Summary of Key Persecution Facts:
Name: Cui Hai (崔海)
Gender: Female
Age: 65 (Born in 1949)
Address: Qianshuiwan, Xianggang Road, Hankou District, Wuhan City, Hubei Province
Occupation: Former official at Wuhan City Chemicals Import and Export Company
Date of Most Recent Arrest: October 18, 2012
Most Recent Place of Detention: Ankang Hospital of Wuhan City Police Department (武汉市公安局安康医院)
City: Wuhan
Province: Hubei
Persecution Suffered: Brainwashing, interrogation, force-feeding, forced injections, brutal beatings, doused with cold water, sleep deprivation, forced to inhale cigarette smoke, mental torture, drug administration
Ms. Cui Hai, a Falun Gong practitioner currently detained at the Ankang Hospital of Wuhan City Police Department, has been having difficulties eating for the past three months, as a result of force-feeding and poisoning suffered at various brainwashing centers in Wuhan.
Ms. Cui hired an attorney to sue the persecutors for the abuse that she suffered, but the authorities has not given a legal response. Her family members have requested her release many times, but to no avail.
Ms. Cui was a manager at the Wuhan City Chemicals Import and Export Company. Because of her good work, she was promoted to general manager in the field.
In October 2012, Cui Hai was followed and arrested by the Domestic Security Division at Wuhan City Police Department. Over the past year or so, she has been detained at multiple locations including brainwashing centers, detention centers and Ankang Hospital, where she suffered brutal torture.
During her detention at the notorious Hubei Province Brainwashing Center (disguised as a “legal education center”) for over two months, she suffered from brutal force-feeding, drug poisoning, brutal beating, being doused with cold water in the winter, sleep deprivation, being forced to inhale cigar smoke and other forms of torture.
The Wuhan City 610 Office had the Domestic Security Division at Wuhan City Police Department fabricate charges, and ordered the Jianghan District Procuratorate and court to charge Cui Hai and sentence her.
Ms. Cui Hai
Below is Cui Hai's personal account regarding the brutal torture that she suffered at the brainwashing center.
Erdaopeng Brainwashing Center
On October 16, 2012, I took a long-distance bus from Guangzhou to Kunming. At noon on the third day, just before arriving in Kunming, I was arrested in Shilin by two male and one female police officers from Wuhan City. In the afternoon they put me on a plane back to Wuhan, where I was detained at the Erdaopeng Brainwashing Center (publicly called a legal education center) in Jianghan District.
The Domestic Security Division team leader Cai Heng and six other policemen were waiting at the brainwashing center. That night, Cai Heng and other police took turns interrogating me until after 3:00 the next morning.
The brainwashing center director Qu Shen later put me in a 10 square meter room. The bed I slept on had a broken frame, so it was supported by a few chairs. My face was very close to a toilet. It was over 20 degrees Celsius, yet they covered me with a very heavy and smelly quilt. Two directors from the Wansong Community stayed in the room.
Outside the room, two CCP officials from the brainwashing center and two police from the domestic security division kept guard and watched me. They made a lot of noise in the hallway so that I could not sleep.
The next day, Domestic Security Division team leader Wang Yan (female) came over. She told me that she was in charge of this case and asked me to cooperate with her. I said I wouldn't because she came to persecute me.
She threatened me, “We have already acquired a lot of evidence from your mailbox. Your case is a major one. This brainwashing center will be full of Falun Gong practitioners implicated by you. We will sentence you heavily to prison.” After a few days' interrogation, I still did not give them anything that they wanted. Wang Yan threatened again, “It doesn't matter whether you confess or not. We will put you in a special place, where you will talk.”
Transferred to Hubei Province Brainwashing Center
For those few days, I faced huge mental pressure. I started a hunger strike to protest the mistreatment on October 23. On the same afternoon, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials sent me to the Hubei Province Legal Education Center, which was a brainwashing center for persecuting Falun Gong practitioners.
The brainwashing center doctor checked my blood pressure, which was measured at 220. The doctor refused to accept me. Police from the Domestic Security Team called the Hubei Province and Wuhan City 610 Office to negotiate for over an hour. In the end the brainwashing center accepted me.
The next day, the team leader of the brainwashing center Jiang Lili asked me to go to the second floor to “study” materials slandering Falun Gong. I refused. Then she ordered two security guards to drag me upstairs and told Liu De'an and two others to forcibly brainwash me.
