(Clearwisdom.net) Dr. Chang Lizhong is a 40 year-old physician at the Qinhuangdao Chinese Medical Hospital in Hebei Province. He graduated from the Dalian Medical University. Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Jiang Zemin regime launched the persecution of Falun Gong, Dr. Chang has endured frequent, unimaginable, and brutal torture.

1. Turning to Cultivation After Seeing Through the Staged "Tiananmen Square Self-immolation"

In 2001, Dr. Chang saw the so-called "Tiananmen Self-Immolation" broadcast on China's state-controlled television network and noticed that several pieces of the story didn't make sense. For example, a patient burned over a large area would not be wrapped up, but Siying (the "victim") was wrapped tightly; a patient whose trachea is cut open cannot speak normally, but Siying was able to speak and sing. Due to his medical background, Dr. Chang immediately realized that the entire incident had been staged by the CCP to slander and discredit Falun Gong. This encouraged him to learn more about Falun Gong. In September 2001, he met a practitioner, learned the truth, and subsequently became a practitioner.

After starting the practice, Dr. Chang experienced both physical and mental benefits. He introduced his parents to the practice. His father had a host of diseases, including diabetes, lung and heart diseases, kidney function failure, coronary disease, cerebral thrombus, and hypertension. His mother had diabetes and required insulin injections. She also suffered from chronic pharyngitis, neurasthenia, and cardiac arrhythmia. After practicing Falun Dafa, all her symptoms disappeared. She no longer needed insulin injections and her health improved. Dr. Chang witnessed these magical events from a doctor's perspective, causing him to develop a firm belief in Falun Dafa.

2. Persecuted for Sharing Falun Dafa's Beauty

Dr. Chang told his colleagues, relatives, and friends about the beauty of Falun Dafa, and exposed the deceitful and despicable tactics that the CCP was employing to deceive its citizens. He used his own experiences to tell people that Falun Gong teaches people to be good and to upgrade their moral standards, and also about Falun Dafa's effect on healing and fitness. He further explained that Falun Gong clearly prohibits killing and suicide. He told people that the "Tiananmen Square Self-immolation" was staged by the CCP, and that "Falun Dafa is good, and Truth-Compassion-Forbearance is good".

However, the CCP does not allow Chinese citizens freedom of belief. In October 2003, administrators with the Chinese Medical Hospital identified Dr. Chang as a practitioner. They conducted several "conversations" with him in an attempt to force him to give up his belief and demanded that he not promote Falun Gong. Dr. Chang refused.

On October 23, 2003, CCP personnel from the Qinhangdao Chinese Medical Hospital began monitoring Dr. Chang. An officer accompanied him everywhere, even to the restroom. That evening, the CCP hospital secretary approached Dr. Chang with seven men from the Safeguard, Logistics, and Radiology Section. They lied to him, saying that they needed to take him to a doctor's consultation meeting at the Railroad Hospital. They took him instead to Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp in Baoding, Hebei Province, that evening, and forced him to undergo brainwashing for the following 15 days. This terrifying experience caused serious stress for Dr. Chang and his family, especially his mother.

3. Persecuted Again in 2006

Two years later, the 610 Office began another round of persecuting Dr. Chang.

-Hospital administrators colluded with the 610 Office to persecute him

At the end of March 2006, Dr. Chang was resting at home one afternoon after night duty. A hospital administrator called him and told him that an engineer had installed an MRI recently, which he had to inspect at the hospital. Dr. Chang had no reason to think that he was being deceived, but when he arrived at the parking lot, he was arrested by officers from the Domestic Security Division and the 610 Office. They confiscated his house key and ransacked his home. His personal property was illegally taken, including a computer, printer, DVD player, tape recorder, Dafa books, Master Li's picture, and more. The total value was over 20,000 yuan.

Officers from the 610 Office beat and cuffed Dr. Chang. They "illegally detained" him in the Qinhuangdao First Detention Center that night. Dr. Chang fasted to protest. For more than ten days, he was continually tortured. This healthy person of more than 144 lb. became emaciated and was on the verge of dying. Only then was he released.

