In Those Unbearable Days (Part II)

(Minghui.org)[Editor’s notes] In August 2002, Li Wenming participated in the TV signal interception event to broadcast programs about Falun Gong in Qinghai and Gansu provinces. He was illegally sentenced to 20 years in prison by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and sent to Lanzhou Prison in 2003. Li was finally released in August 2021. This is his personal account of the persecution he endured.

“Before I was persecuted I could not believe that a group of people who follow the universal values of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, a group that only wants to be good and is beneficial to the country and society, would be brutally suppressed and persecuted. But this is still happening in China. I was arrested by the CCP four times, and detained for 21 years and six months. I endured inhuman torture and humiliation. When I recall the tragic and traumatic experiences I went through, I can not help but weep every time. I actually did not even shed tears before the evil.”--the author’s words. 

(Continued from Part 1)

Tortured for 20 Years for Intercepting TV Signals to Clarify the Truth

After I successfully escaped, I contacted other practitioners. We made CDs and other truth-clarifying materials, to assist Master, the founder of Falun Dafa, in saving people.

On August 17 and 18, 2002, I helped tap video signals to broadcast the truth about the persecution of Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong). We worked in pairs and broadcast the videos in seven locations in Qinghai and Gansu Province, including Xining City and Minhe County in Qinghai Province; Honggu District of Lanzhou City, Baiyin District of Baiyin City, Qinzhou District of Tianshui City, Xifeng District of Qingyang City and Qingcheng County of Qingyang City in Gansu Province. 

In Xifeng District, Qingyang City, due to the relatively hidden location, the police failed to find where we were broadcasting from, and our video played on a loop. In retaliation, they ordered the power in the area to be cut off for three days.

We began broadcasting at 7 p.m., which is prime viewing time and the eve of the “16th National Congress” of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The Central Committee of the Party and the Ministry of Public Security were alarmed, and “experts” were dispatched to help search for and arrest us. More than 200 police were deployed in the Guangwumen area alone. I was arrested again on August 30, 2002. After policeman Wei Dong and others punched and kicked me, they shoved me into a car and drove me to Yantan. They handcuffed my wrists behind my back and pulled me by my handcuffs to the seventh floor where the Lanzhou City Police Department was located. 

Extorting Confessions Through Torture

He Bo, Wei Dong and other policemen locked me in a “tiger bench,” stuck my hands and feet in the clips of the tiger bench, buckled a helmet on my head, and tied my upper body to the backrest of the tiger bench with a belt so that my entire body was immobilized. They kept tightening the buckles on my wrists. Every four or five minutes, the screws were tightened again, and they were tightened all night. I trembled in heart-rending pain. I became incontinent and almost went into shock.

At dawn, they sent me to the Xiguoyuan Detention Center. I was soon transferred from there to the No. 2 Detention Center of Lanzhou City. I was later repeatedly interrogated. Every night I was locked into the tiger bench.

Once after they locked me in the tiger bench and tightened the screws, they sat near me, eating and playing cards. A policeman came and picked up a wooden stick. Pretending to be tough on me, he stabbed at the screw with the stick. As he shouted he stabbed it in the opposite direction, loosening the screw, and even tried to break the screw. After a while, he saw the screws were loosened, so he got up and left.

After a long time, He Bo saw that I didn’t move, so he checked and saw that the screws were loose. He cursed as he tightened them and said, “We have a mole here.” 

I learned that many police in the Lanzhou City Police Department were unwilling to obey the CCP’s orders to persecute practitioners. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the policeman who loosened the screws for me. He took a risk, and he will definitely be rewarded in the future.

He Bo quickly tightened the screws, and my body trembled and my teeth chattered. I was close to collapse. Afterward, my wrist was numb for more than a year.

Handcuffed and Wearing 20-pound Shackles During First Confinement

In September 2003, after I was detained for a year, I was taken to Lanzhou Prison. I did not cooperate with their search and stopped them from beating and scolding other practitioners. I and Liu Zhirong (who was later persecuted to death in Tianshui Prison) was placed in solitary confinement.

