(Minghui.org) A resident of Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, was sentenced to three years in November 2021 for practicing Falun Gong, a mind-body discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since July 1999.
Ms. Wang Chunyan is currently serving time in Team 609 at Division 8 in Heilongjiang Women’s Prison and has been subjected to various forms of torture, including being forced to sit on a small stool, deprived of sleep and restroom use, beatings, verbal abuse, humiliation, and being forced to watch videos that slandered Falun Gong.
Arrested and Sentenced
Ms. Wang, 55, was arrested on April 19, 2021, with three other Falun Gong practitioners, Mr. Hou Haichao, Mr. Nian Jingsheng, and Ms. Niu Nana. Yang Bo, the deputy director of the Heilongjiang Province Domestic Security Office, ordered the group arrest.
A month later, all four practitioners were released on bail but were later arrested again. Their arrests were approved on June 10, and Ms. Wang was sentenced to three years by the Railroad Court in November 2021.
The police held Ms. Wang at Harbin No. 2 Detention Center without informing her family. Her child finally found her after searching for her across the city. Practitioners who are detained there are denied visitation rights and they have to buy the daily necessities of poor qualify at significantly marked-up prices.
Tortured in Prison
Cell 610
Ms. Wang was transferred to the training division in Heilongjiang Women’s Prison in early 2022. After one month of quarantine, she was assigned to Team 610 in Division 8. Yuan Jingfang, the team leader, has been actively involved in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. Before Ms. Wang and 20 other practitioners were assigned to the division, the guards adjusted the ratio of inmates and practitioners here to further persecute the practitioners.
Upon arriving at Division 8, Ms. Wang was body-searched. All her belongings were inspected and some were arbitrarily thrown away. Ms. Wang and other newly admitted practitioners were separated and taken to various rooms, such as a clothes drying room, warehouse, restroom, water room, bathroom, and hall, to be tortured.
The winter in Northeast China is very cold and the newly admitted practitioners did not have warm clothes with them. Most of them wore slippers and thin clothes. Though the restroom, water room, and warehouse were already cold, the guards left the windows open to freeze the practitioners. There, the practitioners were beaten, forced to stand, not allowed to sleep or drink water, and made to sit on small stools without moving.
Ms. Wang was taken to the restroom and made to sit on a small stool while holding back her urine and being slapped by an inmate. Some practitioners were forced to sit on the stool from morning to midnight or dawn. The next day, they were taken to another covert place and made to sit on the stool again. They were also ordered to write guarantee statements to renounce their faith. Practitioners were tortured this way every day.
There are CCTVs everywhere in Division 8 with no blind spot, however, no guards showed up when the inmates were torturing the practitioners. Neither do the inmates have to ask the guards for permission when torturing the practitioners. They were rewarded with food, daily necessities, clothes, an increase in talk time with family, or a reduction of sentences for their active participation in persecuting the practitioners.
Team 609
After a month at Team 610, Ms. Wang was transferred to Team 609 in February 2022. The team leader, Li Yuan, was originally in Division 3 and has a venereal disease. She was transferred to Division 8 after being hospitalized for more than a year. Despite Li still suffering from the disease, the guards made the practitioners stay with Li in the same cell. Li was transferred to Team 508 in November 2021 and appointed as the team leader of Team 609 in February 2022.
Ms. Wang was assigned to the upper bunk bed at Team 609. She greeted another practitioner, Ms. Gao Shuying, and this short conversation was witnessed by Li who then instructed Ms. Wang to move her belongings to another bed in the other corner of the room. Ms. Gao’s bed was by the window, while Ms. Wang’s bed was separated by a drain and is the furthest away from Ms. Gao. Li instructed the inmates monitoring both practitioners to watch them and make sure they do not talk with each other or give anything to each other. If so, the inmates would be punished.
Upon arriving at the prison, the prisoners’ belongings are first inspected at the prison gate and some of the items might be thrown away. The belongings are inspected again at the training team, and again at Division 8 and at their assigned cells. By the time the prisoner arrives at their cell, they would be left with extremely few belongings. Some of the items are thrown away if they are prohibited, and some expensive items are confiscated by the guards or inmates for personal use.
When Ms. Wang first arrived at the prison, she had to borrow daily necessities, clothes, and a blanket from the prison. She and many newly admitted practitioners weren’t given a thermos flask, a basin, stool, or warm clothes either.
In an attempt to make the newcomers renounce their faith, the team leaders and inmates forbid other practitioners from sharing their items with them. The newcomers were also not allowed to contact their families or buy daily necessities. Practitioners who were unable to contact their families had to borrow items from others. But the team leaders and inmates forbid others from lending their items to practitioners who had not written guarantee statements.
Ms. Wang was forced to sit on a small stool every day and read materials that slandered Falun Gong. She was not allowed to contact other practitioners or look at them. The inmates surrounded her every day to brainwash her. Once, in the evening, Li ordered Ms. Wang to write the guarantee statements. When she refused, Li told other inmates to drag Ms. Wang to the water room and make her sit on a small stool.
Torture illustration: Sitting on a small stool
One day, Li attempted to force Ms. Wang to write guarantee statements and thought reports again. Unable to stand this, Ms. Gao shouted at Ms. Wang and encouraged her not to be afraid of the inmates. Li immediately went over and made Ms. Gao sit on a small stool for two hours.
