My name is Zhang Qingchun, also known as Zhang Li. I am a Falun Dafa practitioner from Gangtun Town, Huludao City, Liaoning Province. I started to practise Falun Dafa in 1996. After seeing the propaganda on TV slandering Dafa on July 22, 1999, I biked to Beijing to appeal. I was stopped by a police officer as I walked on the street in Beijing, and was sent back to the Lianshan Police Department in Huludao City, where I was unlawfully detained for seven days in the city detention centre. On October 19, 1999, the Gangtun City officials issued an order to send Falun Gong practitioners to a brainwashing class set up in the conference room on the third floor of the town hall building. They wanted us to give up our belief in Dafa by slandering Dafa and our Teacher. In addition, they wanted us to write a Guarantee Letter promising never to practise Falun Gong and never to go to Beijing to appeal. They were willing to let us go if we could pay 1,000 yuan [500 yuan is equal to the average monthly salary of an urban worker in China].

On October 30, under orders from Shen Xuejun, the Party Committee Secretary, Lin Ke, the Political and Judiciary Committee Secretary, and Ma Enyou, the Director of the police department, and a few temporary police officers including Wang Zhenjie, Cao Baigang, Zhao Lianchang, Chen Shilong, and Cao Lei took me to a small room on the first floor and started to beat me. I was in so much pain that I could not get up off the floor and nearly lost consciousness.

When they got tired, two of them held my arms behind my back and pulled my hair, forcing me to lean forward, and they started shocking me with electric batons on my face, neck, chin, and anus. They pulled up my shirt to shock me directly. The place was filled with the smell of the sparks and burnt flesh.

I jumped each time the electricity hit me. I felt like I was on fire and there were needles violently poking me. The electricity leaked out from the switch of a baton during the process, but the policeman did not stop, he put on a pair of gloves and kept on shocking me. After an hour, they dragged me to another room and forced me to do pushups with my legs on a chair. I could not get up after a few times. They found two spiked clubs and brutally beat me on the back, legs and buttocks. When they got tired, they would make me hold a painful position known as "riding an airplane." (1)

After about an hour, they took me back to where I was before, and I saw that two other practitioners were being tortured there. They were Zhao Xueben and Zhang Deben. Police officer Meng Qingjun took Mr. Zhao's pants off and shocked his private parts with an electric baton. Police officer Zhou Qingsong hit Mr. Zhang on his back with a spiked club and tried to force Mr. Zhang and me to slap each other. When we refused, they grabbed our hands and forced us to slap each other. Later, officer Zhao He shocked me on my private parts, causing me to collapse to the ground. Officer Chen Shilong forced me to slap myself. Chen slapped me hard to show me how hard he wanted me to do it. We were continuously tortured like this for 7-8 hours.

During this time, Wang Ying took a female practitioner, Cao Yanzhuo, to the room to see us being tortured. They threatened her with the same kind of torture. That night, we were sent to a deserted house, where we slept on a grass mat in the freezing weather.

During the daytime, we were forced to dig drainage ditches. Many police officers and guards watched us and made sure we did not stop working from morning until night. Sometimes we were ordered to do "riding an airplane" in the middle of the work.

One night officer Chen Shilong tried to force me to read out loud from a newspaper article that slandered Dafa and beat me when I refused. Later he forced me to take off my clothes until I was only wearing shorts, and took me to a corner behind the door. He started to punch me in the chest. After he got tired, he found an electric baton and shocked me on my face, chin and other places. Then he got tired again and found someone else to torture me for the rest of the day.

In the afternoon of November 5, I was taken to the director's temporary duty office. Liu Yu'an (Head of Gangtun Town), Ma Enyou (Director of the Police Department), Wang Ying (educator from the police department), and Zang Guoguang (Chief Police Officer) were there. They tried to force me to write the Guarantee Letter to denounce Falun Dafa. When I refused, Liu first punched me few times and kicked me. Then Wang tried to force me to do 500 pushups. I could not continue after a few times. Wang and Zang then started to kick me and stepped hard on my head. Then they used the electric baton to shock me on my back, abdomen, face and chin. This torture lasted for over an hour

The next morning, Zhou Tao from the security team came in to trade places with them. Zhou slapped me and forced me to do "riding an airplane." They forced me to bite on a chopstick and put another one on my head. If the chopstick fell, they would hit me. I was punched in the chest and could not breathe, and fell to the ground. After I caught my breath, they forced me to do "riding a motorcycle" (2). While I was doing "riding a motorcycle," they would kick me so that I fell. Then they would make me resume the position and kick me again. This went on and on for a long time.

