Psychiatric Torment.qxd

Repeated Detentions and Torture in Mental Hospital

Wu Xiaohua,

1-2

female, 47, an associate professor at the

Environmental Art Department of the Anhui Civil Construction

Engineering College, Hefei City, Anhui Province.

In early 2000, the local

authorities sent Prof. Wu

Xiaohua to the Anhui Women's

Labor Camp because she had

appealed to the government to

stop persecuting Falun Gong.

In the labor camp, the guards

instigated inmates to beat and

abuse her. They slapped her

face with the sole of a shoe,

wrapped her face and head

with tape, and stuffed rags

that were used for cleaning

bathrooms and soaked in

urine into her mouth. They

even filled her mouth with sanitary napkins soaked with men-

strual blood. They also locked her up in a small solitary confine-

ment cell in the hot summer.

When such torture failed to force Prof. Wu to renounce

Falun Gong, the labor camp sent her to the Hefei City No. 4

People's Hospital (a mental hospital) in late July 2000. In the

mental hospital, Prof. Wu was handcuffed to a bed with her

arms and legs stretched out day and night. She was forcibly

given injections, force-fed drugs, and shocked with electric

needles. This torture put her in a daze and made her feel fidg-

ety. She often lapsed into a stupor. One day, they handcuffed

her hands behind her back and locked her in a warehouse

from that afternoon until the following morning to expose her

to mosquitoes. Because she was handcuffed, she could not

fend off the mosquitoes. The next morning she was covered

with blood from mosquito bites. She was detained and tortured

in the mental hospital for 50 days before she was transferred

back to the labor camp.

On October 23, 2001, Prof. Wu was once again sent to the

mental hospital. In the hospital, the nurses forced her onto a

bed, grabbed her by her hair, and stripped off her clothes. The

doctors cursed at her while cutting her underwear off with a

pair of scissors. Then they tied her to the bed with her arms

and legs stretched out and shocked her with electric needles

and an electric baton all over her body. The pain was beyond

description. They then force-fed her and injected her with

nerve-damaging drugs. These drugs caused her to feel muddle-

headed and sick. During her detention at the mental hospital

she went on three hunger strikes, the longest one lasting 21

days. The hospital authorities threatened to electrically shock

her until she passed out if she would not renounce Falun Gong.

Because of the injections and drugs she remains in a lethargic

state and has a feeling of numbness. She feels uneasy no mat-

ter how she sits, stands or sleeps. She has a constant

headache, vomits, and suffers from menstrual irregularity. She

also suffers from memory loss, and her eyesight is intermittent-

ly out of focus, rendering her unable to see people or things

clearly at close range. Her hearing has also been terribly dam-

aged. Due to her weakened condition she sometimes passes

out three to four times in a single day. Because of the torture,

her blood sugar value often reaches 22-28, her blood pressure

is very high, and her heart is not in a healthy condition.

In October 2002, guards from the Anhui Women's Labor

Camp secretly took Prof. Wu from the hospital. No one knows

her current whereabouts.

Chen Biyu Died from Psychiatric Torture

Chen Biyu, female, 51, employed at the China Industrial

Commercial Bank's Taijiang Branch, Fuzhou City, Fujian

Province.

In November 1999, Ms. Chen Biyu was arrested in Beijing

for appealing to the central government to stop persecuting

Falun Gong. She was escorted back to Fuzhou City and

detained in the Shuitou Detention Center. To force her to

renounce Falun Gong, the police first sent her to the Fuzhou

Neurological and Mental Illness Prevention Center in Fuzhou

City in December 1999, and later to the Fuzhou Mental

Hospital Treatment Center in Fuzhou City. She was force-fed

with psychiatric drugs in these institutions.

Ms. Chen managed to escape from the mental hospital,

but was arrested again and sent back to the Fuzhou

Neurological and Mental Illness Prevention Center on January

7, 2000. The chief physician of the Second Unit, Dr. Lin

Yaoping, tortured her with electric needles and injected her

with nerve-damaging drugs. The severe torture caused her to

become incontinent and lose her memory. She was then trans-

ferred to another hospital, but was released because she was

unable to pay the hospital expenses. When she returned to her

job at the bank, she was fired, and then sent to the Fuzhou

Mental Hospital.

After Ms. Chen was released, she was once again arrested

by the police on September 26, 2001, and suffered more psy-

chiatric torture. Ms. Chen died in custody in October 2001.

Psychiatric Torment

Professor Wu Xiaohua

AP: August 27, 2002, "Falun Gong Practitioners Call For Support to End Mental Hospital Abuse Used to Persecute Healthy Falun Gong Practitioners in China"

The Japan Times: September 5, 2002, "Psychiatric Abuse In China"

My mother's name is Han Jizhen. She is a Falun Gong

practitioner. Like millions of other Falun Gong practitioners, my

mother has suffered severely because of the Chinese govern-

ment's persecution. This is her story.

My mother began practicing Falun Gong in 1998. Within a

few months, a chronic gynecological disease that had plagued

her for 28 years disappeared, and so did many other illnesses.

For the first time in many years, my mother was completely

healthy by practicing Falun Gong. My mother became known as

a very kindhearted person in her work unit and throughout her

neighborhood.

On July 20, 1999, out of resentment towards the popular-

ity of Falun Gong, China's president, Jiang Zemin, launched a

nationwide persecution against Falun Gong practitioners. As

one who had benefited greatly from practicing Falun Gong, my

mother felt it was her responsibility to explain to the Chinese

government their misconception about Falun Gong, so she

went to Beijing on December 23, 1999 to appeal for the resti-

tution of Falun Gong's reputation. On her way, a policeman

stopped her and asked, "Do you practice Falun Gong?" My

mother answered, "Yes." The policeman immediately pushed

my mother into a police van. In the van, the policeman slapped

my mother repeatedly, until he got tired. Then he grabbed a

bag and hit her many times with that.

