An Investigative Report on the Director of the Central 610 Office Li Dongsheng

Introduction
In June 1999, in order to persecute Falun Gong, Jiang Zemin established the extralegal 610 Office. Li Dongsheng was the Deputy Director of the 610 Office. In the meantime, he was the Deputy Director of China Central Television (CCTV) (January 1993 to July 2000), Deputy Director of the State Administration of Radio Film and Television of China (SARFT) (since July 2000), Deputy Director of Propaganda Department of Chinese Communist Party Central Committee (CCPCC) (since May 2002). As the Deputy Director of the 610 Office, Li was in charge of defaming Falun Gong through propaganda and transforming Falun Gong practitioners through brainwashing. In October 2009, in order for Li Dongsheng to replace Liu Jing as the Director of the 610 Office, Zhou Yongkang transferred Li Dongsheng to the Ministry of Public Security as member of the Party Committee, as well as the Vice Minister. In the same year, Li Dongsheng became the Director of the 610 Office and remains in the position since then [1]. This report provides evidence of Li Dongsheng's involvement in the persecution of Falun Gong.

Brief Introduction of Li Dongsheng’s Positions

In June 1999, then head of the CCP, Jiang Zemin established the extralegal “Leadership Team to Handle Falun Gong Issues of CCPCC,” along with an office which handles the day-to-day operation of the “Leadership Team.” The office is called “Office of the Leadership Team to Handle Falun Gong Issues.” Because it was established on June 10, it is also named the Central “610 Office.” The first lead of the Leadership Team was Li Lanqing, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee. The first director of the Central 610 Office was then Hunan Provincial Party Committee Secretary, Wang Maolin. The Deputy Directors were Liu Jing, then Vice Minister of Public Security, and Li Dongsheng, then Deputy Director of CCTV. Liu Jing was in charge of political and legal affairs. Li Dongsheng was in charge of propaganda. After Li Lanqing retired, Luo Gan became the lead of the Leadership Team until 2007 when Zhou Yongkang took over. After Wang Maolin’s retirement, Liu Jing became the Director of the Central 610 Office until October 2009[2].    

In October 2009, Liu Jing could not continue as the Director of the Central 610 Office due to health reasons. Li Dongsheng, the long-time deputy director, became the Director. At that time, Li Dongsheng was the Deputy Director of Propaganda Department. Because the propaganda campaign of the persecution of Falun Gong was a complete failure, major CCP mouthpieces stopped anti Falun Gong propaganda after 2005 except a few anti Falun Gong websites still operating. The persecution was carried out mainly by the judiciary branches under the command of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC) of CCP. As the Deputy Director of Propaganda Department, Li Dongsheng was not qualified for the role of Central 610 Office Director. Therefore, Zhou Yongkang (then head of PLAC of CCPCC) broke the standard protocol and transferred Li Dongsheng from the Department of Propaganda to the Ministry of Public Security. In the beginning few months, Li Dongsheng was a member of the Standing Committee of Party Committee of Ministry of Public Security. Then Li was appointed the Deputy Minister of Public Security. This was to pave the way for Li to become the Director of the Central 610 Office, so that Li could continue commanding the political and legal system in the persecution of Falun Gong[3]. For a CCP official with only propaganda background and no experience in the Public Security system to be transferred directly from the Department of Propaganda to the Ministry of Public Security as the Deputy Minister is an exceptional case in the CCP’s history.

Taking Charge of Anti Falun Gong Propaganda
Since the start of the Central 610 Office, Li Dongsheng was the Deputy Director in charge of anti-Falun Gong propaganda. During his tenure as the Deputy Director of CCTV, Li was in charge of the “Focus” program[4]. After the persecution of Falun Gong started, “Focus” spent large amount of the peak viewing time slot to air anti Falun Gong programs. Based on incomplete statistics, during the period of six and a half years from July 21, 1999 to late 2005, “Focus” had 102 episodes of anti-Falun Gong programs. Moreover, during the 5 months’ time from July to December 1999, there were 70 anti-Falun Gong episodes[5].

On Aug. 26, 2002, Department of Propaganda held a meeting for all propaganda chiefs in the nation. Li Dongsheng gave a report on anti-Falun Gong propaganda[6]. On April 9, 2001, Li Dongsheng attended the 57th Annual Meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights as the special consultant for the Chinese delegation. Li gave a speech about women’s issues to defame Falun Gong [7]. On the April 17th UN Human Rights Summit, when interviewed by Japan’s Kyodo News and China News Service, Li Dongsheng again defamed Falun Gong in his speech [8]. 

