsticks. Most of them are being used in restaurants and hotels while some are being exported.
2. Made "Florance Gift Package" (1)

(2) Beijing Xin'an Labor Camp

1. Packaged large quantities of disposable chopsticks. Most of them are being used in restaurants and hotels while some of them are being exported.
2. Knit sweaters.
3. Knit woolen gloves (60 Yuan per pair, exported to Europe.) (2)
4. Crocheted cushions for tea set.
5. Crocheted hats for a company at Qinghe Township, Beijing.
6. Knit seat cushions.
7. Re-processed sweaters; remove sundries from yarn.
8. Made large quantities of slippers. The job was mainly gluing the sole and the instep together, and the labor camp demanded a high quality product. When I was there, it was the hottest time of the summer. Many practitioners and I were working in our prison cells. Working in a humid prison cell full of irritating glue odors was suffocating. We worked until midnight or one o'clock in the morning every time there was a shipment.
9. Made stuffed animals such as rabbits, bears, dolphins, and penguins, etc. Major steps included putting the stuffing material inside, stitching the doll together, sewing the eyes, and stitching the mouth, etc.

The Sanitation and Living Conditions of the Forced Labor Camp

(1) Beijing Tuanhe Prisoner Dispatch Center

I was locked up with over a dozen Falun Gong practitioners in a cell that was about twelve square meters (130 square feet) in size. There were only eight bunk beds in the room; thus, some of us had to sleep on the floor. While we were sleeping, we had to keep our heads visible to the guards. We did everything in this cell including working, eating, drinking, and using the toilet; therefore, there were many flys and mosquitoes. At the dispatch center, we were only allowed to eat at certain times. Water was rationed; drinking water was limited. The prison guards never allowed us to wash our hands before meals. After a meal, we had to get back to work immediately. Twice a day, we were given five minutes for personal hygiene. When the time was up, we were forced to stop and drain the water. We were not allowed to take any water back to our cell. If we could not finish the work assigned to us, we were not allowed to clean ourselves. When there was a rush to get products out, we had to work late and go to sleep without washing. There were fixed times for the whole group of practitioners to go and use the toilet. Even then, we still had to ask for permission from the guards. We were allowed two minutes to use the toilet each time; thus, many people did not even have enough time to have a bowel movement. Those who had constipation could only have bowel movements several times a month. We could go to bed only at the specified time; otherwise, we would be scolded and not allowed to sleep. At night, the guards locked up all the cells; a small bucket in each cell was used for a toilet. We were watched even during sleep. Several times, I was woken up because I propped up my legs while I was sleeping. They thought I was doing Falun Gong exercises, so I had to keep my legs flat.

We were allowed very little sleep each day; we were forced to start working the moment we opened our eyes. My hands had blisters and thick calluses from working long hours to finish the assigned quota of packaging disposable chopsticks. I often worked until midnight. We were not allowed to sleep unless we finished the quota. We were forced to work over 16 hours every day, and everything was done in our cells. The sanitation condition was extremely poor. Even though we were packaging disposable chopsticks and the label said the chopsticks were disinfected at a high temperature, the entire process was unhygienic. We could not wash our hands, and we had to package those chopsticks that had fallen on the floor. In order to seek a huge profit, Tuanhe Prisoner Dispatch Center and Tuanhe Labor Camp disregarded the health of the general public and knowingly committed such wrongdoings. Many restaurants in Beijing are currently using these chopsticks. I heard they are even being exported.

Female practitioners are forced to perform excessive physical labor. We were forced to unload trucks full of bagged materials that weigh over 100 pounds each. We had to carry the bags on our shoulders from the truck to our cells. Other physical labors included digging pits, planting trees, and transporting fertilizers. The police exploited our labor to create illegal income for themselves. The dispatch center did not compensate us for any of our work. In fact, we were forced to do long and hard labor without any compensation.

(2) Beijing Xin'an Labor Camp

Both our bodies and minds were imprisoned and severely persecuted under the excessive workload. The police often kept us from sleeping at regular hours. When there were work orders, we had to work day and night to produce the best product with the shortest amount of time. The police even said, "You are trying to be good people, you should do the best under every circumstance."

All the work in the labor camp is labor intensive. Falun Gong practitioners are forced to work until midnight under dim lights, and everyone has a quota to meet. If a practitioner cannot finish the quota, he/she is not allowed to sleep. One time we were making gift items for Nestle; these items included knitted products and crocheted cushions. In order to meet the shipping deadline, we were forced to work in the hallway or lavatories until one or two o'clock in the morning; we sometimes worked through the whole night. The police used this method to control our thoughts. They would not let us have a single moment of idle time to think calmly, and we were not allowed to talk to each other. They had drug addicts and ex-practitioners monitoring us. They only wanted us to work.

In order to evade people's attention, the labor camp required us to sleep on time every night. We got up very early in the morning to work. During summer time, our cells were so hot that people sometimes collapsed from heat exhaustion. Many practitioners developed symptoms of hypertension and heart disease from overwork. Their entire bodies twitched.

(1) "Florance" is a manufacturer of cosmetic products in China.

(2) Yuan, Chinese currency, 500 Yuan is the average monthly income for an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/3/2/68993.html