(Minghui.org) Since the coronavirus pandemic broke out in late 2019, Wei Yuchuan and Deng Xiaogeng, the new directors of Hulan Prison in Heilongjiang Province, have ordered stricter management of Falun Gong practitioners serving time for their faith. 

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. 

Many of the practitioners are forced to sit on a small stool without moving for long hours every day. They are also denied family visits, with some being allowed to make a five-minute phone call to their families each month. Those who refuse to renounce their faith are held in solitary confinement.

Torture reenactment: sitting on a small stool

For shouting “Falun Dafa is good” and “Heaven eliminates the Chinese Communist Party” on December 28, 2020, and January 1, 2021, Mr. Tong Hengbiao was held in solitary confinement. 

Another practitioner, Mr. Qu Yanlai, was also put in solitary confinement, his head covered with a black hood, on February 25, 2021, because he refused to wear the inmate’s uniform. He held a hunger strike for 15 days and was force-fed for over 10 days.

On March 13, a practitioner whose name is unknown was stripped and then forced to walk back to his cell in his underwear. 

In addition to physically torturing the practitioners, the prison limits their monthly spending to 100 yuan, while other inmates are allowed to spend up to 500 yuan. With the prices of daily necessities three times higher in the prison, the practitioners can barely get enough daily necessities, not to mention extra food, when they are mostly given cabbage soup all year-round and still have to do intensive labor without pay.