QINCHENG PRISONQincheng Prison is a maximum-security prison located in the Changping District, Beijing in the People's

Republic of China, near Xiaotangshan.[1] The prison was built in 1958 with aid from the Soviet Union and

it is the only prison belonging to the Ministry of Public Security. The Ministry of Justice operates other

prisons.

Political prisoners, among them participants in the Chinese democracy movement and Tiananmen Square

protests of 1989, have been incarcerated in Qincheng. Famous former inmates include Jiang Qing,[2] Bao

Tong,Dai Qing, as well as Tibetan figures such as the 10th Panchen Lama Choekyi Gyaltsen,

and Phuntsok Wangyal. Other inmates included many communist cadres who were struggled

during Cultural Revolution, such as Bo Yibo, Peng Zhen, Israel Epstein, Sidney Rittenberg and David

Crook.[citation needed] More recently, high-ranking officials accused of corruption such as Chen

Xitong and Chen Liangyu were also imprisoned here.

The prison is located at the eastern foothill of Yanshan, facing the North China Plain in the east, north and

south. The plain is where Qincheng Farm (simplified Chinese: 秦城农场; traditional Chinese: 秦城農場; pinyin:Qínchéng Nóngchǎng) is located, which is part of the prison.

ORIGIN

The prison was originally built to house Kuomintang (Nationalist) war criminals but due to secrecy, the

name was not publicized. Instead, it was simply referred as project #156, since it was number 156 out of

157 projects that China established with Soviet assistance. The head of Beijing Bureau of Public

Security, Feng Jiping (simplified Chinese: 冯基平; traditional Chinese: 馮基平; pinyin: Féng Jīpíng) was

in charge of construction of the prison. Ironically, during the Cultural Revolution he was among the first

to be jailed there. He was also one of the last to get out among those who were sent to the prison with

him.

In 1958, high-ranking former Nationalists classified as war criminals by the communists were sent to

Qincheng Farm to work, and they had observed the prison in construction. Prisoners were curious because

the 5-meter high thick wall and electric fence and asked the guards what building it would be, and the

answer was: "Sport Academy." When prisoners questioned why an advanced educational institution such

as a sport academy would have such heavy security measures, they were told that it was an advanced

sport academy, and everything was learned from the Soviet Union.

STRUCTURE

The prison is built in accordance with the 1954 Reform Through Labor Regulations, so it is divided into

three sections. The first section is for jail houses, and it includes both the jail houses for low-ranking

prisoners and that of high-ranking prisoners, with the ranking often decided by the prisoner's social status,

job position, and level of crime before entering the prisons. The second is called the Management and

Work Section, the largest one among all three, with Qincheng Farm for field labors. The last section is the

residential section for employees such as wardens and their relatives.

The prison is sandwiched between orchards, with farm land and fish pond in front, an exact reflection of

Mao Zedong's claim in October, 1960: "our prisons are different than prisons in the past - each prison is

actually a school, but also a factory or a farm." Mao had further enhanced this on April 24, 1964 in his

reaction to a case by claiming that "People can be reformed, if the correct policy and methods are

adopted." This characteristic also applies to most Chinese prisons, and Chinese have called this prison

system as: "Special militarized organization, special enterprise, and special school."

JAIL CELL

The original jail houses include four three-story brick buildings with sloped roof, each is named

after celestial stems instead of numbers or alphabets: Jia (甲), Yi (乙), Bing (丙), Ding (丁). The area in

front of each building is fenced with brick wall for prisoners to exercise, forming its own independent

yard. Each exercise yard is divided into two sections evenly by a wall in the middle, on top of which

guard patrolled, and would watch both sections. Each building is equipped with electrically powered

laundry machines from the beginning, a luxury in China until the mid-1980s, and toilets are flushed by

stepping on a foot paddle. Each floor of the building is divided into many halls, on one side of the hall,

there is a wall, opposite to the wall is were the cells are located, each individually locked with a padlock.

There are at least 10 cells in each hall.

The area of each cell is around 20 square meters. The wooden door of each cell is sandwiched between

two iron plates, and there are two peepholes: one at the level of the toilet, while the other is above it.

Around a foot from the ground, there is a rectangular window for delivering meals. The only furniture

inside each cell is a bed that was around a foot from the ground and when a prisoner needs to write a

confession or other materials, a desk similar to those in elementary schools would be provided. However,

there would never be any chairs and prisoners must sit on the bed to write. For safety and security

reasons, every sharp edge inside the cell has been changed to smooth/round shape. There are also

special suicide watch cells with walls made of rubber so prisoners could not commit suicide by running

into the walls.

