Zhu Chunlin’s testimony explains what “strict control and punishment” and “strengthened learning” mean in Chinese prisons: torture.
by Qi Junzao
Zhu Chunlin is a Christian from Shenzhen, who was sentenced for “illegal fundraising.” He bravely denounced what happened to him in jail, which is further evidence of the use of torture as routine in Chinese prisons. He sent a long statement to several human rights organizations, which was published in Chinese by “Weiquanwang” on September 11.
Zhu describes his “experience of serving my sentence in the 15th Ward of Qingyuan Prison… The 15th Ward mainly produces clothing. I was in the first sub-ward.” Zhu “was transferred from the Bao’an District Detention Center in Shenzhen to the Qingyuan Prison in Guangdong province in May 2017. After one month of prison training, [he] was transferred to the First Sub-District of the Fifteenth District to receive so-called education and labor reform.”
There, Zhu was submitted to “the strict control and punishment commonly known as ‘target shooting’ among inmates. It is implemented by some so-called master prisoners and prison police, such as team leaders, quality inspectors, and mail clerks, according to some unwritten rules they set themselves. Every afternoon before finishing work on the working day, they gather at the police duty desk to sign up. When the work is over, the police announces the list of targeted persons through loudspeakers, and then a special person is responsible for the policy execution.”
“When queuing for a group meal,” Zhu reports, “the targeted inmate is asked to stand in line at the back and wait. He can only get his meal after everyone else has gotten theirs. As for the quality and quantity of the food that he receives, no one can guarantee it. During the lunch break, the targeted inmates are not allowed to sleep or rest, but must line up in the corridor outside the dormitory until the lunch break is over. During the free time after the evening assembly, the targeted inmates must line up at a designated location and stand for a period of time, usually in a function room or exercise area. Sometimes they are taken to the playground outside the building (I was once taken to the playground outside in winter and stood there freezing).”
Additionally, “these practices are routinized and often carried out without any pause” under the name of “strengthened learning.” When Zhu objected that these punishments were illegal, two police officers, he reports, “put handcuffs and leg irons on me. The handcuffs were common handcuffs, but the leg irons were very special. They were heavy iron shackles made of two locked iron rings and three iron lumps in the middle. They were cylindrical iron objects and weighed about 15 kilograms in total. They put two iron rings around my feet and locked them around my ankles. For a period of time afterwards, I could only walk with difficulty dragging the heavy iron shackles. I spent every day accompanied by the prisoners they arranged. Whether I was going to the workshop or back to the dormitory, I could only drag myself step by step. Sometimes I couldn’t drag myself anymore, so I had to lift the three iron lumps in the middle with my hands so that my feet could move. But walking like this was also very hard, and I had to bend over and hold them with both hands. In addition, it was even more difficult to go up and down the stairs. I had to stop several times along the way.. I must not slip and fall and roll down, otherwise my legs would be broken. The physical pain and mental harm caused by that torture was really beyond words.”
“At night,” Zhu continues, “I was handcuffed and shackled all night long. They were cold and made it hard to move. You can imagine how uncomfortable it was. I had only seen others wearing this kind of torture before, and people in other prisons had also worn it. I didn’t expect that this time it would be my turn to experience it myself. However, while I was wearing this kind of torture, the ‘strict control’ and abuse were still enforced on me without any reduction.”
“That was.” Zhu explains, “the darkest moment in my life. I could only endure it silently and pray to the Lord for mercy! Later, I could no longer endure it and it was difficult for me to persist. The Spring Festival was approaching, so I had to follow their orders and write a self-criticism. I read it out in public in the entire prison area during dinner… I was forced to admit that I was wrong to disobey their punishment measures and promised to obey them in the future.”
Finally, Zhu says, it was his Christian faith that carried him through abuse and torture. He expresses his confidence that, in his own ways, God will look at his Chinese people and put an end to all this.
Source: BITTER WINTER