That afternoon, three other female Dafa practitioners and I were taken to a detention centre for 15 days, then we were taken back to the police station for one day, and then we were again taken back to the detention centre for another 15 days. After that, they still wouldn't let us go home. They took us to Laoyemiao Village to receive so-called "military training," which was really continuous physical abuse: running, marching, squatting, jumping in a squatting position, pushups, beatings, as well as verbal abuse.

When I could not run anymore, they would drag me forward, trying to exhaust me and break my will. At times, they would make us run right after eating, which made us dizzy and we would start throwing up. When the weather became cold, they would force us to crawl around in the snow, and our arms would often become frozen. They also made all of us, both male and female, stand in the snow wearing only underwear for up to two hours at a time.

Officer Meng Qingjun was my high school classmate. In the police station, he slapped me so hard that my mouth started bleeding. During the "military training," he punched me in the face so hard that I immediately lost consciousness. They often made us sleep on the concrete floor wearing only underwear. I was a small guy, and they sometimes lifted me up and struck me on my buttocks with a broomstick. They broke the broomstick due to the force they used.

Every month we had to pay 300 yuan for food, which was nothing but steamed cornstarch buns and cabbage soup. They took the rest of the money for themselves. During the Chinese New Year of 1999 [around February 2000], my family asked the town government to let me go home. The government forced my family to sign a Guarantee Letter and to pay a 1,500 yuan fine before they let me go home.

On June 28, 2000, the town government ordered the villages to send all Falun Dafa practitioners to the brainwashing classes. Captain Zhao Jiucai and his security team were in charge of monitoring us. Zhao physically abused us and punished us. He often made us watch videos and read books that slandered Dafa, and forced us to carry heavy objects in the fields until our shoulders were all scratched and bleeding. Every day we were overloaded with forced labour.

We had to get up at four o'clock in the morning every day and run for over 15 kilometers (~9 miles). After we came back, we were forced to run in the yard, and practice military marching maneuvers. We had to stand for a long time, kneel down (sometimes on one leg, sometimes with our head down), do pushups, jump up and down repeatedly, walk backwards, and stand facing the sun. It was often 37-38 degree Celsius (98-100 Fahrenheit) in the summer and we had to do this punishing physical exercise under the sun every day. Our sweat evaporated and white salt was all over our faces, and our sunburned skin was peeling off. Many people suffered heat exhaustion and passed out.

We had to do this in the rain and at night. We had little time to sleep. Sometime we did not sleep for 3 days straight and fell asleep while we were in the brainwashing classes. We had to sleep on the concrete floor for many days in a row and had to scrounge newspapers to sleep on. If we did not do well in the physical training sessions, the police would scold us or beat us, sometimes with the spiked clubs. Zhao said they had the word from the higher authorities: "Death of Falun Gong practitioners from beating is nothing and shall be counted as suicide." We were not allowed to eat on a regular schedule, and only had 10 minutes for each meal. We had to eat in a squatting or kneeling position. At one point they fed us for many days in a row with small potatoes that were bitter and tart, causing us to throw up right after we ate.

To protest against the persecution, seven of us went on a hunger strike for three days. They separated each of us and locked every one of us in a small, dark and damp room filled with foul-smelling garbage. After three days, I could barely stand up. Several officials and police officers came that day to force-feed us. One practitioner went to a resident's house to ask for water and was punished by being forced to kneel down for half a day. The extremely hot weather and physical abuse resulted in many people becoming dehydrated, having heat stroke and passing out.

Because I practised the Falun Gong exercises, Zhao and his people often forced me to kneel down on the concrete floor and forced me to slap myself. One morning, I was forced to kneel in the sand and face the sun. Before long my knees hurt so much that I could not stand it and I fell on the ground. Zhao sent two people to pull me up and threatened to force me to continue kneeling for another 2 hours.

One night when I practised the exercises, Zhao Jiucai appointed Zhang Lidong and another person to drag me into the duty office. Zhao covered my head with my shirt and started to beat and kick me. After he got tired, he wanted me to kneel on the floor, and I refused. Zhao and Zhang grabbed my arms and shoulders, trying to force me to kneel. One of them punched me in the nose and it started bleeding. The blood was all over my shirt and the floor. They tried to hurt me by pushing their fingers into my shoulder joints while they held me down.

Practitioner Mr. Zhao Lianyuan could not stand seeing them torturing me anymore. He banged his head on the wall for half an hour to support me and they finally stopped. When I sat down to do the fifth exercise, someone was sent in to pour freezing water on me. I was soaking wet and my whole body ached, but I finished the exercise before I changed into dry clothes.

At the end of July, the leader of the town officials organized a new group of security officers. They were ordered to make us all write the Guarantee Letter in three days. These new security officers were even more cruel and malicious than the last ones and started horrible inhumane tortures against the Dafa practitioners.

