Outstanding Teacher Severely Tortured at Masanjia Forced Labor Camp

Dalian City outstanding teacher, Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Liu Xia has been imprisoned four times, simply for remaining steadfast in her faith in the teachings of Falun Gong. She has been held in the 3rd Group of the Masanjia Women's Forced Labor Camp in Shenyang City since September 2008, where she has suffered inhuman torture.

1. In Detention for Eight Years of the Ten-Year Persecution

Liu Xia, 54 years old, was an outstanding teacher from the Teachers Training School in Zhongshan District, Dalian City. Since she began practicing Falun Gong, she constantly improved herself; hence, the provincial and municipal governments honored her with awards of many kinds.

After the persecution began on July 20, 1999, Communist regime officials detained Ms. Liu at the Guest House of the City Senior Officers' Bureau for twenty days in order to force her to denounce Falun Gong, and to write the guarantee statements. They also made two teachers monitor her to restrict her personal freedom, making her unable to care for her daughter in grade school.

Ms. Liu wrote a public letter to her school staff in July 2000, to clarify the truth about Falun Gong. Collaborating with officers from the Kuiying Street Police Station, then-principal Zhang arrested Ms. Liu and two other practitioners and detained them at Yaojia Police Station in Dalian City. They eventually transferred Ms. Liu to Masanjia Women's Forced Labor Camp, where she was brutally tortured for one and a half years.

Ms. Liu and another practitioner from Xinbin County in Liaoning Province posted truth-clarifying materials in May 2002. They were arrested, and Xinbin County Court officials sentenced them to six years. They were locked up in Shenyang City Dabei Prison. Her school officials subsequently fired Ms. Liu, and her husband divorced her.

Liu Xia's ex-husband reported her on September 15, 2008, and Ms. Liu and two other practitioners were arrested at her ex-husband's house. Participating in the arrest were personnel from the Hutan Police Station in Dalian City and the Domestic Security Team. Ms. Liu was subjected to three years of forced labor, and has been detained in the 3rd Group of Masanjia Forced Labor Camp since then.

Ms. Liu has been imprisoned for eight out of the ten years since the Communist regime started the persecution of Falun Gong.

2. "Stretching Torture"

On the evening of March 17, 2009, because Ms. Liu refused to recite the prison regulations and to do forced labor, guard Zhang Zhuohui subjected her to the "stretching torture" for more than 14 hours.

The "stretching torture" involves the guards stretching practitioners' arms in two directions to their extreme and then tightly tying the wrists onto objects on both sides, so that practitioners cannot bend their bodies or stand for a long time. Moving even a little bit will hurt tremendously in this position. Masanjia staff often use this brutal torture method to force practitioners to obey the "management" and renounce their belief.

On the evening of May 2, 2009, Ms. Liu hand-copied Zhuan Falun and clarified the truth to guard Zhang Zhuohui. However, Zhang not only would not to listen to what Ms. Liu told her, but she also locked Ms. Liu up in a small storage room. The labor camp uses this room to torture practitioners. Two metal stands are placed on two sides of the room. Zhang first forcibly stretched Ms. Liu's hands to the extreme opposite directions, and then handcuffed her to the metal stands. Ms. Liu was immobilized like this from the evening of May 2 until the afternoon of May 4, for 53 hours. She had to stand, stretched between the two metal stands for this entire time. She was forbidden to eat, use the toilet, and was deprived of sleep during this period.

In the afternoon of May 4, when Ms. Liu protested the brutal torture, guards Zhang Jun, Zhang Zhuohui and Zhang Lei intensified the torture. They blindfolded Ms. Liu and tied her up tightly. Zhang Zhui and Zhang Lei pulled the handcuffs with so much force that Ms. Liu's arms were pulled to the extremes, but they still did not stop. The tearing of her limbs was excruciatingly painful, but while pulling the handcuffs the guards yelled ferociously, "We don't need you to save us. Ask your master to come and save you."

The tight handcuffs cut deeply into Ms. Liu's flesh and left still visible scars two months later.

3. Handcuffed and Tied to a Bed

To force practitioners to renounce their belief, camp officials frequently force practitioners to do "ideological and moral homework," slandering Master Li and praising the Chinese Communist party (CCP). Practitioners who refused to obey are often tortured with a method called "all tied up."

