Ms. Li Yunxia Brutally Tortured in Shijiazhuang City Women's Forced Labor
(Minghui.org)
Summary of Key Persecution Facts
Name: Li Yunxia (李云霞)
Gender: Female
Age: 44
Address: Linquan Village, Xishanbei Township, Yi County, Baoding, Hebei(保定市易县西山北乡林泉村)
Occupation: Farmer
Date of Most Recent Arrest: September 7, 2011
Most Recent Place of Detention: Shijiazhuang City Women's Forced Labor Camp(石家庄女子劳教所)
City: Shijiazhuang
Province: Hebei
Persecution Suffered: Detention, brutal beatings, forced labor education, electric shock, bamboo sticks inserted in toenails, hanging by handcuffs, damaging force-feeding, forced labor, home ransacked, solitary confinement, long-term standing, severe blows to the head, suffocation with tape, and other torture.
Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Li Yunxia was arrested and imprisoned in a forced labor camp for the third time in September 2011. She was brutally beaten by police from the local police station and the Shijiazhuang City Women's Forced Labor Camp. The guards also incited other prisoners to torture her. Ms. Li is still suffering pain and her body is very weak due to the persecution at the forced labor camp.
Li Yunxia used to have a troubled family life. She was easily angered and became depressed for a long time, which caused her health to deteriorate. She even lost consciousness for a few days. She took medicine but it didn't help. When she started to practice Falun Dafa in 1999, her health fully recovered and her personality became open and positive. She follows Dafa's principle of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance to be a good person. She always thinks of others first and dissolves all the resentment at home. Dafa saved her broken family, which gradually became harmonious.
After the persecution began, since Li Yunxia persisted in practicing Falun Gong, in 2004 she was arrested and imprisoned at the Balizhuang Forced Labor Camp for three years. During her imprisonment, she suffered brutal torture many times. The police used an electric baton to shock her, inserted bamboo sticks into her toenails, hung her up by handcuffs and force-fed her. In October 2007 when she was released, she was in critical condition.
On the night of January 7, 2009, police officers from the Xishanbei Airport Police Station arrested Ms. Li again. She was imprisoned at the Shijiazhuang City Women's Forced Labor Camp, where she endured brutal beatings and forced labor. In September 2011, Li Yunxia was arrested and imprisoned for the third time. The brutal torture she suffered during her third imprisonment is detailed below.
1. Arrested and Beaten
On the morning of September 7, 2011, Linquan Village Chinese Communist Party (CCP) secretary Yin Yijiang from Xishanbei Town, Yi County led chief Liang Jianhua, Ma Xiaohua and others from the Xishanbei Town Airport Police Station to break into Li Yunxia's father's home while she was cooking for him. They asked her to show her release form from the Shijiazhuang City Women's Forced Labor Camp that was issued on July 30, 2010. Since she could not produce the document, police officer Liang Jianhua drove to Li Yunxia's home with other CCP officials. They used the excuse of checking the release form to ransack her home. They confiscated Falun Gong-related audio and video materials, a VCD player and other personal belongings. Police officers Liang Jianhua and Ma Xiaohua from Xishanbei Town arrested Li Yunxia and dragged her out the door. Ms. Li's father, mother-in-law, the Linquan Village CCP party secretary and a villager were there. Since Li Yunxia did not cooperate with the illegal arrest, Liang Jianhua and others kicked her, twisted her arms behind her back and handcuffed her. They forcibly took her to the Xishanbei Town Airport Police Station.
At the police station, police interrogated Li Yunxia. She told the CCP officials about the popularization of Falun Dafa around the world and the great tide of withdrawing from the CCP and its related organization. She hoped to help them stop participating in the persecution so they could have a good future. The officials did not listen, but took notes of Ms. Li's words as “evidence.” They ordered her to sign her name and put her fingerprint on their notes. Li Yunxia refused. The officials then started to beat her, injuring her lower back and arms.
On the afternoon of September 7, 2011, Li Yunxia was transferred to the Yi County Police Department. The police ordered her to sign the arrest warrant, give her fingerprints, and submit to a blood test and physical examination. Li Yunxia did not cooperate with them. Police officers Liang Jianhua and another female plainclothes officer dragged her to the fourth floor. Then police officers Liang Jianhua, Ma Xiaohua and others started to beat her and kick her legs and back.
