(Minghui.org) The Hubei Province “Law Education Center” was established in March 2002 for the express purpose of persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. It is located in the Banqiao community in the Hongshan District of Wuhan City, Hubei Province. Of the practitioners sent there so far by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Ms. Wang Haoyun, Ms. Yang Xianfeng, and Ms. Zheng Yuling were tortured to death. Others have been physically or mentally injured or disabled as a result of the torture they experienced there.
Arrival
Two security officers were on duty inside the entrance 24 hours a day, and anyone arriving or leaving needs approval. After I arrived, a doctor took my blood pressure and heartbeat, and another person took a picture of me. I was then taken to a room on the first floor and isolated from other practitioners. Guards took my money and other personal belongings. From then on, I was not allowed to leave the cell, and the guards called us by room number instead of name.
There are about 20 rooms on the first floor, so they can hold up to 20 practitioners. Each room is about 20 square meters for three people: the detained practitioner and two monitors. There are three single beds. I noticed that the bed sheets had spots of blood on them. The two people assigned to monitor me talked with me for a while and then began to clean the quilt and bed sheet. I asked if there were drugs on the sheets. They said yes and that it was safer to clean them. Hearing that, I also began to clean the quilt and bed sheet.
The rule was that the light could not be turned off at night. The TV was often on, and the two fluorescent lamps lit up the entire room. The two monitors told me, “This [the light] is to prevent you from doing the exercises. Plus the guard will check each room twice a night. Our pay will be reduced if the light is turned off; same thing if you do the exercises or if we sleep. To avoid sleeping, we have to eat and watch TV all night.” This is how I spent the first night there, with the light and TV on and being watched. When I turned over, the two monitors made sounds to show that they were not asleep.
Those assigned to watch us had to write down what they saw at night and give a detailed report at a meeting the next morning. When one of them demonstrated a conscience and said things on behalf of practitioners, the officials immediately replaced them with someone else. In addition, officials periodically ranked them and gave rewards to those with the high ratings.
One male practitioner refused to be “transformed” after officials tried various means. The guards then told a prostitute to stay with him to seduce him. This practitioner got angry and drove her out.
In June 2002, Ms. Wang Haoyun, who worked at Huazhong Normal University, was arrested and detained there for a month. She was subjected all sorts of humiliation and persecution in their attempts to to “transform” her, and she suffered a mental breakdown. She was the first practitioner who died due to the persecution she suffered there.
Each practitioner has to pay 20,000 yuan for their one-month stay. If the term is extended to two months, the practitioner has to pay 40,000 yuan. As far as I know, Ms. Liu Limin was once kept here for nine months. Guards shocked her with electric batons every day and tried other ways to torture her, but she refused to “transform.” When it was near the New Year and no guards were on duty, officials released her. By then, Ms. Liu was very skinny due to the torture, and she could barely walk.
When Ms. Wang Xiaoming was detained here, the guards brutally beat her and pounded on her bare feet with the legs of a stool, almost breaking her bones. Guard Jiang Lili dragged her by the hair and knocked her head against the wall. Guards also slapped her in the face and humiliated her.
The brainwashing sessions stopped only during the New Year time. Otherwise, they were conducted for practitioners from various cities, as long as local officials paid the expense of 20,000 yuan. Such money was used for the guards' bonuses; this is one reason why the guards worked so hard to “transform” the practitioners.
Brainwashing
After being “transformed,” a practitioner became a collaborator and was often employed to try to “transform” others. Each practitioner was accompanied by two collaborators for a 13-hour class every day, from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. The practitioner had no break while the two collaborators took turns for a noon break. During the class, collaborators pressured practitioners to “transform” by ordering them to write statements to stop practicing and renounce Falun Gong. If a practitioner refused to “transform,” the collaborators often threatened him or her saying, “If you do not 'transform,' none of us will be able to get out of here. Moreover, the guards will use all kinds of methods to 'transform' you.”
The guards often beat the practitioners who refused to “transform,” with the collaborators helping on the side. Other practitioners and I were deprived of sleep and food, force-fed, given forced injections of drugs, not allowed access to the toilet, had to stand for a long time, slapped in the face, humiliated, and electrically shocked. The guards and doctors added drugs to the practitioners' food and water. Although practitioners were healthy when they arrived there, they soon had dizziness, edema, vomiting, diarrhea, and high blood pressure. When the poisoning was severe, we had to brace ourselves against the wall just to walk. Nonetheless, the class continued and no break was allowed.
When tennis coach Mr. Zhang Shu came in 2011, he was very fit and healthy. Later the guards added drugs to his food, beat him, and shocked him with electric batons. When Mr. Zhang Weijie arrived, he was also fit. Guards forced him to stand for 15 days and later deprived him of food. During the force-feeding, guards put the food he vomited back on his face to suffocate him. Even the collaborators said that they went “too far.”
Officer Liu Cheng in Division 1 hit Ms. Xiao Yingxue on the chest with his elbow, making it hard for her to breathe. He also mistreated Mr. Zhang Su and Mr. Zhang Weijie, including beating, force-feeding, and electric shock.
After being detained for 20 days, a practitioner was then forced to watch TV from morning to evening. The content they viewed contained bloody scenes of killing and suicide, which made it hard for one to sleep. Practitioners were not allowed to close their eyes when watching the videos; otherwise, the collaborators forced them to watch it all over again the next day. In addition, guards ordered the practitioners to write statements every day to defame Falun Gong and its founder. Several dozen practitioners have died due to mistreatment there. After returning home, many of them did not recover from the mental and physical abuse they experienced at this brainwashing center, and they died in the end.
Vicious deeds
According to the rules of the brainwashing center, a practitioner had to provide information about other practitioners (name, phone number, address, etc.) before they could leave. In order to go home, some practitioners betrayed their mothers, husbands, or other practitioners. When they return to their room, these practitioners often sobbed with regret. The officials, however, were very excited after securing such information, and they began to contact the police to arrest more practitioners. In addition, officials forced practitioners to work as informants to provide information after they returned home.
A practitioner who was forced to stay away from home (to avoid further persecution) told me that a practitioner in Wuhan City had been acting as an informant for many years, and even his wife—also a practitioner—did not know of this. When Mr. Feng Zhen was tried earlier this year in Wuchang Court, this person was a witness for the police. When he and his wife visited practitioners, those practitioners were often followed and arrested by the police soon after they left.
In this brainwashing center, guards mistreated practitioners in many ways, including adding drugs to their food, beating, force-feeding, standing for a long time, forced-injection of drugs, shocking with electric batons, and humiliation. They first abused practitioners physically and then destroyed them psychologically, pushing these practitioners to the extreme.
Even now, crimes beyond our imagination are being committed here. We ask that everyone pay attention to this injustice.