(Minghui.org) Before Ms. Xiao Fengwen of Beijing took up Falun Gong in 1996, she was burdened with many ailments, including a stiff neck, a frozen shoulder, and abnormal bone growth. After she began practicing Falun Gong, all of these conditions disappeared. 

Three years later in 1999, the Chinese Communist Party began its persecution against Falun Gong. Since then, Ms. Xiao has been arrested 10 times, detained for at least ten months, and given a total of six years and six months in a forced labor camp (of which she served five years and six months). 

While in the labor camp, she was beaten, force-fed, and shocked with electric batons. While she was incarcerated, she missed both her mother and older sister’s funerals and her son’s wedding.

Ms. Xiao’s latest arrest took place on July 2, 2019, when she was outside posting fliers to raise awareness about the persecution. 

The following is an account of Ms. Xiao’s ordeals in the persecution. 

Arrested and Detained for Trying to Speak Up for Falun Gong

Ms. Xiao and other practitioners went to the National Appeals Office on the morning of July 20, 1999. The police arrested them and released them the same night. 

She went to the Appeals Office with other practitioners two more times, once in November 1999 and again in January 2000. Both times, officers from the Tiananmen Police Station arrested them before they even got to the office, and detained them at Chaoyang Detention Center for a month each time. 

Ms. Xiao was arrested several more times in 2001. Once, she was incarcerated for eight days for giving out Falun Gong fliers. Another time, the police arrested her at home and placed her in Chaoyang Detention Center, where she was tied up and force-fed five times when she went on a hunger strike to protest the arbitrary arrest. Her teeth became loose as a result of the guards using pliers to force her mouth open. She was released 17 days later. 

One evening in 2001, she did the Falun Gong exercises outdoors. The police arrested and detained her for a month. 

Tortured in Two Detention Centers 

To avoid the authorities’ constant harassment, Ms. Xiao left home. One day, a person reported her to the police while she was speaking to others about Falun Gong, which led to her detention. During the month she was in Chaoyang Detention Center, the guards beat her and force-fed her. She was handcuffed and shackled in an awkward position where she could neither stand, sit nor walk normally. A guard then dragged her by the neck to an office and stomped on her face to humiliate her. 

Torture illustration: Handcuffed and shackled to cause extreme discomfort

In the winter, the guards encouraged other detainees to pour cold water on her and let the water slowly dry. To force-feed her, the guards tied her to a door with her arms and legs taped in a spread-eagle position. They called it “the cross.” 

Torture reenactment: Immobilize the victim into a cross position

After Ms. Xiao was released from the detention center in February 2001, the police directly transferred her to another detention facility and held her there for another 13 days. 

Shortly after she returned home, she was arrested again in March after being reported by a few students for talking to them about Falun Gong. She was held at the Xuanwu Detention Center for three months. After she went on a hunger strike to protest, the guards inserted a tube into her nose and stomach to force-feed her. To increase her suffering, the guards purposely pulled the tube back and forth, to the point where the tube was covered in her blood. 

Torture illustration: Force-feeding

When Ms. Xiao refused to report her name, a guard threatened her, “I will throw you into the male prison and have someone rape you.”

Shocked with Electric Baton and Misses Sister's Funeral 

Ms. Xiao was given one year and six months in a forced labor camp for disseminating Falun Gong fliers on September 2, 2001. While she was held at the labor camp's dispatch center for refusing to squat with other inmates, six guards charged towards her and used electric batons to shock her temples and the soles of her feet. 

She was also forced to do labor-intensive work without pay, including packaging disposable chopsticks. She was jammed in a small room with a dozen others. Some slept on the ground and others under the bed. With a toilet inside the room but no water available, the place smelled horrible. 

Ms. Xiao was later transferred to Beijing Women’s Forced Labor Camp, where she refused to be brainwashed and give up her practice. She was deprived of sleep constantly and gradually became incoherent. 

She went home on March 1, 2003, only to find out that her beloved older sister had just passed away three weeks prior. Her sister had to take care of their 81-year-old mother alone when she was away. Because of the physical and mental stress, her sister had a brain hemorrhage, which led to her premature death. 

