Investigative Report on Brainwashing Classes and Brainwashing Methods

I: Nationwide Brainwashing Classes

1. Nationwide Brainwashing Classes Spread at Provincial, Municipal, County and Township Level

Brainwashing is a unique method the Chinese Communist Party ("CCP") uses for persecution and mind control purposes. It has been used to an extreme extend in the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong practitioners that has lasted for more than 5 years. Numerous brainwashing classes have been established across the country, in an effort to force Falun Gong practitioners to give up their beliefs. These brainwashing classes are disguised under different titles, such as: Legal System Education Center, Legal System Education Class, Legal System Education School, Education Transformation Center, Care Center, etc. This report will use these titles interchangeably, based on the source material of the investigation.

Based on the reliable information collected by this organization (see Appendix I,) brainwashing classes created specifically for transforming Falun Gong practitioners have spread across 23 provinces throughout China. (To date, we do not have information on Qinghai Province.) Among these provinces, the following have the largest scale brainwashing classes: Hebei, Shandong, Helongjiang, Sichuan, Guangdong, Liaoning, Hubei and Jilin. Among the five autonomous regions, all but Tibet have established brainwashing classes to forcefully transform Falun Gong practitioners. They are Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Ningxia and Guangxi. Beijing, Chongqing and other municipalities directly under the central government have held series of brainwashing classes in which countless individuals have been persecuted. Wuhan, Guangzhou, Chengdu and other cities have launched large-scale brainwashing classes, where the most severe persecution cases have taken place. In addition, the cities that have the most cases of death as a result of persecution during brainwashing classes are Baoding, Hebei Province (with at least 5 cases)[1] and Weifang, Shandong Province (with at least 3 cases)[2]. The persecution methods have been brutal and the extent has been extreme.

Take Shandong Province for example (see Appendix II), at least nine Falun Gong practitioners were persecuted to death during brainwashing classes, and many others have become wounded and permanently handicapped. According to incomplete statistics, 17 local townships and 31 county-level cities in Shandong Province have launched widespread brainwashing classes. A few cities have sent practitioners to nearby brainwashing classes, to the Shangdong Legal System Training Center (i.e., brainwashing center next door to Wang Village Labor Camp) or directly to forced labor camps.


For example, the "610" Office in Qingdao City opened the Legal System Education Center (i.e., brainwashing center)[3] at Mingxia Road in Qingdao City. Jiaozhou, Jiaonan, Jimo, Pingdu and Laixi – cities under Qingdao City's jurisdiction – have also established brainwashing classes. Two Falun Gong practitioners were persecuted to death [4] and many other practitioners handicapped in the brainwashing class in Zhangjiatun, Jiaozhou City. Sui Guangxi, a villager from Laixi City, was persecuted to death by Xing Village's brainwashing class, which was established by the "610" Office of Laixi City.

 

At the municipal level, brainwashing classes have expanded to districts and villages. For example, in Weifang, the city with the highest persecution death toll in Shandong Province, there are seven brainwashing classes in the Weicheng District alone. They are Weicheng Chengguan Street District Office (located in the employee dormitory of the Chengguan Street Office, where Chen Zixiu was persecuted to death); Yuhe Town brainwashing class (located at the Yuhe Town Law Office, where Xuan Chengxi was persecuted to death); Wangliu Town brainwashing class (located at the Wangliu Adult Education Center); Junbukou Town brainwashing class (located at the Junbukou Village Committee Office); Xingbu Town brainwashing class (located at the Xingbu Town Justice Mediation Center); Fushan Town brainwashing class (located at the Fushan Town Senior House); Daliushu Town brainwashing class (located at the Daliushu Town Committee Office.) [6]

Clearly, the quantity and the density of the nationwide brainwashing classes established for the persecution of Falun Gong have far exceeded those of prisons, forced labor camps and mental institutions. Brainwashing classes have played a key role in carrying out the persecution. Based on the fact that brainwashing classes have expanded to all levels of government nationwide, including provincial, municipal, county and township, it is apparent that the orders have to come from the central government.

2. The "610 Office" Heads Brainwashing Classes with Lateral Collaboration from the Public Security Bureau, Justice Department and the Communist Party Committees

The establishment of brainwashing classes is mainly led by the "610" offices in each region. Take Shaoyang City, Hunan Province for example [7]. In April 2002, according to the outcome of the "National Conference on Fighting a Good Battle in Educating and Transforming Falun Gong Members" and the provincial "610" Office's "Suggestion on Launching a Falun Gong Members Education and Transformation Contest," the Shaoyang City leadership group on Falun Gong issues decided to launch a citywide "combat to transform Falun Gong members" between May and December 2002. It requested that each city and county establish a dedicated leadership team and that budget to run the brainwashing classes is secured. Under the same directions from the national conference, the "610" Office in Jiangmen City, Guangdong Province, was put in charge of establishing a "Falun Gong Member Legal System Education Class." On June 4, 2002, Tan Jizu, Deputy Secretary of the CCP Committee of Jiangmen City and director of the "610" Leadership Team (a.k.a. Leadership Team to Handle the Falun Gong Issue) made a personal trip to the brainwashing class and issued the order to "completely transform Falun Gong members." [8] It is obvious that the orders to establish brainwashing classes in each city and county come from the top, and are enforced at each level, through the super-powerful "Leadership Team to Handle the Falun Gong Issue" and the "610" offices.

