(Minghui.org) Having already been incarcerated and tortured for two decades, a 58-year-old man in Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, was arrested again on August 23, 2022, for his faith in Falun Gong.
Mr. Li Wenming’s landlord and six other Falun Gong practitioners were also arrested on the same day. While the other practitioners were released in five days, Mr. Li remains in custody and his current whereabouts are still unknown.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Li, also known as Li Mingyi, used to work at the Lanzhou locomotive factory. After the persecution started, he was arrested four times. After his fourth arrest in 2002, he was sentenced to 20 years for raising awareness of the persecution. The prison didn’t allow anyone to visit him during his lengthy term.
Finding Falun Gong
Before he practiced Falun Gong, Mr. Li was only concerned about furthering himself and often brought things home from the factory. When he filled out business expense reimbursement forms, he claimed everything, including personal expenses.
He struggled with chronic problems with his respiratory and digestive systems and his urinary tract. Every fall and winter, he had a persistent cough and asthma. Chronic gastroenteritis often plagued him. He often suffered from back pain and weakness in his limbs. He tried several qigong practices but they were not effective in curing him.
Mr. Li encountered Falun Gong in 1996 and felt this was something he had been looking for. Shortly after, his chronic health issues disappeared. He no longer took things from the factory and returned the things he took before.
Tortured for 20 Years in Prison
Mr. Li was arrested on August 30, 2002, for tapping into a cable TV network to raise awareness about the persecution, given the strict censorship in China. The police kicked and punched him before pushing him into the car. He was cuffed at both the wrists and elbows and taken to Lanzhou Police Department.
Tied up in a Chair
The police tied Mr. Li to a chair with a belt and put a special helmet on his head. They kept tightening the handcuffs every four to five minutes, making Mr. Li tremble in pain and become incontinent.
Torture illustration: Restrained in a chair
Mr. Li was taken to Xiguoyuan Detention Center the next morning and later transferred to Lanzhou No. 2 Detention Center. He was tied to a metal chair during the interrogations, and the police continued to tighten the handcuffs. His wrists remained numb for over a year.
Locked in Solitary Confinement
The Chengguan District Court sentenced seven practitioners on October 27, 2002, for tapping into the cable TV system. Mr. Li, Mr. Wei Junren, and Mr. Wang Pengyun were sentenced to 20 years each. The other four (Mr. Sun Zhaohai, Ms. Qiang Xaioyi, Mr. Liu Zhirong, and Mr. Su Anzhou) were given 10 to 19 years. The Baiyin District Court sentenced practitioners Mr. Zhang Guangli to 12 years and Mr. Chang Jubin to 11 years.
Mr. Li was admitted to Lanzhou Prison in September 2003 after a year in the detention center. Their first day, Mr. Li and Mr. Liu (who was tortured to death in 2006) were placed in solitary confinement for a month after they refused to cooperate with a search and tried to stop the guards from beating other practitioners.
The confinement room was three square meters with a two-meter-square isolated yard. The bed was made of bricks with a pit at the foot of the bed used as a toilet. There was no heat or bedding. Mr. Li always had to sleep with his clothes on. No utensils were provided, so they had to eat with their hands.
The police tore Mr. Li’s jacket when they were searching his belongings to see if he had any hidden Falun Gong materials. His pants went missing after the search.
Torture re-enactment: Shackled
Mr. Li was forced to wear shackles weighing more than 20 pounds, and the guards wired the handcuffs and shackles together. His ankles bled due to the burr on the new shackles. He used the prisoner uniform pants to wrap around the shackles. After some time, the pants were shredded.
Mr. Li’s second solitary confinement took place in December 2004, when he refused to take a test on the prison rules. A guard tried to slap his head, but he protected himself with his hands. Because the guards found Falun Gong materials on him, they put 64-pound shackles on him and chained the shackles to his handcuffs.
The guards took Mr. Li to a new confinement room this time. The room was three square meters with a cement bed. It had a flush toilet and a closed window above the toilet. Outside the room was a two-meter-square isolated yard. Surveillance cameras were installed in the room and yard. The room had floor heating, but when someone was confined in the room, the heat was turned off. As the temperatures went down to between 10 to 19°F at night, Mr. Li often shivered in the room.
