(Minghui.org)
Name: Zhou DongyingChinese Name: 周冬英Gender: FemaleAge: 70City: YueyangProvince: HunanOccupation: AccountantDate of Death: January 2024Date of Most Recent Arrest: September 2, 2012Most Recent Place of Detention: Changsha Legal Education Training Center
A woman in Yueyang City, Hunan Province, fell into a delirious state in 2012 after 36 days of detention in a brainwashing center. She was anxious and restless, her gait was unsteady, her vision was blurred, and she could not eat—all symptoms of poisoning. After struggling with these symptoms for three years, she suffered a stroke in 2015 and became completely incapacitated. She remained bedridden for the next nine years and passed away in January 2024. She was 70.
Ms. Zhou Dongying, a former accountant for the Xinzhou Reed Field under the Yueyang County Lake Management Bureau, was targeted for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. Because she held fast to her faith and raised awareness about the persecution, she was arrested many times. She was twice held in brainwashing centers and twice in psychiatric hospitals. While in custody, she was tortured and given toxic drugs, which eventually took her life.
Ms. Zhou and several other practitioners went to the Beijing in August 2000 to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. The officials at the National Appeals Office refused to accept them and directed them to the police department.
After confirming that they were Falun Gong practitioners, the police forced them to squat facing a wall. An officer kicked Ms. Zhou’s right thigh, leaving a large bruise.
When the police learned that the practitioners had come from Yueyang, they called the Yueyang Liaison Office in Beijing to pick them up. They were held in the liaison office for two days and escorted back. Yueyang County Domestic Security Division officials said they would be held in the Yueyang County Detention Center for a month. Ms. Zhou’s husband paid the police 4,000 yuan and she was released after 12 days. Her husband also paid 240 yuan for her food.
Ms. Zhou returned to Beijing in late December 2000 to appeal again. The plainclothes officers patrolling Tiananmen Square grabbed her by her hair, dragged her into a police car, and kicked her in the stomach twice. She was taken to the Shunyi Detention Center in Beijing, where the guard shocked her with electric batons to get her to reveal where she came from. She said nothing and was released nearly two weeks later.
Ms. Zhou was arrested again on September 5, 2001, when she went to Xushi Town to put up posters about Falun Gong. Three officers took turns beating her from midnight to 6 a.m. She was covered in bruises, there was dried blood in her hair, and an-inch-long wound between her left index and middle fingers. Her left arm was injured so badly she could not move it.
When Ms. Zhou requested medical care, the police hung her up from a crossbeam by her hands for more than an hour. Officer Zhao Wenhua burned her right hip in over a dozen places with a cigarette. After they put her down, she collapsed and they stomped on her back.
Ms. Zhou was later transferred to the Yueyang First Detention Center for 48 days. The police gave her a one-year labor camp term but she was denied admission to the camp due to her poor health. The police extorted 3,000 yuan from her before allowing her to go home.
The police saw her when she was distributing informational materials about Falun Gong in July 2002. They arrested her at home the next day and held her in the Yueyang County Detention Center and Xiangyin Detention Center for almost four months. An instructor surnamed Peng and a secretary surnamed Liu beat her savagely, especially on her head and other vital places, with their fists and a rubber slipper. They also grabbed her hair and slammed her head against the wall. She went on a hunger strike to protest the mistreatment and was later released.
Ms. Zhou was arrested again in August 2005 and sent to Hubin Brainwashing Center. Zhang Jiehong from the 610 Office beat her when she resisted. Within a few days, she suffered internal bleeding and was sent to the hospital.
The next day, Fan Yuehua from her workplace and staff from the brainwashing center took Ms. Zhou to Yueyang Psychiatric Hospital. They told the doctor, “She has a mental problem – she practices Falun Gong.” The doctor tied her down and gave her an unknown drug through an IV all night and also forced her to take drugs orally. When she needed to use the bathroom the next morning, the doctor wouldn’t let her, saying, “She has mental problems. I am afraid she will hit someone.” Someone sent by the 610 Office to monitor Ms. Zhou told him, “She has no mental problem, I can guarantee it.” Only then did the doctor undo the restraints.
