For more than sixty years, the Chinese communist regime has had its way by destroying people's wills and forcing them into submission through political persecution, torture, and killing. On paper there are laws prohibiting torture, ratified by China, but these are violated. When Jiang Zemin launched the persecution campaign against Falun Gong, he gave the threefold command: "destroy their reputation, bankrupt them financially, and destroy them physically". He added: “It is not a crime to beat a Falun Gong practitioner to death. If a Falun Gong practitioner is beaten to death, it is counted as a suicide.” No mistreatment of Falun Gong practitioners was therefore considered too extreme and the perpetrators (police, the 6-10 Office, guards of forced labour camps, etc.) committed crimes with impunity.
It is not a crime to beat a Falun Gong practitioner to death. If a Falun Gong practitioner is beaten to death, it is counted as a suicide.
– Jiang Zemin
Human rights workers have also compiled over 100 methods of corporal torture methods used against Falun Gong practitioners. The articles in this section focus on the different forms of torture Falun Gong practitioners are subjected to in China and its horrible consequences. Some of the most frequently applied methods of physical torture include beatings, high-voltage electric shocks, force-feeding, exposure to extreme heat or extreme cold, being folded up in small cages, and being handcuffed for extended periods of time in unusual positions.
Even common activities are turned into torture methods in China's prisons and labour camps. For example, standing in one place is something that most people do every day for short periods of time, but when forced to stand without moving for 12 or 16 hours without a break, it becomes a method of torture. Another form of torture frequently used on Falun Gong practitioners is sleep deprivation. For days on end they are tied up in impossible positions or woken up with a beating, a sharp object or a loud sound the moment they fall asleep. The consequences are disastrous. People become disoriented, have no sense of time or space and the basic functions of the human body deteriorate to such an extent that some have a total breakdown.
