(Minghui.org) The 8th ward in Jilin Women’s Prison is dedicated to torturing Falun Gong practitioners, especially those who refuse to renounce their faith. The prison has been a major player in the region, facilitating the persecution of Falun Gong for the past 20 years.
Over the years, the prison staff has acquired a great deal of experience in torturing practitioners into submission and giving up their belief. The facility is open for staff members from other prisons nationwide to visit and learn how practitioners are tortured in this facility.
Isolating Practitioners
The prison set up a strict-management team, which is headed by guard Zhang Yu, who is known for his willingness to use deadly force.
The practitioners were denied phone calls even after they had been forced to renounce their faith. Zhang placed them on different floors of the building so that they would be on their own. If a practitioner was particularly resistant, she would be placed in a cell with four collaborators around the clock. Collaborators are prisoners who collude with the guards to torture and brainwash practitioners in exchange for rewards or reduced sentences.
There is a Death Bed on the 1st floor of a building used to break the practitioners who resist other torture means and brainwashing.
Death Bed
Solitary Confinement
The collaborators often tricked the practitioners into violating the prison rules and used it as an excuse to have them placed in solitary confinement. Once the practitioners were inside, they were subjected to severe torture.
The only source of water in solitary confinement was the water in the toilet bowl. The practitioner was told to scoop up water from the toilet if she was thirsty or wanted to brush her teeth and clean herself. She was given two scoops of cornmeal and had to eat it with her hands. Roll call was taken every other hour. If she failed to respond, the speakers in the room would play high-volume noise non-stop until she mentally collapsed. The place was so damp that the comforter was never dry.
Brainwashing
New arrivals would be placed with the strict management team and subjected to intensive brainwashing. They were sent to other floors once they were “transformed” and stopped resisting. The guards would choose a “transformed” practitioner and train her to become an “educator.” The educators were able to effectively brainwash other practitioners into renouncing their faith.
Li Minghua was sent to the prison in 2006. She was offered the opportunity to learn psychology and other insidious means of torture. She was able to set up the practitioners and made them believe that giving up the practice was in their best interest.
Intimidating and Torturing New Arrivals
Every practitioner was made to sit still on an unreasonably small stool for long hours every day for a long time. The half-foot-tall stools had a rough surface, and very quickly the practitioners' buttocks would become raw and bleed. As time went on, their wounds often became infected and started to fester.
Sitting still in that position places tremendous pressure on the body and causes excruciating pain. Practitioners were made to sit still for 14 to 19 hours each day.
Sitting still on a small stool for long periods of time
The newly-arrived practitioners were not allowed to shower, sometimes for up to two weeks or longer, if they refused to cooperate with the collaborators. Even if they did, they were often still not allowed to shower or wash their clothes.
Unavailable or Limited Daily Necessities
The practitioners were not allowed to bring any daily necessities with them to the prison except for what they wore at the time. The prison made them wait three months before getting the necessities they purchased. For three months they had only two rolls of tissue paper, a small tube of toothpaste, and a bar of soap.
Practitioners who refused to follow orders weren’t allowed to purchase any goods. Anyone who lent them what they needed would be in trouble with the authorities.
Each month the practitioners who refused to sign statements to renounce Falun Gong were allowed around $12 to purchase daily necessities. Those who signed the statements were given $37. It went up to $61 and $115 for the “educators” and other inmates.
Practitioners Tortured in Jilin Women’s Prison
The tactics most often used on the steadfast practitioners to force them to give up their faith were solitary confinement and sitting on small stools. The following are practitioners known to have suffered such forms of torture.
1. Ms. Che Pingping from Jilin City, Jilin Province, was put in solitary confinement in August 2019. She went on a hunger strike and was force-fed twice a day.
Related reports:Ms. Che Pingping Arrested Again after Four Years in PrisonCollege Teacher from Jilin Detained for Nearly Two Years and Tortured
Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Che Pingping
2. Ms. Li Guiying was forced to sit on a half-foot-tall small stool for a long period of time. She had a heart attack after being humiliated by a collaborator and was hospitalized. She was put in solitary confinement in August 2019.
3. Ms. Jin Yan had to sit still on a small stool while being physically assaulted for 19 hours a day starting at 3 a.m. She once refused to get up early and was put in solitary confinement for three months, from March 21 to June 17 in 2019.
