After Cui Dejun escaped from Masanjia labor camp, the authorities went to great lengths to recapture him. They may fear publicity about conditions in Masanjia. Associates fear for Cui's life now that he has been recaptured.
Dr. Xu Yan, a former professor at Tsinghua University, and his family recently escaped from China. A long time practitioner of Falun Gong, the professor avoided immediate arrest and imprisonment due to his position and popularity. He was finally arrested and tortured in 2006.
She has been recently released after torture which left her unable to eat.
On August 11, adherents assisted Cui Dejun, a practitioner detained at Masanjia labor camp, in escaping from the camp's hospital where he was being held after suffering abuse. According to sources inside China, Cui was then taken to the nearby provincial capital Shenyang and placed at the home of Yu Ming, a 37-year-old adherent also held at the camp.
Two days later, the police broke into the house and arrested Cui and others present, taking Cui to an unknown location. In the meantime, guards suspecting that Yu may have aided the escape have also moved him elsewhere, ignoring his scheduled release date of September 2.
"Masanjia is known as one of the most brutal forced labor camps in the country where detainees are regularly tortured with electric batons, beaten and raped. These peaceful religious believers should never have been there in the first place," says Falun Dafa Information Center spokesperson Gail Rachlin.
"That Cui escaped and may have told the world of the horrors taking place in Masanjia has sent the Chinese communist authorities into a panic. Based on the past experience of Ms. Gao Rongrong's case and the use of incommunicado detention, Cui and Yu's lives are in grave danger."
In a widely publicized incident in 2004, Ms. Gao Rongrong escaped from Masanjia and photos of her face disfigured from electric baton shocks spread around the world (news). She was arrested shortly after and according to Amnesty International, died in custody in 2005 (news).
Like Gao, Yu and Cui have both been victims of extreme torture in the past, including being shocked with electric batons on their genitals, being subject to other forms of sexual abuse, and being forced to squat in an iron cage for three months. As recently as June, Cui had fallen unconscious and become incontinent.
Cui and his wife Gao Zhuo were both arrested in July 2007, along with seven of their employees who practiced Falun Gong. All were sentenced without trial to labor camp terms of 1.5 to 2 years. Yu has spent eight of the past nine years in labor camps because he continues to practice Falun Gong.
Family members and bystanders also targeted
In their efforts to catch Cui and retaliate for his escape, the Chinese authorities have also targeted the families of Cui and Yu. According to sources inside China, when agents of the Public Security Bureau broke into Yu's home on August 13, they badly beat Yu's nephew, and arrested him along with Yu's wife Ma Li and his young son, leavingYu's ten-year-old daughter Yu Zhenzhen at home by herself. They were all reportedly released several days later.
On August 14 and 15, police in the cities of Dalian and Wafandian then arrested Cui's brother and two sisters-in-law. Cui's brother and his wife, as well as one of their employees, were detained at the store the couple owns. The women were released shortly after, but the men's whereabouts remain unknown.
The Falun Dafa Information Center is providing leads and phone numbers related to the case (see below) and urging human rights groups, foreign journalists and other members of the international community to:
Masanjia "re-education through labor" camp:
For background on the camp, see:
http://www.humanrightstorch.org/news/2008/07/27/masanjia-labor-camp/
Main numbers: 86-24-89210822,89212252,89210454
Masanjia Camp Chief Zheng Mingqiang: 86-24-89216801 or 86-24-89212321 (Office)
Reformatory Chief Wei: 86-24-89212261
Political Commissar Gong Lian: 86-24-89216802(Office)
Masanjia Forced Labor Camp operator: 86-24-89210074
No. 1 Camp (for male prisoners)
Chief Zhang Guangbin: 86-24-89295031
Deputy chiefs: 86-24-89295032, 89295033, 89295035
No. 1 Ward (where Cui Dejun was originally held)
Wang Xiaofeng, head: 86-24-89210406,
Wang Shuzheng, deputy head: 86-13982207608 (cell)
Wafangdian:
Lei Shuqing, Wafangdian City Police Department chief: 86-411-85611666 (office)
Guan Jichuan, Deputy Secretary of the CCP Political and Judiciary Committee in
Wafangdian, head of local 610 Office: 86-13998512139 (Cell)
Zhang Hua, Director of Wafangdian City Supervising Team (Detention Center):
86-411-85569991 (Office)
Former Professor at Tsinghua University Exposes the Persecution
of Falun Gong
On August 27, 2008, Dr. Xu Yan, a former professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, Tsinghua University, and his family escaped from China and arrived in Chicago, Illinois. He was warmly received by his fellow colleagues from Tsinghua and his friends. During an interview, Dr. Xu talked about his life, especially when he was arrested and tortured for practicing Falun Gong in China.