There is a window for each cell designed for lower-ranking prisoners. The area of the window is around

one square meter, located more than two meters above the ground. The windowsill is sloped upward with

window opens upward toward outside, but of course, prisoners are unable to open the window

themselves. There are three layers for every window: screen, iron fence, and glass painted white. In the

cells for high-ranking prisoners, there are two windows but the outermost layer is sanded glass instead of

glass painted white. Prisoners could neither see the courtyard nor any other buildings, but some could see

the mountain and sun from their cells. A 15-watt light bulb with sanded glass is on the 3.5 meter high

ceiling, and it is covered by iron mesh, and the dim light is controlled by guards via a switch outside.

In 1967, six more buildings were added, also named after celestial stem, continuing as Wu (戊), Ji (己),

Geng (庚), Xin (辛), Ren (壬), Gui (癸). The new jail houses is built of concrete and contain much more

cells because the new cells are much smaller in comparison to those in the jail houses built in 1958: the

area of each cell is only 5 to 10 square meters. The toilet in these new cells could not be sit on, but

instead, prisoners must squatting down when using the toilet and must carry water from wash sink to

flush the toilet. There are two doors for each cells built in 1967: the outer one is an iron door and the

inside one is a wooden door. Other features of the jail houses built in 1967 are similar to those built in

1958.

ENTRANCE

There are three gates at Qincheng Prison, the first gate has the heaviest guards presence. With the exception of

prison staff and their relatives, all other people who are not prisoners entering the compound must have

the permission slip from the 13th Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China.

For prisoners, they would be first led to a small one-story building, where they would leave behind most of

their belongings deemed to be unsuitable to be carried into cells, including shoelaces. The prisoners would

then be given black prison uniforms and issued utensils, and personal hygiene materials. With the exception of

a large enamel mug for water, everything else is plastic.

INTERROGATION

Prisoners are notified by a warden before the interrogation, and the warden would let the prisoner out of

his or her cell, and lead the prisoner to the interrogation room. After the prisoner is seated in the

interrogation room, the warden would withdraw and wait outside. Based on the experience of former

prisoners, there are two type of interrogation rooms. Most prisoners are interrogated in the interrogation

room with a stool inside where the prisoner sits, and facing the prisoner, there was a semicircle shaped

platform. On top of the platform, there are several tables next to each other covered with white table

cloth. Interrogators and recorders sit behind the tables at the opposite ends.

Dai Qing, a famous Chinese human rights activist jailed at Qincheng Prison recalls that there is another

type of interrogation room in which the stool is replaced by a chair and there is carpet on the floor.

Additionally, there is air conditioning in the room. During the Cultural Revolution, before the

interrogation had begun, everyone in the room had to read some quotes from Mao's Little Red Book

loudly, and these quotes are also posted on the wall.

MANAGEMENT

The prison employees are divided into two categories and are strictly separated. The first category is the

interrogation / investigation team, which is only responsible for investigate the prisoners' cases, and they

are strictly forbidden to venture into prisoners' cells or any other premises other than the interrogation

room. The other category is responsible for guarding the prisoners and taking care of their daily lives.

Unlike those belonged to the first category, those in the second category could not even known the names

of prisoners who are only allowed to be called by their numbers.

Prison employees of both categories are strictly forbidden to make any personal connections to the

prisoners, such as that they cannot reveal their names to the prisoners, cannot answer any of the prisoners'

questions without authorization, and cannot ask any prisoners questions without authorization.

VISITATION

Visitation is conducted in a special visitation room, which is a room separated into two sections by a wall.

A small window is on the wall for the communication between the prisoners and their relatives. Wardens

can be either watching the visitation from another room immediately adjacent to the visitation room, or

can be directly behind the prisoner.

Anything brought into the prison by the prisoners' relatives must be screened and registered on a check

sheet and those deemed unsuitable must be brought back immediately after the visitation is over. After

visitation, there must be the signature of prison warden on the visitation permission slip for the relatives

to leave the prison.

HEALTHCARE

There is a medical clinic at the Qincheng Prison with both doctors and nurses assigned. There is also a

dental clinic, built of brick and stone, located further away from the main prison buildings. In addition to

treating prisoners for ordinary illness, semi-annual physical checks are also performed. High-ranking

prisoners could receive more frequent checks depending on their health conditions. Both the high-ranking

and low-ranking prisoners receive better health care than ordinary citizens outside, and this situation has

not changed since the first day when the prison was established.

For important high-ranking prisoners, the doctors at Qincheng Prison do not have the final decision

making authority on how to treat the prisoners for their illness. It is often a political decision determined

by the top brass of the communist regime. For example, in the autumn of 1969 during Cultural

Revolution, under Kang Sheng's order, an important high-ranking prisoner, Shi Zhe (师哲), the former

personal secretary and personal Russian translator of Mao Zedong was jailed in Qincheng prison. He was

scheduled to have an operation to remove a so-called cancer. However, doctors determined that there was

no cancer at all, but Kang Sheng insisted on giving Shi Zhe (师哲) an operation, and the completely

unnecessary operation was carried out to fulfill the political task