• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • ABOUT CHINA
    • NEWS
    • TESTIMONIES
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • GLOSSARY
    • CHINA PERSECUTION MAP
  • FROM THE WORLD
    • NEWS GLOBAL
    • TESTIMONIES GLOBAL
    • OP-EDS GLOBAL
    • FEATURED GLOBAL
  • INTERVIEWS
  • DOCUMENTS AND TRANSLATIONS
    • DOCUMENTS
    • THE TAI JI MEN CASE
    • TRANSLATIONS
    • EVENTS
  • ABOUT
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • TOPICS

Bitter Winter

A magazine on religious liberty and human rights

three friends of winter
Home / China / Testimonies China

Drug Induced Torture of Believers at the Hands of Chinese Government

07/30/2018Jiang Tao |

torture
Credits: takomabibelot

A couple who are both members of The Church of Almighty God were arrested for their belief and tortured with drugs, among other methods.

In 1986, China signed the United Nations Convention Against Torture, also known as UNCAT. It was ratified two years later in 1988, but to date, China continues to flout the rules and regulations of the charter. It has been persecuting and torturing people for their religious beliefs and ethnicities. As much as 100 forms of torture are commonly used in China. Some of those include forcing victims to drink hot-chili water, mustard oil, fecal matter, concentrated brine; exposing the person to extreme hot or cold temperatures; inserting needles or bamboo sticks underneath the fingernails; and finally, drug-induced torture.

Of all forms of torture, drug-induced torture is the worst because there is little physical violence involved in this case and so, nobody has any reason to be suspicious. This is done by contaminating the victim’s food with a nerve-damaging drug over an extended period of time. As a result, victims can lose their memory, become delirious, develop incoherent speech, fall into a vegetative state, have hallucinations, and in some cases, might even die.

Recently, Bitter Winter received news of a Chinese couple that was subjected to the drug-induced forms of torture. Cheng Qicai and his wife Zhou Youxia from the Pukou district of Nanjing in Jiangsu Province are both in their late forties. They joined The Church of Almighty God, a Chinese Christian new religious movement, in 2012.

In October 2016, the police officers of the Tangquan station, led by Mr. Gao, showed up at the couple’s home without a warrant. Not only did they confiscate the couple’s laptops and cell phones, they also arrested both for “believing in Almighty God,” which is a “violation of the State law and a disturbance to social security.”

Following the arrest, both were taken to the basement of the Shixing Hotel nearby and were interrogated separately and secretly. And then, their nightmare began.

Cheng Qicai was kept in a small room. The officers would order him to remain standing against the wall and deprived him of sleep. His three meals provided by the police were laced with several drugs. On the third morning, Cheng finally felt sick and groggy from the drugs. But he still refused to answer questions about the Church. As a result, he was beaten mercilessly by four police officers and was left with several scars all over his body. He was also stripped down to his boxer shorts and made to stand in front of the air-conditioner, set to the freezing mode. Meanwhile, as he continued to eat the drug-laced meals provided by the police, he began to hallucinate as well. Even then, the beatings and abuse continued.

Nearby, his wife, Zhou Youxia, suffered a similar fate. Because she ate the food provided by the police, she began to hallucinate as well. She would “see” her family members being beaten to death by the police or “hear” people calling out her name. She also imagined believers and other people committing suicide. There were times when Ms. Youxia could not control herself and ended up provoking the officers by mocking them.  She would get beaten and slapped around as a result, and in one instance, her head was banged on the floor repeatedly until she became unconscious. In November 2016, however, she was taken to the Shifosi detention center for medical examination due to her growing injuries. When she transferred to the hospital next morning, it was found that she was suffering from a host of medical problems like lung infection, hypo-leukemia, high inositol, acute coronary syndrome, and severe muscular injury. While the officers were reluctant to get her treatment at first, they had to relent finally. Upon further examination, it was revealed that she was suffering from bilateral pubis fractures as well.