Outstanding Teacher: Dr. Xu Wins 11 Awards Out of 36 in His Department
Dr. Xu had been teaching at the Department of Civil Engineering in Tsinghua University for 13 years. When he started, there was a lot of work and pressure. He had a nervous breakdown and couldn't sleep at night. Then in 1995 he learned Falun Gong. According to him, "I finished the book Zhuan Falun in one day. I was very relaxed and fell asleep right away afterwards. I never lost sleep again."
Xu became energetic and his performance at work improved greatly. He won many awards for his diligent work. He even won several national awards for outstanding teaching and research. He had the highest evaluation from the students in the department for many semesters. One of the students' commented about him being "The best teacher I've had since middle school." He was also ranked in the top 5 percent of teachers at the university several semesters in a row. Everyone who was ranked in the top 20 percent could win a "smiley face." One semester, Xu won 11 out of 36 awarded to the 30 some teachers in the department.
The Persecution of Falun Gong Begins
In July 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to persecute Falun Gong. The University 610 Office and the secretary of the departmental party commission suddenly made Xu a member of the athletic labor union and forced him to meet with and report to them frequently.
Xu said during the interview, "Falun Gong teaches me to be a good person. I was a good teacher and researcher and was one of the best faculty members in the department. The department head and my colleagues thought highly of me and were not bothered by my practicing Falun Gong. Students all knew that I was a practitioner and many secretly looked out for me."
Seeing that Xu wasn't going to stop the practice, staff members from the 610 Office threatened Xu with his job if he continued to practice Falun Gong. Xu told them, "If you want to fire me, you must issue an official notice and let the entire university know that I was fired, not because of the work I do, but because of my belief, because I practice Falun Gong. They never brought it up again."
Put in a Forced Labor Camp, Innocent Family Members Implicated
On the morning of March 13, 2006, two dozen officers from the Haidian Public Safety Bureau, without identifying themselves, broke into Dr. Xu's house and began searching for Falun Gong related materials. When the police found Falun Gong books, they filled out a blank search warrant and interrogation warrant right there and used them to arrest Xu and his wife.
Mr. Xu's wife was released one day after they were detained, but he was put in the Haidian Detention Center. The next day Mr. Xu was taken to court and sentenced to two years in a forced labor camp.
A policeman told him, "It's dangerous for us to catch criminals but it is not so with Falun Gong practitioners. We also get cash awards for arresting practitioners." "We are catching Falun Gong practitioners in preparation for the Olympics in two years. We want to make you scared so that even if you were released before the Olympics, you wouldn't dare to make a move."
Mr. Xu said this was total state terrorism, "My wife had to shoulder the economic burden for the entire family and was under tremendous mental pressure from worrying about me. My daughter was 14 and she was an outstanding enough student to be accepted to the affiliated high school of Tsinghua University. Because I was suddenly imprisoned, she did not do well on the entrance exam. She dared not tell others it was because her father was arrested. My parents later came to Beijing to help my family. My father was almost 80 and his illness got worse from the ordeal. He even had to have surgery but did not want to tell me. My family was under so much pressure."
At the same time, Mr. Xu's students weren't satisfied with the substitute teachers. When they learned that he had been arrested for practicing Falun Gong, one of his graduate students went to the detention center where he was imprisoned to deliver clothes for him and said, "My teacher is not a bad man and we respect him."
Leaving the Forced Labor Camp
On November 3, 2006, Mr. Xu was sent to the Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp. For eight months, he was locked in solitary confinement and was forced to sit on 1/3 of a small stool that was only 12-inches tall all day. He wasn't allowed to move or close his eyes and suffered terrible physical pain due to the strange sitting position. The guards tried to brainwash him and would not allow him to have any kind of human contact to prevent him from getting any form of encouragement.
