Recently, the case of the former president of the China Buddhist Association, Master Xue Xuecheng, being reported to multiple authorities for allegedly sexually assaulting a female disciple has sparked international attention. In response, the victim’s lawyer, Lu Weihua, fled from Beijing to the United States and publicly criticized China’s poor rule of law. In retaliation, the Chinese Communist Party targeted his brother, Lu Zhenhua.
In a recent revelation, fleeing to the United States, Lu Zhenhua exposed the absurd experience of being detained by Hunan police for six months and subjected to torture.
“Being tortured, the first few days made me feel like I’d rather be dead,” Lu Zhenhua said. “The most unbearable part was the first two to three months; I was an ordinary person, but a baseless accusation turned me into a criminal.”
Having worked hard in Shenzhen for years, owning a house and a car, and sending his child to the best international school in the area, Lu Zhenhua thought life was peaceful. However, the sudden arrival of the Hunan police shattered that tranquility.
On the evening of October 15, 2018, Lu Zhenhua’s wife took their child to her mother’s house for dinner, leaving him alone at home. When someone knocked on the door, he was greeted by several police officers who said they needed his cooperation for an investigation. They handcuffed him and took him away without allowing him to call his wife. He was taken to a police station in Shenzhen for processing due to being under a jurisdiction, then was brought to the police station in Qiyang County, Yongzhou City, Hunan.
Lu Zhenhua was handcuffed to an iron chair, and the interrogation began. Two police officers said, “Your brother committed a crime in the United States, and we ordered him to come back, but he didn’t. Call him and tell him to come back!”
Lu Zhenhua explained, “My brother is in the United States, how can I make him come back? Even if I call, it won’t make a difference.” When he insisted that he had not broken any laws and questioned the relevance of his brother’s actions to his own situation, the police were dissatisfied with his responses. “Whether you committed a crime is not for you to decide, we decide,” the police said.
Seeing the unreasonable behavior of the police, Lu Zhenhua requested to speak to his lawyer before continuing the interrogation.
The police scolded him, saying, “Have you watched too much Hong Kong TV? If you don’t explain clearly, you won’t see a lawyer.”
As Lu Zhenhua remained silent, the police made him take off his clothes and put on a thick cotton shirt. Thinking the police did this out of concern for him being cold, but shortly after changing into the warm clothing, they poured two buckets of cold water over him, causing him to shiver uncontrollably.
Next, the police tied a rope around his thumbs, forcing him to stand barefoot with only his toes touching the ground. He was left in this position all night, with the bone-chilling cold making him tremble violently. When exhaustion crept in, and he dozed off, the pain in his thumbs woke him up. “I felt like I was in shock but still conscious,” he said, barely surviving the night.
The following day, the police insisted that Lu Zhenhua call his brother again. He claimed not to know the phone number and didn’t know how to make the call. The police exchanged his soaking cotton shirt for a dry one. Lu Zhenhua thought, “Maybe the ordeal is over now.”
But to his surprise, the police took him to a small room with heaters placed in each corner. Lu Zhenhua assumed they were letting him warm up, but as he started feeling comfortable, the police opened a small window and threw industrial chili powder into the cell.
“It was industrial chili powder. The taste was unbearable; it felt like a living hell,” Lu Zhenhua said, coughing uncontrollably, tears streaming down his face, almost choking him. “I later learned that this torture method is called ‘Ice and Fire Purgatory.'”
After several rounds of questioning, when the police were displeased, they placed several books on his chest and punched him, causing intense pain but leaving no visible marks. Sometimes, before long interrogations, the police forced him to drink several cups of water, then refused to let him use the restroom, causing him stomach pain and eventually losing control.
After tormenting him for days, the police sent him to a detention center where he was held for half a year. He was finally released on April 21 of the following year.
Facing this calamity, Lu Zhenhua had to contemplate life and society seriously. He realized that the idyllic family life others envied him for was fragile and could be shattered by the hand of power anytime.
During the six months in detention, he was cramped in a cell of around 15 square meters with forty to fifty other inmates, unable to turn in his sleep at night. A slight misstep would result in a beating. He was also forced to do the laundry, fold the beddings, and shine shoes for the prison leaders and bullies. He witnessed wrongful convictions, including elderly petitioners and civic journalists labeled as part of criminal organizations and sentenced to over ten years in prison.
While Lu Zhenhua was aware of some of the dark aspects and historical miscarriages of Communist authoritarianism, he had always felt they were distant from him. But after going through these experiences, he said, “The image of the Communist Party has completely collapsed in my heart. They can twist black into white, act with impunity, and the judiciary is merely a tool to punish dissidents; all talk of constitution, fair law enforcement, and civilized law is a façade.”
He felt, “The Chinese people are in a situation where they are mere instruments, disposable at the whims of the Communist Party. Whether you live or die is entirely up to them. Even if you benefit from the system, don’t presume you are safe; the day they decide to target you, all your benefits will be taken away.”
From then on, Lu Zhenhua harbored a deep aversion towards the Communist Party, feeling unsafe within China, and eventually found a way to come to the United States.
“I hope with my experience, I can help more Chinese people see the evil brutality of the Communist regime and stop holding any illusions about it.”
“Just like me, when you haven’t experienced a miscarriage of justice personally, you think it’s someone else’s problem; but once it lands on your head, it becomes an insurmountable mountain.”