(Minghui.org) The guards in Shanghai’s Changning Detention Center have been abusing and torturing Falun Gong practitioners with no repercussions. The practitioners are forced to wear yellow vests to be distinguished from regular inmates who wear blue vests. Many of the practitioners suffer severe ailments and are denied treatment. After five months of torture in the detention center, Mr. He Binggang became paralyzed and incontinent, with severe headaches and insomnia.
Torture Targeted at Falun Gong Practitioners
Each guard in the detention center is responsible for the inmates in one to two cells. The guards also choose two inmates, the so-called collaborators, to watch each Falun Gong practitioner around the clock. These collaborators are punished if they step away from the practitioner. They have to report to the guards everything the practitioner does and says. Which cell does a practitioner stay in, who her cellmates are, and the location of their desk and bed, are carefully planned out by the authorities (to make her suffer as much as possible).
The guards talk to the practitioners from time to time and record their conversations so that agents from the 610 Office and Domestic Security Division have a better grip of the personalities and mental states of the practitioners. The information is used to brainwash, persuade, and coerce the practitioners into renouncing their faith.
The practitioners are not allowed to talk to others about Falun Gong or do the exercises at any time. The punishments include not being allowed to watch TV or wash up that evening, or having to sit still for hours. When a practitioner violates the rules, his/her collaborators and cellmates are punished as well. The guards do so to stir up hatred and resentment among the cellmates against the practitioner, so that they actively participate in the persecution. Also, by doing so the guards paint Falun Gong practitioners’ actions of standing up for their rights as being selfish, disrespectful to others, and inconsiderate.
If the practitioners continue to do the exercises or speak up about the persecution, the guards put handcuffs and shackles on them. This way the practitioners can not go to the bathroom on their own, giving the collaborators another excuse to abuse them.
If the practitioners still refuse to cooperate, the guards put them in solitary confinement, where they endure terrible living conditions and are given little food. Many practitioners develop health problems as a result.
The following is a few torture cases.
- Ms. Tu Ming went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution in 2016. Her health declined and she suffered severe skin conditions, with widespread bleeding.
- Ms. Liu Chengying was forced to sit still over a long period of time. This caused unbearable pain in her lower back and legs.
- Mr. He Binggang’s neck was injured five months after he was put in the detention center. The injury caused him to become paralyzed and incontinent with constant head pain.
- Ms. Zhang Yibo developed an abnormal growth in her chest a few months into her detention. The authorities denied her lawyer and family’s request to release her on bail for medical attention, claiming that she was completely healthy. The growth grew quickly and was diagnosed to be cancer. She had a surgery to remove her breast on October 25, 2022.
Environment and Life in the Cell
The detention center cells are about 12 ft (4 m) by 50 ft (15 m). Each cell has a metal gate and a fence. More than ten people are jammed on a 33 ft (10 m) long bed. The inmates sleep in alternating position so one’s head faces the other’s feet. There is a speaker in the cell for the guards to make announcements. Four cameras are installed in the cell, with one on the ceiling, two on the walls, and one on the intercom. There are no blind spots, and the inmates have zero privacy, as they are recorded when they use the toilet, shower, eat, and sleep.
Although there is a sink, bathroom, and shower stall, an inmate can only shower once a week, assuming that he/she did not violate any rules. On average every one got five to seven minutes to wash up each time. With many people waiting in line, hot water runs out quickly, and those in the back have cold water only. The wash-up can be canceled if someone violates the rules. After washing up is the laundry time. If the weather is damp, or there are not enough guards on duty to let people go out to hang the laundry, the inmates will not be allowed to do the laundry.
Daily Routines
The inmates live a military style routine. The guards decide who sits and sleeps where. The inmates wake up at 6:30 a.m. and eat breakfast sitting by the walls after the wash-up. The breakfast often consists of steamed buns and pickles with occasional boiled eggs. If one can’t finish the buns they took, and give them to other inmates, it’s considered a private gift, which is a rule violation. There are only certain times that one can drink water and use the bathroom, and it must be pre-approved by the guards.
Every day the inmates are required to sit for two or three hours with their legs crossed and backs straight. The time is increased to six to ten hours if one is being punished, and his/her time to go out for fresh air, wash up, do laundry, and watch television are revoked.
Those who are not being punished can move around, read, and eat food they purchase. If an inmate’s family bribes the authorities, he/she is allowed a monthly purchase of additional food and daily necessities. The meals supplied in the detention center is not enough to keep one full, and the inmates often need to buy extra food on their own.
Lunch time starts at 11 a.m. followed by an hour of nap time. Outside of the cell is a small 13 ft by 13 ft (4 m by 4 m) area where the inmates can go out for ten minutes to get sun and fresh air, and move around, assuming that the weather permits and there are enough guards on duty to watch them. When most of the guards leave for holidays, the inmate do not get to go out.
The inmates watch TV in the afternoons and evenings. Most of the programs in the afternoons praise the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for fighting the Japanese or the Nationalists during wartime. In the evening the inmates watch news and drama from the CCP’s mouthpiece until they go to bed at 9:30 p.m.
Going out to get fresh air and watching TV are privileges that are given to the inmates if no one upsets the guards or violates the rules.
Twisted Derogatory Rules
Most of the guards take off during extended holidays. The inmates are asked to sign agreements promising to voluntarily follow the rules when only a few guards are on duty. After the guards come back from the holidays, they watch the surveillance videos and judge how the inmates have behaved. If someone did not strictly follow the rules, his/her entire cell is punished, by requiring sitting or standing for long hours, and their basic rights such as doing laundry and washing up are canceled.
When an inmate is punished by being required to sit still for hours, sometimes up to ten, he/she has to face a wall and is not allowed to talk to others. The rules prohibit inmates from giving others anything without the guards’ permission, even if they just want to help each other out. The rules also require inmates to call each other by the numbers assigned to them, and to never ask others about their cases. This prevents the inmates from becoming close friends.
The rules encourage the inmates to report on one another. After a while, the inmates either stop talking to others, or actively speak ill of others.
If an inmate files complaint against a guard, it often leads to the inmate being picked on by other guards, as the guards protect one another.
Arbitrary Punishment
The guards punish the inmates at will. The inmates can have their points take off if they speak up when not asked, sing when they go out for fresh air, talk or laugh loudly, not wear their pants properly, not tidy up their belongings or fold their towels neatly, not answer roll calls loud enough, stretch their legs too far, misplace their belongings, not sit on their designated spots, ask to use the bathroom outside of allowed time, or other trivial reasons.
Humiliation
A new inmate is ordered to take off all his/her clothes when a guard comes into the cell to explain the rules. The inmates usually have their cells searched once every one or two weeks. When the guards come for the search, the inmates need to display everything they have, strip off their clothes, put down their hair, take off their socks, open their mouths with tongues sticking out, and jump repeatedly. The guards ransack their food and clothing, and mix up their belongings at will.
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