Later, my mother was escorted back to her hometown of

Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province. Without any legal documenta-

tion or medical diagnosis, the police detained her against her

will in the Nanjing Mental Hospital (currently renamed as the

Nanjing Brain Hospital). Initially, the hospital refused to admit

my mother because the doctor could see that she was a per-

fectly healthy person. The police placed a lot of pressure on the

doctor and eventually forced the hospital to admit her. The doc-

tor told the members of our family, "She is not here because

she has a psychiatric problem. It is because she does not want

to give up her belief in Falun Gong!"

I was shocked and anxious when I heard my mother was

being detained in a mental hospital because of her belief in

Falun Gong. I immediately flew back to China and visited my

mother in the Nanjing Mental Hospital. I asked my mother how

the hospital was treating her, a healthy person. My mother told

me, "I am forcibly injected with unknown drugs combined with

some oral medicine. If I refuse to take their drugs, they use

ropes to tie me up and force the injections into me. The drugs

make my body so painful. I cannot calm down regardless of

whether I am sitting, standing, or lying down. I feel listless and

dizzy. My head just stops thinking, I am easily irritated, and

cannot calm down." My heart was pained when I looked at her.

My mother's every motion was extremely slow, whether while

talking or while making tiny physical movements. When she

spoke, it sounded as if her tongue was swollen and could not

move easily. She could not speak fluently and her thoughts

were cluttered and random. After all those days in the hospital,

my mother, a previously healthy person, looked like a real men-

tal patient.

We suddenly heard a nurse yelling something outside of

the door. My mother said to me nervously, "They are going to

give me drugs again!" Soon a young nurse came in with a cup

of water and some drugs in her hands. She said while feeding

my mother the drugs, "Do you still want to practice Falun

Gong? Give it up now!" I was standing on the side and silently

watching what was happening. Watching my mother suffering

right in front of my eyes is far beyond what I can describe. It

was agonizing for me. The painful scene stabbed my heart and

ripped it into pieces.

Later I met with the doctor and said, "I am Han Jizhen's

son. I came back from America because I wanted to know

about my mother's situation." The doctor said, "Your mother

can be discharged from the hospital at any time as long as the

police allow it." When I asked them about the drugs they were

administering to my mother, she said, "We have no choice. The

police want her to be here, and we have to use drugs on her.

Otherwise, if she goes to appeal for Falun Gong in Beijing

again, we would bear the responsibility."

Psychiatric Torment

Heellp

p R

Reessccu

uee M

y M

otth

heerr,, H

n JJiizzh

heen

n,, W

o w

ass C

Crru

ueelllly

y P

Peerrsseeccu

utteed

d IIn

n N

njjiin

g M

Meen

ntta

all H

ossp

piitta

all

By Jason Wang

3-4

From right: Jason's mother, Han Jizhen, his father, brother, and sis-

ter-in-law. The photo was taken during his brother's

wedding Ceremony.

Houston Chronicle, by EDWARD HEGSTROM, Nov 19, 2001, "China takes Falun Gong fight overseas - Local followers say consulates cracking down"

The Dallas Morning News , by ESTHER WU, Oct 3, 2002, "UT student hopes rally helps father"

After repeated requests from our family, the hospital

released my mother several days before the Chinese New Year.

To our dismay, the police came to our home the next day and

threatened my mother, asking her to write a statement promis-

ing not to appeal for Falun Gong again in Beijing, or else she

would be put back into the hospital. Under the pressure, my

mother gave in. We thought that the police would not harass us

any more, and we could have a peaceful New Year's Festival.

But the police came to our home again the next day. They said

to my mother, "You only wrote a statement promising not to

appeal for Falun Gong in Beijing. That is not enough. You must

write a statement promising never to practice Falun Gong

again, or we will put you back into the mental hospital." My

mother told them, "How can I make such a statement?

Practicing Falun Gong has solved all of my health problems.

How can I stop practicing such wonderful exercises?" The

police said brazenly, "It seems that you still have a psychiatric

problem, and were not cured at all in the hospital. You must

still need further treatment in the hospital." Without any legal

process, the police took my mother away and put her into the

hospital again for an additional two months.

My father's health is not good. He had cancer at the time,

and needed my mother to take care of him at home. Since the

police took my mother away, she could not take care of him,

and instead he had to send meals to her every day. My family

was in a crisis.

At the end of 2000, I had the documents ready for my par-

ents to visit me in America. Right before they were to board the

flight, my parents were stopped by customs at the Shanghai

airport because they found my mother's name on the blacklist

in their computers.

Right now, the police and other government officials are

still watching my mother. She cannot leave her hometown with-

out permission from the authorities. I appeal to the internation-

al community to help free my mother so that our family can be

reunited.

Fan Lihong Died from Psychiatric Torture

Fan Lihong,

female, 29, a resident of Xining City, Qinghai

Province

Ms. Fan Lihong was arrested in the autumn of 2000 and

sentenced to one year of forced labor in the Qinghai Women's

Forced Labor Camp. Because she refused to renounce Falun

Gong, the labor camp sent Ms. Fan to a mental hospital for psy-

chiatric torture. At the mental hospital, the doctors and police-

men force-fed Ms. Fan with psychiatric drugs. She was

detained several times in the mental hospital because she

would not renounce her belief. The drugs severely damaged

her nervous system, and she often fell into a lethargic, trance-

like state. Because of her critical condition, the hospital

released her, fearing that she would die in custody. Ms. Fan

never recovered from the severe nerve damage, and in

December 2001, she was found dead in the Qinghai People's

Park.

