According to a report on the minghui.org website on August 20, 2007, Falun Gong practitioner Xiong Wenqi recently revealed that he was tortured at Shanghai Tilanqiao Prison. Because of his faith in Falun Gong, Mr. Xiong was savagely beaten, and as a result his scalp was so badly lacerated that his skull was exposed, he was paralyzed from the waist down, and his blood pressure dropped to 40/21 resulting in shock.
The 35-year-old Mr. Xiong Wenqi had been an employee of the Industrial and Commercial Administration in Putuo District of Shanghai. He started practicing Falun Gong in 1997. The Chinese communist regime banned Falun Gong in 1999, and Mr. Xiong thought that the government suppression of practitioners must be because of some misunderstanding. Out of trust in the government, he sent 17 letters to authorities at various levels, explaining about the merits of Falun Gong. In those letters, Mr. Xiong described the positive changes in his mind and body resulting from the practice of Falun Gong to show that Falun Gong had every benefit, not an ounce of harm, for the state and the citizens of China.
Hence, he was arrested every time he petitioned for Falun Gong, and each time he was arrested the Shanghai Tilanqiao Prison would torture him until he almost died before releasing him on medical parole. As soon as he recovered a little, he would be picked up again. In the years he was being held at the Shanghai Tilanqiao Prison, he was put in solitary confinement, allowed no visits from his family or friends, and tied to a bed for a year. There were times when he could not control his bladder and bowels. Eventually, the muscles in his whole body began to atrophy and he became paralyzed from the waist down.
It was April 2005 when the prison police ordered and abetted other prisoners to continuously torture a paralyzed and physically weak Mr. Xiong using inhumane methods. They poured pepper powder and essential balm into his nose and rubbed the mixture into his eyes. They lifted him up and threw him on the cement floor and against the brick walls, saying this was helping him to loosen up his muscles and tendons.
In order to get their prison terms reduced for one or two years, the inmates woke Mr. Xiong up, whose muscles had shrunk, at 5 or 6 a.m. and forced him to sit until 8 or 9 p.m. Mr. Xiong had to sit on a “customized bench,” one with a bumpy surface, for 15 hours a day. The resulting pain made him feel like and he'd rather die than live. If he refused to sit as ordered, he would not be allowed to sleep that night.
Moreover, the prisoners slapped his face and kicked his back. His face became deformed from the bruises and swelling. His scalp was lacerated so deeply that his skull was exposed. Prison police told his family that he had inflicted the injuries on himself. His family found him slumped in a wheel chair, paralyzed, too weak to raise his head, and unable to pick up a telephone. It was not until after the family’s strong demand for medical parole that he was sent to a hospital for treatment.
Not long after that, on April 15, his family received a notice from the hospital, saying Mr. Xiong was in critical condition. He had gone into shock, and his blood pressure had dropped to 40/21. With repeated requests from the family and the help of friends and relatives, Mr. Xiong was cleared of all crimes and released on April 19.
Mr. Xiong Wenqi allegedly weighed nearly 200 pounds before he was arrested, but only a little over 100 pounds after he was released.
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