Ms. Zhang Lianying with her daughter before the arrest

Mr. Niu Jinping and his daughter

Ms. Zhang Lianying, after the surgery at Beijing Renhe Hospital

Victim:

Ms. Zhang Lianying, female, 46, was a division official at the China Guangda Group and a certified accountant. She lived at Liufangnanli, Xiangheyuan in the Chaoyang District of Beijing.

Locations:

1. Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp: 12 Weiyong Road, Tiantanghe, Huangcun Town, Daxing District, Beijing
2. Renhe Hospital, Daxing District, Beijing
3. Tiantanghe Hospital, an internal hospital of Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp
4. Tuanhe Dispatch Division of Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp
5. Chaoyang Detention Center, Chaoyang District, Beijing

 

Perpetrators:

1. Section Chief Shi of the Management Section, female, Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp, telephone: 86-10-60279755 ext. 5819
2. Wang Jing, director of the Xiangheyuan Police Station, Beijing, telephone: 86-10-64660050
3. The director of the Beijing Tuanhe Dispatch Division, telephone: 86-10-61291199
4. Li Jirong, Director, and Zhu Xiaoli, Assistant Director, Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp, telephone: 86-10-60278899
5. Yao Xiaoqing, Yu Fengde, Liu Xiaoli, criminals at the Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp

 

Description:

At 8:30 a.m. on June 14, 2005, Wang Jing, the director of the Xiangheyuan Police Station, led more than ten police officers to Ms. Zhang Lianying's home, which they forcibly ransacked. Though they had no evidence, they ignored the cries of her baby who was still nursing, forced Ms. Zhang into a police car and brought her to the Chaoyang Detention Center. On June 30, 2005, they sentenced Ms. Zhang to thirty months of forced labor and sent her to the Beijing Tuanhe Dispatch Division in Beijing.

Ms. Zhang suffered ten months of terrible abuse at the Beijing Forced Labor Dispatch Division. Officer Zhang Dongmei ordered eight prisoners to whip her with flyswatters continuously for more than ten hours every day. They never allowed her to wash herself or use the toilet, so she had no choice but to relieve herself in her pants, even when menstruating. Her persecutors subjected her to sleep deprivation, hung her up by her neck for long periods of time with her toes barely touching the floor, twisted her body, and tied her to a wooden bench for many hours. She suffered torture around the clock. Her whole body was covered with scars and wounds; her head and face bore many scars of about 3 centimeters in length; her eye was bleeding; she went deaf; and her face was disfigured to the extent that she was barely recognizable. Any kind of movement caused her pain, she became absentminded, and her life was in danger.

In a June 13, 2006, article in the Yorkshire Post, which appeared on the Internet, Edward McMillan-Scott, the Conservative MEP for Yorkshire and Humber and a vice president of the European Parliament, reported about a January 2006 meeting Ms. Zhang’s husband had with her, “The last time he saw her, in January, her entire body was bruised from the repeated beatings she took as the torturers tried to make her denounce Falun Gong: she is now deaf. Niu was in despair: the beatings his wife suffered lasted sometimes for 20 hours.” http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle.aspx?SectionID=97&ArticleID=1560709

In February 2006, “personal cangues” [Note: cangue, the name of an instrument of torture, is now used to describe the prisoner designated to supervise practitioners] who belong to the 10th team, dispatch section of the Beijing Forced Labor Camp severely beat Ms. Zhang because she cried "Falun Gong is good," and refused to wear a prison uniform. The wounds on her body from several beatings had accumulated, so on February 27, Ms. Zhang was sent to a hospital, where she stayed for 50 days.

On March 20, 2007, Ms. Zhang suffered a brain hemorrhage due to long-term torture at the Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp. She was rushed to Renhe Hospital, Daxing District, Beijing, for emergency care. On March 30, 2007, two days before being removed from the critical list, she was secretly taken to Tiantanghe Hospital, the Beijing Forced Labor Camp hospital. Ms. Zhang Lianying's family repeatedly requested to visit her and also asked for her release, but staff from the forced labor camp ignored their requests.

On April 17, Mr. Niu Jinping, Ms. Zhang Lianying's husband, Qingqing, their three-year-old daughter and other relatives went to the labor camp. Section Chief Shi and a male guard from the Administrative Section talked to them. Ms. Zhang's family asked about the cause of the cerebral hemorrhage and the person responsible for the persecution. Shi’s answered evasively that they did not know, and that the Procuratorate had investigated the case several times and had talked to Ms. Zhang. Her family member said that the doctor from the Renhe Hospital concluded that a beating likely caused her injury. The male guard said, "Her knocking her head against the wall could also cause the injury." Her family member asked, “Do you have monitors in each room?” “Not every room.” “Then why did you put her into the room without a monitor?” They could not answer.

Ms. Zhang's family said that they asked for a medical discharge for her. Shi replied, “It's not up to us. The approval has to come from higher levels, along with the OK from the 610 Office and your local police station.” The male guard said that in the past, people in similar situations at the forced labor camp had never been released before the end of their term.

According to Dr. Xue, who had performed the surgery on Ms. Zhang at the Beijing Renhe Hospital, being hit on the head most likely caused the cerebral hemorrhage. In addition to a severe cerebral hemorrhage, Ms. Zhang had a lot of blood around her head. She was in critical condition and there was a good chance of another cerebral hemorrhage after the surgery. The chances of recurrence were heightened, especially since she was taken from Renhe Hospital and sent to Tiantanghe Hospital before she was completely out of danger.

The family kept insisting, so Shi reluctantly took them to visit Ms. Zhang at the Tiantanghe Hospital. Guards were stationed at several locked doors leading to her room. Ms. Zhang's hair had grown out again, after being shaved for the surgery. Although Ms. Zhang was unconscious, Shi and other guards repeatedly said that she recovered well and she no longer needed injections or medicine. They claimed that she was just relaxing and recovering.

Although the staff at the Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp claimed that Ms. Zhang had completely recovered, just the opposite from what the Renhe Hospital doctor said, they still refused to release her. The short visit left Ms. Zhang's family even more worried.

Tiantanghe Hospital, the Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp hospital, where Ms. Zhang Lianying is currently imprisoned

Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp

Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp

Beijing Women's Forced Labor Camp

Posted on February 16, 2008