Liaoning Woman Endures Five Years of Torture In Prison for Upholding Her Faith

(Minghui.org) For practicing Falun Gong, Ms. Li Caiwen was sentenced to five years and endured constant torture in prison as she remained firm in her faith.

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

Ms. Li, a 64-year-old Dalian City, Liaoning Province, resident, took up Falun Gong in 1996. All of her ailments disappeared shortly after. She was seized by officers of Guangming Police Station at home during a mass arrest on June 28, 2016. Her Falun Gong books, portrait of Falun Gong’s founder, computer, several cellphones, tablet, flash drives, speakers, electronic reader, and calendars bearing information about Falun Gong were all confiscated.

After a year at Yaojia Detention Center, Ms. Li was tried by the Jinzhou District Court on February 13, 2017, and sentenced to five years with an 8,000-yuan fine on February 24. She appealed with the Dalian City Intermediate Court, which ruled to uphold her original verdict without a hearing. She was taken to the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison on June 20, 2017.

Ms. Li was held in the 5th team in the 10th ward in the prison. The guards arranged for several inmates to watch her around the clock. She was barred from talking to other jailed Falun Gong practitioners and forced to watch videos or read books slandering Falun Gong every day. Sometimes the guards hung a big board with information smearing Falun Gong on her neck and forced her to kneel down to humiliate her. When she refused to kneel, they pulled her arms up from behind.

The guards also humiliated her by ordering her to be topless for a body search. She refused to cooperate. In retaliation, the guards forced the inmates in her team to stand in the snow in order to incite hatred against her.

To achieve a 100% transformation rate, inmates Fan Lina, Zhu Chen, Sui Jiaxuan, and Huang Fengjuan took Ms. Li to a dark room without surveillance cameras to beat her. They often slapped her in the face with their slippers, kicked or stomped on her legs and knees, and whipped her legs with paper rolls.

Ms. Li was once forced to do a horse stance while holding her arms out straight. The guards put a bowl full of boiling water on the back of her hand. If she couldn’t keep her balance or move a bit, the water would spill on her hand.

The inmates said to her, “We wouldn’t bear any consequence for beating you. You wouldn’t be able to have any evidence.”

The inmates once folded cardboard into a triangle and stabbed Ms. Li in the back with it. She screamed in pain and collapsed on the ground. They pulled her up and continued to stab her. She ran out of the room and shouted, “They are beating me! They are beating good people!” The inmates caught her and dragged her back to the room to continue the torture.

In another time, inmate Zhu Chen hit Ms. Li in the chest. She almost couldn’t breathe. Since then, she struggled with severe chest pain and couldn’t take a deep breath. Even a slight cough would cause enormous pain in her.

Other torture Ms. Li endured included sleep deprivation, not being allowed to sit down, or being forced to squat for long hours. She was also restricted in using the restroom, not given toilet paper, or not allowed to take showers.

As a result of the abuse, Ms. Li fainted multiple times. She suffered severe injuries on her spine, and her legs were badly swollen and covered with bruises. She was emaciated and struggled to keep her balance. When she was taken to the hospital for resuscitation, her heart stopped beating for a brief moment.

The guards who were responsible for the torture were ward director Lang Lang, ward manager Tang Yan, team leader Pan Ruiqi, and department head Wu Xiaorui. Wu also forced Ms. Li to work without pay. When she refused to cooperate, Wu punished other inmates to incite hatred against Ms. Li.

Ms. Li was released on June 27, 2021, only to be dealt another blow upon finding out that the Liaoning Province Social Security Bureau had suspended her pension. The bureau claimed that retirees who were imprisoned wouldn’t be qualified for any retirement benefits, despite the fact that no labor law has such stipulation. She tried to seek justice for herself but to no avail.