(Clearwisdom.net) Even after almost five years, Ms. Xu Yanxiang often experiences numbness in her hands and head from the severe abuse she was subjected to during three incarcerations at Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp in Hebei Province. The guards there injected her with unknown substances that resulted in a large swollen lump that did not go away. One day in the summer of 2004 the lump spread. That same day, her right side swelled, and she felt pain in the right side of her stomach, causing her to lose sleep for two days. The entire right side of her body became stiff, making it extremely uncomfortable for her right leg to be in a prone position. During those days she was most afraid of falling asleep, fearing that once she slept, she might never wake up. If she didn't sleep, she was extremely sleepy. When she slept, she felt as if she had fallen into a dark and horrible place - as if she passed away. When awake, she was muddle-headed and had to try so hard to understand what was going on, and where she was. Slowly, she gained some consciousness and moved her arms and legs. The right side of her body was completely numb.
Due to the high volume of work at the labor camp, Ms. Xu sweat a great deal, which in turn irritated the skin of her swollen body. On one occasion, in the bathroom, a piece of skin from her lower back peeled off, and bodily fluids constantly seeped out from that spot. The wound took several months to heal and was not completely healed when she was released in November 2004.
People at Xu Yanxiang's place of employment, Cotton Textile Company in Shenzhou City, Hebei Province, recognized her as a kind and honest person. But the authorities detained her several times after the persecution of Falun Gong started on July 20, 1999, and subjected her to brutal persecution.
In September 1999, while Xu Yanxiang's husband was illegally detained, Political and Security Section Chief Shang Yunhang from Shenzhou City led Jia Shuangwan, Zhang Yuanxiang, Yang Xiaodiu and Dong Mei to ransack Xu Yanxiang's home. They confiscated Master's lectures and 3,000 yuan in cash (which was returned later). Shang Yunhang demanded to know if Xu Yanxiang still practiced Falun Gong. She answered yes and was seized, leaving a 10-year-old daughter home alone, crying for her mother. This time, her detention lasted two weeks.
1. Twice Detained in a Forced Labor Camp
In November 1999, as the persecution worsened, Political and Judiciary Committee Secretary Yin Yuzhen said, "We have to take action on several practitioners." Xu Yanxiang and her husband were two out of the eight practitioners that Yin decided to "take action on." Both were dismissed from their jobs, although the company allowed them to work unofficially for another year.
Agents from the police department had officials from the Cotton Textile Company report to them three times a day about Xu Yanxiang and her husband Zhang Ruifeng. They even demanded around the clock surveillance. Company officials often arranged for them to work overtime. Even when the couple planned to visit friends and relatives they had to report to the company. Xu Yanxiang and her husband believed there was nothing wrong with being a good person, and the regime should not persecute Falun Gong. They went to Beijing in early December 1999 to appeal for justice and were arrested and locked up in the Daxing County Detention Center, where Mr. Zhang Ruifeng was savagely beaten. The criminal inmates put chopsticks between his fingers and pressed the fingers tightly together, then twisted the chopsticks, breaking his skin, causing severe bleeding and leaving scars. They also pulled his legs apart and jumped on them to torture him. They forced Mr. Zhang to stand for a long time and poured barrels of icy cold water on him.
It was during the cold December in Beijing when water would instantly turn to ice.
The couple was eventually transferred to Shen County Detention Center. Zhang Ruifeng was sentenced to three and a half years in a forced labor camp. After Xu Yanxiang was detained for one year, she was sentenced to one and a half years of forced labor.
2001 was the year when the most practitioners were being detained in forced labor camps - more than 350 at the Shijiazhuang Forced Labor Camp. There were five divisions, each holding more than 70 practitioners. In addition, many practitioners were detained at these labor camps in Hebei Province: Tangshan, Baoding, Handan and Gaoyang.
Labor camp officials added additional guards and equipment to force practitioners to renounce their beliefs. The number of guards was almost equal to the number of practitioners. The guards deprived Xu Yanxiang of sleep for five days, which caused her to become confused. They deceived her by saying, "If you do not "transform," people will have more misunderstandings of Falun Gong." Xu Yanxiang then followed what they said. After she was "reformed" she found that her reformation had not changed people's attitude toward Falun Gong. She regretted her deed and declared that her statement was invalid. The camp officials then began a new round of persecution and brainwashing on her. Even when her term was up, she was not released for another two weeks.
