Wei Xinrong - 魏欣蓉
(Minghui.org) Ms. Wei Xinrong was a Falun Gong practitioner from Mian County, Shaanxi Province. She was imprisoned at Xi'an Women's Forced Labor Camp twice. She was beaten, shocked with electric batons, hung in mid air and tied down on metal bed frame. She was injected with harmful chemicals and also ingested drugs that were secretly put into her food. As a result, Ms. Wei had chronic ulceration of her lung. She passed away early in the morning on December 1, 2012. She was only 49 years old.
Ms. Wei Xinrong was a government employee at the Mian County Grain Bureau. After her detention in the labor camp, she worked at the Government Forest Station in Wenquan Town, Mian County.
Ms. Wei started to practice Falun Dafa in 1997. Due to the practice, she became healthy, her family lived in harmony and she was a more dedicated worker. After the persecution of Falun Gong started on July 20, 1999, Ms. Wei went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. She was sent to the labor camp for one year. She was sentenced to forced labor for the second time in July 2003. Both times she was imprisoned at Xi'an Women's Forced Labor Camp. Her health suffered and she was merely skin and bones due to all the tortures she suffered there.
Director Zhang Zhuoqing of the Xi'an Women's Forced Labor Camp had been closely following the orders of the Jiang regime since the start of the persecution. Under the instruction from 610 Office, Li Zhen and other prison guards were sent to Masanjia Forced Labor Camp and many other sites to learn the methods of how to torture and “transform” Falun Gong practitioners.
In July, 2001, the labor camp searched imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners' bedding and took way copies of recent lectures by the founder of Falun Gong, Mr. Li Hongzhi. Falun Gong practitioners asked the ward head for the confiscated articles. The ward head not only did not return them, but locked all the Falun Gong practitioners in the large classrooms on the second floor. Ms. Wei Xinrong and some other practitioners were locked in the classroom on the third floor. Later on, a few male security guards came in. They had electric batons, handcuffs, and police batons with them and began beating the female practitioners. All the prison guards in the room also joined the beating. In addition, the labor camp ordered Huang Yan, Li Lixia, Lei Xiaoling and other criminal inmates (drug addicts and prostitutes) to help with the beating. Many Falun Gong practitioners were injured. Ms. Wei was among the ones who suffered the most severe injuries.
Prison guards forbid Falun Gong practitioners to use the bathroom for long stretches of time. Under such circumstances, practitioners sometimes had to urinate in their wash basins. After the criminal inmates who helped prison guards to monitor Falun Gong practitioners saw that, they rinsed practitioners' dishes with urine before they served them food. Since Ms. Wei refused brainwashing and transformation, instructor Li Zhen and other prison guards beat Ms. Wei with police batons multiple times in addition to hitting and kicking. One day, prison guard Li Cailian cuffed Ms. Wei's wrists on the metal guardrails on a window. She hit and kicked Ms. Wei and beat her with police batons. This episode of abuse lasted for seven days, Ms. Wei's body was covered with wounds.
Ms. Wei Xinrong was frequently hung on stair railings, metal doors and window guardrails. In November 2001, it started to snow in Xi'an and it was freezing cold. Ms. Wei was hung by her wrists with handcuffs for 37 consecutive days. During the time she was hung, prison guards hit her backside every day. After she was untied, she took off her clothes and found that her entire back, buttocks and legs were black and blue. It was too horrible to look at.
In the beginning of 2002, a ruthless prison guard called Zhao Xiaoyang was appointed to a leadership position, thus another round of abuse targeting practitioners began. To protest the brainwashing and torture, Ms. Wei Xinrong went on a hunger strike. Prison guards brutally force-fed Ms. Wei many times. She bled from internal punctures in her throat, esophagus and stomach. One time, the head of the security guard pushed Ms. Wei onto the floor. With one foot stepping on the side of her face to keep her still, he stabbed around inside her mouth with a feeding tube attempting to get the tube in her throat. Since the guards could not succeed in force-feeding her, Zhao Xiaoyang ordered guards to tie Ms. Wei up on a metal bed frame with her arms and legs spread open, and they jammed a wooden stick behind Ms. Wei's arms to make sure she could not move. They then force-fed her and put her on an IV. It was a cruel scene.
