Germany: Falun Gong Shines at Spring Health Expo (Photos)

May 05, 2013 | By a Falun Gong practitioner in Germany

(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioners participated in the Spring Health Expo in Östriger, central Germany, on April 21, 2013. Streams of people flocked to the practitioners’ booth throughout the day, and many appeared reluctant to leave.

According to the organizers, the number of exhibitors participating in this year’s event was several times larger than last year, which drew in more people. Prior to the Expo, several newspapers specifically mentioned that a Falun Gong booth would be at the event.

Seeing persistent interest among the public, some exhibitors commented that Falun Gong was the star attraction at the Expo.

Practitioners demonstrate Falun Gong exercises, and people learn the exercises on the spot, at a health expo in Germany on April 21.

Practitioners repeatedly demonstrated the five sets of Falun Gong exercises on stage, with the banner reading“Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance” prominently displayed. The exercise demonstration, along with its peaceful music, attracted many visitors. Both young and old stopped to learn the exercises on the spot, and a sense of harmony could be felt in the entire hall.

People stop by practitioners’ booth to learn about Falun Gong and sign petition to call for the end of the persecution in China.

After seeing the exercise demonstration, people flocked to practitioners’ booth for information about the practice. They asked many questions ,such as “What is Falun Gong?” “What are the benefits of Falun Gong?” and “How can I learn Falun Gong?”

Upon hearing of the communist regime’s brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China—including various means of torture and harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners for profit—many people expressed shock and outrage. Dozens took the initiative to sign a petition to call for the end of the persecution.

Mr. Huber, chair of the German Falun Dafa Association, presents a talk about Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa).

In the afternoon, Mr. Huber, chair of the German Falun Dafa Association, presented a talk about Falun Gong in the meeting room adjacent to the exhibition hall. He first introduced Falun Gong as a cultivation practice rooted in traditional Chinese culture, and then briefly explained the practice’s three main principles of “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.” Mr. Huber further spoke about how Falun Gong can effectively improve people’s health.

When he discussed how Falun Gong practitioners are being persecuted in China, some people asked why the communist regime would want to suppress such a peaceful practice. Mr. Huber answered: “There were a 100 million people practicing Falun Gong in China [in 1999, when the persecution was launched]. This figure exceeded the number of Communist Party members, which made the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] jealous.”

After the presentation, some people stayed to speak further with Mr. Huber. Many people also went back to the practitioners’ booth to ask questions and get more information. Some people asked for the addresses of the local practice sites so they could learn the practice.

At the end of the day, when all exhibitors had left the hall, some people still lingered in front of the Falun Gong booth. They asked for information and then finally reluctantly left.

Chinese version available

CATEGORY: Other Community Events

Slave Labor at Liaoning Women’s Prison—Products Exported to Korea, Canada

May 07, 2013 | By a practitioner in China

(Minghui.org) Regarding the article, “A Plea for Help from a Slave Labor Camp in China Spurs U.S. Government Investigation” (http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/12/28/136806.html)  on the Minghui website, I would like to share more on how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) profits by forcing Falun Gong practitioners to do slave labor while imprisoned.

There are a total of 14 divisions in Liaoning Women’s Prison. Twelve of them (with the exception of the hospital and kitchen) force practitioners and criminal inmates to do slave labor. The prison has three divisions—the In Unit, Out Unit, and Young Prisoner Unit—which make cotton swabs. Not many prisoners are located in the Out Unit, but many are in the other two units.

Liaoning Women’s Prison makes products for the Shenyang Anna Garment Group and the Shenyang Zhonghe Clothing Co., Ltd. The clothing made includes pencil pants, checkered shirts, shorts, and skirts, made for the Shenyang Anna Garment Group. A label for the Korean brand Bangbang, is put on the pencil pants and several shorts. In recent years, the checkered shirts have become more popular, so many of them are being produced. The shirt is difficult to make because of the symmetry required between the left and the right sides of the shirt.

The products made for the Zhonghe Clothing Co. are primarily cotton garments for winter and clothing for workers. These are exported to Canada for the police and janitors. These clothes have a silver reflective strip. Products made in small quantities include ski suits, Jack Daniel’s cotton clothing, and Mickey-style clothing for children.

Other products made in the prison include food boxes for McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken, moon cake boxes, sweaters, and beauty products. However, clothing is the main product.

