(Minghui.org) Ms. Huang Qiuzhen was sentenced to four years in prison for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999. When her term expired in March 2022, her son was shocked to see her paralyzed when he picked her up.
Ms. Huang, in her 60s, retired from Xianning City Cigarette Factory, Hubei Province. She started to practice Falun Gong in 1996. Soon all her diseases including high blood pressure, sciatica, hepatitis B, and stomach disease were gone. By following Falun Gong’s principle of “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance,” she also improved her character and was recognized as a kind person in her community.
Since the persecution of Falun Gong began in July 1999, Ms. Huang has been arrested, detained, and forced to attend brainwashing sessions many times for upholding her faith.
The most recent arrest of Ms. Huang happened on the afternoon of March 4, 2018, when she was distributing Falun Gong informational materials at Walmart in the Wenquan District. In the police station, Ms. Huang kept on telling police officers what Falun Gong is and how the persecution has no legal basis. She escaped the police station later on. To avoid being arrested again, she lived away from home for a few days.
The police from Chalukou Police Station led by instructor Chen Dijian broke into Ms. Huang’s home and took her away at around 3 p.m. on March 14, 2018.
Ms. Huang was sentenced to four years by the Xianan District Court in August 2019 and her appeal was rejected by the higher court.
She was very healthy when she was sent to Wuhan Women’s Prison on October 23, 2019. Why she became paralyzed after serving 4 years and what happened to her in the prison remain to be investigated. However, Minghui.org collected some information on what Ms. Huang experienced since July 1999.
After the persecution started, the Xianning Cigarette Factory followed the Communist Party’s policy by setting up a “task force” which required all employees who practiced Falun Gong to attend a one-week brainwashing session and write statements to renounce Falun Gong. If they refused to comply, they would be suspended from work for an unlimited time. Ms. Huang resolutely refused the requirement and thus her salary was suspended between July 1999 and May 2003. She lost tens of thousands of yuan in wages.
In May 2003, Ms. Huang wrote a letter to the wife of the factory director Zhang Shengkun, telling her why she practiced Falun Gong, how she benefited both physically and mentally and how brutal the persecution was. The Zhang couple reported her to the 610 Office, which forcibly took her to the Xianning City Drug Rehab Center. Ms. Huang went on a hunger strike to protest the arbitrary detention and was released four days later.
In less than a month, on June 14, the 610 Office agents broke into Ms. Huang’s home and directly took her to Shayang Forced Labor Camp to serve a two-year term. She was transferred to Hubei Province Women’s Forced Labor Camp (also known as Shayang Forced Labor Camp) in January 2005.
Falun Gong practitioners taken to the Shayang Forced Labor Camp were firstly subjected to brainwashing sessions. If they still wouldn’t give up their faith, they would be forced to stand all day long with their feet together and hands touching their pants, without taking restroom breaks.
In addition to the long hours of standing, they were also subjected to various torture methods, including but not limited to confinement, force-feeding, electric shock, unpaid labor, beating, sexual assault, administration of unknown drugs, death bed, freezing, restricted access to bathroom and sleep deprivation.
Below are more details of four of the torture methods.
Hanging Up
The practitioner’s hands were handcuffed to the upper level of a bunk bed for a long period of time. Ms. Huang was hung up for half a month continuously because she did the Falun Gong meditation. Every day she was abused, beaten, and kicked by drug addicts. They also hit her with a small stool in her private area.
Holding the Fecal Bucket
Ms. Huang was forced to fill up a big bucket by scooping from the cesspit with her own rice bowl, then carrying the bucket to the yard, walking back and forth.
Weird Hair Cut
The guards cut Ms. Huang’s hair at will, making her look like a ghost.
Forced to Lick Urine
It was on August 20, 2004. Ms. Huang had been deprived of sleep for three days. Inmate Chen Siying was assigned to watch her. She forced Ms. Huang to squat on the ground of the bathroom but did not allow her to use the toilet. She intentionally forced Ms. Huang to urinate on the floor and then lick clean the floor.
Chen also beat Ms. Huang with batons at night and forced her to do intensive labor during the day. Ms. Huang was not allowed to buy extra food, but could only spend the money her family deposited for her on daily necessities.
A group of plainclothes officers arrested Ms. Huang and another practitioner Ms. Xu Han at 8 p.m. on August 22, 2007, without an arrest warrant.
