CHAPTER 2: CHINA’s ABUSE OF EQUIPMENT FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT THE TORTURE OF Jia Yahui Jia Yahui, a Falun Gong practitioner, recounted to Amnesty International her ordeal at the hands of police after she was sent to one of China’s notorious (and recently abolished) Re-education through Labour (RTL) centres, where she was held from April 2008 to June 2009: “Before they tied me to the bed and began to electrocute me the three policemen had my face covered. None of them spoke while they electrocuted me. They were afraid I would recognize their voices. But I knew who they were… They started by electrocuting me on the most sensitive places – starting on my little finger, then moved up my arms, up to my armpit. Then they moved to my breasts. Then they held the electric baton on my waist for more than ten seconds, without moving. Then they began on my inner thighs. They sought out my nerves. I felt they had no humanity whatsoever. I felt they derived some kind of pleasure from the process. They would just place the baton on your waist and keep it there. When I returned home the black spots on my skin had still not gone away.”50 The development of China’s manufacturing base for the supply of policing and other law enforcement equipment has taken place against a backdrop of continuing repressive practices throughout China’s law enforcement system. Some intrinsically abusive equipment, such as metal restraint chairs, is rarely advertised for sale outside the country. Other law enforcement equipment – for instance chemical irritants and rubber / plastic projectiles – is used both domestically and abroad. This chapter looks at how equipment supplied to police and prison officers has been abused in China against detainees and in the context of policing public assemblies. TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT IN DETENTION Torture and other ill-treatment have long been documented in China – in all forms of detention and at all stages of criminal procedure.51 After visiting the country in November / December 2005, the Special Rapporteur on torture concluded that, although there had been some improvements in urban areas, torture remained “widespread” in China.52 Since then, China has introduced some © Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images Metal restraint chair in an interrogation room inside the No.1 Detention Center in Beijing, 25 October 2012. China’s Trade in Tools of Torture and Repression Amnesty International – Index: ASA 17/042/2014 17