Tortured at Fangcun Mental Hospital

Dong Yuhua, female, age 31, resident of Baiyun District,

Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province.

On July 20, 1999, Ms. Dong Yuhua was arrested because

she went to Beijing to appeal to the government to stop ban-

ning Falun Gong. During her detention, Ms. Dong was forced to

drink water laced with an unknown drug. This caused her to

feel very sick and dizzy. The drug also caused her lips to crack.

From that time until October 2001, she was arrested six times

and was detained at 15 different locations, including 43 days

at the Fangcun Mental Hospital of Guangzhou.

At the end of August 2001, the police from Guangzhou City

coerced Ms. Dong's family to send her to the Fangcun Mental

Hospital in Guangzhou City. At the hospital, Ms. Dong was

locked in an iron cage. Whenever she tried to practice the

Falun Gong exercises, the male staff and doctors in the hospi-

tal beat her viciously until she fell to the floor. They tied her to

a bed with handcuffs and shackles, each time for a period of

1-3 days. She was not allowed to go to the restroom and had

to defecate and urinate in the bed. At the same time, she was

forcibly injected with large doses of drugs, which caused her to

become disoriented and dizzy to have a rigid facial expression

and a splitting headache; she was also constantly tired and felt

sleepy all day. As the doctors continued to increase the

dosage, Ms. Dong suffered temporary memory loss, not even

being able to remember who she was. The drugs caused Ms.

Dong to wake up every morning with a large area of her pillow

drenched in her saliva, and from then she would roll up and

withdraw into a corner. Nevertheless, the hospital staff contin-

ued to increase the drug dosage and to charge her family more

and more money.

Ms. Dong was tortured in the hospital until October 9,

2001, when her family finally withdrew her from the hospital.

Psychiatric Torment

Washington Post Foreign Service, August 26, 2002, Philip P. Pan, "The Silent Treatment From Beijing, Mental Hospitals Allegedly Used to Quiet Dissidents, Falun

Gong"

How I was Tortured with Drugs in a

Mental Hospital

By female practitioner Wang Huifan

My name is Wang Huifan. I am a retired worker.

During the 2000 Spring Festival, because I practice Falun

Gong, plainclothes policemen arrested me and threw me into a

drug rehabilitation center to be brainwashed. After I went on a

hunger strike for two days, they force-fed me. One day, several

people from my workplace took me to an army hospital. They

dragged me to the mental illness section on the third floor and

forcefully changed me into a patient's clothes. I shouted loud-

ly, "I don't have any illness!" The nurse forcibily injected me

with an unknown drug, and shortly afterwards I lost conscious-

ness. When I regained my consciousness, I found my mouth

very stiff, and I couldn't make it do what I wanted it to. I could-

n't speak clearly even if I wanted to. I was force-fed with more

medicine. I spent the whole day unconscious. My legs were

weak and I was unable to walk. My hands wouldn't do what I

wanted them to, and I felt very dizzy all day long. They force-fed

me twice a day with some other medicine. As a result, I could

only lie in bed all day, either unconscious or hallucinating.

After one week, I was transferred to a bigger room. I was

force-fed medicine twice a day. My arms and legs felt weak all

day long. I felt dizzy and nauseated. Every day the director on

duty would come and check on me. Because I did not give up

the practice of Falun Gong, the director increased my dosage

from three tablets to five tablets. Finally my dosage was a

handful of tablets, three times the amount everyone else was

taking. At the same time, every Friday I was asked to go to the

pharmacy room by myself to take two big tablets of yellow med-

icine, and I had to open my mouth for them to check. Since the

dosage of medicine was continuously increased, I felt more

and more disoriented and nauseated.

The mental persecution was no less severe than the phys-

ical torture. Since I was forced to take large dosages of medi-

cine for long periods of time, my entire body became bloated.

My face was swollen like a bubble. My complexion was also

very bad. Everyone who saw me said I was in bad shape. I

could not read Falun Gong books or do the exercises in this

place, and was forced to live among the truly mentally ill

patients. After they finally released me from the hospital, I had

been tortured so severely that both of my eyes were red,

swollen, and very puffy. I had difficulty opening my eyes. My

ears festered inside and out. My neck also filled with yellow

fluid.

Suffered a Mental Collapse after

Three Years of Torture

Zhu Hang, female, in her 40's, an associate professor at the

Dalian Polytechnic University in Dalian City, Liaoning Province.

Prof. Zhu Hang was arrested in September 1999 and

detained in the Yaojia Detention Center in Dalian City, Liaoning

Province for three years. During her detention, she was beaten,

handcuffed, shackled, and deprived of sleep for extended peri-

ods of time. Once, her hands and feet were handcuffed togeth-

er in such a way that she could neither stand nor sit. She was

forced to squat all the time. She went on a hunger strike to

protest the torture. The inmates were then ordered to pry open

her mouth with a spoon, injuring her mouth in the process.

Since she was not allowed to use the restroom, she had to uri-

nate in her underwear and on the ground. Then they forced her

to lick the urine off the ground. She was also force-fed through

her nose. She was tortured until she lost consciousness. She

was sent to the Dalian Second People's Hospital for emergency

treatment on September 17, 1999.

After Ms. Zhu returned from the hospital, the detention

center guards took turns torturing her. They pricked her face,

forehead, and eyebrows with toothpicks and needles whenev-

er she closed her eyes. Sometimes they took turns slapping her

face. Dark purple-colored bruises appeared all over her face.