In addition, with the Leadership Team to Handle Falun Gong Issue and the "610 Office" as its core and its lateral collaboration with the Public Security Bureau, Justice Department and the CCP Committee, each administrative area is unified in deploying the persecution. In the example of Wuxue City, Hubei Province, the city's CCP committee signed a "pledge" with each government division based on the guidelines from the central, provincial and municipal governments on dealing with the Falun Gong issues. The pledge stated that, "each division shall follow the guidelines of the documents from the central, provincial and municipal government and insure that the budget is in place to prevent and handle the Falun Gong issues and that project related vehicle needs are guaranteed. Fight an all out battle to educate and transform [Falun Gong members] and fight it well. Roles and responsibility shall be emphasized and various legal system education classes shall be held."

The pledge also clearly stated that the head of each division would be suspended for 6 months and subject to disciplinary actions should there be 2 Falun Gong members going to Beijing to appeal each year [9]. As a result of the forceful lateral collaboration among each Party committee, several Falun Gong practitioners in Wuxue City were sent by force to brainwashing classes, while at work or home, by the work unit head, the "610" Offices and the police. Chen Guozheng, former employer of the Agricultural Development Bank who had donated over 10,000 Yuan during a flood in Wuxue, was forcibly sent to the Hubei Legal System Education Center (i.e., the provincial brainwashing center) on March 18, 2004, by the president of the bank, who assisted the "610" Office and the local police to lured Chen to work. Earlier, Chen had already suffered tortures at the Wuxue brainwashing class and in the Shayang Forced Labor Camp, Hubei Province, since 2000 and was once paralyzed in both legs. [10]

3. Extensive Brainwashing Classes in the Public Security Department, Government Branches, Universities and Colleges, Businesses Sectors, and Forced Labor Camps

Setting up brainwashing classes requires no legal justification and, on the contrary, often receives open endorsement and commendation from high-level officials. The widespread brainwashing classes are not only established by the provincial, municipal, county and township governments, Party committees and the "610" offices, but also by the public security department, government branches, universities and colleges, business sectors and forced labor camps.

· Public Security and Justice Department Restrict Personal Freedom In the Name of Brainwashing Classes

In an attempt to circumvent the legal limitations of 15 or 30-day detention periods and to detain Falun Gong practitioners for prolonged periods of time, various police detention centers uses "Education Classes" to illegally detain practitioners.

On September 13 1999, "Education Classes" were held at detention centers in Jiangan District, Wuhan City. Practitioners who went to appeal were forcibly detained in the class. They were told to write a so-called "Guarantee and Repentance Statement" before they could be released to go home. [11]

On October 13 1999, all district Political and Judicial Committees in Shenyang City organized the so-called "621 Study Classes" [12] in the detention centers of the Public Security branches. They transferred practitioners who were abducted to city detention centers, collection centers, and the city women's self-improvement school, to these "Education Classes." ("621" was the code name used by the Political and Judicial Committees who were responsible for abducting Falun Gong practitioners in Liaoning Province, and was later made to conform to the code name of "610.") The "Education Class" guidelines required the respective work units of each practitioner to send a person to monitor an individual practitioner around the clock, 24 hours a day. Family members were also ordered to coerce practitioners, through ties of kinship and affection, into signing a "Guarantee and Repentance Statement." Only after a practitioner signed the "Guarantee and Repentance Statement" could they be released to go home.

At the end of 1999, city government of Dalian established the "621 Forced Education and Transformation Center." It was located at the rear courtyard of the Justice Bureau's Forced Re-Education-Through-Labor Drug Rehab Center. This brainwashing center used physical punishment and electronic batons to torture Falun Gong practitioners. Those who were not transformed were sent to the infamous Masanjia Labor Camp, to endure more torture and persecution. [13]

The public security bodies adopt the "Transformation Education Class" at will as their key means to implement the policy of "zooming in and targeting [Falun Gong members]." To fulfill the orders from higher authorities to "contain Falun Gong issues locally" and to prevent practitioners from "appealing to higher authorities by bypassing local authorities," local political and judicial units actively deploy deceit and abduction as their means to arrest Falun Gong practitioners on large scales and send them to the so-called "Education Classes" in an attempt to restrict their personal freedom, especially around the so-called "sensitive dates," such as during the two Congress Sessions and the Chinese New Year.

Since late 1999, numerous police stations in Chengdu City organized "Educational Transformation Classes." They forced Falun Gong practitioners to report to and participate in classes every day, from 9 A.M. to 6 P.M. at the police station, until they would sign the "No Practice [of Falun Gong], No Appeal [for Falun Gong]" promises. Such tactics have severely affected the lives of Falun Gong practitioners. [14]

· Government Offices Working Committees Organized Brainwashing Classes

In early 2000, under the deployment of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee and Beijing Bureau of Labor Re-Education, the Central Committee's Government Office Working Committee organized multiple brainwashing classes at the Xinan Forced Labor Camp in Beijing. The classes were publicly referred to as the "Judicial Education and Study Class." On February 1, 2001, Li Baoqing, a renowned research fellow at the Institute of Geographical Sciences and advisor for doctoral candidates, was abducted by the Institute's Party Committee to the brainwashing classes organized by the Office Working Committee, which was directly affiliated with the Central Committee. He went through two consecutive brainwashing classes (the 3rd and the 4th classes.) He was forced to suffer sleep deprivation without any rest. He eventually signed the "Guarantee Statement" in a state of confusion and muddled consciousness (the result of long-term sleep deprivation). After he was released, Li wrote an article, "Transformation Class is a Mafia-like Criminal Offense," which was published on the Internet. [15]

Up to July 2001, the Central National Government Office Working Committee had continuously organized more than ten "Judicial Education and Study Classes." [16] Since June 2001, capital investment has gone toward establishing the "Central National Government Office Working Committee Beijing Changping Transformation Base." [17]

