Name: Zhuang Xiachang (庄虾昌)
Gender: Male
Age: 52
Address: Shanwei, Guangdong Province
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: May 8, 2002
Most recent place of detention: Sihui Prison in Guangdong Province (广东省四会监狱)
City: Sihui
Province: Guangdong
Persecution Suffered: Detention, home ransacked, extortion, interrogation, beatings, forced labor, torture, brainwashing.
(Clearwisdom.net) Mr. Zhuang Xiachang from Shanwei, Guangdong Province, started practicing Falun Gong in 1998. On May 8, 2002, he was framed by the 610 Office and detained for four months. In the summer of 2003, he was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. On January 15, 2004, he was transferred to the Sihui Prison in Guangdong Province. People at this prison used all kinds of methods to force him to give up his belief.
Mr. Zhuang Arrested and His Home Ransacked
Mr. Zhuang was illegally arrested by agents from the 610 Office, National Security Team, Domestic Security Bureau, and the Political and Security Section in Shanwei District on May 8, 2002. Over ten people, including policemen He Huixiong, Li Ziqun, Su Zhengrong, Ren, and others, ransacked Mr. Zhuang's home, and confiscated a motorcycle. When they did not uncover any "evidence" of Falun Gong activities, they covertly planted illegal drugs while Mr. Zhuang's son and wife were not looking. The police ransacked their home again at night on the same day.
Mr. Zhuang was detained at the District Detention Center for four months. Policemen interrogated him constantly. They also secretly designated criminals to beat up Mr. Zhuang.
Mr. Zhuang was sentenced to a two-year term in a forced labor camp in March 2003. He was asked to sign a sentencing document, but refused.
In April 2003, the police brought out an arrest warrant and asked Zhuang to sign it, but Mr. Zhuang refused again. In May, Mr. Zhuang was sent to Haifeng County Detention Center. They tried to force him to do physical labor making artificial flowers every day, but he refused. The guards then designated criminals to beat him several times a day. They also forced Zhuang's family to send them money and goods. Soon after, the District court sentenced Zhuang and another Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Wen Jianmin, who was a judge in Shanwei Intermediate Court before being arrested. Mr. Wen was sentenced to four years, and Mr. Zhuang to three and a half years. Both appealed and disclosed the persecution they suffered in the process. On January 15, 2004, they were both sent to Sihui Prison in Guangdong Province.
Brainwashing Methods Used in Sihui Prison
Once the two practitioners arrived at Sihui Prison, their personal belongings were all taken by other prisoners. On January 21, 2004, guards tried to force them to go to the hall for roll call, but they refused. Guards designated around twenty prisoners to drag them to the drill ground, and beat them for about forty minutes.
Guards later designated four criminals to be a monitoring group, to watch over Mr. Zhuang around the clock, and force him to work from 6:00 a.m until midnight. The four inmates wrote reports for each of the guards, documenting Mr. Zhuang's every action and expression in detail. Meanwhile, guards forced Mr. Zhuang to watch videos denouncing Falun Gong every day in an attempt to brainwash him. The guards also asked people who had given up Falun Gong forcibly to help brainwash Mr. Zhuang, and did not allow anyone else to talk to him.
On March 7, 2004, Mr. Zhuang was sent to the Eighth Ward for forced labor, but he refused to comply. In July, guards designated another four criminals to carry out the physical abuse. The four criminals were Li Baogui (drug trafficking, stay of execution), Tang Haibing (drug trafficking, life imprisonment), Yang Jingli (drug trafficking, sentenced for fifteen years) and Deng Xiangdong (corruption, sentenced for five years). They attempted to get Mr. Zhuang to stand against a wall for 16 hours a day, but Mr. Zhuang refused. The criminals then punched him, kicked him, forced him to sit on a tiger bench, and shackled him. They tried to force Mr. Zhuang to give up his faith, but he cried out "Falun Dafa is good," and "Falun Dafa is righteous." The guards and criminals then closed the windows immediately since they were afraid others would hear it.
Mr. Zhuang was tortured to the point that he could not walk. He was then sent to a prison hospital. Six days later, he was sent to the logistics ward, where mainly Falun Gong practitioners were detained, and he was watched around the clock. Videos denouncing Falun Gong and other religions were broadcast continuously, in attempts to brainwash him and torture him mentally.
The guards were unsuccessful in brainwashing Mr. Zhuang. They subsequently went to Mr. Zhuang's home, and videotaped Mr. Zhuang's mother and children secretly. After they returned, they broadcast the video continuously, trying to shake his belief and attempting to get at him emotionally through affection for his family. However, they failed again.
The guards then sent a person named Nan Shaoguo, who pretended to be a Falun Gong practitioner, to brainwash Mr. Zhuang. Nan said he had been practicing Falun Gong since 1996, and that his wife and mother both died because of practicing Falun Gong. Mr. Zhuang asked him to recite Master Li's articles, like Lunyu and "The Knowing Heart," but Nan did not know either one. Mr. Zhuang then asked him to recite anything he remembered, but Nan did not know anything, including the Falun Gong exercises. Mr. Zhuang said, "You are not a Falun Gong practitioner. Who are you?" Nan then left.
The guards could not force Mr. Zhuang to give up his belief. On May 8, 2005, Mr. Zhuang was released from Sihui Prison.
List of perpetrators:
The Eighth Ward of Sihui Prison:
Zhang Shiming, CCP secretary
Li Zhengwen, instructor
Zou Beixiu, Li: guards
Logistics Ward Special Center:
Liu Zhucheng, deputy ward leader
Liu Tian, team leader
Zhu Shaodong, guard
