(Minghui.org) July 20, 2023 marks the 24th year since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to suppress Falun Gong. Practitioners in 44 countries submitted another list of perpetrators to their respective governments, urging them to hold these individuals accountable for the persecution of Falun Gong in China. The practitioners asked their governments to bar the perpetrators and their family members from entry, and to freeze their overseas assets.
Among the perpetrators listed was Li Rulin, former director of the Bureau of Reeducation Through Labor.
Full Name of Perpetrator: Li (last name) Rulin (first name) (李如林)Gender: MaleCountry: Biyang, Henan Province, ChinaDate/year of Birth: January 1955
1998 – March 2001: Deputy Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Committee and Executive Deputy Director of the Sichuan Provincial Department of JusticeMarch 2001 – March 2009: Director of the Bureau of Reeducation Through Labor at China’s Ministry of JusticeMarch 2009 – September 2009: Member of the CCP Leadership Group and Director of the Political Department at the Ministry of JusticeSeptember 2009 – April 2014: Member of the CCP Leadership Group and Director of the Political Department at the Supreme People’s ProcuratorateApril 2014 – October 2018: Vice President of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate
December 2018 - Present: Director of China Against Corruption Law Association
Since 1998, Li Rulin has served several roles in the CCP’s judicial and law enforcement system. After the CCP launched the persecution of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, he actively participated in implementing the CCP’s policy to “ruin [Falun Gong practitioners’] reputation, destroy them physically, and bankrupt them financially,” leading to the deaths of numerous practitioners.
During Li’s tenure as the Executive Deputy Director of the Sichuan Provincial Department of Justice (1998-2001), the persecution of Falun Gong in Sichuan was among the most severe in China. Although the exact number of Falun Gong practitioners incarcerated in various prisons and labor camps is not known, the following data collected by Minghui.org can give us a glimpse of how severe the persecution was at that time.
In 2000, in Guang’an County, Sichuan Province, alone, 15 Falun Gong practitioners were given forced labor camp terms, and another six were detained. Between 1999 and 2000, about 30 to 50 practitioners were detained from 15 days to two and a half months for going to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.
By the end of 2000, about 40 male practitioners were detained in the Dayan Forced Labor Camp in Ziyang, Sichuan Province, and at least another 100 practitioners were held in the Xinhua Men’s Forced Labor Camp in Mianyang. More than 200 female practitioners were detained in the Nanmusi Forced Labor Camp in Zizhong and the number soared to nearly 2,000 by 2001. Both the Yangmahe Women’s Prison and Deyang Prison also held a large number of practitioners.
By the time Li stepped down as Executive Deputy Director of the Sichuan Provincial Department of Justice in March 2001, more than ten practitioners were persecuted to death in Sichuan, including Tian Shiqiang, Miao Qun, Fang Xianzhi, Liu Zhifen, Su Qionghua, and Wang Xuzhi.
The more than 300 re-education through forced labor camps across China played a crucial part for the authorities to detain and torture practitioners.
The Reeducation Through Labor Bureau of the Ministry of Justice is the highest administrative department of the CCP’s forced labor institutions. It not only directly controls the forced labor institutions at all levels but also has the power to formulate policies to persecute Falun Gong.
For the eight years between March 2001 and March 2009 while Li served as the bureau’s director, the persecution was at its peak. Li spared no effort to implement the persecution policy against Falun Gong and even personally participated in it.
According to a report published on Legal Evening News on November 16, 2013, the number of detainees held in labor camps increased every year during the 1990s, with the highest annual detention estimated to be 300,000 between 2000 and 2006. In 2006, it started to fall. In 2012, an estimated 90,000 people were detained.
In addition, according to the “International Religious Freedom Report 2008” and the “Human Rights Report” released by the U.S. State Department in 2008, more than half of the detainees in China’s forced labor camps were Falun Gong practitioners. While in the labor camps, the practitioners are subjected to hundreds of torture methods and intensive brainwashing designed to force them to renounce their faith. Most of them were also forced to work for long hours every day without pay.
According to the analysis of 3,653 deaths confirmed by Minghui.org in 2013, 714 practitioners served labor camp terms and 546 practitioners were tortured to death while still in the labor camps. A total of 127 forced labor camps across China were involved.
These numbers are believed to be the tip of the iceberg. Numerous Falun Gong practitioners were tortured and killed in the forced labor camps, but their deaths were covered up by the authorities.
Torture
More than 100 torture methods have been documented in China’s forced labor camps, including:
- sleep deprivation for multiple days in a row- electric shocks by several high-voltage batons simultaneously for an extended time- various handcuffing and shackling techniques- beating with rubber sticks, steel bars and mace- “dead man bed”- sitting on small stools without moving- whipping with leather belts, copper wire and ropes- inserting needles into nails- using iron pliers to twist skin or to pull out nails- solitary confinement- force-feeding of chili water, salt water, and human waste- pouring cold water on the head in winter- denied restroom use
Drug Administration
In addition to physical torture, the forced labor camps also administered unknown drugs to practitioners, including injection, force feeding and secretly adding the drugs to the practitioners’ food and water.
