Graduate Student Exposes Crimes and Torture at the Beijing Tuanhe Forced Labour Camp

I am from Yishui County, Shandong Province and began practising Falun Gong in August 1997. In late November 2006, I was a graduate student at the China University of Petroleum in Beijing when officers from the Beijing Changping District Domestic Security Division and the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) arrested me at school. They took me to the Changping Brainwashing Centre.

Changping Brainwashing Centre staff attempted to transform [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] me by forcing me to watch videos which slandered Falun Gong. Two former practitioners who'd turned against Falun Gong helped centre staff with their transformation activities. One was a woman (last name Gao), who was extremely arrogant and slandered Falun Gong in front of me many times. She also cursed at me. Another time, a guard ordered a hired security guard to beat me. The security guard held me on the ground, but I looked straight into his eyes and said, “Falun Gong is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” He left without another word.

The staff realized that they couldn't force me to give up my beliefs. On January 12th, 2007, they transferred me to the Changping Detention Centre. I refused to cooperate with them as well and didn't sign any statements, because I firmly believed that there was nothing wrong with practising Falun Gong. I explained the facts about the persecution to inmates in my cell, and several asked me to help them quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and affiliated organisations. They also expressed that they would never participate in or support persecution activities against practitioners.

After being held in the Changping Detention Centre for over 30 days without legal procedures, officials suddenly announced that I was to be taken to a forced labour camp for two years. I refused to cooperate with them, so three or four guards came and handcuffed me. One guard grabbed my hair and dragged me into a police car. I was then taken to the Beijing Tuanhe Transfer Section, along with some others.

Police officers forced me to undergo a physical examination at the Tuanhe Transferring Section. I didn't cooperate and continued shouting: “Falun Gong is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good”. Later, another officer led four prisoners with me to the First Brigade's solitary cell. They stripped off my clothes and stuffed a cloth used to clean the floor into my mouth. In the days that followed, I was held in the cell and continuously monitored by the four prisoners. Guards took turns in their attempts at transformation[forcibly renounce Falun Gong]. They played the “good guy-bad guy” game, but I was not moved. Over a month later, they transferred me to another brigade where drug addicts were detained, and the guards ordered them to monitor and persecute me. During this time, an expert in the transformation of Falun Gong practitioners was brought in. He tried to destroy my belief in Falun Gong by distracting my thoughts. Later, guards ordered the drug addicts to hold me down on a bed frame and stuff several papers below my body which had Teacher's name or “Falun Gong” written on them. They constantly slandered Falun Gong, and pulled my fingers apart, causing pain and swelling at the joints.

On May 14th, 2007, officials decided to take me to the Beijing Tuanhe Forced Labour Camp. I didn't cooperate, so they stripped me, shocked me with electric batons, dragged me to a police car and then took me to the forced labour camp.

At the Tuanhe Forced Labour Camp, five guards dragged me to the Fourth Brigade, which was formed that day specifically for persecuting practitioners. I was placed in a cell alone. Tian Enze, another practitioner, was taken to the Fourth Brigade that same day, and was also placed into a solitary cell. Prisoners took turns monitoring us daily, and so were video cameras. In their attempts to transform me, they forced me to watch slanderous videos. The prisoners forced to me sit still on a small plastic stool for an extended duration. They also forced me to stand motionless for long periods, until my legs and feet were badly swollen. Additionally, there were times that they denied me toilet use, forcing me to urinate and defecate in my trousers. I was forced to wear those trousers, even during meals.

Another time, guards ordered the prisoners subject me to sleep deprivation, allowing only 2-3 hours of sleep a day. They then shortened it to one hour per day, and eventually to no sleep at all. However, I was able to maintain my firm belief in Falun Gong, and kept a clear mind. They tortured me with several other methods. One prisoner tied threads to my eyebrows, then pulled them off. He eventually pulled all the hair off my eyebrows. He then used the same method to pull off my eyelashes and facial hair. Another prisoner named Zhang Guobing from Zhoukou, Henan Province spat on my face and body, and once even forced my mouth open to spit into it. Guards and prisoners tortured and humiliated me physically and mentally.

The guards realized that none of their methods were working, so they put me in a specially-designed room in another brigade. The walls and ground of that room were covered with soft sponge in order to prevent inmates from committing suicide. They starved me for three days, and then prisoners dragged me around the room. They claimed that I was on a hunger strike, and had the prison doctor force-feed me twice daily. The doctor pushed plastic tubes through my nose into my stomach. They often pulled the tubes in and out several times just to torture me. Prisoner Zhang Guobing also urinated into the sticky fluid used to force-feed me. After two weeks, the guards realized again that their torture methods hadn't changed my resolve, so they transferred me back to the Fourth Brigade to continue my persecution.

Officials transferred a specific group of seven or eight prisoners from other locations to the labor camp. The guards trained them intensively, and then along with Zhang Guobing, ordered them to take turns with the torture.

During the day, four prisoners participated. They were led by Zhang Guobing, and included Zhang Wenbin and Liu Jinsuo. They shoved my faeces into my mouth. Zhang Guobing ordered the other three to strip my clothes, and then forced a toilet brush handle into my anus. They pushed the handle so hard that I couldn't defecate. They also handled my genitals and forced my back against an extremely hot heating unit. The other shift of three or four prisoners included one named Du Fu, and another nicknamed “Little Shandong”. They stripped me and handled my genitals. “Little Shandong” pulled my pubic hair, and they opened the window to freeze me with the winter's cold air. They also pinched my nipples hard with their nails. They woke me at night by pouring cold water on me, or by piercing my skin with needles. They then dragged me to the ground, stripped me and poured cold water over me. Another prisoner named Yuan Li often used a sharp point on his badge to puncture my nails.

After two days and nights of this torture, my mind and body couldn't bear it anymore. I experienced a mental breakdown, and against my will, I complied with them by writing the three statements to renounce practising Falun Gong. Now that I think about it, I sincerely regret this, and felt quite ashamed of myself to Falun Gong. Several days later, they used the same torture methods on another practitioner named Zhao Baoli, who also rejected transformation for a long time.

During my detention in the labour camp, the guards most responsible for my persecution included Gong Wei (at the time, captain of the Fourth Brigade); Zhao Weiguang, Li Wei (actively persecuted me and other Falun Gong practitioners, and also devised several cruel methods for persecution) and Yang Bo. Guards participating to a lesser degree included Li Hongxing, Xu Jianhua, Guo Jinhe, Pan Lin and Chen Guoxu.