1. Force-feeding
On the seventh day of my hunger strike, the police tied my hands to a chair and injected me with unknown drugs. The next day, they started to forcibly feed me food. Deng Qun, the No. 1 division deputy team leader of the Hubei Province Brainwashing Center, directed the force-feeding and asked a security guard to hold my head still.
Then a dozen police officers came to the room, including team leaders Jiang Lili and He Wei, as well as police officers Gong Jian, Deng Qun, Hu Gaowei, Yu. I called out their names one by one and exposed their crimes of persecuting Falun Gong practitioners, especially Zhang Weijie.
The police were surprised by how much I knew. I said to them, “The Hubei Province Brainwashing Center is the most evil black jail for persecuting Falun Gong practitioners in China. Your crimes have already been exposed overseas. You are all on the list of evildoers. The World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong is investigating your crimes.” Policeman Deng Qun said shamelessly, “Overseas exposure just means that we are very famous.”
Then doctor Wan Jun proceeded to direct the force-feeding. Nurse Xiaohong used a very thick rubber tube, over three feet long, to feed me food. I said that this was torture. Deng Qun said, “Do you think this is a hospital? Conducting torture is what we do here.”
The food was fed in from my nose, passed through my throat and fed into my stomach. It was very painful. I kept spitting it out. The 610 Office sent a doctor from the Shouyi Road Medical Center to measure my blood pressure.
Torture Illustration: Brutal Force-feeding
The next day, they used a more brutal way to torture me. They repeatedly inserted the rubber tube into my throat and pulled it out, until I was spitting out blood. It was extremely painful.
The police officers just watched me struggle. They laughed and seemed to enjoy seeing me suffer. The room and hallway were full of people watching. I heard from Officer Hu Gaowei later, “Even people from the funeral home were present. If you had died, you would have been sent directly to the funeral home. They would then claim that you died of a heart attack.”
2. Insults and Sleep Deprivation
Later, eight collaborators including Ding Xingqiao, Liu De'an, Yao, Ye and others from the Hubei Province Brainwashing Center took turns brainwashing me from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day. Once team leader Jiang Lili ordered me to stand up, and I refused. She stomped on my feet with her high heels. My feet and toes became and stayed swollen for several months.
The next night after 9 p.m., officers Deng Qun, Hu Gaowei, Yu and another one watched me in turn and did not allow me to sleep. They also asked me to confess to false charges that the Wuhan City Domestic Security Division accused me of.
I refused to cooperate with them. Police officer Hu Gaowei threatened me, “We have many ways to torture you and make you talk. We will torture you until you suffer a mental disorder. Do you doubt me?” I told him, “You are a thug and out of your mind.” He responded shamelessly, “Yeah, I am a thug. What can you do about it?”
3. Smothered and Forced to Inhale Smoke
A few days later, the police put me in a room full of cartoons slandering Falun Gong. When I tore up one of them, officer Hu Gaowei and two other policemen came over. Hu dragged me up from the chair and forced me to stand still. I sat on the floor to resist. Then Hu pushed me onto a table with my head extended beyond the table's edge. He lit a cigarette and placed it under my nose. I sat on the floor again. He kept trying to make me inhale the smoke. Then he poured water on the floor.
The next day, police Deng Qun was on duty. He started to scold me as soon as he saw me. Then he ordered me to stand. I did not cooperate and just sat on the floor. He kicked me and then he and officer Yu threw me to the ground. They pulled me to the corner of the wall, where they told me to stand. I refused. Deng kept kicking me, and used his coat to smother me. I could not breathe, and my face turned purple.
Deng called Nurse Xiaohong to measure my blood pressure. When Deng asked the nurse what it was, she left the room because she did not want to say it in front of me. Deng followed her out and then said when he came back, “Why it is not even higher? I want to hear the sound of your blood vessels exploding. One of your practitioners' blood pressure reached 260 and died eventually. Your people's death is no more important than a dog's.”
I could not lift my right arm for a few days due to the kicking, and my right palm and fingers became so swollen that they turned purple.
On November 26, Wuhan Domestic Security Division officer Wang Yan and another officer came to the brainwashing center. I showed my swollen hand to her, “Is this what you call 'no force is used to extract confession?' You did not do it yourself but directed others to do it.”
