(Clearwisdom.net) Mr. Chen Changyuan, 48, lives in Jiangbei District, Chongqing City. He was a former staff member at the Yuzhong District Vegetable Company. After he started practicing Falun Dafa in 1996, he was able to relinquish many bad habits such as gambling. Mr. Chen became a good person following the principle of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to persecute Falun Gong on July 20, 1999. During the 2000 Chinese New Year holidays, Mr. Chen Changyuan and his daughter Ms. Chen Yan went to Shapingba District to share experiences with fellow practitioners and clarify the facts about Falun Gong to the public. As a result, he was arrested by officers from the Shapingba District Police Department and detained in Baihelin Detention Center for 15 days.

In May 2000, Mr. Chen went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. He was arrested and detained in Beijing for 3 days. Afterwards, he was taken back to Chongqing City and detained for one month. After that, he was taken to Xishanping Forced Labor Camp for a one year term. In the labor camp, he was detained in the "Strict Control Team." Guard Du Jun claimed publicly that the Strict Control Team is a living hell.

Mr. Chen suffered from hunger in the camp. Each morning, he was only given a very small amount of rice buns to eat. Each day, his food intake was only about 150 grams. He was not given any vegetables or enough water. During the entire summer, he was prohibited from taking a shower and change his clothes. He became dirty and smelly. He was forced to get up at 6:00 a.m. for drill and jogging. From 8:00 a.m. To 6:00 p.m. each day, he was forced to stand in a military pose in the field under the sun. He would be dragged to a shady area for a while after he fainted. After he regained consciousness, he was pulled to be under the sun again. Many practitioners lost a lot of weight because of this type of abuse.

The guards often tortured the practitioners with "Tying the Ropes (1)". The guards pushed the practitioners onto the ground and tied their hands behind their backs. The rope cut deeply into their flesh, and the practitioners were tortured in this manner for 15-30 minutes each time. Mr. Meng Xuetao was disabled by this torture. The arms of Mr. Chen Jianhua, Mr. Kang Hong, and Mr. Cao Xianlu became immobile and there were visible scars from the rope torture a year later. The guards also threatened other practitioners with this form of torture.

The guards put the steadfast practitioners in solitary confinement cells that are completely dark. There is water half way up the legs. The practitioners inside the cell are handcuffed to a rail. The guards place snakes and mice inside. Before, the guards locked some inmates there for at most two to three days before they suffered a mental collapse. The guards have also subjected practitioners to this torture.

In order to force the practitioners to write statements renouncing Falun Gong, some inmates monitored the practitioners under the instigation of the guards. The guards would offer to deduct the inmates' term by two weeks to three months for a practitioner renouncing Falun Gong. In order to gain the term deduction, the inmates resorted to all kinds of ways to abuse the practitioners. The inmates frequently reduced the practitioners' food, prohibited them from going to the restroom or going to sleep. They would punch and kick the practitioners, burn them with cigarette butts, not let them wear warm clothes during the winter, drench them with cold water and prohibit them from taking the wet clothes off.

In the labor camp, Mr. Chen suffered many kinds of torture, such as standing in a military pose for long periods of time, being hung up in the air, being beaten and shocked with electric batons, long-term outside exposure to the heat of summer and cold of winter, and deprivation of food and water. When he still refused to compromise, his term was extended for one year. In 2002, he was released and returned home.

The vegetable company fired him, and he was forced to make a living by doing odd jobs. In May 2006, Mr. Chen talked about Falun Gong and exposed the persecution when he was in a train. He was arrested by the railway police, and detained in a railway detention center in Chengdu City and then the Jiangbei District Brainwashing Center in Chongqing City. Later, he had to move to another city to make a living.

(1) "Tying the ropes" refers to putting a thin nylon rope around the back of a person's neck, and then wrapping it around both shoulders down to each arm loop by loop, and then over each hand. The rope is tightened to its limit and it cuts into the flesh. Both arms are forced behind the back and raised to the extreme, and then both thumbs are tied with a rope and secured to the rope that goes around the back of the neck. The person tortured in this way is then kicked to kneel down on the floor. The rope is released about one hour later, and then the person is tied up like this again a second time, then a third time...See photo illustration on http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/9/18/52553.html, and see pencil illustration: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/10/5/53164.html