How Prisons Differ Between Taiwan And China

By a practitioner in Taiwan

(Clearwisdom.net) Stories of how Falun Gong changed people's hearts for the better and its wonderful power of healing and fitness have spread all over Taiwan. On July 20, 1999, Jiang Zemin's regime ordered the persecution against Falun Gong, and since then, every branch of China's media has been used to spread lies about Falun Gong and the persecution. Since then, due to the publicity, Falun Gong has become better known in Taiwan. Many people tried the practice out of curiosity. Once they realized the beauty of the practice, many of them became cultivators. Falun Gong has since spread all over Taiwan, with over a thousand practice sites.

About two or three years ago, with the goal of inspiring the good nature within prisoners, practitioners in Taiwan started to promote Falun Gong's teaching of Truth-Compassion-Tolerance in various prisons and detention centers. Practitioners have received accolades and awards from many prisons and detention centers for their efforts. On the other side of the Taiwan Strait, however, Falun Gong practitioners in China are being illegally arrested, detained, brainwashed, tortured, and killed. The contrast between China and Taiwan is quite sharp, despite the same culture and heritage.

Prisoners Study Falun Gong in Taiwan

One after another, prisons such as Changhua Youth Prison, Ilan County Sanxing Prison, Tainan Prison, Chiayi Prison, Pingtung Prison, and Green Island Prison, etc. have added Falun Gong to their regular education program. Many inmates look forward to the weekly Falun Gong workshop. They study Zhuan Falun to understand the meaning of life; they practice the exercises to relax both mind and body. There are obvious changes to many inmates once they understand the principle of Truth-Compassion-Tolerance. For instance, they are no longer impetuous and they become calmer. Many prison officials and inmates have been deeply touched by the manner and kindness of the Falun Dafa practitioners who volunteered to help out at the prisons.

Since 2002, Changhua Youth Prison has held nine Falun Gong study sessions, each session lasting about a month. The prison warden said, "We often invite organizations to come and help with inmate re-education. But we have never seen as many people volunteer to help as Falun Gong practitioners. There are so many of you who come every time. I am very touched. There must be a great force behind you. So, besides encouraging the prisoners to learn the practice, I am learning it myself, as well." Another official, Mr. Wang, also expressed that after the inmates learned Falun Gong, they have become more energetic, and there were also less quarrels, fights, and other improper behaviors. He said, "They have not broken any rules in the last month."

Prisoners study Falun Dafa together

Prisoners listening to an experience sharing

Prisoners practice the fifth exercise of Falun Gong

One prison instructor said, "After seeing the Falun Gong activities at Taichung City Detention Center, I had a wish to teach Falun Gong at Changhua Youth Prison. Now, not just the inmates are learning it. Many prison employees are also learning it. We even have a fixed schedule for studying and exercising. The entire prison has changed."

An inmate wrote in his experience sharing, "After one month of practicing Falun Gong, there have been so many changes in my body, mind, daily life and interpersonal relationships. How can I describe it? Before practicing Falun Gong, I lived my life in ignorance, without a purpose. I did not know how to plan my life. At that time, I really felt like a plant without water."

Since December 2000, Falun Gong practitioners from Yilan have been visiting the local prison regularly. In the past three years, they have received positive feedback from both the prison officials and inmates. The director of the education department said, "For prisoners who are under forced drug rehabilitation, I used to write reprimand orders every day. During a Falun Gong nine-day learning session, an amazing thing happened on the sixth day. I did not need to write any reprimand orders for the last four days. There was no more conflict."

The director of the education department is planning to add Falun Gong to its Life Skills Program. He is hoping that all of the prisoners will complete a series of three Falun Gong sessions (total of 9 hours) before their release. In addition, the prison factory has set up a one-and-a-half hour Falun Gong session every week. In Tainan Prison, due to the popularity of Falun Gong, the prison officials decided to set up a one-and-a-half hour Falun Gong session for the inmates who have AIDS.

Prisons in China Detain and Brainwash Practitioners

In July 1999, Jiang's regime began a comprehensive, illegal persecution of Falun Gong. Several hundred forced labor camps detain more than 100,000 practitioners. The prison guards are seduced with high bonuses, and use brutal methods of torture on practitioners in order to achieve prescribed "transformation" rates. Practitioners are forced to give up their belief in "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance" by means of brutal physical and mental torture, extortion and other means. This has caused the deaths of more than one thousand practitioners. At the moment, many Falun Gong practitioners are still being illegally held in jails, labor camps, detention centers, prisons and mental hospitals, and are suffering from merciless beatings, and some are even tortured to death by the police and criminals under the police's direction.

The physical torture methods used in the forced labor camps include electric shocks with high-voltage batons, beatings, long term sleep deprivation, standing and squatting torture, force-feeding, tying up, forcibly injecting medicine etc. The psychiatric abuse includes forcing practitioners to write a "guarantee statement" of giving up the practice, forcibly brainwashing with propaganda that slander Falun Gong for long periods of time, 24-hour surveillance by prisoners assigned to them, incriminating their family members and so on.