As she was wearing shackles all the time, her ankles swelled

up and festered with open sores. She developed a high fever

as a result of being tortured for such a long period. Instead of

giving Ms. Zhu medical treatment, the authorities sent Ms. Zhu

to the Dalian Psychiatric Hospital in Dalian City, Liaoning

Province, where she was forced to take narcotics that numb

the nervous system. If she refused to take them, the so-called

doctors would tie up her arms and legs and give her injections

against her will.

Brain Damage Resulted from Injection of a

Harmful Drug

Zhao Xuexia, female, resident of Xingtai City, Hebei Province

Ms. Zhao Xuexia was detained in the No. 2 Women's

Group of the Shijiazhuang Labor Camp for practicing Falun

Gong. In the labor camp, she was tortured severely. In order to

make her renounce Falun Gong, the guards injected her with

nerve damaging drugs that damaged her brain. She went into

a coma. While she was in this state, the head of No. 2

Women's Group held her hand and signed her name to a state-

ment renouncing Falun Gong. In April 2002 Ms. Zhao's family

members took her home and looked for treatment, but she

was diagnosed with serious brain damage and pronounced

very unlikely to wake up from the coma.

Psychiatric Torment

Ding Jianhua Mistreated at the Nanjing

Psychiatric Hospital

Ding Jianhua,

female, 47, a first-rank police supervisor and

head of the Department of Health Care of the Jiangsu Province

Police Station, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province.

On October 3, 1999, Ms. Ding Jianhua was sent to the

Nanjing Psychiatric Hospital to receive forced treatment

because she refused to renounce Falun Gong. The abusive

"treatment" harmed her physically. Afterwards, she had slowed

responses and blurred eyesight. Ms. Ding was detained in the

27th Bed of the Sixth District in the Nanjing Psychiatric

Hospital. Three other Falun Gong practitioners were also

detained and mistreated there.

Given Forced Injections Until Comatose at Hefei City

Mental Hospital

1. Guo Qiong, 30, female, bank cashier, Anhui Province.

2. Wang Caiyun, over 40, female, a worker of the Hefei Beer

factory, Hefei City, Anhui Province.

Because Ms. Guo Qiong practices Falun Gong, her compa-

ny threatened to fire her. Under pressure from the authorities,

her family reluctantly sent her to the No. 4 People's Hospital in

Hefei (a mental hospital). As soon as the doctors in the hospi-

tal learned that she was a Falun Gong practitioner, they did not

ask any other questions and forced her to stay in the hospital

for treatment. She was treated as a mental patient even

though she was healthy. She was forcibly given injections and

electric shocks. After being injected and shocked, she fell to

the ground and lost consciousness. She was forced to take the

drugs three times a day. After swallowing the pills, she had

stomach pains and she would vomit until she started bleeding.

She also felt very tired and listless.

Threatened with the loss of every family member's job and

heavy fines, Ms. Wang Caiyun's family reluctantly let her be

taken to the mental hospital. The diagnosis showed that she

was normal, but the hospital staff still forced her to be hospi-

talized. They tortured her with electric shocks and injections

when she refused to take their drugs. After being injected, she

lay on the ground and lost consciousness. Ms. Wang was

forced to stay at the hospital for more than 30 days.

A Pregnant Mother Given Psychiatric Drug

Injections at a Mental Hospital in Jiangsu Province

Zhang Wuying, female, an instructor at the Changzhou City

Normal Institute of Technology, Changzhou City, Jiangsu

Province.

Ms. Zhang Wuying and her husband were forced to leave

their teaching positions at the Changzhou City Normal Institute

of Technology because they appealed to the authorities to stop

persecuting Falun Gong. Moreover, the police from the Cuizhu

Police Station, Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province repeatedly

detained Ms. Zhang. Even though she was pregnant, the police

forced her to stand for the entire night.

At the beginning of April 2000, Ms. Zhang and her hus-

band went to Beijing to appeal to the central government for

justice. At that time, Ms. Zhang was more than four months

pregnant. Twenty or more plainclothes policemen took turns

beating her in front of the State Appeals Office in Beijing.

Afterwards, Ms. Zhang and her husband were escorted back to

their school. School officials then sent them to the People's

Liberation Army No. 102 Mental Hospital, where they were

incarcerated with mental patients. Although Ms. Zhang was

five months into her pregnancy, the nurses at the hospital tied

her to a bed, injected her with psychiatric drugs, and force-fed

her other drugs.

In August 2000, Ms. Zhang gave birth to her son. Her

school assigned two colleagues to monitor her during her three

days in hospital. After she checked out of the hospital, the local

authorities did not allow anyone to visit her.

In October 2000, Ms. Zhang and her husband wanted to

visit their parents in Shandong Province, but the authorities

held their baby as a hostage and prevented them from leaving.

In late January 2001, when the couple was finally allowed to

visit their parents in Shandong Province, local police from that

area were instructed to follow and harass them. On February

28, 2001, when the couple returned to Changzhou City, eight

policemen in two police vehicles from the local police station at

the Cijiao Train Station intercepted them. The police dragged

them into a police vehicle, tearing both the baby's and Ms.

Zhang's clothing. The baby was so frightened that he had diar-

rhea and cried throughout the night.

In May 2001, police from Changzhou City arrested Ms.

Zhang's husband and sentenced him to two years of forced

labor. The school's security guard, Li Honggen, kept Ms. Zhang

and her child under surveillance 24 hours a day, even when

she went to buy food. They interrogated anyone who communi-

cated or interacted with her. The police also threatened to send

Ms. Zhang to a labor camp once her baby reached one year

old.