At dusk, Li Yunxia was detained at the Yi County Detention Center. Police officers Liang, Ma and one from the detention center dragged her to the interrogation room. Li Yunxia refused to say her assigned prisoner number or wear the prisoner's clothing. A burly police officer known as Liu and another police officer started to beat her, striking her head and face.
Li Yunxia started a hunger strike to protest her illegal detention and demanded to be released unconditionally. The next day, police officers Liang Jianhua and Tian drove Ms. Li to another location and claimed it was for physical examination. An Appeals personnel rode with them. They forcibly took her fingerprints and took blood while she was very weak.
2. Torture at Forced Labor Camp
On the night of September 11, 2011, Li Yunxia was sent to the Shijiazhuang City Women's Forced Labor Camp by police officers Liang Jianhua and Ma Xiaohua. By this time she was extremely weak after five days' continuous hunger strike. She had to be carried into the forced labor camp. A physical examination showed that her heart rate was too rapid. The forced labor camp was afraid of taking responsibility for her condition, but Liang Jianhua talked them into accepting her. Later, the labor camp doctor, Ma, and a few armored police inserted a tube into her stomach through her nose to force-fed her. Liang Jianhua read the verdict sentencing Li Yunxia to one year of forced labor, under the fabricated accusations. Then he left.
Brutal Beating
Police officer Wang Xiaoli from the Second Team of the labor camp ordered prisoners Zhang Ning, Li Juan and Zong Zhirong to carry Li Yunxia to the Second Team. Then they started to beat her. Zhang Ning kicked Ms. Li's mid-section very hard. Li Juan stepped on her feet. Zong Zhirong also kicked her.
Li Yunxia asked police officer Wang Xiaoli why she did not stop the prisoners. Wang said, “Who beat you? Tell me their names.” Since Li Yunxia had just arrived, she did not know the prisoners' names. Later another person told her the prisoners' names. Li Yunxia was allowed to sleep in the lobby for two nights. Later, she was detained in the confinement room and a prisoner was assigned to watch her all the time. This prisoner was a kind person who took good care of Ms. Li. She also helped Li Yunxia to wash her hair and clothes.
A few days later, Li Yunxia was detained in the confinement room again. Prisoner Wei Liping (from Yutian County, Tangshan City, Hebei Province) was sent to watch her. Police officers Zang Zhiying, Hou Junmei, Liang Xiaohui and Wang Xiaoli incited Wei Liping to brutally torture Li Yunxia in order to earn a reduced prison term.
Persecution with Forced Labor, Long-term Standing and Physical Abuse
On the third-floor forced labor workshop of the Second Prison Team, inmate Wei Liping often forced Li Yunxia to clean the floor. If Li Yunxia did not do what she asked, she either verbally abused her or brutally beat her. She told Li Yunxia, “You'll have to do this forced labor. I don't believe I cannot 'transform' you. All the forced labor guards told me you are so stubborn that they could not 'transform' you. I am not convinced. I will 'transform' you and make you write a guarantee letter giving up Falun Gong. I will beat you every day until you are 'transformed' and agree to do the forced labor.” In the workshop, Wei forced Li Yunxia to stand perfectly still continuously for a few days. As soon as she closed her eyes or even moved her hand a little, Wei said she was practicing Falun Gong and slapped her face immediately. Wei also grabbed Li Yunxia's hair and slammed her head into the wall and kicked her legs so hard that she couldn't walk for a few days. It left a purple scar on her leg.
Torture Reenactment: Slamming head against a wall
In the confinement room, Wei found excuses to help the guards torture Li Yunxia. She forced Ms. Li to walk around inside the room, sometimes hit her head with a plastic stool, and often beat her badly. Wei also slandered Falun Gong's founder Master Li Hongzhi and the practice of Falun Gong. Li Yunxia protested the torture. When Wei called the deputy captain, Zang Zhiying of the Second Team, Li Yunxia exposed Wei's abuse to Zang and asked who gave Wei the order to torture her.
Although Li Yunxia was already very weak, she was still frequently tortured by Wei Liping with the incitement of the guards. She had the symptoms of rapid heart beat, difficulty breathing, numbness throughout the body and cramped hands. Police officer Zang Zhiying was afraid that Ms. Li might die and discontinued Wei Liping's monitoring. In the afternoon, Li Yunxia was detained at the Strict Monitoring Team for confinement for nearly a month.
