Radio Free Asia (RFA) published Wednesday's report reveals that “graphic torture” is “standard practice” in Chinese police interrogations, including abuse so severe that one victim fell into a coma and died. I made it.
The victim in question was Sun Renze, a 30-year-old resident of East Turkestan, an occupied region inhabited by oppressed Uyghur Muslims. Mr. Sun was not a Uyghur, but the son of a Han Chinese police officer who died in the line of duty.
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Sun was arrested in 2018 during a crackdown on gang activity by Xinjiang police. He reportedly worked as a “debt collector.” Police arrested him using China's all-purpose crime of “picking a fight and causing trouble,'' which allows anyone who the Chinese Communist Party deems to be a nuisance to be arrested.
According to a since-deleted article on Chinese economic news site Caixin, police searched Sun for information about the death of a woman named Deng Xuefei, who fell from a building during a visit by Sun and other debt collectors. It is said that they pursued it rigorously. This suggests that Sun and other collectors either killed the woman or harassed her into jumping out of her window when demanding her cash.
The police's “interrogation” of Sun became so intense that Sun's screams were so loud that the police decided to drag him to the cellar of the detention center. One of the officers was instructed to turn off the surveillance cameras in the basement, but secretly kept one of the cameras running because he wanted to have some recourse in case he was accused of wrongdoing.
Protesters are detained by police near the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Hong Kong's Hung Hom district on November 18, 2019. (Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images)
The officers, unaware that they were being videotaped, worked for hours on end to “completely destroy Sun Renze's spirit.” Caixin reported as follows:
Surveillance video shows that over a period of more than seven hours, from 4 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., Sun Renze was subjected to waterboarding, either directly or with a towel, more than 10 times, two of which lasted for more than 15 minutes. They were also forced to repeatedly carry a steel chair and dumbbells back and forth for 40 minutes.
In the video, you can't see Sun Renze's expression or reaction when the interrogators waterboard him, but you can see the steel frame bed shaking violently for a long time, and you can imagine how much he was in pain. I can do it.'' the witness told the court.
Sun's interrogators also slapped him in the face, hit him in the calves and heels with a white PVC pipe, and administered electric shocks with an old-fashioned telephone while tied to a bed.
Sun emerged from the basement in a coma, bounced between several hospitals, and died several weeks later. His mother yelled, “Murderer!” I will never forgive you! ” At the November 2023 trial of the eight police officers involved in the torture sessions.
The offending police officer was eventually executed. prison sentence Between 3 and 13 years. One of them testified that his aim was to use the most sadistic methods available to “insult San Lenze's ego and destroy his psychological defenses.”
The Chinese Communist Party did not like Caixin's report on the torture trial, so censors removed it within minutes of its publication.
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Several former Chinese police officials told RFA that severe physical abuse is fairly common in Chinese law enforcement, especially when government officials quickly resolve politically sensitive cases. It is said that this will be noticeable if it is determined that it is necessary.
Zhang Xiaofeng, a former police officer, said, “When higher-ups say things like, “We need to solve this case within the next week,'' lower-level police officers will rush to investigate and start using “methods''.'' . “Method” is a common euphemism for torture in China.
“The police are a little more regulated when dealing with criminal cases, but they will do whatever they can in political cases,” said Guo Ming, a former deputy police chief.
“Based on my more than 10 years of experience in handling criminal cases, it is common for public security to use illegal methods such as torture, abuse, beatings, and intimidation when handling cases. It happens,” said Chen Jiangan, a US-based human rights lawyer.
Chen said Chinese law stipulates that all interrogations must be videotaped, but police are usually careful to turn off cameras before abusing detainees, making Sun's torture difficult. He pointed out that the video is extremely rare physical evidence.
“Torture is terrible. This is a humanitarian disaster,” Chen said.
This photo taken on May 31, 2019 shows the exterior of a complex containing what appears to be a re-education camp where mainly Muslim ethnic minorities are detained, on the outskirts of Hotan, in northwestern China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. It shows. (GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images)
Until now, the Chinese government has accused It is alleged that the Uyghurs were tortured by forcing millions of Uyghurs into vast concentration camps. Chinese authorities generally deny these charges and criticize the credibility of the accusers. former Chinese law enforcement officials said they witnessed scenes of torture.
In July 2021, a Uighur woman survived After two months in a Chinese concentration camp, her facility witnessed “unbelievable” torture on captive Uyghurs who had pledged allegiance to dictator Xi Jinping and refused to accept him as “God” was said to have occurred frequently.
In May 2022, a large amount of internal documents of the Chinese Communist Party related to Uighur camps were discovered. exposure by hacker.part of the document mention to physically abusive behavior.
China has also been accused of human rights abuses in Tibet. In December 2022, the U.S. government will imposed sanctions It accused two senior Chinese officials of “serious human rights violations” against Tibetans, including the torture and killing of prisoners of war.
