(Minghui.org) Several decades ago, the torture and killing carried out by the Nazis were broadly recognized, leading to the establishment of the U.N. Convention Against Torture and other international efforts against torture. Unfortunately, the urgency to prevent such terror from happening again has faded with time.
One example is the limited measures taken in response to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s 22-year-long persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a meditation system based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Because of their belief, a large number of practitioners have been kept at detention centers, labor camps, prisons, and brainwashing centers, where they have suffered endless physical torture and mental abuse.
Torture devices used include police batons, whips, handcuffs, shackles, the tiger bench, nails, needles, drills, toothpicks, and many other items. The methods include burning, ironing, exposure under the burning sun, freezing in winter, and force-feeding with hot pepper powder or even urine or feces.
The abuse goes beyond typical physical torture. Nerve-damaging drugs were administered to practitioners against their will; sharp-edged plastic pipes were used to drill into practitioners’ flesh. There was also ruthless rape, gang rape, and forced organ harvesting. As a result of these nearly 100 kinds of torture methods, many practitioners were injured and disabled. Many suffered mental disorders or even lost their lives.
Below are some examples.
Burning, Scalding, and Ironing
Fire is part of life and some of us may have experienced accidental scalding and burning, and we know the resulting pain. But could you imagine that someone would intentionally torture others with boiling water or red-hot metal?
Torture illustration: Ironing and burning
Mr. Luo Jichuan, 62, is a practitioner from Yueyang City, Hunan Province. After hanging him up, the guards heated up two screwdrivers on a two-kilowatt electric stove. They then applied the red-hot screwdrivers on Mr. Luo’s stomach, chest, and back, leaving 48 burn marks.
Mr. Liao Yuanhua is a former Discipline Inspection Secretary in Wuxue City, Hubei Province. Because of his belief, however, he was sent to the Fanjiatai Prison. The brick factory there has a high temperature of 70 to 80 degrees Celsius (or 170 F) all year around with red-hot fire bricks like ironing metal. Within one month of his imprisonment, the guards instructed inmates to push Mr. Liao onto a burning pile of fire bricks. Mr. Liao fainted instantly. “How come there is no image and no sound now?” the thugs laughed insanely and said.
After Mr. Hu Enqui was sent to Suzhou Prison in Anhui Province, the guards forcibly held his feet against a container filled with boiling water for a long time. This caused both of his feet to suffer third-degree burns. Even the periosteum was damaged and his left pinky toes were injured permanently. With both feet deformed and unable to exert force, Mr. Hu has become permanently disabled.
Force-feeding
With all channels blocked and no way to voice their opinions, Falun Gong practitioners chose hunger strike in an effort to awaken their perpetrators’ conscience at the price of their own suffering. However, the CCP retaliated by intensifying the torture, often through force-feeding. For example, they pried out practitioners’ teeth to make force-feeding easier. At Heizuizi Women’s Labor Camp in Changchun City, Jilin Province, the guards recklessly pushed and pulled rubber tubes inside practitioners’ nostrils back and forth, causing the nose to swell with inflammation on the same day.
During force-feeding, there were incidents where guards inserted the tube into the trachea and caused death. There were also death cases when guards force-fed their victims with unknown drugs, high concentration salty water, and mustard oil. In addition, they force-fed practitioners feces, urine, or sputum sometimes.
Ms. Yang Hailing was an employee at Donghai Coal Mine in Jixi City, Heilongjiang Province. Guards pushed a top half of a beer bottle into her mouth and force-fed mustard water. The pungent fluid damaged her lung, leaving her coughing all the time until she died on April 12, 2003. The local detention center kept her death a secret and lied to others that 34-year-old Ms. Yang had died of a heart attack. Wang Shaoling, party secretary of Mishan City Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC) in Heilongjiang Province, yelled, “We will use all means to transform practitioners [forcing them to give up their belief]. No one will be released without transformation.”
Torture illustration: Force-feeding
The Baoding Labor Camp in Hubei Province invented a unique way of “force-feeding.” Guards tied practitioners to a chair, pushed their heads back and down forcibly. They then pinched the nose and forced food into the mouth. Ms. Zhang Yiqin and Ms. Ma Zhanmei lost their lives in this way.
Organ Harvesting
Mr. Gao Yixi was a Falun Gong practitioner in Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang Province. Eleven days after his arrest, his family was notified by police that 45-year-old Mr. Gao had “suddenly” died on April 29, 2016.
The next morning, Mr. Gao’s brother saw his body in the autopsy room. Mr. Gao was naked with both eyes open and obvious injuries on the body. When his brother tried to slowly close the eyes, he surprisingly found Mr. Gao had tears at the corner of the eyes.
Although his family refused to sign paperwork, officials went ahead with the autopsy anyway, which was completed at about 7 p.m. that night. His brain, cerebellum, heart, lungs, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, and kidneys were taken away. When the nearly empty corpse was moved to another room for the mortuary cosmetology service, his family surprisingly found a large amount of fresh blood coming out. Several towels were soaked with blood, making the family suspect Mr. Gao was alive when the autopsy occurred.
Zhu Jiabin, an officer of Mudanjiang 610 Office, was later interviewed by World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) about this. Zhu admitted he had harvested Mr. Gao’s organs when he was alive. He said the organs were sold because it was a quick way to make money.
Unprecedented Torture with Broken Plastic Pipe
Torture illustration: Drilling with a broken plastic pipe as a torture method
The Jiutai Labor Camp in Jilin Province also had its own way of torturing detained practitioners. Guards used broken hard plastic pipes with sharp edges to drill practitioners’ body. The flesh was often torn apart with a bloody hole formed and bone exposed.
Mr. Huang Yuedong was drilled twice this way with four holes formed, including one as large as a fist in his armpit. The medical treatment lasted several months and the Jiutai Hospital recommended hospitalization. Labor camp officials declined that and moved him back to the cell. Despite this severe torture, Mr. Huang did not give up his belief.
This is what the CCP has done in the persecution of innocent Falun Gong practitioners. Simply for following the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, practitioners were detained, tortured, and killed.
From the extralegal entity of the 610 Office to officials at all levels who ignored or abused laws in persecuting practitioners, the CCP has emerged as a global totalitarian regime for brutality, terror, and genocide. Facing this battle between good and evil, we hope more people ccan recognize the nature of the CCP and reject the regime for a better future.
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Category: Perspective
