Yang Mei, female, 23, an employee of the Credit Corporation of Xiaowang Village, Cangzhou City, Hebei Province

In July 2001, Ms. Yang Mei was arrested for distributing Falun Gong literature. She was detained in the Cangzhou No. 2 Detention Center in Cangzhou City. At the detention center, the guards repeatedly tortured Ms. Yang to force her to reveal the source of her Falun Gong literature. They shackled Ms. Yang to the "death bed" for one month (the "death bed" is a metal board with handcuffs and shackles to stretch and lock the victim's four limbs. As the victim cannot move any part of the body, prolonged torture on the board will lead to painful muscular atrophy in the whole body, often with the loss of control of bladder and bowel movement. For this reason, the victim is usually stripped naked before being shackled to the board so as to let urine and feces flow out by gravity). As a result, Ms. Yang lost control of her bladder and bowel movements. Her legs and feet were so severely swollen that her legs became thick and her feet deformed. Several layers of her skin peeled away.

On October 10, 2001, Ms. Yang and ten other Falun Gong practitioners started a hunger strike to protest the inhumane torture at the detention center. The police ordered an elderly cook with no medical knowledge to force-feed the practitioners. A tube was inserted into Ms. Yang's nose and left in place for many days. Icy cold salt water mixed with flour paste or diluted milk was poured through the tube. Often times, the tube was repeatedly inserted and pulled out to inflict pain. Such violent jabbing of feeding tubes often leads to internal injuries.

Ms. Yang suffered tremendously from the force feeding. On October 19, after one more round of violent force feeding, Ms. Yang lapsed into a coma She passed away around 6 a.m. on October 20, 2001.

The appearance of Ms. Yang's body was grotesque. Her whole body was swollen, with all four limbs being most conspicuous. Red spots of scabies infection covered her entire body, with deep bruises in many areas, including her chest. An autopsy showed massive necrosis in her lungs with food deposit rotting there, apparently from the force-feeding.

"Death Bed"

The police informed Ms. Yang's parents of her death late in the afternoon. The authorities forced the family to settle the matter privately and not reveal it to the public. In order to keep her from revealing anything about her daughter's death, the police put Ms. Yang's mother under house arrest, and did not allow her to have any outside contact. Plain-clothes policemen monitored her house around the clock. Ms. Yan g ' s mother was not even allowed to see her daughter's body before the cremation.

Mr. Zhang Zhenzhong suffered repeated detention and torture for his practice of Falun Gong. In 1999, Mr. Zhang was expelled from Shandong Industrial University in Jinan City.

On January 1, 2001, Mr. Zhang was arrested in Beijing for unfurling a Falun Gong banner in Tiananmen Square. At the police station, the police hit him with eight electric batons simultaneously and burned him with cigarettes. This went on for almost twelve hours. In a span of four days, Mr. Zhang was transferred to four different police stations. At each police station, he was tortured and sustained extensive injuries all over his body.

Force-feeding

On May 17, 2001, the police arrested Mr. Zhang again. The policemen used their fists and electric batons to hit sensitive areas on his body and repeatedly kicked him. More than an hour later, he was so badly beaten that he began to vomit blood and his nose became bloody. The policemen tied him up with ropes and sent him to a jail cell. He began a hunger strike to protest the maltreatment. On the sixth day, the policemen ordered the inmates to force-feed him. They handcuffed him to a chair and repeatedly tried to insert a feeding tube into his nose. On the fifth try, Mr. Zhang lost consciousness and died from the force-feeding.

Chi Yulian, female, 44, resident of Wangjia Village, Lingshui Town, Ganjinzi District, Dalian City, Liaoning Province

In the afternoon of May 29, 2001, Ms. Chi Yulian was cooking at home when the police, led by policeman Ji, from the Zhoushuizi Police Substation broke into her home. After ransacking her home, they handcuffed Ms. Chi and dragged her into the police van without even allowing her to put on her shoes. She was sent to the Dalian Yaojia Detention Center in Dalian City.

