(Minghui.org)
Summary of Key Persecution Facts:
Name: Zhao Shuxiang (赵淑香)
Gender: Female
Age: 52
Address: Xinhua Town, Hegang City, Heilongjiang Province
Occupation: Farmer
Date of Most Recent Arrest: March 2002
Most Recent Place of Detention: Harbin Drug Addiction Treatment Center (哈尔滨戒毒所)
City: Harbin
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Detention, handcuffed and shackled, deprived of sleep, denied use of restroom, starved, force-fed, metal rods used to force body into an awkward position for extended time, doused with cold water, electric shock, beatings, forced squatting, slave labor
A New Life after Practicing Falun Gong
Ms. Zhao Shuxiang previously had many health problems, including heart disease, concussion, rheumatoid arthritis, gastric ulcer, cholecystitis, enlarged liver, and uterine fibroids. She was extremely weak physically.
Within two weeks after she started practicing Falun Dafa in 1997, all of her diseases disappeared. She was subsequently able to do all the housework, and hasn't needed to visit the hospital since. Following the guiding principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance solved the conflicts between her and her husband. The family lived together in harmony, paid off their $5,000 debt, and built a new house for themselves.
Tortured on New Year's Eve
The nationwide persecution of Falun Gong began on July 20, 1999. On Chinese New Year's Eve in 2000, Ms. Zhao and ten other practitioners traveled to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. The day after they arrived, each of them took a letter to the appeals office. The plainclothes police prevented them from entering the office and called Hegang City police.
That night, local police came and took all of them back to Hegang City, where they were detained in the First Detention Center. The personnel who participated in the persecution included police department personnel in Dongshan City, someone surnamed Pu from the Xinhua Police Station, Liu Zhiqiang, and two officials from Xinhua Township.
In the First Detention Center, Ms. Zhao Shuxiang, Zhang Chunzhi, Gong Guihua, and Wang Huirong were major targets for torture. They were detained in a freezing cell with nearly an inch of ice on the wall. The cell was so cold that no one was held there during the winter, but the practitioners were not even given blankets or pillows. For several nights, they woke up cold right after they fell asleep.
Since it was freezing, the practitioners started doing the exercises. Director Zhao saw them from the control room and ordered guards to torture them. Their feet were placed in thick iron cuffs, and their hands cuffed to the foot shackles. They could not move at all in that position. The painful torture started on Chinese New Year's Eve, and lasted for nine days and nights. They were bound from the time they got back from Beijing, so they were not allowed to sleep, use a restroom, or eat for a total of 244 hours.
Torture reenactment: Handcuffed and shackled
At break time, they were forced to stand barefoot in the snow. Since they were bent over with their hands cuffed to their feet, they could take only tiny steps. Director Zhao and the guards laughed at, humiliated, and cursed them. After they were freed from the handcuffs and shackles, they were numb and could not move at all. They had to be carried to use the restroom.
Ms. Zhao Shuxiang in Critical Condition from Force-feeding
Since so many practitioners who went to Beijing to appeal were returned to Hegang City, the First Detention Center could not hold them all. The police took these practitioners to the Luobei County Detention Center, where they were freed from handcuffs and shackles. They still could not feel or move their limbs.
The Luobei Country Detention Station claimed that they did not get funding from Hegang City, so they only offered two so-called “meals” per day to practitioners. In the morning, a bowl of porridge was provided, and at night, a small steamed bun. One day the roof blew off in a storm. The practitioners had to live in cells without a roof, and their clothes and blankets became soaked by the rain. Ms. Sun Shuqin, an elderly practitioner, died.
Since Ms. Zhao and another three practitioners refused to give up their belief, they were taken for two years of forced labor. Because Ms. Zhao had symptoms of heart disease, the labor camp refused to take her, so the police continued her detainment in the First Detention Center. She started a hunger strike to protest the detention. Eight days later, the guards started to torture her with force-feeding. The director ordered them to force-feed her with more salt.
Force-feeding every other day was extremely painful. Every time the tube was inserted into the stomach, the victim would feel her esophagus burning and stomach stirring. Sometimes the victims vomited. The tube came out all bloody after force-feeding, then Ms. Zhao vomited a lot of blood. The guards then found a doctor, who said that the blood contained a lot of gastric mucosa and had a foul odor. The doctor said that her stomach wall had eroded. Her condition was critical and she had to be taken to hospital immediately.
