Tale of a Heilongjiang Woman: Decade of Abuse Leads to Two Mental Breakdowns

(Minghui.org) Ms. Sun Shujie, 57, is a Falun Gong practitioner from Shuangyashan City, Heilongjiang Province.

Since the persecution of Falun Gong started in July 1999, she has been illegally arrested 13 times and sent to labor camps 3 times. She has been subjected to many forms of torture, including being tied to the Tiger Bench, shocked with electric batons, stretching, hanging, and freezing, among others.

The brutal physical torture, mental pressure and humiliation, coupled with the break-up of her family (her husband was forced to divorce her), was so intense that she suffered a mental collapse in 2003 while detained at the Jiamusi Forced Labor Camp.

Ms. Sun was illegally arrested again on June 4, 2014. Due to the persecution, she suffered a relapse of a mental disorder after just over 20 days of the arrest. Still, the officials insisted that “She shall be sentenced regardless of her mental state.”

The following is a summary of Ms. Sun's ordeal over the years.

Ms. Sun Shujie

1. Mental Collapse Due to Maltreatment at Forced Labor Camp

In 2002, Ms. Sun was sentenced to forced labor for a second time and detained at the Jiamusi Forced Labor Camp. However, she refused to cooperate with the coercive brainwashing and abusive treatments.

Because of her refusals, officials abused her more harshly. This included being hung up with her hands tied behind her back, being handcuffed to the side of her bed for days at a time, and being forced to sit on the floor for many days.

In the meantime, her husband also suffered constant harassment from the Chinese Communist Party secretary and others at his workplace. Consequently, he had a heart attack and was hospitalized. He soon divorced Ms. Sun, and their once happy family, which included a young son, broke up.

Due to physical torture and mental pressure, Ms. Sun suffered a mental collapse. However, camp authorities refused to notify her family or offer her any treatment. They even claimed that she was pretending, and they proceeded to physically abuse her more. Team leader Sun Limin also forced her to take unknown drugs, which caused her more delirium.

Painting: Tortured on Tiger Bench

One morning, a guard beat Ms. Sun until her face was bloody and covered with bruises. Later she was cuffed and tied to the Tiger Bench for a whole night, and was refused access to the restroom.

Ms. Sun was almost always in handcuffs, and she was constantly abused and humiliated. Such treatment made her mental disorder even worse. One time, guards Hong Wei and Jiang Jianan hung her up and punched and kicked her violently. Blood soaked her clothes and ran down to the floor.

Painting: Brutal beating

Her mental condition deteriorated, and in March 2004 she had to be taken in for treatment at the Jiamusi Mental Hospital. The doctors were shocked at her poor state. “Her condition is very severe,” they said. “How come you brought her here so late?”

Later, in order to shirk responsibility for her possible death, the 610 Office told her family to take her home.

2. Torture and Injection of Unknown Drugs

Having recovered from her mental disorder by December 2008, Ms. Sun again went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. However, she was arrested there and taken to a transfer center.

At the center, she was dragged into a room by over a dozen men wearing white gowns and mouth covers. They stripped her naked, hung her up, and taped her mouth shut. They pulled at her breasts, wrenched at her inner thighs, and punched her repeatedly. This was standard treatment for every women, young or old, brought to the center. Afterward, a group of female police officers dragged her by the hair into another room, where they continued to beat her.

Torture reenactment: Sitting on a small stool for long hours

While inmates monitored her, she was forced to sit on a small stool and recite detention regulations. When she refused, she was beaten until her face and body were bloodied and swollen. Inmates also forced her to write guarantee statements by holding her down on the floor and sitting on her. Guards also attempted to humiliate her by drawing images and slanderous words all over her body.

Torture reenactment: Force-fed with unknown drugs

Once, she was beaten and tortured so badly that she vomited blood. The guards took her to a hospital and gave her some unknown drugs, which they force-fed her.

On the morning of March 18, 2009, when Ms. Sun and some other practitioners were escorted from the transfer center, Ms. Sun shouted loudly, “Falun Dafa is good!” Immediately, the police began to punch and kick her. They also shocked her head, face, mouth, and the back of her neck with electric batons. Her skin was burned and smelled like charcoal.

She and the other practitioners soon found out that they were being taken to the notorious Masanjia Forced Labor Camp.

3. Brutality at Masanjia

For two-and-a-half years Ms. Sun was detained at the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp, where she suffered tremendous mental and physical torture.

Beatings

For her refusal to “transform,” Ms. Sun was often beaten until her mouth was bloody and her body covered with bruises. Once, she was dragged by four inmates to officer Zhang Zhuohui's office, where the five of them beat her until she passed out. When she came to, she found herself laying in a pool of blood, with her hands still cuffed behind her back.

Torture reenactment: Slapping in the face

Guards often slapped Mr. Sun in the face and kicked her. Once, she was kicked so hard in the chest that blood ran out of her mouth. On another occasion she was kicked in her left ribs, and as a result she could not straighten her back for months; she also had great pain when she breathed.

One day, the head of the camp slapped her and clawed at her face, while a guard yelled out: “We have an allotment of two deaths. Whoever wants one can take one here.”