At the detention center, Ms. Chi started a hunger strike to protest the detention. After two days of her hunger strike, the guards started to force-feed her. Each time, they inserted a tube from her nose to her esophagus to forcefeed her. On the sixth day, Ms. Chi developed a fever, and ached all over her body. Later, the guards put a "Di Lao" ("hell confinement", a horrifying torture device) device on her that severely restricted any movement. After two days of being locked in the same position, she lost control of her bowels. She could not even sit up, but the guards instigated the criminals in the same cell to continue to torture her.

On June 5, 2001, after eight days on a hunger strike and extreme torture, Ms. Chi's life was in danger, and she was sent to the hospital. At 4 p.m., she died on the way to the Xinshiji Hospital.

On November 29, 1999, Ms. Zhang Guiqin was taken into police custody when she was doing chores at home. During her detention, a guard slapped her face and used a bamboo stick to beat her palms. He kept on beating her until her palms became purple and swollen. He also bound her and other practitioners together with foot shackles. Their feet were shackled together for the entire 15 days of detention. They had to eat, sleep, and go to the restroom together.

On March 29, 2000, Ms. Zhang was arrested and detained again at the Feidong Detention Center, this time she was detained for 24 days. Each day she was forced to do hard labor for more than 11 hours. During her detention, she was handcuffed and shocked with an electric baton.

At the end of July 2000, Ms. Zhang was again arrested, this time for distributing Falun Gong literature. She was again sent to the Feidong Detention Center and handcuffed in heavy shackles. She and other practitioners started a hunger strike to protest the torture. As a punitive measure, the prison guards force-fed them. After a prolonged hunger strike and forced-feeding, Ms. Zhang became very weak, and ran a high fever. The detention center officials sent her to the hospital for a check-up. The doctor's diagnosis revealed that her lungs had been punctured during the inept force-feeding. Fearful that she would die in the detention center, they sent her home on August 24, 2000. Ms. Zhang became so weak and thin, that she could not get out of bed. She also had great difficulty talking. Even so, the city Prosecutor issued an indictment against her for practicing Falun Gong. A clerk was sent to deliver the indictment. After looking at Ms. Zhang, however, the clerk went away shaking his head.

On January 17, 2001, at 1:03 p.m., Ms. Zhang passed away after suffering five months of pain. She left two daughters behind, one 9-years old, and the other 12-years of age.

On July 23, 2001, Zhang Fengyun was arrested while distributing Falun Gong material. She was detained in the No. 14 Team of the Xiguoyuan Detention Center in Lanzhou City. On July 30, she went on a hunger strike to protest the detention and to demand the unconditional release of all persecuted Falun Gong practitioners. During her hunger strike, the policemen fiercely beat her. She became dehydrated, had a high fever, and could not take care of herself. She was force-fed through a tube inserted into her stomach. The guard who force-fed her intentionally poked the tube forcefully inside her stomach to inflict pain.

The force-feeding caused Ms. Zhang had intense internal pain. On August 10, the 11th day of the hunger strike, Ms. Zhang lost control of her bowel movements and was unable to speak. When her cellmates reported her condition to the guard in charge of the No. 14 Team, the guard simply said that she was pretending to be ill. Several other practitioners urged the guard to call a doctor. Finally, because of the practitioners' strong requests, the guards allowed Ms. Zhang to be carried to the gate to wait for a doctor to make a diagnosis. When the doctor came, she already had no pulse or blood pressure. Ms. Zhang died on August 11, 2001.

On June 17, 2000, Ms. Gong Baohua was arrested on her way to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. The police immediately escorted Ms. Gong to the Liudian Police Station. The Associate Director of the police station slapped Ms. Gong's face many times. Then he used a broom to beat her head and face. He continued beating her until the broom broke. The beatings broke Ms. Gong's nose bridge, and blood spurted all over the ground. She was forced to stand while being interrogated, despite her weariness and anguish. Ms. Gong was severely injured and traumatized.

Ms. Gong's family members pleaded with the police to allow her to go home to recover. Instead, the police escorted Ms. Gong to the Pinggu County Detention Center. However, Ms. Gong's injuries were so severe that the detention center refused to take her, and she was sent back home. On June 18, 2000, while on her way to the hospital with her family members, Ms. Gong was again accosted by policemen from the Liudian Police Station. They forcibly pulled her out of her car, and escorted her back to the Pinggu County Detention Center for a second time.

