Under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party, prisons and detention centers play a crucial role in maintaining its authoritarian control and serve as concentrated locations for implementing inhumane treatment and torture. In recent days, Liu Xijie, who served a sentence in Fushun First Prison, revealed his firsthand experience of witnessing someone being beaten to death with electric batons during his incarceration, as well as his own painful encounters of being repeatedly shocked and nearly losing his life.
Liu Xijie told the Epoch Times that from January 17 to 19, 2022, during a period of strict epidemic lockdown, two to three hundred new inmates awaiting transfer to other areas were subjected to varying degrees of torture and abuse. One person was electrocuted to death, three were seriously injured, and many others were lightly injured. In a closed room, Liu Xijie witnessed the 35-year-old Fan Hongyu being tortured to death.
“I was waiting at the door of the solitary confinement cell, and I could see the police sitting on a stool, stepping on Fan Hongyu’s head, and shocking him with electric batons. They opened the small window to let in the cold wind, didn’t provide food, and continuously beat and tortured him for a week until he died from the torture,” Liu Xijie said.
There was also an elderly man in his fifties who couldn’t recite the prison rules, and even kneeling before the prison guards didn’t help. The guards stepped on the old man, inserted a long electric baton into his mouth, and electrocuted him, causing him to lose control of his bowels.
“Five or six police officers twisted his arms, inserted the long electric baton into his mouth. With the inmates and guards holding him down, he couldn’t resist. It was brutal,” Liu Xijie said.
Liu Xijie himself was shocked multiple times with electric batons, leaving him with injuries all over his body. “My flesh was cooked by the shocks, and I still have black scabs from those wounds,” he said.
The most severe incident occurred around 3 to 7 pm on April 17, 2014. When he walked into the office, several police officers rushed up and pinned him down, bound his hands and feet, and repeatedly shocked and beat him on his face, feet, and entire body. “Three electric batons were used on me, big and small. I felt like a dead pig, wishing for death. It’s lucky that I made it alive. That place is like a hell on earth.”
After being beaten senseless, with his head spinning, the guards saw that he was on the verge of collapse and put him in solitary confinement for 45 days. Liu Xijie said that during that time, he could only bend his waist as his body was too injured to sit up, forcing him to lie down. The prison didn’t feed him properly, leaving him hungry. “They were afraid of external scrutiny, so they let me recover from my injuries inside before releasing me.”
Upon his release in 2024, Liu Xijie sought justice against the abusive prison guards, but his appeals against perpetrators like Zhang Liqi, Liu Nan, Wu Nan, Gao Xiaobo, Shao Zhuang, Guo Minning, Ma Zhongchao, Wang Diankai, Zhao Guangyao, Gao Wei, Sun Hailong went unanswered. He protested multiple times in front of the Fushun prison, demanding severe punishment for the guards, but only faced eviction and threats from local authorities.
In Chinese Communist Party prisons, the use of torture and mistreatment against inmates is rampant, with the brutality of such methods appalling.
Former Chinese defense attorney Li Jinxing (alias: Wu Lei) published “Prison/Prison Observation Record” on Platform X in May 2025, exposing real cases of detainees subjected to torture for confessions and even dying tragically.
“In the Prison/Prison Observation Record 11,” Wu Lei mentioned, “My client was already suffering from cancer, but the authorities didn’t believe him, hanging him up and beating him to death for days on end. The detainee kept saying he had cancer, but the police accused him of faking it and continued to beat him until he bled to death. He wanted to prove his innocence in court but never got the chance. The truth is, even the court couldn’t clear his name, the atrocity!”
“In the Prison/Prison Observation Record 14,” Wu Lei continued, “Let’s talk about the Chongqing wrongful conviction case, where the victim is still in prison. How much torture did he endure? The special task force police made him sit on the ‘tiger stool’ for an extended period, rendering him immobile. After a few months, he lost all mobility and even sensation, unable to walk. His underpants couldn’t be removed because they were stuck to his buttocks, and doctors had to slowly pry them off with forceps. When he told me this, he burst into tears.”
Human rights lawyer Wu Shaoping stated on June 10 to the Epoch Times that Chinese Communist Party prisons play a crucial role in the Party’s authoritarian machinery, serving as a key element in maintaining its rule and violating human rights to a systematic extent.
Authorities at all levels have turned a blind eye to such incidents, and even if prison guards beat someone to death, no one is held accountable.
Wu Shaoping expressed that the CCP does not consider ordinary people as humans. In China, if you are suspected of a crime, you are not treated as a human being. Therefore, in prisons, guards can abuse inmates at will and subject them to torture. The CCP consistently conceals the truth from the world. Not only in prisons but also in detention centers, designated surveillance residences, police stations, brutality is rife.
Wu Shaoping believes that it is crucial for victims of persecution to reveal the truth to the world, to resist and demand justice. “The frequent occurrence of large-scale human rights violations indicates that the CCP is running towards its demise.”