(Minghui.org) Ms. Liu Yu’e, 50, of Huaihua City, Hunan Province, was arrested on July 31, 2021, for talking to people about Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. She was taken to Zhongxinyi Elderly Care Center, where she endured three and a half months of torture and was also forced to pay 18,000 yuan for her stay.
After Ms. Liu started practicing Falun Gong in January 2006, she recovered from sinus problems and neurasthenia. Having benefitted from the practice, Ms. Liu wanted to tell people about it, but her simple act resulted in multiple arrests, detention, and a four-year imprisonment. She was also forced to divorce her husband.
Zhongxinyi Elderly Care Center in Huaihua City, Hunan Province
Below is Ms. Liu’s personal account of her most recent persecution.
Physical Exam
Two officers from the Hutian Police Station took me to the Zhongxinyi Elderly Care Center on July 31, 2021, after my arrest. Yang Xiangchun, the head of the aides, and another aide pushed me into the elevator and took me to the psychiatric department on the third floor. They stripped me and ordered me to wear the gown they provided, then took me for a coronavirus DNA test. Because I didn’t cooperate with Yang, she slapped me in the face several times.
They next took me back to the first floor for a CT scan. I refused to cooperate and kept sitting up on the examination table. Unable to do the scan, they took me back to the third floor.
It was already dinnertime, but I refused to eat. I sat in the hallway and told people passing by about the persecution of Falun Gong.
After dinner, I was taken to a room about five square meters with only a metal bed and metal sheets as walls. I heard such rooms were used for people who refused to cooperate or refused to take their medicine.
I also refused to cooperate when a nurse attempted to draw my blood the next morning. A young male aide, Yang Yang, and the head nurse repeatedly slapped me in the face. My face and eyes became swollen immediately. Afterward, whenever they had to draw my blood, they had to get many people to pin me down.
I asked some of the male aides why they had to draw my blood and have a physical. They said it was so they could know what medicine to prescribe to me. I told them that I was healthy and don’t need any medicine.
I was frightened for two reasons: Why would this the elderly care center accept healthy people? Why were healthy people forced to be examined and take medicine?
On November 15, 2021, when I was to be released, the head nurse drew my blood again. She said I was dirty and stepped on me while drawing my blood.
Force-feeding and Sexual Assault
During the few days I was in the small room, I went on a hunger strike to resist the persecution and the nurses inserted a tube from my nose into my stomach and force-fed me water, food, and medicine.
Torture illustration: Force-feeding
I was force-fed again when I went on a hunger strike several days before I was released. They pushed rice into my nose via the feeding tube. In addition to the force-feeding, they also humiliated me by unbuttoning my clothes and pinching my nipples. They also pulled down my pants and pulled my pubic hair. For the three months I was held there, I didn’t cry because of the torture but because of the humiliation
The male aide Yang came the next day to force-feed me again. He said, “I heard your hair below is gone. Now I’m going to pull your hair on top.” As he was force-feeding me, he slapped me in the face. Both he and the head nurse twisted my hair around their hands and hit my head against the metal bed. Much of my hair was pulled out and ended up all over the bed and floor. They also smeared my face with a full bowl of rice. Even after I returned home, my hair still kept falling out.
Forced IVs
The day after I was first force-fed, I was put on an IV. The nurses tied me up to keep me from moving. I was put on drips from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., about two to three bottles.
I was put on a drip again with my second hunger strike, after being force-fed medicine for nearly 20 days. I started eating again when a doctor promised not to force-feed me medicine.
The day I was to be released, I was put on a drip for the third time. The nurses said the drip contained glucose. But before a bottle was used up, my family arrived and I left with them.
When the nurses were preparing for the drip, one of them couldn’t find my vein. Although the head aide Yang wasn’t a nurse herself, she came to stab me, “just for fun.”
Forced to Take Psychiatric Drugs, Jabbed with Needles
I used to suffer from sinus problems, gastritis, and insomnia. Though I was hospitalized and given sleeping pills, no medicine cured me. I couldn’t eat anything sour, sweet, spicy, or cold as I would have a stomachache. Doctors said that surgery wouldn’t cure my sinus problems, and no medicine would help. All my health problems were cured after practicing Falun Gong.
Although I was not sick in the elderly care center, I was tied up in a spread eagle position and force-fed medicine. For every force-feeding, about five or six people had to hold my head, hands, and feet. They pinched my nose and pried my mouth open with a metal spoon. I always had blood all over my mouth. Sometimes the blood splashed on them, and they would hit and verbally abuse me.
Sometimes to prevent me from moving, Yang would lean against me. She weighed over 200 pounds and she almost suffocated me.
Once, when the head nurse couldn’t force-feed me medicine, she instructed other nurses to force-feed me three times a day with the same medicine. They refused to release me or let me use the restroom. They prohibited others from changing my pants if I soiled them. Later, they didn’t force-feed me three times a day as they were lacking manpower.
When I was first force-fed, I heard a nurse asking a doctor if they should feed me medicine and the doctor said yes. I could not resist as I was tied up. At the time, they also jabbed me everywhere with needles, including on my feet and stomach. A nurse once jabbed my feet repeatedly.
A month later, the male aide Yang took me for a physical exam. I told him I was healthy but he dragged me outside while telling other nurses and aides that I refused to cooperate. The nurses then came up and slapped me in the face.
