(Minghui.org) Ms. Wang Xiufang, 56, of Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, was arrested on July 13, 2022, for telling people about Falun Gong. She is currently detained in Pingzhuangzhen Detention Center in Chifeng City.

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

Ms. Wang, a former teacher who is now employed at Yuanbaoshan Power Plant, started practicing Falun Gong in 1997. She used to suffer from poor health but became healthy after following the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance.

For refusing to give up her faith, she has been arrested multiple times, sentenced twice to seven years, and sent to forced labor camps three times for six years. Her term was extended for five months when she remained determined to continue to practice Falun Gong. During her incarceration, she was tortured by being whipped, tied to a metal chair, hung up, forced to stand under the hot sun, shocked with electric batons, and deprived of sleep.

Torture illustration: Hung up and handcuffed to a tree

Because Ms. Wang was repeatedly arrested and her home ransacked, her husband divorced her, leaving their two young daughters. Her older daughter dropped out of school at 12 and went to work to help support the family.

Once, in an attempt to force her to renounce her faith, Ms. Wang’s husband hit her in the back with a knife. Then he tried to strangle her. Terrified, their daughters ran to their grandfather’s. Hearing what had happened, the grandfather ran over. Seeing that Ms. Wang was bleeding from her mouth and nose, he kicked in the window and climbed in to stop his son.

Below is an account of Ms. Wang’s suffering.

Tortured in Detention Center

In June 2000, Ms. Wang was arrested and taken to Pingzhuang Detention Center. Four officers from the 610 Office tried to “transform” Ms. Wang and eight other practitioners in the same detention center. They were also deprived of sleep many times. Some guards forced them to do the “duck walk.”

In this torture, the victims are forced to squat in their bare feet, with both hands behind their backs, and carry 60 pounds of cornmeal. They have to walk back and forth in this position all morning long on hot summer days on a sandy ground. Another practitioner who couldn’t squat had to crawl with the cornmeal on her back, which ruined her kneecaps.

After finishing the “duck walk,” the guards forced the practitioners to sit in icy cold water and had other detainees pour buckets of cold water on them. When the practitioners remained unmoved despite the torture, the guards ordered them to jump up high. If they slowed down, the guards whipped them with plastic pipe four centimeters in diameter. Seeing that they could still jump after a while, the guards forced them to do it under the scorching sun and emptied their water bottles. They were forced to jump for over an hour.

Later on, the practitioners were forced to do the “frog jump.” They had to squat together with the person behind holding the ears of the person in the front. They were forced to jump simultaneously without letting go of the ears. Some practitioners’ ears were torn and bled. In another torture, the guards forced the practitioners to jump in circles on one leg, still holding each others’ ears.

Once, the guards aimed the hose used to water the garden on the practitioners, almost suffocating them.

One evening after depriving them of sleep for days, the guard said the practitioners could sleep and had them lie on their stomachs on the bed. The guards ordered other inmates to pour water on the practitioners and then dragged them outside. The guards exposed Ms. Wang’s back and whipped her with a leather belt, which was called the “open skin” torture. As they did, detention center director Zhang Haiqing shouted at them, “If I can’t straighten you out tonight, I’ll quit my job as the detention center director. I will give you a taste of the proletariat’s dictatorship. I will beat you to pieces or even beat you to death!”

The torture lasted from midnight to 2 a.m.

After the torture, the practitioners managed to walk back to their cell. The detainees told Ms. Wang, “We thought you died. The whipping noise sounded like firecrackers. We were all terrified and cried.”

The guards handcuffed the practitioners together so that they couldn’t lie down completely to sleep, nor could they take off their wet clothes.

The next morning, a guard took the practitioners to Zhang’s office. Zhang told those who had gone to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong to raise their hands. Ms. Wang and a few others raised their hands. Zhang kicked her in the head and stomped on it. A few guards then rushed over to beat her and shocked her with an electric baton.