Sleep deprivation

Sometimes Ms. Sun was forced to stand still with her face to a wall for long hours without any sleep. She would sometimes vomit dark blood at night and pass out in the corridor when she went to use the restroom.

Handcuffing and stretching torture

Torture reenactment: A torture method used at the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp

The handcuffing and stretching torture is often used on victims for a week or longer.

Along with this torture, sometimes Ms. Sun was also stripped naked. In winter, guards would leave the doors and windows open to let in the cold air. Oftentimes, her mouth was taped up and she was forced to listen to recorded slander against Falun Gong through earphones jammed into her ears.

Ms. Sun was tortured in this way over a dozen times. Sometimes she vomited blood, and she passed out the second time she was tortured this way. When she was released from the hanging, her pants would be soaked with urine. Afterward, she could not get out of bed for two months.

Torture reenactment: Extreme body stretching

Ms. Sun was also subjected to the painful stretching torture, where her right hand was cuffed to the top rail of an iron bed, and her left hand was handcuffed to the bottom rail of another bed; in this way, she could neither stand nor squat, and the beds were pushed far apart to create as much pain as possible.

Ms. Sun was tortured this way for six hours.

Torture reenactment: Cuffed for long periods of time

At the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp, Ms. Sun was handcuffed and held in solitary confinement for ten months, even when she was asleep. Her hands were badly swollen and the cuffs cut deeply into her flesh.

Ruthless treatment

Torture reenactment: Bashing a head against the wall

One day, Ms. Sun was beaten because she washed her underwear. A guard grabbed her hair and bashed her head against the heater and the wall until her face was bloody. The guard then threw her to the floor and punched and kicked her some more. Today, her face still bears the scars from this beating.

Guards also used metal objects to hit Ms. Sun in the face. Once, a guard hit her face so hard with handcuffs that she began bleeding, and her mouth and face swelled up immediately and turned dark purple.

Freezing

In the winter, Ms. Sun was dragged to the water room many times and stripped naked. She would be handcuffed to a bar near an open window and cuffed there for up to half a day. She was also forced to occupy a room so cold that any water there froze quickly.

Molded food

Practitioners detained in the strictly controlled division, where Ms. Sun was kept, were given only steamed corn buns and thin soup. The buns were made with molded flour, and the soup contained neither cooking oil nor vegetables.

Extortion

Ms. Sun often lost consciousness due to the torture. On January 13, 2010, she was taken to the Dabei Prison Hospital for a brain exam. Although she was not provided with a diagnosis or receipt, all expenses, including travel expenses, were charged to her account. In this way, she had over 1,000 yuan extorted from her.

Humiliation and mental torment

Practitioners were forced to wear uniforms. If they refused, they would be stripped naked and hung up. Oftentimes after a refusal, practitioners were forced to go naked to use the restroom or to eat.

Torture reenactment: Shocking with electric batons

In order to achieve a high “transformation” rate, guards dragged practitioners into torture chambers one by one to put their fingerprints on assessment sheets. However, during her turn, Ms. Sun shouted “Falun Dafa is good.”

Then, after she broke a pen in half, over a dozen police guards jumped on her and beat her. During the beating, they shocked her with electric batons. Since then, she has been unable to straighten her back. Also, at that point, her mental state became even more unsteady.

Family mistreatment

Falun Gong practitioners in the strictly controlled division were not allowed to appeal, write letters, make phone calls, meet visitors, buy daily necessities, take a shower, or wash their clothes.

When Ms. Sun's sister and brother-in-law traveled over 5,000 kilometers (~3,000 miles) to visit her, they were refused reception on account of Ms. Sun's “poor behavior.”

When her son came to see her, camp officials lied to him, saying that there was no inmate by that name detained there.

Unending Harassment

Ms. Sun was arrested again recently and suffered another mental relapse due to torture. However, Ms. Sun is just one of countless Falun Gong practitioners in China who have suffered relentless persecution for the last fifteen years.

Parties responsible for the Persecution:

Yonghong Police StationHan Xiaojun (韩晓军), head of the police station: [phone]Liu Qinghai (刘庆海), deputy head of the police station: [phone]Liu Xiaoyu (刘霄羽), deputy head of the police station: [phone]Wang Riliang (王日亮), deputy head of the police station: [phone]Gao Qiang (高强), deputy head of the police station: [phone]

Shuangyashan Political and Legal Affairs CommitteeWang Fengchun (王凤春): [phone], 13946696066Zhang Yingyong (张英勇): [phone], 13895888198

Shuangyashan 610 OfficeWang Xiaodong (王晓东): [phone], 13555150577Zhang Chunling (张春玲): [phone], 13555157168

Shuangyashan Intermediate Court：
Wang Lianrong (王连荣), head of the court: [phone], 13903688168

Shuangyashan Procuratorate Office:
Liu Hengyuan (刘恒源), procurator-general: [phone], 425718, 18345825718

Shuangyashan Jianshan District Procuratorate Office：
Yang Qingtan (杨庆谭), head of prosecution section: [phone]Cui Jing (崔晶), deputy head of prosecution section: [phone]

More contact information is available in the Chinese version.