To protest the illegal detention, Ms. Gong, and other practitioners began a hunger strike. At approximately 8 p.m. on June 25, 2000, the guards began to torture Ms. Gong by brutally force-feeding her through the nose, ignoring the fact that it was broken. After being sent back to the cell, Ms. Gong's face looked pale. She repeatedly said that her chest felt numb, and that the guards must have mistakenly inserted the feeding tube into her trachea. About 10 minutes later, she suddenly lost consciousness. Her fellow inmates immediately called the guards, but they completely ignored her symptoms and her pain authorities did not pay any attention.

On the morning of June 27, 2000, two days later, the inmates finally got the guards to give her medical attention. Around 10 a.m., the detention center clinicians agreed to send Ms. Gong to a hospital. Around 9 p.m., Ms. Gong died in the hospital due to the beatings, torture by force-feeding, and lack of immediate and proper medical treatment.

Kong Deyi, male, 38, an official at the Political Research Institution of the Dongli District Committee in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province

Mr. Kong Deyi was sent to the Changlinzi Labor Camp for his petition to the government for Falun Gong. In the Labor Camp, he was locked up in a small "iron cage" that was 1.5 meters high, 1.5 meters long and less than 1 meter wide, for 7 days. He was handcuffed to the top of the cage in a position where he could neither stand up nor sit down. His feet swelled up and developed two large blisters. After he was released from the cage, he could not even stand up. Even so, he was still forced to do hard labor.

"Iron Cage"

Mr. Kong went on a hunger strike to protest the illegal detention and the harsh treatment. As a result, he was force-fed with a tube inserted into his stomach through his nose. The prison doctor Ma intentionally inserted and pulled out the tube multiple times to inflict excruciating pain. After the first time he was force-fed, Mr. Kong coughed up blood. Yet, Shi Changjing, Vice Director of the Labor Camp, ordered a second force-feeding. Mr. Kong coughed and emitted blood constantly after the second force-feeding. He threw up a half basin of blood the next morning and had difficulty breathing. He died that afternoon. To cover up the torture, however, an officer gave Mr. Kong an injection and declared that he died from a heart attack.

On the afternoon of December 31, 2000, Mr. Sun Youfa was arrested in Tiananmen Square for unfurling a Falun Gong banner. That evening he was sent to the Fengtai Detention Center, Fengtai District, Beijing. On January 1, 2001, during an interrogation, the police beat Mr. Sun Youfa's head and body with a police baton and kicked his calves with their boots. Afterward, the police handcuffed Mr. Sun's hands and legs together in a way that he could neither lie down nor stand up. They left him bent over in this excruciating position in the corner of his cell.

Starting on January 2, 2001, two days after Mr. Sun went on a hunger strike to protest such inhumane treatment, the guards forcefed him. They squeezed his nose and hit his chest in order to force-feed him milk containing a high concentration of salt. After this painful and debilitating torture, Mr. Sun had difficulty breathing. On January 5, 2001, he was given an intravenous injection of an unknown substance.

Mr. Sun's ID number: 220302771212023

On January 6, 2001, Mr. Sun's condition became critical, and he was sent to a hospital. The doctor told the police that Mr. Sun was in danger of dying and should be hospitalized. However, the police took him out of the hospital and rushed him to the train station so as to have him die elsewhere. The train conductor refused to put a dying man on the train. The police then abandoned Mr. Sun at the station. The station informed his family members, who took him home. Mr. Sun continued to feel terribly short of breath. He died one week later, on January 13, 2001.

On May 13, 2000, Ms. Mei Yulan was arrested and arbitrarily detained in female Cell # 607, Chaoyang District Detention Center, merely because she did Falun Gong exercises in front of her home. Ms. Mei, along with other detained Falun Gong practitioners, went on a hunger strike asking for their unconditional release and the right to practice Falun Gong. To torture them, the guards force-fed these practitioners with over-saturated salt water.

On the morning of May 17, 2000, the guards once again dragged Ms. Mei out of her cell and forcefed her. Her screams could be heard from the surrounding cells. On the night of May 18, 2000, she had a severe headache and experienced difficulty breathing. Gradually her hands and feet became cold and her eyes stopped moving. Ms. Mei was then taken to the emergency room of the Civil Aviation Hospital.