After requiring more than a month-long recuperation, Dr. Chang partially recovered his health. Out of his doctor's sense of responsibility, he returned to work on May 8, 2006. On May 31, 2006, the hospital administrator again turned him over to officers from the 610 Office. Dr. Chang was immediately taken to Baoding Forced Labor Camp and illegally sentenced to forced labor for one and a half years.

A Living Hell -- Torture and Brainwashing in Baoding Forced Labor Camp

At Baoding Forced Labor Camp, Dr. Chang suffered several episodes of brutal torture. He was handcuffed to a heating pipe, underwent sleep deprivation, and was forced to stand for prolonged periods. Collaborators took turns promoting lies and evil ideas slandering Falun Gong. If he resisted, they beat him. They used threats, intimidation, and temptation in order to try to change his beliefs.

Realizing that Dr. Chang was not going to give in as a result of their methods, the guards handcuffed his arms, stretched them horizontally, then cuffed his arms to an "iron bed." He was forced to stand and was not allowed to sleep. The guards shocked him with electric batons. The guards used two electric batons to shock his limbs, hands, fingertips, toes, and hips. This torture session lasted over 40 minutes. The chief of the Second Team (a team specially created to torture practitioners), Zhang Zhanqiang, and instructor Liu Qingyong carried out the torture sessions.

Dr. Chang's limbs and hips were shocked and burned. His fingertips and other body parts were black from the baton burns. The room smelled of burnt skin. Even after two years, the burn marks on his lower arms can be seen clearly. Later, they stretched him and shocked him with electric batons several times daily. They dragged him in handcuffs, which cut new wounds into his hands, down to the bone. Blood flowed from the wounds, which attracted flies. Dr. Chang still did not give in. After several days, they put him on a bed with only rough planks. They handcuffed him to the iron pipe at the head of the bed, then tied both his feet to the pipe at the end of the bed with rope. They did not give him a pillow or a cover. This procedure caused him extended and extreme pain.

Guards at the forced camp threatened some regular inmates into severely persecuting Dafa practitioners. Brigade Captain Zhang Zhanqiang hurled insults at the inmates that persecuted practitioners, saying they were incapable, right in front of Dr. Chang. Captain Zhang said that if Chang didn't cooperate and "transform," one of the inmate's terms would be extended. The inmate then severely tortured Dr. Chang. He whipped him with a bamboo board, then hacked his arms, pulled his flesh with a pincer, and rubbed his wounds with a handcuff. Dr. Chang went on a hunger strike to protest the torture. The inmate poured strong salt water down his throat, causing his limbs to swell and his toes to look transparent.

A guard named Du at Baoding Forced Labor Camp is very cruel. He used a flyswatter to slap practitioners in the face, causing the victim to have difficulty breathing. Then a few big strong guys were brought in to lay on the practitioner so that he was able to hurt his palms, soles, fingertips, toes, and face with a hammer, bloodying the practitioner, causing lots of hollering. Evil Du also stomped on Chang Lizhong's head.

According to a regulation in the Baoding camp, inmates are allowed to make one phone call biweekly and to have family visit once a month. But this regulation doesn't apply to the solid Dafa practitioners who won't give up their faith--their rights are curtailed even further. They are in solitary confinement and monitored by thugs. A Qinhuangdao City practitioner, Zhang Weijin, became mentally disordered and physically weakened until he looked like a skeleton due to strict solitary confinement for a long period of time--he looked quite frightening.

When there were three or four practitioners who refused to be "transformed" for a rather long time, Baoding Forced Labor Camp would do something they called "smashing the solid." They would have all the guards on duty 24 hours a day. They would not go home and would receive free lodging and meals plus overtime pay. They tortured Dafa practitioners 24 hours a day without letting them sleep. Ordinarily inmates were ordered to do the torturing, but for this "smashing the solid," the guards would do it themselves. They called themselves "professional" hitters, very brutal, but not deadly or causing incapacitation. Guard Wang Lei, in his 30s, threw a 60-plus-year-old professor 15 feet with one brutal kick. This "smashing the solid" activity took many forms, including brutal beatings. The professor was tied onto the so-called death bed. What did the old professor do to deserve this kind of vicious treatment? It was all because of his strong belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Since he was tied up in the bed, he had to be fed and had to relieve himself in the bed as well. Those on duty would verbally abuse him. All these tribulations finally caused the old man to mentally break down--he ended up crying all the time.