Head Completely Wrapped in Tape and Unable to Breathe, Struck on Head with Stool
On December 26, 2011, Falun Gong practitioner Li Yaping was badly injured after being beaten by prisoners Zhang Ning and others. Her entire body trembled and she could not call out her prisoner's number or squat according to the requirements. Guards Zang Zhiying, Wu Lina and Yang Xiangcai from the Second Team ordered the prisoners to wrap Li Yaping's mouth with tape. Wu Lina also handcuffed her. When Li Yunxia tried to stop them, Yang Xiangcai slapped her face and kicked her. Then Yang and a few prisoners used tape to wrap her whole head so that she could not breathe. When she was about to suffocate, the prisoner cut open the tape around her nose. In addition, prisoners bound her upper arms tightly with tape and tied her hands. Prisoner Zhao Nana kept stepping on her. Since it was hard to breathe, Li Yunxia struggled and broke the tape open a little. Zhao Nana got really angry and put additional pieces of tape tightly on her nose. Li Yunxia could barely breathe. She was tortured so badly that she could not stand and her entire body trembled. She did not even have the strength to go to the restroom.
On January 17, 2012, police officers Zang Zhiying, Hou Junmei and An Xiaopeng from the Second Team played DVDs slandering Master Li Hongzhi and Falun Gong. Practitioner Li Liying refused to watch and as a result was tortured. Li Yunxia and other practitioners refused to wear the prison clothes and staged hunger strikes to protest the slandering of Dafa and persecution of practitioners. Incited by the guards, prisoner Zhao Nana verbally abused the practitioners and beat them a few times, using a wooden stool to hit Li Yunxia in the head three times.
Li Yunxia urged Zhao not to participate in the persecution of Dafa practitioners. But Zhao ordered the other prisoners in the room leave, then hit her in the head with the stool again, which caused Li Yunxia chest pain and shortness of breath. Her whole body trembled and her limbs became numb. Li Yunxia appealed to captain Hou Junmei about Zhao Nana beating practitioners. Hou did not punish Zhao Nana, but put Li Yunxia in a confinement room for two weeks and often slapped her during that period.
Li Yunxia had been sentenced to one year forced labor, but her term was extended by 51 days. On October 28, 2012, she was transferred to Xishanbei Township and was detained there for an additional 20 days. She was not released until November 18, 2012.
The Shijiazhuang City Women's Forced Labor Camp has four teams. All the teams force the imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners to do hard labor. It also uses prisoners to watch and torture Falun Gong practitioners, and uses collaborators to brainwash the practitioners. The guards reward the criminal inmates for committing additional crimes against the practitioners. The forced labor camp turns the prisoners into tools without any humanity or dignity.
The products that the Second Team of the Shijiazhuang City Forced Labor Camp produces have included goldfish, cartons which emit toxic fumes, and packing three-color towels.
Collaborator You Jiuxia (from Xingtai, Hebei Province) was on duty every day to watch people go to the restroom and monitor Falun Gong practitioners. Collaborators Xin Mingling, You Jiuxia, Meng Er, Kang Surun, Zhang Cangyu, Fan Mai, Liu Huijing and others actively participated in the attempted brainwashing and “transformation” of Falun Gong practitioners.
Personnel Who Participated in the Persecution of Li Yunxia:
Yin Yijiang, Party Secretary of Linquan Village, Xishanbei Town, Yi County, Baoding City, Hebei Province
Liang Jianhua, chief of Xishanbei Town Airport Police Station, Yi County, Baoding City
Ma Xiaohua, official of Xishanbei Town Airport Police Station
Zang Zhiying, acting captain of the Second Team, Shijiazhuang City Women's Forced Labor Camp
Hou Junmei, Wang Xiaoli, An Xiaopeng, Liang Xiaohui, Wu Lina and Yang Xiangcai, prison guards in the Second Team, Shijiazhuang City Women's Forced Labor Camp
Wei Liping, prisoner, from Yutian, Tangshan City, Hebei Provence
Yang Yongxia, Zhang Ning, Li Juan, Zong Zhirong and Zhao Nana (from Qian'an, Tangshan City), prisoners
Related articles:
Ms. Li Yunxia from Yi County, Baoding City, Hebei Province Arrested Again
Sent to Forced Labor Camps Twice Before, Ms. Li Yuxia from Hebei Arrested Again