(Clearwisdom.net) The Shanghai Women's Forced Labor Camp is located at Qingdong Farm in Qingpu District. It is Shanghai's primary torture and brainwashing center targeting Falun Gong practitioners. In order to force practitioners to give up their belief, the labor camp systematically carries out persecution. Newcomers are usually assigned to different production brigades that force practitioners to do slave labor. Then practitioners are thrown into the Intensive Transformation Squad of Brigade No. 5 to be brainwashed with defamatory audio-visual materials. If that still does not succeed in 'breaking' them, the perpetrators then frame them, fabricating facts and accusing them of all kinds of criminal offenses as excuses to carry out the brutal persecution.
Brigade No. 5 is on the penthouse of Building #4, consisting of 9 rooms and an isolation cell. Each room holds an average of 18-20 people. The Intensive Transformation Squad of Brigade No. 5 is the "transformation SWAT team." Originally, in order to achieve the goal of "transforming" practitioners, Shanghai police agents called in collaborators from the Beijing Forced Labor Camp to Shanghai to help brainwash them with their twisted logic. Later, there were only one or two steadfast practitioners allowed per room. The rest were collaborators and criminal inmates hired to torture practitioners. Their purpose was to put determined genuine practitioners in a so-called "besieged situation." In order to force practitioners to be "transformed", they would subject practitioners to a state of high pressure, depression and fear. Practitioners were forced to watch programs defaming Falun Dafa and write "thought reports" every day. Steadfast practitioners could not talk or exchanges notes, and they were not even allowed to make eye contact with other practitioners. They were deprived of all basic human rights.
In order to incite conflicts among fellow practitioners and to show the benefits of "being close to the government", the forced labor camp would force steadfast practitioners to do five times as much slave labor as the collaborators. Most of the determined practitioners were forced to work deep into the night.
If these tactics did not work, then they would force practitioners to sit and stand still for long periods of time, put them into the isolation cell, handcuff them, and extend their detention terms. Facing such tremendous pressure, the steadfast practitioners still did not cooperate with evil, refused to read defaming materials or write "thought reports", and refused to obey the labor camp's rules.
During the intensive "transformation" period, practitioners were subjected to sit or stand motionlessly from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. The cell had an area of only 3 square meters and a tiny window without glass. In the winter, the cell was like a freezer and in summer it was like a heater. There were 2 security cameras that monitored the practitioners' every move. They were only allowed to use the toilet at a certain time and were given a limited portion of food, which caused practitioners' health to deteriorate. Then they would put even more pressure on practitioners so that, in their weakened state, they would be forced to give up their belief and be "transformed."
Later, practitioners would be transferred to the production brigade to be brutally tortured until they collapsed mentally. Every day, practitioners were forced to do forced labor for 15-16 hours non-stop. There were also two hired inmates to monitor practitioners, who were not allowed any communication with their fellow practitioners. Agents would also use violence and torture tools on practitioners. Due to overseas practitioners' help, the agents of the Intensive Transformation Squad no longer dared to carry out very much torture. Even if they dared to do so, they would do it secretly.
Some persecution cases are as follows:
Practitioner Ms. Guan Longmei, 50, lived near Heping Park in Yangpu District. She was thrown into the forced labor camp in 2001 simply because she clarified the truth about Falun Gong. During her detention, due to the high pressure and torturous "transformation" tactics, she renounced her belief. However, shortly afterwards she came to realize she had made a mistake and solemnly declared that all her past words and behaviors that were not in line with Falun Dafa principles were null and void. Subsequently, the head of Brigade No.5 hung her up with two arms twisted from the back and feet in the air, with foul-smelling socks stuffed in her mouth. She was also handcuffed in bed while she slept. Later she was transferred to Brigade No. 2 to be subjected to both mental and physical torture.
Practitioner Ms. Liao Xiaomin, about 23, was arrested when she was doing truth-clarifying activities in 2001 and sentenced to 2 years of forced labor in Minxing District in Shanghai. During her initial detention, Liao Xiaomin went on a hunger strike for 1 month to protest her illegal detention. After she was sent to the forced labor camp, she was directly thrown into the Intensive Transformation Squad of Brigade No. 5. During her time with the Intensive Transformation Squad, she was not allowed to sleep, forced to stand or sit motionless facing a wall for long periods of time, forced to converse with collaborators, and forced to do slave labor late into the night. Under such long-term, tremendous pressure, she was mentally confused, but she still refused to cooperate with the evil. Later she was transferred to the brigade to be mentally and physically tortured. She eventually got out of the forced labor camp in September 2003.