Force-feeding

On May 22, 2000, two practitioners went to visit Ms. Mei in the hospital and found her eyes were covered with white tape. They called her name three times but there was no response. Her chest heaved up and down with the assistance of medical devices. When the visitors inquired about Ms. Mei's situation, the doctor only said that Ms. Mei was a "special" patient and all information was to remain confidential by order of the authorities. At 4:10 p.m., on May 23, 2000, Ms. Mei passed away in the hospital.

On December 18, 2000, Ms. Li Jingchun went to Beijing to appeal to the central government to stop persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. She was detained and tortured at the Mentougou District Detention Center in Beijing. She went on a hunger strike to protest the detention and torture. On the fifth day of her hunger strike, the guards forcefed her with half a bottle of soybean milk through her nose. After the force-feeding, Ms. Li coughed incessantly and developed a fever. Her fellow inmates reported her miserable condition to the prison, but were ignored. On December 30, 2000, her condition deteriorated to critical. Instead of sending her to a hospital, the detention released her in order to shirk their responsibility.

After Ms. Li was returned home, her family made every effort to save her. However, her fever and coughing did not subside. She vomited white liquid that had a very pungent odor. She passed away on January 4, 2001.

On May 13, 2000, Ms. Wang Xiuying was arrested in Beijing for appealing to the government for Falun Gong. She was detained in the Jiaomen Detention Center in Beijing. She went on a hunger strike to protest her illegal detention and demanded to be released. After three days on the hunger strike, four guards threw her to the ground and forcefed her through her nose. Over the next nine-day period the detention center guards force-fed Ms. Wang with over-saturated salt water five times, which traumatized her both mentally and physically. On May 22, 2000, Ms. Wang was forcibly given an intravenous drip of an unknown substance. At 7 p.m. she lost consciousness, and died later that evening.

Li Zhilian and Ms. Song Hongzhi, distributed Falun Gong materials in Qingchi Town. They were arrested and beaten by the policemen from the Fangzi Public Security Bureau. Two days later, they were sent to the Fangzi Detention Center. They went on a hunger strike to protest the detention. On April 6, 2001, policemen, led by Wang Quanfeng and Li Jinsheng, trampled Ms. Wang's head and kicked her. The policemen then threw her to the ground and stepped on her temple, not allowing her to move. When she attempted to move, the police kicked her in the breast and groin. Her body was covered with wounds.

On April 7, the policemen instigated several prisoners to tie Ms. Wang onto an iron bench (a torture instrument). They then force-fed Ms. Wang one kilogram of salt. Shortly after the force-feeding, Ms. Wang felt great pain inside her body. Although she vomited and had diarrhea, the guard prohibited her from using the bathroom and cruelly let her defecate in her pants. Despite these symptoms of salt overdose, the police did not allow Ms. Wang to have any drinking water. On the morning of April 8, she experienced severe pain in her groin area and developed a high fever. Ms. Wang passed away shortly after that. Her body was cremated on April 8, 2001 without her husband's permission.

Zhang Shengfan, male, 38, a disabled resident of Shuangcheng City, Heilongjiang Province

Since the PRC government's persecution of Falun Gong began, Mr. Zhang Shengfan had been frequently harassed by people from the neighborhood committee and the police station. He had been detained four times within the span of just four months, despite the fact that he was wheelchairbound for his disability.

At about 7 a.m. on June 9, 2001, four officers from the Red Flag Police Station broke into Mr. Zhang's residence while he was still in bed and forcibly carried him with his wheel chair to a van. The policemen threw Mr. Zhang into the van, pushed his head under the van's seat, and beat him. On their way to the Shuangcheng Detention Center, police pressed a wooden bench against his body and beat him. As a result, he suffered cuts and bruises all over his body. He soon lost consciousness.