On the morning of July 13, 2001, leaders from some offices directly under the Hebei Provincial Government deceived Falun Gong workers into going to off-site "Meetings" or "Tours" and then forcefully abducted these practitioners to the Changping Brainwashing Center for persecution. The practitioners did not even have a chance to bring a change of clothes. This brainwashing center charged each practitioner 100 Yuan per day, and each work unit would send three co-workers to accompany each abducted Falun Gong practitioner, totaling four people. Up to July 24, each work unit was forced to come up with around 20,000 Yuan in class fees. [19]

During the "Two Congress Sessions" in 2003, the Jilin Province "610" Office and the "610" offices from other working committees affiliated with the provincial government pressured the Provincial Financial Office, resulting in the abduction to brainwashing classes of many Falun Gong practitioners that worked there. [20] Under the orders of the Provincial "610" Office, and instructions of the "610" offices of the province-affiliated working committee, the Jilin Bureau of Records senior officials fired their periodicals publishing office deputy editor-in-chief, Zhang Zhongyu, from his position, and discharged him from his Party membership. Zhang was forced to leave home, and became homeless. He was then abducted and taken to the Changchun City Xinglongshan Brainwashing Class, to be subjected to further persecution. Zhang could not even walk, but had to crawl, due to injuries incurred from being severely tortured during the class. [21] Office working committees in other provinces also started organizing brainwashing classes. Local government offices directly affiliated with the Jiangxi Province Government organized the so-called "Judicial Education Class," around the time of the Chinese New Year, in 2001. [22] Working committees, from local offices directly affiliated to the Heilongjiang Province Government, organized a similar "Judicial Education Class" on March 2001. [23]

· Schools Organized Brainwashing Classes to Forcefully Transform Students and Faculty Members

In the educational system, the majority of the Party Committees enthusiastically cooperated with the local "610" offices to organize brainwashing classes. Through deception and abduction, they forced faculty members and students into the brainwashing classes run by the local governments. Falun Gong practitioners and their families were threatened to be fired or discharged if they refused to give up the practice.

After the Chinese government declared Falun Gong an "evil cult" on October 26, 1999 (in violation of the rights guaranteed by the Chinese Constitution), most students who practiced Falun Gong at Qinghua University were forcefully expelled and sent home. The school officials gave orders that students would not be reinstated unless they would guarantee that they would not practice Falun Gong. Faculty members would be fired if they did not denounce Falun Gong. The school then organized a "Transformation Study Class." The school detained faculty members and students who refused to denounce Falun Gong for "Thought/Ideology Transformation," under the guise of the "Transformation Study Class." [24]

In February 2000, Party Committees from all colleges and universities in Shenyang City gathered all Falun Gong practitioners to the "Centralized Education Instructional Class," which was organized by the Public Security and Civil Affairs Offices, for sequestered, coercive brainwashing. [25]

In Beijing, the "610" office of the Municipal Educational Working Committee ordered all universities and colleges in Beijing to report the names of all Falun Gong practitioners within in the student body and faculty to higher authorities, in order to systematically plan their abduction to the Beijing Judiciary Training Center for forceful, sequestered brainwashing. [26]

Chongqing University repeatedly abducted Falun Gong practitioners from school to the brainwashing classes located atop Geleshan Mountain in Chongqing City. They abducted a renowned faculty member, senior engineer, Zhang Yougao, to the Xishanping labor Camp in Chongqing City, for one year of forced labor re-education, without legal process. At the end of the detention period, they extended his term by another six months, with no reason given or due legal process. Upon orders from the local "610" office, the Chongqing University officials escorted him to the brainwashing class organized by the local government, where he was subjected to further persecution. [27]

The Lanzhou University Party Committee abducted Falun Gong practitioners who refused to give up the practice and detained them in the school's own guesthouse for three months of forced brainwashing. Later on the committee cooperated with the Lanzhou City "610" Office and abducted practitioners to the Gongjiawan Brainwashing Class in Lanzhou City, for continuous brainwashing and persecution. [28]

The persecution systems within universities and colleges were mostly created, organized, and operated by the Party Committee leaders, the "610" Office on campus (in conjunction with the school's security department), as well as the Party secretaries at lower levels (such as colleges.) For example, the Party Secretary at the College of Science, Jilin University, established a "Transformation Instructional Class," exclusively for Shen Lianli, a lecturer at the college who's also a Falun Gong practitioner. Each day they forced Shen to undergo "Self-examination, Repentance, Transformation" in a small room at the College of Science. Later, he and his three-year-old daughter were abducted to the brainwashing center. Even though he escaped, he was abducted once more by the University "610" Office. He was tortured to death after undergoing more than one month of detention. [29]

· Businesses Invested Money and Resources to Set Up Brainwashing Classes

The Communist Party committee of Zhongyuan Oil Field, a State-run enterprise, ran three rounds of education and transformation classes between February and April, 2000. It then advocated the experience and tricks gained from the classes, namely "eating, living and studying together," during the national "Public Lecture of the Meritorious Deeds in Combating the Falun Gong" conducted on Feburary 26, 2001. Additionally, it requested that the administrative staff of the classes and the "facilitators" dispatched by various organizations implement relentless brainwashing and monitoring on a 24-hour basis [30].

