Brainwashing, Illegal Detention and Imprisonment, Inside the Labour Camps, Individual Accounts, 6-10 Office

  • China's Forced Labour Camps and Their Horrors Not Abolished, Just Renamed

    Chinese officials publicly announced their decision to abolish the notorious forced labour camp system on January 7th, 2013, according to a December 2013 Amnesty International report. The report also pointed out that this system that had existed for about six decades has not changed its colours, only its identity. For example, Masanjia Forced Labour Camp, one of the most notorious labour camps, was renamed by the Chinese Communist regime to Masanjia Ward of Liaoning Women's Prison. Most of the camp guards were retained and about 50 Falun Gong practitioners are incarcerated in the Masanjia Ward today.
  • Wuhan Police Arrest, Beat Eight Falun Gong Practitioners Studying at Home

    Eight Wuhan residents were reading Falun Gong books in a private home when police broke into the apartment through a bathroom window and arrested them. Police also assaulted the practitioners while ransacking the apartment. Officers tortured the Falun Gong practitioners at the police station in an attempt to force them to renounce their beliefs. Three of the practitioners are now hospitalized; the others are held in two detention centres.
  • Three Women Sentenced to Prison for Reading a Book Together; Defence Lawyer Demands Acquittal

    Three Falun Gong practitioners, Liu Rong, Guo Youzhi and Jiang Hai, were tried for a second time at the Dongchuan District Court in Kunming on December 4th, 2014. Their “crime” was reading the Falun Gong book Zhuan Falun together. The practitioners were charged with “using a cult organization to sabotage law enforcement,” a trumped-up accusation commonly used by China's legal system to persecute Falun Gong. Eight days later, the court sentenced Liu Rong to three years in prison. The other two practitioners were also given three years, with a five-year probation.
  • 83-Year-Old Woman to Face Trial for Using Bank Note Exposing the Persecution of Falun Gong

    Eighty-three-year-old Ms. Kang Yinzhi was arrested on February 14th this year for paying for groceries with a bank note printed with messages exposing the persecution of Falun Gong. She exhibited symptoms of a stroke and passed out during interrogation the night of her arrest at the Neijiang City Detention Centre. The Zhongqu Court informed Ms. Kang of her upcoming trial on December 25th. Ms. Kang was indicted with a charge of “using a cult organization to sabotage law enforcement,” a pretext commonly used by the Chinese Communist Party to frame and sentence Falun Gong practitioners.
  • Handicapped Practitioner Sentenced to Seven Years

    When Mr. Gong Ziliang, who is handicapped, went to Beijing to appeal for his right to earn a living as a pedicab driver and to have his pedicab returned, he was arrested for practising Falun Gong. He was secretly sentenced to seven years in Qi County Prison.
  • Man Snatched Off Harbin Street and Secretly Sentenced Four Months Later

    A 37-year-old man, Mr. Jiang Bo, was walking down the street this April when he was snatched by several police officers in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province. Despite his 70-year-old father's frantic efforts to locate him, the authorities kept his detention location and subsequent trial secret. The court tried Mr. Jiang on August 22nd and sentenced him to four years for possessing lawful items, including more than 50 paper money notes with messages exposing the persecution of Falun Gong printed on them, a laptop, a portable hard disk and a USB drive.
  • Elderly Practitioner Arrested, Police Attempt to Collect Blood Sample

    While 78-year-old Ms. Zhang Zhonghui was walking down the street, a police car drove by. Two officers jumped out and arrested her. She was taken to the Huaguoyuan Police Station. The reason for the arrest? Ms. Zhang practises Falun Gong. At the police station, an officer kicked Ms. Zhang in the chest and knocked her to the floor. Another officer grabbed her hair and slammed her head against the floor. Others stomped on her back. While they were brutally beating Ms. Zhang, an officer grabbed her fingers and attempted to take a blood sample.
  • Survivor of Yinchuan Prison Violence: “They Want to Turn Good People into Bad and Make Bad People Even Worse”

