Falun Gong Woman Dies from Force Feeding Torture

NEW YORK (FDI) – Ms. Cui Ningning, a 46 year-old Falun Gong practitioner from Zhenzhou City, Henan Province, was arrested and later died on July 29, 2003, from force-feeding torture.

Ms. Cui was an employee of the Henan Province Grains and Oils Import & Export Corp. In May 2003, police arrested her because she was publicly distributing flyers exposing the persecution of Falun Gong in China.

According to sources familiar with her case, Ms. Cui was pressured by police in an attempt to coerce her to write a “guarantee statement” to give up her practice of Falun Gong. Numerous sources in China say police and detention center personnel are rewarded – usually monetarily and/or through promotion – for obtaining such “guarantee statements” from Falun Gong practitioners.

Despite the attempts, Ms. Cui refused to write the statement, so she was taken to the Heizhuang Detention Center in Jinshui District where she was sentenced to one-and-a-half years of forced labor.

Ms. Cui went on a hunger strike to protest her illegal arrest, detention and sentence. Consequently, detention center officials began to force-feed her. 

More often used as a torture technique than a method for supplying the victim with nutrients, more than 10% of all deaths of Falun Gong practitioners in Chinese custody have resulted from force feeding.

On one occasion while force-feeding Ms. Cui, an eyewitness reports that Detention Center Chief Cheng Haitao observed blood on the force-feeding tube, but told Ms. Cui, “Don’t even think about getting out, even if you bleed.”

By July 18, Ms. Cui had grown so emaciated and weak from the torturous force-feedings and other abuse that authorities grew wary of her dying in the detention center. Therefore, they ordered her sister to take her home.

Ms. Cui died eleven days later, on July 29, 2003.

Units responsible for her persecution and their telephone numbers in Zhenzhou City
(add 86-371 before each phone number except the cell phone)

Jinshui District Police Department: 6256038
Political and Security Section of Jinshui District Police Department: 6256038
Section chief: Li Xinjian: 86-13017662358 (cell)
Deputy Chief: Tao Wenyue

Jinshui District Detention Center: 5942156
Chief: Cheng Haitao. (an eyewitness says Cheng Haitao actively took part in torturing Falun Gong practitioners, and administered some of the fatal wounds to Ms. Cui)
Henan Province Grains and Oils Import & Export Corp: 3944901