The evening of June 14, 2009, guard Zhang Jun threatened Ms. Liu when she refused to do the "homework" for the labor camp, saying, "If you don't do the homework, I'll punish you tomorrow." The morning of June 15, guard Huang Haiyan took Ms. Liu to the Donggang office. It is in this office that practitioners are tortured while they are handcuffed and shackled. The place contains a metal bunk bed. Guards Zhang Jun, Zhang Huan and Huang Haiyan blindfolded and tied Ms. Liu up. To avoid leaving torture marks on her wrists, they tied two thick hand towels around Ms. Liu's wrists. Then they handcuffed her and pulled her arms apart with all their strength. Grasping Ms. Liu's hair, Zhang Jun pressed Ms. Liu's head and back with force while Zhang Huan and Huang Haiyan pulled the handcuffs outward as hard as they could. Then they tied her onto the metal bed with ropes. Immediately, Ms. Liu's hands became icy cold, numb, and black and they lost sensation. Seeing that, the guards pried her fingers open and constantly beat her arms. They were afraid that her circulation would stop, disabling her arms, and hence leave some evidence of torture. They loosened the cuffs a little and tightened them again once her hands were better. They did this repeatedly until Ms. Liu lost consciousness.

As soon as Ms. Liu lost consciousness, the guards grabbed one of her fingers and pressed it on the three statements that they had fabricated. They also wrote words slandering Master Li on Ms. Liu's body. When she regained consciousness, Zhang Huan said, "These are your three statements."

Ms. Liu replied, "Your action has violated the law. You have done things that are the most despicable, obscene, and shameless in human history. What 'three statements'? I absolutely won't acknowledge them."

Except for her ex-husband, Ms. Liu has no relatives in Dalian City. Since she no longer has an income, she has no place to live. Her mental and physical health are devastated.

4. Brutal Tortures at Masanjia Forced Labor Camp

Masanjia Forced Labor Camp is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice of the Central Chinese Communist regime. The Ministry of Justice once funded Masanjia with one million yuan to expand its "environmental conditions." High ranking CCP officials Luo Gan and Liu Jing have come here to personally monitor the persecution of practitioners. Among the almost one hundred torture methods used at Masanjia, we are here listing only the most often-used ones. The following photographs are re-enactments to illustrate the tortures.

Five frequently used methods of handcuffing:

1. Backward handcuffing (Handcuffing practitioners in an Excruciating Position)

The practitioner's hands are tied behind his back. Practitioner has to stand facing a wall, and sometimes is made to wear a helmet. Then the guards shock practitioner's arms with electric batons. A few minutes later the practitioner cannot move his arms, and they feel like the joints are dislocated. The handcuffs are so tight that they cut into the flesh, making his arms swell and lose sensation.

2. Hung on Heating Pipes

The practitioner's hands are cuffed and he is hung onto heating pipes. There are two iron clips located 1.8 meters up on the pipes. When practitioner is hung in the air, the handcuffs cut into the flesh, which is tremendously painful. Some practitioners' arms are eventually disabled from this torture. In December 2002, Ms. Wang Yulan from the Chaoyang District (49 years old then) was hung onto the heating pipes. Guards Wang Xiaofeng and Xue Feng severely burned her right hand, and the flesh was exposed. Her left arm was later disabled and is still not healed and she has since lost her ability to work. Practitioner Sun Jiping was dragged to the office and handcuffed onto the heating pipes in March 2005 for refusing to be force-fed.

3. Tying Up in a "Spread Eagle" Position

Practitioners' arms are pulled apart to the extreme opposite directions and tied onto two sides of bed frames with only practitioner's tips of his toes touching the floor. His body is in the shape of a "spread eagle." Then the guards brutally beat and shock the practitioner with electric batons. Normally, practitioners who suffer from this torture method are hung up like that for several days.

4. Tying and Hanging Up in the Air

A Falun Gong practitioner's arms are tied up and pulled upward to the extremes, and then he is hung up with his hands behind his back onto the upper bunk bed side-boards. His feet cannot touch the floor. This torture disables a practitioner's arms after being hung like that for a long time. In December 2002 guard Dong Shuxia tortured practitioner Yang Yanting (36 years old, from Dalian City) like this for 15 hours. Her arms were disabled.

5. Long-term Fixed Squatting

Practitioners are handcuffed onto a metal bed side-bar, with their backs and bottoms being forcefully squeezed underneath the bed. This is extremely painful. Some practitioners' backs were injured as a result, and they are unable to stand straight. The length of this torture varies from a few hours to as long as ten days or more. This is the most commonly torture method used on practitioners imprisoned in Masanjia Forced Labor Camp.