Yin Yuzhen, the local Political and Judiciary Committee secretary, made Yanxiang's company managers send her to a brainwashing center. One day in late December 2001, Yin Yuzhen sent Jia Shuangwan and a group of police officers to break into Xu Yanxiang's home and take her to a brainwashing center. Xu Yanxiang went on a hunger strike to protest the brainwashing. On the fifth day they force-fed her. The brainwashing center head, Wang Jinggang, declared that if Xu Yanxiang didn't give up her belief she would be sent to a detention center or forced labor camp. Xu Yanxiang eventually escaped from the brainwashing center.
Since Xu Yanxiang had benefited from practicing Falun Gong, she introduced the practice to her sister-in-law who used to work for the China Academy of Sciences. Her sister-in-law eventually went to the United States. She heard that her brother Zhang Ruifeng and sister-in-law Xu Yanxiang were being persecuted in China, and that her brother was sentenced to three and a half years in a forced labor camp. The sister-in-law was very worried. She asked for help in the United States in the hopes of rescuing her brother. As part of the extensive information control in China, the phone line in Xu Yanxiang's home was monitored. The sister-in-law often called from the United States, which attracted great attention from officials at the National Security Bureau. They were looking to find cause to arrest Xu Yanxiang again.
According to neighbors at that time, there were four or five people in the neighborhood living in a van for a week. People in the community were afraid that they were burglars and called 110 (equivalent to the "911 Emergency" system in the U.S.) to report to the police. When the Shen Country police came to inquire about them, the people in the van showed their identification as officers from the National Security Bureau on surveillance at Xu Yanxiang's home. The neighbors said, "We have lived together for many years. She is a good person. Why do you need to monitor her?" The people in the van said, "You don't know. She has overseas relationships."
The authorities couldn't continue the surveillance, so they ransacked Xu Yanxiang's home that night. Her mother-in-law trembled in fear. The door and windows of the home were broken, and many people entered the yard and the house. Jia Shuangwan led the group of officers to video-tape the scene and search the house. They even searched Xu Yanxiang's parents-in-law's room, including the ceiling, but found nothing. Three hours later they took Xu Yanxiang away, providing no cause.
The night, agents in more than ten cars participated in the ransacking. They confiscated the family's saving of over 3,000 "yuan." Because they didn't find anything related to Falun Gong, Shang Yunhang sent people to search the apartment the family rented to others. They still found nothing, but held Xu Yanxiang at the Shen County Detention Center.
2. Wicked Actions at the Two Forced Labor Camps
In summer 2002, it was very damp in the detention center, and many people developed itchy scabies. They couldn't sleep well at night. People suffered from heat exhaustion almost daily. On September 6, 2002, Xu Yanxiang was sent to the Fourth Division at the Shijiazhuang Forced Labor Camp.
The camp officials usually locked the newly-arrived practitioners in cells and took turns trying to "reform" them. This team was called "attacking the determined," where practitioners were being brainwashed. Guard Liu Junling was the team leader. Xu Yanxiang was deprived of sleep the second day of her internment there. With instigation from Liu Junling, several collaborators surrounded Xu Yanxiang. One time, more than twenty collaborators barraged her at the same time. They attempted to force her to say that Falun Gong was bad. Xu Yanxiang refused to "reform." They then insulted her and put slips of paper on her body with messages on them that slandered Falun Gong and Master. As she removed them, they put them back. They drew a circle on the floor and made her stand in it without sleep for 24 hours.
On the sixth night, the team leader ordered the collaborators to "reform" Xu Yanxiang that night. At the midnight shift change, the abusers beat Xu Yanxiang for half the night. Li Xinqiao was the main perpetrator. Xu Yanxiang's face was severely swollen, and she couldn't open her eyes the next day. At that time there was no bed for Xu Yanxiang. She could only take a nap sitting on a small bench. The persecutors limited her restroom use, to avoid her having any contact with other practitioners. Her legs and feet were swollen, preventing her from wearing shoes She was often beaten or scolded. A collaborator once asked her, "Who is Li Hongzhi?" She said, "He is my Master." Because of her reply, that person slapped her face 20 times.
The family didn't receive a labor camp sentence notification for Xu Yanxiang's sentence, but found out eventually that she had been sent to Shijiazhuang. They packed clothing and daily necessities and went to visit her. It was winter, and Xu Yanxiang was still wearing the clothes she had on when she was arrested. Although some people in the camp gave her some extra clothing, it was still far from enough. But once the family arrived at the camp, the officials told them that Yanxiang refused to be "reformed" and didn't allow the family to see her. They even deceived the family into believing that officials in the labor camp had trained many guards who were like "mothers" or "teachers" to take good care of practitioners. They took the family to the top of the labor camp building and had them look at the surroundings and told them how nice the camp was. The family was unaware how Ms. Xu was bullied and tortured in there.