    Ma Zhiwu, a 42-year-old man was imprisoned in Yinchuan Prison for three and half years for practising Falun Gong. To weaken Mr. Ma's willpower, guards at Yinchuan Prison tried everything they could think of to make him suffer. Prior to his latest arrest in September 2010 that landed him in Yinchuan Prison, Mr. Ma already spent eight years being tortured in prison for his belief in Falun Gong from late 1999 to mid-2008, during which time his daughter was born and had to be raised along by his wife.
  • Details Revealed: Brainwashing Centre Associated with September Arrests of Over 30

    Over 30 Falun Gong practitioners were arrested on September 2nd in Tonghua, Jilin Province. Twenty were sent to brainwashing sessions arranged by various local 610 Offices (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong). The arrests and brainwashing centre detentions are consistent with the “final battle” plan of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), as reported by the Epoch Times in November 2013. A collection of 56 circulars from official agencies across China revealed that a renewed, nation-wide campaign to eliminate Falun Gong is underway.
  • Arrests Increase by 42% in First Nine Months of 2014 Compared to 2013

    As the persecution of Falun Gong in China continues unabated in its 15th year, confirmed arrests during the first nine months of 2014 increased by 42% compared to the same period in 2013. Between January and September 2014, 61 Falun Gong practitioners were tortured to death, 643 were tried, 19 were sentenced to more than 8 years in prison, 663 were taken to brainwashing centres, and 4,925 were arrested.
  • 13 Arrested for Demanding a Falun Gong Practitioner's Release

    Thirteen people were arrested outside a brainwashing centre for asking for the release of Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Ye Shumao on October 18th, 2014, two days after Mr. Ye was arrested. Mr. Ye was taken to the Shangying Brainwashing Centre. Of the 12 who remain in custody, several received a 15-day detention notice.
  • Practitioner Arrested for Browsing Falun Gong Website

    Mr. Jin Biao was arrested and put on trial for browsing Falun Gong websites. This case might shed some light on the communist regime's surveillance of the Internet. The Chinese Internet police, based in Dandong City, Liaoning Province, discovered that Mr. Jin was browsing Falun Gong websites on his mobile phone at his home in Fengcheng City on July 2nd and they arrested him. The Dandong police ordered the Fengcheng police to arrest him.
  • Looking Beyond the Product Label: Filthy Toothpicks Made by Forced Labour

    In Wangfangdian Detention Centre in southern Liaoning Province, detainees are made to do forced labour for long periods of time. The products they make include toothpicks in assorted colours, the kind often used in restaurants, hotels, and homes. Detainees here refuse to use these toothpicks, as they were produced in terribly unsanitary conditions. Forced labour in these detention centres peaked between 2000 and 2002, when the Chinese Communist regime's persecution of Falun Gong was at its most rampant and a large number of practitioners were detained there.
  • A Battle of Life and Death—Former Education Official Recounts Her 10-Year Force-Feeding Ordeal in Prison (Part 1)

    Simply for refusing to give up her belief in Falun Gong, Ms. Li Yushu, a former education official, was arrested on May 19th, 2002 and sentenced to 12 years in prison. Having no other means to appeal her mistreatment, Ms. Li and other practitioners went on hunger strikes as a means of peaceful protest. However, they were punished with force-feeding, a torture method intended to inflict harm on hunger-strikers. Once a healthy woman, she looked like a frail old lady when she was released this May. Three months after she returned home, she still could not manage her daily life because of injuries sustained in prison.
  • Former Nurse Recounts 15 Years of Her Shattered Life

    Ms. Zhou Yanbo once had a satisfying job as head nurse and a happy family. Her happy life, however, came to a halt when the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999. She was arrested five times between 1999 and 2003, and tortured to the verge of death multiple times. She was fired from her job, and her husband abandoned her to avoid being implicated in the persecution. Her family paid huge fines in exchange for her release.