At the police department, one officer searched their bodies. Song Ruisheng, the associate director of Wenquan Police Department, confiscated their wallets, for a total of 800 yuan cash.
On the same night, Song and two other police officers interrogated Ms. Huang and Ms. Xu before taking them to the Maoershan Detention Center.
The next day two police officers in uniform and two plainclothes officers tried to locate and ransack Ms. Huang’s apartment. But the property management and her coworkers refused to provide information about her.
Ms. Huang went on a hunger strike to protest the detention. Guard Cao Yingjiu handcuffed her to a torture bed for a day and a half. Ms. Huang was released a week later. She was shown a written notice of forced labor term.
On September 4, police officer Zuo Shuisheng summoned Ms. Huang to the police department. She went with Ms. Xu’s mother in the afternoon to demand Ms. Xu’s release.
Police officer Jin Guoxin ordered Ms. Xu’s mother to go back home but asked Ms. Huang to visit Ms. Xu at the Xianning City No.1 Detention Center. She went there, only to be arrested again and taken to the Hubei Province Women’s Labor Camp with Ms. Xu. She tried to clarify the facts about Falun Gong to the police in the car, but they threatened to beat her. Due to her high blood pressure, the labor camp guards refused to accept her.
Ms. Huang and fellow practitioner Ms. Huang Meiying in her 70s were reported when they were talking to people about Falun Gong at around 9 p.m. on July 4, 2009. A group of police officers came and took them to the Sanhaoqiao Police Station for interrogation. Their cellphones, 300 yuan in cash, and MP4 were confiscated.
Police officer Jin Guoxin from Wenquan Police Department ransacked Ms. Huang Meiying’s apartment and confiscated all her Falun Gong books. On the second day, Jin searched her apartment again and took away a computer.
Ms. Huang Qiuzhen was arrested again when she was talking to an elderly man about Falun Gong two years later on April 4, 2011.
When Ms. Huang left home at around 8 a.m. on November 7, 2013, four officers asked her if she knew Huang Qiuzhen. When Ms. Huang said “This is her,” they demanded to check her home. Ms. Huang replied, “We can talk here.” The officers didn’t allow her to finish talking and took her to the police department.
At around 11 a.m., the police went into Ms. Huang’s home. Nobody was there at that time. They searched everywhere, opening all drawers and boxes, and throwing her clothes and daily items all over the ground. The couplets with information about Falun Gong on her front door were also torn off.
When Ms. Huang’s 83-year-old mother-in-law came back, she saw police officers moving things out of her home and took back her grandson’s computer.
Ms. Huang’s arrest came seven days after her father-in-law passed away. As her husband had also died from a disease less than two years ago, her mother-in-law, who had no income, struggled to care for herself when she was incarcerated.
She looked around for Ms. Huang, including the police station, the community committee, the city government, and the brainwashing center, but she was either ignored or given the run-around.
Ms. Huang was detained for over 30 days at the brainwashing center located at Xianing City Drug Rehabilitation Center. Her family never received any detention notice.
Ms. Huang’s arrest came after she was reported by Liu Tiaohuo, who saw her putting up informational posters about Falun Gong. Zhang Huilong, the deputy director of Chalukou Police Station, and Zhou Yi, the chief of Xianning City National Security Division, participated in Ms. Huang’s arrest.
Meanwhile, Yao Xiong, the head of the Xianning City 610 Office, was running the brainwashing center and he gave a quota to local police to arrest a certain number of Falun Gong practitioners.
Each practitioner held in the brainwashing center was monitored by two people around the clock. Each of them was paid an 80 yuan daily salary. They forced the practitioners to read books demonizing Falun Gong or held their hands to write statements to renounce Falun Gong. It’s reported that the brainwashing center received a 20,000 yuan reward when transforming one Falun Gong practitioner.
A group of people from the city police department, district police station, and local community harassed Ms. Huang at home on the morning of February 24, 2014. They came again a few days later and confiscated Ms. Huang’s Falun Gong books and related materials.
Yao Xiong, the director of the local 610 Office, together with police officers Liu Ning and Zou Yu, and the street committee staffer Li Zhihua went to Ms. Huang’s home to harass her on January 14, 2016, with the excuse to check whether she was having a happy life.
In August 2017, the Wenquan District 610 Office threatened to arrest Ms. Huang if she didn’t give up Falun Gong.