 

The State-run newspaper, the People's Daily, reported on May 31, 2001 that the Beijing Capital Iron and Steel Company had found a "unified education and transformation methodology involving the trinity of enterprise, government and a specialized department." [31] The Company set up "legal education classes" to brainwash and transform practitioner employees by force, which were praised by the Municipal Party Committee of Beijing multiple times. In an effort to motivate enterprises to set up private brainwashing classes to persecute Falun Gong practitioners, the China Central TV Station made a special report on the "success" of the classes organized by the Capital Steel Company. [32]

 

The Daqing Red Satellite brainwashing class was jointly organized, illegally, by the Daqing Municipal Government, the Daqing Oil Field Company Limited, and the Daqing Petroleum Administration Bureau in November, 2002. The estimated investment was over two million Yuan, spent on the purchase of a large amount of equipment such as automobiles and electronic surveillance systems. The principal behind this coordinated effort was Zhang Guojun, the deputy director of the 610 Office of the Daqing Petroleum Administration. The vice-principal was Wang Xiange, the deputy political commissar of the Daqing Forced Labor Camp. [33]

The persecution means used by the Daqing Red Satellite brainwashing class were fierce and cruel. Cheng Qiaoyun, an employee of the Daqing Petroleum Aministration Bureau, after serving an illegal two-year imprisonment, was abducted and sent to the Daqing Red Satellite brainwashing class on May 27, 2004 by the Daqing 610 Office and personnel from her original organization. In a little more than a month she was persecuted so much that she became unconscious, and her arms and legs were nearly crippled. She was last reported as critically ill but has now disappeared without a trace. [34]

· Brainwashing Classes Set Up in Forced Labor Camps with Brutal and Vicious Methods

On March 5, 2001, Taiyuan Municipal Government of Shanxi Province put to use all grassroots police substations, community offices, and county governments in order to take, by force and deception, nearly 100 Falun Gong practitioners from their homes. These practitioners were then sent to Taiyuan forced labor camp (located in Jiancaoping District of Taiyuan City) where an illegal "Legal Education Class" was set up. This brainwashing class deprived the practitioners of their personal freedom and carried out brainwashing using faked videotapes. This "class" also employed various means of corporal punishment to transform coercively, including letting a wolfhound bite female Falun Gong practitioners. Falun Gong practitioner, Song Yuying of Taiyuan City, Gujiao District, was persecuted to death in June after being sent to this "Legal Education Class" in May, 2001.[35] Shandong Province Legal Training Center is located in Wangcun Town, Zhoukou District, Zibo City, near the Shandong Province Second Forced Labor Camp. Most of its personnel were chosen from the forced labor camp. The training center has been operating since August 2001, with each round of classes lasting one month or so. Practitioners in the class were all abducted from the counties and cities of Shandong. [36] Every practitioner was required to pay a brainwashing fee of 5,000 Yuan. The Shandong Province Legal Training Center first sent Falun Gong practitioners to the forced labor camp for preliminary brainwashing, where means such as "making eagle eyes" (long term deprivation of sleep) were used to force Falun Gong practitioners to give up their cultivation practice. [37]

The abovementioned Shandong Province Second Forced Labor Camp (Wangcun Forced Labor Camp) once illegally detained nearly 200 Falun Gong practitioners (including both the male camp and the female camp) around March 2003. In an effort to coercively brainwash practitioners, every day the forced labor camp played "Interview with So-and-So" and a video fabricated by themselves, slandering Falun Gong and its founder. When watching the video one was required to pay close attention with no closing the eyes, no lowering the head or any other bodily movement. After the video was finished one was required to applaud. Any slight disobedience would lead to beating and electric shocking. Their persecution caused one third of the practitioners to display a range of illnesses. The persecution caused dozens of practitioners, such as Guo Jialong, Zhang Peng, Wang Tongliang, Zhang Zhi, Zhang Xueqiang and Sun Guangming, et al, to go insane, becoming unable take care of themselves. It took the lives of Zou Songtao, Yu Lianchun and Zhang Guohua. [38]

 

Falun Gong practitioners of Liaoning Province who were illegally sent to forced labor camps were detained in 18 separate forced labor camps in the province. [39] Most of those forced labor camps also set up their own brainwashing classes. The "Legal Education School" of Shenyan City was founded on October 18, 2002, and was located right inside the Zhangshi Forced Labor Camp. One million, eight hundred thousand Yuan were spent to revamp the place. [40]

 

The "610" Office of Benxi City, Liaoning Province, the city's Public Security Bureau and the Benxi Iron and Steel Company, all collaborate to illegally set up a brainwashing class inside the Benxi Forced Labor Camp, focusing on the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. [41] As early as September 1999, there were 100 practitioners in the brainwashing class inside the Chaoyang City Forced Labor Camp. Li Hongwei, former employee of the Shenyang Farm Machinery Company, Liaoning Province, was detained in that class. His right eardrum was perforated by beating, causing him almost losing his hearing. [42]

The Fushun City Forced Labor Camp (located in Wujiapu area of Dongzhou District) set up a "Fushun Ideological Education Class" to further torture Falun Gong practitioners mentally and physically. Those steadfast practitioners, whose illegal forced labor term had expired, were forced back into the class for continued persecution and extortion of fees [for their brainwashing]. [43]

II: Illegality of Brainwashing Classes

1. There is no Legal Basis for the Establishment of Brainwashing Classes

The whole process of establishing brainwashing classes does not follow any legal procedures. There has been no registration, rules of law or public documentation from the CCP or government to specify the nature or foothold of the brainwashing classes in society. There has been no obvious agenda, or supervising organizations; however, the staff of the brainwashing classes, who are not law enforcers themselves, have authority beyond that of law enforcers. They have the power to arrest anyone without any legal document; they incur no legal responsibility for beating someone to death. [44] 2. The Conduct of Brainwashing Class Staff Constitutes the “Crime of Illegally Depriving Citizens of their Freedom of Religious Belief”

Article 36 of the Constitution states:

“Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief.”

Article 251 of Criminal Law stipulates:

“For Governmental staff members who illegally deprive citizens of the freedom of religious belief, and who violate the customs of minorities, severe cases will be punishable by under a two years’ sentence, to either a prison or labor camp.”

