(Minghui.org) A 66-year-old man in Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province was taken to the Panjin Prison on March 19, 2021, to serve a six-year term for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. 

Mr. Liu Wansheng was arrested on April 23, 2020, for talking to people about Falun Gong at a bus station. The police ransacked his home and confiscated his mp3 player and other personal belongings.

He was tried through a video conference by the Linghai City Court inside the Jinzhou City Detention Center on September 4, before being sentenced to six years and fined 10,000 yuan on September 30, 2020.

Past Persecution

Mr. Liu took up Falun Gong in July 1996. He credits the practice for curing his headache, rheumatism, and heart condition. Prior to his latest sentencing, he has been arrested seven times and given one labor camp term.

Arrests and Detention

Mr. Liu was arrested twice, in July and September 1999, respectively, and detained 15 days each time. 

He was arrested again in 2001. The police took him to an empty room, where they twisted his left hand behind his back to be cuffed together with his right hand pulled over his right shoulder (see illustration below). The police sat on the side and enjoyed watching Mr. Liu sweating heavily in excruciating pain. The torture lasted for an hour.

Torture illustration: handcuffed behind the back

After Mr. Liu was taken to the local detention center, the inmates often beat him, sometimes elbowing him on the back. The sharp pain caused Mr. Liu to collapse to the ground and roll around. The police kept him detained for 43 days and extorted 30,000 yuan from him.

Tortured in the Labor Camp

Mr. Liu was arrested for the fourth time when he returned home on the evening of April 15, 2004. The police ransacked his home and interrogated him. Three days later, he was given a three-year term at the Jinzhou City Forced Labor Camp.

As soon as he was admitted to the labor camp, the guards locked him in a spread-eagle position and cuffed his limbs to the bed. He was unable to move at all, let alone turn his body. He was locked in the bed for a month.

Torture reenactment: locked in the bed

After the initial torture, the guards arranged two inmates to monitor Mr. Liu and prevent him from talking to others. He was forced to get up at 5 a.m. every day and then sit on a small stool of 4 inches wide, 12 inches long and 6 inches tall, until 10 p.m. The torture caused excruciating pain in his buttocks. At night, the inmates locked him in the bed during sleep and the sitting torture would be repeated the next day. Whenever Mr. Liu didn’t cooperate with the inmates, they beat and berated him.

Torture reenactment: sitting on a small stool without moving

When Mr. Liu held a hunger strike to protest the persecution later on, the guards force-fed him with highly salted corn paste. The head of the labor camp’s clinic stood on the side and said to the guards and inmates, “That’s fine. It won’t kill him.”

In an intensified round of torture to force Mr. Liu to renounce Falun Gong, the guards tied up his legs in a double-cross position, handcuffed his hands behind his back, put headphones on him, and played high volume propaganda smearing Falun Gong. 

The guards extended the torture time every day. They also arranged an inmate to sit on the side and occasionally punched his legs. The longest torture time was 3.5 hours from morning to noon. By the time the guards loosened him, he was unable to move his legs and had to be dragged by the inmates back to his cell.

On another occasion, Mr. Liu was taken to the guards' office and hit hard on his head. He collapsed, felt sick, and was soaked in a cold sweat.

Three More Arrests

Mr. Liu was arrested one more time in November 2010 and detained for 15 days.

His sixth arrest was on January 16, 2019. He was released on the same day as the guards at the Jinzhou City Detention Center suspected that he had tuberculosis. 

Only four days later, on January 20, the police arrested him again and detained him for 14 days.

Related report:

Liaoning Man Sentenced for His Faith Despite Call for Release from His Son and Now Deceased Father

Chinese version available

Category: Accounts of Persecution