(Minghui.org) Minghui.org previously reported on the abuse of Falun Gong practitioners jailed at the Yongchuan Prison in Chongqing, including involuntary drug administration, forced blood draws, and conducting experiments on practitioners. This article presents additional information of the prison’s ongoing persecution of practitioners.
In February 2022, the prison designated its tenth division as the persecution hub to target practitioners who refused to renounce their faith. Li Youli, the division director, once openly boasted at a meeting that, “Prisons exist to eat people!”
Guard Ma Jibao, who was later reassigned to another division, blatantly threatened practitioners: “You either transform or have your physical body destroyed.”
According to insiders, the guards usually sought approval from Li and other prison officials before subjecting steadfast practitioners to the following torture methods.
Newly admitted practitioners were ordered to renounce Falun Gong. Those who refused were placed under “strict management” and were cut off from the outside world. They were not even allowed to communicate with their immediate family members through letters, phone calls, or in-person meetings. The letters their families wrote to them were withheld by the guards.
The practitioners were also not allowed to talk to other inmates except the two or three inmates who were assigned to monitor them around the clock. Mr. Yuan Zhiqiang once talked to a non-monitor cellmate, and guard Ma instructed six other inmates to hold him down on the ground. They removed his socks and hit his bare feet with police clubs. They also pepper-sprayed him.
Practitioners under strict management could only spend up to 100 yuan per month to purchase daily necessities or extra food. Some were banned from using the money in their commissary accounts.
Practitioners were forced to sing songs that praised the Chinese Communist Party and watch videos that smeared Falun Gong. They were also ordered to write daily thought reports. Those who defied the order were subjected to severe punishment. Mr. Wu Qun once refuted the guards’ attack on Falun Gong at a meeting and was shocked with three electric batons simultaneously by division director Li and guards Zhou Yibin and Yang Jun. His heart was damaged as a result.
If a practitioner still holds firm to his faith after three to five months of being brainwashed, he is issued a “red alert” warning and is given very little food. His breakfast is a small amount of rice congee (porridge). His lunch and dinner consists of less than two ounces of rice and a small amount of soup.
“Red alert” practitioners were made to sit on a 20-cm-tall stool with a bumpy surface from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day. They were only given one small cup of water to drink in the morning and allowed very few restroom breaks. Mr. Liu Xingui was subjected to the sitting torture for an extended periods of time. He was often kicked when his posture was deemed deviant. He died in prison around May 4, 2023, at the age of 83.
The guards claimed to allow “red alert” practitioners to sleep but instructed inmates to wake them up every 15 minutes all night. The aforementioned Mr. Wu and Mr. Yuan, as well as Mr. Chen Erqi, Mr. Deng Liping, and Mr. Luo Xu, were confirmed to have been subjected to sleep deprivation.
The guards offered term reduction to inmates who could make practitioners renounce their faith. The inmates thus often beat and verbally abused the practitioners in an attempt to make them give up Falun Gong. Mr. Chen, Mr. Deng, Mr. Luo, Mr. Qu, Mr. Chen Jiachuan, Mr. Huang Ziwen, and Mr. Wang Hong were known to have been abused like this.
The guards threatened to have Mr. Yang Zuolin’s son fired if he refused to renounce his faith. They also said that they’d summon his son to the prison to persuade him to give up his spiritual belief.
Falun Gong Practitioners Administered Unknown Drugs at Yongchuan Prison
Yongchuan Prison in Chongqing Draws Blood from Unwilling Falun Gong Practitioners
Higher-Ups Order Experiments on Practitioner at Yongchuan Prison Hospital, Chongqing City
Persecution of Falun Dafa Practitioners in Yongchuan Prison, Chongqing City