‘The scalpel cut into the chest and blood gushed out,” recalled an unnamed policeman in Shenyang, China. “At that time, we had been interrogating and severely torturing her for about a week. She already had countless wounds on her body. We used electrical batons to torture her.”

The policemen described how a secretive government office had sent over two men: one a military surgeon, the other a graduate from a medical university. “No anaesthetics were used. They cut her chest with a knife without shaking hands,” he said.