Ms. Zhou was injected with unknown drugs and forced to take unknown pills on a daily basis. She was also shocked with electric batons. She developed a tremor and anxiety and felt panicky and sick. A week later, she was transferred back to the brainwashing center. She was still force-fed unidentified pills. Her health declined rapidly, and she was soon in critical condition. Then the brainwashing center staff took her home and left her there. By that time, Ms. Zhou could no longer take care of herself.
At home, Ms. Zhou began pacing up and down the stairs uncontrollably, and she could not eat. Her husband had to take her to the hospital. When the doctor asked her what was wrong with her, she said, “I was arrested for practicing Falun Gong. I was tied up in a psychiatric hospital, injected with unknown drugs, and force-fed unknown pills for over a week. I cannot control my tremor, I feel panicky and I cannot stop pacing.” The doctor replied, “You need to find who did this to you. They are responsible. You do not have mental illness. The drugs are causing this. I cannot treat you.”
Ms. Zhou’s husband had initially prevented his wife from practicing Falun Gong for fear of being persecuted himself. He was heartbroken to see his wife in this condition and with no treatment available to help her, so he encouraged her to resume practicing. Gradually, she got better.
Ms. Zhou had one flair up in 2006 when she constantly threw up, felt dizzy, could not walk, and was bedridden for two months. But she did the Falun Gong exercises and recovered.
Agents from the Yueyang Political and Legal Affairs Committee, the 610 Office, the Dongting Lake Administration Bureau, and the Shuishang Police Station (about ten altogether) went to Ms. Zhou’s home on September 2, 2012, and took her to a brainwashing center (the “Changsha Legal Education Training Center”).
Every practitioner there was held in a small room ten meters square and monitored 24 hours a day by staff dispatched by the 610 Office. Practitioners were forced to watch DVDs and read books slandering Falun Gong. They were pressured to write statements to denounce their faith and guarantee not to practice again. Those who refused to be “transformed” were beaten with bamboo sticks, slapped in the face, burned, forced to stand for long periods of time, deprived of sleep, not allowed to eat or drink, and fed poison in their food.
Ms. Zhou held a hunger strike in protest. She was violently force-fed, and a tooth was loosened. The perpetrators pinched her all over until she was black and blue.
Her hunger strike lasted 18 days. The brainwashing center staffers (including 610 Office staff, and the physician) mixed unknown drugs into her food and force-fed her on a daily basis. When Ms. Zhou stopped her hunger strike and began to eat, they continued to mix the drugs into her food.
One day, a male doctor came to check Ms. Zhou’s blood pressure. He said that she had hypertension and instructed the staffers to mix medicine into her food. One day, Ms. Zhou found out and asked the staff what had been put into her bowl. They replied, “Medicine for your hypertension.”
Ms. Zhou said, “I do not have hypertension!” and she dumped her bowl. Since her meals were always brought in by someone else, she had no idea how long they had drugged her or what kind of drug it was.
One day, Ms. Zhou fell into a deep sleep shortly after dinner and could not be awakened. She said the next day that she would not eat anymore. She was told, “You can eat a hard boiled egg. It would be hard to mix drugs in that,” in effect admitting that they had been doing exactly that. The brainwashing center released her that day.
After Ms. Zhou went home, 610 Office head Fan Yuehua and Xia Wei told her husband and daughter that she had “hypertension” and needed treatment. One of the guards who beat Ms. Zhou in the brainwashing center told others that her internal organs “all festered,” and she would not live long.
Ms. Zhou was delirious when she got home. She was anxious and restless, with an unsteady gait and blurred vision, and she could not eat, typical symptoms of poisoning. When she got a little better, Ms. Zhou realized that she had been poisoned.
Around August 2015, Ms. Zhou suffered a stroke. She survived the operation but lost her memory and the ability to talk. She became completely incapacitated. From her experience, her husband understood how evil the persecution is. He tried his best to care for her during the last nine years of her life.
Injected and Drugged with Unknown Substances in a Mental Hospital and Brainwashing Center