Name: Zhang Hui (张会)
Gender: Female
Age: 45
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Pharmacy cashier
Date of most recent arrest: June 21, 2000
Most recent place of detention: Tumuji Forced Labor Camp in Nei Monggol AR (内蒙古图木吉劳教所)
City: Tumuji
Province: Nei Monggol AR
Persecution suffered: Beatings, physical constraint, sleep deprivation, forced labor, forced injections
Key persecutors: Wang Guirong (王桂荣), Luo Jinfang (罗进芳)
(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Zhang Hui worked as a cashier for the Western Medicine Pharmacy at the Huolinhe Coal Mine Group Hospital. Because she practiced Falun Gong, the Chinese Communist regime unlawfully incarcerated her in a forced labor camp. Due to the severe persecution that she was subjected to at the Tumuji Forced Labor Camp, she lost her sanity and was reduced to skin and bones. In late 2000, the authorities released her on a medical parole. She had become so emaciated that it was difficult to recognize her. Her hands shook and she could not eat or drink, and neither could she speak. Even when she slept at night, her mind was in an extremely fearful state.
Before she practiced Falun Gong, Zhang Hui had a serious case of atrophy gastritis. She began practicing in February 1998, and quickly regained her health. Many people who knew Ms. Zhang Hui said that she seemed to be a completely different person.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began persecuting Falun Gong from every angle on July 20, 1999. Zhang Hui was under the surveillance of local authorities, and people followed her on her way to work and back home. Bi Fa, secretary of the Communist Party Committee at Huolinhe Coal Mine Group Hospital, cooperated with the 610 Office in brainwashing and "transforming" practitioners. They tried to force Zhang Hui to give up her belief. Her family and friends, out of fear of the CCP, also tried to force her to give up the practice.
On December 31, 1999, Bao Duleng and others from the Huolinguole City Police Department illegally arrested her and put her in the local detention center for interrogation. She was confined there for two days.
In February 2000, to seek justice for Falun Gong, she went to Beijing to appeal. She was subsequently arrested by police in Beijing. Four days later, her hometown police department sent Bao Duleng (team leader of the Political Security Team), officer Kong Fanlin from the Coal Mine Police Division, and Zhang Xiurong, director of the Pharmacy Department at the Huolinhe Coal Mine Group Hospital, and together the three took her back and detained her for fifteen days.
During her first day after returning to work, managers at the hospital requested that the Coal Industrial Bureau fire her from her job. Another hospital employee, Meng Hulun, was also fired. The hospital instructed Liu Jing, secretary of the CCP affiliated group the Youth League Committee (currently she is the deputy director of the nursing staff in the Gynecology and Obstetrics Department), and Wang Jie (already retired), head of the Birth Control Agency, to closely monitor Zhang Hui. Before being officially fired, she was told to do the cleaning and to write a report about her thoughts.
On June 21, 2000, Zhang Hui went to Beijing to appeal again. She was stopped by police on her way there and sent back, then placed in detention again. That same year, on July 22, she was subjected to forced labor for two years. Along with other Falun Gong practitioners, she was sent to the Tumuji Forced Labor Camp in Nei Monggol Autonomous Region.
At the forced labor camp, all practitioners suffered various degrees of abuse. They were cursed at by guards, constantly monitored, and followed around the clock. They were not even allowed to talk, or cross their legs when sitting down. They also weren't allowed to close their eyes without permission. Even when they used the bathroom, someone had to follow them and keep them under surveillance. The guards often stripped the practitioners' clothes off to search for Master's articles.
In the women's team, the "personal monitors" consist of prostitutes. They have absolute and special power and authority over practitioners. They work with the guards to monitor, control, brainwash, and "transform" practitioners. They force practitioners to do hard, physical labor for no reason. The guards often pressured these "personal monitors," and entice them with reductions of their own sentences, to encourage them to torture practitioners, using methods such as forced squatting or standing for long periods of time, and deprivation of food and sleep, just to name a few.