Psychiatric Torment

Nando Media, Beijing, April 5, 2000, "China commits Falun Gong instructor, force-feeds her drugs"

Jiang Jing Repeatedly Tortured and Drugged in the

Zhonghan Mental Hospital

Jiang Jing, female, resident of Chengyang Town in Qingdao City,

Shandong Province

In March 2000, Ms. Jiang Jing was detained because she

appealed to the government to stop persecuting Falun Gong.

She was locked up and tortured in a small basement for over

six months. There was no bathroom in the basement, and she

was forced to urinate and defecate in the same room. She was

also not allowed to wash. There was no bed, and she was given

nothing to cover herself with at night. To protest the violation of

her human rights, Ms. Jiang went on hunger strike three times,

each time for more than twenty days.

In September 2000, Ms. Jiang escaped from the base-

ment, but was detained again in October 2000. She was put

back in the same basement to suffer the same conditions as

before.

In November 2000, because she refused to renounce

Falun Gong, she was sent to the Zhonghan Mental Hospital in

Qingdao City, Shandong Province. The hospital staff forcibly

injected her with a drug. A few minutes after the injection, Ms.

Jiang felt ill. Her heart beat very rapidly and she felt panicked.

Her vision first became blurred and then went totally dark. Her

mouth and tongue felt dry. When Ms. Jiang asked the medical

staff what kind of drug it was, they lied, saying that it was a

sedative to help her sleep. A medical expert revealed the truth:

this drug is banned by the government. It was only used on rab-

bits in lab experiments. When used in high doses, it kills rab-

bits instantly.

During the next few days, Ms. Jiang couldn't eat or drink

and she became too weak to walk. She was repeatedly asked

to renounce Falun Gong. When she refused, more injections

were forced into her. While administering the injections, a doc-

tor also threatened to torture her with electric needle shocks.

After a month, Ms. Jiang escaped from the mental hospital. In

July 2001, Ms. Jiang was detained again. She went on a

hunger strike for half a month, and was force-fed many times.

Then she escaped again.

In August 2001, Ms. Jiang was detained once more and

severely tortured. On August 26, 2001, she attempted to

escape, but fell from a fourth-story window. She was severely

hurt with several broken bones. However, she was still tied to a

wooden bed and beaten by Zhang Zhongkai, the director of the

Chengyang Town Synthetic Management Office. She was not

sent to a hospital until September 14, 2001. Her current situ-

ation is unknown.

My Painful Experience of Psychiatric Torture

7-9

In early August 1999, under the Chinese government's

propaganda and pressure, my father, uncle, another relative

forced me into a mental hospital, although I am not mentally ill.

Under the authorities' order, they and several patients forcibly

carried me into a cell. A doctor interviewed me to determine

whether my mental health was normal. I correctly and clearly

answered all of his questions, but the doctor still claimed that

I had a slight mental problem.

Because I protested the illegal and immoral treatment the

hospital had used on me, I was tied up on a bed for most of the

last nine days of my detention. I was forced to eat and urinate

on the bed. The doctors force-fed me with drugs and used

intravenous injections on me. The inhuman treatment once

made me faint in the restroom. Once they shocked me with an

electric baton, knocking me unconscious. It took me a long

time to recover my memory and recall what happened before.

The torture in the mental hospital was so painful that I cannot

endure the memories. The physical and mental torture is

beyond anything I can describe.

In the summer of 2001, under pressure from the local

"610 Office," my father complied with their demands and

forcibly sent me to the anti-Falun Gong brainwashing center.

Transformation Center: People's Liberation Army No.

215 Mental Hospital

Under pressure from the authorities at the local "610

Office," the People's Liberation Army's No. 215 Mental

Hospital imprisoned more than ten Falun Gong practitioners in

a brainwashing class. Policemen, doctors, and nurses perse-

cute the practitioners who refuse to give up their practice. The

hospital authorities admit that it is illegal to imprison these

people, but will not do anything because it was a decision

made by the government.

This brainwashing class is located on the third floor of this

hospital. The staff of the brainwashing class welded iron bars

to the doors and windows and over 20 policewomen guard the

area.

It has been reported that this hospital had previously

secretly detained over 20 Falun Gong practitioners who were

on hunger strikes at other detention centers or labor camps.

Psychiatric Torment

Dagbladet (Norwegian Daily Newspaper Website): August 26, 2002, "The Opposition In [China's] Mental Hospitals"

Radio Free Asia: Jiang Nan, August 24, 2002, "Tens of Thousands Dissidents Detained in Mental Hospitals"

AFP: August 26, 2002, Jonathan Annells, "World psychiatrists consider call to inspect Chinese hospitals

I am a female Falun Gong practitioner from Liaoning

Province. In October 1999, I was sent to the Second Brigade of

the Second Women's Division of the Masanjia Labor Camp for

one year of "re-education through labor." I had to do very heavy

manual work (sewing cotton-padded clothing for the army).

During the winter, the weather was very cold but I was never

given enough nourishment or sleep. One evening, a female

practitioner started screaming and yelling in the corridor.

People said she had a mental disorder, but of course she had

been a normal, healthy woman when she first arrived. When I

went to the restroom I saw her in the corridor tied up with rope

and lying on the ice-cold cement floor shivering in the early win-

ter air. This healthy woman had been abused until she suffered

a mental breakdown.

I was forced to attend brainwashing sessions where I was

physically attacked and beaten with electric batons. The labor

camp staff took turns torturing me. Because I refused to

renounce Falun Gong, the Brigade Leader constantly repri-

manded me, forbade others to talk to me, but just had them

watch me. At that time, I really felt that every single day

seemed like a year. I was forced to stand for long periods of

time in a position called "riding the horse" [a position where

the person has to squat down with legs wide apart as in riding

a horse. The position quickly exhausts a person when held for

long periods of time]; my clothes quickly became soaked with

sweat and whenever I fell down I had to get up and continue

holding the position or be beaten. When other people were tak-

ing a break, the officers forced me to "study" communist theo-

ry. The Brigade Leader also threatened to send me to a small

solitary confinement. After one year of my term, the labor camp

arbitrarily extended it for another three months.

