(Minghui.org) Jilin Province Women’s Prison detains Falun Gong practitioners in its Fifth, Seventh, Eighth, Tenth, and Thirteenth Divisions.
The Tenth Division is used primarily to hold the elderly and the disabled. The Thirteenth Division is for the new arrivals, who are held in there for two months of so-called “training,” where they must submit to roll calls, numbering off, marching in formation, and singing songs that glorify the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Then the practitioners are transferred to the Eighth Division.
After practitioners are transferred to the Eighth Division, they are first subjected to a full body search by the guards, which means the practitioner suffers the humiliation of having to take off all of her clothes.
The Eighth Division is specifically used to coerce practitioners to “transform,” or renounce their belief. The practitioners are tortured in all kinds of ways, including being scalded, shocked with electric batons, and slapped in the face. They are also deprived of sleep, forced to do slave labor, not allowed to bathe, forced to sit on a tiny stool or stand for long hours, force-fed, forbidden from using the bathroom, strapped to a death bed, not allowed to have any visitors, and forbidden from communicating with others.
In addition, they are not allowed to buy any personal care products. If they get their period, they are not allowed to use toilet paper. The guards and inmates also confiscate any new clothes they bring with them, spray them with pepper spray, pour water on their bedding, and drag them on wet floor until they are completely soaked.
The guards also subject the practitioners to the elements. In the winter, they open the windows and only let them wear a thin layer of clothing. At night, they have to keep their arms on top of their covers. In the summer, they force the practitioners to wear heavy clothing, and at night, they must use thick blankets and keep their arms under the covers.
The practitioners are also forced to perform skits that slander Falun Gong. The perpetrators also do disrespectful things with photographs of the founder of Falun Gong, such as forcing it into a practitioner’s crotch or making her sit on it or putting it under her mattress. The perpetrators also write words slandering Falun Gong and its founder on the back of practitioners’ clothing. The prison also implemented a system, whereby if one person refuses to “transform,” everyone on that floor will also be punished.
In the Fifth and Seventh Divisions, practitioners are forced to do slave labor. After they are forced to “transform” in the Eighth Division, they will be transferred to one of these two divisions to be subjected to so-called “reform through labor.”
Some practitioners in their 50s and 60s had to lift very heavy buckets of food, resulting in frequent lower back injuries. The practitioner is not allowed to put the bucket down without the guards’ permission. If she does, she is given 10 demerit points and implicates the “mutual support group.” Some elderly practitioners, because their vision was poor or they had slow reflexes, were often forced to transcribe the prison rules or sit for extended periods on a board. This long-term torture caused some practitioners to become pale and emaciated, enduring suffering that they could not talk about.
Below are specific examples.
Ms. Tian Yujie, in her 60s, has only one arm. Because she refused to “transform,” she was subjected to all kinds of torture. After being forced to sit on a small stool for extended periods, she developed serious health problems and had to be hospitalized.
Ms. Sun Qingju, in her 60s, was slapped around the ears while still in the detention center, and she became deaf. She was later sentenced to four years in prison and admitted to the Jilin Province Women’s Prison. She was held in cell seven on the first floor in the Eighth Division. Because she refused to “transform,” she was forced to sit on a small stool until the skin on her buttocks blistered. When she was unable to sit anymore, she was tied to a bed for extended periods of time, causing her to suffer a mental breakdown. While she was in the hospital, she drank her own urine, stripped off all her clothes, and spoke nonsense.
Ms. Zhang Shurong refused to “transform” and went on a hunger strike for 45 days to protest. During her hunger strike, the Eighth Division arranged a few inmates who subjected her to force-feeding in shifts. They also didn’t let her bathe or wash her clothes, so she had foul body odor. Despite all this, Ms. Zhang persisted in her hunger strike. The guards later took her to a secret location, and after that she started to eat again.
Ms. Jin Min, 59, was admitted to the Jilin Province Women’s Prison in September 2022 to serve a six-year term. The Eighth Ward has a so-called “breakout team” made up of about a dozen inmates. This group mainly consists of cell chiefs from each prison cell and targets Falun Gong practitioners who resist. When they hear someone yell “Breakout!” they rush to the scene and attack the practitioners.
Ms. Jin was pinned to the ground and beaten by the “breakout team” until her face was swollen and bleeding. Her systolic blood pressure rose to more than 200 mmHg, which eventually led to cerebral thrombosis and aphasia. Warden Jiang Wei shoved a flashlight into her mouth and forced her to take medication.
Ms. Li Cuiling, 58, was serving a five-year prison term. During her time in the new-arrivals division, she was pepper-sprayed and shocked with an electric baton for refusing to squat down, cover her head, or count off. She was transferred to the Eighth Division in May 2023. Because she refused to “transform,” she was forced to sit on a small stool each day for around 20 hours. She was not allowed to have contact with or speak to anyone. She could not shower, brush her teeth, or wash her clothes and was not allowed toilet paper. She was only allowed to go to the bathroom three times a day.
Sitting for extended periods on the small stool made the flesh on her buttocks fester. The inmates assigned to monitor her poured salt water on her wounds every day. Because she was not allowed to wash for such a long time, she smelled so bad that the inmates assigned to monitor her would have to cover their noses. Because her buttocks were so badly injured from sitting, she was then forced to stand from 4 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day. This caused swelling in her legs and blisters on her feet. She was unable to squat to use the toilet. Witnesses observed her kneeling on the ground to use the toilet.
