(Minghui.org) A report entitled "Walking Out of Masanjia" was published by the Chinese websites Xinlang, Tengxun, Souhu, and Wangyi on April 7, 2013. One paragraph described people who had been hung by handcuffs, and their degree of suffering.

"Walking into an empty room, Zhang took out a pair of handcuffs that she had already prepared. She handcuffed my right hand to the top rail of an iron bed, and my left hand to the bottom rail of another bed. She then kicked the second bed away very hard with her feet, which stretched my body between the two beds. My hands were stretched to the point of intense pain. I felt like my bones were coming apart. I was left in this stretched position for more than six hours, from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., until I lost consciousness. When I woke up, my head hurt terribly, I felt numb, and there was taste of medication in my mouth."

Torture illustration: Stretching torture

The article exposed the crimes committed at Masanjia Women's Forced Labor Camp, and quickly roused the attention of people in China. They were appalled by the many cruel torture methods listed in the article. But the article never divulged who was being tortured.

We must make it clear that it was Falun Gong practitioners who were being tortured, and provided the first-hand accounts. The tortures were used in attempts to make the practitioners give up their beliefs in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

These torture methods have not only been used in Masanjia Women's Forced Labor Camp for 14 years, but in almost all the forced labor camps in China, as well as in detention centers, prisons, drug rehabilitation centers, and brainwashing centers where practitioners are illegally held. This kind of torture happens all the time. To expose these Chinese Communist Party (CCP) crimes, we will focus on the torture of being hung by handcuffs in the stretching torture.

The Stretching Torture at the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp in Liaoning Province

The above-mentioned torture was called "being hung up," and is also known as "diagonal hanging." This diagonal hanging causes the inmate to suffer pain from the arms being torn apart, and being in a position where one can't stand, nor squat down, which is extremely painful. Ms. Wang Chunying, who is 60 years old, was in charge of the nurses in Dalian City Central Hospital. She was twice placed in a forced labor camp, and spent over five years at the Masanjia Women's Forced Labor Camp. She says:

"In December 2007, because I refused to sign a form for prisoners, Zhang Chunguang, the leader of the No. 1 Team, along with political instructor Li Mingyu, officer Zhai Yanhui, and four others, handcuffed me between two iron bunk beds. My right hand was handcuffed to the upper bed, and my left hand was handcuffed to the lower bunk of another bed. I could neither stand nor squat down. My hands were handcuffed very tightly. Even though it was very cold in winter in Shenyang City, around 17 to 18 degrees below 0 Celsius (approximately 0 F), I was in so much pain that I was sweating profusely. My hands soon became swollen and purple.

Guards then began kicking one side of the bed until they were tired. My body was bundled very tightly, but I felt that my entire body was being pulled apart. Every two to three hours, the guards shook my hands to increase the pain. It was like putting salt on an open wound. They tried to force me to sign a guarantee statement, but I refused, so the torture continued. They didn't allow me to eat, drink, or use the restroom. I was stretched like this for 16 hours. My skin was broken in about a dozen places, including my wrists and the backs of my hands, which were covered in dried blood.

The stretching torture is also used with a single iron bed. Ms. Lin Yuxuan was subjected to this kind of torture when she was held at the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp. On the afternoon of August 3, 2010, guards Wang Yanping and You Ran had Ms. Lin stand in front of an iron bed in a warehouse, east of the office area. They tied one of her hands to one end of the upper bunk, and the other hand to the leg of the lower bunk. Her feet were tied with a rope, and her body was stretched in a triangular way, which caused intense pain. The torture session continued for five to six hours.

This kind of stretching is one of many torture methods involving practitioners being hung by handcuffs. Ms. Wang was subjected to another similar torture.

Torture at Masanjia: Being hung by handcuffs

"In October, 2008, because I refused to sign an evaluation form, Yang Jian, the person in charge of Masanjia Forced Labor Camp, team leader Wang Yanping, former-team leaders Zhang Chunguang and Li Mingyun, along with guards Peng Tao and Zhang Liang from the Discipline Division, tortured me continuously for 23 hours. Peng and Zhang handcuffed my hands tightly, then wrapped a strip of cloth around my wrist and tightened it. They tied me to one end of the bed. They stood at the other end, one on each side, and pulled very hard, stretching my entire body.

"My hands were handcuffed to the rail of the upper bunk of an iron bed, which put my entire weight of 160 pounds on my wrists. They tightly bound my ankles and feet with a wide cloth strap, which made it hard to move. My whole body felt like it was splitting apart, and I was sweating so hard that my clothing became soaked with sweat. I almost passed out. Soon my hands and wrists turned dark purple. This cruel torture was much worse than the prior one. There are no words to describe the pain."

In order to escalate the persecution, the nurse from the clinic also forced Ms. Wang to take medication for heart disease. Because she was shouting "Falun Dafa is wonderful, Falun Dafa is righteous Fa," her mouth was covered with tape. Even so, the guards periodically shook the handcuffs that cut into her wrists, as her skin peeled away. She was handcuffed for 23 hours in total. During that time she was deprived of food, water, and use of the restroom.

