Once Incarcerated for 8.5 Years, Guangxi Woman Secretly Sentenced to Another 7.5 Years

(Minghui.org) A Nanning City, Guangxi province resident was arrested in early July 2020 for practicing Falun Gong.

Ms. Deng Rongfang’s family recently learned that she has been secretly sentenced to 7.5 years for her faith. Other details of her case aren’t clear at the time of writing.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Deng, 63, is a former engineer of the port authority in Fangchenggang City, Guangxi Province. She took up Falun Gong in January 1998 and credits the practice for curing her hepatitis B, gastritis, and other ailments. Living by Falun Gong’s principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance, she changed her hot temper and became kinder and more considerate.

After the communist regime ordered the persecution in 1999, Ms. Deng was repeatedly arrested. She was given four forced labor terms totaling more than seven years.

Ms. Deng went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong in October 1999. After three months at the Fangchenggang City Detention Center, she was given one year at the Guangxi Women’s Forced Labor Camp. She was also fired by her workplace.

Ms. Deng was arrested again in September 2001 by agents of 610 Office and held at the Fangchenggang City Brainwashing Center. As she refused to renounce Falun Gong, she was transferred to the detention center and given another three years at Guangxi Women’s Forced Labor Camp.

The labor camp extended her term for nine months after her second labor camp term expired. She was then held at a brainwashing center for three more months, before being allowed to go home.

The police arrested Ms. Deng again in October 2007, accusing her of making informational materials about Falun Gong. She was first held at the Nanning City No. 2 Detention Center and then transferred to the Nanning City Brainwashing Center, before being given the 1.5-year labor camp term. When her term expired, the authorities also held her in the brainwashing center for three months.

Ms. Deng’s next arrest was in November 2012. She was given two years at the labor camp after being forced to attend an eight-day brainwashing session in a hotel. The labor camp authorities also held a brainwashing session and tried to force her to renounce Falun Gong.

When the labor camp system was abolished by the communist regime in 2013 due to international scrutiny, the authorities transferred Ms. Deng to a brainwashing center to finish serving her term.

Below are the various torture methods Ms. Deng suffered while in the labor camp and brainwashing centers.

Sleep Deprivation

One common torture was to deprive the practitioners of sleep. Some practitioners who refused to renounce Falun Gong were deprived of sleep for one or two months.

When Ms. Deng was held at the labor camp in 2012, eight inmates took turns preventing her from falling asleep. They taped her eyes and wiped mint essential oil on her eyes, causing her eyes to swell or keep tearing. Even when she went to bed, they shook her every few minutes and ordered her to open her eyes.

Restricted Restroom Use

In the winter of 2012, the guards didn’t allow Ms. Deng to use the restroom. They tied up her pants at her ankles and put on extra-large rain shoes on her. She was forced to relieve herself in her pants. The inmates cleaned the spilled urine with her clothes and forced her to put them back on. Her feet were soaked in urine and became festered.

In another torture, the inmates put Ms. Deng in a big tank filled with ice-cold water. They pressed her head under the water once in a while and only let loose when she began suffocating. The guards watched it on the side and threatened to waterboard her like that every day.

Physical Torture and Beating

Ms. Deng was often forced to stand, sit or squat for long hours without moving every day. The inmates verbally abused, beat or jabbed her with a needle if she moved. While the abuse wouldn’t cause many external injuries, the excruciating pain often left Ms. Deng too weak to talk. She also suffered extremely low blood pressure as a result. Her feet were swollen and she had much difficulty walking.

Sometimes the inmates and guards beat her in a group, with some hitting her with a book or club and others slapping her in the face. They wouldn’t stop until they became tired. When Ms. Deng refused to be brainwashed by them, the torture continued.

Food Laced with Drugs and Frequent Physical Examination

Ms. Deng also noticed that the guards mixed unknown drugs into her and other practitioners’ food.

In 2012, while the labor camp guards kept extensively torturing the practitioners, they also took them for physical examination, electrocardiogram, and blood tests. The blood samples they collected from the practitioners were in excessive amounts compared to a normal test. Ms. Deng suspected that it’s related to the forced organ harvesting crime by the communist regime.