Another practitioner I knew, Ms. Su Juzhen, had been tor-

tured with severe electric shocks and other forms of corporal

punishment. One day I saw that she could not smile or speak.

Her face had no expression at all, her eyes were glassy and did-

n't move, and her pupils were large and fixed. When I greeted

or even touched her she didn't respond. It seemed that she did

not know me. Her whole body was very feeble and traces of

blood were visible on her face. I saw black and red marks on

the backs of her hands, which were the scars from electric

shocks. I knew Ms. Su was a mentally healthy person; so the

Brigade Leader must have forced her to take some kind of

drug. I recalled that it had been early in the morning, and I had

still been in bed when I heard her blood-curdling screams. I

wonder how long she had been deprived of sleep by the corpo-

ral punishment and torture. She walked with a strange gait.

Apparently her legs had been damaged in some way. I later

learned that the beatings and long-term forced squatting had

caused her serious injuries.

When my extended sentence was over, the labor camp

declared that my term would be extended indefinitely because

I still had not given up my belief! I would either be kept in the

labor camp for further observation or transferred to Dabei

Prison of Northwest China. One day in January 2001, the

Brigade Leader wanted to talk with me. When I went down-

stairs I was put into a car with three other practitioners. The

four of us were taken to the psychiatric ward of a hospital. I was

maliciously "diagnosed" with schizophrenia and forced to pay

489 Yuan for the drugs. I repeatedly explained to the doctor

that I had no illness and refused to buy or take any medication;

but it was to no avail. We were denied all of our rights; other

Falun Gong practitioners were falsely diagnosed as having

depression or manic depression.

Back at the labor camp, the criminal prisoners tried to

force me to take medication. When I tried reasoning with them,

they said they were simply carrying out orders from the Brigade

Leader. When I refused, two prisoners would force me onto my

back. Then one of them pinched my nose with his fingers and

the other poured the medicine down my throat. Sometimes,

when I spit out the medication, it would land in my hair and on

my clothes. Every time they finished pouring the medicine

down my throat, they would force me to stay in bed for half an

hour. This occurred twice daily, morning and evening. They said

that they would continue to do this until I had some "good

sense." During the time I was forced to take the drug I lost the

desire to eat and was easily startled; at the call of my name my

heart would race. I always felt very tired, unsteady, and could

not concentrate. In the fourth month of my extended term, I

was informed that my parents had come to take me for med-

ical treatment.

Later on I learned that among those fellow women practi-

tioners detained with me, the staunchest ones were sent to

Dabei Prison. Some were confined in special torture cells; oth-

ers had their terms extended. The male practitioners were

transferred to other labor camps. Mr. Zou Guirong, after being

transferred from place to place, was tortured to death at a

prison in Fushun City, Liaoning Province. Mr. Jiang Wei suffered

a mental collapse from the extreme adversity and torture.

Forced to Take Mind-A

Altering Drugs

Shortly before July 20, 2000, in order to prevent me from

going to Beijing to appeal to the central government to stop

persecuting Falun Gong, the police in my hometown locked me

up in a local psychiatric hospital. The chief of the local police

station sent me there himself. In the hospital, I was forced to

take drugs, orally and by injection, that damage the central

nervous system. One day a female doctor, two male doctors,

and some of the patients tied me to a bed and injected the

drugs. Immediately after the forced injection I could not think

clearly any more. I lost my balance when I tried to walk, my

hands shook, I began to drool, and I could not control my

tongue when I tried to talk. I was tortured like that for a month

and charged 4,000 Yuan in "hospital treatment fees."

Psychiatric Torment

Viicciio

uss SScceen

neess iin

n tth

hee M

assa

njjiia

a L

orr C

A Survivor's Testimony

Baiyun Mental Rehabilitation Center was established as a

charitable organization under the supervision of Guangzhou

City. Under the direction and coordination of the Guangzhou

Security Department, however, Baiyun Mental Rehabilitation

Center has become a place for torturing Falun Gong practition-

ers.

On May 4, 2001, Zhang Dazi, a hospital doctor, told some

practitioners, "We kill people like we kill ants in this hospital.

We have a mortuary here and nobody has ever investigated

who ends up there. I issue the death certificates, and nobody

ever finds out the real cause of death."

On May 2, 2001, more than ten female practitioners were

transferred from Shahe Detention Center to Baiyun Mental

Rehabilitation Center. They were brutally beaten by a group of

male drug addicts, as ordered by Zhang Dazi. The drug addicts

divided themselves into groups, with three men using thick iron

batons to beat each female practitioner. The practitioners were

beaten until they lost consciousness. As a result of these vio-

lent beatings, these practitioners were covered with open

wounds and bruises of bluish and purple color. A 60-year-old

female practitioner and a 20-year-old female practitioner lay on

the ground unconscious, their faces swollen with bruises.

On May 13, 2001, Zhang Dazi instructed eight to nine

male drug addicts to break into the female section of the hos-

pital and drag out a female practitioner who refused to

renounce Falun Gong. When a few practitioners tried to stop

them, the men then turned their attention to these female

practitioners. Some used planks to hit them, some kicked and

punched them, and some threw them to the floor and choked

them. They stopped only when these practitioners were beaten

so severely that they had all lost consciousness. Then, these

criminals took the practitioner they had initially targeted else-

where, where she was violently beaten until she lost conscious-

ness.

