Name: Hu Miaomiao (胡苗苗)
Gender: Female
Age: 25
Address: Chaigoubao Town, Huai'an County, Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province
Occupation: Kindergarten teacher
Date of Most Recent Arrest: June 15, 2010
Most Recent Place of Detention: Hebei Province Women's Forced Labor Camp (河北省女子劳教所)
City: Shijiazhuang
Province: Hebei
Persecution Suffered: Detention, home ransacking, interrogation, illegal sentencing, imprisonment, forced labor, solitary confinement, long-term standing, beatings, torture, sexual abuse, denied family visitations
(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Hu Miaomiao, a 25-year-old Falun Gong practitioner from Chaigoubao Town, Huai’an County, Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province, was arrested on June 15, 2010 for clarifying the facts. Without following any legal procedures or informing her family, the local police sentenced her to one year of forced labor and transferred her to Hebei Province Women's Forced Labor Camp in Shijiazhuang City on June 26, 2010.
Labor camp guards urged inmates to abuse Ms. Hu during her yearlong incarceration, with extremely base methods, including sodomizing her with broom handles and their fingers. Such sexual assault caused this unmarried kindergarten teacher tremendous physical and psychological trauma.
Ms. Hu has already finished her term, but camp deputy head Feng Kezhuang, in charge of persecuting Falun Gong practitioners, refuses to release her and is threatening to extend her detention.
Ms. Hu Miaomiao
Ms. Hu was Brutally Beaten and Her Hair Cut Short on Her First Day at the Labor Camp
Hebei Province Women's Forced Labor Camp
As soon as Ms. Hu arrived, a group of inmates dragged her to a storage room where they tightly handcuffed her to a metal bed. They then grabbed her long hair, which she had been wearing in this style for many years, and cut it in an extremely ugly way. They taped her mouth shut to prevent her from making any sound. She struggled hard, and they slapped her repeatedly in the face and mouth. When the inmates' hands hurt from the beatings, they used slippers to hit Ms. Hu with. In no time her face became deformed. Her mouth was so swollen that even the tape around it broke.
Torture re-enactment: Brutal beatings
Ms. Hu’s experience was one manifestation of an unwritten rule in the labor camp - all newcomers were made to go through around ten days of forced “transformation” session. They were kept in solitary confinement where the guards led a group of cruel inmates to inflict physical and psychological harm on them. The purpose was to make Falun Gong practitioners mentally collapse and eventually betray their belief.
Team Head Wang Weiwei and Inmate Zong Dongrong
Team One head Wang Weiwei and a guard named Hou Junmei orchestrated the abuse of Ms. Hu. They handpicked a group of inmates including drug addicts, thieves and prostitutes to aid and abet their plan. Wang Weiwei (guard badge number 1356059) previously worked under former head Liu Ziwei, whose torture left many practitioners injured, paralyzed, and mentally disoriented. After Liu went on a personal leave, deputy camp head Feng Kezhuang promoted Wang to team head.
Wang chose Zong Dongrong, a 21-year-old woman with a very strong build, to do the job. Mentally retarded, Zong had a violent nature and a troubled past. She was once charged for theft and detained for three years. After her release she resumed stealing and also began prostitution. Once again she was arrested and sent to the labor camp. Wang deemed this inmate a treasure and trained her to be an obedient henchman.
Whoever Wang Weiwei intended to persecute, she instigated Zong Dongrong to report that person to the camp management. Zong, who knew only a few Chinese characters, was once spotted transcribing a slip Wang gave to her. The witness noticed that on the slip was a fabricated message about how Ms. Hu refused to obey management, and other groundless fabrications. The camp management could then punish Ms. Hu according to Zong’s report.
Ms. Hu Severely Maltreated
Before their attack, Wang Weiwei and her accomplices carefully studied Ms. Hu’s personality. They noticed she was a kindhearted young woman who loved to look pretty and cared very much about her personal hygiene. A plan to make Ms. Hu suffer was soon developed. After subjecting her to cursing, beating, and deprivation of restroom use for the first day, they brought Zong Dongrong to share the narrow dark storage room with her. Zong started to intentionally display her ugly, dirty, unsightly side. She excreted inside the storage room, picked it with her hands and threw it all over the place, in order to nauseate Ms. Hu, who loves beautiful things and a clean environment. Zong made the whole place filthy. Zong mistreated Ms. Hu day and night, putting on a dirty look of terror, screaming, crying, and whining. Zong continued her demonic behavior non-stop for over ten days in this completely sealed off small dark room. While suffering from wounds on her face and body, Ms. Hu had to endure such a filthy environment she had never experienced before while the demon-like Zong tried her best to torture her. Poor Ms. Hu was forced to yield to the guards that she would not practice Falun Gong exercises in the labor camp.