The confinement room was only three square meters. The outside of the room was an enclosed courtyard of two square meters. There was an uneven bed of brick and stone. There was no heat. Each room contained three or four people. One or two people slept on the bed, and one person slept at the side or front of the bed. The people in confinement were not allowed to have bedding. There were no chopsticks or spoons and one had to eat with his hands.

When they searched my clothes, guard Zhao Zhiyong deliberately tore my jacket because he wanted to see if I had anything related to Falun Dafa. 

They put 64-pound shackles on Liu Zhirong. The handcuffs and shackles were strung together with iron wire. I was shackled in newly cast leg irons weighing more than 20 pounds. The handcuffs and shackles were also strung together with wire. Because the shackles were new, the burrs had not been polished off and they pierced the flesh on my ankles. The pain was unbearable. I wrapped the shackles around the trouser legs of the “prisoner” suits they forced us to wear, so the burrs did not make contact with my skin. The pant legs were eventually torn to shreds. I was illegally confined for a month.

Second Confinement

I was confined for a second time a year later, in December 2004. The Prison Management Section was assessing the “code of conduct.” I did not cooperate with them. They found Master Li’s articles hidden in my clothes, so 64-pound shackles were placed on me, which were strung together with the handcuffs.

It was snowing, but I only wore a pair of pants, sneakers, and a long-sleeved jacket. The confinement cell was not heated. At 6 a.m. every morning, they let me out in the yard. I could barely move because of the heavy shackles, so I sat. At 9 p.m. I was sent back to the confinement cell. Every day the temperature was minus seven or eight degrees Celsius, and the lowest temperature reached minus eleven or twelve degrees. The cold wind was bitter, and I shivered.

An inmate in the confinement cell often flicked my eyes. Because my hands and feet were shackled I could not avoid him. When I returned to the cell at 9 p.m., I was still shackled and had to lie down at the side of the bed. Due to the heavy shackles linked with the handcuffs, my body was curled. I could barely turn over at night. 

Two prisoners came and held my arms and I grabbed the shackles with both hands. They carried me into the interrogation room. Shi Tianyou, the deputy prison warden in charge of the prison guards, asked the guards in the confinement cell about my situation several times. They tried to make me submit in this way, but Shi Tianyou was very angry that I didn’t succumb to the torture. They were afraid that I would freeze to death, so they released me after a month of confinement. By the time the shackles were removed, I couldn’t walk.

Third Confinement 

I was confined for the third time in September 2005, when Lanzhou Prison demanded that all Falun Gong practitioners be forcibly “transformed” (give up practicing). They handcuffed me, but I refused. Ding Hui and other guards pressed me down and handcuffed me. My head hit the radiator and bled profusely. I had to get nine stitches to stop the bleeding.

Good People Inside and Outside China Help

During the 18 years I was illegally detained in Lanzhou Prison, there were always kind people who helped me. They shared their food and daily necessities with me. Some were not afraid of the CCP. After my head was smashed, one of them openly accused the guards of being rude and savage. Even when the evil most severely suppressed practitioners and the prison guards stipulated that no one should talk to me, some kind people secretly gave me food. Such kind people were in the Third and the 10th Prison Division.

I argued with the instructor in the 10th Division. Many prisoners watched, but none of them did anything to me. Some kind guards brought me baked sweet potatoes or yogurt from their homes. Their kind deeds encouraged me. Some guards asked what I planned to do after I was released from prison. 

I also received encouragement from practitioners from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and inside China. They sent me mail, including postcards, letters, and remittances. Although I never saw a single one of them due to the blockade, I heard I was sent mail. At the same time, they were also deterring the evil so I was not persecuted so intensely.

Some imprisoned practitioners helped me and encouraged me in various ways. I was able to make it to this day in the midst of such evil and crazy suppression, and in such a long period of great suffering and persecution, thanks to the blessing and protection of Master, the mighty virtue of Dafa, the encouragement of fellow practitioners, the help of the kind people of the world, and my firm adherence to Master and Dafa.

