(Clearwisdom.net)

In early November, 2002, the Women's Drug-Rehabilitation Center in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province changed from its long-standing strategy of attempting to brainwash Falun Gong practitioners imprisoned there, to physical persecution--torture--for the determined ones. The following are the forms of physical persecution that are used most often:

1. Sleep Deprivation: Practitioners were handcuffed to metal bars in a squatting posture for long periods of time. This was often used for practitioners who refused to give up their beliefs, didn't follow orders, or who wrote solemn declarations to resist the brainwashing. This punishment often lasted for hours. Some practitioners were kept like this for ten days. The police there often persecuted a practitioner this way repeatedly. Here is a list of practitioners who were tortured in this manner, their age, and the duration of their torture by this method:

Wang Guixiang (over 50, the second term in a labor camp), more than 10 days; Din Hongjuan (over 30), more than 10 days; Liu Shengkun (over 30), more than 10 days; Gao Shuyan (over 30) 9 days; Gao Xiurong, first bound on metal chair for 8 days and then handcuffed for several days; Yang Ruiqin (over 50), forced to squat from 6 am to 12 pm every day till 2003 (she held a hunger-strike for over 20 days; her current situation is unknown). The other practitioners who were handcuffed for hours and days are Li Hongxia (over 30), Lu Shouhe (over 30), Zhang Guixiang (over 40, she was handcuffed from 6 am to 12 am), Piao Yingjie (age 40), Sun Xiumin (over 50 years old), Hao Xiuzhi (also over 50), Tian Yulan, Wang Jianhui (over 30), He Lixia (over 30), Ma Xiuqin (age 40), Ma Shufan (over 30), Yu Liqun (over 30), Wei Jun (over 30), Sun Yanchun (over 30), Leng Xiuxia (over 30), Liu Linghua (51), Tang Zengye, Wang Lei, An Fenghua, Liu Qingping (over 50), Shi Shuhua (48), Guang Fengxia, Lu Lijuan and another practitioner.

2. Exposure to Cold: The practitioners were stripped of coats during the forced squatting. They were only allowed to wear a sweater, and some were only wearing slippers on their feet. They were put in a cold, dank basement with the windows wide open to the frigid winter air.
3. Humiliation by Cutting off Their Hair: At 7 pm, Nov. 3rd, the vice director Li Quanming ordered the imprisoned criminals Ma Yufang and Zhang Shuling, who willingly helped the persecution in order to get reductions in their sentences, to cut the practitioners' hair, making it as ugly as possible. The 40 practitioners who were forced to squat in the basement all had their hair cut off by these thugs.
4. Forced Squatting: If the practitioners who were forced to squat for long periods lowered their heads due to drowsiness or stretched their limbs, or sat down on the ground, these thugs would beat them immediately. Guards would pinch the muscles under the practitioners' arms, and often balanced a small bench on their heads. If the bench fell, they would beat, kick and pour cold water into the practitioners' clothing. Ding Hongjuan was beaten very badly. Even the thugs Ma Yufang and Zhang Shuling said: "We found no new places left to hit."
5. Deprivation of use of toilet facilities.
6. Starvation: Each day, guards provided only two meals, always insufficient in quantity. Usually, practitioners were given only half a bun and a little soup. They dared not eat or drink much because of the restriction on using the toilet. Yang Ruiqing, Zhang Guixiang and Li Hongxia ate only two meals a day for a very long period. Because she refused to greet the warden, Li Hongxia was handcuffed to a metal chair with her hands stretched out for seven days.
7. Sealing the Mouth and Covering the Eyes: On Nov. 3rd, some police officers, assisted by convicts, stuffed a rag into a practitioner's mouth and then sealed her mouth with plastic tape. On Dec. 6th they blindfolded Ding Hongjuan, Wang Guixiang, Hao Xiuzhi and Sun Xiuming, and confined them in a small cell on the second floor. The guards opened the cell's windows, letting in the winter cold. They also sealed practitioners' mouths except at mealtime. After the meal, they would have practitioners' mouths sealed again.
8. Electrical Shocking after Drenching with Water: Because Wang Guixiang refused to write a repentance statement, guards dragged her upstairs, stripped off her sweater and poured water on her naked body. Then the thugs shocked her with electric batons all over her body, especially around her heart. She refused to yield after much abuse, so she was put back in her cell. She was unable to eat for two days afterwards. She had been in good health, but now always feels discomfort in the region of her heart and cannot walk steadily.
9. Forcing Practitioners to Curse Teacher: When some practitioner began to show signs of weakening under the severe persecution, the wardens forced them to swear at Teacher and write repentance statements. They intended to weaken the practitioners' wills by doing this.
10. Employing Collaborators: Collaborators (former Dafa practitioners who have turned against Dafa under pressure and torture) inflicted more pain to the practitioners when they were under torture. Meanwhile, the determined practitioners had their sentences prolonged. For example, Wang Guixiang's term was prolonged for a month, Sun Xiuming's for a month, Ma Xiuqin's for two months. To prevent practitioners from sending forth righteous thoughts according to the worldwide schedule, the prison authorities confiscated their watches in the spring of 2003. After October 2002, even closing one's eyes was forbidden.