Falun Gong Practitioners Tortured in Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison for Not Renouncing Their Faith
(Minghui.org) Ms. Li Guiyue was released from Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison in May 2020, emaciated and weak with an unclear mind. She was drowsy and in pain, and curled up in bed all the time. She sometimes murmured to herself, “They beat me every day! They beat me every day!” Unable to recover, she passed away a year later, on August 6, 2021, at age 52.
Ms. Li was a resident of Yilan County, Heilongjiang Province and was sentenced to five years in prison for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. Like all Falun Gong practitioners held in the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison who persevered on their faith, she was subjected to brutal, long-term torture.
The prison administration, Justice Bureau, Political and Legal Affairs Committee, and 610 Office at different levels across the province joined forces to actively implement the persecution policy on Falun Gong. The prison officials did not worry about being held accountable for their crimes, where the persecution is among the most severe in the country.
Systematic Persecution
In Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison, all imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners were assigned to the 8th and 9th Ward, and divided to 24 groups. The brutal persecution of practitioners lasted so long and was so brazen because it was carried out systematically in the prison.
The prison blocked off the communications between the practitioners and the outside, and also between practitioners inside the prison. Practitioners in the prison were not allowed to talk to each other or have eye contact. Most practitioners were denied family visits for years and their family phone calls and letters were strictly monitored and controlled. During the pandemic, the prison further tightened up the visitation rules, and has not loosened up since.
The prison guards instigated the inmates to do the job of forcing the practitioners to renounce their faith, shirking their own responsibilities. They selected selfish and cruel inmates with experience as group heads to be in charge of working on practitioners full-time, and used reward points and sentence reductions as incentives to make them work harder. These inmates were with the practitioners around the clock and given the freedom to torture them both mentally and physically at any time.
Brutal Torture
Practitioners who were steadfast in their faith were subjected to daily beatings. The inmates slapped them, punched their heads and faces, slapped their faces and heads with the shoe soles, and kicked them after they were knocked down.
Practitioners were forced to sit still on very low plastic stools every day for more than ten hours, with backs staying straight, or overnight, without closing their eyes. The times they were allowed to use the restroom were very limited. Every minute of the sitting torture felt extremely long. Anyone who moved a little bit would be beaten. Many practitioners’ legs and feet became swollen and lost feeling.
To aggravate the torture, the inmates added washboards on top of the stools and forced the practitioners to sit on the uneven surface. In the winter, the inmates dragged the practitioners to the washrooms with windows open and forced them to stay there while wearing with only a single layer of clothing. The cold penetrated into their bodies, leaving their legs and abdomens feeling numb and freezing all the time.
Some practitioners were also subjected to the hanging torture. The inmates hung them up from the upper bunk bed rails for long periods of time. The practitioners were in excruciating pain, with their wrists bearing their whole body’s weight.
Torture reenactment: hanging with handcuffs from on bed rails
Ms. Yang Lihua, from Sunwu County, Heilongjiang, was beaten, exposed to extreme cold, forced to sit on a small stool, and hung up. She was tortured to death in prison after over a year.
From time to time, the inmates also tried different means to torture the practitioners. For a while, they waterboarded the practitioners. Two inmates pushed one practitioner’s head into water until she could not hold her breath any longer, then pulled her head up to let her catch her breath for a brief second, then held her head in the water again and repeated the process.
Another torture method involved the inmates stuffing a dirty rag into a practitioner’s mouth and then pulling it out hard. Many times, practitioners’ teeth were pulled out along with the rag.
Practitioners were also denied restroom use (some had to relieve themselves in their pants). Some were deprived of meals and water. Some were held down in a split position for a long time.
Even elderly practitioners, in their 60s or 70s, were not spared from daily torture. Some practitioners whose families abandoned them due to the persecution were subjected to the most severe tortures, and the inmates openly declared that no one cared for them if they were tortured to death. One such practitioner was indeed tortured to death.
To intensify the persecution of practitioners who refused to renounce their faith, the prison guards punished all the inmates from the same cell by forcing them to incite their hatred and violence toward the practitioners. When all the inmates were punished by making them sit all night until midnight, they became angry and severely beat up the practitioners.
Periodic events like inspections from upper-level departments and various campaigns from time to time, gave the inmates opportunities to show off their performance, which made practitioners’ lives more miserable. Severe beatings and loud screams could be heard throughout the night.
The prison officials purposely made the living conditions poor for the practitioners who firmly held up their faith. These practitioners were limited to only 100 yuan to spend each month. Oftentimes, they were forced to pay much higher prices on necessities of poorer quality. They were often not given enough food during meals.
Related reports:
Recent Persecution Deaths of Falun Gong Practitioners in Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison
Recent Torture Cases of Falun Gong Practitioners at the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison
Ongoing Torture and Brainwashing of Falun Gong Practitioners in Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison
Heilongjiang Women’s Prison Orders Inmates to Drug Falun Gong Practitioner