More than five months later, Xu Yanxiang could no longer stand the ruthless torture and "reformed." She had to watch daily television programs slandering Falun Gong. After viewing, she had to write statements to report her thoughts and say things she did not want to say.
Many people cried at night. Guards presented a so-called "class" to slander Falun Gong. Xu Yanxiang didn't express that she was completely "reformed." They then said she was not active in discussions and activities, and had issues in her thoughts. Therefore, her "reform" was not complete. The guards then made her report her thoughts every day and compelled her to say things she didn't want to say. She finally said, "Officers, I feel Falun Gong is good. I don't want to be 'reformed' any more." The persecutors then sent her to Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp, a horrible place.
The guards there were brutal and ruthless. The second day, the inmate responsible for monitoring Ms. Xu ordered her to look downstairs at a male practitioner in his thirties. It was late July. The practitioner still had his winter jacket on and was being propped up on his walk to the doctor's office. The inmate told Yanxiang, "He used to be a doctor in the Handan Hospital. He was tortured several times. Somebody saw him covered with wounds, hung up in the hallway in the male camp."
Three or four days later they took Yanxiang to the ward outside the metal gate (toward the male camp). Attempting to instill fear in her, they passed by the room where they were torturing practitioners. A woman practitioner in her thirties, clad only in shorts and a short sleeve shirt was in that room. She was handcuffed to the bed board, sitting in the middle, bare-footed. They could hear the guards' shouts, and the sound of electric batons.
3. First-time Savage Torture
Six to seven days later, at 9:00 p.m., a guard awoke Ms. Xu Yanxiang, and told her that the division head wanted to have a conversation with her. They went downstairs where many guards were waiting. In the first cell of this division, division head Yang Zemin shouted obscenities at her. Ten minutes later Yang said, "Take her to the exhibition cell, to take a look." Someone then took her to the cell across the hallway.
It was a completely isolated cell. The moment one enters, one is made to feel as if one's head would explode. It makes one's hair stand up and the heart beat faster. The floor was soft. The walls were soft, like a sofa. On the walls and the floor were drawings of snakes, ghosts and monsters with long ears, big tongues, red eyes and big, sharp teeth. The dim blue lights make one feel as if being in hell. Five guards arrived with electric batons. They handcuffed Ms. Xu. A male guard in plainclothes, who monitored the male inmates at work during the day, removed her shoes. It was early August and very hot. Yanxiang was clad in shorts and a short-sleeved shirt. A female guard handed her paper and pen to force her to write a renunciation statement and said, "If you write it now, everything will be fine. If you don't right now, you will have to write it later!"
Xu Yanxiang refused to write it. They shocked her with the electric batons. They pushed her down on the floor. One of the female guards stood on her legs and shocked her feet. The rest of the guards shocked her legs, hands and back. The male guard shocked her back, which made her cry out in pain. After a while they stopped and asked her if she regretted her stubbornness. They again handed her paper and pen. Yanxiang refused again, so they continued the torture.
After a long time they were afraid that Yanxiang had reached the limit of her endurance, and stopped. Two other women guards took the shift and again tried to make her write the statement. Xu Yanxiang refused.
Then Yang Zemin ordered several male guards to tie her arms behind her back. They then pulled her arms up hard behind her back and forced her to walk around the room until she felt that her heart might stop. Two female guards grabbed her hands to shake her arms and said that her arms might become disabled if they didn't do that. After shaking her arms for a while they tied her up again and tortured her anew.
Eventually they took Ms. Xu to another cell. Several female guards who had not previously participated in the abuse arrived. These guards tried to "reform" Ms. Xu. Approximately ten minutes later they force-fed her some unknown substances. Political head Ye Sixian (female) shocked Yanxiang very intensively and sent her back to the isolation cell, and continued shocking her. When they finally realized that Ms. Xu would not give in, they injected her with an unknown substance. They had tortured her for more than four hours.
They subsequently had two drug addicts monitor her day and night and didn't allow her to speak with anyone.
4. Second Incident of Savage Torture
Another week later, about the twelfth or thirteenth of the month, Yanxiang's wounds had just started to heal. The guards had a meeting. They divided up into groups to work on several practitioners who refused to be "reformed." Yang Zemin led the group that was responsible for "reforming" Xu Yanxiang, and Zhao Yuan was the deputy group leader. They worked in 24-hour shifts and deprived her of sleep. The third night, a group of male guards joined in and went first to a cell where they tortured another practitioner. The noise of electric batons and the shouts of the guards came from the end of the hallway. About an hour later they took that practitioner (said to be the former gynecology chief at the Wuyi County Hospital) to the isolation cell.
