(Minghui.org) Benxixihui Prison, known as Benxi Prison, is one of the notorious prisons in Liaoning Province that tortures Falun Gong practitioners as part of the Chinese Communist Party's persecution of the spiritual discipline.
Not long after the persecution began, multiple agencies in Liaoning Province jointly issued an order instructing all prisons in the province to launch a “special project” to “transform” imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners.
The agencies included the 610 Office (an extra-legal agency tasked with eradicating Falun Gong and given power to override the judicial system), the Political and Legal Affairs Committee, the Stability Office, the Provincial Judicial Bureau, and the Provincial Supervision Bureau.
Benxi Prison was at the forefront to take up this special project.
Over the years, Benxi Prison has used many brutal methods to torture Falun Gong practitioners, in order to force them to give up their belief and achieve the goal of a 100 percent "transformation" rate.
In the CCP’s warped logic, it was awarded “Civilized Prison” at the provincial level and praised as a “Model Prison” for other prisons to follow. In September of 2010, the 610 Office at the central government level held a conference and announced: “All provinces should look up to Liaoning Province, and all prisons should look up to Benxi.”
Benxi Prison adopted the “hooligan management” method to handle detainees. Under the guise of "civilized law enforcement" and "educational reform," the prison designated “inmates-in-charge,” who were usually felons, to manage other inmates.
The inmates-in-charge were above the rules and regulations and allowed to use any force to subdue detainees and make them give in. If they ran into resistance, they would report to prison guards, who backed them up by subjecting dissenting inmates to even worse abuse and torture.
The following documented cases of persecution are only the tip of the iceberg.
Due to torture, Mr. Hu Guojian suffered a massive brain hemorrhage just 22 days after his transfer to Benxi Prison. He remained in a coma until he passed away two years later.
Mr. Hu Guojian, born in 1970, was last arrested on July 7, 2015; he was sentenced to four years in prison five months later, on December 9.
He was transferred to Benxi Prison on May 4, 2016, and subject to hard labor, sleep deprivation, and lack of food. When his wife visited him five days later on May 9, 2016, she was alarmed to find that he had lost one-third of his weight.
Mr. Hu was subjected to punishment if he could not finish his assignment or meet his labor quota. He was stripped of his clothing by the inmates-in-charge, forced to sit on a small bench and not allowed to sleep.
When he lost consciousness, inmates kicked his head and berated him. When this did not revive him, he was rushed to the hospital. He was diagnosed with a severe brain hemorrhage and required neurosurgery.
Mr. Hu lapsed into a coma 22 days after his transfer to Benxi Prison. He never regained consciousness.
Mr. Lu Yuanfeng was arrested in November of 2014, and he was sentenced to prison for three years in June of 2015. He was later transferred to Benxi Prison.
Mr. Lu’s family was only allowed to see him twice during the three years of his imprisonment. He told his loved ones that guards at Benxi Prison beat him, shocked him with electric batons, and forced him to squat for long periods of time. There was a handwritten complaint detailing electric shock torture by Mr. Lu.
He had a stroke two months before his scheduled release, but the prison refused to render proper medical attention, or grant family visits or medical parole. When he was released on November 19, 2017, his speech was slurred, he was paralyzed, and his leg was fractured. He fell into a coma 21 days after his release and passed away. He was 63.
Mr. Chen Xiu, 56, was an engineer at the Liaoning Branch of China Agriculture Bank. His most recent arrest was in February 2015.
The prison began what was called the “Year-End 'Transformation' Movement” in November 2015 against practitioners. The winter was unprecedentedly frigid that year. The torture intensified.
Mr. Xiu was tied to a chair, shocked with an electric baton, stabbed with a needle all over his body, and beaten savagely. Perpetrators rolled the bottoms of shoes across his chest until the skin was broken and bleeding.
In the evening, an inmate cut open and tore off Mr. Chen's vest, which had stuck to his bloodied chest. The skin on his front and ribs was torn away.
Arrested on September 5, 2010, Mr. Liang Yuncheng, a former judge of a Fengcheng City Court in Liaoning Province, was sentenced to three years in prison for refusing to give up his belief in Falun Gong.
When Mr. Liang asked division head Zhao Gang to pass his complaint letter to the Liaoning City Superior Court, Zhao instead turned it over to the prison management, which gave orders for Mr. Liang to be tortured further.
Mr. Liang was sent to solitary confinement. Thus began 60 days of nonstop torture. His arms were stretched out and his hands were fastened to handcuffs at the ends of a bed headboard. His legs were straightened and tied to a ring on the bed. A high-voltage light bulb was directed into his eyes.
