Ms. Wang Xia and her son (Before the persecution)

Ms. Wang Xia was tortured to near death, weighing only about 45 pounds

Ms. Wang Xia is 30 years old; she lives in Bayanzhuoer District of Linhe City, Inner Mongolia. On February 19, 2000, she was arrested in Beijing for appealing to the government to stop the persecution of Falun Gong. The police escorted her back to the Linhe City Police Station. At the police station, three policemen took turns beating her for an entire night, trying to force her to renounce Falun Gong.

The next day, she was shackled and sent to the Huhehaote City Women’s Labor Camp. Because she continued to practice the exercises in the labor camp, Liu, the head of Team 3, shocked her with an electric baton continuously as she walked all the way from the hallway to the ward.

Every morning Ms. Wang was handcuffed to a stair rail in a forced squatting position for a long time. She was often shocked with an electric baton. Later, Deputy Captain Chang Hong ordered guards to hang her by handcuffs without letting her feet touch the ground. Her arms became black, cold, and numb after two hours of hanging. She was hung in this way for the entire day.

On July 10, 2000, she was examined and found to be a few months pregnant. She was still forced to unload 30 tons of coal per day with 8 other Falun Gong practitioners. Also, she was forced to load and unload bull dung, and till soil. When there was no such farming work, she was forced to wrap more than 10,000 pairs of chopsticks each day.

On July 30, 2000, the labor camp escorted her back to Linhe City Police Station in handcuffs. The Linhe City Police Station then subjected her to a forced abortion by inducing early labor. The injection to induce labor did not work, however and she was sent home. Less than a month after Ms. Wang gave birth, the police gave her an ultimatum: either write a statement renouncing Falun Gong, or be fined 30,000 Yuan or lose her house. When her baby was 3 months old, she was being harassed and placed under surveillance 24 hours a day by five or six policemen. To avoid the harassment and further arrest, Ms. Wang and her child were forced to become homeless.

On March 3, 2001, because officials discovered she had made Falun Gong information materials, she was arrested, sentenced to seven years forced labor, and detained again at the Women’s Labor Camp of Huhehaote City

On July 1, 2001, Ms. Wang and fellow practitioners in the same prison started a hunger strike. The police force fed her and then put a "Torture Instrument" on her. (This is a torture method in which both hands are handcuffed together and then the handcuff is locked onto the foot cuffs. Meanwhile, both feet are shackled and chained. Such a torture instrument prevents one from straightening up his/her back and legs. One then cannot walk, sit or lie down properly; hence one is unable to function normally in daily life). The police put this torture instrument on Ms. Wang more than ten times, for periods of up to three months.

Ms. Wang conducted hunger strikes over a period of 2 years, and guards force-fed her each time as punishment. A tooth was knocked off during force-feeding.  They tied her arms to a bed so that she could not move during force-feeding. They also left the tube for force-feeding in her esophagus and only did a cursory cleaning every 7 to 14 days. Guards also shocked her with electric batons, hung her up and beat her, and injected her with unknown drugs. She was tortured to the point of being in critical condition several times.

Before she was detained, she weighed more than 120 pounds, but she was tortured until she only weighed about 45 pounds and lapsed in and out of consciousness. Finally, the labor camp doctor predicted that she would live only about 2 or 3 more days, and on June 26, 2004, the camp officials told Ms. Wang's father to come to the prison to take her back home. At that time, Ms. Wang was unconscious, and her father took her to a hospital for emergency rescue. However, she was forced to leave the hospital on the following day. After she got home, Ms. Wang started to show signs of mental disorder, so her family then rushed her to the hospital again. After about 20 days, because her family didn't have enough money for treatment, Ms. Wang was forced to leave the hospital. She fades in and out of consciousness and shows signs of suffering from mental disorder. Even in this situation, she is still under police surveillance 24 hours a day.

Ms. Wang’s mother Ms. Mo Huizhen was also arrested for practicing Falun Gong. During her detention in the Linhe Detention Center, the police tortured her until she lost consciousness. Later, she was transferred to the Female Labor Camp in Huhehaote City.

type=case,women;type=labor camp, Huhehaote City Women’s Labor Camp;location=Inner Mongolia,Linhe