Every day, screaming was heard coming from the male

cells. It was not unusual for five or six dead bodies to be car-

ried out of the cells each day. Someone said a male practition-

er doing the exercises was beaten to death and his body later

carried out of his cell. The hospital did not disclose any infor-

mation and secretly disposed of the bodies in the mortuary.

Nobody knows how many practitioners have been tortured to

death in this living hell.

Zhang Dazi proudly presented the hospital "accomplish-

ments" to the Guangzhou "610 Office" and was "recognized"

and "supported" by the Office. This has turned Baiyun Mental

Rehabilitation Center into a designated site for torturing practi-

tioners and a site for teaching these tactics to other mental

hospitals. On May 9, 2001, Zhang Dazi instructed his people to

demand that practitioners "write a thank-you letter to express

your appreciation to the hospital for curing your illnesses.

Either you write the letter or you risk another serious beating."

Practitioners who were on hunger strikes to protest their

detention had been suffering from the vicious torture on a daily

basis. On May 14, 2001, all the practitioners started another

hunger strike and asked for their unconditional release. Zhang

Dazi was somewhat frightened, but the Executive Director of

the hospital decided to continue to detain and torture practi-

tioners. All information relating to their maltreatment was cov-

ered up.

Under the guise of a "government organization," the hos-

pital officially set up an area where taking drugs was "legal."

Under the pretext of rehabilitation, drug addicts "legally" dealt

with "doctors" in buying and selling drugs. At the same time,

the "doctors" recruited male drug addicts to torture practition-

ers. Practitioners in the hospital lost all their belongings and

money to these drug addicts.

A 60-year-old practitioner was arrested for distributing

Falun Gong information. In October 2001, she was initially

detained in the Chatou Detention Center, and then transferred

to Baiyun Mental Rehabilitation Center. She escaped after 97

days of imprisonment. She said that the Center was a filthy

place where many patients had sores and skin ulcers all over

their bodies. She was kept in the same cell with several drug

addicts. Although the hospital made it known to people that

they would be released if they paid the asked price, Falun Gong

practitioners were exceptions to this.

It is difficult to estimate how many people have been trans-

ferred to this hospital, as the number of people involved has

been quite enormous. Anyone released by the hospital had to

pay 600 Yuan.

Some of the practitioners were released by the hospital

but transferred to brainwashing classes or to forced labor

camps by the Security Department. Some of these practition-

ers started hunger strikes and in several cases their weight

dropped from as much as 60 kg (approximately 130 pounds)

to around 20 kg (approximately 50 pounds). They looked like

skeletons and were quite close to death. Sometimes the

Security Department instructed the families of these practi-

tioners to come pick them up, while extorting money from them

for their release. Only a very few practitioners have been

released and so have had the opportunity to expose the crimes

that took place inside the hospital.

Psychiatric Torment

Prra

accttiittiio

neerrss FFrreeq

ueen

nttlly

y T

orrttu

urreed

d tto

o D

Deea

atth

h a

att B

aiiy

n M

Meen

ntta

all R

Reeh

biilliitt

10-13

10.

Reuters: August 26, 2002, Stuart Grudgings, "Psychiatry mission to visit China, no censure yet"

11.

UPI: August 26, 2002, Bruce Sylvester, "World psych group wants China abuse eyed"

12.

Sydney Morning Herald: August 28, 2002, "Psychiatrists Put China On The Couch"

13.

Houston Chronicle: September 9, 2002, "China's Dissidents - Must Open Mental Wards For Honest Examinations"

Tortured in the Yichun City Mental Hospital

Shi Yinghua, female, a highly ranked teacher in Jinshantun,

Yichun City, Heilongjiang Province.

Ms. Shi Yinghua has been tortured because she practices

Falun Gong. Officers from the local "610 Office" and the police

station ordered Gao Fu, her husband, to torture her. Gao Fu

often cursed at and beat Ms. Shi. He grabbed her by the hair

and knocked her head against the wall. He brutally hit her fore-

head with a pair of pliers. He even tried to force her to hang

herself. Later, policemen arrested her and sent her to a deten-

tion center, where they brutally tortured her.

They tied Ms. Shi's arms onto a cross and used a metal rod

to keep her mouth pried open. Then they sent her to the Yichun

City Mental Hospital and continued to torture her there. After

she was released from the mental hospital she was not

allowed to teach. Later, she was arrested at the Shanhaiguan

Railway Station because she was on her way to Beijing to

appeal to the government to stop persecuting Falun Gong. On

the way back to the detention center, the handcuffs cut her

wrists to the bone and her hands were bleeding. Afterwards,

the local police authorities again sent her to the mental hospi-

tal for further torture.

Forced Injections at Qiqihar City No. 3 Mental Hospital

Qu Jinfeng, female, 26, a resident of Fuyu County, Heilongjiang

Province.

On November 30, 1999, Ms. Qu Jinfeng went to Beijing to

appeal to the government to stop persecuting Falun Gong. She

was arrested in Beijing on December 2, 1999 and escorted

back to the Fuyu County Police Station. Policeman Liang

Shichao slapped Ms. Qu, leaving marks on her face. The police

tied Ms. Qu to a "Tiger Bench" and beat her with an electronic

baton. 26 days later Ms. Qu was released and sent back home.

On February 9, 2001, Policemen Yang Hongge and Wang

Zewei broke into Ms. Qu's home and brought her to the Fuyu

County Detention Center, where Liu Jianchun slapped her in

the face and beat her face with an electric baton. On March 8,

2000, they sent Ms. Qu to the Shuanghe Forced Labor Camp

of Qiqihar City, where she was beaten very severely. During the

56 days of her detention, they kept her handcuffed around the

clock except when she used the restroom and had meals. The

guards also instigated a criminal, Li Xiaoyang, to seal her

mouth with tape, slap her face, and trample on her feet.

