Imprisoned in China for Practicing Falun Gong, Wife Tortured to Death in Labor Camp
[PHOTO CAPTION: Dr. Sa Geng speaks at a rally in front of the old court in St. Louis on July 20, 2015 about the criminal complaint he filed against former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, the architect of the persecution of Falun Gong. Dr. Geng was three times imprisoned in China for his belief. His wife died from torture in a labor camp in 2003. (Minghui.org)]
Dr. Sa Geng was an associate professor at a university in Henan Province, China. He began practicing Falun Gong in 1994, when Falun Gong was very popular and respected in China. But after 1999, he and his wife, like millions of Falun Gong practitioners, were subjected to persecution. His wife was tortured to death in a forced labor camp.
The following is an abridged speech given by Mr. Geng at a public “Party-Quitting” event in San Diego on Dec. 30, 2007.
I came to the United States from China less than a month ago. I was a university teacher in Henan Province, and I have been practicing Falun Dafa for 13 years. Today I want to tell you about the persecution I have experienced under the rule of the evil Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The CCP has persistently persecuted me since April 25, 1999, after my wife and I participated in a peaceful appeal by more than 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners in Beijing. After that, several police cars would show up at our exercise practice site every morning. The policemen often interrogated and tailed us.
The intimidations culminated on July 20, 1999, when police stopped us by force from going to the exercise practice site, and took us to the local police station.
My wife was detained for one month for no reason other than practicing Falun Gong in the park. The Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, where I studied as a Ph.D. student, also dispatched security guards to watch me.
On Dec. 26, 1999, I went with several fellow students to the Beijing Shijingshan Intermediate Court to protest the illegal trial of several Falun Gong practitioners. I was then kidnapped by the police, sent to the headquarters of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and detained there for 3 days. The Academy tried to force me to denounce Falun Dafa, and began to monitor me more closely afterwards.
On May 13, 2000, I was again kidnapped by agents from the State Security Bureau because I provided free accommodation to several Falun Dafa practitioners who were forced out of their homes. I was unlawfully detained for over 20 days. The Institute of Botany then illegally deprived me of my doctoral degree, because I refused to give up practicing Falun Gong.
In December 2000, I accepted an associate professor position from a university in Henan Province. My wife and I kept mailing out truth-clarifying materials to people all over China to expose the illegal persecution of Falun Dafa, and on May 30, 2001, both of us were again kidnapped by officers of the local National Security Bureau and the police station. My wife was severely beaten and unlawfully imprisoned for the next three years, while I was detained for over 2 months.
While I was in custody, I went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. The guards force-fed me, causing serious injury to my teeth and body. Almost all of my teeth were knocked out, and I now have to wear dentures.
After I was released, my university immediately demoted me from associate professor to research assistant.
My wife, however, experienced much more brutal treatment at the Shibalihe Female Forced Labor Camp in Zhengzhou City. She was tortured to death on June 4, 2003.
When I went to visit her prior to her death, I often found her hands so weak that she could not lift anything. I later came to know that she had often been tortured with the “killer rope” because she refused to be brainwashed or “transformed.” With both her hands tied behind her back and feet lifted off the ground, she was hung for very long periods of time until she passed out from pain. This was all recorded in a letter she managed to pass to me.
The torture that finally put her to death is called “strapped clothes,” an extremely cruel torture with a type of straitjacket. According to witnesses of this torture, the victims are forced to wear these strait jackets, then their arms are tied up by the straps behind their back. Next, their arms are pulled to the front over their shoulders, and then tightly tied together with their legs. To make them suffer even more, the police will force them to wear headphones broadcasting defamatory programs about Falun Dafa. With their mouths covered, they are then hung from a widow frame.
The police usually put determined practitioners through this torture for at least 24 hours. This torture often caused the bones in shoulders, elbows, wrists or even the spine, to break. Many victims faint or die from the unbearable pain.
Following my wife’s death, I was kidnapped by the 610 Offices of Henan Province and Xinxiang City and detained in a hotel in Zhengzhou City. When they finally let me see my wife’s corpse, I found bruises on her body, big bumps on her head, and a deep dent on her head caused by severe beating with a steel rod.
Later, the police told me to sign some papers regarding my wife’s death. When I refused, they forced my hand. My wife’s body was hastily cremated, and I was given a death certificate with a fake signature.
From these experiences I realized that the CCP doesn’t know any restraint in persecuting people. They brainwash them, torture them and have committed so many evil deeds. It’s only right that the CCP should be disintegrated.