Inside the Labour Camps

  • Practitioners Subjected to Relentless Brainwashing in Masanjia Forced Labour Camp, Liaoning Province

    Falun Gong practitioners newly sent to the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp see over ten prison guards with electric batons in the hall on the first floor. The bursting sound of the electric batons and the prison guards' abusive shouting create an atmosphere of horror for the newcomers. After they have been assigned their groups, they take their luggage and go to a hall on the fourth floor, where they are undressed and searched. In the process the prison guards interrogate the practitioners. They want to know whether they had written the so called guarantee statement to denounce Falun Gong. They shock the practitioners with the electric batons before they can even put on their trousers.
  • Tortures Endured by Falun Gong Practitioners in Masanjia Forced Labour Camp During the Olympics

    Shortly prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, officials from the Beijing Forced Labour Camp transferred over 100 practitioners who refused to renounce Falun Gong to the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp in Shenyang City. I was one of them. On July 17th, 2008, a guard told me if I admitted that I was wrong in practising Falun Gong, I would be spared, but I refused. The guards sat me on the ground, pushed me forward so my head was against the ground, and handcuffed my hands to separate beds. They moved the two beds in opposite directions. My arms were stretched until they couldn't be stretched any further. It felt like my arms were about to be torn off and my wrists were about to be cut off. Every part of my body was in excruciating pain and I was sweating profusely.
  • Ms. Chen Xiumei Tortured in Hebei Province Women's Forced Labour Camp

    On January 8th, 2009, police arrested Ms. Chen Xiumei. She was sent to the Hebei Province Women's Forced Labour Camp. Since Ms. Chen refused to cooperate with the officials because she had committed no crimes, the guards brutally tortured her. She started a hunger strike to protest the persecution. The head guard ordered the inmates to shock Ms. Chen in the chest, private parts and buttocks. She was slapped and kicked. She endured this torture every day.
  • Ms. Pan Chenhong Mentally Disabled by Torture at Wangcun Forced Labour Camp

    In November 2008, the police took away practitioner Ms. Pan Chenhong. She was sent to Wangcun Forced Labour Camp in Shandong Province. In less than four months, she became mentally disabled due to torture she suffered there. In less than four months, the labour camp tortured the originally healthy woman to the point that she became mentally disabled. The labour camp feared being held responsible and told her family to pick her up. Moreover, the labour camp extorted 2,000 yuan from her family to pay for the medical treatment she received at the labour camp.
  • Gross Abuse and Mistreatment at the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp, Liaoning Province

    Li Yurong, from Dalian, 64-year old, is illiterate, so she inserted some of her own words into the labour camp rules, such as "end the persecution." Liu Yong beat her on the head, neck and torso with a high voltage baton, which caused extreme pain. Liu made Li Yurong read it again. She again read it as "anti-persecution." Liu beat her once more with the baton and punished her by having to stand facing a wall. Sun Xiuzhen, a 45-year old practitioner from Dalian, cried when she saw other practitioners beaten. Policeman Yan took Sun Xiuzhen to the office where he cursed her and punched her head and slapped her.
  • Anhui Women's Forced Labour Camp Tortures Falun Gong Practitioners

    Cheng Ming was fifty-six years old, was sent to the forced labour camp in September 2005. She was severely tortured because she refused to be "transformed." Team leader Lin Yun struck her face when she shouted, "Falun Gong is good!" Lin Yun also instigated inmates to hit her face in front of other inmates until her face got swollen and she was not able to eat. She was often tied up all night and unable to sleep. Guards often instigated inmates to beat her and seal her mouth with tape. She was detained for an extra period of time after her sentence had ended.
  • Suffering in the Beijing Women's Labour Camp

    In Beijing Women's Labour Camp the guards lock practitioners in small cells and force them to sit on a small plastic bench. They read articles and play videos that misinterpret and slander Falun Gong. Falun Gong practitioners were forced to sit there all day, except for five to six hours of sleeping time, which caused agonizing pain in the buttocks. If the practitioner refused to give up his or her belief, the guards would try different tactics, such as taking turns and using hard and soft methods. If the practitioner still refused, the guards would send them to a training team for further persecution.
  • The Persecution of Practitioners from Beijing at the Hohhot Women's Forced Labour Camp in Inner Mongolia