On the other hand, Mr. Qicai’s medical examination showed he had scapula ligament injuries and a broken rib. Fearing that both or either one of them might die while in detention, the police officers released the couple. Today, both are unable to take care of themselves physically and mentally.

Reported by Jiang Tao

Tagged With: The Church of Almighty God, Torture

Jiang Tao profile picture
Jiang Tao

Uses a pseudonym for security reasons.

Related articles

  • I Exposed Torture and Rape in the Xinjiang Camps: The CCP Wants Me Back

    I Exposed Torture and Rape in the Xinjiang Camps: The CCP Wants Me Back

  • Xie Jiao: China Updates the List—With Some New Entries

    Xie Jiao: China Updates the List—With Some New Entries

  • More than 10,000 Church of Almighty God Members Were Arrested in 2022

    More than 10,000 Church of Almighty God Members Were Arrested in 2022

  • Falun Gong: Xu Na’s 8-Year Sentence Confirmed On Appeal

    Falun Gong: Xu Na’s 8-Year Sentence Confirmed On Appeal

Keep Reading

  • Liu Xiyong: A Veteran Falun Gong Prisoner’s Suspicious Death in Jail
    Liu Xiyong: A Veteran Falun Gong Prisoner’s Suspicious Death in Jail

    The 80-year-old man from Liaoning province had spent years in prison and was repeatedly tortured.

  • Death of a Radio Host: Falun Gong Practitioner Pang Xun Beaten to Death in Jail
    Death of a Radio Host: Falun Gong Practitioner Pang Xun Beaten to Death in Jail

    A smuggled video appeared on social media in mid-February and documented yet another extrajudicial killing of a dissident in Chinese prisons.

  • Church of Almighty God Refugees: A Letter to the President of South Korea
    Church of Almighty God Refugees: A Letter to the President of South Korea

    The Church of Almighty God is the most persecuted religious movement in China. Its members who are in South Korea should not be deported back there.

  • How China and Russia Manipulate the George Floyd Case: A Uyghur View
    How China and Russia Manipulate the George Floyd Case: A Uyghur View

    Unlike in China, where police officers who kill or “disappear” Uyghurs such as Imammemet Ali are not punished, in the U.S. the officer who killed Floyd went to jail.

Primary Sidebar

Support Bitter Winter

Learn More

Follow us

Newsletter

Most Read

  • There Are Christian Uyghurs, Too: New Organization Launched in London by Ruth Ingram
  • The Last Words of a Uyghur Father: A Son’s Memory by Abdurehim Gheni Uyghur
  • Xi Jinping: Beijing’ National Art Museum Is Not Socialist Enough by Hu Zimo
  • Occupied Ukraine: Anti-Cult “Experts” Target Moscow Patriarchate Dissident Priest by Massimo Introvigne
  • Chinese Agents Tried to Bribe U.S. Tax Officer in Anti-Falun-Gong Plot by Massimo Introvigne
  • Russia: Lunatic Theory that Yellowstone Volcano Caused the War in Ukraine Gains Momentum by Massimo Introvigne
  • Vandalism Against Catholic Churches on the Rise in Bavaria by PierLuigi Zoccatelli

CHINA PERSECUTION MAP -SEARCH NEWS BY REGION

clickable geographical map of china, with regions

Footer

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor-in-Chief

MASSIMO INTROVIGNE

Director-in-Charge

MARCO RESPINTI

ADDRESS

CESNUR

Via Confienza 19,

10121 Turin, Italy,

Phone: 39-011-541950

E-MAIL

We welcome submission of unpublished contributions, news, and photographs. Each submission implies the authorization for us to edit and publish texts and photographs. We reserve the right to decide which submissions are suitable for publication. Please, write to INFO@BITTERWINTER.ORG Thank you.

Newsletter

LINKS

orlir-logo hrwf-logo cesnur-logo

Copyright © 2023 · Bitter Winter · PRIVACY POLICY· COOKIE POLICY