Jidong Prison

Jidong Prison is publically known as Hebei Nanbao Salt Field, which was built in 1956 and stands as the largest salt field in the country. Located in Bohai Bay, it occupies 300 square kilometers. Underneath the surface, this location actually holds Jidong Prison, a locus of severe Falun Gong persecution in Hebei.

Most of the male practitioners in Hebei province have been sentenced and detained in Jidong Prison at least once before. At minimum, 320 Falun Gong practitioners have been imprisoned here. Every practitioner was tortured both physically and mentally. The torture methods include sleep deprivation, force-feeding, isolation, suffocation, subjection to the “death bed” or “iron chair”, etc. At least 20 practitioners were tortured to death.

Featured Prisoners of Conscience

Mr. Chen Aili was a Falun Gong practitioner from Canfangying Village in Zhangjiakou City. Jidong police cuffed Chen to a chair for twelve days straight, burned his ears with a lighter, hung him on the prison gates, poured boiling water on him, shocked him with electric batons, slammed his face into the wall, forcibly injected unknown drugs into his body, deprived him of sleep for nearly two weeks, and the entire squadron took turns physically assaulting him for 24 hours.

Chen developed rectal bleeding, cardiac abnormalities, yet the police refused to release him. He passed away at the age of 35.

Mr. Chen Baihe from Shalingzi Village, Hebei Province began practicing Falun Gong in 2005. He was jailed in Jidong Prison for passing out flyers, where the disparate conditions increased his blood pressure to 180-220.

Guards forced him to take drugs they claim were “antihypertensive” everyday, but he developed symptoms of decreased eyesight and skin rashes. By 2009, he was completely blind in his left eye.

The torture he experienced could not be documented because in May 2010, upon his release, Chen Baihe came home with severe dementia, impaired reflexes and mental comprehension, muscle weakness, incoherent speech, and he was nearly blind in his right eye as well. Chen was 59 when he passed away, and crematorium staff alleged he was poisoned after they saw his bones were black.