Testimony of Zhang Hongjuan

Dec. 10, 2001

My name is Zhang Hongjuan (Xu Tong kge), and I am 20 years old. On Aug. 14, 2001 I was arrested by officers of the Shi Pai Police Station. The police officers interrogated me with severe torture before sending me to the Detention Center of Zhong Xiang Police Department.

At this Detention Center they tortured me further. They put shackles on my hands and feet, and used electric clubs to touch my whole body, especially my chest. I had no strength to resist such assaults, so I called them “rogues.” It enraged them to more violent acts. They forcefully unbuttoned my shirt, tearing off one button, and touched every spot of my chest with the electric club. I yelled at the top of my voice, but they moved the club into my mouth to stop me from crying. “It’s useless to call for help. No one will come. You’re in the hands of the Communist Party. The Party has given us these electric clubs, shackles fetters for the very purpose of dealing with you!” One of the men pulled at his pants and threatened: “When I’m angry, I will take off your clothes and give you a good beating. You said we shouldn’t unbutton your shirt? I won’t be held accountable even if I strip you naked and strike you hard.” I was one of many people tortured in this way, and my torture was lighter than theirs. I don’t know why they tortured me so cruelly.

The following is my testimony of the greater humiliation and torture suffered by my fellow inmates. I will describe what I saw and heard in person. Fengjiu, who is only 15 years old, also had her chest, hands and feet touched and injured by their electric club. When Li Li (Tongjin) saw the blisters on Fengjiu’s body, she exclaimed that the policemen had violated her human rights. The policemen overhead her and took note of it. When it was Li Li’s turn to be interrogated, they sneered: “So you mentioned human rights. I will treat you as subhuman and give you no human rights. Are you still a human?” With these words they came up to her and tore at her blouse. She held it tight, so they abused her with these words: “You talked of holiness and purity. But you’re a sham! Tell us the truth: How many times have you slept with your teacher [referring to Gong Shengliang]?” Li Li flew into a rage: “You slanderers!” she shouted and demanded: “Let’s go to a hospital to check it out!” Hearing this challenging statement, they dared not push this any further, yet they still would not let her go. They continued to torment her by inserting the electric club underneath her shirt to burn her chest and her lower parts, pulling off her hair by handfuls from her head, and splashing water unto her face. For a whole day, a whole night and yet another whole morning she was continuously tortured. The police spared no means of torture to get information from us.

Wang Lan, nearly beaten to death, had passed out several times. Seeing that she couldn’t eat anything, the police insisted that she was pregnant by having sexual intercourse with the teacher [Gong Shengliang], whom they wanted to put to death. Believing they had got hold of some material evidence against Gong, they brought Wang Lan to a hospital for a pregnancy test, but they were disappointed by the result. Tong Cuijuan underwent the same torture. They beat her up, hoping for a confession that she had slept with her teacher [Gong Shengliang]. When they used electric clubs to touch her breasts, anger gave her courage to call them “base.” They unbuttoned all but two buttons on her shirt and pulled it down. Her chest was exposed for their humiliation. Later they announced: “A 3-year sentence will be unfair for Tonghao (Cuijuan) because she cooperated with us very satisfactorily.” They said this as if they had got what they had wanted from Tonghao.

Chi Faling, too, had her chest and lower parts touched by electric clubs. The police tortured us in this ruthless manner for no other purpose but to get “verbal and material evidence” to accuse and incriminate our teacher [Gong Shengliang].