Afterward, Li dragged Ms. Gao to the small clothes-drying room to persecute her. Ms. Gao was not wearing warm clothes as the cell was warm. The inmates then opened the windows and exposed Ms. Gao to the freezing weather, causing her to shiver. She asked to use the restroom but was not allowed. The inmates threatened to increase her term and deduct her points.
Ms. Gao told the inmates that she didn’t need the points or use of the phone or to go to the supermarket. The inmates then threatened to increase her term and get the police to send her to the brainwashing center and detention center.
At the same time, Ms. Wang was also pressured by the inmates and blamed for causing Ms. Gao to sit on a small stool because she refused to write the guarantee statements. They also told her that they were punished because of her.
Ms. Gao was forced to sit for a day in the small clothes-drying room. She had to hold back her urine from 8 a.m. to noon. After she returned to the cell, Li instructed Ms. Gao to carry the rice from a faraway building to the cafeteria. Ms. Gao was in poor health and ate very little every day. She had difficulty climbing the stairs without feeling out of breath. Li knew this. When Ms. Gao said that she was unable to carry the rice, Li retaliated by putting her on duty for other tasks for two days.
Whoever was on duty was responsible for washing the plates, and utensils, distributing food, and cleaning the doors, windows, glass, water room, restroom, and tiles in the restroom. The person also had to carry the water and wipe the water room and restroom dry after everyone had used the rooms.
To clean the restroom, the person had to use a small brush with some detergent and wipe it clean after washing. For those practitioners who were in poor health due to the torture in the prison, the duty took a toll on their health. When they were tired and needed a rest, Li would purposely start showering, mostly for two hours, and splashing water everywhere.
Li occasionally called other inmates to the cell to threaten practitioners that they could not go home even at the expiration of their terms if they refused to write the guarantee statements. Li also often had meetings with inmates to discuss how they should keep watch of practitioners and how to make the practitioners listen to her instructions. If someone refused to listen to her, the person would be punished, have her points deducted, be made to sit on a small stool, work, or be deprived of sleep. Li often summoned inmates from other teams to pressure the practitioners while she and the inmates on her team would have a meeting in the water room or restroom. The content of the meeting was about how to monitor and persecute Falun Gong practitioners.
On Chinese New Year's eve in 2022, Li scolded the practitioners and inmates on her team. The scolding started as an inmate had brought Ms. Wang to the small clothes drying room to retrieve her undergarments. Practitioners on other teams often retrieved their clothes with an inmate following them. However, Li disapproved of this and threatened to deduct their points and prohibit them from buying things. Ms. Wang tried to explain to Li while the inmate kept apologizing. The inmate eventually apologized to everyone at the meeting and promised that this would never happen again. Li punished the inmate and put her on duty. The inmate also had to carry rice, sweep the snow, throw garbage, sweep the yard, and unload the goods at the supermarket.
For four months, Ms. Wang did not have any payment cards for making phone calls or buying things from the supermarket. She had to borrow from others. She needed her immediate family to show proof of their relationship before they could deposit cash for her. When Ms. Gao and another practitioner were about to be released, they wanted to give their belongings to Ms. Wang but Li forbid them from doing so.
Brainwashing
The head inmate on the sixth floor was changed to Sun Jing on January 2, 2022. Fan Xiumei, the former head inmate, was assigned to the night post.
In the past when the communist regime’s propaganda news was broadcast at 7 p.m. in the lobby, those who did not want to watch the news could remain in their cells. After Sun became the head inmate, she ordered everyone to line up and go to the lobby with their stools. She also forced everyone to sing the CCP songs before the broadcast while she and Yuan Jingfang would watch for any practitioners who did not sing or sang softly. Whoever did not follow her instructions would be punished afterward. During the whole process, no practitioner was allowed to stand next to each other and the inmates must stand between the practitioners. If two practitioners accidentally stood together, they and the inmates would be punished.
Sun also ordered all practitioners to go to the lobby to watch the videos or listen to lectures by other religions. Everyone, even those who were sick, must attend the sessions if they could sit up. The inmates in charge would walk around and criticize those who did not pay attention, or the inmates would also be punished.
Practitioners were also forced to watch propaganda videos every day in the morning and afternoon. After watching the videos, everyone had to share their thoughts. Those who did not meet the expectations of the sharing would be punished. Yuan also taught everyone how to do massage. Practitioners who did not follow would be called out to the front and do it in front of others until the inmates in charge were satisfied.
The inmates had to learn the CCP laws and history once a week at the lobby, and write their experience reports after the sessions. Those who refused to write would be punished. They were also punished if the dates of their reports were incorrect or missing.
Persecution of a 71-year-old Woman
Ms. Li Yuzhen from Daowai District, Harbin City, went missing on June 10, 2021. Her home was turned upside down and her Falun Gong books and pictures were gone. It was later confirmed that she was arrested and her home was ransacked. She was sentenced to four years and fined 10,000 yuan. Like Ms. Wang, Ms. Li was taken to Team 610 at Division 8 in Heilongjiang Women’s Prison in early 2022.
Usually, two bunk beds were pushed against each other along the lengths. Most of the newly admitted practitioners were made to sleep between two other people who each took up a bunk bed. Those who didn’t have a bed would sleep on a mattress on the ground. The mattress was put away during the day.
Ms. Li has some leg problems but was assigned to sleep in the upper bunk beds. However, the inmates claimed that they treated her well.
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Category: Torture of Women