Taking Charge of the Nationwide Brainwashing

Since brainwashing is the core of the persecution of Falun Gong, the Central 610 Office setup a special team to direct and coordinate the nationwide brainwashing activities against Falun Gong practitioners. Li Dongsheng was the team lead [9]. On June 15, 2001, when Li Dongsheng visited Wuchang City, Hubei Province, he spoke highly of the 2.6 million yuan allocation to build a brainwashing center in Wuchang District [10]. When Langfang City “Anti-Cult Association” published a book titled “Practical and Experimental Cases in Education and Transformation,” Li Dongsheng issued an order for the methods in the book to be propagated and implemented nationwide [11].

On Tour as the (Deputy) Director of the 610 Office

From Nov. 5 to 13, 2001, as the Deputy Director of the Central 610 Office, Li Dongsheng accompanied Li Lanqing, the head of the “Leadership Team to Handle Falun Gong Issues” to inspect Guangdong province. They inspected enterprises, schools, medical and scientific research facilities in cities of Meizhou, Shantou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shunde and Guangzhou [12,13,14,15,16].
On Oct. 22, 2002, as the Deputy Director of the Central 610 Office and the Deputy Director of Central Propaganda Department, Li Dongsheng inspected Yueyang City, Hunan province. Li was accompanied by the Deputy Directors of Hunan Provincial 610 Office, Jiang Heping and Liu Daolong [17].

In July 2010, accompanying Zhou Yongkang (head of PLAC), Li Dongsheng carried the title of Director of the Central 610 Office for the first time while visiting an Oil and Chemical Plant in Qinghai Province [18]. On Aug. 5, 2010, as the lead of the Asian Games Security Coordination Team and Director of the Central 610 Office, Li Dongsheng inspected Huadu District [19] in Guangzhou City and Shaoguan City [20].

On Jan. 28, 2011, as Director of the Central 610 Office, Li Dongsheng attended the Award Ceremony for Handling Cults and took pictures with attendees [21]. On Sept. 21, 2011, Li Dongsheng went to Tianjin to check on the works of maintaining stability and “anti-cult” [22].

Conclusion

The 14-year-long and ongoing persecution of Falun Gong consists of the nationwide propaganda campaign against Falun Gong with the purpose of deceiving the people in China and around the world; and also the brainwashing and torturing of Falun Gong practitioners with the purpose of forcing them to give up their belief. Methods of torture and killing were implemented in order to reach the goal of brainwashing and transforming Falun Gong practitioners. As the Deputy Director and later Director of the 610 Office, Li Dongsheng has been directly commanding the persecution and thus committed the crime of anti-humanity. What the report presents is merely a small portion of Li’s criminal conducts. We welcome more information about the criminal conducts of Li Dongsheng and others.   

Reference

[1] baidu.com, “Li Dongsheng appointed Deputy Party Secretary and Deputy Minister of Public Security” (Back)
[2] WOIPFG Investigative Report on the 610 Office
http://www.zhuichaguoji.org/node/12216 (Back)
[3] sina.com, Oct. 27, 2009, “Deputy Minister of Propaganda Li Dongsheng In Charge of “Anti-Cult” Office” (Back)
[4] stnn.cc, Oct. 15, 2007 “Li Dongsheng: 22 years in CCTV, in charge of ‘Focus’” (Back)
[5] WOIPFG archive: “Focus” episodes from 1999 to 2005 (Back)
[6] Official website of Quanzhou City, Sept. 5, 2002, “Speech on Propaganda Work” by Huang Shaoping, municipal propaganda chief (Back)
[7] china.com.cn, April 10, 2001 “Chinese Delegation calling for Women’s Rights and anti-cult” (Back)
[8] chinanews.com, April 29, 2001, “Li Dongsheng Condemning Falun Gong” (Back)
[9] WOIPFG archive from April 9, 2001 (Back)
[10] Wuchang Official website, Wuchang District 2001 Events (Back)
[11] China “anti-cult” website article (Back)
[12] People’s Daily, Nov. 14, 2001 “Improve nationwide standards” (Back)
[13] southcn.com, Nov. 23, 2001 “Li Lanqing visits Meizhou” (Back)
[14] dahuawang.com, Nov. 14, 2001, “Li Lanqing visits Shantou” (Back)
[15] ydtz.com, Nov. 7, 2001 “Li Lanqing visits Shantou” (Back)
[16] szvup.com, April 2, 2007 “Li Lanqing visits Shenzhen” (Back)
[17] yysqw.gov.cn, 2002 events “Li Dongsheng visits Yueyang” (Back)
[18] July 19, 2010 “Zhou Yongkang visits Qinghai” (Back)
[19] gz.gov.cn, Aug. 5, 2010, “Li Dongsheng visits Huadu District” (Back)
[20] sgrb.com, Jan. 6, 2010, “Li Dongsheng visits” (Back)
[21] Shaanxi cult association website, April 18, 2011, Award Ceremony for Handling Cults (Back)
[22] Tianjin.com, Sept. 23, 2011, “Li Dongsheng visits Tianjin” (Back)