After the handcuffs were removed, she lost consciousness. When she went to the restroom, she couldn't remove her pants. The skin on her wrists and hands was broken, and there were many blisters of various sizes. The muscles in her upper body had atrophied like that of a child, the muscles around her Hegu acupuncture point in both hands had also atrophied, and the bottoms of her fingers had become thin.

The degree of suffering from this torture exceeds the imagination.

When Ms. Song Guangdi, a retired kindergarden teacher from Donggang City, Dandong City, Liaoning Province, was subjected to this cruel torture in 2012, the guard tied her ankles to the horizontal rail of the lower bunk on an iron bed. He also stuck a stick in between her ankles, to tighten the rope around her ankles. Suffering tremendous pain, she soiled her pants.

Another stretching torture was also used. Team leader Shi Yu took Ms. Xu Hui, a retired employee from the former Jinzhou City Jiutai Medical Limited Company, to a warehouse in November 2007. Shi and others handcuffed Ms. Xu and then hung her by the handcuffs from an iron bed. Her feet were tied together. Shi then tied another rope to the rope which bound her feet, and held one end in her hand. When she pulled the rope, Mr. Xu's body went up, then came back down.

After pulling her up and down a few times, she pushed Ms. Xu's body down very hard. After four days and nights of this torture, Ms. Xu was emaciated. The handcuffs had cut so deeply into her flesh, that it was hard to look at. It took nearly two months for the wounds to heal, and she still had no feeling in her arms and hands, as her nerves and muscles were seriously injured. Neither hand could turn inward.

Ms. Liu Xia, a senior teacher from the research department of Zhongshan District Teacher's Training School in Dalian City, told of another stretching torture that she was subjected to, called "stretching one's main tendon."

"Zhang Jun and Zhang Zhuohui called me into their office on May 2, 2009, and beat and kicked me. They held me down to the ground, and handcuffed me from behind. They wrapped my mouth and head with toxic industrial tape. My feet were wrapped as well. They called a male guard over.

"They then handcuffed me in a small warehouse for three days and two nights. With team leader Zhang Huan, the three of them used the 'stretching one's main tendon' torture on me. They handcuffed each of my hands to steel, 90-degree frames. The 'stretching one's main tendon,' torture consisted of pulling both handcuffs outward. When it reached the extreme, they tied the hands tightly with a rope. As a result, the handcuffs were tightly fastened onto the wrists with the arms being wide open."

At the Masanjia Women's Forced Labor Camp, guards not only stretched practitioners' arms, but also stretched their legs. Nine guards at the labor camp tried to forcibly "transform" practitioner Ms. Li Jinqiu, 59, on November 26, 2009. Since she refused, they held her down to the ground, used a rope to tie one foot to a heating fixture, and a few of them began stretching her other leg. When guards decided that it wasn't good enough, they let her down temporarily. A few of them began to pull her legs outwards at the same time.

A few guards later held her down, and with a torture implement, they split her legs as far as possible. A few guards then stepped on her legs with their heavy shoes. A few of them held down her head and arms, so that she could not move at all. They said that this was "up to their standards." After Ms. Li lost consciousness from the pain, team leader Zhang Jun said, "Don't stretch her again. Look, she already fell asleep!"

Torture illustration: Forcibly splitting one's legs

Another special stretching torture used at the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp is stretching open the arms then handcuffing them. One leg is also handcuffed, so that the person cannot stand still. The more one moves one's body, the tighter the handcuffs become. The leg can become paralyzed within one day of this torture.

Ms. Shao Jingrong, a farmer from Lanqi Township, Fengcheng City, Liaoning Province, was subjected to this stretching torture. One time, a guard tied up Ms. Shao's legs, folded them up to press down against her neck, and covered her with a blanket. Then each guard pulled one of her legs up, and bent them into a crossed position. When her feet were stretched past her head, they began kicking her hip.

Ms. Niu Jinping, a Beijing Falun Gong practitioner, exposed the persecution to which his wife Ms. Zhang Lianying was subjected, to the International community on May 21, 2006, through European Parliament Vice President Mr. Edward McMillan-Scott, who came to investigate the persecution of Falun Gong. This upset the CCP. In 2008, his wife Ms. Zhang was arrested again, and held at Masanjia Women's Forced Labor Camp.

Ms. Zhang later described the torture she was subjected to.

"Because I persisted in my belief in Falun Gong, and did not succumb to 'transformation,' I was subjected to more than twenty stretching tortures. The stretching and hanging by handcuffs didn't stop until a few days later. My clothes were soaked, and my hair fell out from enduring the long-term pain.

"Sometimes my clothes were shredded, and I was hung naked. The team leader of the 'Special Monitoring Team' pulled my nipples, and she beat me with a board until I passed out. Pan was video taping me one time and said, "I am taping you naked. I'll send it over to the Minghui website, so everyone can see it."

Guards set up a special monitoring team area where there was a double-layered, concealed room. After being tortured for a while, one has difficulty breathing. On two occasions, the torture wasn't stopped until I lost consciousness. I was tortured many times. I couldn't raise my body by bending at the waist, and my fingers were crooked for a long time, which made simple things like washing my face, eating meals, and buttoning up my clothes a challenge.”

(to be continued)