(Minghui.org) Hebei Women’s Forced Labor Camp in Hebei Province has been aggressive in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. The guards, headed by deputy director Feng Kezhuang, under the direction of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), have devastated Falun Gong practitioners physically and mentally through humiliation, beatings, solitary confinement, electric shocks, and extended detentions.
Forced “Transformation”
It is illegal to force a citizen of China to renounce his or her belief. However, Hebei Women’s Forced Labor Camp has been knowingly violating this law and is actively involved in “transforming” Falun Gong practitioners by force. When a practitioner is newly detained, other inmates monitor, oversee her activities, and forbid from her talking to others. The collaborators who have renounced their belief in Falun Gong then take turns to attack the practitioner. The practitioner is deprived of sleep, forced to stand still for long periods of time, and abused physically and verbally. The guards even put drugs in the practitioner's food and drink in an attempt to “transform” her. Within a few days, the practitioner becomes mentally weakened and physically exhausted by the intense stress.
In 2012, Falun Gong practitioners Ms. Xie Baofeng, Ms. Wang Kunying, Ms. Yan Guoyan, and Ms. Wang Shulian were detained in solitary cells. For several days in a row, the guards attempted to "transform" them, causing blood pressure increases in Ms. Xie Baofeng, Ms. Wang Kunying, and Ms. Yan Guoyan. Their blood pressures exceeded what the blood pressure monitor could measure. Ms. Wang Kunying and Ms. Yan Guoyan's heart rates went up to 140 beats a minute. To meet the labor camp's transformation "target,” the guards couldn't care less what happens to the practitioners.
When Ms. Wang Shulian was released from a solitary cell, she was beaten until she was black and blue all over. “They are beating me! Help!” is frequently heard in the camp. The guards and the collaborators secretly put drugs into Ms. Yan Guoyan's and Xie Baofeng's food, which enfeebled and eventually incapacitated them. The guards also promised the collaborators that their terms would be reduced for taking part in persecuting practitioners.
The labor camp conducted “performance reviews” every June and December, and offered a 15-day reduction in sentences to “good" detainees. The guards used the reduction in sentences to entice detainees to become their accomplices and thugs. Encouraged and supported by the guards, some detainees abused Falun Gong practitioners. Detainees Yu Haiyan (as a personal monitor of practitioners) from Tangshan City, Chen Xinpu (a collaborator) from Xinji City, and Chen Xiaopeng (another collaborator) from Shenzhou City beat practitioners Ms. Zhang Guirong, Ms. Wang Shulian, and Ms. Yan Guoyan several times. However, the guards on duty played deaf. These detainees who assisted the guards to persecute Falun Gong practitioners were considered “good" detainees in the performance review.
The guards also ordered the practitioners to recite the labor camp regulations and to sing the evil CCP's songs. Practitioners who refused to were made to stand still for long periods of time. When captain Wang Xin was on duty, she often made practitioners stand still in the hall. Sometimes when she was not on duty, she told the guard on duty to make the practitioners on her list stand still. The guards also isolated practitioners from each other and monitored them. They didn't allow practitioners to talk to each other. Every practitioner was monitored around the clock by someone arranged by the guards, even when the practitioner went to restroom, water room, dormitory, or to sleep.
Slave Labor
The labor camp collaborated with factories and forced the detainees to do slave labor to garner large profits for the labor camp personnel. The detainees were often made to work overtime and deprived of rest in the name of “meeting deadlines.” One factory was Hebei Yikang Knitting Co. Ltd. in Linshou County, Hebei Province. Towards the end of 2012, another factory was added to the list. It was a factory in the region of Luquan City and Zhengding City in Hebei Province, manufacturing rice bags for Jinlongyu Rice (Golden Dragon Fish Rice). Everyone had a quota to meet, and the quota kept increasing. Anyone who couldn't finish the quota had to work overtime. The detainees usually had to work overtime when Wang Xin (captain for the 3rd Division) or guard Liu Ziwei or Zhang Ning was on duty.
The labor law is an eight-hour working day. However, in the labor camp, the detainees worked for over eight hours every day. They would work from before 7:30 a.m. until after noon. Then they worked in the afternoon. Sometimes, the lunch break was canceled, and the detainees had to either work straight through or do house cleaning. Everyone was exhausted at the end of the day.
The detainees created jingles to describe their life: “Get up earlier than the roosters, go to bed later than the dogs, eat meals worse than the pigs, and work harder than the cattle.” Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Zhang Guirong from Yanshan County, Hebei Province, was detained in the 3rd Division. She was beaten many times. When Ms. Zhang first arrived at the labor camp, she refused to do the forced labor. Wang Xin, the captain of the 3rd Division grabbed her by her hair, threw her against the wall, and struck her in the face. Then Wang Xin ordered other detainees and collaborators, including Chen Xiaopeng, Zhao Xueping, and Zhang Gaiye, to beat Ms. Zhang. For a period of time, Zhang was forced to work overtime until 1 or 2 a.m. When Ms. Zhang later refused to work overtime, she was made to stand still for a long time. The guards also ordered Yu Haiyan, a detainee who assisted in monitoring practitioners, to beat Ms. Zhang, leaving her with a limp.
The labor camp published a list of “model workers” every month to encourage the detainees to work hard and make more profits for the camp. The detainees on the list were rewarded with incentives such as a piece of soap and a reduction of their sentence by five days. Such incentives indeed worked for some detainees.
The Camp Abused Its Power and Arbitrarily Extended the Terms of Falun Gong Practitioners
The CCP Constitution lays out the legal process to be followed if a citizen's personal freedom is to be limited. However, the guards in Hebei Women's Forced Labor Camp have never taken the law into account. They abuse their positions and arbitrarily, illegally extend the terms of Falun Gong practitioners who refuse to be "transformed" or continue to detain practitioners after their term expires. When the practitioners asked why their terms were extended, captain Wang Xin replied, “Did you sing the required songs? Did you recite the camp regulations?” Some guards cited orders from their superiors.