Gao Rongrong's face is gravely disfigured for persisting in her belief

According to Minghui.org, on May 7, 2004, Liaoning Province Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Gao Rongrong was shocked with electric batons for 7 consecutive hours by prison guards Tang Yubao and Jiang Zhaohua of Longshan Forced Labor Camp in Shenyang City. Her face was severely disfigured.

Gao Rongrong before suffering from the persecution

Ten days after the electric shocks, Gao Rongrong's face was covered with blisters and scorch marks

The perpetrator Tang Yubao claimed: "You want to go home. 5,000 yuan is the minimum." He threatened female practitioners: "If you do not transform, you will be sent to Masanjia Forced Labor Camp, and you will be even worse off than the women forced to comfort soldiers with sex!"

Longshan Forced Labor Camp escalated the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in order to be promoted to a provincial level labor camp. Director Li Fengshi personally participated in the persecution many times. Li Fengshi said to Gao Rongrong, "This is a dictatorial department. What else are handcuffs and electric batons for? I don't believe that we can't deal with little Gao Rongrong."

After two years of torment in Daqing Jail, Heilongjiang Province, a strong young man is withered away

In 2002, Mr. Zhang Zhong, a Falun Dafa practitioner in Daqing, built a cable TV signal interceptor to expose the crimes committed by Jiang's regime in persecuting practitioners and deceiving people, and was arrested for it. He was later sentenced to 12 years in prison and sent to the 3^rd prison area of Daqing Jail. On July 23, Zhang Zhong was taken home by his father after experiencing a fever and being in a coma for three consecutive days, despite receiving oxygen therapy. A strong young man that previously weighed 70 kilograms (about 155 pounds) was tortured until he became so thin that he looks like a walking skeleton.

According to practitioners outside China, they called the 3^rd prison area of Daqing Jail in May 2004, and enquired why Zhang Zhong was not released on bail for medical treatment when he was critically ill. Deputy Warden Zhang Yajun said, "It is not my business." Deputy Warden Wang Yingjie said, "I am aware of Zhang Zhong's situation, but it was an order from the superiors."

Falun Gong is Highly Praised in Taiwan, Detention Centers Issue Commendations

Falun Gong practitioners of south Taiwan have been introducing Falun Gong and teaching the exercises in South Taiwan Prison for more than two years now. There are many organizations helping the criminals, but only Falun Gong is entirely voluntary and free of charge.

The temperament and manners of Falun Gong practitioners and the touching cultivation stories have deeply moved the prison personnel and prisoners, and have received their highest praise. The members of all other associations must be physically searched before they can enter the prison, while only Falun Gong practitioners are exempt.

A Certificate from Taiwan Taizhong Detention Center

A Certificate from Military Court Examination Detention Center

Taiwan Taizhong Detention Center and Taiwan Department of Defense Midland Military Court Examination Detention Center Issue Certificate

On December 20, 2003, the Taiwan Falun Dafa Association accepted a certificate of recognition from the Taiwan Taizhong Detention Center.

On December 22, 2003, the Taiwan Falun Dafa Association accepted a certificate of recognition from the Taiwan Department of Defense Midland Military Court Examination Detention Center. It says "Boundless Beneficence," which honored the Falun Gong practitioners for going to the detention center every week since 2001 to introduce Falun Gong, to assist in promoting spiritual improvement, and to help prisoners upgrade their body and mind.

Sharp Contrast of the Prisons Across the Taiwan Strait

The prison detainees in Taiwan have the chance to study and practice Falun Gong, and walk the path of returning to one's true self. A person who was recently released from jail remarked that if he had learned Falun Dafa a bit earlier and understood the true purpose of life, he would not have ended up in jail. He gives copies of the book Zhuan Falun to his family and close friends, and hopes they can also join the practice. However, in the prisons of China, so many practitioners who want to be good people are held unlawfully, and are inhumanely tortured with all means to give up the belief of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance." Across the strait, people's attitudes towards Falun Gong are so different, just like heaven and earth separated by the sea. Falun Gong is suppressed and persecuted in China, but widely spread and welcomed in Taiwan.

The World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong is constantly collecting facts of crimes committed by the Jiang regime in torturing and killing Falun Gong practitioners. Those who persecute Falun Gong have been sued in many countries around the world. We call on Falun Gong practitioners and family members in China to use the law to protect themselves and their families, and we also call on those in the legal profession to help maintain the dignity of the law and the basic citizen's rights of Falun Gong practitioners, and to urge the courts to hear cases of Falun Gong practitioners being illegally persecuted, and to investigate and collect evidence in each prison. We ask people around the world to pay attention to the illegal detention of Falun Gong practitioners in China and to resist this persecution together.
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/9/19/84040.html

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