When it snowed, the guards made Mr. Li stay out in the yard every day from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. in only a pair of trousers, sneakers, and a long-sleeved jacket. The shackles were so heavy he couldn’t move and had to sit on the ground all day.
An inmate was in charge of the confinement room. He often flicked Mr. Li’s eyes with his fingers when Mr. Li was in the yard. Because Mr. Li’s hands and legs were bound, he couldn’t dodge. The handcuffs and shackles weren’t removed at night, so he had to sleep curled up.
Fearing that Mr. Li might die from the cold, the guards moved him back to a regular cell a month later. He could no longer walk by the time the shackles were taken off.
In September 2005, the prison authorities initiated another campaign to try to force all practitioners to renounce their faith. When the guards tried to handcuff Mr. Li, he refused to cooperate. They had to pin him down to handcuff him, hitting his head on the radiator as they did. He had to have nine stitches. He was held in solitary confinement for the third time shortly after. Four inmates monitored him around the clock and they kept the light on all the time.
The guards separated Mr. Li from other practitioners to prevent them from talking to each other. When more practitioners were admitted to the prison in 2006, the guards transferred him to another division.
Mr. Li was placed in solitary again after May 1, 2008, and monitored by four inmates. He was hung up by his wrists to a bunk bed for two weeks and not allowed to sleep. His body swelled and his feet and ankles turned black. He was half-conscious and there was blood in his urine. Once, he had to relieve himself and asked the inmates to let him down. But when the handcuffs were removed, he fell down and knocked the toilet over.
An inmate once punched him in the abdomen. The pain made him break out in a cold sweat. He barely survived the torture during those three months of confinement.
Tiger Bench and Hanging Torture
The guards frequently found excuses to torture Falun Gong practitioners. Once, a guard accused Mr. Li of not following his instructions and ordered him to step out. He refused.
Another guard took Mr. Li to a small room, hung him up, and didn’t let him sleep for the night. When it was time to do forced labor, the guards put a black hood over Mr. Li’s head and handcuffed him to the tiger bench in the workshop. They also prepared several torture instruments, including a straitjacket and tape to close his mouth.
Torture illustration: Hung up
After long hours of being hung up, Mr. Li became drowsy and his body was swollen. When he was delirious, he remembered the teachings of Falun Gong and strengthened his will.
With a shortage of guards when the pandemic broke out in 2020, the guards stopped hanging Mr. Li. After an inmate died in the prison, the guards let up on Mr. Li and allowed him to go back to his cell.
The Persecution of Other Practitioners
In addition to the torture that Mr. Li suffered himself, he also witnessed other practitioners being tortured.
When Mr. Jin Jilin was first taken to the prison to serve a 10-year term, a guard incited the inmates to pour boiling water over him and later poked the blisters with a needle and poured salt on them. He was also deprived of sleep. Only three years after he was released in 2012, he was arrested again and sentenced to another seven years. He was in solitary confinement when Mr. Li was released in August 2021.
Mr. Wang Youjiang, an army major, was brutally tortured and had hemiplegia after a stroke. He died on July 1, 2017.
Mr. Sun Zhaohai was held in solitary confinement for over a year and tied in a spread-eagle position on a bed. He was also tortured on a tiger bench. The guards knocked out many of his teeth.
Torture re-enactment: Tied in a spread-eagle position
A practitioner in his 70s from Baiyin City was also held in a solitary confinement cell and had been deprived of sleep for more than four months when Mr. Li was released.
Kind People
In the dark days of torture in prison, some inmates helped him, encouraged him, and gave him daily necessities. The guards tried to threaten them to stay away from Mr. Li, but they didn’t back off and condemned the guards for persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. Some of them also shared food their families had given them with Mr. Li.
Mr. Li once had an argument with a prison instructor, but none of the inmates sided with the instructor or helped him beat Mr. Li. There were also some kindhearted guards who gave Mr. Li roasted sweet potatoes and yogurt. Others often chatted with him and asked him what he planned to do after his release. All of their kindnesses touched him and helped him to carry on.
Many practitioners from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and China mailed postcards, letters, and money to encourage Mr. Li. Though he was never allowed to read the letters, the fact that many people wrote to him greatly encouraged him and also deterred the guards from torturing him to some extent. Other practitioners in the prison also used various ways to help him and encourage him.
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