On August 7, 2011, practitioners Ms. Hao Guangmei, Ms. Liu Suran, Ms. Zhang Chunxian, and Ms. Huo Yuping refused to work in protest of their arbitrarily extended terms. Guards Wang Xin and Lu Yaqin forced them to stand still in the hall for one week. On August 15, guards Lu Yaqin and Liu Ziwei brutally beat several practitioners and shocked them with electric batons. Deputy director Feng Kezhuang and several male guards from the camp management office came to encourage them. Ms. Zhao Ye, 42, was violently beaten and electrically shocked until her right arm was disabled. She became emaciated and didn't receive any care. Near death, she was carried out of the labor camp and passed away in 2012. Her story was reported by Minghui.
The guards understand that it is illegal to arbitrarily extend practitioners' terms. From May 2011 to November 2012, although they extended Falun Gong practitioners' terms, they never dared to announce this to the public. It was confirmed that the following practitioners' terms were illegally extended by the guards:
Ms. Qi Junling from Hengshui, term extended by 36 days by guard Zhang Ning;
Ms. Huo Yuping, term extended by 22 days by guard Liu Ziwei;
Ms. Zhang Chunxian, term extended by 68 days by guard Liu Ziwei;
Ms. Zhu Liying, term extended by 22 days by guard Zhang Ning;
Ms. Hao Guangmei, term extended by 52 days by guard Wang Xin;
Ms. Liu Suran, term extended by 62 days by guards Wang Weiwei and Liang Qian;
Ms. Zhang Yuzhi, term extended by 27 days by guard Ban Jiangxia.
Removing Paper and Pen, and Putting Up a Show to Cover Up Crimes
Hebei Women's Forced Labor Camp did everything to hide its crimes from the public. However, what happened in the camp was often quickly reported in the Minghui website. The labor camp tightly controlled paper and pen to prevent practitioners from writing letters or reporting what was going on in the camp. Practitioners were not allowed to have any paper or pen. To write a letter, a practitioner had to get special permission and write the letter in the hall under surveillance. Even a private letter to a practitioner's family member would be reviewed, and it was often seized and not mailed out.
There were two mail boxes at the entrance of the dormitory, one for mail to the Procuratorate and one for mail to the director of the labor camp. However, the guards always monitored the mailboxes to see who dropped letters in. When the detainees were abused verbally or physically, arbitrarily had their terms extended, were not allowed to take a shower, or were mistreated in any way, and the guards failed to resolve the issues, someone would write to the director and request a meeting. However, it didn't help at all. The letter to the director was soon returned to the division. Instead of resolving the issue, the captain punished whoever wrote the letter. Sometimes the detainees wrote to the director to request a meeting, but they never received a response.
To prevent the practitioners from writing to the Procuratorate, the camp director specifically arranged a female guard to stand next to the mailbox. The camp had frequent “security checks” to see if practitioners had any paper or pen. Everything was turned upside down, and even the female sanitary supplies were searched carefully. If a practitioner went out of the camp, she would be thoroughly searched from head to toe, and was even strip-searched.
At the end of July 2011, the higher authorities sent someone to inspect the labor camp. To prevent Falun Gong practitioners from reporting any abuse, the camp gathered all the practitioners in an inner room in the workshop. Guard Wang Haiyan taught a psychology class, while captain Wang Xin sat on the side. The class ended right after the inspector left. Whenever someone from the higher authorities came, the guards locked practitioners up and sometimes in a secret room so that they could not be seen. The guards once locked the practitioners in an abandoned bathroom on a hot summer day, and they could hardly breathe.
At the end of April 2012, Hebei Women's Labor Camp held an “open house” and invited people to visit the camp. Officers from the judiciary department came. A banner stating “benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faith” was hung in the playground. Family members of the “transformed” practitioners were invited to come, and their photos were taken. Director Lu Youlin introduced to the visitors the “mood table” that was displayed at the entrance of the dormitory and claimed that the camp offered psychological counseling based upon the mood of the detainees. (In fact, the “mood table” was for show only. No one cared at all about the mood of the innocent detainees.)
Slave labor continued without a pause that day to generate profit for the labor camp. A report about a fashion show held by the labor camp on “open house” was published in the local newspaper website. In recent years, the crimes of Hebei Women's Forced Labor Camp have been reported by overseas media, so the labor camp put on this deceptive show to hide their crimes.
"Humane" Management Actually Dictatorial Deprivation of Human Rights
At the end of 2011, new officers came to the labor camp. They not only gave lectures on the CCP's history and laws, but also taught classic Chinese texts such as San Zi Jing (Three Character Classic), Di Zi Gui (Student's Rules), and Lun Yu (Analects of Confucius). The lectures started at 7:30 p.m., right after the news program on CCTV (China Central Television, the CCP's mouthpiece) and lasted until 9 p.m. After a whole day's labor, the detainees had no break in the evening and little time to wash. The officers talked about traditional Chinese virtues and morality, but in actual practice they only wanted to beat and curse the detainees. They taught law in class, but violated the law themselves.
On Sundays, the detainees had to sit on small stools in the hall instead of staying in the dormitory to rest. The water room and toilets were all locked. A detainee had to be granted permission to fetch water from the water room or to use the toilet, and an inmate was arranged to accompany her. Things were made even more difficult for Falun Gong practitioners. The practitioners who refused to do the forced labor or failed to finish the work quota were not allowed to take a shower. It's simply ludicrous to talk about humane management under the tyranny of the CCP.
