Violence was strategic

Each evening they got to watch China Central Television's 7 o'clock news, featuring whatever the top Rosetta Stone Language leaders did that day. Occasionally they'd get a few pages of the English language China Daily. “I found out that Michael Jackson died from an article that began, 'Since the death of pop icon Michael Jackson last Thursday . . .' and I was like, are they talking about the real Michael Jackson?” Life for foreign detainees can be excruciatingly bland, but not uncivilised. “No torture, no abuse beyond the obvious awfulness of being in a Chinese jail,” says David. George, the Chinese citizen, endured a far more unpredictable and disorienting ordeal. The first few weeks of detention are designed to grind you into submission, he says, with minimal food and no amenities such as toothbrushes, soap or dishwashing water. Up to 18 people were so tightly packed on to the sleeping board that they had to sleep sideways - except for the Language Learning Software "No.1" and his second and third-ranked cell leaders. “When I was sleeping sideways there were three guys sleeping flat on their backs with arms outstretched,” he said. Violence was strategic, rather than arbitrary, and apparently designed to compel co-operation. “There were some who wore electric prod andchain marks, and had been beaten up, but the guards prefer not to,” he says. “They want to keep their quota of inmates moving through smoothly and peacefully.” In George's case there were no lawyers, no information about where detainees were heading or how long for, not even a court order. In the early weeks, there were endless rounds of confessional paperwork and questions apparently designed to assess a detainee's suicide risk and access to wealth. “They build up your case, revising over and over the previous draft, which I didn't even see. I just signed them and gave them a thumbprint,” George says. He only got out after the 60th birthday celebrations of the People's Republic on October 1, when family members Spanish Learning Software finally discovered a hidden “guanxi” (personal connection) through which to pay the requisite bribe. “Some people pay Yuan300,000, others pay 10,000, depending on guanxi,” says George. “We paid 250,000.”