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

  • Ms. Li Huaiying from Shanghai Transferred from Forced Labour Camp to Brainwashing Centre

    Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Li Huaiying, 59, was arrested at her home on August 16th, 2012. She was sentenced to one year of forced labour. On April 18th, 2013, officials from 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) transferred her from the labour camp to a brainwashing centre. Ms. Li was interrogated, and they demanded to know who gave her materials exposing the persecution of Falun Gong and where she distributed them.
  • Persecution Continues Unabated After Labour Camp Closures (Part 1)

    In early 2013, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) announced a plan to abolish the notorious forced labour camp system, which had been instrumental in the persecution of Falun Gong. In November 2013, it declared that it would close down all forced labour camps by the end of the year. However, as Amnesty International's December 2013 report stated, “It's clear that the underlying policies of punishing people for their political activities or religious beliefs haven't changed. The abuses and torture are continuing, just in a different way.” Brainwashing centres, which are much less known, have taken over part of the role of forced labour camps.
  • Detention Centre Guards Beat Falun Gong Practitioner Mr. Yang Naijian, from Qingdao City

    The Qingdao City Police Department in Shandong Province mobilized close to 100 officers to arrest several Falun Gong practitioners on May 2nd, 2013. Mr. Yang was repeatedly abused by police, to the point of being on the brink of death several times. The police tortured him to get him to confess to crimes he didn't commit. Recently at the Chengyang District Detention Centre, he was again beaten and tortured by guards.
  • Police Secretly Install Tracking Device on Practitioner's Car

    Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Li Li from Cangzhou City, Hebei Province found a little black box under her car’s chassis on December 9th, 2013. The box was about 8cm × 8cm × 2cm. Ms. Li learned that it was a "locator," a tracking device. She removed it from the car and put it in the basement next to her parking place. Mr. Li’s home was ransacked at noon on December 11th, by eight police officers.
  • Falun Gong Practitioners Viciously Tortured at Beijing Women's Forced Labour Camp Before it Closed

    Authorities at the Beijing Women's Forced Labour Camp escalated their persecution of Falun Gong practitioners between August 2012 and February 2013, just before it was decommissioned. The labour camp used many kinds of torture on practitioners. They forced practitioners to sit on small plastic stools designed for children from 5:00 in the morning until midnight, sometimes even longer. There was little time for sleep. The torture made some some practitioners' buttocks fester. Right before the labour camp finally closed, some captains asked the practitioners they had tortured not to expose their crimes. These vicious perpetrators expressed fear of being brought to justice.
  • "I Still Tremble When I Think About It - I Was Locked Up In a Men's Cell at Masanjia Forced Labour Camp” (Part 2)

    "I was sent to the Shenyang Prisoners’ Hospital after being tortured. After all the abuse, I looked so terrible that I frightened the prisoners. On the thirteenth day of my hunger strike, I was dragged into the force-feeding room by five people. I was held down, and could not move. I almost suffocated. A pair of hands held my head tightly, and a tube was inserted into my nose. I did not know what they were feeding me. My stomach was filled with dirty water, and I kept vomiting."
  • “I Still Tremble When I Think About It – I Was Locked Up In a Men's Cell at Masanjia Forced Labour Camp” (Part 1)

    Ms. Yin Liping was locked up for practising Falun Gong and she recounts her dreadful experience, "Whenever I think of the notorious Masanjia Forced Labour Camp, my heart trembles. I will never forget the day: April 19th, 2001. On that date, the guards at Masanjia Forced Labour Camp took nine of us – women who refused to give up our belief in Falun Gong, into nine separate rooms. I was put into the first room where four male inmates were waiting. I saw another big room holding more than 30 men when I went to the toilet."
  • Fired Nine Years Ago for Practising Falun Gong, a Middle School Teacher Seeks to Have Her Job Reinstated

    Ms. Zhao Xianchang is a Falun Gong practitioner from Lianshan Town, Guanghan City, Sichuan Province. Shortly after her arrest in 2004, Guanghan City Education Bureau dismissed her from her job at Guangshan Third Middle School. Ms. Zhao has been requesting reinstatement since her release from the labour camp in 2007, yet the education bureau has turned a blind eye. Without a steady income, she is leading a very hard life by working odd jobs.
  • Detained for Exposing Torture in Forced Labour Camps, Ms. Lu Xueqin Denied Medical Care

    Ms. Lu Xueqin was arrested on May 2nd, 2013, for taking photographs that depicted various means of torture used on Falun Gong practitioners in Chinese prisons and forced labour camps. She has been detained ever since. Ms. Lu's health has drastically deteriorated while in detention. Her lawyer submitted a request to get her released on medical parole, but the Qingdao City Police Department has turned it down.
  • Practitioner Recalls Drug Torture and Other Traumas in Shandong Province Women's Prison

    Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Meng Lijun was released from the Shandong Province Women's Prison on July 11th, 2013, after being held there for nine years. During her nine-year prison term, Ms. Meng was brutally tortured with forced drug administration, along with other tortures. She had lost a great deal of memory by the time she was released. Her emotions went up and down and she was mentally unstable. After her release, Ms. Meng had to rely on her family to take care of her day to day needs.
  • Ms. Hao Qiujin Describes Torture at Masanjia Forced Labour Camp

    Large-scale arrests of Falun Gong practitioners were conducted in Dalian City on July 6th, 2012. Ms. Hao Qiujin was one of the practitioners arrested and was sent to Masanjia Forced Labour Camp. She recounts: "Donggang was a place in Masanjia where practitioners were tortured in various ways using “stretching” torture, electric shocks, injections with unknown drugs, confinement, force-feeding, freezing, hanging, and beatings, etc. After being taken to Donggang, my hands were cuffed to a heating pipe. The handcuffs were so tight that they cut into my wrists, and my hands quickly turned purple. I had to squat down from 5:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m."
  • Ms. Jian Chengrong, in Her 70s, Arrested and Tortured

    On September 9th, 2013, police broke into 74-year-old Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Jian Chengrong's home. They claimed that Ms. Jian's home was the headquarters for local Falun Gong practitioners, and sent about 20 officers to ransack the elderly woman's home. They took away all of her Falun Gong books, as well as Ms. Jian's computer, printer, mobile phones, and about three thousand yuan in cash. Around 9 p.m., the police brutally interrogated Mrs. Jian. They hit her lower abdomen violently until it bled. Later they slapped her face and beat her.
  • Sham “Public Trial” Held in Nong'an County Court, Jilin Province

    A Nong'an County Court in Jilin Province held an illegal hearing on the afternoon of October 11th, 2013, without notifying the defence lawyers and family members of eight Falun Gong practitioners. All of the eight practitioners pleaded not guilty. Mr. Liu and Ms. Zhang accused the Domestic Security Division of extorting their confession by torture and stated that evidence that was obtained by torture was invalid.
  • In Her Own Words: Ms. Mi Xiaozheng's Story of Enduring Fourteen Years of Torture and Abuse

    Ms. Mi Xiaozheng is a Falun Gong practitioner in Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province. Although she had the highest grades at her university, she was suspended just one year before graduation for practising Falun Gong. She was arrested and sent to brainwashing centres twice, where she was tortured and beaten. Even during her pregnancy she was still harassed constantly, which caused a miscarriage.
  • Mass Arrest of Fourteen Practitioners in Maoming--Five Facing Trial

    Fourteen Falun Gong practitioners were arrested in Maoming on November 2nd, 2013. Five are still being detained. Families of the arrested practitioners appealed to the authorities to release of their loved ones, but the authorities refused to see them. The police station deputy director claimed that the practitioners would be put on trial.