During the past five years, the specific actions of brainwashing classes have already constituted the “crime of illegally depriving citizens of the freedom of religious belief.” Elaboration of the illegal nature of the classes follows:

First, the principal organization for brainwashing classes is the “610 Office,” with the major personnel of brainwashing classes being from the Political and Judiciary Commission at various levels, Courts, Procuratorate, Department of Public Security, Department of Justice, etc. They are all staff from state bodies, and thus fall into the category of Article 251 of Criminal Law, regarding governmental staff members who illegally deprive a citizen of their freedom of religious belief.”

Second, the brainwashing class personnel violate the law when they deprive Falun Gong practitioners of their freedom of belief.

For example, inside brainwashing classes, the physical freedom of Falun Gong practitioners is severely restricted; practitioners are also subjected to personal attacks. Falun Gong books and materials and personal property are confiscated and destroyed; Falun Gong practitioners are prohibited from conducting their normal social obligations.

Third, the establishment and conduct of brainwashing classes belong to “severe cases,” in terms of “depriving citizens of their freedom of religious belief.”

Brainwashing classes are repeated incessantly. The number of practitioners who have been forced to attend brainwashing classes is huge. There have been numerous cases of practitioners being mentally traumatized, being injured, crippled and even tortured to death in brainwashing classes.

Therefore, the primary people in charge of brainwashing classes have committed the “crime of illegally depriving citizens of their freedom of religious belief,” and should be subjected to punishment, according to article 251 of Criminal Law. By law, the responsible persons should be punished with “under a two years’ sentence to either a prison or labor camp.” [45]

3. Establishment of Brainwashing Classes Has Constituted the “Crime of Illegal Arrest and Imprisonment”

Article 37 of the Constitution states:

“Freedom of the person of citizens of the People's Republic of China is inviolable.”

Article 238 states:

“Illegally detaining others or using other means to deprive others of their physical freedom will be sentenced to a term of less than three years, detention, monitoring, or deprivation of political rights.”

Falun Gong practitioners are typically abducted to brainwashing classes while they areengaged in work, study or normal daily routines. There are also Falun Gong practitioners who have been sent to brainwashing classes because they refuse to give up their belief in Falun Gong at forced labor camps, or after their terms for re-education through labor are over. The responsible persons who abduct Falun Gong practitioners to brainwashing classes or transfer practitioners to brainwashing classes from forced labor camps do not follow any legal process.

Moreover, the brainwashing classes are completely isolated from the outside world. Falun Gong practitioners are imprisoned in cells, and watched by staff or monitors. Their physical activities are restricted, and they are forced to “study.” Many practitioners have been subjected to binding, beating, and torture. Their family members are not allowed to visit them. Some practitioners have been detained in brainwashing classes for over a year. The staff in these classes often threaten practitioners by saying that they could be “imprisoned for a lifetime” if they refuse to “be transformed.”

Such an act—forcing practitioners to “study” in a completely isolated environment— doesn’t have any legal premise. The physical freedom of Chinese citizens is deprived without any legal justification. It belongs to the severe cases stipulated in article 238, and the responsible persons should be subjected to punishment as dictated in article 238. [46]

4. The Conduct of the Brainwashing Class Staff has Constituted the Crimes of “Purposely Injuring Others” and “Deliberate Murder”

Article 234 states:

“Those who purposely injure others' bodies will receive a term of less than three years, detention, or be subject to monitoring.” 

Article 232 states:

“Murderers will be sentenced to the death penalty, a life term, or a term of more than ten years. In less severe cases, murderers will be sentenced to a term of three to ten years."

This article targets people who knowingly and purposely end another person's life for personal reasons. Staff of brainwashing classes who conduct beatings or mete out physical punishment that cause practitioners injuries, disabilities or death constitute the crimes of “purposely injuring others” and “deliberate murder”. Such offenders should be convicted according to Article 232, and receive serious sentences.

5. Numerous Children, Elderly People, Pregnant Women and Nursing Mothers Have Been Forcibly Detained in Brainwashing Classes

China’s prosecuting system claims that for suspects who are pregnant women, nursing mothers or minors, there are a series of protective measures. [47]. Although Falun Gong practitioners are not suspects of any kind, they are kidnapped to brainwashing classes without any legal justification. In addition, they are not being protected by the “protective measures” of law. According to China's “Re-Education through Labor” trial method, made by the Ministry of Public Security, pregnant women, nursing mothers and those who are under 16 years of age are prohibited from re-education through labor. [48] In spite of that, the staff of brainwashing classes display no humane consciousness. Numerous underage children, pregnant women and nursing mothers have been detained in brainwashing classes.

To give examples, in March of 2001, in the “Forcible Transformation Class” in Changyi District of Jilin City, three children were detained. They are Hou Zhenlong, eight years old, Zhao Qinu, 14 years old and Guo Xiujing, 15 years old. The oldest among all known detainees was 77-year-old Ma Shuang, a teacher in Yongji Normal School in Hewanzi City. [49]

Liu Qiuhong is a practitioner from Yantai City, Shandong Province. She was a former employee in Zhongce Pharmaceutical Company. She was in her eight-month of pregnancy when she was arrested at home by the police, and was later subjected to forced abortion. When the baby was born, it was alive and able to cry. The baby was sent to an unknown place, and to date, no one knows of the baby’s whereabouts. After the forced abortion, Liu Qiuhong was not allowed to take a rest. She was detained in the “transformation class” in Fenghuangtai Office for nearly a month. [50]

The “610” Brainwashing Class in Changli County, Qinhuangdao City, kidnapped a young mother and her daughter. They were illegally detained in the brainwashing class for nearly two years. The child was only one year old at the time she was kidnapped. She is now three years old. [51]

The detention of children and pregnant women by brainwashing classes is a severe violation of protective rules and measures for babies, children and women.