On April 3, 2002, the labor camp gathered all Dafa practitioners, about a hundred of them from Groups one, two and three, together for “transformation” (brainwashing and torture). Dafa practitioners were locked in separate rooms, their basic human freedoms were restricted. They were not allowed to go to the bathroom. Dafa practitioners who refused to report their identification numbers, or who didn't answer when their numbers were called, and refused to listen and watch propaganda that slandered Dafa, were not allow to sleep and had to stand facing the wall all night. At the same time, they were cursed and beaten by other criminal inmates. Eight practitioners including Ms. Wei Xinrong, Ms. Xu Mingxia, Ms. Liu Guiqing, Ms. Sun Yuncheng, Ms. Li Shulian, Ms. Li Xiaorong, Yu Qinzhen resisted the “transformation” and were handcuffed on a metal fence, metal door, stair railing and window rails in the office for several days and nights. At the same time, prison guards instructed the criminal inmates to rinse Falun Gong practitioners' dishes with urine. Along with the inmates, prison guards put handcuffs on these eight practitioners' wrists and sat on top of them. They jammed dirty rags in the practitioners' mouths, force-fed practitioners, and then tied them up on metal bed frames and did not allow them to go to the bathroom. Ms. Wei was tortured like this for eight days straight. Ms. Xu Mingxia was tortured for nine days.
None of the brutal persecution made Ms. Wei give up believing in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Since Ms. Wei did not give in and become “transformed,” her term was extended for 15 days. Then she was released from the labor camp with physical injures.
The second time she was sent to the labor camp, she was poisoned, sleep deprived and injected with harmful drugs at a mental hospital.
In July 2003, policemen Hu Junjian, He Zhongrong, Jiang Baosheng, Gao Xiaobo from the Mian County 610 Office and police from the Domestic Security Group cooperated with clerk Wu Zongyin and office chairman Zhang Bin to arrest Ms. Wei Xinrong at work. She was sentenced to two years of labor camp and sent to Xi'an Women's Forced Labor Camp the same night.
Following orders from the 610 Office, the labor camp locked Ms. Wei Xinrong in the “small cell” and ordered criminal inmates Liu Ya, Li Hua, Zhu Hongmei etc. to torture Ms. Wei. Group leader Wang Li was eager to get promoted and was very cruel toward Ms. Wei. Ms. Wei was ordered to squat for long periods of time. If Ms. Wei's posture was not perfect, the criminal inmates would come to curse and hit her.
Group leader Wang Li ordered a young group leader named Zhang to put poison in Ms. Wei's food. Ms. Wei discovered it. Since then, Ms. Wei would only eat the buns and rice and did not eat anything else. This angered the prison guards. They then ordered the inmates to force soup down Ms. Wei's throat. The inmates yanked Ms. Wei's hair and forced down the soup. Some of her hair was pulled out in the process. If they could not get the soup in Ms. Wei's mouth, they would pour the soup down Ms. Wei's shirt, covering her with soup and making a mess on the floor. The inmates would then use Ms. Wei's clothes to mop the floor and throw the clothes away afterwards. Winter is very cold in that area and being covered with liquid would make Ms. Wei unbearably cold.
On February 12, 2004, the labor camp moved all Falun Gong practitioners who refused to be “transformed” to the second floor in the South Building for further torture and brainwashing. At that time, the labor camp came up with new guidelines. Everyone in the labor camp had to copy the guidelines once and memorize it. These Falun Gong practitioners refused to copy and read it. They would not report their identification number when they were called either. Prison guards were infuriated. They would curse and hit these practitioners anytime they wished. One day, prison guard Feng Jing shouted: “From now on, (you are) not allowed to drink the labor camp's water, not allowed to sleep on the labor camp's beds, not allowed to use the labor camp's restrooms, and not allowed to eat. We'll see if you are so capable of surviving on your own.” That night, the drug addict inmates were ordered to throw Falun Gong practitioners' bedding into the hallway, mattresses were taken away as well. The practitioners were to forced to stand facing the wall day and night. Ten days later, none of the practitioners had given in. Prison guards locked Ms. Wei in solitary confinement for a month.
