Masanjia Labor Camp

On April 7, 2013, the Chinese magazine Lens published an exclusive investigation report describing in detail the various inhuman torture methods used to persecute the inmates at Masanjia Women's Labor Camp. The article, titled "Getting Out of 'Masanjia,'" is the first time that China's own media revealed the torture used in the labor camp system. The article sent shock waves through Chinese society and was soon republished on a handful of major Chinese websites, including Sina, Sohu, Tengxun, and 163. The torture methods were so horrifying that they induced a number of people to make online comments. A YouTube video that appeared called, "Masanjia, Hell in the Human World."

The infamous Masanjia is not an ordinary name. It is representative of the whole labor camp system (or reeducation through forced labor camps as the Chinese authorities call them) in China. Over the years, Falun Gong members have been persistently exposing the various barbaric torture methods that Masanjia has applied to crush them and force them to give up their belief. These methods are well documented in submissions to a number of human rights organizations throughout the world as well as to Special Rapporteurs of the United Nations Human Rights Commission. The article affirmed that what Falun Gong practitioners have described is true and that the same torture methods are commonly used to punish other groups that the Communist regime has deemed"troublesome/'Becauseof this,the name "Masanjia" is almost synonymous with "torture" in China's forced labor camps and has become a politically sensitive word. Chinese Communist authorities have repeatedly invited international media to "visit" the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp in order to demonstrate that Masanjia is a warm "home" for those inmates detained there.

The article didn't specifically mention Falun Gong, but the connection is obvious. Many who are familiar with China's politics believe that the article sent a special signal: Some of the current top leaders do not want to carry the historic burden of the Falun Gong persecution which retired former CCP head Jiang Zemin initiated single-handedly. This highly sensitive issue, if widely disseminated could, inadvertently, shake the foundation of the CCP's ruling status, particularly if news of the happenings there were amplified out of control. The CCP's official mouth piece, Xinhua, has denied all...