On July 28, a person with the last name of Fang ordered people to beat me that afternoon. On the 29th, Jiang Qiusheng led a group of people to beat Zhang Enxing's entire family and other practitioners. On the 30th, Zhou Tao, Yang Guang, a person nicknamed "Niebao" and Liu Zhigang called me to the door during noontime training. Two of them pushed me to the ground and one started to hit me hard with a spiked club. I could not stand it and started to scream, which drew a lot of attention towards me.

The guards had spiked clubs in both of their hands and beat me until they got tired. They asked a few practitioners to carry me into the building. I lay face down on a grass mat and did not move, as my back would hurt with the slightest movement. I even needed people to help me urinate. Zhao Jiucai got a willow branch and ordered Zhou Tao and others to hit me. It felt like someone was rubbing salt into my wounds when the branches hit me. They only stopped when the branch broke. They then found a thick plastic cable-wrap to hit me. I was rolling on the ground because of the pain. As they were hitting me, they asked whether I would keep on practise Falun Gong or not. The beating continued because I would not reply. They got tired and left, and then came back with a metal cable. They covered my head and hit me with the cable and a spiked club. When I turned around, they would hit my private parts. I protected that area with my hands and my hands were beaten until they were swollen. I was severely beaten and in extreme pain.

They brought in a few Dafa practitioners, both male and female, to see how much pain I was in. The police even took off my trousers and let the practitioners see the wounds. They threatened the practitioners by using me as an example of the consequence they would face if they did not write the Guarantee Letter. The police threatened me by saying, "Wait and see what we will do to you tonight." Around 6 o'clock at night, they forced me out of the building. Because I could not get up, they slandered our Teacher and then Zhou Tao kicked me. It hurt so much I had to walk out of the building dragging my feet. They forced me to walk around the yard until I could not walk anymore, then they hit me with spiked clubs.

I was illegally detained for 45 days, during which time I was brutally tortured psychologically and physically.

Names and contact information of relevant personnel:

Area code (0429)

Former Gangtun Town officials

Shen Xuejun, former Gangtun Town Party Commission Secretary

Lin Ke, former Gangtun Town Party Committee Assistant Secretary and Political and Judiciary Committee Secretary

Liu Yuan, former Head of Gangtun Town: 86-429-4131343 (office), 86-429-4131203 (home), 86-429-2159618 (home)

Ma Enyou, former Director of the Gangtun Town Police Department: 86-429-2804471 (office), 86-429-2129562 (home), 86-13804299698 (mobile)

Wang Ying, former educator of the Gangtun Town Police Department: 86-429-4016007 (office), 86-429-2121930 (home), 86-13019990005 (mobile)

Zang Guoguang, former Chief Police of the Gangtun Town Police Department: 86-429-4290004 (office), 86-429-4292136 (home), 86-13998978900 (mobile)

Zhao Jiucai, police: 86-429-4103168 (home)

Wang Zhenjie, police: 86-429-4138108 (home)

Meng Qingjun, police: 86-429-4139029 (home)

Current Gangtun Town officials

Meng Qingju, Political and Judiciary Committee Secretary: 86-429-4131214 (office), 86-429-4131666 (home), 86-13904298627 (mobile)

Guo Shumin, Head of Gangtun Town: 86-429-4131569 (office), 86-429-4131999 (home), 86-13909891939 (mobile)

Li Gang: 86-429-4132017 (office), 86-429-2128789 (home), 86-13700195599 (mobile)

Shi Hongxi, Discipline Inspection Committee member: 86-429-4132179 (office), 86-429-4130555 (home), 86-13804296000 (mobile)

Zhang Liang: 86-429-4131365 (office), 86-429-2600920 (home), 86-13709890018 (mobile)

Zhang Shubin: 86-429-4131589 (office), 86-429-4139229 (home), 86-13942952298 (mobile)

Wang Aimin, Director of the Gangtun Town Police Department: 86-429-4131376 (office),

86-13942920001 (mobile)

Yue Mingjun, Director of the Shanshenmiao County Police Department: 86-429-4130006 (office), 86-429-2950931 (home)

Wang (first name unknown), Secretary of Shanshenmiao County: 86-429-4130001 (office)

Lin Ke, Party Commission Secretary of Taijitun Town: 86-429-4270008 (office), 86-13052691879 (mobile)

Shen Xuejun, Yangjia Zhangzi Economic Development Area: 86-429-4403122 (office), 86-429-4403062 (office)

(1) "Riding an airplane": In this torture, the head is bent down until it cannot go down any further, while the hands are pulled up and held up to the highest point. The hips have to point up. One is forced to keep this position unchanged for a long time. The body in this position looks like the shape of an airplane, which is how this torture came to be named.

(2) "Riding a motorcycle": a torture method where the victim is forced to stay in a posture similar to riding a motorcycle for a long time without moving.