On one occasion, unable to endure the inhumane torture, Ms. Li yelled, “Falun Dafa is good!” She was immediately pinned to the ground by the inmates assigned to monitor to her and several former practitioners. They beat her until her face was bloody with scratches and gashes.
Ms. Li was frequently abused and assaulted by inmate Li Mingzhu, but the guards never intervened. The guards later sent her for a psychiatric evaluation, attempting to treat her as a psychiatric patient and forcefully administered psychiatric drugs to her.
Ms. Wu Xiuqin, in her 50s, was wrongfully sentenced to four years in prison. She was forced to sit on a small stool for 18 hours a day, causing the skin on her buttocks to become badly chafed. The inmates assigned to monitor her used the torture method “cleaning the floor” where they pour water on the floor and pull a practitioner through the water until their clothing becomes completely soaked. They also subjected her to verbal abuse, while the guards turned a blind eye. A captain named Gao Ying pepper-sprayed her.
Once, six inmates under the direction of the guards put Ms. Wu into a separate cell. They tore off her padded jacket and padded trousers, leaving her in a thin layer of undergarments. They then took her socks and insoles and threw them away before opening the windows and exposing her to the freezing cold. The monitors were all wearing two layers of padded cotton jackets and holding thermoses of hot water.
During this time, an inmate assigned to monitor her named Zou Lijuan poured boiling water down Ms. Wu’s pants. Many people heard Ms. Wu screaming for help, “They’re burning me with boiling water! They’re burning me with boiling water!”
That night, large blisters appeared on Ms. Wu’s lower back and hips, and the fluid from the blisters soaked her bedding. A fellow Falun Gong practitioner in the same cell, Ms. Wang Liqing, witnessed the injuries. Ms. Wang had been a guard at Zhenlai Prison in Jilin Province, but because she had refused to renounce Falun Gong, she was sentenced to three years in prison. She was somehow able to report details of the incident to the outside.
Under pressure, warden Zhu Xiaoyan came down to investigate the matter. Inmate Zou admitted burning Ms. Wu and was then put in solitary confinement. She was only held there a few days before being transferred to the hospital on medical grounds and then released soon after.
To retaliate against Ms. Wang for exposing the incident, the guards put her under strict monitoring, and forced her to sit on a small stool every day.
Ms. Wu, on the other hand, developed symptoms of vomiting and disorientation and was unable to eat due to the continued persecution. She was often taken to the hospital.
On one occasion, the inmate on night duty witnessed Ms. Wu vomit all night long, first bile, then a black liquid. This vomiting went on for two months, causing Ms. Wu to become extremely frail and emaciated.
Ms. Nie Yan, in her 60s, was sentenced to two years in prison. While held at the Eighth Division, she was locked in a room and subjected to various forms of physical abuse.
The prison guards didn’t allow her to use the bathroom. When she could no longer bear it, she was forced to relieve herself on the floor. Qi Xin, an inmate assigned to monitor her, would use Ms. Nie’s clothing to wipe up the urine and then throw her clothing away.
Qi would also purposely serve Ms. Nie large portions of food, and if she could not eat it all, Qi would wrap the leftovers in her clothing and then throw the clothing away. In a short time, all of Ms. Nie’s clothing had been thrown away, leaving only her bedding. Eventually, her bedding was also thrown away. Qi and Dai Yu, another inmate assigned to monitor her, forced her to sleep on a bare wooden bed with no mattress or bedding. It was the middle of winter, and the cell didn’t have heat. It was nearly impossible for Ms. Nie to fall asleep.
Dai and Qi also forced Ms. Nie to sit on a small stool for a long time. If she moved just a little, they would verbally abuse and beat her. The two forced her to sit on the small stool every day with her back straight, chest out, head high, and both hands on her knees. After a long time, Ms. Nie could no longer straighten her back, and her buttocks had festered from prolonged sitting.
When Ms. Nie was physically unable to sit any longer, she just lay on the floor. Seeing this, Dai and Qi hurled insults at her and yelled for another team of perpetrators to come over to put Ms. Nie back on the small stool. In the process, the perpetrators fractured her tailbone, causing Ms. Nie such excruciating pain that she had to go to the hospital.
One evening, Dai and Qi verbally abused Ms. Nie so loudly that they woke everyone else on the floor. Other people on that floor expressed their desire to be moved to a different cell. Dai and Qi forced Ms. Nie to stand from early in the morning to late at night, causing her legs to swell. She had little energy to walk and could no longer straighten her back.
Ms. Zhang Minzhi is serving a sentence of unknown length. She was forced to sit on a small stool for prolonged periods and forbidden from using the bathroom, causing her to suffer severe abdominal pain. She was diagnosed with an intestinal obstruction and had to have surgery. She is now fitted with a catheter and a colostomy bag. She is emaciated and her complexion is ashy and haggard. Her spirits are low and she is in intense pain every day.
Another practitioner, whose name is unknown, was pepper-sprayed by captain Gao Yang until she lost consciousness. This practitioner had to be taken to the hospital for emergency care. To cover up the incident, Gao was transferred to the Fifth Division shortly afterward to take charge of the “psychological transformation” team.