[Minghui net] The new building in the Baoding Labor Camp in Hebei Province is bright and spacious. It is equipped with uniform dinner sets, and the cells are clean and tidy. Outsiders or newcomers would feel that the conditions here are quite good. However, behind the facade of this highly praised labor camp lie various types of cruel acts, which make this place a hell on earth.

The following experiences of some practitioners who have been illegally detained here reveal the true situation.

1. One day, when Dafa practitioners went to have a meal, the camp leaders did not allow them to go back to their cells when they had finished and said that they would be taught a song. Afterwards, when the practitioners returned to their cells, they found that their beds and personal belongings were searched and left in a scattered mess. All of their letters were gone and Teacher's articles (Jingwen) had been taken away. Later Dafa practitioners went to talk with the camp leaders and asked them not to administer any more invasive searches. However, the camp leaders said that this type of "safety check" would be carried out regularly. Although the practitioners made strong protests, their case was not heard. They had no other choice but to begin a hunger strike. About 30 practitioners participated. Several days later, over twenty camp leaders and guards carrying handcuffs and batons started to force-feed the practitioners with corn gruel. One practitioner who had been on a hunger strike for a long time stepped forward to protest, and was shoved to the ground. Some practitioners were handcuffed and then dragged away to be forcibly fed. Even when the practitioners began to vomit and go into convulsions, the guards still continued the force-feeding.
2. The guards singled out those practitioners whom they considered stubborn and transferred them into the strict-surveillance class. They were not allowed to meet their visiting family members or go buy food. During the Moon Festival (the traditional family reunion day in China, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month in the Chinese lunar year), they were still under tight control day and night. The practitioners in this class did not even have the freedom to eat or go to the bathroom, much less talk to other practitioners.
3. To safeguard Dafa and the Teacher's articles, practitioners went to talk with the camp leaders. Instead of listening to reason, the camp leaders cuffed them by the stairs for several nights. Even though they had been on hunger strikes, they were bound with handcuffs and not allowed to go back to sleep at night. Nonetheless, the camp leaders still claimed that it was the practitioners who did not admit their "mistakes."
4. The guards tried to forcibly brainwash the practitioners. They forced the practitioners to read fabricated repentance materials and watch the video lectures from those people who had been "reformed" in Masanjia Labor Reeducation Center (an infamous detention center in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province). The practitioners were not allowed to close their eyes or look down. Some practitioners who refused to watch the video were handcuffed to the bed rails for as long as 18 hours. Sometimes, the propaganda video was played even while the practitioners were having meals. One drug addict shut the doors and windows and turned the volume up to the maximum. When Dafa practitioners recited the Teacher's articles, the prisoners would try to gag practitioners' mouths with dirty socks or slap them. Some Dafa practitioners were handcuffed separately to the stairway for a whole night.
5. Camp leader Yan Qingfang (female) often beat Dafa practitioners violently. Practitioner Shi Shufen (female) fainted after Yan slapped her several times. After that, Yan still tortured Shi Shufen by forcing her to lay down on bed with her face up, cuffing her two hands separately to the bed rails at the one end of the bed, and cuffing her legs to the rails at the other end for several hours. Some practitioners who refused to do the forced labor were also tortured this way non-stop for several days.
6. Because the practitioners in the female brigade refused to wear prison uniforms, they were beaten by the guards and the prisoners.
7. The Baoding City Labor Camp held a so-called leniency-punishment meeting. When those who had been "reformed" came out to give repentance speeches, curse Master Li, and slander Dafa, practitioners courageously stood up and shouted, "Falun Dafa is a righteous Fa." The guards and prisoners beat these practitioners violently, covered their mouths, and restrained them with handcuffs. The prison terms of the practitioners were also immediately extended.
8. The practitioners refused to do the forced labor and were punished by being forced to stand for a long time. One practitioner who refused to take this punishment was violently beaten by the prisoner in charge. Severely wounded by repeated kicks to the waist, she did not recover even after many days. Another practitioner was hit over the head with a stick by a drug addict for talking with other practitioners.
9. Once, after a practitioner was beaten, the practitioners from Baoding City went to talk with the camp leader. They were accused of making trouble. The camp leader punished that practitioner who was previously beaten by ordering her to stand for a long time. The head prisoner dragged a practitioner, who was accused of being one of the troublemakers, to the labor camp leader. They pushed her hard, making her fall flat on her back.
10. The Baoding City Labor Camp forced the practitioners to work late, sometimes until 3 o'clock in the morning.
11. For those practitioners who had newly attained Dafa in the labor camp, the guards and prisoners punished and tortured them even more severely. One such practitioner was bound with handcuffs after the guards searched her and found the Teacher's articles. The leading prisoner accused her of not completing the assigned work and she was thus harshly beaten. She was not allowed to sleep for an entire day and night. Because she was cold, sleepy, exhausted, and shook up, she could not work and was accused of refusing to work. They punished her by forcing her to stand for a long time. They also restrained her with handcuffs for an entire night, during which she was not even allowed to close her eyes.
12. The chief leader of the female brigade manipulated the prisoners into committing bad deeds. Knowing that some practitioners did not have enough food, the prisoners on duty intentionally dumped steamed rice into the toilet, throwing the food away. The leading prisoner on duty was given the authority to hit or scold others at will. In front of a labor camp leader, a group of prisoners beat up a Dafa practitioner. To curry favor with the chief team leader and to have their prison terms shortened, they intentionally extended the working hours for Dafa practitioners. Sometimes they did not allow the practitioners to go to sleep until 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning. They were extremely brutal when they force-fed the practitioners. In this labor camp, the practitioners had to work and live in the same building so they could not see sunlight for a long time. If the practitioners tried to peek though the windows of the bathrooms, they would be beaten up. The practitioners suffered a great deal of mental and physical trauma.
13. The female brigade of the Baoding City Labor Camp employed despicable means to try to "transform" practitioners. Besides making the practitioners watch propaganda videos, the labor camp also asked the government-dispatched speech team to come and speak. Practitioners who were newly transferred here were not allowed to contact other practitioners. The labor camp only let those who had been transformed "take care of" these practitioners. These practitioners were totally isolated and did not have any freedom.
14. One practitioner in the Baoding City Labor Camp had been on a hunger strike for a long time. In the end, even force-feeding did not work and the labor camp had to use infusion. She was extremely weak so the labor camp sent her home. Several months later, she was arrested and sent back. She requested to be released since she was innocent, and began a hunger strike again. She was under tight surveillance and was not allowed to leave her cell unless she needed to use the bathroom. She did not have any freedom, nor could she have any contact with others.

Practitioners in Mainland China

April 23, 2001