That cell was completely soundproof. Around midnight they took that practitioner out and put Xu Yanxiang in. The odor of burned flesh filled the whole cell, and there was hair on the floor. This time they used seven electric batons to torture Ms. Xu for half the night. She was tied up three times. At dawn, they gave her an injection.
The previous wounds had not completely healed. She was tortured for another five hours, and her arms were covered in bruises. Her entire body hurt and her hands were swollen. Her right arm was disabled from the first torture and she couldn't bend it back. She couldn't raise her right hand nor reach the back of her head when brushing her hair. It took over two years for her to completely recover. Due to the torture and lack of sleep, Yanxiang couldn't eat much. The guards were afraid that she could no longer hold up. They injected her again and continued to "reform" her following the injection.
After dinner, a 30-year-old male guard came in holding an electric baton and said to Yanxiang, "I am giving you one last chance. Are you giving up or not?" Yanxiang did not answer. He then tortured her with the electric baton. He said, "I will let you die today." Yanxiang tried to avoid him. He pushed her into a corner and then took out a stack of cash and slapped Yanxiang's face. After the camp lights went out, several guards including Fang Bao and Zhao Yuan took Yanxiang to walk outside and said they would bury her alive.
In the dark of night, several female guards took her out the camp gate. When they heard dogs barking they told her they would feed her to the dogs. Looking at many dogs' eyes in the dark, Ms. Xu thought: "Dogs know who is good and who is bad." The dogs didn't bite her.
5. Threatened with Being Buried Alive, Subjected to Third Round of Brutal Torture
They dragged Xu Yanxiang across a vegetable field to a high metal tower. There were handcuffs connected to the ground at the base of the tower. They handcuffed her there. Fang Bao hit Ms. Xu's head with his belt. After a while, Yang Zemin brought a gang of guards. Perhaps all the team leaders were among the 30 to 40 of them. Yang Zemin said, "All people in the other teams have been "reformed." You're the only one left. Whether you want to or not, you'll have to "reform," or else we can't finish our task. It'll be shameful for us. Write the statements now. If not, we'll bury you alive right here!" Yanxiang refused to write any statements. Then he said, "Bring so-and-so's four statements and let her take a look. He wrote his statement right here yesterday." After that, they brought four statements to let her see and then again verbally abused her.
Afterwards, about 7-8 electrical batons were used simultaneously to shock Ms. Xu's legs, feet, front, back, arms and hands. The electric batons were fully charged, and hit her body hard. She fell back when the shocks were strong in front, and fell forward when the shocks were strong against her back. Yanxiang constantly writhed from the extreme pain and was not aware that the handcuffs were cutting into her wrists.
That day she wore a short-sleeve shirt and pants. They used two electric batons to shock her back the whole time. The guards inserted a baton through her collar and left it there for an entire evening. Yanxiang endured the pain. When she could barely endure any longer, she thought just let it be, regardless of whether she might die or live. After that, the guards stopped and tried again to force her to write the statements. Yanxiang ignored them. They yelled and verbally abused and shocked her again.
After suffering from the electric shocks for seven hours, her teeth ruined from biting down due to the extreme pain, and her body was completely deformed.
It rained lightly in the morning. The batteries of the electric batons had run out. They put shoes on Xu Yanxiang's feet and dragged her back. She couldn't move her right leg. Back in the cell, a male guard surnamed Wang gave her some medicine and an injection. Ms. Xu lay down on the bed board, but Zhao Yuan kicked her and scolded, "You want to rest? No way! Get up now and squat!"
Two days later Xu Yanxiang was subjected to another round of brutal torture. Her old wounds were covered with new ones and they enveloped her whole body. Her shirt was soaked with sweat. It hurt her when the wet shirt touched the wounds. Some witnesses said they could only see about a fingernail-size area of her back that was not injured. Her underarms were purple. She couldn't eat anything, but only wanted to drink, yet the guards wouldn't let her drink.
Even with Ms. Xu in such critical condition, the camp officials still didn't stop trying to brainwash her. That evening, Zhao Yuan was on duty again. As soon as she came to work she kicked Yanxiang a couple of times. The misery was endless. Thinking about the doctor in Handan, and with pressure and threats from another female guard on duty, that evening Xu Yanxiang wrote the "four statements" (similar to the three statements), stating that she was giving up her belief.