Everyone is forced to work 12 hours per day, from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. All three meals are to be eaten in the workshop. However, some prisoners are so busy that they only eat before and after “work hours” in their cells. Some have no time to wash their bowls. Completing their work quota is critical in order to avoid penalties, such as not being able to buy daily supplies, standing or squatting for long periods of time, or beatings. Sometimes an entire team is penalized to force them to produce more. When a mistake is made during the production process, the individual will be confined in a small cell and forced to write a letter admitting her mistakes before being released.

The prison now claims that it “manages in a human way.” Actually, pressure to complete the work quota has increased. The prison now allows “rest” time once per week, but the same quota has to be completed in six days rather than seven. During busy seasons such as the year-end, work hours are 15 hours per day, from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. When considering the time to prepare for the forced labor, washing, etc., only about four to five hours are left for sleep. Also, only cold water is available to shower no matter the season. Due to long hours and not enough sleep, it’s easy to make a mistake and hurt oneself while sewing.

Signs along the roads inside the prison compound read, “Labor is the best mentor against ignorance.” However, the imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners suffer both mentally and physically. Even when they are menstruating, “work” takes priority, and restroom use is limited. Also, only manual labor is used when it comes to moving the merchandise around.

Chinese version available

CATEGORY: Imprisonment & Forced Labor

The Horror of Masanjia

May 07, 2013 | By a Falun Dafa practitioner in China

(Minghui.org) Most people who witness scenes of solitary confinement, hanging by cuffs, electric shock, forced-feeding, beating, tiger bench, death bed, prolonged hard labor, or the many other horrifying tortures used against Falun Gong practitioners in China, will definitely feel disturbed. Even the bloodiest scenes in movies or novels cannot compare to such an experience. But all these things are real-life occurrences, and they exist all around us.

On April 7, 2013, many Chinese media published an article titled “Walking out of Masanjia.” The head commentator and superintendent of the Media Research Division of New Beijing News said that he taped the program called “The Masanjia Women’s Forced Labor Camp in Liaoning Province Has Become a Human Hell” while trembling amid extreme sorrow. He said he wanted to cry out loud. Even this experienced media professional could hardly endure the shock and emotional impact; one can imagine how terrifying the scenes were.

Many people are familiar with the name Masanjia. As early as 2000, in Hong Kong, when people asked the guards from Masanjia where they were from, they dared not tell the truth. Masanjia was already notorious as the place where guards once stripped 18 female Falun Gong practitioners and threw them into men’s cells.

I remember when practitioners told an officer about Masanjia while they were in a police car at Tiananmen Square; the officer could not accept it. He said, “Don’t you all look at me. I had nothing to do with it.”

Why are there so many wicked guards at Masanjia? What has caused it? These evil actions came by order of Jiang Zemin: “Death of Falun Gong practitioners from beating is nothing and shall be counted as suicide.” Such base deeds also come from the distortion of human nature by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Innumerable torture methods have been created and practiced at Masanjia throughout the persecution of Falun Gong. Now Masanjia has become a synonym for the whole forced labor camp system. Those vicious, cruel guards are all criminals who have disgraced their profession.

The announcement of plans to eliminate the forced labor system does not mean the CCP is improving. This is only a way for it to cover up the true nature of its crimes in order to cope with the increasing amount of criticism both domestic and abroad, and to settle its own internal struggles. The persecution of Falun Gong still continues, and the CCP’s trampling of the law is becoming worse. It sentences innocent practitioners heavily and unlawfully puts them into prisons. No matter what the CCP does, its annihilation by heaven is soon to come because it was doomed to perish the moment Jiang Zemin ordered the persecution of Falun Gong in July 1999. Most of its officials have been deceived by the regime, and they do not realize that they will also fall with it when it completely sinks.

The exposure of Masanjia lets people recognize more clearly the CCP’s evilness. Those who thought that the persecution of Falun Gong had nothing to do with them can now see that it is a persecution of all mankind. When so many people closed their eyes to the persecution of Falun Gong, many CCP agents simply sharpened their skills for killing people. Many disasters and murders in society have been perpetrated by those evil agents, and they have lost their humanity in the process of persecuting Falun Gong.

Now the CCP has accelerated its demise. From the surface, the regime is trying to abolish the forced labor system, but the reality is that heaven wants people to recognize the CCP’s nature clearly.