In protest, Mr. Liang went on a hunger strike, and he incurred brutal force-feeding. Under the direction of the prison doctor, guards inserted a feeding tube through a nostril and fed him a high-concentration salt solution. They usually left the tube in his stomach for four days before taking it out for minimal cleaning. Once in a while, the doctor would coat the tube with chemicals to irritate Mr. Liang’s nose and esophagus.
Officials in the Liaoning Bureau of Prisons declared that “no medical parole is allowed for Falun Gong practitioners,” even though Xihu Prison had agreed to Mr. Liu Defu's medical parole due to his poor health as a result of torture and forced labor.
Mr. Liu, 63, was diagnosed with a heart attack, subdural hematoma, and high blood pressure at the Benxi Iron and Steel Hospital in Liaoning Province.
Because he refused to give up his belief, Mr. Liu was tortured and hit in the head with heavy objects, causing severe cuts and bleeding. He got 21 stitches as a result. He was later put in solitary confinement, and handcuffed and chained to the floor for over 20 days.
Mr. Meng Xianguang, 52, remains in Danan Police Station following his latest arrest on June 28, 2018. The whereabouts and condition of his wife, Ms. Su Xiaohua, who was arrested at the same time, is unknown at this time.
Mr. Meng was first sentenced to four years in prison following his arrest in August 2001. He was sentenced again to three and a half years, when he and his wife were both arrested on March 26, 2014.
Mr. Meng was brutally tortured during his second imprisonment in Benxi Prison. On October 18, 2015, guard Chen Geng ordered inmates to stuff socks in Mr. Meng's mouth and cover his head with a plastic bag. They taped his arms and legs to a chair.
Guard Liu Minghao ripped open Mr. Meng's shirt and poured cold water on his head before beating him. Guard Liu Sitong shocked Mr. Meng until the electric baton ran out of charge.
Hours later, Mr. Meng was moved to a different room, where guard Chen ordered two inmates to hold Mr. Meng's arms. Chen then whipped him on the back more than 20 times with a rubber tube. When Chen took a break, guard Liu picked up the tube and continued.
Mr. Meng was then returned to his cell, stripped naked, and tied to a chair. The inmates took turns watching him to prevent him from falling asleep.
The next morning, guard Chen ordered inmate Shi Jian to touch Mr. Meng with an exposed wire. Chen then connected the other end of the wire to an electric baton. At one point guard Chen touched Mr. Meng's penis with the exposed wire and said, “I'm going to make you unable to have any kids.” Mr. Meng convulsed from the electric shock, only to have the guards laugh at him.
That afternoon three more guards—Lang Pengcheng, Liu Minghao, and Zhang Zhiyu—came in and taped books to Mr. Meng's thighs. Two of them then hit the books with plastic tubes. That way, even though he suffered internal injuries, nothing would show on the surface. The beating lasted for over two hours, when the guards were exhausted.
Once a healthy man, Mr. Zhou can’t sleep and sits for hours on end with a blank look on his face. Two years of imprisonment took a severe toll on him.
He was beaten and deprived of sleep while in prison. Family visitation was suspended. When he protested, he was shocked with electric batons. The flesh on his back was burnt as a result, but the guards moved him to solitary confinement without rendering any medical care.
By the time he was let out of confinement seven days later, the wounds on his back had already become infected. Even today there are still visible scars on his back.
During a national wardens' conference in October of 2014, the warden of Benxi Prison called for 100 percent "transformation" of Falun Gong practitioners. Thus began Benxi’s stepped-up abuse of practitioners.
Mr. Zhou Lin was arrested in January of 2013. He was sentenced to four years in prison and transferred to Benxi Prison.
Mr. Zhou was sent to solitary confinement for ten days, he was tied to a tiger bench with his arms and legs taped down. The skin on his lower leg was torn. The perpetrators burned his fingers with cigarettes until the skin was broken and charred. He was sleep deprived for three straight days and nights, not allowed to move a bit, and given minimal food and water.
These documented cases expose the terrible torture used against practitioners in Benxi Prison.
Some cautionary words to the perpetrators of this persecution: You are being used by the CCP, under the guise of law enforcement to deprive people of their health and ruin their lives. The main perpetrators—Zhou Yongkang, Li Dongsheng, and Po Xilai—have met with retribution and were sent to prison for other crimes.
Justice will prevail. Only when you choose kindness, stop this brutal persecution, and atone for your sins, will you have a future.