Torture illustration: Shocking with multiple electric batons

Tortured in Tumuji Women’s Forced Labor Camp

Two months later the authorities transferred Ms. Wang to Chifeng City Detention Center. She was given one year of forced labor. The guards ordered her to memorize the detention center rules and beat her when she did the Falun Gong exercises. She went on a hunger strike to protest the abuse.

In August 2000, Ms. Wang and 15 other practitioners were transferred to Tumuji Women’s Forced Labor Camp. They were detained in a big room. Because they did the Falun Gong exercises together that night, guards beat them with their shoes. Ms. Wang’s nose and mouth bled, while others’ faces were bruised. They were ordered to squat for the night and made to attend brainwashing sessions during the day.

During a brainwashing session, a guard asked Ms. Wang if she would “correct her mistake” (of practicing Falun Gong). She replied, “I’ll continue to live by the principles of Falun Gong.” The guard grabbed her hair and punched her face until she fell. The guard also kicked and stomped on her.

Ms. Wang and a few practitioners went on a hunger strike to protest the brainwashing. The guards forced them to stand under the hot sun, and one of them fainted. The practitioners were also force-fed, beaten with slippers, and shocked with electric batons.

The guards put Ms. Wang in another brigade and forced her to work. One evening a head guard beat the practitioners after finding out that they did the Falun Gong exercises. The next day, after they came back to the labor camp after working, the guard ordered them to strip to their underpants to humiliate them.

They had to kneel down and put their heads in a bucket meant for the detainees to urinate. Because the restroom was located outside of the building and the gate was closed in the evenings, all of the 80 detainees had to use the bucket at night. They would shove the bucket under her head after they relieved themselves.

The hallway was not heated and, almost naked, they couldn’t stop shivering. Fearing that they might die, the guard put them back in the cell and had the detainees keep them awake all night. They still had to work the next morning and came back to be tortured the same way for the next few days.

The head guard threatened Ms. Wang with more torture if she didn’t give up her practice. She did not back down. The guard gave orders to handcuff them and hung her and other practitioners up in the air with their handcuffs attached to a high bar. Their shoulders and wrists were in excruciating pain. They stayed in the air around the clock except at mealtimes. One day another head guard came in and saw that the practitioners had blood coming out of their mouths and noses and ordered that they be let down.

Torture illustration: Hung up by the wrists

When a guard heard Ms. Wang tell an inmate about Falun Gong in the restroom, the head guard punched and kicked her and shocked her with electric batons until she became incontinent. After a while, someone shouted for everyone to line up, and a guard called out many practitioners. The next day, the practitioners who were called out previously said they were forced to sign statements guarantee not to practice Falun Gong, and if they don’t sign, they would be beaten or shocked with electric batons. Ms. Wang’s face was severely swollen from the beating as she didn’t comply.

At lunchtime, Ms. Wang saw three practitioners’ faces were so bruised they could not open their eyes.

Every day before the detainees left the labor camp to go work in the fields, the guards made them shout the slogan, “Wash away the stains and become a new person.” Ms. Wang and another practitioner did not comply and protested the torture of other practitioners. A head guard beat her. When she came back from work, she still refused to shout their required chant to enter the labor camp door. The guards made her stand outside.

Because Ms. Wang continued to do the Falun Gong exercises in the labor camp, the authorities arbitrarily extended her term twice, for a total of five months.

The head guard once ordered Ms. Wang to memorize the labor camp rules. She refused and was beaten until her nose and mouth bled.

Ms. Wang was later transferred to another brigade. She went on a hunger strike to protest the extended term. On the ninth day of her hunger strike, the guards ordered her to eat. When she refused, they beat her for about two hours and pried her teeth open to force-feed her. This lasted for about two to three months, until she was emaciated.

Two More Labor Camp Terms

Ms. Wang was arrested again in 2003 and sent to a forced labor camp for three years. She was held in Hohhot Women’s Forced Labor Camp and tortured. She was released in 2005.

