Human Rights Violations in China Continue: Woman Tortured and Brainwashed 5 Years for Practicing Her Faith (Part 1 of 5)

(Minghui.org) Editor’s note: Ms. Chen Jing, a talented college graduate, was subjected to persecution in her early 20s, simply for upholding her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. She was placed under house arrest in college and threatened with expulsion and imprisonment. After she graduated she was fired from her good job in a hospital. She was forced to move around to avoid persecution and lived in fear for years. When she was 37, she was arrested, then sentenced to five years in prison. She was subjected to various kinds of brutal torture in detention centers and prison.

Ms. Chen Jing

Ms. Chen recounts in detail how she was persecuted both physically and mentally.

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Today is a cold winter day, which reminds me of another winter day one year ago when I walked out of Heilongjiang Women’s Prison, ending my five years, or 1,828 days, of incarceration.

During this past year, I've tried to recuperate from being tortured, tried to solve my financial difficulties, comforted my family, and talked with my friends and relatives who misunderstood me. I’ve also been harassed by the police. I clearly remember every minute, every second, and every scene of those 1,828 days. They are deeply carved into my mind, never to be erased.

I feel the urgent need to record my experiences so that the entire world can learn the true situation in China—how Falun Gong practitioners are abused by the CCP’s police, the staff in police stations, detention centers, the procuratorate, courts, and prisons.

My name is Chen Jing. I was born in Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province in January 1979. As a smart and well-behaved daughter, I was deeply loved and pampered by my parents. From elementary school, secondary school to college, my accomplishments were met with flowers and applause. My classmates and friends thought of me as a beautiful, top student with a good family, superior in every way. No one could imagine I would one day be hounded by the police, or end up in a detention center and prison.

I was in college when the brutal, nationwide persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999. I was placed under house arrest, threatened with suspension, expulsion, and imprisonment. Shortly after graduating I landed a good job, but I was fired. I kept moving around to avoid persecution. At the age of 37, I became a prime target for persecution by the authorities.

Arrest

More than twelve police officers and four police cars waited at the entrance of my community on the afternoon of January 21, 2016. As soon as I stepped out, one policeman walked up to me, twisted my arms behind my back, and handcuffed me before I realized what was going on. They quickly searched me and took away my money, keys, and other items. They pulled off my mask, saying, “You think we can’t recognize you?” I was surprised to hear this, as I was just wearing the mask to keep warm.

At least three police officers were from the Heilongjiang Provincial Police Department and one of them was Yang Bo. Two were from the Jiamusi City Police Department, including Li Zhongyi and Liang Huawei; and four were from the Jiamusi City Jiao District Police Department—they were Li Qiang, who handcuffed me, and Zhang Weiming, Wu Bin and Zhang Jia.

They took me to the Youyi Road Police Station and handcuffed me to a metal chair. In the meantime, other police officers raided my home. They took my money, a high-end camera, a printer, and some expensive belongings. As no one was home during the raid, I don’t know if more items were confiscated.

Later when they showed me the record, it stated that they searched my home on January 22, 2016, from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. with my consent, instead of the actual time, the afternoon of January 21.

A few hours later, Yang Bo and two others from the Heilongjiang Provincial Police Department came into the room. They congratulated each other about the extra 200 yuan subsidy per day they received for this trip, and the luxury hotel they stayed in. They also discussed how to deal with me.

One officer suggested sentencing me to life in prison for inciting overthrowing the government. Another said to me, “There was some tea in your fridge. You can’t drink that all yourself. There were lamb slices in the freezer. You must have prepared it to eat with others.” I knew he was implying that I had contact with local Falun Gong practitioners. But I remained silent.

Then the third officer said, “If you don’t confess, we will take you to Harbin and insert bamboo sticks under your fingernails. Under torture, you will say it all.”

The tall and strong officer who took me to the police station also came over and said, “We must use harsh measures to straighten her out.”

Later, they took me to Jiamusi Central Hospital for an exam before taking me to the detention center. Because I refused to cooperate, police officers Zhang Weiming, Li Yan, Li Yanchun, and a few others from the Jiao District Police Department shoved me down on the floor in the corridor and force-fed me water.

I was then taken back to the Youyi Road Police Station. I slept in a chair that night. The next day, Zhang Weiming, Li Qiang, and Wang Wenjing tried to force me to eat, but I refused because I was nauseous and wanted to vomit. The water spilled all over me.

They took me to the hospital again for another examination that afternoon, but I still refused to cooperate. After the physical, they sent me to the Jiamusi City Detention Center around 4:00 p.m.

Hanging Torture

While being held in the detention center, I was taken to the Jiao District Police Department almost every day from January 23 to mid-May 2016 for interrogation.

I was tortured on January 27 and 28. Li Qiang, Zhang Jia, and Wu Bin dragged me into the restroom where no CCTV (surveillance camera) was installed. Li Qiang said, “It’s okay to beat her to death since we are following orders from our superiors.”