    According to a practitioner who was once detained at the Hohhot City Women's Forced Labour Camp, between 2001 and 2004, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) required labour camps to show a 100 per cent "transformation" rate. The "transformed" practitioners would recite their "guarantee statements," and if practitioners in the audience protested, they would be dragged out and beaten with police batons and belts. Several rooms in the labour camp had their windows covered with newspapers, and pitiful screams could often be heard from those rooms. The guards tried to force practitioners to "transform" by pressing the openings of bottles filled with boiling water to practitioners' backs and then removing the bottles. Their skin would decompose by the second day.
  • Practitioners Severely Mistreated in the Strict Discipline Team of Yinmahe Forced Labour Camp in Jiutai City, Jilin Province

    Practitioner Mr. Zhang Xincai was forced to sit straight on a hard board for a long time. Sometimes he would have to sit for over 19 hours per day. In the cold winter guards would open the door and windows widely to make him suffer from the freezing wind. As a result, Mr. Zhang suffered serious injuries. His waist and buttocks were wounded and festered from the long time sitting. He became unable to care for himself and stayed in a state of paralysis in bed for 8 months. Practitioner Mr. Li Wenzhi was subjected to violent force-feeding because he held firm to his belief. In the toilet,guards force-fed him with solutions high in salt content. Mr. Li suffered greatly from the torture. His health deteriorated severely.
  • Falun Gong Practitioners Tortured at Shandong Province No. 2 Forced Labour Camp

    Guards at the forced labour camp hang practitioners up and deprive them of sleep. Jiang Guotun experienced this torture in January 2009. Practitioner Sun Wenjia's teeth were loosened and his gums were bleeding after being beaten by guard Song Nan. Mr. Sun went on a three-day hunger strike to protest this brutal treatment. Guard Wang Xinjiang handcuffed practitioner Wang Yuping in a toilet and forced him to stand for four days and nights. Mr. Wang's legs and feet became painfully swollen. Practitioner Lin Jingzhi's face was red and swollen from the beatings he received.
  • Atrocities Happening in Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp, Changchun City

    When Ms. Cao Jingyun was taken to the labour camp, she was beaten for refusing to cooperate in the body search and interrogation. The guards tried all kinds of means to "transform" her, but she rejected them all. Consequently, she was brutally beaten again and again. She once asked a guard for some water who then beat and force-fed her with some unknown drugs. After that, she had mental aberrations. Also, she was fixed onto the Death Bed for as long as three months.
  • Exposing the Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners in Shandong Women's Forced Labour Camp

    There are nearly four hundred Falun Gong practitioners detained in Shandong Women's Forced Labour Camp at present. The guards have used every means to torture Falun Gong practitioners. They mixed unknown drugs into practitioners' food. After eating the food, practitioners developed dizziness, fatigue, facial contortion, and had difficulty controlling eye movement and body movement. Some even lost their senses and became disoriented. The guards forced practitioners to do intensive labour for extended hours. Practitioners work until 12:00 a.m. every day. In 2009, they tripled the practitioners' workload. At the end of the day, some practitioners are so exhausted that their hands and arms are numb.
  • Practitioners Tortured in Suihua Forced Labour Camp in Heilongjiang Province, Many Injured

    Currently, more than 70 practitioners are being detained at Suihua Forced Labour Camp. All practitioners imprisoned in the forced labour camp are first subjected to at least three months of brutal persecution. Regular inmates are manipulated into brutally torturing, beating, and insulting the practitioners. Practitioners are not allowed to sleep for a long time and have to endure military training and physical punishment. Usually, one guard and two inmates watched and tortured one practitioner at a time. They ordered the practitioners to recite the forced labour camp rules and write the three statements to renounce Falun Gong.
  • Persecution at Shanghai Women's Forced Labour Camp Aims to "Transform" Practitioners

    Shanghai Women's Forced Labour Camp forces those who have given up Falun Gong to communicate with practitioners who were recently "transformed." The practitioners endure brainwashing as well as physical abuse in order to weaken their faith. If practitioners didn't "transform," the guards instructed inmates to physically abuse them by forcing them to stand for periods as long as 16 hours, causing practitioners to suffer from high blood pressure. Many practitioners were "transformed" under these conditions with an unwilling heart.
  • Torture and Slavery in the Gansu Province No.2 Women's Forced Labour Camp

    To force Falun Gong practitioners to give up their belief the labour camp assigned heavier labour to practitioners than other inmates, and they were deprived of sleep if they were unable to finish their assigned work. After an entire day of heavy labour, some practitioners were forced to stand until 4:00 a.m. Practitioners were brutally force-fed when they went on a hunger strike to protest their harsh treatment. Several inmates would hold a practitioner down on a bed and use a shoe brush to pry her mouth open. The camp doctor would then insert a tube down the practitioner's throat and pump a concentrated salt solution into her stomach. Sometimes the doctor would twist the tube to further torture the practitioner.