(Minghui.org) Mr. Shang Chunguang used to work as deputy head of a tax office in the Longtan Subdivision of Jilin City Land Taxation Bureau. After July 1999, when China’s former president Jiang Zemin launched the persecution of Falun Gong, Mr. Shang lost his job and was illegally put under administration detention three times. He was also twice detained under criminal detention and twice sent to forced labor camps, where he was brutally tortured and witnessed the violent deaths of other Falun Gong practitioners at the hands of guards.
His family members also endured much suffering and pain. They were constantly harassed and threatened. His elderly mother developed a heart condition due to fear and anxiety, his young child was discriminated against by his teachers and classmates, and his brother was denied promotion and a salary increase because he practices Falun Gong.
Even today, he and his family are constantly monitored, especially around “sensitive dates.”
Mr. Shang filed his criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin with the Supreme People’s Procuratorate in June 2016, demanding that Jiang be investigated and brought to justice, along with other perpetrators in the persecution.
The following is a brief summary of Mr. Shang’s suffering and the cruelty he witnessed in detention centers and forced labor camps.
Mr. Shang was arrested on November 25, 2000. He was first taken to Longtan Police Substation and tied to an “iron chair” for two days and nights. He was not given any food or water. He was also beaten violently and forced to stand in the snow at night in thin clothes. Later he was taken to Jilin No. 3 Detention Center.
He also witnessed the torture and death of a young practitioner from Changyi District of Jilin City:
“Three days after I was taken to the detention center, I saw a young man about 28 in handcuffs and shackles. I learned that his name was Wang Lixin. One night, I heard guards beating someone with wooden clubs next door, and I could hear Wang Lixin’s screams. The beating went on for a long time. The next day, I heard that Wang’s legs and ribs were broken. The guards beat him again the next night, and Wang’s screams gradually stopped. He suffocated while being force-fed highly concentrated salt water. A young life was brutally ended in a matter of a few days,” Mr. Shang wrote.
Mr. Shang was illegally arrested again in 2005 for sending text messages to raise awareness of the persecution of Falun Gong and was held in the same detention center for ten days. He went on a hunger strike to protest the illegal detention and was force-fed twice a day, which was extremely painful.
When Mr. Shang was arrested in November 2000, he was sent to Huanxiling Forced Labor Camp in Jilin for two years. Besides being tortured, he was involved in the “March 14” incident in 2001:
“Around March 10, a young Falun Gong practitioner went to fetch some water. Because he did not report to the guard on duty first, his face was beaten black and blue, and his mouth and nose were bleeding. He was also locked up in solitary confinement for three days,” Mr. Shang recounted.
“We went on a hunger strike to protest how he had been treated. On March 14, all the guards in the forced labor camp started to retaliate. I was taken to an office and beaten with spiked clubs and shocked with a number of electric batons at the same time. They punched and kicked me. I rolled on the floor in pain.”
“I heard later that a number of practitioners were seriously injured that day. Mr. Niu Junhui from Shulan was taken to the hospital and never came back. Mr. Hou Zhanhai’s ribs were broken, and his lungs were injured. He was transferred to Liaoyuan Forced Labor Camp, but a few months later he was sent home and died from his injuries.”
Because Huanxiling Labor Camp authorities feared that news of what happened in the camp on March 14 would get out, practitioners who had been tortured the worst were transferred to other labor camps. Mr. Shang Chunguang and 14 other practitioners were sent to Baiquan Forced Labor Camp in Liaoyuan, where they were forced to do intense forced labor during the day and tortured in all kinds of ways at night, including hanging and burning.
Six months later, on December 24, 2001, they were transferred to Chaoyanggou Forced Labor Camp in Changchun City. The abuses there was even worse.
Every newcomer was stripped naked and given a savage beating when he arrived at the camp.
Practitioners were subjected to all kinds of torture, such as not being allowed to use the toilet for lengthy periods of time, forcing them to soil their pants, being forced to stand still for long hours, sleep deprivation, forced labor, brutal beatings with sticks, planks, and leather belts, and electric shocks. Some had thumbtacks pressed into their palms or bamboo skewers rammed under their fingernails, causing excruciating pain.
Mr. Sui Futao arrived at the camp the same day as Mr. Shang. When he said at a meeting that Falun Gong was wronged, he was severely beaten and tortured.
“Before he even finished his sentence, three thugs lashed him with a thick leather belt and beat him. His head swelled up like a balloon. When another practitioner tried to stop them, they lashed his face seven or eight times. While all this was going on, the head of the education section of the camp looked on with pleasure,” Mr. Shang recounted.
“Later, they tied Mr. Sui’s hands behind his back and hung him up on a bunk bed. Mr. Sui passed out from the pain. Over the next few months, they continued to torture Mr. Sui until he died in April 2002.”
Mr. Shang said he was lucky that he is still alive, because many practitioners he knew lost their lives during the persecution.
“What I experienced is a true portrayal of the suffering of an ordinary Falun Gong practitioner in China, and a tiny example of the brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners by Jiang Zemin and his followers. Jiang Zemin and his criminal accomplices must be brought to justice, and they must bear full legal responsibility for their crimes,” wrote Mr. Shang in his complaint.
In 1999, Jiang Zemin, as head of the Chinese Communist Party, overrode other Politburo standing committee members and launched the violent suppression of Falun Gong.
The persecution has led to the deaths of many Falun Gong practitioners during the past 16 years. More have been tortured for their belief and even killed for their organs. Jiang Zemin is directly responsible for the inception and continuation of the brutal persecution.
Under his personal direction, the Chinese Communist Party established an extralegal security organ, the “610 Office,” on June 10, 1999. The organization overrides police forces and the judicial system in carrying out Jiang's directive regarding Falun Gong: to ruin their reputations, cut off their financial resources, and destroy them physically.
Chinese law allows for citizens to be plaintiffs in criminal cases, and many practitioners are now exercising that right to file criminal complaints against the former dictator.