Because Ms. Qu went on a hunger strike to protest the torture,

guards forced her to stand for a long time, bashed her head

against a wall, hung her up (usually from a rafter or a tree), and

stuffed towels in her mouth. She was also force-fed and forced

to receive intravenous drips. Later Ms. Qu was sent to the

Qiqihar City No. 3 Mental Hospital, where she received forced

injections that made her lose consciousness. Fifteen days later

Ms. Qu was sent home. On January 21, 2001, because Ms. Qu

still refused to renounce Falun Gong, the Fuyu County Police

Station again sent her to the Fuyu Detention Center. There,

they shackled Ms. Qu and beat her with clubs. Ms. Qu went on

a hunger strike to protest the continued torture and was force-

fed; the officers inserted the feeding tube into her trachea,

almost suffocating her.

A Nursing Mother Tortured into Mental Illness

Gu Peng, female, 27, a kindergarten teacher at the Baoding

City Cigarette Factory, resident of Baoding City, Hebei Province.

In January 2001, Ms. Gu Peng, a nursing mother, was

arrested, along with her husband and their six-month old baby,

for going to the central government to appeal for an end to the

persecution of Falun Gong. After they were escorted back from

Beijing to Baoding City, her husband was detained at the

Baoding Detention Center and Ms. Gu was sent to a mental

hospital. Every day she was forced to take drugs and injections.

This previously healthy mother was tortured with drugs until

her mind was completely debilitated. Now, Ms. Gu unceasingly

paces the floor in a drug-induced stupor. Her baby is deprived

of vital nutrition and maternal care because of her mother's

psychiatric torture in the mental hospital.

Tortured at the Yantai Psychiatric Recovery Hospital

Chen Yujie, female, employee of the Industrial and Commercial

Bank of China Laixi Branch, Laixi City, Shandong Province.

In July 2000, Ms. Chen Yujie was arrested because she

went to Beijing to appeal to the government to stop persecut-

ing Falun Gong. The local police sent her, along with six other

Falun Gong practitioners, to the Yantai Psychiatric Recovery

Hospital.

Upon their arrival, the hospital director, Li Tao, told Ms.

Chen, "We specialize in treating Falun Gong practitioners."

Without going through any diagnosis, the nurses forcibly gave

Ms. Chen injections, and asked if she would continue practic-

ing Falun Gong. They continued to increase the dose as long as

she refused to give up her faith. Under the influence of the

drugs, Ms. Chen was unable to focus, her attention span was

significantly shortened, and her arms and legs also became

weak and numb. Ms. Chen was tortured there for 45 days.

Psychiatric Torment

Three Female Falun Gong Practitioners Tortured in

Jiaozhou City Mental Hospital

14-15

1. Tan Guihua, female, 42, a worker at the Third Leather

Shoe Factory in Jiaozhou City, Shandong Province

2. Qiu Yuaner, female, 33, an employee of an oil company in

Jiaozhou City, Shandong Province

3. Kuang Bencui, female, 48, an employee at the Third

Leather Shoe Factory, Jiaozhou City, Shandong Province

On September 12, 1999, Mr. Song and several others from

the Third Leather Shoe Factory in Jiaozhou City forcibly took

Ms. Tan Guihua to a hospital because she had gone Beijing to

appeal to the central government to stop persecuting Falun

Gong. When she asked, "I am healthy, why do you take me

here?", Mr. Song answered, "You went to Beijing, and that is

your mental illness." A nurse at the hospital then had eight

men hold down Ms. Tan and injected a large dose of drugs into

her. In only a few seconds, she felt nauseated and sick, her

heart started to beat very quickly, and she eventually fainted.

Over the next few days, a female doctor repeatedly asked her if

she would continue to practice Falun Gong. Because Ms. Tan

always answered yes, the doctor shocked her with electric nee-

dles, injected her with a nerve-damaging drug, and cursed, "I

will see to it that you will say `no' one day."

This torture went on for two months, but was not able to

force Ms. Tan to renounce Falun Gong. The doctor then inject-

ed Ms. Tan with an even stronger drug, and cursed, "Aren't you

good at biting the bullet? I want to see if you continue to prac-

tice Falun Gong." After the injection, Ms. Tan stopped menstru-

ating. She was unable to control her eyes, and her actions and

reaction time became very slow. A few days later, they added

another drug to her injections. As a result, she started to shake

violently and could not even hold a bowl. She was tortured like

this for 20 days. When her family finally picked her up, she was

disoriented and could not see things clearly. She had lost her

memory and her whole body had become bloated.

In February 2000, because Ms. Qiu Yuaner went to Beijing

to appeal to the government to stop persecuting Falun Gong,

she was tortured in the same mental hospital for two months.

On February 14, 2000, Ms. Kuang Bencui went to Beijing

to appeal to the government to stop persecuting Falun Gong.

She was arrested and escorted to a mental hospital. Although

she was healthy, during her two months of detention in the

mental hospital, Ms. Kuang was treated like a mental patient.

She was forced to take drugs and receive injections. Usually

two men grabbed her arms while one pinched her nose; then

they drove a chopstick between her teeth and force-fed her

drugs. Ms. Kuang was force-fed drugs three times a day, with

the dosage increasing from one to six tablets at a time. She

was detained in the mental hospital for two months before

being released to her family.

Psychiatric Torment

14.

Amnesty International, CHINA: The crackdown on Falun Gong and other so-called "heretical organizations"

http://www.amnesty.ca/library/asa171100-6.htm

15.

2000 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom: China

http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/irf/irf_rpt/irf_china.html