Obviously, the brainwashing class, under the guise of “legal education,” is the real crime in itself.

6. Accumulating Wealth by Illegal Means

According to a spot check made by this organization, it was revealed that brainwashing classes illegally demand huge fees from detainees (See Table Three of the Appendix). Brainwashing classes have become a tool for their personnel for racketeering and accumulating personal wealth. In the past years, a vast amount of taxpayers’ money has been spent on establishing and conducting brainwashing classes. The amount is very difficult to estimate. We are only able to get incomplete clues as to how much has been spent on brainwashing classes.

The “transformation fee” for each practitioner is typically five to six thousand yuan, or can be even more. The family members and working units of those practitioners who have been illegally abducted to brainwashing classes have to pay exorbitant living costs and a transformation fee.

Because transformation classes are organizations beyond the law, their financial situation is not transparent to the public, and not subject to regulations or auditing. Continuous, huge investment sums are thus thrown into an abyss. The extorted money obtained from practitioners’ family and working units under the titles of “cost of living” and “transformation fees” is not subjected to any legal process. In many regions, the personnel of the brainwashing classes keep changing and the incidents of racketeering are occurring all the time. To a certain extent, making a fortune from brainwashing classes has become incentive for operating them. [52]

III. Formalization of Brainwashing Classes: Creating a “Legal Cloak” with an Illegal Base

1. Law Education Classes

On July 22nd 1999, the Civil Administration Bureau announced the Decision Regarding Suppressing the Falun Dafa Research Committee. On the same day the Police Bureau released the announcement of Six Forbidding. These two administrative regulations formed the basis for the large-scale persecution of Falun Gong. On October 8, 1999, the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, together, released Directions from the Supreme Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate on How to Implement Regulations Against the Criminal Acts of Cults. On June 4, 2001, they released Directions Two. These two releases created a cloak of legality for the subsequent persecution of Falun Gong.

Current evidence shows that the earliest Law Education Class was held in the city of Chengde, Hebei province, in March 2000. The content of the class included the Civil Administration Bureau’s announcements, the Police Bureau’s Six Forbidding, the resolution of Outlaw Cults, Prevent and Punish the Activities of Cults by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, the releases of Directions One and Two from the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate. Shortly thereafter, brainwashing classes quickly opened on a nation wide basis under the name Law Education Class. Apparently this was a new round of persecution of Falun Gong with the legal weapons of Directions One and Two. Actually, the real purpose was to physically extend the persecution outside of labor reeducation camps and prepare a cloak of legality for the illegal brainwashing classes.

2. The Opening of Beijing Law Education Center and Classes

In Beijing, Beijing City Prevention and Management of Cults (i.e. 610 office) initiated the construction of a brainwashing center named Beijing City Law Education Center. The center was built at the old address of the Beijing Daxin Tiantanghe Labor Reeducation Camp, with an investment of at least 1,500,000 yuan. Liu Wei, director of the Beijing City Government 610 office, was in charge of the center. He deployed police of Xinan and Tuanhe Labor Reeducation Camps to open many sessions of Law Education Classes, focusing on the persecution of Falun Gong.

In addition, governmental branches of all the districts, counties and towns in Beijing actively held this kind of Law Education Classes. For example, after the first Law Education Classes by Xinan Labor Reeducation Camp in November 2000, the Communist Party Committee of Fangshan District claimed, “If the police of a labor reeducation camp can educate those Falun Gong practitioners and are successful in changing their minds, why can’t we? We will rely on low level managers and officials and expractitioners.” Fangshan District government opened a district level Law Education Class as a demonstration. After accumulating some experience and training, many teams were sent to all of the towns and villages in the district to open similar Law Education Classes. The officials of Fangshan District asserted that this kind of “focused, confined, rolling” classes is the prescription for the persecution of Falun Gong without labor reeducation. This actually extended illegal labor reeducation outside of labor reeducation camps, enlarged the range and locations of the persecution and made the persecution of Falun Gong omnipresent throughout the Chinese society.

3. Brainwashing classes are institutionalized at huge expense to persecute good people

The opening of the Beijing Law Education Center created a new channel to detain Falun Gong practitioners after there were no vacancies in labor reeducation camps. In June 2001, Beijing Haidian District Communist Party Committee and a governmental branch invested several million yuan on building up a Law Education Base, which could contain thirty Falun Gong practitioners and seventy staff members. In Shanghai, the 610 Office, the Law Enforcing Bureau, and the Political Law Committee managed to rebuild a police resort of the Shanghai City Law Enforcing Bureau into Shanghai City Law Education School. In Wuhan City, Wuchang district, local officials spent four million Yuan to build an enclosed brainwashing base with high walls topped with high voltage wires and officially called it a command center for flood prevention. The base started in June 2001.

In August 2001, under orders of the Hebei Province 610 office and the cooperation of Shijiazhuang City government, Hebei Province Capital Law Education Center was rebuilt from the old Shijiazhuang Labor Reeducation Camp, Third Squadron. The major staff of the center were the most active police involved in the persecution of Falun Gong. They were redeployed from each police station and labor reeducation camps. Guo Suoshang, deputy director of Shijiazhuang City Police Bureau, was in charge of the center. Li Zhunyin, deputy secretary of Shijiazhuang City Communist Party, supervised the center management team. Zhao Shiju, deputy secretary of Hebei Province Communist Party, praised the center as the “first rate in the province.” The center management was awarded Second Level Award of Hebei Province Political Work Creativity. These showed that the Hebei Capital Law Education Center staff did their best to persecute Falun Gong practitioners.

