Welfare Home Used to Persecute Falun Gong Practitioners

The Yuhong District Political and Legislative Commission of Shenyang City has been using their welfare home to hold brainwashing sessions to persecute practitioners since October 1999. A person surnamed Cui from the Political and Legislative Commission is in charge of the persecution there. The police arrest practitioners without due process. In addition, the perpetrators extend practitioners' prison terms without due process. Some practitioners' families are extremely anxious to get their relatives released. Both the Political and Legislative Commission and the Public Security Bureau take advantage of these families and extort huge amounts of money, forcing them to pay so-called "Guarantee Fees" and "Appreciation Fees." In some cases, the fee can be as high as ten thousand yuan.

Picture 1: Yuhong District Welfare Home in Shenyang City. The four rooms at the end of the third floor (on the right) are used to detain Falun Gong practitioners.

The Yuhong District Welfare Home of Shenyang City, also known as the "Yuhong District Shelter and Dispatching Station," is in Ganguang Village, Yangtu Town in the Yuhong District of Shenyang City, postal code 110027. It is a shelter for the mentally disabled, the mentally disturbed, the elderly, the indigent, those persons physically vulnerable, discarded babies, and migrants. The living conditions are substandard, and people often die in the home. Since October 1999, the Political and Legislative Commission has used this place to detain local practitioners. They told the public that it was a "Required Class for Falun Gong Practitioners."

The police locked the practitioners on the first floor of the welfare home, which was designed as a morgue and also as a place of confinement for the insane. The blankets they gave practitioners were so thin that you could see through them. The blankets still had visible stains from human waste and a horrible smell. Practitioner Ms. Yang Yan was an ethnic Hui. People of Hui ethnicity traditionally do not eat pork, but the police forced her to eat pig intestines and locked her in the morgue. Her hands and feet were covered with blisters from the freezing temperature. Only when she became mentally disordered from the torture did the perpetrators finally decide to release her. Unfortunately, soon after she returned home, she fell from a building and died.

1. The First Brainwashing Session

Cui, from the Yuhong District Political and Legislative Commission, was in charge of the brainwashing Falun Gong practitioners incarcerated at the welfare home. The perpetrators also included a person with the surname Pu from the Yuhong District Procuratorate, Fu Guo from the Interrogation Section of the Yuhong Branch Public Security Bureau, a person with the surname Zhen from the local police station, and police from the Yuhong District Court.

From October 1999 to May 2000, more than twenty practitioners were detained here, including Ms. Lin Lijuan, Mr. Li Hongsheng, Mr. Li Haitao, Mr. Wang Chunyi, Mr. Zhao Mingjun, Mr. Li Guozhu, Mr. Li Tiekun, Mr. Jin Wanyi, Mr. Yang Guocheng, Mr. Li Yaohua, Mr. Guo Zhenggang, Ms. Dang Xiuyun, Ms. Wang Guiqing, Ms. Yang Yan, Ms. Tang Fengyan, Ms. Lu Changqian, Ms. Li Shuzhen, Ms. Lu Changhong, Ms. Gao Fengjun, Mr. Gao Chili, Ms. Chen Xiufan, Ms. Zhang Lijuan, Ms. Cai Mingzhen, Ms. Wen Yinglian, Ms. Zhao Guojuan, and a practitioner from the Bajiazi area. Some practitioners were detained beyond their terms at the detention centers and then transferred to the Yuhong District Welfare Home for further detention and persecution. Some practitioners were abducted from their homes and taken directly to the home. Police from Yuhong District Court and the Yuhong Branch Public Security Bureau beat practitioners Guo Zhenggang, Wang Chunyi and Li Haitao for doing the Falun Gong exercises.

Some practitioners were detained on the third floor. Practitioners who were regarded as steadfast were detained on the first floor. There were three rooms on the first floor, used as a morgue and to lock up the severely mentally ill. The beds in the rooms were covered with thin, stained and smelly threadbare cotton blankets. The morgue used to detain Falun Gong practitioners had one window that was missing the glass. It was winter, and the frigid wind blew into the room making it unbearably cold. When a police officer from the Yuhong District Procuratorate used a piece of plastic to cover the window, Cui cursed him severely.

A section head surnamed Guang from the Yuhong Branch Public Security Bureau and policeman Sun Miao of the Shenyang City Public Security Bureau locked 39-year-old practitioner Ms. Lu Changqian in the first room on the first floor, saying that she was an important criminal. There was a corpse in the next room and a mentally ill person in the other room. Later, the persecutors put a mental patient into Lu Changqian's room. Ms. Lu's family strongly protested this action, and eventually the persecutors separated them by taking the patient out of the room.

The police forced Ms. Yang Yan, an ethnic Hui, to eat pig intestine, which is against Hui tradition. Ms. Yang was locked in the morgue. The extreme cold caused her hands and feet to swell, turn purple and blue, and blister. She was tortured until she became mentally disordered. Soon after she was released, she died as a result of a fall from a building

Other practitioners detained on the first floor were: Li Hongsheng, Li Haitao, Dang Xiuyun, Wang Chunyi, Wang Guiqing, Zhao Mingjun, Tang Fengyan, Li Guozhu, Li Tiekun, Jin Wanyi and others.

