Ms. Zhang has served six years of a nine year sentence. Ms. Zhang's husband was also sentenced and imprisoned because he practiced Falun Gong, and he was later tortured to death, leaving their 9-year-old son without parents to care for him.

A former prisoner outlines the methods of mental and physical torture used in Tianjin Women's Prison.

Conditions in this labor camp include long work hours, monitoring of practitioners by criminal inmates, term extensions and torture.

Ms. Zhang Li Tortured to the Brink of Death at Harbin Women's Prison

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Zhang Li, from Shuangyashan City, Heilongjiang Province, was sentenced to nine years in prison by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities. She has been currently been detained for six years at the Harbin Women's Prison. Ms. Zhang's husband was also sentenced and imprisoned because he practiced Falun Gong, and he was later tortured to death, leaving their 9-year-old son without parents. Ms. Zhang Li has been on a hunger strike since March 7, 2008, and she is currently at the brink of death.

Many of Ms. Zhang's family members went to the Harbin Women's Prison to visit Zhang Li from a place 500 kilometers (311 miles) away. The prison authorities permitted only her mother-in-law, who is in her seventies, and her 9-year-old son to meet with Zhang Li. The other family members were not allowed to make contact with Ms. Zhang.

After meeting with her, Ms. Zhang's mother-in-law said that Zhang Li's life was in danger. Ms. Zhang's family then strongly requested that prison authorities release her immediately, but the authorities at the prison said they could not release her. Her family requested that the Harbin Women's Prison show a written guarantee for the safety of Zhang Li's life, but the prison authorities refused their request and said, "You can go anywhere to accuse us. We cannot release her." Ms. Zhang's family members requested to meet with the prison head and deputy head, but they were refused.

The next morning her family members went to the Prison Administration Bureau to meet the head, to ask that Ms. Zhang be released, but they were not allowed to meet with the prison head. Personnel from the appeals office took the same tone as the Harbin Women's Prison. They said they could not release her. Her family members tried to reason with them using various approaches, but they were not allowed to speak at all. The family was deceived by being told that they could talk in another room, but they were instead led out the door, and the door was closed and locked behind them. The armed police at the front door stopped them with a gun and did not allow them to go upstairs to meet the head.

Ms. Zhang is now at the brink of death. The Harbin Women's Prison must immediately and unconditionally release Zhang Li.

Tianjin Women's Prison Uses Brutal Persecution Methods on Falun Gong Practitioners

Tianjin Women's Prison authorities have been closely following the Chinese Communist Party's directives the past eight years and have brutally persecuted Falun Gong practitioners. For those who refuse to give up their belief in Falun Gong, the persecution is even more severe. The most common methods of tortures are listed below:

1. Use of threatening conversations to force practitioners to give up their beliefs, bringing pressure and fear to bear on practitioners.
2. Forced brainwashing. Practitioners are forced to watch TV programs that defame Falun Gong every day at a certain time in order to confuse and "transform" them.
3. Forcing practitioners to write the Three Statements (The so-called Repentance Statement, "Guarantee Statement" and "Thought Report Statement"). If the statements do not meet the requirements, the practitioner must write them again.
4. Use of strict monitoring and control. They use monitoring equipment and "personal monitors" to supervise the behavior of practitioners. That means that apart from keeping watch on the movements of Falun Gong practitioners with monitoring equipment, they also arrange for two or more criminal inmates to constantly supervise the behavior of practitioners. They follow them wherever they go, even when they eat, sleep or go to the toilet. Practitioners are not allowed to talk to anyone. They are not allowed to do the exercises or to read Falun Gong books. If they still refuse to give up their belief after a certain amount of mental torture for some time, they will then begin physical torture on the practitioners.
5. Extend prison term at will. When the prison term is up, if they think the practitioner doesn't have a proper attitude, is not transformed completely, or is too stubborn, then they will not release the practitioner and will extend her prison term. By doing that, they want practitioners to know that without giving up their belief, they will not be able to walk out of the prison or may even die there. The purpose is to force practitioners to give up their belief in Falun Gong.

Torture by Starvation

They don't give enough food to practitioners, so practitioners are often hungry every day. They only give two minutes for practitioners to finish their meal. If you haven't finished in two minutes, you must stop eating. Thus, Falun Gong practitioners are starving every day and living in tension. They use this method to weaken a practitioner's willpower. At the same time, they force starving practitioners to do hard slave labor to further weaken their bodies, hoping practitioners will give up their belief under this long-term severe torture.

Physical Torture

1. "Three Straight One Stare" method. The so-called "three straight" means the practitioner's head, chest and lower leg must be dead straight while sitting on a small plastic bench with holes. "One stare" means both of the practitioner's eyes must stare in front of them (or watch a propaganda program on TV that defames Falun Gong or listen to a prison guard teaching a lesson). At the same time, both of the practitioner's hands must be placed on her knees. They would also place an object between her legs. If she dropped that object, she would be beaten. They have to sit like that from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., not being allowed to move for 15 hours. Especially in summer, one would suffer more by sitting on the small plastic bench with holes for a long time. One would sit there until one's bottom was sore and the skin was broken, and that kind of suffering is unbearable. This is a torture method that does not require the person who does the torturing to even move his hand. The prison guards used that method on me for over forty days.
2. Being forced to stay up all night. They would question a practitioner and torture her for the whole night until she could not stand any more and was forced to give up her belief.
3. Brutal beatings. They usually lock up practitioners alone in a small cell and then beat them until they are covered with cuts and bruises all over to try to force the them to give up Falun Gong..
4. Damage from force-feeding. They use injurious force-feeding methods on those practitioners who resist the persecution with a hunger strike. They can force-feed a practitioner any way they like and anytime they like. Some practitioners on hunger strikes were hovering between life and death.
5. Being tied on a "dead person's bed". The four limbs of the practitioner are stretched out and tied to the bed. The practitioner cannot move at all. Neither is he or she allowed to get up to eat or drink. Sometimes they are not even allowed to go to the bathroom, and they have to have a bowel movement in their pants.
6. Torture from coldness. They don't allow practitioners to wear cotton-padded coats or to cover up with cotton-padded quilts on cold days. They cuff the practitioners and let them deliberately suffer from the cold.