Repeatedly Placed in Solitary Confinement

During my eighteen years in Lanzhou Prison, in order to prevent me from coming into contact with other practitioners, I was usually separated from them. I was locked up alone in a prison division. In 2006, more practitioners were transferred from the Third Prison Division, and the guards transferred me to the Tenth Prison Division, where they began to persecute me again.

Locked Up in Solitary Cell For Three Months

Dai Xueyi was a notorious political instructor in the 10th Division. On May 1, 2008, he put me in a solitary cell. Four people hung me on a high bed frame for two weeks. I was not allowed to sleep. My entire body was swollen, and my feet, legs, and wrists were black and purple. I lost consciousness, my urine was red, and I was in a semi-comatose state.

Another time, an inmate slammed my abdomen with his fist, causing me unbearable pain and sweat streamed down my forehead. I spent three long and difficult months in the solitary cell.

Gao Zhendong, captain of the 10^th Division, also persecuted many practitioners. Cao Xi was once hung by him on a wire, and his toes barely touched the ground. 

Jin Jilin was Tortured

The first time Jin Jilin was taken to Lanzhou Prison, he was brutally persecuted by Zhang Haijun, the former deputy political instructor, in the Ninth Prison Division. He ordered a prisoner to pour boiling water over Jin Jilin. When his skin blistered, the prisoner pricked it with a pin and sprinkled it with salt. They did not allow Jin Jilin to sleep. 

The continuous persecution caused Jin Jilin to suffer unbearable pain, and he finally cut his artery with the fragments of the inner tank of a thermos. (Editor’s note: This is an extreme act under the cruel persecution of the CCP, is not condoned by the principles of Falun Dafa, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, and is prohibited by the principles of Falun Dafa). He nearly died. 

After he was sent to Lanzhou Prison for the second time, Jin Jilin was persecuted by Wei Zhoujiang, the captain of the Seventh Prison Division. When I was released from prison in August 2021, Jin Jilin was still being persecuted in a solitary cell.

Wang Youjiang was Persecuted to Death in Prison

Wang Youjiang was brutally persecuted by Zhang Haijun, the former brigade captain and Wang Guochen, the former instructor, in the Fifth Prison Division. As a result, Wang Youjiang had a stroke, became partially paralyzed (hemiplegia) and died.

Sun Zhaohai’s Teeth Were Knocked Out 

Sun Zhaohai, from Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province, was persecuted by Wang Guochen, the former brigade captain and Kong Fanping, the former instructor, in the First Prison Division. They put Sun Zhaohai into a small cell, and tied him to the “death bed.” They knocked out Sun Zhaohai’s teeth, but they failed to break his firm belief in Dafa. After a six-month-long hunger strike, and after nearly a year of persecution in the solitary cell, Sun Zhaohai refused to renounce Falun Dafa, so he was released from the solitary cell.

The Second Prison Division held a practitioner from Pingchuan District, Baiyin City, who was 70 years old. When I left Lanzhou Prison, he was locked up in a solitary cell and had not been allowed to sleep for more than four months. I hope that relevant organizations and practitioners in China and abroad will pay attention to this.

Confined in a Solitary Cell and Subjected to Black Hood and Tiger Bench Torture

The guards occasionally did things to oppress practitioners. At the end of the day’s hard labor, the guard called me out and asked me to walk along a line. I stood still.

Deputy instructor Zhang Yuquan came over and put me in a solitary cell again. He and Wang Zizhuo, the head of the prison division, handcuffed me to the bed frame of the upper bunk and did not allow me to sleep. They put a black hood on my head before I went to work. When I arrived at the workshop, I was locked to a “tiger bench.” Four inmates were ordered to watch me.

After I was hung for hours I lapsed in and out of consciousness, and my body also developed edema (swelling). In my semi-comatose state, I recalled the teachings of Master: 

“Great enlightened beings fear no hardshipTheir will is cast of diamondLife or death, they have no attachmentForthright and broad-minded on the road of Fa-rectification” (“Righteous Thought, Righteous Actions,” Hong Yin II)

I had come through the more than ten years of difficult prison life imposed on me. I must be able to endure the remaining one year of the sentence. It was under the influence of this firm thought, with the blessing of Master and the protection of Dafa, that I finally came out of the sinister persecution.

