(Minghui.org) A woman in Yantai City, Shandong Province, has been on hunger strike at Shandong Province Women’s Prison since October 2018 to protest the illegal imprisonment and brutal tortures. Ms. Bi Jianhong was disabled as a result of the torture and has been in a wheelchair for the past two years. 

Information from the prison revealed that she’s been hospitalized many times since December 2020 and has been force-fed three times a day. She was not allowed to speak to anyone. Details of her current situation remain under investigation because of the information blockade from the prison. 

Ms. Bi was arrested on October 15, 2006, for upholding her faith in Falun Gong, a meditation practice also known as Falun Dafa that has been persecuted in China since July 1999. She was later sentenced to 12 years. 

She was tortured to near death and released in November 2009. After she recovered, she was taken back to prison on December 31, 2010, only to be tortured nearly to death yet again. She was again released early, in May 2011. Ms. Bi got better at home, only to be taken back to prison on October 30, 2018, to finish serving her 12-year-term. 

Ms. Bi Jianhong

Tortured to the Brink of Death 

The police accused Ms. Bi of making materials with information about Falun Gong and arrested her on October 15, 2006. While she was in police custody, the officers deprived her of sleep and beat her to extort a confession. They tied her to a chair and force-fed her concentrated saline. Afterward they tied her hands behind her back with a rope and attached the rope to a beam on the ceiling so that her legs could barely touch the ground. This put all her weight on her wrists and shoulders and caused excruciating pain. 

Torture illustration: Hung up behind the back

After 5.5 months of detention, a judge from Yantai Court in Laishan District sentenced Ms. Bi to 12 years on March 23, 2007. A month later she was transferred to Shandong Province Women’s Prison, where she was later tortured and given unknown drugs until she almost died twice. 

She was placed in an intensive training group, where she was subjected to brainwashing every day from 6 a.m. to midnight. The guards and prisoners took turns bombarding her with warped notions and attempting to talk her out of her belief. She continued to resist. As a result, they beat her, deprived her of sleep, or forced her to stand still for long periods of time. 

The tortures escalated as she refused to renounce her faith. In August 2007 six collaborators went to her cell at night while she was asleep and beat her until she became incontinent and lost feeling in the lower body. Seeing no other option, she went on a hunger strike to protest the abuse. 

When winter arrived and the temperature was about -10 Celcius (20 F), the monitors opened the window in Ms. Bi’s cell and took away her warm coat. Every morning at 5 a.m. they dragged her to the balcony and left her outside until midnight. The guards and the prisoners, besides force-feeding and freezing her, often beat her and poured cold water on her. She was often wet and cold. Her body ached so much that she couldn’t even turn when she slept. Gradually she became severely underweight and her heart stopped functioning. The authorities sent her to the hospital. 

The moment she began to recover, the tortures resumed. After beating her, they forced her to stand still all day without sleeping. When she was too weak to stand, they placed four chairs around her and sat on the chairs. This pushed her legs to stay straight and physically forced her to stand all day. Day after day her calves swelled to even bigger than her thighs. She was unable to squat when having to use the toilet. 

When Ms. Bi refused to wear a prison uniform because she wasn’t guilty, they stripped her and left her naked with only underpants for 2 weeks. 

One day a monitor instigated a dozen prisoners to beat Ms. Bi after she repeatedly refused to renounce her faith. She fell on the ground and they continued to kick her face, stomp on her head, hit her face with leather shoes, kick her chest, and choke her. They pulled out most of her hair during the violence. At night they took turns watching her and wouldn't let her rest. The minute she dozed off, they rubbed her face with menthol oil that made her eyes burn. They even threatened to put her head in sewage water from a toilet. 

Mr. Bi went four days without food and sleep. Guards dragged her on the ground and threw her in a vehicle to take her to the hospital. The skin on her back was ruptured and bled badly. Her left eye was heavily bruised and lost eyesight. She wasn’t left alone after being hospitalized. They forced her to sit still on a small stool the next morning at 6 a.m. As soon as Ms. Bi leaned against the bed, they beat her. (This torture puts all the bodyweight on the buttocks and after a while the skin ruptures and the legs swell.) 

The skin on her back that was torn while she was dragged on the ground became infected and festered. Her shirt stuck to her flesh after the pus and blood dried up. A prisoner named Liu Xinying forcibly pulled her shirt off and slapped her back, causing her extreme pain. 

At one point Liu kicked Ms. Bi and terrorized her, “I want you to suffer so much that you’d feel that you are better off dead.” When Liu got tired of beating her, Liu stomped on her toes. Soon the skin on her middle toe on the left foot broke and festered. Liu would stomp on the festered toe and say, “I can hurt you in so many ways and there is nothing you can do.” A doctor discovered that the flesh on her back turned green because of the severe infection. She was given antibiotics for a long time before her infection went away. Her toe healed six months later, leaving a permanent scar. 

The prison authorities sent Ms. Bi home in November 2009 because she was dying and they didn’t want to shoulder the responsibility. 

Arrested in 2010 and Near Death in Four Months 

By resuming practicing Falun Gong at home, Ms. Bi regained her health. After learning that she had recovered, agents from the Yantai City 610 Office tried to take her back to prison. Although she lived away from home to avoid persecution, she was arrested again on December 31, 2010, by officers from Ermalu Police Station in Yantai City. The next day a guard from Shandong Province Women’s Prison came to the police station to pick her up. 

The guards at the intensive training group instigated prisoners to torture Ms. Bi into giving up her faith. She went on a hunger strike and was force-fed until her life signs became weak. They rushed her to a hospital and a doctor injected her with unknown drugs. She felt terrible and could no longer walk. Her family visited her on January 26, 2011, and she was emaciated. 

Her family received a call from the prison authorities on March 17, informing them that she was dying and hospitalized. When her family saw her, she appeared disfigured and had systemic organ failure. Her family demanded her release but the prison authorities denied the request, quoting the Yantai City 610 Office’s decision, and suggested that she remain hospitalized. 

Her mother wrote to authorities to Shandong Provincial Government, Judicial Department, and Prison Administrative Bureau, exposing the prison authorities’ abuse. At the end of the letter she wrote, “I cry every day thinking that she could die in prison any minute. It’s unbearable. I can not lose my daughter and neither can my granddaughter lose her mother. I hope you kind people can help us. The good will be rewarded and those who persecute Falun Gong practitioners will be punished.” 

The prison authorities released Ms. Bi early in May 2011. She was barely alive at the time. 

Arrested in 2018, Disabled Within Weeks

Ms. Bi was arrested one more time by officers from Hebinlu Police Station on October 30, 2018, and taken back to Shandong Province Women’s Prison a few days later to finish serving her 12-year term. She’s been on a hunger strike since. 

When her mother visited her on November 22, 2018, a guard told her mother that her legs were disabled and she was in a wheelchair. However, behind the glass her mother witnessed a guard dragging her out on the floor. The guard yelled for her mother to leave because she couldn’t make it to the visiting booth. The mother couldn’t believe that in less than a month her physical health had deteriorated to such an extent. She insisted on speaking with her daughter. Ms. Bi couldn’t stand up when the guard dragged her to the booth. The guard lifted her up and put her on a stool. Ms. Bi told her mother that she had been sleeping on a freezing concrete floor and hence her legs were numb. 

Related reports: 

Shandong Woman on Hunger Strike to Protest Torture in Prison

Ms. Bi Jianhong on Hunger Strike in Prison, Family Concerned about Her Health

Shandong Woman Sues Jiang Zemin After Being Tortured to Near Death

Shandong Woman in Critical Condition Again After Being Taken Back to Prison from Medical Parole