In September 2001, Jinan City Law Education Center was rebuilt based on a detention branch of the city police bureau, which had not been used for many years and was just separated by one wall from the Jinan City Labor Reeducation Camp. According to Zeng, retired director of Jinan City Labor Reeducation Camp, it cost more than two million yuan to rebuild the center.

In September 2002, under the order of the Shenyang City Communist Party, the Shenyang City 610 Office managed to form Shenyang City Law Education School, focusing on educating and forcing Falun Gong practitioners to give up their beliefs. This center was rebuilt based on the Zhangshi Labor Reeducation Camp, which began illegally detaining Falun Gong practitioners in November 2000. In this center, at least one Falun Gong practitioner was persecuted to death; at least three became mentally ill; many were crippled as a result of persecution.

Provincial and municipal Education Centers have been set up around the nation, institutionalizing the totally illegal brainwashing classes. These classes provided an official channel for personnel establishment, fund allocation and awards giving for the persecution of Falun Gong. Most Law Education Schools were under the jurisdiction of the Law Enforcing Bureau. For example, it was clearly stated that the primary responsibility of Guangzhou City Law Enforcing Bureau was to “administer the City Law Education School according to the requirement of the City 610 office.” Maomin City Law Education School stated clearly in its “Bulletin on Recruiting Staff of the City Law Education School” that the school was directly under the administration of the City Communist Party Political and Law Committee, as a branch level working unit with all the budgeting from the Committee. [69]

IV. Method of Brainwashing—Spiritual Murder

In the on-going persecution of Falun Gong over the past 5 years, in order to deprive people of their freedom to practice Falun Gong and freedom of thoughts, the cruelest means – brainwashing was used, directly targeting at Falun Gong practitioners’ mind and will for transformation. The following investigation and analysis on brainwashing encompass the cruel means and the spiritual killings in the forced labor camps and brainwashing classes.

1. Family Affection Used as a Tool in Coerced Transformation

Kinships, such as couple relationships, have been used by the Jiang regime as an important tool in transforming Falun Gong practitioners. After the persecution began, illegal kidnapping and detaining of Falun Gong practitioners resulted in countless broken families. Capitalizing on domestic crises, the regime often used such sayings as “practitioners don’t fulfill their family responsibilities” and “implicating other family members” to attack practitioners psychologically and to provoke family members to threaten [practitioners] by kneeling down, with divorce, and with suicide. The regime used tactics such as condemning practitioners as “heartless” and “having no regards for family” when they refused to be transformed, thus inciting hatred and misunderstanding among practitioners’ family members. In actuality, not only have transformation classes illegally detained Falun Gong practitioners, they also extorted large fines, which have subjected both practitioners and their family members to great psychological and financial pressures. Illegal detention of practitioners also caused the following family crises to occur: Small children are left alone at home without anyone’s care, sick parents are left behind without care, family functions are left unfulfilled, and family lives are in crises. Transformation classes and forced labor camps have used kinship as a wedge in their efforts to reach the goal of transforming practitioners.

Since its establishment in August 2002, the Legal System Education Base in Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia boosted the so-called “family transformation.” It is a method by which one first transforms a family member of the practitioner, and then uses kinship to influence other family members so as to “achieve the result with half the effort.” [70]

Boqi Liu, an employee working in the business management department of the Guangzhou branch of China People’s Bank, was forced into the Haizhu District brainwashing class in Guangzhou. During that time, Liu’s father fell critically ill, and the hospital sent out an emergency notice, hoping Liu could visit. However, Liu’s workplace and the brainwashing class still insisted that he write a guarantee as condition for his release. [71]

Tangshan City Textile College established a brainwashing class, which has long illegally detained Falun Gong practitioners. It has coerced and instigated practitioners’ spouses to divorce them in order to create psychological stress on practitioners. [72] Zhaozhou County (near Daqing City) Brainwashing Class also instigated family members to divorce their spouses if practitioners refused to be transformed. [73] In Laiyang, Shangdong, a Falun Gong practitioner’s younger sister and brother-in-law, after being used by the 610 Office, suborned Ai Jiang’s husband to pay 3000 yuan in order to send his wife to Wang Chun Labor Camp’s brainwashing class for one month. Ai Jiang’s younger sister accompanied her in attending the classes. Subsequently, Ai Jiang was sent to Laiyang Communist Party School Braining Washing Class, during which time, she was handcuffed day and night. In addition, the brainwashing class mobilized family members to pressure her [to renounce her belief in Falun Gong]. In the end, after enduring great physical and psychological tortures, Ai Jiang suffered a nervous break down. Her husband divorced her and the family was broken. [74]

2. Environment of Long-Term Psychological Abuse in Detention

Brainwashing classes existed to transform Falun Gong practitioners, and those who refused to be transformed have either been detained indefinitely or have been sent to forced labor camps. The following examples illustrate how the typical environments of brainwashing classes have been arranged in order to oppress practitioners psychologically. The so-called Legal System Education Base in Wuchang District,Wuhan, faces the river bank. Metal wires cover the walls, and each room is installed with two monitoring devices. The iron gates, secured with big locks, in hallways and the rooms as well as the windows are welded using reinforced steel bars. No sunlight can be let in. Inside, it is like a jail, and the outer gate is also closed year-round. Slogans slandering Falun Gong cover the walls and fences inside. [75] Brainwashing classes also create environments for twenty-fourhour bombardment. For example, teaching aids at the Legal System Education Base in Dongshan District, Guangzhou are ordered to guard practitioners, to deprive them of sleep, to force them to watch videos slandering Falun Gong, and to indoctrinate them with materials that smear Falun Gong around the clock. Practitioners are not allowed to leave the rooms nor allowed to use the restrooms. They are isolated for extended periods of time without exposure to sunlight. Each room is installed with a listening device, and high decibel amplifiers broadcast defamation of Falun Gong nonstop. [76] In addition, brainwashing classes have requested that the workplace of each practitioner send one or two teaching aids who would help to monitor the practitioner around the clock. Heilongjiang Province’s Daqing Oil Field Company established the Red Satellite Brainwashing Class. Each session runs over a period of two months, during which time each Falun Gong practitioner’s workplace sends an accompanying aid to follow the practitioner twenty-four hours a day. The aid, who must be a party member or a company party secretary, is rotated on a weekly basis. [77]

