Falun Gong Practitioners Tortured at Wangling Prison in Hunan Province

(Minghui.org) Wangling Prison in Hunan Province is the main facility in the province where male Falun Gong practitioners are imprisoned. The “Transformation Ward” was established in October 2017 to apply different tortures to force practitioners to renounce their faith in Falun Gong, a peaceful mind-body discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

In addition to being a torture chamber, Wangling Prison is also an underground factory. Slave labor was used during the Wuhan pandemic in 2020 to make face masks, personal protection gear, and surgical gowns for overseas export. The packaging on some of these items was printed entirely in English. If inmates did not finish their assigned quota for the day, they were shocked with electric batons or physically brutalized at night. The guards called this abuse “nighttime education.”

Mr. Wang Yuelai was sentenced to 5.5 years and passed away from torture in Wangling Prison on August 31, 2018. He was only 56 years old.

Mr. Wang Yuelai

Mr. Lu Songming, a former middle school teacher, won the Xiangtan City model citizen award. For practicing Falun Gong, Mr. Lu was arrested and sentenced three times. He was sentenced to four years in Wangling Prison in December 2014. When he was released on August 31, 2018, he was suffering from heart disease and had lost the ability to work. He passed away on March 28, 2021.

Mr. Lu Songming

Mr. Tan Huidong, 76, was sentenced to 3.5 years and taken to Wangling Prison in 2016. Because he refused to give up Falun Gong, he was locked in solitary confinement where he was slapped in the face and verbally abused. By the time his term was up in 2018, he had lost the ability to speak, sit or stand. 

Mr. Liao Zhijun was transferred from the Binzhou City Detention Center to Wangling Prison on May 18, 2018. He refused to wear the prison uniform as he maintained that he had broken no laws in upholding his belief. A guard surnamed He instigated several inmates to remove Mr. Liao’s clothing and force him into the prison uniform. They handcuffed him for hours to a window in the hall.

Mr. Liao Zhijun

Mr. Liao was sent to the “Transformation Ward” on June 27. Deputy political instructor Tan Pingping instigated two inmates to watch Mr. Liao and brainwash him. It was said the bonus for “transforming” a practitioner was 8,000 yuan. Mr. Liao was deprived of sleep by the guards for several consecutive nights.

The inmates often slapped Mr. Liao in the face and slammed his head against the wall. Once, an inmate kicked Mr. Liao in the lower abdomen, causing him pain for two to three months. Because he engaged in torturing Mr. Liao, inmate Wang Qiang had his term reduced by five months and was released on April 2, 2021.

Torture re-enactment: Slamming head against the wall

Mr. Liao was forced to do unpaid labor on May 27, 2019, making counterfeit brand-named clothing for export. 

Mr. Zang Keren, 74, from Mayang County, was tortured by prison guard Wang Puchen. Wang poured freezing water over his head in the cold of winter. Another guard, Wang Qiang, slapped Mr. Zang in the face. The guards also did not allow Mr. Zang to use the restroom and forced him to kneel on the ground and slapped him in the face with slippers.

Mr. Lei Anxiang, a Chenzhou City resident in his 70s, was forced to do the splits. When he couldn’t do it, inmates jumped on his knees and stomped on his legs.

Torture illustration: Forcing into a split