No. 1 Qinhuangdao Detention Center
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QINHUANGDAO
No. 1 Qinhuangdao Detention Center
No exact address, Tutaizi, Haigang District, Qinhuangdao, Hebei Province
(Postcode for Qinhuangdao 066000, Shanhaiguan 066200, area code for Shanhaiguan 0335; numbers started with 505 can also be switched with 515)
(Click here for Qinhuangdao officials and police contacts.)
Nearby Olympic Venue: Qinhuangdao Olympic Sports Center Stadium
Event: Preliminary soccer matches
Directions to No. 1 Qinhuangdao Detention Center: View below, or click here to download the .doc file (38kb)
A: Qinhuangdao Detention Centre 秦皇岛第一看守所
B: Qinhuangdao Airport 秦皇岛机场
C: Qinhuangdao Olympic Stadium 秦皇岛市奥林匹克体育中心
D: Qinhuangdao Train Station 秦皇岛火车站
From Qinhuangdao Airport:
- Take 266 Shengdao (Province Highway) going northwest 3.7 km
- Turn left onto 48 Shengdao (Province Highway) going west 10.7 km
- Enter Huandao and then Beihuanlu going west 1.9 km
- Right onto on Beihuan Road (take a rickshaw) going west 1.8 km
- Right turn on Xigangbei Road going northwest 287 m
Turn right onto Xigangbeilu going northwest 287 m
Destination: No. 1 Qinhuangdao Detention Center. Tutaizi Community, Qinhuandao City. Total: 16.5 km
From Qinhuangdao Train Station: 2.1 km
Destination: No. 1 Qinhuangdao Detention Center, Tutaizi Community, Qinhuandao City. Total: 2.1 km
About No. 1 Qinhuangdao Detention Center
Description:
This detention center is one of thousands across the country where individuals are held upon being arrested and prior to being sentenced to RTL camps or prisons. In the case of Falun Gong, it is at such centers that the authorities first attempt to force adherents to renounce their beliefs through a combination of interrogation, sleep deprivation, beatings and more severe forms of torture. When adherents refuse to issue such a renunciation after several weeks or months, they are often sentenced to RTL or prison terms and then transferred to the corresponding facility.
In recent investigations into allegations of organ harvesting from Falun Gong prisoners of conscience, this detention center was among those called by investigators seeking information about the source of organs. In a communication transmitted to the Chinese authorities in August 2006 by the United Nations Special Rapporteurs on torture, religious intolerance, and human trafficking regarding organ harvesting, the Rapporteurs pointed to the following:
“It is reported that employees from the following detention facilities have indicated that organs from Falun Gong detainees have been used for transplants: …First Detention Centre of Qinhuangdao City… and Second Detention Centre of Qinhuangdao City.”
Products: Unreported
Detention Center Conditions:
Former detainees report coercion by various methods to renounce their faith, including: extortion, persecution of family members, loss of savings, loss of employment, and various forms of physical and psychological torture.
Olympics-related persecution in Qinhuangdao City:
From July 1-10, 2007, as preliminary preparation for the 2008 Olympic games, the city hosted the International Women’s Soccer Invitational Competition and the Beijing Men’s Olympic Soccer Group Meeting at its Olympic Sports Center.
At that time, the Secretary of the Communist Party’s Political-legal Committee of Hebei Province, Wang Qijiang (male), traveled to Qinhuangdao in a visit that served to accelerate the persecution of Falun Gong adherents in the city. The Secretary of the city’s Political-legal Committee Yang Tai’an and local security agents subsequently intensified the pressure on local practitioners.
The escalated persecution included the pressuring of friends and family of adherents; “dropping in” on local residents known to practice Falun Gong to intimidate and harass them; and intensifying the monitoring of adherents the Party had targeted as “focus” individuals. In addition, according to one report, in late June 2007, the Qinhuangdao City Sports Bureau and the Olympic Center disqualified several athletes simply because their relatives were known to practice Falun Gong.
Individual cases:
Former detainee, Mr. Chen Qijiang, 42, was an electrical engineer employed at the Qinhuangdao City Grand Hotel.
Chen was detained by police in August 2007 after paying a visit to the mother of a fellow Falun Gong adherent who had been imprisoned. He was reportedly taken to the No. 1 Qinhuangdao detention center, where he was interrogated and severely beaten. He remained at the center for over six months at the end of which he was sentenced to five years in prison. He was reportedly transferred to nearby Tangshan Prison at the end of April 2008.
Excerpts from testimony of former detainee, dated May 8, 2003 (the individual’s name has been withheld for her protection):
“On December 25, 1999, policemen from No. 2 Division of Police Station abducted me from my home and again sent me to the #1 Detention Center. I was illegally detained for one month. During my detention there, I was forced to sit on the [tiger bench- a form of torture] bench for a long time every day. The police also encouraged a drug addict named Fang to curse and beat practitioners arbitrarily. Fang was even allowed to steal practitioners’ money and property. After my release, the Department of Transportation leaders refused to allow me to work. They used money as a tool to blackmail me. Our family has four people, including two school-aged children. My husband’s salary was only 400 Yuan a month. After five months, our savings were drained. However, the managers said, ‘No job, no food, let’s see what you can practice now. You have to write the guarantee letter in order to come back.’ Feeling desperate and hopeless, I wrote a guarantee letter against my conscience. Later, I regretted this very much.”
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