cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/54504338
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In our human rights work on China’s black jails, it has been extremely difficult to obtain photos or video of the facilities. These are secret places. No phones, no lawyer, no journalists, no family are allowed inside. Even the locations are kept hidden—typically a bag is placed over a prisoner’s head when they are moved in or out.
So far, we have relied on first person testimony to understand what these black jails are like.
But then we searched Douyin, China’s Tiktok (both developed by Beijing-based ByteDance) and we found something very surprising.
B2B companies that make equipment for China’s security services are advertising their suicide-proofed apparatus on the platform. For the first time, we can see up close what a brand-new Liuzhi cell probably looks like. We searched for the terms “留置” (Liuzhi, one of CCP’s two types of secret jail) and words related to suicide-proofing, such as”软包墙面” (ruanbao qiangmian, padded walls).
What we saw was just as horrifying as we’ve been told.
Welcome to the insane asylum
We found videos by three companies on Douyin showcasing their suicide-padded furniture and fittings, such as tables, chairs and walls, marketed specifically for Liuzhi.
The images produce an unsettling sense of being in an insane asylum. The scripts are chilling; they seem to take delight in point out the capacity for torture their products offer.
And, ironically, they do a much better job of describing Liuzhi than we ever could.
The basic facts of inhumane treatment we have heard about are confirmed in the videos:
- the isolation,
- the 24-hour surveillance by two guards,
- the always on lights, and,
- the need to ask for permission for everything, even the slightest movement.
The videos’ voiceovers describe how:
- Liuzhi cells are “heavy with the suffocating air of confinement,” the prisoner feels “forgotten by the world”
- Their padded furniture and walls prevent “accidental injuries during interrogation sessions,” hinting at physical torture
- Prisoners’ screams are simply swallowed up by the room
- One video boasts: “Not many people can survive a place like this without losing it.”
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What black jails does China run?
In recent years, China has legalized two black jail systems: (1) Liuzhi or retention in custody, which is focused on CCP members and state workers, and (2) Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location (RSDL) for everyone else (many human rights activists and rights lawyers are locked up here).
Prisoners are kept for months or more, in complete isolation, subjected to extended interrogations and watched 24-hours by two guards. Any windows are blacked out. It’s constant, unending strip lighting. The psychological torture these conditions produce drive some to try to kill themselves. The authorities know this—it’s intentional to coerce a confession—so they suicide-proof the cells.
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