(Minghui.org) Ms. Tang Mingjing, a resident of Luzhou City, Sichuan Province, returned home in April 2018 after being imprisoned for four years for refusing to renounce Falun Gong.
The 70-year-old woman recently recounted that she had been beaten, deprived of sleep, and forced to take blood pressure medication in the prison.
Forced Blood Sampling and Beatings
Luzhou City police arrested Ms. Tang on April 22, 2014, and imprisoned her at the Naxi Detention Center. During a physical examination at the detention center, Ms. Tang refused to give blood samples. She later complied after guards threatened her with handcuffs.
After being sentenced to a four-year term, Ms. Tang was taken to the Longquan Women's Prison. Because she was handcuffed and her feet were chained, each move was painful. An official at the prison surnamed Cao admitted her.
She said, “At the registration desk in the lobby, someone asked for my phone number. I did not hear clearly and did not answer immediately. Thus, Cao beat me with a police baton.”
Someone then wanted to fingerprint her. Not knowing the reason, Ms. Tang resisted by making a tight fist. Several inmates grabbed her and forced her fist open, and Cao beat her again.
In addition to beating her, inmates also verbally abused Ms. Tang many times, especially after she was transferred to the intensive unit. An inmate assigned to watch practitioners cursed at her endlessly.
Authorized Brutality
As with other practitioners, Ms. Tang was not protected by law–which in itself is unlawful. Guards not only beat her but also ordered inmates to beat and torture her as well.
Officials usually appoint the most ruthless inmates to monitor practitioners. Especially during intensified periods, inmates are ordered to torture and brainwash practitioners around the clock. Ms. Tang was forced to stand motionless from morning to midnight. Although she was tired and dizzy, the inmates forced her to recite prison rules and watch propaganda videos that slandered Falun Gong.
To complete quotas for forcing practitioners to give up their belief, these inmates often beat practitioners. Several inmates sometimes physically abused several practitioners at the same time. The abuse often took place in the reading room, where there were no security cameras. During the two months of an intensification campaign, Ms. Tang was beaten a countless number of times, which included slapping her face.
Deprived of Sleep and Drugged
Guards once placed Ms. Tang under tighter restrictions for three months. During that time, she could not make phone calls home, shop for daily articles, or buy food. In addition to forced labor during the day, she was forced to hand-copy the prison rules in the evening. Because she did not submit a “thought report” the next day, she was deprived of sleep for three months.
After arriving at the prison with hands cuffed and feet chained, Ms. Tang felt very uncomfortable, having vomited during her transfer to the detention center. The guards fed her drugs, claiming that she had high blood pressure. When she refused, inmates forcibly gave her the drugs. This continued until she was released.
Meal times were kept to a minimum. She could not wash her hands, which were dirty from doing forced labor. Not long after they started eating, it was time to wash the dishes. An elderly practitioner told Ms. Tang that she was unable to chew the food well before swallowing it. To overcome hunger, many inmates purchased snacks, but Falun Gong practitioners were prohibited from doing so.