Even though she wrote those statements, she told the guards it wasn't true. They said it was all right, even if it wasn't true. They let Yanxiang rest in another room after that. Since she was injured everywhere it was impossible for her to lie down. She could only sit. Without the tense feeling before writing the four statements, now she could only feel the pain of the wounds. Then she suddenly saw Master's picture that the guards put up in the hallway to slander Master. She had once vowed in front of the picture that she would not give up. But not too long prior she had written the "four statements." Tears poured down her cheeks. A female guard on duty asked why she was crying. She replied, "Master doesn't want anything from me, but does good things for me. But I have betrayed Master." Seeing her, a drug addict started to cry with her. The female guard murmured, "Maybe it would have been better if you had not been 'reformed.'"
Because the Gaoyang Forced Labor Camp is a "model" unit of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for "reforming" Falun Gong practitioners, many visitors and inspectors came to Gaoyang to visit. Before they came, the guards hid practitioners who were injured and who refused to be "reformed" upstairs, with the common criminal prisoners. During the daytime, those prisoners go to work at a textile plant outside the labor camp. If some refused to go to work, the guards forced them with kicks and punches to get on the bus. The guards also threw them onto the ground.
Some practitioners were very weak after long-term hunger strikes. The guards just threw them to the ground and then forgot about them. Common prisoners and guards kicked them when they passed by. One day the guards put a long-sleeved shirt on Xu Yanxiang when visitors arrived.
6. Shijiazhuang Forced Labor Camp Officials Continued Persecuting Practitioners and Concealing the Truth of the Persecution
On September 12, 2003, Xu Yanxiang was transferred back to Division 4 in the Shijiazhuang Forced Labor Camp. Political head Liu Xiumin said, "What's wrong with your skin?" They were all shocked to learn that electric shocks had caused her injuries. Liu Junling saw her when Xu Yanxiang took a shower. The wounds on her neck and arms were still purple and black, and there were scabs all over her body, some of which were falling off. With division head Qiao Xiaoxia's constant request, Xu Yanxiang told them her experience in Gaoyang. As if angry, Qiao said, "They are animals. They are prison guard traitors. Their deeds are shameful. It doesn't count if you were "reformed" in such a way." She continued, "I must save ("reform") you." Completely ignoring Yanxiang's extreme weakness and exhaustion, Qiao sent her to the Shijiazhuang Forced Labor Camp Headquarters, to "save her" in November. There, Xu Yanxiang was brainwashed, attacked again and deprived of sleep for eight days.
After that, some collaborators who had renounced Falun Dafa instigated Xu Yanxiang's husband to bring a "rescue letter" to the labor camp. To avoid more suffering and reduce her prison term, Xu Yanxiang then did something that she would regret for her entire life. She wrote a short letter to the international society, which praised the vicious CCP. Officer Qiao said she would post the letter on the Internet. Yanxiang said sadly, "Kind-hearted people in the world please forgive me and those who have done similar things. Please, don't trust any words written inside labor camps or prisons. Behind those words were our blood and tears."
Xu Yanxiang also told of something she saw in the Second Division in Shijiazhuang Forced Labor Camp one day in April 2001. Practitioner Cao Yuehong from Shenze said, "Today is my birthday." Hearing that, political head Liu told her to wait in her cell, and he asked the kitchen to prepare some noodles for her. One fellow practitioner said, "Our family members are suffering right now. How can we still celebrate birthdays?" Cao Yuehong felt regretful for revealing her birthday. A practitioner quickly made some instant noodles for her to eat. After she finished, political head Liu came back to the cell. Cao Yuehong told him, "You don't need to prepare the noodles for me. I've already eaten." Looking very angry, Liu scolded Cao and then left.
Afterwards they discovered that the guards intended to take that opportunity to make a propaganda videotape. After 11:00 p.m. that night, over a dozen vehicles came to the labor camp. Later, team leader Song Jing (afterwards killed in a car accident at age 30) arrived and told the guard on duty to take Ms. Cao, but she refused to go. Irritated, Song Jing tried to pull Ms. Cao down from her bed. She took eight practitioners away. Four returned eventually, but the other four didn't return for the entire evening. The practitioners learned later that a gang of drunken guards outside the labor camp had brutally beaten them. The beating was so brutal that some of the practitioners had lost control of their bladders and bowels. After that, the guards hid the four practitioners upstairs and forced them to recite the labor camp rules. They were all placed in a confinement cell and subjected to torture.
Xu Yanxiang is only one of the thousands of Falun Gong practitioners who have suffered from brutal tortures. It is almost impossible to write about every practitioner's misery and mental pressure experience during the persecution. Please help stop the persecution.
Related article: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/12/23/30089.html
