Torture Methods Used to Coerce People to Hail Communism, Renounce Faith

Torture Methods Used to Coerce People to Hail Communism, Renounce Faith

A painting depicting the “hanging bricks around the neck” torture method. It is one of the most common torture methods used to break the spirit of determined Falun Gong practitioners and coerce them to renounce their faith.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has categorized China as one of the world’s key countries ambitiously engaged in “egregious violations” of religious freedom and human rights.

Commissioner Gary L. Bauer said in the 2021 annual report that communist China had been denying its citizens “the right to seek and worship God.”

Victims who survive the CCP-led violent suppression, or who are able to escape and seek refuge in other countries, have been bravely stepping forward to expose the inhumane treatment and torture being carried out behind the impenetrable walls of the communist regime’s prisons, forced labor camps, and “reeducation” centers.

Torture reenactment of forced drug injections.

The CCP officials and guards have devised many torture methods to painfully coerce these religious believers—be it Christians, Uyghurs, Falun Gong practitioners, or Buddhists—to renounce their faith and hail the communist party as supreme, enshrining it even above the divine.

Minghui.org, a U.S.-based all-volunteer organization dedicated to reporting on the persecution of Falun Gong in China, has documented over 100 torture methods routinely used to coerce these meditation practitioners, with many of the methods also being employed on other religious believers. Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a mind-body practice that includes meditative exercises and moral teachings centered around the core tenets “truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.” The practice has been persecuted by the CCP since July 1999, and tens of thousands of adherents have been arrested, detained, and tortured.

According to a Minghui.org report, the head of the No. 3 Division at the Jilin Women’s Forced Labor Camp, in Jilin Province, openly threatened a Falun Gong practitioner, saying, “We have 108 types of torture methods! Do you think you'll leave here alive?”

Here are some of the most inhumane torture techniques commonly used in communist China’s jails, labor camps, and “reeducation” centers.

Hanging Bricks Around the Neck

Hanging heavy objects around the neck is one of the most common torture methods used to break the spirit of determined Falun Gong practitioners.

An ex-convict, who had his sentence reduced by 8 years for helping to torture prisoners of conscience, including Falun Gong practitioners and members of The Church of Almighty God (CAG), recounted to BitterWinter.org how inmates torture the believers.

“The means to transform believers varied—from regular beatings to torture, like keeping believers in cold water in sub-zero temperature or hanging a 10-kg water bucket around their neck,” the former inmate said. “The prison guards would pretend not to see these violent acts.”