During the COVID pandemic, the guards were short of manpower to watch me, so they took me off the bed frame.

The “Image Project” in Lanzhou Prison

After Zhang Yongwei was transferred from Tianshui Prison to Lanzhou Prison as the warden, he spent all the food money allocated to the inmates of Lanzhou Prison to “improve the food” of the so-called “labor reform activists” and so-called “first-class prisoners.” He then bragged about his “achievement” in newspapers and on television to enhance his personal image, while most prisoners did not see meat in their food. They were given a little meat on some holidays.

Labor Production Quota Keeps Increasing

Prisoners did “hard labor” without pay and the quotas continually increased. As soon as Zhang Yongwei arrived at Lanzhou Prison, he doubled the tasks assigned to each prison division. The following year, it increased by another 60 percent. It increased each year by about 50 percent. 

We started work at 6:30 a.m. and finished at 6:30 p.m. There was a half-hour lunch break at noon. Sometimes we had to work until 8:30 or 9:00 p.m. If we failed to complete the task, we were subjected to electric shocks, beaten with rubber rods, handcuffed and made to hug cold poles in the winter, and exposed to the sun in summer.

Lack of Basic Personal Necessities

Lanzhou Prison did not provide underwear, quilts, mattresses or other daily necessities. Those who brought these items with them when they entered the prison were not allowed to wear or use them. The prison supermarkets used to sell radios, thread, clothes, lined pants, cotton clothes, cotton shoes, sneakers, and other items, but later they all became “contraband” and were confiscated. 

The heating was extremely poor, and the prison building was ventilated on all sides, so it wasn’t warm. The heat was turned off at 11 p.m. and turned back on at 6 a.m. I used two quilts but still woke up many times from the cold.

Dead Prisoners “Resuscitated” 

When a prisoner was sick, he was not treated in a timely manner. In 2020 alone, more than 20 inmates in Lanzhou Prison died of illness due to lack of treatment. In less than two years from 2019 to 2020, in the 10th Prison Division, three inmates died, two died in prison, and one died less than a week after being sent to Xinqiao Prison (“Kangtai” Hospital). Wang Xingyun had bile duct stones but was not treated. Until the day he died, he worked with the brigade, with two people supporting him while walking. He died after returning to the cell after work in the evening. 

Xi Xingwu had stomach cancer but was not treated until the cancer cells spread. He was sent to “Kangtai” Hospital, where he died in less than a week. Ran Hongju suffered from heart disease and did not receive treatment for many days. When he was dying he was issued a medical order and sent to the “Kangtai” Hospital to prepare for “treatment,” but he died before he could leave the prison gate. (Note: these were not practitioners.)

Lanzhou Prison deceived the world. After a prisoner died, the body was fitted with an IV and an oxygen cannula to make it look like he died after someone tried to resuscitate him.

Epilogue

During the 21 and a half years I was illegally detained, I was dismissed from public office by my unit. My house in Linjiazhuang was demolished, and even the furniture was taken. Because the neighbor wanted my home, he took advantage of my being imprisoned and cut off the water and electricity. Now I live in a rented apartment. Due to the intense pressure, my wife was forced to divorce me. An originally happy family was broken up. I should have received 22 months of unemployment benefits, but the Lanzhou Social Security Bureau made it difficult to apply for it. 

All of this happened because I believe in Falun Dafa and its principles, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, and because I clarified the truth about the persecution of Falun Dafa to the world.

I would like to tell Zhang Yongwei, Zhang Haijun, Wang Guochen, Kong Fanping, Wang Zizhuo and others in Lanzhou Prison—you have been deeply bewitched by the Chinese regime’s fallacies. I hope that you quickly sober up, stop doing things that go against the principles of heaven and conscience, and stop working for the evil Party. For the sake of you and your family, stop the persecution and atone for your sins, so that you can be saved and have a future.

(The End)