No matter whether you are a guard in a forced labor camp or in a prison, it is time that you wake up from the dream that has been created for you. When the crime of persecuting Falun Gong is completely exposed to the world–that is the time heaven will annihilate the CCP. That day is near.

Chinese version available

CATEGORY: Opinion & Perspective

I Have Seen Dungeons in Masanjia Forced Labor Camp

May 07, 2013 | By a practitioner from China

(Minghui.org) After reading the online articles that expose the horrors of the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp, I know that what they describe is nothing new to Falun Gong practitioners or inmates who have been detained there.

The Dark Chamber of Masanjia

In the article “Exposing the Evil in the Donggang Dark Chamber of Masanjia,” the author stated, “Donggang’s fourth chamber in the third brigade of Masanjia Labor Camp was decorated like a secret room. The windows were sealed with newspapers, cardboard and curtains. It looked completely dark upon entering it. Police officer Zhang Lili has often tortured Falun Gong practitioners in this room. The room is about 30 square meters, and there is a ‘stretching bed,’ whips, handcuffs, and loudspeakers. All the walls and floors were painted with images that slander Falun Dafa. One of the walls hangs the word ‘Transformation‘ in red, about 28 inches tall. When one turns on the power, the word “Transformation’ looks very colorful, dazzling, and flashing. When the police came in to deliver food, he had to turn off the light.”

Although no one has witnessed Falun Gong practitioners being brutalized inside the chamber firsthand, what they look like after being held there is incriminating evidence of the torture that goes on there. Practitioners tortured there are usually taken downstairs to the cafeteria on the first floor from the fourth floor by either a fellow practitioner or inmate. Most practitioners couldn’t walk and would fall after taking a few steps. If the tortured practitioner is taken downstairs by a fellow practitioner, then she suffers less. But if an inmate carries her, she is often beaten and verbally abused. This has become commonplace inside Masanjia Labor Camp.

Dungeons in Masanjia

There is a packaging workshop in the Third Brigade of Masanjia with a large plant attached to it. It looks like a warehouse from the outside. In May and June of 2012, the police forced newly-admitted practitioners and those working at the shop to clean up the “warehouse.” As they were cleaning it, they saw a huge iron plate on the floor. They removed it and saw a huge, black hole. Foul-smelling gas billowed out of it. There were wire nets and bars inside the hole.

There are five such black holes inside the warehouse. All of the practitioners cleaning up the warehouse saw them. The main entrance to the black holes is located in the middle of the back wall of the warehouse. The door was left open and there was a bench next to it. This is the location of the infamous dungeons in Masanjia. It looks like a warehouse from the outside, but, indeed, there are dungeons where practitioners are persecuted.

Chinese version available

CATEGORY: Imprisonment & Forced Labor

Ms. Li Xintong in Critical Condition from Torture–Still Being Held in Changchun Women’s Forced Labor Camp

May 07, 2013 | By a Minghui correspondent in Jilin Province, China

Name: Li Xintong (李欣桐)
Gender: Female
Age: Early thirties
Date of Most Recent Arrest: August 9, 2012
Most Recent Place of Detention: Changchun Women’s Forced Labor Camp (also known as Heizuizi Forced Labor Camp) (长春黑嘴子劳教所) 
Detention City: Changchun
Detention Province: Jilin
Persecution Suffered: Forced labor, brainwashing, illegal sentencing, forced injections/drug administration, beatings, imprisonment, physical restraint, mental hospital, detention.

(Minghui.org) Ms. Li Xintong, from Jilin City, Jilin Province, has been detained in the Heizuizi Women’s Forced Labor Camp of Changchun. Four months into her forced labor camp term, she was subjected to forced injections and drug administration, which caused severe heart disease symptoms, including marginal lung function resulting in restricted oxygen intake, heart palpitation, heavy breathing, and stiffness in the chest. Camp authorities refused to acknowledge her critical condition and refused to release her for medical treatment. Ms. Li’s husband Yu Hong, her father Li Zhijun, and mother Guo Hongqin were also arrested at the same time as Ms. Li.

Ms. Li’s husband’s parents went to visit her on December 19, 2012, and observed her poor health condition. They requested a meeting with the labor camp director on December 24, but were told that he was unavailable. They then asked to see Ms. Li, but were told that she was involved with an ongoing team activity that morning. They returned that afternoon, but the authorities told them that the person in charge of family visitation was not in. They were finally allowed to see Ms. Li at the end of the day, but had little time with her.

