(Minghui.org) Ms. Zhou Xiuzhen, 64, in Muling City, Heilongjiang Province, is about to be tried because she practices Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since July 1999.
Ms. Zhou was initially arrested at a residential area on June 29, 2026. The police raided her home and confiscated her computer, printer, and Falun Gong books. They said they monitored her for quite a while before they arrested her.
Ms. Zhou was later released on bail but was taken back into custody on October 13. She was put in the Yangming District Detention Center (located in Hualin Town of Mudanjiang City, which oversees Muling City).
Ms. Zhou, who was born in July 1962, began practicing Falun Gong in May 1997 and soon recovered from her various diseases, including cervical spondylosis, headaches, severe anemia, and low blood pressure. She also became a more conscientious worker and was well regarded by her supervisor and colleagues.
After the persecution of Falun Gong began in July 1999, Ms. Zhou held firm to her faith and was repeatedly targeted. Chief Zhang Shengli of the Muling City Second Police Station led officers Sun Delong, Zhong Ligang, and two others to her home on the night of January 18, 2001. They took her to the police station and transferred her to a local detention center the next day, where over 40 other practitioners were held.
Ms. Zhou was given one year of forced labor in May 2001 and served time at the Harbin City Rehabilitation Center. Harbin is the capital city of Heilongjiang Province.
Officer Zhong and another agent arrested Ms. Zhou at work in May 2002 and put her in the local detention center. Officers Wang Jianguo and Wang Yongan from the Muling City Police Department took her to the Harbin City Rehabilitation Center in August that year to serve a two-year forced labor term.
Ms. Zhou was forced to sit on a small stool for over 10 hours and she was not allowed to sleep the first few days of her second forced labor term. She was later made to stand for hours for refusing to sing pro-CCP songs or greet the guards.
Two inmates were assigned to watch Ms. Zhou. They didn’t allow her to do the Falun Gong exercises or talk to other detained practitioners. She was also denied all forms of communication with her family, including in-person visits, phone calls, and mailing letters. The inmates ordered her to watch videos that slandered Falun Gong. When she refused she was handcuffed to a heat pipe for three days. After that she was restrained in a metal chair for one week. The inmates beat her so hard that two of her teeth were knocked out.
The guards launched a campaign on November 16, 2002, with the aim to “transform” all of the hundreds of practitioners who were detained there. The practitioners were dragged to the basement and had their hands cuffed to rings anchored to the floor. Their mouths were taped shut all day except when they were given the only meal of the day, in the evening. The inmates fed them a few spoonfuls of food but gave them no water to drink for the first two days.
On the third day, the practitioners were forced to drink water with a large amount of salt in it. Anyone who refused to drink was force-fed the water. The extreme amount of salt in the water caused many practitioners to throw up violently.
The practitioners were also not allowed to use the restroom. Their hair was cut into a disheveled, patchy mess—a deliberate act to humiliate them. The guards also verbally abused them.
The practitioners were later stripped to their undergarments and were exposed to the cold air from the open windows. The guards, who wore heavy coats, poured cold water on them and shocked them with electric batons. The crackling noises from the batons could be heard throughout the buidling.
Ms. Zhou was shocked on the neck and the back of her hands. She still refused to write statements to renounce Falun Gong. The guards dragged her to a small room and pushed her head into a basin filled with water. Two guards each held an electric baton and shocked her simultaneously. They asked if she’d now write the statements. With her mouth still taped shut, she shook her head.
When the first two guards became exhausted, two other guards took over and continued to shock her. When the latter were also exhausted, they instructed two inmates to shock her all over her body. They slammed the basin over her head and banged on the basin with a stick. They also pinched her and slapped her in the face.
The electric shock torture lasted eight hours, with the guards using five electric batons which all went dead. They also filled a large vat used for pickling vegetables with water and threatened to toss her into it. Then news came that another practitioner Ms. Jiang Rongzhen was beaten to death that night. Only then did the guards stop torturing Ms. Zhou and other practitioners.
Ms. Zhou was bedridden for three months after the torture session. Her perpetrators included director Chen Guiqing, vice captain Zhao Wei and guards Wang Dan, Yu Kun, Shi Yanjiang, Wei Qiang, and Zhang Haipeng.
Ms. Zhou’s family was also extorted over 10,000 yuan while she served the two-year forced labor term. Her son, who was still in elementary school at the time, was deeply traumatized and still has panic attacks.