At the end of March 2004, the labor camp notified Ms. Wei's husband to visit her under the condition that he had to cooperate with the labor camp to “transform” her. Ms. Wei's husband was shocked when he saw her, as he could no longer recognize her. Ms. Wei was extremely thin and pale, her sweater was stiff and sticky, her coat was hard as cardboard, and she was very dirty. After talking to her, he found out all her clothes and bedding were used to mop the floor and were thrown away. He was unable to control his emotion and broke down crying. He immediately bought her undergarments, winter clothes and shoes. He also bought Ms. Wei a lot of food and fruit, which was distributed among the criminal inmates by prison guard Feng. The labor camp saw that Ms. Wei's husband did not try to get her to “transform” and thus did not allow anymore visitations. Many times Party secretary Zhao Xiaoyang openly announced threats at meetings, saying, “If Wei Xinrong is not transformed, her husband will be terminated from his employment, and their apartment taken away.”
In March 2004, Ms. Wei Xinrong and several other unyielding Falun Gong practitioners were moved to the single cells on the second floor in South Building for intensified “transformation.” Prison guard Feng Jing is extremely vicious. Whenever Feng Jing is on duty, she intentionally says insulting and slanderous words toward Falun Gong practitioners. After the Chinese new year, the labor camp published the new “Rules and Regulations of Labor Camp.” The labor camp authorities exacerbated the persecution since these practitioners refused to copy it. Officer Feng Jing forbid Falun Gong practitioners to leave their cells, speak, go to the bathroom or sleep. Practitioners were to stand facing the wall at night. Ms. Wei never slept on a bed from July 2004 to March 2005.
Since Ms. Wei was not “transformed,” she was handcuffed and locked in solitary confinement. Two prison guards and group leader Zhang took Ms. Wei Xinrong to Wugong County Psychiatric Hospital for injections. The physician at the hospital said to Ms. Wei: “Don't blame me--they told me to give you injections!”
Ms. Wei became unconscious after she was taken back to the labor camp. Prison guards left her on a wooden plank on the small cell floor. Ms. Wei was motionless for several days. The labor camp director was afraid that Ms. Wei might die and kept checking on her, but shamelessly remarked, “[She's] not doing any work and playing dead here!”
Since that time, Ms. Wei stopped having menses. Her stomach swelled up and she could not eat. On May 13, 2005, the nine Falun Gong practitioners locked up in South Building shouted twice together in the morning “Falun Dafa is good,” “We wish Master a happy birthday,” etc. They were later verbally insulted and forced to wear straitjackets. In the middle of June, Ms. Wei and other Falun Gong practitioners went on a hunger strike together to protest the persecution. At 9 o'clock in the morning on the 25th day of their hunger strike, there was a sudden loud sound. A section of the wall around the labor camp had collapsed. The guards were in such a panic that they separated those practitioners a few days later and sent them to different groups.
Ms. Wei's stomach swelled so much that she was unable to squat. Group instructor Li Zhen accused Mr. Wei of pretending to be sick to avoid doing work. Ms. Wei said that her stomach is so swollen that she could not bend her back. Li Zhen felt around Ms. Wei's stomach, did not say anything and left. Li Zhen later took Ms. Wei for a physical exam at the prison hospital. 600 ml of fluid was drawn from Ms. Wei's chest. Her diagnosis was tuberculosis. The doctor said: “If you don't let her go home, you will need to prepare for her funeral.” It was then that the labor camp notified Ms. Wei family that she would be released on medical parole. At the end of July 2005, Ms. Wei went home. Ms. Wei was only skin and bones. Her family and friends broke down in tears when they saw her.
After Ms. Wei went home, since she was very frail, she could not walk or take care of herself. Her husband would carry her to the courtyard outside of their apartment for some sunlight. Under the care of her family, Ms. Wei's condition improved. Ms. Wei requested permission to go back to work, and the bureau chief accepted her request. However, the Party secretary Wu Zongyin there at the time shouted in the office: “Her labor camp sentence is not finished yet! You cannot pay her salary or allow her to go back to work!” He also arranged three people to monitor and follow Ms. Wei around until the Mian County Grain Bureau was dissolved. Ms. Wei was sent to work at the Wenquan Town Forest Station in Mian County.
In the winter of 2011, Ms. Wei started to have symptoms of tuberculosis again. Due to the barbaric method of force-feeding at the labor camp, her esophagus and throat were permanently damaged. She had difficulty swallowing and eating. Food and water would go into her nose and windpipe when she ate. Her condition worsened in November 2012 and she took a sick leave from work. Ms. Wei was extremely weak by the end of November. She went into a coma and was taken to the hospital for emergency care. The doctors found that her lungs had failed. She passed away on the morning of December 1, 2012.
