‘No shower or cleaning for months, filthy waste dripping…’: Australian who survived Chinese jail

Matthew Radalj, an Australian citizen, shared a harrowing account of his five-year imprisonment in Beijing No. 2 Prison, a facility designated for international inmates in China.

Radalj now lives outside China and has decided to go public about all he went through during his time in jail, including severe physical punishment, forced labour, food deprivation and psychological torture.

How it began

Radalj was arrested by Chinese police on January 2, 2020 after a dispute over a phone repair that escalated into a fight with shopkeepers at an electronics market.

He claims he was wrongfully convicted after he ended up signing a false confession to robbery after being assured it would help him reduce his jail time. He was also warned about 100 per cent criminal conviction rate in Chinese courts, thus making him believe that any fight from there would be pointless.

He said he was introduced to extremely harsh rules in “extremely horrific conditions”.

“We were banned from showering or cleaning ourselves, sometimes for months at a time. Even the toilet could be used only at specific allotted times, and they were filthy - waste from the toilets above would constantly drip down on to us,” Radalj was quoted as saying by BBC.

This was during initial phase when he was sent to a separate detention centre.

Later, he was shifted to a “normal” prison “where inmates had to bunk together in crowded cells and where the lights were never turned off,” BBC reported.

Radalj said most of the inmates from Africa and Pakistan but some were from Afghanistan, Britain, the US, Latin America, North Korea and Taiwan.

‘Good behaviour’ point system

Radalj also opened up about the so-called “good behaviour points system” which in theory was designed to help reduce your sentence.

Inmates could earn up to 100 “good behaviour points” each month by activities like studying Communist Party materials, working in the prison factory, or reporting on fellow prisoners.

Accumulating 4,200 points could, in theory, lead to a reduced sentence.

However, this would require earning the maximum points every month for three and a half years.

According to Matthew Radalj, the system was used as a tool for psychological torture and manipulation.

He alleges that guards would intentionally penalise inmates for minor infractions, such as improper behaviour or rule violations, just as they neared the 4,200-point threshold, wiping out their points and crushing their hopes of early release.

For instance, some had their points deducted for walking “incorrectly” in the hallway.