Torture reenactment: Force-feeding
The director of the detention center was afraid that Ms. Zhao would die there, and that it would go on his record, so he called her husband to the detention center. The guards took him to his wife, who was unrecognizable from all the torture. Her hair was a mess and she could not speak.
The husband thought the guards had taken him to the wrong person, so he left. The director called him back, and when he saw that she was indeed his wife, he wept. The guard forced him to take his wife away immediately. The doctor told him that she could survive for a couple of days without food, but she would die immediately if she had even a drop of water. Her husband refused to take her home and insisted that he would sue the detention center.
The detention center then called a taxi, and Director Zhang from the Xinhua Police Station came. Ms. Zhao was taken home. The neighbors were shocked and thought that she would die for sure. However, she miraculously recovered with her firm belief of Dafa. This was in 2001.
Inhumane “Metal Rod” Torture
Falun Gong practitioners successfully broadcast a truth-clarification video on the Hegang City TV network in March 2002. CCP secretary Zhang Xingfu, in Hegang City was furious. A citywide search and arrest was subsequently conducted.
Ms. Zhao was recognized by the guards when she was taken to the Second Detention Center. They asked, “Are you still alive?” She replied, “Master gave me a third life.” One day, she and other practitioners shouted, “Falun Dafa is good!” The guards rushed in and handcuffed Ms. Zhao, Zhang Chunzhi, and Ms. Wang Xiuqin.
The next day, Ms. Zhao was tortured with the “metal rod.” The metal rod torture consists of a one-meter long steel rod, with metal rings on either side. The guards placed the rings on the practitioner's feet, then handcuffed both hands to one foot, forcing the victim into a triangle. The victim had to sit still on the ground bent at the waist. The victim's face, hands, and feet would swell and gradually become numb. The guards took shifts every other hour to prevent practitioners from falling asleep. If practitioners closed their eyes, they were beaten with shoes or doused with cold water. Nine days after being placed on the “metal rod,” Ms. Wang Xiuqing's hips had festered, exposing the bones and emitting a foul smell. The metal rod torture was subsequently halted.
One day, the director of the detention center called everyone to the yard. The guards carried the three practitioners on “metal rods” out to demonstrate. They threatened to use this torture on anyone who continued practicing Falun Gong. As a result, all 27 practitioners were placed on “metal rods.” When they were released 17 days later, none of them could hold themselves up or walk. Even prisoners cried after witnessing this.
As soon as Ms. Zhao had recovered enough to walk, the detention center started a new torture. They took all the elderly, disabled, or sick practitioners to the Harbin Drug Addiction Treatment Center to be tortured.
Shocked with Electric Batons in the Basement of Harbin Drug Addiction Treatment Center, Jiang Rongzhen Died from Torture
The guards from the Harbin Drug Addiction Treatment Center, wearing thick jackets and shoes themselves, took all the practitioners who refused to give up their beliefs to the basement on October 27, 2002. They removed the practitioners' jackets and shoes, sealed their mouths with tape, and tied them in pairs to an iron plank. The guards forced practitioners to keep squatting, with their toes on the ground and heels in the air. They also hacked off their hair to humiliate them.
Under orders given by captain Zhao Wei, several guards including Wang Dan used electric batons to shock the practitioners' hands, feet, and heads. They even claimed, “Our supervisors said that if we kill a couple of practitioners, it will be counted as suicide.” The guards also threatened Ms. Zhao. Then they switched from the small electric batons to larger ones. As the practitioners were being torture, the guards cursed and asked them, “Will you 'transform' or not?” All the practitioners refused to give up their beliefs.
Torture reenactment: Electric shocks
Ms. Zhao remained silent after she was tortured with electric shocks for a long time, before she passed out. The guards brought in a large basin of cold water and pushed Ms. Zhao, who was wearing only underwear, into the water. Ms. Zhao came to, shivering. The guards continued shocking her with electric batons, which caused her to pass out again. She was revived again with cold water. The guards tried to force her to sign a statement slandering Falun Gong, but she firmly refused. The guards continued the electric shock and ordered prisoners to kick and hit her. She passed out for the third time, and was finally taken back to her cell.
Practitioner Jiang Rongzhen was tortured to death during this time.
The guards also forced the practitioners to do slave labor in the basement. Their jobs included weaving linen, painstakingly fixing cloth defects with a thin needle, and carrying bolts of cloth. They had to work for more then ten hours per day.
This is the torture that Ms. Zhao Shuxiang endured. Countless other practitioners have suffered similarly for their beliefs.