She was later reported to the police and arrested. After she was taken to Yuanbaoshan Detention Center, she went on a hunger strike for more than a month, before being transferred to Hohhot Women’s Forced Labor Camp. When she failed the physical exam, the labor camp refused to accept her and was taken back to the detention center. She continued her hunger strike and was released

On April 18, 2008, Ms. Wang was arrested and taken to Yuanbaoshan Detention Center. She went on a hunger strike and was force-fed concentrated brine. Her stomach became bloated and she started vomiting. The guards also handcuffed her to a bed.

She was given two years in Hohhot Women’s Forced Labor Camp, and severely tortured. When her term ended, the authorities refused to release her because she didn’t give up practicing Falun Gong. Her term was extended for another 20 days. Afterward, she was sent to Chifeng Brainwashing Center.

Sentenced to Three and a Half Years

Ms. Wang was distributing DVDs with information about Falun Gong on April 19, 2012, when she was arrested and taken to Jinshan Detention Center. She was later sentenced to three and a half years.

On July 26, Ms. Wang was admitted to Hohhot Women’s Prison and tortured brutally.

One guard shocked Ms. Wang with an electric baton, pulled her hair, and punched her forehead and chest so hard a few ribs broke. The pain—her chest hurt when she breathed—lasted for over three years. The guard also kicked her abdomen and stomped on her head. He then pulled her up and shocked her with multiple electric batons. The room was filled with a burning smell, and her hair fell out in clumps. Even today her hair hasn’t grown back completely.

After the beatings, Ms. Wang was monitored around the clock by five to six inmates. If she closed her eyes, the inmates would kick her. For eight days, she wasn’t allowed to sleep for a minute. Yet the guards still beat her and kicked her in her private part.

Later, Ms. Wang was forced to do unpaid labor for 15 to 16 hours a day and deprived of restroom use. The guards also restricted her from calling her family.

Ms. Wang moved to her daughter’s home in Beijing after she was released in 2015. There, she was arrested again for telling people about Falun Gong and was detained in Beijing Detention Center. Her daughter had to pay the police a large amount of money to get her released.

Sentenced Again to Four Years

Ms. Wang was arrested on July 6, 2016, after she was reported for spreading information about Falun Gong. She was sentenced to four years and taken to Hohhot Women's Prison on January 10, 2017.

Ms. Wang refused to renounce her faith and was put in a strict management team ten days later. One day, a guard asked her why she refused to wear the name tag indicating her name and prison term, and she responded that she was not a criminal and she did not break any law by practicing Falun Gong. The guard cursed her and shocked her mouth, ears, neck, and hands with an electric baton.

The guard then ordered her to stand in her cell. He beat her again when she refused to cooperate. Ms. Wang was tortured in the strict management team for nine months.

Because Ms. Wang continued to resist, she was whipped on her face with a rope, handcuffed and shackled, and carried to the solitary confinement room. Because the room was occupied, she was carried back to the cell and tied up so that she couldn’t move. The torture lasted for 48 hours; her handcuffs and shackles weren’t removed for a week.

After she was transferred to No. 2 Ward in May 2018, the inmates hit her with their sandals for sitting on her bed with her eyes closed. They claimed that she was doing the Falun Gong meditation.

When the guards saw her sitting on the bed with her eyes closed again on September 20, 2019, they ordered the inmates to gag her mouth with socks and whip her face with a rope. Then they handcuffed and shackled her and tied her to a shelving unit. The guard assigned inmates to watch over her and keep her awake for the whole night. She was tied up for two days, and the handcuffs and shackles weren’t removed for a week.

When Ms. Wang refused to wear the name tag again on October 29, 2019, they took off her clothes and sewed the badge on it. They then pushed her down and tied her hands behind her back to put the back clothes on her.

Related reports:

Teacher Ms. Wang Xiufang from Inner Mongolia Illegally Sentenced Again

Inner Mongolia Woman Tortured for Four Years in Hohhot Women's Prison