During their detention at Yuhong District Welfare Home, practitioners were threatened in order to get them to write the Guarantee Statement. The persecutors intimidated them, saying that if the practitioners did not compromise their principles and write the statement, they would not be released. When any practitioner was released, they extorted money from their family. The family had to pay the persecutors the full amount for the practitioner's meal expense of 600 yuan per month, even though the food was extremely poor.

In May 2000, the Yuhong District Political and Legislative Commission temporarily canceled the brainwashing session.

2. The Second Brainwashing Session

As Jiang's persecution of Falun Gong continued, all levels of government and related units followed the dictator and kept on persecuting Falun Gong.

On July 5, 2000, the Yuhong District Political and Legislative Commission realized that July 22, the anniversary of the start of the persecution of Falun Gong, was approaching. In order to prevent practitioners from appealing for Falun Gong in Beijing, they sent out orders to abduct practitioners and to bring them to the Welfare Home. Their plans met with strong resistance and protest from practitioners and their families. Most practitioners were not taken away, but a few practitioners were taken to the Welfare Home by force or by deceit.

About fifteen practitioners were taken to the Welfare Home: Ms. Zhang Yulan, Ms. Qi Fenglan, Mr. Zhang Changlin, Mr. Chen Jun, Ms. Jin Cai, Mr. Zhang Rucheng, Ms. Yao Shumei, Ms. Zhang Lijuan, Ms. Cai Minzhi, Ms. Chen Xiufan, Ms. Tang Fengyan and her mother, Mr. Jin Wanyi, Mr. Zhao Mingjun and Mr. Guo Zhenggang. Among them, Zhao Mingjun and Guo Zhenggang were transferred from the Shenyang City Administrative Detention Center, which is located in the Fangjialan Area of the Dongling District and also known as the Fifth Detention Center. The perpetrators had sentenced them to forced labor and were waiting for approval to send them to Masanjia Forced Labor Camp.

Seven police officers were dispatched to the brainwashing session from the police stations of Industry and Trade, Tax, and Real Estate, which were affiliated with the Yuhong Branch Public Security Bureau, and from the Yuhong District Procuratorate, Court and Law Bureau. A person from the Political and Legislative Commission was in charge.

This brainwashing session was terminated on August 11, 2000, after extorting 600 yuan for "meal expenses" from each practitioner.

3. The Third Brainwashing Session

Around the Spring Festival of 2001, the Yuhong District Political and Legislative Commission held the third brainwashing session at the Yuhong District Welfare Home with help from the "Brainwashing Assistance Group" of the Zhangshi Forced Labor Camp in Shenyang City. The police let the members of the group use violence at their own discretion to torture practitioners. To make room for detaining and persecuting more Falun Gong practitioners, the police got rid of the beds in the rooms and just threw some dried grass on the floor for practitioners to sleep on.

The police thought that the violent brainwashing was successful and effective. In May 2001, officials from the Huanghai Police Station of Yuhong District's Public Security Bureau abducted Ms. Gao Fengjun, Ms. Li Shuzhen, Mr. Chen Jun, Ms. Jin Tian, Ms. Ma Xiaoxuan, Ms. Qi Fenglan, Mr. Zhang Changlin and other practitioners and took them to the brainwashing session at the Welfare Home. Cui, from Yuhong District Political and Legislative Commission, was in charge of the brainwashing center.

Exposing Shenyang City's Tiexi District Detention Center Where Practitioners Wang Jinzhong and Gao Lianyi Were Tortured to Death

The Tiexi District Detention Center in Shenyang City is a dispatch station for detaining male Falun Gong practitioners. The living conditions and food are extremely poor. The detained practitioners were forced to "sit on the board" (1) for a long time every day. On June 13, 2004, 48-year-old practitioner Wang Jinzhong from Shenyang City was sent here for persecution. He was tortured to death after being detained for 24 days.

Picture 2: Tiexi District Detention Center in Shenyang City where practitioners Wang Jinzhong was tortured to death

The administration of the Tiexi District Detention Center is a ruthless place. In a single month in 2003, two prisoners in the same cell were beaten to death. Other prisoners died because of lack of timely medical treatment. If a prisoner was sick and it was reported to the guards, the guards usually answered, "Is he dead? If not, do not report it to me."

The practitioners who were tortured to the edge of death were not released. Instead, they were sent to Liaoning Provincial Prison Management Hospital located in Shenyang's "Prison City" for further persecution. The perpetrators also did this to try to avoid responsibility. In September 2004, practitioner Mr. Gao Lianyi, a 34-year-old taxi driver from the Tiexi District of Shenyang City, was transferred from the Tiexi District Detention Center to the hospital. He was tortured to death in the hospital.

Address of the Tiexi District Detention Center of Shenyang City:

66 Qinghai Road, Yuhong District of Shenyang City

Postal code: 110027

Report hotline: 86-24-25918209

(1) Sit on the Board: Every day, practitioners are forced to sit on a bench with their hands in their laps, backs straight, for 18 hours a day. This continued for over fifty days. The authorities even limited practitioners' use of the restroom. Because of the long time spent sitting on such hard benches, practitioners' buttocks developed large sores that were very painful. Practitioners could not urinate normally because of the pain. The labor camp was very damp, but the police would not provide practitioners with proper ventilation or the chance to get some sunlight. The practitioners were locked up for so long that countless red scabies grew all over their bodies. They were unimaginably itchy and painful.