CCP Develops ‘Torture Toolbox’ to Persecute Female Prisoner of Conscience, Husband Calls for Immediate Release

By Henry Jom

MELBOURNE, Australia—The husband of a female Falun Gong practitioner has called on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to immediately release his wife following an horrendous account of sexual torture used against her by CCP “trained personnel.”

Speaking at a press conference outside the Chinese Consulate in Melbourne on Aug. 15, the women’s husband Qi Xiong detailed the torture his wife Jiang Yongqin—52-year-old university lecturer, and mother-of-three—went through as she was coerced into renouncing her faith in Falun Gong, an ancient spiritual practice that is currently banned in China.

“Between 2:00 and 3:00 p.m. on July 7 or 8, the police covered my wife’s head with a black hood, put earplugs in her ears and dragged her from the hotel to a secret location, where she was sexually assaulted by the officers. They used a grave new form of torture called the “toolbox,” which contained toothpicks, instruments, medicine bottles, wires, aphrodisiacs, and other torture devices, all of which were designed to inflict excruciating pain upon the victim,” Qi said.

According to Qi, four men first sprayed mustard oil into Jiang’s nostrils, added lit cigarettes, and then left the cigarette butts inside her nostrils. Jiang later coughed the butts out through her mouth.

Seeing that Jiang would not give them the information they wanted, the “trained personnel”  then instructed other men to sexually assault Jiang using items from the “toolbox.” When they found that she was menstruating, the expert claimed that the items would work even better.

Jiang Yongqin was tortured for almost two hours until she broke down, then forced to give up the password to her computer, and coerced into signing a statement renouncing her faith.

According to Qi, Jiang Yongqin’s latest abduction took place on July 21, where she is currently detained at the Shulan Detention Centre in Jilin City. Yongqin Jiang’s lawyer in mainland China has reportedly started on the case, Qi said.

Marc Bateman, a human rights advocate who also spoke at the press conference, said in democratic societies such as Australia, police are meant to protect the community and ensure the wellbeing of its citizens.

“But police in China are instructed by the Communist apparatus to sexually assault prisoners of conscience in order to renounce their beliefs, their freedoms and their own human sanctity,” Bateman said.

Jiang’s oldest daughter, Amily, who was also at the press conference urged for the release of her mother.

“My heart is really heavy,” she said. “The four police officers who persecuted my mother, especially the so-called “torture expert,” must be punished. The CCP has never changed. It is as evil as ever.”

Bateman also called on the CCP to cease all forms of torture against Falun Gong practitioners, immediately release Jiang Yongqin including other prisoners of conscience, and for the Australian and global community to hold the CCP accountable for these human rights abuses.

Background to Jiang Yongqin

Jiang was a teacher at the Experimental Teaching Center for Mechanical Basis at Zhejiang Sci-Tech University when she was first abducted by the police on Sept. 26, 2009. In Feb. 2010, she was sentenced to three years in prison and sent to the Zhejiang Women’s Prison, leaving her then 4-year old daughter and elderly and sickly in-laws with no one to care for them.

Since the persecution started in 1999, the police have frequently harassed Jiang and her family and interrupted her employment.

On June 12, local police abducted her and her family, including her 8-year old daughter, from their current residence in Jilin. The police also ransacked her home and confiscated her computer and cell phone.

The family members were later released, but Jiang remained in detention at an unknown location.

According to a report by Minghui.org, a U.S.-based clearinghouse that collects first-hand information on the persecution of Falun Gong from China, the Ministry of Public Security was involved in the abduction of Jiang for “unknown reasons.”

The Special Disciplinary Office (SDO) under the Jilin provincial public security department has been identified as the security department involved in Jiang’s abduction, according to the report.

China Analyst Says Torture Method ‘Systematic Protocol for Persecution’

China analyst, Heng He, said this case stands out for the fact that the so-called expert was dispatched from a higher level and used a “toolbox” or “kit” with protocols that contained drugs for interrogation.

“This type of sexual persecution is far different from the past,” Heng said.

Heng explained that torture interrogation has been a systemic tool under the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). For example, the iron chair and electric batons are known as CCP tools of torture in the international community.

The application of drugs and sexual assault in the CCP’s arsenal are all too common, said Heng.

He explained that CCP has always engaged in exploring methods of torture that are rare in other countries.

He believes the so-called expert is actually someone specialised in finding ways to torture a detainee to the extreme, without killing them, in order to get the information the authorities desire.

Since the beginning of the persecution from July 1999, similar claims of torture have been reported, Heng said.

According to the Falun Dafa information Center, a bill titled “H.R. 6319, the Falun Gong Protection Act” has been introduced into the U.S. Congress to combat this and other crimes against humanity perpetrated against Falun Gong practitioners.

Mary Hong contributed to this report.