Even when the guards later moved Ms. Hu to live with other inmates, they still surrounded her with drug addicts, prostitutes, and thieves, including Zong Dongrong.
On August 28, 2010, Ms. Hu showed dissatisfaction with the hard labor she was forced to do and guard Hou Junmei immediately sent her to a confinement cell, where drug addicts Cheng Qiaoyun and Li Lingling were called in to monitor her. Not long after, Hou brought in Zong Dongrong and handcuffed her together with Ms. Hu. They were cuffed together at all times, even during meals and using the bathroom. In those days when they were together, many people heard Ms. Hu's piercing screams when she was being abused. During that period, Zong attacked Ms. Hu in her genital area repeatedly with her knees, and also used broom handles and fingers to assault Ms. Hu's genital area. Ms. Hu bled profusely and she couldn’t stand up straight or walk. The injuries made it very likely that she couldn’t bear any child in the future.
Inmate Cao Caiping Defends Ms. Hu and Was Shocked with Electric Batons
Ms. Hu had great difficulty moving around and using the restroom after the ordeal. She had to use a plastic step stool to inch ahead. The inmates monitoring her became impatient and later took away the stool. She had no way but to hold on to the wall for support. It was also a struggle when she needed to use the toilet. She couldn’t open her legs, nor could she squat. She cried from the pain, but inmate Li Lingling insulted her saying, “Don’t pretend to be in pain. Who has never delivered babies before?”
Two months passed, but Ms. Hu's condition hadn't improved. When she requested a medical examination at an outside hospital, the labor camp feared exposure of their crimes and ordered the camp doctor Ma Suogong to check on her instead. The doctor flew into a rage when Ms. Hu refused to take the unknown pills. The inmates on duty also said, “You deserve it, trash!”
The guards didn’t want other people to see Ms. Hu’s condition so they began to limit the number of her toilet breaks. They allowed her to use the restroom only twice a day- at noon and in the evening when everyone else was sleeping. While she held onto the wall and moved slowly toward the restroom, the inmates on duty made sure all cell doors were shut so no one knew her situation.
Wang Weiwei, Hou Junmei, Zong Dongrong, Li Lingling, Cheng Qiaoyun and Wu Yanchun are Personally Responsible for the Harm to Ms. Hu.
When deputy camp head Feng Kezhuang came to inspect Team One, all he did was a verbal warning to Zong Dongrong, “Look what you’ve done to Hu Miaomiao! I still have to deal with you yet!” That was as far as he was willing to go in terms of punishing the evildoers. In order to block their crimes from being exposed, the camp authorities would not allow Ms. Hu to have contact with anyone. They kept her in solitary confinement and deprived her of the right to receive family visits.
On December 12, 2010 all of the detainees were forced to watch CCTV news. Inmate Cheng Qiaoyun suddenly pulled out the bench where Ms. Hu was sitting, making her fall to the ground. Ms. Cao Caiping kindly helped Ms. Hu get up.
After they returned to the cell, Ms. Cao Caiping said to Cheng Qiaoyun, “You were so cruel to Miaomiao. She is still a young girl. Moreover, she is already injured.” Cheng Qiaoyun shouted at Ms. Cao Caiping for trying to help Ms. Hu. When guard Zhao Subo heard about the quarrel she took several detainees, including Yan Xiuying, Wang Hongyan, and Li Lingling, to the cell. They handcuffed Ms. Cao Caiping, and brutally beat and shocked her with electric batons until she lost consciousness.
Ms. Hu’s Father Finally Got to See Her but was Arrested after Hiring a Lawyer to Defend Her
Ms. Hu’s family was extremely worried after she went missing and had looked everywhere for her. After learning of her detention at the labor camp, her father Mr. Hu Mingliang and her young brother took a ten-hour train ride to the camp, only to be turned down at the gate. Since June 2010 the father and son had come on every visitation day, but Wang Weiwei always found different excuses for them not to see Ms. Hu. Since she suffered severe injuries due to sexual abuses, the camp did everything possible to cover up the crimes and prevent outsiders from seeing her.