Zhang Jia closed the window and told me, “There is no surveillance camera here. You can scream however loud you want. No one will hear it or know about it. Don’t the police in Jiansanjiang hang up lawyers and beat them? We are actually better at torturing people than they are.”

They twisted a bedsheet into a long strip. Wu twisted my arms behind my back, and Li and Zhang tied my wrists with the twisted bed sheet. They tied the other end of the sheet around the three-meter-high heating pipe, then pulled me off the ground while Zhang held me up. The moment I dangled in the air, my arms immediately became numb. My head was in pain, and I felt like I was about to suffocate. My body was drenched in sweat. My feet instinctively reached behind and rested against the wall which relieved me a little, but Wu Bin noticed and kicked my feet away.

Zhang Weiming and Yu Haiyang came and joined in torturing me. Zhang held my head down, while Yu and Wu pulled both my legs upward and yanked them back and forth. My body kept bumping into the wall. Wu said, “This is called flying an airplane!”

Torture re-enactment: “Flying a plane into a wall.” The entire body of a Falun Gong practitioner is lifted, held flat, and his head is slammed into the wall

Wu forcefully twisted my fingers, causing my fingernails to bleed. To prevent bruises on my wrists, they untied the sheet, pulled down my sweater cuffs, and re-tied the sheets on top of the sweater. Then they continued the torture. Zhang whispered from time to time, reminding them to check if I was still breathing.

Afterwards as I collapsed onto the interrogation chair, Yang Bo, the head of Heilongjiang Province Domestic Security Division, came over. He told me, “If I had known the police officers would treat you like this, I wouldn’t allow it.” In fact, it was he and Li Zongyi who ordered the torture.

Yang then took my arms and shook them. The pain was excruciating. As he shook them he said, “It’s fine. It’s fine. You should move your arms around, or they may become disabled. Why do you have to suffer like this? No need to be at odds with them (the police officers who tortured me). If you had cooperated with them, things would be much easier. If we didn’t come, it’s hard to say what else they would have done to you.”

Sickened by his hypocrisy, I gathered all of my strength and pulled my arm back.

I was in so much pain that night I was unable to sleep. The torture also left bruises all over my body and severely damaged my spine.

By January 30, I could barely move. When Zhang and Li entered my cell, another male police officer forcibly pulled me up. A kind-hearted cellmate told them that I was unable to move. But Li scolded her, “It’s none of your business!”

They took me to the hospital for an IV injection. They said that if I didn’t look so miserable, they would find my family and tell them to persuade me to give up Falun Gong.

Since the infusion was too fast and the liquid was cold, my right hand and arm swelled to four or five times its original size. That night, the detention center doctor refused to accept me. Zhang and Li took me back to the police station and handcuffed me to a metal chair. They also pressed hard on my arm, perhaps trying to stop the swelling.

That evening, I heard people running around in the hallway and the sound of police beating and verbally abusing someone. After a man’s voice was heard desperately screaming, it was suddenly silent. Then there was the sound of people running. Someone said, “We should take him to the hospital.” Another person said, “It’s fine.” A third person said, “If he dies, we can just say he had a heart attack.” A Falun Gong practitioner may well have been tortured to death.

Shortly afterwards, a drug addict was brought into my room with his hands cuffed behind his back. Li Qiang insulted me, “I heard you aren’t married? We should find you two men…” He and Zhang Weiming also stayed next to me. When the swelling in my arm went down at 3:00 a.m., they escorted me back to the detention center. The drug addict was also transferred to another room.

Persuasion Trick

I was brought back to the hospital again the next day and placed in an isolated ward. The police shut the door and closed the curtain even though I asked them to leave it open because I felt weak and suffocated. I wanted to see the sunlight. I also asked them to raise my bed higher, but they ignored me.

I really wanted to take a look outside the window. The hospital was very close to my neighborhood. If the bed was higher, I could see a corner of my subdivision, the place I called home. But I was too weak to do it myself. I thought about my family and friends. I was hoping they were all safe and didn’t suffer the torture I had endured.

At one point, the elderly female patient next door came into my room to chat. When she simply asked what was wrong with me, the police officers became nervous. Before she could finish talking, Wu Bin pushed her out and interrogated her for a while until he confirmed that she was just a stranger and didn’t practice Falun Gong.

After a while, Li Zhongyi led an elderly practitioner and her daughter in and said, “Didn’t you want to see her? I brought her here.” The practitioner kept looking at Li and carefully chose her words, referring to him as “Officer Li.” Her daughter closely followed her lead. I realized that the police pressured her to come and persuade me. She must have given in and was told she had to do this before they would release her.

She looked at me with tears in her eyes and said, “We should not suffer this much. Maybe you should...” I didn’t want her to say anything to betray Falun Gong. I made a strong effort to slowly raise my hand and wipe away her tears. I said, “Adjust yourself well after going home. I am happy for you. I’m fine.” I told her daughter to take good care of her mother. Li realized this trick did not work and immediately told them to leave.

(To be continued.)