(Minghui.org) Wuxi is an ancient city known for its rice paddies and fishery on the beautiful Taihu Lake in Jiangsu Province. However, since the Chinese Communist Party began its persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, many Falun Gong practitioners in Wuxi have been arrested and sent to prisons, mental hospitals, and the now defunct forced labor camps. Some have also died from torture while in police custody.
In 2001, the Wuxi 610 Office established the Wuxi Legal Administration School to detain and brainwash Falun Gong practitioners in an attempt to compel them to renounce their faith. 610 Office is an extralegal security agency in China whose primary task is to coordinate and implement the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. It is given the authority to bypass legal mandates to detain practitioners without abiding by legal constraints.
Since the beginning, Wuxi Legal Administration School has detained many practitioners, and forced them to go through rounds of brainwashing. The facility also implemented a series of torture methods to coerce the practitioners to give in.
Practitioners in this facility are deprived of legal rights including consulting legal representations. To go home, they must agree to write several statements to renounce Falun Gong and completely break off with it. The school administration and officers then present these statements to their supervisors to receive bonuses and promotions.
If practitioners refuse to write these statements, they are subjected to the following torture methods.
Sleep Deprivation and Standing for Extended Periods of Time
Practitioners are deprived of the right to sleep and forced to stand for extended periods of time. If their eyes are closed out of fatigue, guards would scold them and pry open their eyes immediately.
Forced Drinking and Smoke Inhalation
Although the officers know that Falun Gong practitioners do not drink alcohol nor smoke, they instigate the guards to tie up the practitioners, and then forcibly pour liquor into their mouths. They also cover up their mouths with dirty towels, and then insert lit cigarettes into their nostrils. Practitioners have no choice but to drink the liquor and inhale the smoke. If practitioners do not react to the smoke and cough severely, the guards switch to stronger cigarettes.
“Making Sober”
Guards put helmets on practitioners, then strike the helmets with wooden clubs.
Stepping on Calves
Practitioners are pushed on their knees. One guard clutches a practitioner's head between his legs, and two guards step on the practitioner's calves with a plank that can cause the victim's skin to split open.
Simulated Drowning
Guards press practitioners' heads into the dirty bath water in a group bath tub to simulate drowning.
“Flying an Airplane”
The practitioners’ arms are tightly tied behind the back and onto the upper frame of a bunk bed. Their legs are split apart with their feet tied to the lower frame of the bunk bed. The shape of the body looks like an airplane. The torture is extremely painful. Within a short time, the victim sweats profusely and hovers between life and death.
Other torture methods the facility uses include squatting on bricks, and dousing practitioners' necks with hot water.
Several practitioners have died from the torture in Wuxi Legal Administration School, including Gu Xuejuan, Dai Lijuan, and Zhou Zhiying.