Wang thus threatened me for a few hours, but I did not say a single word. In the end, Wang shouted loudly, “Who do you think you are? Our 'transformation' rate is 99%. Since you want to be the 1%, I will call director Chen [of the brainwashing center]. They have ways to deal with you.” Half an hour later, she came back and told me that the brainwashing center would immediately develop a plan to “educate” me.
Two days later, Hu Gaowei suddenly broke into my room and hit me in the head. Then he pushed me to the corner and tried to strangle me, “We are developing a set of plans to torture you. We will beat you to death if you do not give in. Do you doubt me?” I said, “I believe that you will stop at no evil. But I will never give in, even if you take my life.”
4. Poisoned Food
After a while, I was feeling faint and my legs felt weak. My memory was impaired. I found that the brainwashing center had poisoned my food. I was not allowed to eat alone. Two collaborators watched me eat. Each time a female collaborator Yao sent the food to me.
Initially, I was allowed to pick which meal box I wanted. Later Yao designated which one I had to eat. Once I switched my food with Yao's. She immediately grabbed the food and threw it out.
Another time when I gave the meat to another collaborator to eat (she did not know the food was poisoned), Yao immediately grabbed the food and threw it away. Later I often did not eat the food or threw it away. Once Deng Qun came in and shouted at me loudly, “You are not allowed to give your food to others or throw it away. You must eat all the food given to you. If you don't eat the food, we will force-feed you.” I didn't listen and kept throwing the poisoned food away.
One day in mid-December, Jiang Lili told me angrily, “You make all the teachers [meaning the collaborators] furious. Even teacher Ding Xingqiao, who is the most patient one, has lost patience with you and doesn't want to come [to brainwash you] again. Starting today, you need to watch the video [slandering Falun Gong].” She asked two collaborators to watch the video with me.
As soon as they started to play the video, I went over and turned off the TV. The collaborators called out to the guards. Deng Qun and Hu Gaowei came over. Deng yelled at me, “If you turn the TV off again, we will break your hand.” Hu slapped me in the face and then turned the TV all the way up.
I covered my ears with my hands and closed my eyes, refusing to watch it, but the noise was still very loud and distracting. They played the video continuously from morning till night as a form of psychological torture.
Around Christmas time, it snowed heavily. Early one morning center team leader Jiang Lili called me to the upper floor to watch a video slandering Dafa. When I refused, she called over two security guards to drag me upstairs before I could even put on a coat. I sat on the floor and did not get up. Jiang turned on the TV to play the slanderous video. In response I shouted loudly, “Falun Dafa is good.” A young officer grabbed a dirty towel from the bathroom to cover my mouth.
Later policeman Deng Qun called Hu Gaowei to come over and pour a lot of cold water all over the floor that I was sitting on. Then he opened the windows and let the cold wind blow in, when it was below freezing outside. My pants were wet and freezing cold, but they did not stop. They kept torturing me until I was transferred to the detention center on December 31 by the Domestic Security Division of the city police department.
During my over-70-day detention at the Hubei Province Brainwashing Center, I was tortured badly. I became very thin, my jaw was badly injured, my blood pressure reached over 200, my hair turned from gray to totally white, my memory was impaired, and my entire body often trembled. The bone under my right pinky is swollen to this day and I have little control over it. It trembles whenever I try to grab anything with my hand.
Background
Ms. Cui Hai studied at the Hubei Province Drama School when she was young. She jointed the army after graduating from school. After she was demobilized, she became a cadre at Wuhan City Chemicals Import and Export Company. Because of her excellent work, she was promoted to general manager in the field.
Many years of hard work caused severe illnesses such as liver gallstones, stomach disease and gynecological diseases. She went to many places seeking medical treatment, but nothing worked. In 1996, she started practicing Falun Gong. Soon all of her illnesses disappeared. After that, she worked more diligently with a healthy body and lots of energy. She was well respected by her management and colleagues.
During the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong for the past 14 years, Ms. Cui has been frequently arrested, detained and sentenced just because she follows the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance to be a good person. She was fired from work after being illegally imprisoned for three years. Her employer also illegally withheld all her wages and benefits. She lost her financial resources and has been frequently harassed by CCP personnel.
Related articles:
Ms. Cui Hai from Wuhan Arrested for the Fifth Time, Current Whereabouts Unknown
Sixty-four-year-old Ms. Cui Hai from Wuhan City Seriously Injured While Being Interrogated and Tortured
Ms. Cui Hai Beaten and Badly Injured in Detention (Photo)
