(Minghui.org) Ms. Liu Yurong, a high school teacher in Liaoning Province, was arrested on May 27, 2008 and unlawfully sentenced to six years in prison for refusing to give up her belief in Falun Gong. Despite experiencing symptoms of high blood pressure on multiple occasions in prison, she was still subjected to brainwashing, torture, and forced labor. On January 8, 2013, she suffered a brain hemorrhage, at which point the prison finally agreed to release her on medical parole. Below is her personal account of the abuse she suffered in Jinzhou No.2 Detention Center and Liaoning Women's Prison.
Arrested Before Olympic Games
Before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Chinese Communist regime intensified its persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. In May of that year, my older sister and I were arrested at her home.
Detained in Prison Hospital After a Stroke
I was taken to Jinzhou No. 2 Detention Center the next day. The Linhai Intermediate Court sentenced me to six years in prison on July 27, 2008.
As a result of abuse in the detention center, I suffered a stroke on August 1: half of my body was numb, and my eyes and mouth became crooked. This state lasted for two weeks before I was taken to the police hospital for an exam. The detention center staff worried that the prison might refuse to accept me due to my health problems. I also overheard that the detention center staff bribed the person in charge of physical examination.
I was transferred to Liaoning Women's Prison on September 9. During the process, 500 yuan of the money deposited by my family disappeared from my account at the detention center.
Because it was lunchtime when I arrived at the prison, I was left lying on the concrete floor in a hallway. Over an hour later, several inmates dragged me to a locked stairwell entrance, where they stripped off my clothes and checked my personal belongs. Right after they took me to the prison hospital, I vomited green liquid.
Two weeks later, I was put together with psychiatric inmates in the prison hospital, including some Falun Gong practitioners who developed mental illness as a result of the persecution. Used as free labor, the psychiatric inmates were forced to assemble bags of cotton in a dirty environment. They ate, slept and worked on their beds. Having committed no crime, however, I refused to work.
Forced to Renounce My Faith
Prison guards used violence and torture to “transform” Falun Gong practitioners and force them to give up their beliefs. A room on the second floor was specially designed for this purpose. Due to my health issues, they didn't start “transforming” me until February 4, 2009, when I was taken to that room. The team was comprised of Shi Jing, a section head in the prison, and two inmates, Feng Lixia and Wei Qun.
In the previous winter, Feng and Wei had tortured a newly detained Falun Gong practitioner, Ms. Wang Chunyan. They induced hypothermia by forcing her to wear thin clothes and dousing her with cold water. In addition, Ms. Wang was beaten and deprived of sleep. She later developed a mental illness and was force-fed drugs.
Shi feigned kindness and told me that I would be studying something new starting that day. I was then forced to watch propaganda videos slandering Falun Gong and its founder, but I closed my eyes. I told Feng and Wei what Falun Gong was and about the persecution. When I was ordered to write what I had learned two weeks later, I wrote down, “Falun Gong is a good self-cultivation practice. The information from the videos was wrong and deceptive.”
I refused to write anything against Falun Gong and its founder. Feng and Wei wanted me to just copy down some words that others had written, but I refused to do that as well.
Shi, Feng and Wei then adopted the approach they used for Ms. Wang and wouldn't let me sleep for seven days. I felt dizzy and had very high blood pressure (over 200 systolic) on the eighth day, but I still refused to write anything against Falun Gong. Feng and Wei then struck me in the head and hands in an attempt to change my mind.
Feng and Wei, the inmates responsible for “transforming” me, complained the next day that they were penalized and lost points for early release because of my refusal to write the statements. Wei begged, “My daughter doesn't know I'm in prison. We lied to her and said I'm just traveling. She's waiting for me to go back and see her. Please have mercy!” Some other inmates also helped her to persuade me. In a moment of weakness and lack of sound judgment, I agreed to do what they asked.
I was devastated and cried after I realized what I had done. Three days later, I wrote a solemn statement to declare my previous statement null and void. I was determined to continue practicing Falun Gong.
Forced Labor
Unable to “transform” me, the prison later transferred me to a different section where Falun Gong practitioners were forced to work for over ten hours a day. The noisy workshop was packed with over two hundred people and filled with materials and finished clothing everywhere. The air quality was very poor.
The posted work hours were from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., but the actual work hours were from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m., sometimes stretching to as late as midnight. The inmates who worked slowly were often denied meals. To meet their quotas, some had to work on Sundays and holidays.
In the morning, each prisoner received a piece of cornmeal bun smaller than an egg. If one complained about it to family, he or she would be beaten and made to sit on a small bench and copy the prison regulations deep into the night.
The prison authorities lied to outsiders and said that the inmates needed to work only from Monday to Friday, could go to the supermarket, take showers and meet with family members during their free time. In reality, the prison focused only on the work. One was not allowed to do anything until his or her quota was met, and guards forced the inmates to lie to visiting senior officials during inspections.
I was forced to work for four and half a years as free labor until I suffered a stroke and was granted medical parole on January 8, 2013.
Telling Others About My Benefiting from Practicing Falun Gong
I had tried many qigong practices, but still had various health problems, including gastric ulcers. However, I became healthy soon after I started to practice Falun Gong in 1996. Thus, I remained steadfast in my belief and spoke out to clarify the facts about Falun Gong when the Communist regime began the persecution on July 20, 1999.
As a teacher, I felt I should let my students know more about Falun Gong and the persecution, particularly in 2004 when I noticed content slandering Falun Gong in the textbook for morality and ethics. Students were very interested when I told them facts they otherwise would not have heard in the oppressive environment. Some students would shout “Falun Dafa is good!” whenever I entered the classroom.
The deputy mayor and the school principal questioned me after I talked about Falun Gong in class for the first time. They did not want me to discuss these matters in school because the Communist regime was cracking down on Falun Gong. However, I told them that as a teacher of morality and ethics, I could not lie to my students. I also shared how I had benefited from practicing Falun Gong. Between 2004 and 2007, I told a total of over 800 students about the persecution.
Related articles:High School Teacher Ms. Liu Yurong Arrested and Put On TrialMs. Liu Yurong from Linghai City Illegally Sentenced-Now Detained in a Prison HospitalMs. Liu Yurong Given Six Year Prison Sentence, Her Mother Dies of Grief
