(Minghui.org) After a 56-year-old woman developed a severe heart condition when she was tortured in prison, she was further subjected to strict management, because she refused to renounce Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Zhang Chuanwen, of Qingyuan County, Liaoning Province, was arrested on December 4, 2022 for distributing calendars which had information about Falun Gong. She was secretly sentenced to 3.5 years by the Wanghua District Court on March 24, 2023. After she was admitted to the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison on July 26, 2023, she was denied family visits.
An insider revealed that the guards and inmates did not allow Ms. Zhang to sleep and ordered her to remain standing and watch videos that smeared Falun Gong in August 2023. When she refused to comply, she was beaten and verbally abused. She lost four teeth and went into shock as a result of the beating. After she was rushed to the hospital, the doctors diagnosed her with heart disease.
The guards, however, did not tell Ms. Zhang about her diagnosis and took her back to the prison without providing her with further medical care. For the next three months, she was only allowed to sleep for two or three hours every day. While she was awake she had to sit on a small stool, motionless.
Ms. Zhang’s two sisters went to the prison in late October 2023 and were finally allowed a virtual meeting with her after they condemned the guards for violating the prison law in revoking their sister’s right to family visits.
When the sisters asked Ms. Zhang if she was tortured, the guard standing next to her said to her with a threatening tone, “Tell them, has anyone tortured you?”
Ms. Zhang began to cry and said, “Sisters, please don’t ask about torture.” From her facial expression and trembling voice, her sisters suspected she was under tremendous pressure in the prison. The call was cut off after 20 minutes.
Ms. Zhang was moved to Team Nine of Division 5 in late December 2023. The guards forced her to do hard labor for long hours every day. She felt dizzy and her chest felt tight. Team leads Wang Zhuo and An Xinlei verbally abused her, and the inmates who monitored her removed her mattress and did not let her sit up.
Ms. Zhang’s family visited her again in early 2025. They noticed that she walked very slowly and couldn’t open one eye. She looked exhausted and spoke in a very weak voice. Her teeth were discolored and very loose. When her family asked what happened, she pointed to the "Strict Management" division badge she was wearing, indicating that she was subjected to brutal torture. She also said that her heart was beating very fast and she felt extremely uncomfortable. During their conversation, a guard stood nearby and recorded everything they said. The meeting was ended in just ten minutes.
Before Ms. Zhang’s family left, a guard director complained that, because Ms. Zhang defied their orders, they did not earn enough points to meet the quota [of having enough Falun Gong practitioners renounce their faith]. The family urged the director to treat her nicely.
Previous Persecution
Ms. Zhang took up Falun Gong in 1997 at the age of 29. Many of her ailments soon disappeared, including severe arthritis, enteritis, and skin diseases. She also quit many bad habits, such as smoking, drinking and playing mahjong. After witnessing her changes, her husband was very supportive of her practicing Falun Gong.
Alarmed by the ever increasing number of Falun Gong practitioners, the Chinese Communist Party ordered a nationwide persecution campaign to eradicate the practice from China in July 1999. Because Ms. Zhang refused to renounce Falun Gong, she was repeatedly arrested, given two labor camp terms and one prison term prior to her latest persecution.
Ms. Zhang went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong at the end of 2001. She was arrested and given one year at the Wujiabao Forced Labor Camp.
Because Ms. Zhang started a hunger strike to protest the persecution, guard Wu Wei beat her, leaving her injured and covered with bruises. Her legs were severely swollen and her ankles were dislocated.
Wu suddenly rushed into Ms. Zhang’s cell one day and kicked her throat. She fell on the ground. As soon as she sat up, Wu kicked her again. She was kicked this way three times.
On another occasion, guard Wu and Zhang Wu poured water over Ms. Zhang. Then one of them shocked her with an electric baton and the other beat her. A female guard watched on the side.
Wu also poured urine over Ms. Zhang’s head and forced her to do the side split, which caused severe injury to her leg and she was unable to walk.
Torture reenactment: The side split
On the evening of May 6, 2002, several guards covered Ms. Zhang’s eyes with a black cloth, tied her in a metal chair, shocked her with two electric batons and kicked her. After one night of torture, her face was severely burned and her neck was so swollen that it was as wide as her head.
Ms. Zhang tried to escape in late May 2002, but was captured and subjected to even more brutal torture. At the end of 2002, she was given another labor camp term and directly transferred to the notorious Masanjia Forced Labor Camp.
At the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp, Ms. Zhang was deprived of sleep and forced to watch videos that smeared Falun Gong. She was also forced to work for more than ten hours without pay every day, mostly making crafts using toxic materials.
The authorities frequently harassed her husband. Unable to bear the pressure, he divorced her.
Ms. Zhang was arrested again on June 21, 2018 after being reported for distributing materials about Falun Gong. She developed a serious medical condition in the detention center. She was unable to open one eye and lost a significant amount of weight. Yet the guards still forced her to work every day. The guards often beat her if she couldn’t finish the daily quota.
After the Qingyuan County Court sentenced Ms. Zhang to 1.5 years in December 2018, the prosecutor deemed the sentence too light and appealed to a higher court. The Fushun City Intermediate Court ruled in August 2019 to increase Ms. Zhang’s term to three years. She was admitted to the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison on September 10, 2019 and released on June 20, 2021.
Related Reports:
Belated News: Liaoning Woman Loses Four Teeth and Goes into Shock After Brutal Beatings in Prison
12th Ward in Liaoning Women's Prison Designated to Persecute Falun Gong Practitioners
Liaoning Woman Secretly Sentenced to Prison for Her Faith
Prosecution Appeals “Light” Prison Sentences for Falun Gong Practitioners
Copyright © 1999-2025 Minghui.org. All rights reserved.
