(Minghui.org)

Chinese Name: 曲彩玲Gender: FemaleAge: 70City: FushunProvince: Liaoning Occupation: Family planning office employeeDate of Death: January 22, 2022Date of Most Recent Arrest: October 9, 2002Most Recent Place of Detention: Fushun City No.2 Detention Center

Ms. Qu Cailing, of Fushun City, Liaoning Province, was severely tortured while serving a 1.5-year labor camp term and a 9-year prison term, for upholding her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. 

Unable to bear the pressure from the persecution, Ms. Qu’s husband divorced her and was given sole custody of their teenage daughter. Her workplace suspended her pension in 2000, after she was first arrested for her faith. After suffering years of mental distress and financial difficulty, she passed away on January 22, 2022. She was 70.

Ms. Qu used to work in the family planning office in Fushun. She suffered multiple diseases and had to be hospitalized several times each year. In February 1997, she chose to retire early, at the age of 45. Two months later, she was introduced to Falun Gong and her health recovered soon after. 

After the Chinese communist regime ordered the persecution in 1999, the local 610 Office, personnel from her workplace and community workers kept harassing her and tried to force her to renounce Falun Gong. She was detained at the local police station three times and her family was extorted for 1,000 yuan. Yu Manchang, the director of the Shuncheng District 610 Office, pressured her husband and ordered him to watch Ms. Qu. Yu threatened to suspend his job as a school teacher if he didn’t comply.

Forced Labor Camp Term

Ms. Qu went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong in July 2000. She was arrested and taken back to Fushun. She was held at multiple detention facilities. She held a hunger strike to protest the persecution and was released seven days later. Since then, the Shuncheng District 610 Office ordered her workplace to suspend her pension. 

Ms. Wu was arrested one more time on August 25, 2000 and given 1.5 years of forced labor. She suffered pancreatitis and experienced enormous pain. Despite her condition, Huang Wei, the head of the Wujiabao Forced Labor Camp, accepted her, “If it’s anyone else with the condition, we wouldn’t accept them. But for Falun Gong, we have to keep them,” Huang said.

The guards forced Ms. Qu to do unpaid labor every day from early morning until 9 p.m. When they didn’t have work for her to do, they forced her to stand under the baking sun and beat her with a wooden club. Many other detained Falun Gong practitioners were subjected to the same abuse, and they had swellings on their heads and faces and bruises over their entire bodies. 

Torture reenactment: sitting on a small stool

Seventeen practitioners who refused to renounce Falun Gong, including Ms. Qu, were transferred to the notorious Masanjia Forced Labor Camp on September 22, 2000. The guards assigned two inmates to monitor her around the clock and forced her to sit on a small stool to watch propaganda materials against Falun Gong every day. She was constantly beaten and verbally abused and once fainted from the torture.

Ms. Qu tried to do the Falun Gong meditation one day. As soon as she sat down, over ten inmates rushed over, slapped her in the face, pulled her hair, and dragged her to the restroom. They stuffed her mouth with a rag and forced her to squat. Guard Wang Naimin later took her to his office and another guard Qiu Ping shocked her with electric batons on her neck, arm and hands. Qiu also force-fed her unknown drugs.

After that, the inmates brought Ms. Qu to the restroom every day after 8 p.m. and forced her to squat until midnight, before allowing her to go back to her cell to sleep. After a month of this torture, Ms. Qu developed high blood pressure, a heart condition and diabetes. Her body weight dropped from nearly 180 lbs to 110 lbs. She suffered liver and kidney failure and she also had a stroke. 

The guards took her to a psychiatric hospital and ordered the inmates to force-feed her unknown drugs twice a day. She was bedridden for one and a half months. Only after the guards stopped the drug administration, was she able to stand up and walk again. 

In April 2001, the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp sent ten steadfast Falun Gong practitioners to other labor camps in Liaoning. Ms. Qu was taken to the Zhangshi Forced Labor Camp. By then, her blood pressure was dangerously high and she had developed very blurred vision. Seeing that she was on the verge of death, the guards finally released her. 

Several people hired by the 610 Office kept coming to harass Ms. Qu, sometimes kicking her door in the middle of the night. People stayed outside of her home to monitor her. At one time she was arrested while walking on the street and was taken to the police station.

During Ms. Qu’s incarceration at the labor camps, her husband suffered two heart attacks and almost died. While he was receiving treatment in the hospital, their ten-year-old daughter learned to take care of herself. She also visited her father every day after school.

After he was discharged, Ms. Qu's husband still lived in fear. He struggled with a heart condition and also developed several other diseases. Unable to bear the pressure of the persecution, he divorced Ms. Qu.

Meanwhile, Ms. Qu’s mother was so worried about her that the elderly woman’s health quickly deteriorated and she passed away on November 30, 2000.

Sentenced to Nine Years

Ms. Qu was arrested again on the afternoon of October 9, 2002, for filing a criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin, the former head of the communist regime who ordered the persecution of Falun Gong. Ms. Qu was taken to the Huashan Police Station and was handcuffed and shackled. The police chief slapped Ms. Qu in the face with a thick book, and took off her jacket and opened the window to let the cold wind blow on her. He also poured cold water over her head. 

Around 9 a.m. the next day, the police took off Ms. Qu’s clothes, leaving her only in her underwear, and tied her to a metal post in the yard. Then they poured buckets of cold water over her head. She shouted “Falun Dafa is good” in protest. The police stuffed her mouth with rags. They didn’t stop pouring water on her until 3:30 p.m.

Ms. Qu was taken to the Fushun City No. 2 Detention Center on the third day. The police interrogated her again a month later, after tying her up on a metal chair.

Ms. Qu was later sentenced to nine years for “undermining law enforcement,” the standard pretext used to criminalize Falun Gong practitioners in China. She held a hunger strike in the detention center and was force-fed. The guards left the feeding tube in her stomach and also added unknown drugs to her food. 

In an effort to force her to renounce Falun Gong, the guards ordered the inmates to torture Ms. Qu for five hours one day in June 2003. She lost two teeth from the beating. The guards also held her in a metal cage in which she was unable to stand up or squat. 

The guards attempted to take Ms. Qu to the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison in July 2003. The prison refused to accept her due to her poor health. The court evaluated her case and allowed her to serve time at home. But the police arrested her again on July 19 and took her back to the detention center.

In September 2003, guard Zhang Jinghui ordered several inmates to carry Ms. Qu to the hallway, as she staggered due to extremely high blood pressure. Zhang kicked her, and handcuffed and shackled her. She was also held in solitary confinement and tied on a tiger bench. She filed a complaint against Zhang, only to suffer more severe torture.

In another torture session, Zhang took off Ms. Qu’s jacket, chained her to a metal chair and opened all the windows in the interrogation room. Zhang kicked Ms. Qu’s legs and verbally abused her. The torture lasted for two days.

Ms. Qu’s blood pressure became extremely high. She was in critical condition several times. The detention center finally released her in October 2004. 

Without a job or pension, Ms. Qu didn’t have any source of income, as she was divorced and was too weak to work. She went to the Political and Legal Affairs Committee and 610 Office several times to demand reinstatement of her pension, but to no avail. 

After struggling with poor health and destitution, Ms. Qu's health deteriorated further and she was resuscitated three times toward the end of 2020, leaving her daughter a medical debt of 150,000 yuan. She passed away on January 22, 2022.