For instance, Falun Gong practitioner Xie Guiqing was detained at Tianjin Women's Prison. Because she refused to give up her belief, she was brutally tortured by the prison guards. The prison guards ordered prison inmates and "personal monitors" to lock Xie Guiqing up in a cold, small cell. They tortured her with brutal beatings, making her suffer from coldness, starvation, cuffing, not being given water, not being allowed to go to the toilet and being tied up on the dead person's bed, etc. When Xie Guiqing was trying to resist the persecution with a hunger strike, they injured her by force-feeding and left the tube used for force-feeding in her stomach for a long time. Thus, a healthy person was tortured into a critical condition and was sent to the hospital for treatment. But as soon as she came back to the prison, the prison guards continued persecuting her until she was near death. To avoid taking responsibility, they finally let her family members take her home, but Xie Guiqing died two days after she was released.

Changchun Heizuizi Women's Labor Camp Uses Forced Labor to Produce Airline Food Boxes

The guards at the 5th Ward of Heizuizi Women's Forced Labor Camp in Changchun City beat Falun Gong practitioners and force them to do intense labor for long hours. Each day the practitioners are forced to work for 14 hours, from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. They have to produce various items, including butterfly decorations for the Shouquan Handicraft Limited Company and packaged food containers for China Northern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, and Yanbian Xiangda Airport Limited Company. They have to unload the unfinished food boxes from the vehicle. Practitioners then carry these boxes from the 1st floor up to the 4th floor. They then carry the finished product from the 4th floor downstairs to load it into the vehicle, so they aren't empty handed.

In order to make large profits, the labor camp administration also frequently forces the prisoners to work overtime. Specifically, when Chief Wang Limei and Deputy Chief Su Guiying (both females) are on duty, the prisoners are forced to work overtime. Once when Wang Limei was on duty, they had to paste double-sided stickers on Pepsi Cola posters. Each person had to make 1300 pieces per day and worked overtime, past 2:00 a.m. the next morning. Several practitioners fell down from exhaustion. If one does not complete the stipulated quota, she will be scolded, disciplined, and threatened with an extended imprisonment term.

The labor camp persecutes practitioners using various means, often extending their terms of imprisonment and slave labor. They are not allowed visitations. Practitioner Ms. Zhang Lifen has been taken outside for medical exams three times since she entered the labor camp. Her blood pressure has ranged between 90 - 220. Her life is in danger but the labor camp authorities have postponed her release and forced her to do 14 hours of labor every day. Practitioners Ms. Dong Yuxin and Ms. Mu Xiuxiang's terms had expired, but were extended for ten days. Ms. Hu Song's term was extended for ten days for tearing down pictures defaming Falun Gong practitioners. Ms. Liu Fang and Ms. Wang Yujie's terms were extended for five days for not responding with the proper answer to an exam slandering Falun Gong.

On March 4, 2008, practitioner Ms. Wang Xiufen was beaten mercilessly by wardens Wang Lihui (female) and Su Guiying. Her upper lip needed more than ten stitches. She was put under close monitoring for over ten days. In order to cover up the crime, Chief Wang Limei deceived Ms. Wang Xiufen into acknowledging that she had caused the bruise herself.

In March 2008, female warden Xu Dan slapped practitioner Ms. Xu Cuihua in the face because she practiced the exercises. Practitioner Ms. Gong Qiumin was forcibly handcuffed by guards Wang Limei, Song Fengmei (female), and Zhang Lihong (female) for refusing to let her hand prints be taken. Wang Limei not only slapped Ms. Gong Qiumin in the face, but also forcibly dragged her for a hand imprint.

The labor camp police from the Fifth Team utilized inmates that had been prostitutes and thieves to guard the porch area and monitor Falun Gong practitioners. Every Friday during the cell searches, these monitors seemed to be searching for dangerous materials. They were actually searching for Falun Gong scriptures. Practitioner Ms. Xiao Benying hid the scriptures under her pillow. When she went to the restroom in the evening, these monitors and collaborators found the pages and gave them to the higher level officials. Ms. Xiao's term was extended for ten days. Each time during the body search, warden Wang Lihui put in the most effort. They also frequently searched the workshop and body searched practitioners, including their bras. Warden Xiao Aiqiu insulted and persecuted many practitioners with her scheming and incitement. In July 2007, the prostitutes guarding the porch area discovered some Falun Gong materials belonging to 64-year old Ms. Shang Yuqin. The gang was helping the wardens to directly do bad deeds against Falun Gong practitioners. Chief Wang Limei and Warden Wang Lihui handcuffed Ms. Shang Yuqin's hands to a bed and electrically shocked her for more than two hours.