(Minghui.org) Many prisons in China deploy the torture method of the “small stool” to force imprisoned Falun Dafa practitioners to renounce their faith. However, the small stool torture at Shanghai Women’s Prison was crueler than at most prisons, with practitioners not only being forced to sit in a severely strained position for long hours, but having to endure torture from inmates at the same time.
I personally suffered such inhuman torture during my incarceration there prior to 2016. The excruciating pain was unbearable and the beatings were vicious, making me feel that death would be better. I would like to recount my ordeals to expose the brutal persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners at Shanghai Women’s Prison.
Six inmates were assigned to two shifts, rotating to torture one practitioner in a torture chamber. The most vicious and depraved young and middle-aged inmates with serious crime records were selected by the prison guards. The small stool used in the torture was about eight inches high and eight inches in diameter, with a raised rim. Practitioners were only allowed to sit on half of the stool surface, with their legs bent and splayed backward, and their heels pressed tightly against the stool legs. Practitioners’ knees, tendons, and ligaments were severely strained. Long hours in this position would cause excruciating pain and could disable practitioners temporarily or long term. Qiu Minying, the chief of Division Five, devised this torture method.
Three inmates would each sit in a high-backed chair positioned directly behind, and to the left and right of the practitioner. The inmates on the sides would each extend a foot to press against the practitioner’s feet, while the inmate behind was ready to place both hands on the practitioner’s shoulders or the upper body at any time.
Practitioners were forced to sit still in this torturous position daily, from 5:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., for 17 hours—sometimes even until midnight. We had to keep our upper bodies upright at all times. Fingers had to be held straight and tightly next to each other, with the backs of our hands pressed flatly against our thighs. We had to press our knees and feet tightly together, with a piece of cardboard held between the knees. If the cardboard fell, the practitioner was punished—forced to copy the prison rules after being released from the sitting torture at midnight, all under the watchful eye of the four rotating inmates. Most of us were only allowed to sleep two or three hours every night. Sometimes, as soon as we fell asleep, the inmates would jolt us awake with kicks and blows.
While forced to endure the painful posture for more than 17 hours, practitioners suffered vicious and relentless torment from inmates, and at mealtimes were forced to stare at a video slandering Falun Dafa. We were only given two five-minute bathroom breaks daily, which included walking to the chamber pot and back. Mealtimes offered no respite—we ate sitting on the stools, our eyes staring at the video.
During the stool torture, the two inmates flanking me, each gripped a sharp, pen-like tool, and kept hard boxes nearby. The exhaustion from maintaining this posture caused my fingers, knees, and upper body to eventually relax. At the slightest sign of my fingers relaxing, the inmates would violently stab the backs of my hands with the tools, while the inmate behind me would immediately pinch the back of my neck and violently yank my hair. If my knees gave out and the cardboard slipped, the two on either side would then explosively strike my knees with the hard boxes. The agony was so intense that would cause me to break out in a cold sweat and faint—sometimes several times a day.
Furthermore, staying in this sitting position caused my knees to ache, with the pain growing increasingly intense, until it became excruciating and unbearable. When the agony peaked and I felt that my knees were about to snap, I would be compelled to straighten my legs—even for just a few seconds—knowing that violent torture would follow. Instantly, all three inmates would attack me. They viciously jabbed and poked my internal organs, threatening to crush them without leaving a trace of damage. Their violence included pinching my entire body, including my breasts. They deliberately pinched and yanked the tendons on both sides of my neck and under both armpits, cruelly boasting they would break them and leave me permanently disabled.
Each day around 4-5 p.m., when my tolerance for pain reached its limit, I fought back desperately, no longer caring about life or death. Qiu Minying ordered several inmates to lift me high into the air and slam me violently onto the ground. This brutal treatment would cause me to lose consciousness several times every day. Afterward, the inmates would violently yank my hair, punch me hard in the kidneys and head, and pinch my breasts. If I cried out in pain, they stuffed a filthy rag into my mouth.
Upon returning to my cell at night, four monitoring inmates took turns watching over me: I had to sit in silence for half an hour to an hour, then as further punishment, I was forced to copy prison rules until 2-3 am. Then, during my two and a half to three hours of sleep, the inmates would wake me up several times—either by hitting me, kicking me, or, yanking the blanket off me on freezing cold nights. This happened every night.
Every morning as soon as I woke up, the lead monitor inmate slapped me hard, saying that I had disturbed her sleep during the night. Whenever I tried to stop her violent acts, she would throw me off the bed and stuff a filthy rag into my mouth. Over time, all my molars were knocked out.
Because I refused to renounce my faith in Dafa after a period of stool torture, the inmates tortured me the moment they pushed me into the torture chamber, no matter how I sat. At the lead inmate’s shout of “go,” they would all immediately launch into a violent assault, punching my internal organs, frantically pinching and pulling.
My entire body—including my head, neck, back, both armpits, both breasts, entire upper body, both knees, both feet, and the backs of both hands—were covered in bruises and open wounds all the time, which never healed. My feet, ankles, knees, hands, and fingers were so swollen that they became severely deformed. New injuries were added to the old ones every day. Because the inmates pinched and twisted my armpits hard every day, egg-sized lumps formed there, then turned into fleshy balls, which are still there now after so many years. They also pinched the back of my neck, causing it to swell and bleed. My lower back has been beaten so badly that I cannot stand up straight, and both knees were so severely swollen that I couldn’t walk. Most of my hair was pulled out, exposing patches of bare scalp. Due to the long-term sitting, the flesh on my buttocks became infected and developed sores that stuck to my pants. Hemorrhoids around my anus swelled, broke open, and bled; causing excruciating pain while sitting. Even years later, the hemorrhoids still bled. Long after my release, my knees remained so tender that even the slightest touch caused pain, making walking extremely difficult and painful.
One courageous and righteous prison guard reported the torture I suffered to the Shanghai Prison Administration Bureau. However, the Bureau instructed the prison to deal with the matter internally. When a prison guard investigated the case, she was shocked to see the condition of my body. Afterwards, Qiu Minying retaliated against me with even more severe torture, while the righteous prison guard was reassigned to guard the main gate.
My suffering was just the tip of the iceberg of the cruel persecution against Falun Dafa practitioners in Shanghai Women’s Prison, a renowned “civilized” prison within the Chinese Ministry of Justice. Prisons are simply tools for the Chinese government to suppress its people.