On the morning of June 11, 2001, the police took Mr. Zhang to an interrogation room and beat him severely. He was beaten so badly that he was unable to even get himself up the next morning. However, at 8:30 a.m., the police took him to the interrogation room again. They tied Mr. Zhang to a chair, took out a large plastic tube that was three-foot long and a smaller tube about eight inches long, and forced the small tube into Mr. Zhang's mouth. They then took out three bottles of "Yuquan Daqu" (a brand of high proof liquor), poured the liquor into a basin, and connected the basin to the small tube with the large tube. As they raised the height of the basin, liquor flowed down into the Mr. Zhang's mouth. The heartwrenching cries from Mr. Zhang could be heard by the whole detention center. By the time the police forced all of the liquor into Mr. Zhang, he had lost consciousness. The police then carried Mr. Zhang to an empty room and left him there for an hour.

At 9:50 a.m., Mr. Zhang was taken to an emergency room. The doctor there pronounced him dead on arrival. The Chief of the Police Department tried to coerce Mr. Zhang's family into signing a falsified document that would certify that Mr. Zhang have died of natural death, but they refused. Mr. Zhang's family was not allowed to view his body. The police cremated Mr. Zhang without his family's consent, and never told his family where his ashes were.

Wu Qingbin, male, 37, father of a 12-year-old boy, a college graduate, worked as a technician in the Huainan Chemical Engineering Factory, Huainan County, Anhui Province

On April 4, 2000, the police took Mr. Wu Qingbin to the Huainan Second Detention Center, Huainan County, Anhui Province, because he practiced Falun Gong in a public place. In August 2000, he was sent to the Huainan Labor Camp. Because a medical examination showed that he had pulmonary edema, he was released. Ignoring his heart condition, however, in December 2000, the police arrested and brutally tortured him. In early July 2001, he went on a hunger strike for over 10 days to protest the cruel torture. As a result, his health condition became so poor that the labor camp had to release him on bail again for medical treatment.

On July 19, 2001, people from the Huainan Political and Law Committee arrested and forcibly took Mr. Wu back to the Huainan Labor Camp. The police cruelly force-fed disinfectant to Mr. Wu. Since disinfectant is poisonous, he died the second day.

In early December 1999, Mr. Wang Xuzhi was arrested and sent to the Jiuru Village Detention Center in Chengdu City. In mid-January 2000, he was secretly sentenced to a year and a half of forced labor in the Ziyang Dayan Labor Camp. During his detention, the camp guards beat Mr. Wang's head with the butts of their rifles, and repeatedly used the "police rope" on him. ["Police Rope" - a hemp core is tightly wound around the victim's neck, shoulders, armpits, upper and lower arms that are behind the victim's back, and wrists; the arms are then suddenly yanked upward. Holding the arms in that position, even for a few minutes, is very painful and can lead to permanent injury or even death.]

Force-fed with urine and feces

One time, over 200 convicted inmates surrounded Mr. Wang and took turns beating him for an entire day. Mr. Wang went on a hunger strike for over 150 days to protest his illegal detention. During his hunger strike, he was even force-fed urine and feces. Due to the adverse effects of such long-term and inhumane torture, Mr. Wang became extremely weak, and appeared to be near death. To avoid responsibility for their crimes, the labor camp released him. Mr. Wang never recovered, and died a few days later, in the evening of August 5, 2000.

In early 2001, Mr. Ding Wen was arrested and taken to a brainwashing class in Zhangwan District of Shiyan City because he practices Falun Gong. He was forced to do boot camp style drills, and was also severely beaten. These tortures caused Mr. Ding to suffer excruciating stomach cramps that led to vomiting. On February 19, 2001, the detained Falun Gong practitioners went on a hunger strike. Police beat them in the restroom. They hit and kicked the practitioners in their abdomens. Mr. Ding began bleeding internally from the beating. The practitioners were not allowed to sleep and their hands were cuffed from behind to the water pipe in the restroom for two days.

In late March 2001, while enduring yet another beating Mr. Ding was forced to jump out the window. The lower part of his back was severely injured, and he was paralyzed. The authorities then sent him home to escape responsibility. In late August, while still convalescing in his hometown, he was arrested and detained at the brainwashing class again. During his detention, the guards beat him ruthlessly. They forcefed him first with liquor, and then with vinegar. The torture continued for 5 days. On January 14, 2002, he died from the torture.