Arrested Four Days Before Her Son’s Wedding

Three officers broke into Ms. Xiao’s home on May 23, 2007, while she was preparing for her son’s wedding that was scheduled for four days later. They arrested her, ransacked her place, and confiscated hundreds of Falun Gong books and thousands of yuan in cash. 

The police arbitrarily gave her two years and six months in a forced labor camp for the possession of Falun Gong books. 

At the labor camp dispatch center, she had to sit still on a small stool all day long with an inmate closely watching her. She would be punished if she moved. The guards then force-fed her after she refused to eat. When she shouted “Falun Dafa is good” to protest the torture, they stuffed her mouth with a rag used to clean the floor.

After she was taken to the Beijing Women’s Forced Labor Camp, 17 guards watched her around the clock. She was forced to sit still on a small stool and was not allowed to sleep. She refused to cooperate with the authorities and was sent to a special team where she was subjected to intensified torture. 

In July 2008, Ms. Xiao was transferred to Masanjia Forced Labor Camp in Liaoning Province, where she was beaten, deprived of sleep, and constantly forced to work. She had to memorize the prison rules; otherwise, the guards would beat her or shock her with electric batons. 

She was released on October 31, 2009. The labor camp term caused her to lose tens of thousands of yuan and was the source of tremendous mental distress to her family members.

Denied Toilet Use for Two Weeks and Forced to Give Blood Samples 

Ms. Xiao went to Tiananmen Square on January 3, 2012, to distribute Falun Gong fliers and was arrested. The police body-searched her and confiscated the several hundred yuan of cash in her pocket. She was given two years and six months in Beijing Women’s Forced Labor Camp. When she was at Chongwen Detention Center, the guards put her in shackles and sprayed her with hot pepper water. 

Ms. Xiao was then taken to the fourth brigade of the Beijing Women’s Forced Labor Camp. She was put in a room with two other inmates who monitored her around the clock. She was not allowed to sleep, wash up, or use the toilet. One time, she did not defecate for 15 days. She was later transferred to the second brigade, where three inmates checked her health and drew her blood against her will. They even called in armed police to force her to comply. 

Ms. Wang was transferred to Wangsiying Brainwashing Center in Chaoyang District on July 8, 2013. Xu Yong of the Domestic Security Division, Ma, Bai, Li Shumin, and Tang Huiming of the 610 Office, as well as Lin Jing, a residential committee director, took turns brainwashing her. She went on a hunger strike and was released three days later. 

Recent Ordeals 

Thirteen people, including Xu Yong of the Domestic Security Division, Ma, Liu Tieli, Wu Xiaolong, and Zhou of the 610 Office, Lin Jing of the residential committee, as well as four police officers and three security personnel, arrested Ms. Xiao at her home on May 22, 2014. They ransacked her home and confiscated her Falun Gong books. She was held at the Wangsiying Brainwashing Center for a month. 

When she was shopping for the Chinese New Year on January 29, 2015, three officers, along with Yang Qin of the residential committee and Wu Xiaolong of the 610 Office, forced her to go home. They ransacked her place and confiscated several Falun Gong books, hundreds of booklets, a new computer, two media players, five computer memory cards, and dozens of plastic bags she used to give out Dafa materials. 

She was first taken to the Huajiadi Police Station and then the Chaoyang Detention Center in the evening. She refused to wear the detainee’s uniform and went on a hunger strike. 

Three days later, the guards took her to Beijing 999 Emergency Center, where the staff members drew her blood three times and did her ECG twice without her consent. After being held there for four weeks, Ms. Xiao was taken back to the detention center before being quickly transferred to Wangsiying Brainwashing Center on March 6 by the police and 610 Office agents. 

After her release, on every holiday and anniversary related to Falun Gong or major political events, the police and local officials would harass her and her family. At one point, two security guards stayed outside her home and monitored her around the clock. 

The police went to knock on her door three times on February 1, 2 and 5 in 2017. She refused to open her door.