Such abuses have been reported in almost all forced labor camps, including Masanjia Labor Camp in Liaoning, Banqiao Women’s Labor Camp in Tianjin, and Shayang Forced Labor Camp in Hubei.
Sexual Assault
Falun Gong practitioners detained in the labor camps also reported widespread sexual abuse, rape and other sexual assaults.
Examples of sexual assaults on female practitioners, including underage girls, are: Vaginal penetration with electric batons, electric shock on nipples, breast picking, pinching, kicking the anus and lower parts, and forced abortion.
Nine female practitioners, including Ms. Zou Guirong, Ms. Su Juzhen, Ms. Yin Liping, Ms. Zhou Min, Ms. Wang Li, Ms. Zhou Yanbo, Ms. Ren Dongmei, and Ms. Zhao Suhuan, were put in male cells in Masanjia Forced Labor Camp in April 2001 and subjected to gang rape. Ms. Zou and Ms. Su later died from the persecution.
Not only were female practitioners were subjected to sexual abuse, but sexual abuse against male practitioners was also widespread.
1. Ms. Gao Rongrong
Ms. Gao Rongrong, who worked at the Luxun Academy of Fine Arts in Shenyang City, was given several forced labor terms for her belief in Falun Gong.
On May 7, 2004, Ms. Gao was shocked with electric batons by guards at Longshan Forced Labor Camp in Shenyang for six to seven hours, leaving her face severely disfigured. While she was hospitalized, several practitioners came in and photographed her face. Her story was published by international media. Ms. Gao escaped from the hospital and went into hiding.
Top CCP members, including former leader Jiang Zemin and his accomplices Luo Gan and Zhou Yongkang, were afraid that Ms. Gao would leave China. A special task force was set up to track her down. Xu Wenyou, the former head of the Criminal Investigation Division at the Liaoning Provincial Public Security Department, was directly responsible for apprehending Ms. Gao. After nearly six months, Ms. Gao was arrested again in the early morning hours of March 6, 2005. Several practitioners who helped rescue her were arrested as well. On June 16, 2005, Ms. Gao, whose face was covered with scars caused by being shocked with electric batons, was killed in detention. She was 37.
2. Mr. Zhang Changming
When Mr. Zhang Changming was held in the Jiamusi Forced Labor Camp in mid-January 2003, the guards handcuffed him to the ground and beat him. They instigated inmates to stab the soles of Mr. Zhang’s feet with nails more than 20 times. The next day, he was transferred to a small cell, handcuffed to a ring fastened to the concrete floor and tortured for three days.
At midnight on February 28, 2003, Mr. Zhang was handcuffed to a heating pipe. The guards covered his head and smashed it with hard objects such as screwdrivers. His head became deformed, and he suffered extensive bruising and intracranial hemorrhage. He soon died from the beating. He was 50.
3. Mr. Yao Sanzhong
Mr. Yao Sanzhong was given a three-year term in July 2000 at the No. 3 Labor Camp in Henan Province. He was subjected to inhumane torture for a long time. The guards tied him up, shocked him with a high-voltage electric baton, and slapped his face with the sole of a shoe.
When the guards learned that Mr. Yao was a music teacher, they kicked him in the throat, causing his vocal cords to rupture. At the end of December 2002, when Mr. Yao was dying, the guards left him on the side of the road for his family to pick up. When his family took him to the hospital, the doctor found that all of his internal organs were severely injured and failing. He died in January 2003. He was 34.
4. Ms. Wang Yunjie
Ms. Wang Yunjie was given two years at Masanjia Forced Labor Camp in 2002. She was forced to stand facing the wall for long hours, deprived of sleep, and handcuffed from behind. She was forced to stand outside in the scorching sun for 20 days. The guards also shocked her breasts with two high-voltage electric batons for several hours, which caused them to ulcerate.
Two guards once tied Ms. Wang’s legs in double-lotus position, and then wrapped the rope around her hands and neck. Then they hung her up by her wrists. By the time they loosened the rope seven hours later, she could no longer sit, stand, or walk normally. She was on the verge of death, and the labor camp hurriedly asked her family to take her home. She passed away in July 2006.
5. Mr. Lu Xingguo
While serving time at Shanghai No. 3 Labor Camp, Mr. Lu Xingguo was tortured on a “tiger bench” for two consecutive days between October 13 and 15, 2003. On October 15, the guards instigated the inmates to drag Mr. Lu, who could no longer walk, into a room. More than ten inmates closed the doors and windows, turned up the volume of the TV, stuffed his mouth with a towel to prevent him from shouting, and then violently beat him. Mr. Lu was beaten to death in just one hour. His neck was covered in blood, and his body was covered with electric shock marks. The forced labor camp hastily cremated his body and dispatched more than 60 officers to guard the funeral home. His family members were not allowed to see his body. He was 45.
During the four years from April 2014 to April 2018, when Li served as the vice president of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, he further facilitated the illegal sentencing of practitioners for upholding their faith.
According to information collected by Minghui, at least 4,683 practitioners were sentenced between 2014 and 2018, including 633 in 2014, 878 in 2015, 1,265 in 2016, 974 in 2017, and 933 in 2018. The practitioners’ ages ranged from 23 to 83 and the longest prison term was 13 years.