On the eve of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) arrested a large number of Falun Gong practitioners. More than 100 practitioners from Beijing were illegally detained and sent to Masanjia Women's Labor Camp in Liaoning Province. Zhang Lianying was one of them. She and I were at Masanjia at the same time. We were separated after four months. Here I would like to recount what I witnessed of the torture of Ms. Zhang.
After Ms. Zhang arrived in Masanjia, she was tortured continuously. Since she believed that it was not wrong to practice Falun Gong and be a good person, she did not cooperate with the demands of the Labor Camp. For example, she refused to report her number or sing songs that glorified the Chinese Communist Party. She often said out loud, "Falun Dafa is great." In four short months, she was put through major tortures thirteen times, each time lasting three to four days.
She endured almost every torture method at Masanjia, including being stretched, tortured with an electric baton, and beaten with a batonhung up,. Pus could be seen on her wrists because the handcuffs were too tight. She went on a hunger strike, and a female guard supervisor used a metal spoon to pry open her mouth, leaving a scar. Under her arms and between her legs, there were dense black burn marks from the electric baton.
Once we saw her practically crawling out of the torture chamber. She could not stand and was completely hunched over. Another time, guard Wang Yanping beat her with a stick so hard that the stick broke.
A person from Beijing came to investigate Ms. Zhang's case because Ms. Zhang filed a lawsuit while detained in Beijing, before she was sent to Masanjia. However, the person was only going through the motions, and Ms. Zhang lost her lawsuit.
Zhang Lianying told other Falun Gong practitioners, "Beijing [detention centers] and Masanjia both torture Falun Gong practitioners. However, they have different approaches. In Beijing, they mostly use other inmates to implement torture. But in Masanjia, the guards directly torture people. The persecution is worse in Masanjia." The guards in Masanjia openly said, "Here in Masanjia, you can taste the torture that you can't get in Beijing!"
The main guards who tortured Zhang Lianying include: male guards Ma Jishan (in charge), Liu Yong (team leader), Chen Lishan (deputy team leader), Li Jun, Wan Qi, and a person with the surname Yang. They were all involved in the beating. Yan Shiguang of the Second Team specialized in mental torture and brainwashing, including forcing Falun Gong practitioners to sing songs that glorify the CCP. Ms. Zhang was kept in the Second Team for a long time.
Female guards involved in torturing Zhang Lianying include: Wang Xiaofeng, Wang Yanping, Zhang Jun (team leader of the Third Team), Zhang Zhuohui (deputy leader of the Third Team), Zhang Xiurong, and Dong Bin. There were two other male guards: Zhang Liang and Peng Tao.