I was often force-fed a white pill the size of a thumb. Many people in the elderly care center also took this drug. The head nurse wanted to feed me this pill three times a day but they only fed me once due to a lack of manpower. This lasted nearly 20 days.
Due to the force-feeding, my tongue and teeth were injured, and I could no longer eat spicy food.
Once, I refused to go for a vaccination and was dragged out. A man responsible for picking up patients twisted my hands behind my back and jabbed me.
Locked in a Small Room
The nurses and aides wanted to weigh me. When I refused to cooperate, they grabbed my hair, slapped me, and put my feet on the scale. They didn’t succeed in the end.
Once, a female doctor and nurse locked me in a small room when I refused to be weighed. I was tied up on a bed for three days. They also forced me to look at naked male patients in other rooms. When I refused to look, aide Yang shifted my bed and I knocked the metal bed to protest, though my hands were handcuffed. Aide Yang was furious. She unbuttoned my clothes and pinched my nipples. They threatened me several times to strip me naked and put me into the room with the naked male patients.
Torture re-enactment: Tied to the bed
Unhygienic Facility
The elderly care center was very dirty. No oil was used to cook the vegetables, and the food was nauseating.
Once, aide Yang told me to wash the bowls and said that the head of the elderly care center would allow me to return home in six months if I helped them wash the bowls and clean the care center. If I refused, they wouldn’t release me for two years. I didn’t cooperate with them.
A Very Evil Place
I also witnessed how other patients were abused in the elderly care center.
There was a woman named Wu Benyu. She was in her 40s and could not take care of herself. She’d been in the care center for over four months after her mother dropped her off. When I first arrived at the care center, Wu would greet me and tell me that she was fed medicine three times a day. She said that she didn’t take any medicine at home. After a period of time, she started to soil her pants and bed. When she died a day after returning home, her mother asked the care center to explain why.
Another woman named Pan Fengying, nearly 60, also told me that she was given medicine three times a day and had to have an exam. She was afraid of taking the medicine but didn’t dare not to as she was afraid of being force-fed. Once, she didn’t swallow the pill, but the head nurse found out and hit her. The medicine made her lose her appetite. Her only wish was to get out alive.
There was a young girl named Fang Fang, who could greet people when she first arrived. She couldn’t talk after taking the medicine for a period of time. She also soiled her bed.
Almost everyone I knew was fine when they arrived in the care center. But after staying here for a period of time and force-fed unknown drugs, they developed true psychiatric conditions.
Once, I saw a few unfamiliar faces. I heard that they did not have any illnesses but lived there to make up the numbers, likely so the care center would have enough “patients” to receive government funding.
There was a man who appeared to be in his 60s. I heard that his train ticket and ID were stolen. He was taken to the care center by the police. Because neither he nor the care center was able to contact his family, he could not get out. He dreamed of his family looking frantically for him and even pasting missing person notices on the streets.
There were also other “patients” who were homeless people, migrant workers, or normal people who’d gotten drunk and gone to the police station to ask for directions. It’s strange to me why the police would take them there, as it’s not a detention center or a social welfare institution. Because these “patients” were completely isolated from the outside world, their families couldn’t find them, and they couldn’t contact their families.
One of the patients was in his 50s. His brother did find him, but because he couldn’t afford to pay the 16,000 yuan in “medical costs,” the center refused to let him go.
It’s also puzzling to me that, with the extensive facial recognition system in China, the police couldn’t easily find out who the homeless people were and contact their families instead of putting them in the center. Did the center keep those people just to make money?
After my arrest, my family and friends looked for me in local detention centers and police stations, but to no avail. They knew where I was after receiving a letter from someone.
My relatives knew I was given the number “7-31,” the date I was admitted and told the care center that they were looking for me.
When I was finally released at my relatives’ insistence, the care center charged me 18,000 yuan for food and medical expenses. The day I was released, they also locked me in the small room, and said that the fee for staying in the room was 200 yuan a day and the service fee for tying me up each time was 50 yuan.
I was also given two hospitalization records when I was released. In the first one dated from July 31 to August 30, 2021, I was described as a schizophrenic who “wandered on the street with abnormal behavior and talked nonsense for more than a year.” Although I’m healthy, I was prescribed the “anti-psychotic” drug Solian.
The first hospitalization record (in Chinese only) (covering July 31-August 30, 2021)
On the second hospitalization record dated September 1 to November 15, 2021, they diagnosed me with “paranoid psychotic disorder.” This time the reason I was admitted became “paroxysmal high or low mood for more than a year, recurrent excitement, and noisy, strange behavior for three days.” It also stated that I was admitted to the hospital on January 24, 2021, even though I was arrested on July 31, 2021.
The second hospitalization record (in Chinese only) (covering September 1-November 15, 2021)
In both documents, I was described as talking nonsense when I tried to clarify the facts about Falun Gong. They claimed that I needed supervision in daily life and lacked self-awareness. The second document also claimed that I had brain atrophy and continued to prescribe Solian for me for ongoing treatment.
Appendix: Ms. Liu Yu’e’s medical bills (in Chinese only)
Related report:
Woman Brutally Tortured at Elderly Care Center in Hunan Province, China
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Category: Torture of Women