The camp went through all his letters and confiscated them if there was any "improper" content. The camp even threatened to stop his letters. Xu said, "When my father was ill, they told me something was wrong at home and asked me if I wanted to make a phone call. They told me if I signed a statement to renounce Falun Gong, I could call whoever I wanted. It was really tempting for me at that time. But I knew that would only be the beginning. If I signed the statement, then I would have to write materials to slander Falun Gong. Then I would have to take some kind of exam about Falun Gong every month or two. If I passed their exams, I would get a reduced sentence. This is their so-called 'learning program.'"
"I refused to cooperate. The guards instigated the prisoners who were not practitioners to torture me. In a forced labor camp, any little favor was a great temptation. The prisoners listened to every order the guards gave."
"Later they forced me to watch a video with brainwashing material. After I watched it, I told the guards those people who were talking in the video were not practitioners. I explained the truth of Falun Dafa to the guards. Later whenever they had me watch videos, I made fun of the content. They soon stopped doing that to me."
"The guards tried to brainwash me and all the practitioners in the camp with a video entitled 'False Science Uncovered.' We were forced to watch it many times. The content of the video tried to prove that supernormal abilities weren't real by showing a magician performing magic tricks. I told the guards that what magicians use to perform magic tricks was not magic. 'How could they prove something to be fake with a fake trick?' I asked. The camp never showed that video again."
"I tried to use their language when I talked to the guards who tried to brainwash me. I used scientific logic to fight the CCP's political logic. I tried to prove to them that Falun Gong is a good practice from a scientific point of view. They knew I was a rational person. By asking them questions, I led their thoughts away from the CCP's ideology. The guards told me there wasn't anyone in the camp who could persuade me and all the videos and books in the camp were useless in front of me. They never wanted to talk to me again."
"No one wanted to 'transform' and 'educate' me anymore. The guards wanted me to leave the camp as soon as possible in case I created more trouble for them. When I was released from the camp, a guard told the person who came to pick me up (he was a supervisor in the university I taught) to watch me closely because they couldn't brainwash me."
Regaining Freedom
On March 13, 2008, Xu was released. The Tsinghua University tried to force him to sign documents admitting he made a mistake and would never practice Falun Gong again. They threatened that if he did not do so, he would not be allowed to return to his teaching position. Mr. Xu gave up his job and came to the U.S. with his wife and child.
At least 40 people from Tsinghua University have been imprisoned, sentenced (the longest sentence is 13 years), and put in forced labor camps.
In Mr. Xu's statement, he said, "I loved my job, my students, and my family. I didn't want to abandon the land that raised me; I did not want to leave the classrooms and give up my students. But when my own government persecuted me for my beliefs, I had to set an example for my students. I had to tell the facts of the persecution and expose the CCP's evil deeds. To wake up those who dwell in the CCP's lies, I had to give up everything I love and leave China to go to a place I can tell the truth and what is in my heart."
"I want to tell the world with my experience that the CCP is guilty. I want to tell the world what I have been through and let the people know the reality behind the CCP's iron curtain."
Ms. Zhou Shanhui's Life in Danger from Torture at Xinjin Brainwashing Center
Ms. Zhou Shanhui lives in Le Town, Pengzhou City, Sichuan Province. On May 24, 2008, she was arrested while clarifying the truth in Hongyan Town, and was beaten by officers at the Aoping Police Station to the point where the rubber baton was broken in half. She was then detained in Pengzhou City Detention Center, where guards wired her arms and legs onto a bed frame, cutting into her flesh and causing her excruciating pain.
On July 3, 2008, guards took Ms. Zhou to the Xinjin Brainwashing Center located in Chengdu City. Collaborator Yang, female, from Chengdu City, beat and tortured her. Yang used to be a Falun Dafa practitioner, but she succumbed to the brainwashing and is now working for the Brainwashing Center. When Ms. Zhou shouts "Falun Dafa is good," she stuffs her mouth with dirty pads. When she does the Falun Gong exercises, her hands are tied up. When she held a hunger strike, she was force-fed with highly-concentrated salt water, causing Ms. Zhou to be in extreme pain.
The second day after Ms. Zhou was force-fed, the guards took her to the hospital. Doctors found that both of her lungs were dark. On the third day, the doctor took an x-ray and found that her gallbladder had problems. The brainwashing center heard the doctor say that she was dying, and hastily ordered the Le Town government to pick her up. Ms. Zhou Shanhui was taken home on September 10, 2008, after being tortured for two months in the brainwashing center. She couldn't eat or move her neck when she returned home.