4. Ms. Chi Suqin, 65, was put in solitary confinement for two months. The only water she had to drink was from the toilet. She was given a small piece of bread each meal. The flesh on her buttocks festered from sitting on a small stool.
Related report:Two Sisters from Tumen City Detained in Changchun Prison
5. Ms. Chi Suling, sister of Ms. Chi Suqin, had to sit on a small stool for 18 hours a day starting at 4 a.m. She wasn’t allowed to talk and had only pickled vegetables for her meals. After two months her blood pressure became dangerously high, up to 240 mmHg, and she was rushed to a hospital.
Related report:Two Sisters from Tumen City Detained in Changchun Prison
6. Ms. Tian Lingquan, 73, refused to follow orders and, despite her dangerous hypertension (210mmHg), the guards forced her to sit still on a small stool every day beginning in August 2019.
7. From 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. Ms. Sun Shiying had to sit still on a half-foot-tall stool. She wasn’t allowed to talk or bathe and could only use the toilet 3 times a day. Her leg muscles were damaged from previous tortures and it pained her to walk. She was still forced to stand for long hours multiple times.
Related reports:Mother, Son, and Daughter Sentenced to Prison for Providing Shelter to Falun Gong Practitioner Who Escaped from Extended Detention
8. Ms. Qi Ming was forced to repeatedly sit on a small stool until the flesh on her buttocks split and stuck to her underwear.
The practitioners in Jilin Women’s Prison who refused to renounce their faith include:
Ms. Jin Yan, Ms. Che Pingping, Ms. Liu Xiangzhuo, Ms. Xiang Lijie, Ms. Zhu Xiyu, Ms. Zhang Guozhen, Ms. Cui Mingshu, Ms. Tian Lingquan, Ms. Yang Hongyan, Ms. Li Guiying, Ms. Zheng Chunling, Ms. Yan Shufang, Ms. Niu Yuhui, and Ms. Lei Xiuxiang.
The practitioners imprisoned at the time this report was written include:
Ms. Yu Shuchun, Ms. Wei Xiujuan, Ms. Li Junwei, Ms. Yang Jinyu, Ms. Li Fengqin, Ms. Xiao Yongfen, Ms. Qi Ming, Ms. Wang Yulan, Ms. Chen Shumei, Ms. Ding Fuhua, Ms. Su Yuqing, Ms. He Xiuzhen, Ms. Gao Guiying, Ms. Zhou Xiaoli, Ms. Li Fenglan, Ms. Qin Xiuzhi, Ms. Yang Lihua, Ms. Wang Jingxia, Ms. Jiang Xiulian, Ms. Li Jing, Ms. Wang Guifang, Ms. Wang Shufan, Ms. Zhang Yujie, Ms. Guo Yuzhen, Ms. Yang Xianghua, Ms. Li Xiufeng, Ms. Hao Jie, Ms. Li Ruifeng, Ms. Li Shaozhen, Ms. Li Guihua, Ms. Ma Xiurong, Ms. Wang Caixia, Ms. Liu Dongyang, Ms. Han Guangzhi, Ms. Lian Jinhua, Ms. Chi Suqing, Ms. Chi Suling, Ms. Liu Suzhen, Ms. Zhou Xiulian, Ms. Bie Lihua, Ms. Yan Yaqin, Ms. Wang Juan, Ms. Xu Jingbo, Ms. Gong Shiyun, Ms. Yong Xian, Ms. Xu Guizhi, Ms. Fu Yanqiu, Ms. Guo Shuxue, Ms. Xu Lina, Ms. Han Bing, Ms. Liu Yue, Ms. Fei Yi, Ms. Qin Liqin, Ms. Ma Hua, Ms. Wang Jianhua, Ms. Ren Shuxia, Ms. Leng Fengling, and Ms. Wang Shuhua.
Jilin Women’s Prison has aggressively participated in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. The staff members who are primarily in charge of torturing Falun Gong practitioners are:
An Tongyu, wardenWei Lihui, deputy wardenQian Wei, chief of the 8th wardChen Xi, captainPrison guards Gao Yang, Tu Qiang, Zhang Yishu, Zhang Yu, Sun Ningli