December 26, 2012 was the day scheduled for families to meet with the labor camp director, so Ms. Li’s in-laws came again, however the director refused to see them. Later, captain Shen Minglian of the third team came to meet with them. They requested Ms. Li’s release on bail for medical treatment, but captain Shen claimed that the labor camp staff could adequately treat her condition. They then asked that Ms. Li not be forced to do hard labor, but captain Shen immediately refused.

Ms. Li and her husband Yu Hong were arrested at home on August 9, 2012 by officers from the Henan Street Police Station, including deputy chief Wu Tao, Domestic Security Team captain Yu Weidong, Shao Guangmin, Li Wenbo, and Zhang Yuhui. That same day, officers also went to her parents’ home and arrested her father Li Zhijun and mother Guo Hongqin, who are in their sixties.

Ms. Li’s family was arrested simply for believing in Falun Gong. After more than twenty days of detention at the Jilin City Detention Center, they were all sentenced to forced labor without legal notification. Ms. Li and her husband were sentenced to one year and three months, and her parents to one year of forced labor. Ms. Li’s father and husband were taken to the Zhaoyanggou Men’s Forced Labor Camp of Changchun on August 27, 2012, while Ms. Li and her mother were taken to the Heizuizi Women’s Forced Labor Camp of Changchun. Ms. Li’s mother was detained in the first team and Ms. Li in the third team. Although they were being held in the same facility, they were not allowed to see each other.

For fourteen years, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been carrying out the inhumane and desperate persecution of kindhearted people who are steadfast in their beliefs and actually provide benefits for the country.

Ms. Li is in her early thirties and was a healthy, optimistic, and kindhearted Falun Gong practitioner. The authorities from the Heizuizi Forced Labor Camp subjected her to brainwashing sessions and administration of unknown drugs, both of which were undisclosed by the authorities. The drug injection caused the severe heart disease symptoms mentioned above.

Rather than providing Ms. Li with proper medical treatment, the labor camp authorities continued forcing her to do hard labor from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. daily. She was beaten for not finishing her daily quota. This intense hard labor is illegal and would even be difficult for a healthy and strong person to perform. Labor camp guards also forced Ms. Li to ingest a large pill, but refused to identify its content or purpose.

The third team guards monitored every family visitation session, then threatened Ms. Li not to inform anyone about her persecution in the camp.

Ms. Li’s in-laws are extremely concerned about her condition and situation, and have continuously attempted to communicate with the forced labor camp authorities in order to resolve these issues. They are both nearly 70 years old, and spend their entire day trying to visit their son and daughter-in-law, even on freezing cold winter days. One can only imagine their anguish and hardship.

The Heizuizi Women’s Forced Labor Camp has been persecuting many Falun Gong practitioners for the past thirteen years. We ask everyone for help, and please lend a helping hand to facilitate Ms. Li’s release.

Individuals and organizations responsible for this persecution:

Changchun Women’s Forced Labor Camp (also known as Heizuizi Labor Camp), Changchun, Jilin Province
P. O. Box 1085, Nanguang District, Changchun City, Jilin Province, zip code: 130022
Main telephone: +86-431-85384312
Chen Yuxia, director: +86-431-85384312 extension 8001
Deputy director: +86-431-85384312 extension 8002
Yan Lifeng and Li Ying, co-captains of the first team: +86-431-85384312 extension 6101
Shen Minglian and Liu Ying, co-captains of the third team: +86-431-85384312 extension 6103
Zhu Dan and Jin Lihua, co-captains of the fourth team: +86-431-85384312 extension 6104
Li Hong, deputy director, “education program”
Meng Xiangmin, secretary, Discipline Commission

Henan Police Station, Chuanying District, Jilin, Jilin Province
Address: Houyu Lane, Henan Street, Chuanying District, Jilin, Jilin Province, zip code: 132000
Li You, officer, Henan Police Station: 13844231238
Main telephone(s): +86-432-62072110, +86-432-62072119, +86-432-62072102
Gao Xin, police chief: +86-13944278900
Wu Tao, deputy chief: +86-13944646663

Chinese version available

CATEGORY: Accounts of Persecution