After some insiders publicized Ms. Hu’s plight on the Minghui website (Chinese version of Clearwisdom.net), numerous kindhearted people with a sense of justice outside of China demanded that the labor camp treat her injuries, and at the same time prosecute Zong Dongrong, Wang Weiwei, Hou Junmei, and Feng Kezhuang. The father, Mr. Hu Mingliang, went to the camp again and requested to see his daughter. Camp officials eventually gave in to the mounting pressure.
In order to prevent her father from finding out the severity of her injuries, the guards ordered Ms. Hu not to speak about the abuse, threatening that otherwise she would not be allowed to meet with her father. At the same time they directed the inmates to train her to walk by herself every day. The inmates removed the plastic step stool she relied on to move herself around, and forced her to practice walking without support. In order to see her father, she endured excruciating pain and held onto the wall to learn how to walk while the inmates followed her everywhere, but never lent a helping hand.
On November 11, 2011, Mr. Hu Mingliang finally got to see his daughter through a glass window for the first time in more than six months. He was heartbroken to see his once healthy and outgoing daughter reduced to an emaciated girl with a yellow complexion and in need of other people’s support to walk around. Despite the guards’ warnings, Ms. Hu was determined to let her father know about what had happened to her. She told him that even after three months her wounds still had not healed, her genital area kept bleeding and she still could not stand straight to walk. She said, “Dad, you must seek justice for me and hire a lawyer to voice my grievance, even if you have to use up all the savings!”
Determined to help his daughter, Mr. Hu Mingliang hired a lawyer and filed a lawsuit against the labor camp. The camp authorities did all they could to block the lawsuit. Each time the lawyer requested to see his client he was turned down. After seeing no results from the first lawsuit, Mr. Hu filed a second lawsuit in Beijing with the Justice Ministry, Public Security Ministry, People's Congress, Central Government Appeal's Office, and the Highest Procuratorate.
When Mr. Hu Mingliang and the lawyer went to the labor camp again on January 17, 2011, five guards pushed them out threatening, “Don’t come again, or both you and your daughter will not have good outcomes!”
The police in Mr. Hu’s hometown also joined forces with the labor camp to intimidate him. When he returned home he found police at his door threatening to take him away. He was not deterred however, and kept demanding to visit his daughter. Camp officials eventually agreed. When he went to the camp at around 4:00 p.m. on February 24, 2011, however, he was met by the Huai’an County police, who dragged him into one of their vehicles and drove him to the Huaian County Police Department, where he was interrogated that evening. The next day the police transferred him to the Lijiayao Village office of Chaigoubao Town where they locked him up, blocked his cell phone, and appointed six people to monitor him around the clock.
Mr. Hu Mingliang Pressured to Withdraw His Lawsuits
Huai’an County 610 Office head Qian Jinli came to Lijiayao Village on March 19 and demanded that Mr. Hu no longer use a lawyer to defend his daughter. Qian promised that the government would take good care of him and his son.
Three days later, Chaigoubao Town 610 Office head Li Zhanshan (who is also Wujinpai Village treasurer) and Chaigoubao Town Judicial Bureau clerk Li Qiang took Mr. Hu to see his daughter. They had talked to camp officials beforehand, hoping to threaten father and daughter to drop their case against the labor camp during this visit.
When Ms. Hu tried to tell her father more details of the beatings and sexual abuses she suffered, the guards immediately stopped her. Deputy head Feng Kezhuang, team head Wang Weiwei, guard Hou Junmei, and camp doctor Ma Suogong all charged at her father, “You even dare to sue the government? Now your daughter is in excellent health. The camp doctor has X-rayed her, and she is perfectly fine. We will sue you instead! All these years we have never met anyone like you who sues the camp employees! Don’t mess with us anymore. We’ll release her on time, and we will not extend her term.”
Li Zhanshan called Mr. Hu Mingliang on March 28, saying the labor camp promised to release his daughter on time if he agreed to drop the lawsuit.
In the meantime, the Chongqing City lawyer whom Mr. Hu had hired also received instruction from his law firm, demanding that he immediately stop representing Hu Miaomiao. To force Mr. Hu to drop the case, the camp authorities even targeted the law firm.
Mr. Hu feels hopeless and helpless. As a father he is saddened that he can't help his daughter, who is suffering at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party agents. But he is also determined not to give up. He vows to do whatever he can to get his daughter out so she can receive medical treatment. He said, “We can’t remain silent when faced with evil.”