Practitioner Ms. Fan Guoping, about 50, was illegally sentenced to 2 years of forced labor. While detained in the Intensive Transformation Squad of Brigade No. 5, she was forced to stand and sit motionlessly for long periods of time and handcuffed in an isolation cell. Because Fan Guoping refused to cooperate with the persecution, she was later transferred to Brigade No. 3 to do slave labor. Conditions there were extremely bad. Showers were not allowed, and this caused her to have horrible rashes all over her body.
Practitioner Ms. Chen Boying, about 43, lived in Minxing District in Shanghai. She was escorted back to Shanghai from Beijing and thrown into a forced labor camp for 2 years because she went to Beijing to appeal on behalf of Falun Gong. During her stay in Beijing, she was brutally tortured by the police agents there. In Beijing, the police agents were using a kind of torture device that was a big circular metal clamp. Chen Boying was squeezed until she had three broken ribs. She was practically carried to the Shanghai Women's Forced Labor Camp. Even in such poor health condition, she was still later sent to Brigade No. 1 to do heavy forced labor. She frequently fainted at the forced labor camp, but Chen Boying was still steadfast in her righteous thoughts. Later in 2003 she got out of the forced labor camp.
Practitioner Ms. Fu Xiaohong, about 35, lived at Xincun Road of Putuo District of Shanghai. She was arrested in May 2001 and detained for 1 year and 6 months. Her husband Du Ting was arrested at the same time and both were later transferred to the Tilanqiao Prison in Shanghai and illegally sentenced to an 8-year jail term. During her detention, Fu Xiaohong never cooperated with the evil. She was in the Intensive Transformation Squad the whole time that she was detained. Later on she got out of the camp with righteous thoughts.
Practitioner Ms. Zhang Ying, about 35, lived in Kangjianxincun in Shanghai. She was illegally arrested in Minxing District in 2001 and sentenced to 2 years and 6 months of forced labor. Just before her arrest, her husband Lan Bing had just been illegally arrested and given a 10-year jail term at Tilanqiao Prison in Shanghai. Because Zhang Ying went on a hunger strike to protest her detention in the jailhouse, she was handcuffed to a metal bar in the window for 17 days, and later on had her hands cuffed until she was transferred to the forced labor camp. In the camp, she also experienced abuse such as handcuffing and isolation cell detention. Later on she got out of the camp with righteous thoughts.
Practitioner Ms. Chen Jingfang, about 34, lived at Jiading in Shanghai. She was illegally arrested in Jiading when she was clarifying the truth about Falun Gong in 2001. She was given 2 years of forced labor. One time in a labor camp meeting, she solemnly stated, "What you have done is wrong! Falun Dafa is not a [defamatory term deleted]! All of that is sheer fabrication and defamation!" She experienced tremendous pressure, but later she got out of the camp with righteous thoughts.
Practitioner Ms. Qian Hua, about 27, has a Master's Degree. She was arrested at Baoshan District in Shanghai when she was giving out truth clarifying materials in 2001. She was later illegally sentenced to 2 years of forced labor. In Brigade No. 5 of the Women's Forced Labor Camp, she was subjected to abuse such as handcuffing and isolation cell detention. Once the prison guards opened her personal letter from her husband without permission and read it aloud in order to ridicule her. They also later fabricated "evidence" to extend her detention term for an additional 3 months. However, Qian Hua was not moved, and she got out of the camp with righteous thoughts in 2003.
These cases above are but the tip of the iceberg. Because of the efforts of overseas Falun Gong practitioners and the support of kindhearted people overseas, the persecutors dare not be too rampant in their suppression. To carry out the persecution, they oftentimes make up excuses first. But exactly because of this, what is happening in Shanghai is currently even more secretive and evil.
According to the most recent information, in April of 2004, Chen Boying was again illegally arrested. Chen Jingfang was illegally arrested again in November 2004.