When Chang Lizhong returned home from the forced labor camp, he looked sallow and emaciated, a mere skeleton. His eyes were dull, and his legs appeared to be nothing but skin and bones.

4. 2008: An entire family is persecuted

In May 2008 Dr. Chang Lizhong was again persecuted

In the name of Olympics, practitioners' homes are ransacked

Dr. Chang resided at that time in a rented apartment at Jiaojianli, a small area in the harbor district. On May 30 at noon, Officer Gao from Gangcheng Main Street police station knocked on his door. Dr. Chang opened it for him, and another officer named Wei, who had been hiding down the stairway and had a gun, also came in. Using the Olympics as an excuse, they said they wanted to search the rooms although they didn't have search warrant. The bedroom in the middle was locked. When Officer Gao demanded to see the room, Officer Wei wheedled, "We just need to see what's inside, make a list, and see if this could threaten the 'National Trade Hotel' where foreign athletes would be staying." Dr. Chang refused to open the room. When Officer Wei called the station house, Dr. Chang relented, saying, "If it's only for making a list, let me go fix up the room first." Officer Wei said, "OK." However, as soon as the door was opened, Officer Wei rushed in and stole a computer, a printer, an MP3 player, and other things valued at over twenty thousand yuan. They also arrested Dr. Chang, detaining him in Qinghuangdao City's second detention center for 15 days.

Policy of implication--pressuring his landlord

Gangcheng Main Street Police Station officers forced Dr. Chang Lizhong's landlord to evict him and also fined the landlord. Furthermore, the landlord's employer was forced to cancel his over-two-thousand-yuan bonus. The landlord had no knowledge of Chang Lizhong being a Falun Gong practitioner prior to this incident. In order to compensate the landlord for what he had lost, Chang's wife not only paid the rent covering June to September, but also paid the two thousand and some yuan bonus he was supposed to have received. Going through numerous twists and turns, Chang's wife, along with their ten-year-old child, found a kind of warehouse to store their belongings. Since then, mother and son have become homeless, and the Chinese Communist Party's police have not bothered them anymore.

Originally, Dr. Chang had his own apartment in the Harbor district, which was sub-let to a first middle school student. Having nowhere to live, Chang's wife had no alternative but to consult the student's parents. She ended up renting a nearby unit for the student, and then she begged him to move as soon as possible. So, she had to pay for all the expenses in between. In all, including the amount paid to Dr. Chang's former landlord, it totaled well over ten thousand yuan, let alone the mental tribulations they suffered.

Dr. Chang persecuted in the detention center

June 11, 2008, Dr. Chang was at the Second Detention Center for 12 days before being transferred to the First Detention Center. This transfer was arranged by officer Zhang Hongquan as ordered by his superiors. In this way, Dr. Chang was not released at all during the Olympics or summer vacation time.

He went on a hunger strike to protest and was released nine days later, on June 20, 2008. The bail bond held by Zhang Hongquan was dated June 18, 2008, whereas the release date recorded in the detention center was June 20, 2008, for the reason of serious illness. None of the paperwork was signed by anyone.

Relentless interference

Right after Dr. Chang was released, police officer Liu Rui from Jianshe Main Street Precinct went to harass him, saying that the reason he was there that day and maybe on other days later was that Chang was out on bail pending a court trial. What's more, a person from the security department as well as the Communist Party secretary in the Chinese medicine hospital came by to check on him. Later, Officer Liu Rui came to check on him several times. After July Dr. Chang began to resist their interference by not answering the door. But police and Street Office personnel still came to harass him, and his neighbors were instructed to keep monitoring him.

On September 9 at about 7:30 a.m., Dr. Chang's wife was getting ready to take their son to school. As soon as the gate was opened, they saw the police waiting for them, so she and her son rushed back to the bedroom where Dr. Chang was. They were able to lock the door, resisting all threats and temptation while those outside, including Officer Zhang Hongquan, pounded on the door. It took more than an hour before they finally left. That morning Chang's wife wasn't able to go to work and their son didn't go school, either.