Ms. Zhang Hanwen, 53, a retired staff member of the Zhengzhou Technology and Science Institute, went to Beijing to appeal for an end of persecution of Falun Gong practitioners at late December 2000. As a result, she was sent to Shibalihe Women’s Forced-Labor Camp where she was brutally tortured for two years and three months.

In June 2002, to protest the mistreatment in the labor camp, Ms. Zhang and other practitioners held at Camp Squad No. 4 staged a hunger strike. The chief of the guards, Chen Lanying, directed male policemen and security guards to torture Ms. Zhang. The security guards dragged her by the hair back and forth on the ground until cuts and bruises covered her body. They broke Ms. Zhang's legs while beating her, and tied her tightly with thin ropes that cut into her flesh. Subsequently, for months she was unable to control her bladder or bowels, and was also unable to leave her bed or walk without assistance. When they tried to pry her mouth open and force-feed her, the police knocked out one of her teeth and loosened several others.

Ms. Zhang’s detention period was later extended for three months, and she was not released from the forced labor camp until March 28, 2003. That day, while Ms. Zhang’s family was waiting outside the labor camp to pick her up, the staff of Zhengzhou Technology and Science Institute arrived and forced Ms. Zhang into a car, taking her immediately to Wan Qing Shan Zhuang brainwashing class, thereby not allowing her to see her family members.

Ms. Zhang’s husband was also detained in a labor camp for two years because of his practicing Falun Gong. Their daughter was forced to leave her residence and has been living the life of a homeless person for over two years.