The Tumuji Forced Labor Camp is actually a farm. The guards force practitioners to do slave labor in order to gain substantial income for the labor camp. Zhang Hui was made to do the task of peeling peppers. She had to break open the pepper and take out the seeds. She worked from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., with an hour break for lunch. Burned by the spicy peppers, her fingers swelled tremendously, and the pain was hard to bear. After a long time working, when she placed the least amount of pressure on her fingers, they would bleed. The hot pepper spice entering the wounds caused enormous pain, a kind of pain that is very hard to describe with words. Although she was already suffering greatly, the guards still had the "personal monitors" watch her. If she was slow or didn't finish her quota, the "personal monitors" beat and cursed her, and administered other physical punishments.
One day in September 2000, Wang Guirong (supervisor in charge of forced brainwashing) and Luo Jinfang, the team leader of the Second Women's Team, called out Zhang Hui. They told her, "Your husband is here to see you." In this way they tricked Ms. Zhang into going to a guard's office, which was actually the room used for torturing Falun Gong practitioners. Newspapers covered the windows. They then tried to force her to "transform" and to write a guarantee statement promising to no longer practice Falun Gong. She refused. Several people in the room then began to beat her. Her pitiful screams were heard outside the room. A prisoner who did odd jobs around the labor camp could no longer bear to hear it, and she wanted to take a look, so with the excuse of delivering water to the room she tried to enter, but they did not let her in. From a crack in the door, she saw a person dressed in a white gown, the prison's doctor. The whole ordeal lasted for more than three hours. Two people carried Ms. Zhang back to her room. It was later observed that her face had swollen out of shape, and was distorted. As time passed, her whole head swelled up so big that one couldn't see her eyeballs, and she was unable to respond to questions.
From that moment on, Zhang Hui always just sat there with no expression on her face. If someone came up to her, she would hold her head with both hands. If someone were to pull her, she would hold onto his/her leg. If no one pulled her, she just sat motionlessly. She accepted the food that was given her, but if no food was given, she didn't know to ask for it. She didn't recognize people, but just murmured nonsensically. She had lost her senses. Nevertheless, the other prisoners still bullied her and claimed that she was just pretending. Even though she knew very well what had happened to Zhang Hui, guard Wang Guirong said, "Look at this, you Falun Gong practitioners become psychos from practicing." Later, it was learned that the guards had injected Zhang Hui with an unknown drug.
At Tumuji Forced Labor Camp, the guards' bonuses are determined by the number of practitioners who give up their beliefs. For so-called "transforming" one practitioner, the guard's bonus is 5,000 yuan. If no one transforms, the guards don't earn any bonus money. In order to obtain bonus money, the guards falsified Zhang Hui's "transformation" document and reported it to the authorities above them. To keep her quiet about it, they injected her with drugs that damaged her central nervous system. In labor camps, injecting unknown drugs into Falun Gong practitioners who refused to capitulate is very common. The people who participated in this torture of Zhang Hui also included Jia Mei, Yin Guijuan, and a few others.
One day, the camp guards directed prisoners to forcefully drag Zhang Hui to the field to weed the green beans. Because she just sat there motionless, the prisoners pushed her to the ground, beat her with their fists and kicked her. She was covered with black and purple bruises, as well as dirt and green bean plants.
In late 2000, due to the efforts of Zhang Hui's family, she was released on a medical parole. When she returned home, she was only skin and bones. She couldn't walk with steady feet, and her hands continually shook. She could neither eat, drink, nor speak. She couldn't even sleep quietly at night because her mind was in an extremely nervous and fearful state. Because of her mental state and her inability to take care of daily chores, her husband divorced her and took everything. After being fired by the company, she filed for retirement for medical reasons. Her sister took Zhang Hui in, under her roof and took care of her.
It's now nine years later, and although Zhang Hui's condition has improved and she is able to take care of herself and daily routines, she still hasn't regained her normal mental state.