Some brainwashing classes have been purposefully located in hotels in order to create a false impression that Falun Gong practitioners are being given a “special treatment.” For example, Dalian Social Ideological Education School is set on the sixth floor of the Dalian Black Reef Hotel. [78] However, in reality, it monitors practitioners twenty-four hours a day, coupled with long-time fatigue, it increases the psychological persecution of practitioners. The brainwashing class in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province puts forward approaches, such as “luxury food, hotel and meticulous caring,” in order to deceive practitioners and to make them waver in their will. [79] Afterwards, the brainwashing class extorted heavy fines from the Falun Gong practitioners.

3. Fake Compassion

“Fake compassion” is a popular mean used in forced labor camps and brainwashing classes. It uses human beings’ natural kindness, such as “love” and “caring for each other” as tools to persecute practitioners psychologically. In 2003, a “Care and Love Education School” was set up in Fushun City, Liaoning province. In the school, “Love and caring” were used as tools to transform Falun Gong practitioners. On March 5, 2004, Liaoning Daily reported that instructors at the “Care and Love Education School” are as kind as “brothers and sisters.” They go to practitioners’ rooms to inquire about their health, and they carry on conversations all night along… rooms and bedding were bright and clean, foods were delicious, and the environment was nice and quiet. [80] However, according to reports from Falun Gong practitioners who were detained in the school, behind the so called “love and care,” there is a plan: First, they spend about a week’s time to talk heartto-heart with practitioners, and the atmosphere appears to be peaceful. Sometimes practitioners are even allowed to read Falun Gong books. This is to relax the practitioners’ minds and to make up a false appearance that the brainwashing classes have no violence, and people there are very kind. In fact, during that week, they are studying practitioners’ minds and cultivation levels. Then, they set up different ways to transform practitioners with different thinking styles. [81] In Liaoning Province, Masanjia Labor Camp began to summarize experiences in its use of fake compassion in 2000. One Falun Gong practitioners who was illegally detained there said, “The brainwashing procedure in Masanjia is that the first week, policemen use means of fake compassion and deceit. In daily subsistence, they satisfy your desires to make you feel that they are very nice. This is to let you relax so as to make it easier for them to transform you later. If Falun Gong practitioners are firm without compromising after the first week’s brainwashing, the policemen became fierce and brutal. They brainwash practitioners day and night and deprive them of sleep. They drag practitioners to bathrooms to suffer physical tortures, force them into a semi-squatting position and accompanying it with electric-batons and various tortures. Suffering physical and verbal abuses were common in our daily lives.”[82]

Through nation-wide media such as CCTV, Legal System Daily, and Xinhua Net, article after article titled “True Love Dispels Dense Fog,” “True Love Calls back the Prodigal Son,” “Loving Heart Calls for Return Journey,” etc. appeared in front of public. These reports have made the general public believe that government ministries and labor camp police have poured out their hearts in an effort to “educate, save, and affect” [the Falun Gong practitioners]. On Feb. 27 2001, in a state news conference, the central “610 Office” leader, Jing Liu, mentioned that in Shangdong province, a wife proactively sent her husband to Masanjia Labor Camp and asked them to “help” her husband. [83] This example illustrated that not only Falun Gong practitioners had been forced to receive brainwashing, citizens nationwide have been deceived by the propaganda.

4. Transform Practitioners Using Transformed Practitioners

In Masanjia and some other forced labor camps, a part of practitioners have been transformed under hypocrisy and deception, and then these previous practitioners were systematically used to transform other determined practitioners. In a Legal System Daily newspaper article of February 23, 2001, the brainwashing method used in Masanjia was highlighted: “if we are successful in transforming a practitioner assuming important role into a role model for our brainwashing work, it will have multiple effects. So we carefully selected the ‘influential’ practitioners and concentrated on transforming them. Because practitioners share ‘similar thoughts’ and have ‘close feeling toward each others’, those not yet transformed are able to listen and think. We call it using ‘law’ to break the ‘law’, and have achieved delectable results with it.” When this method became more mature, on October 10, 2000, a “Focus Brainwashing Assistant Delegation” was formed with Ling Bingzhi, deputy director of Liaoning Provincial Judiciary Department as the director. With some so-called transformation models from Masanjia, they went to the other forced labor camps in the province to “justify” brainwashing using their own experiences. [84] Beijing Forced Labor Camp Department also implemented similar strategy to “pay attention to the initiatives of the transformed practitioners, train them to become brainwashing experts and demand them to participate in assisting police to transform determined Falun Gong practitioners using their own experiences.” [85]

Falun Gong always teaches people to elevate their moral standard and become better persons. So the conduct of helping evils exemplified by fellow practitioners in the past after being forced brainwashed has caused so much pain and psychological burden to other determined practitioners. As described in the book Still Water Running Deep about the brainwashing method used in Beijing Female Forced Labor Camp, “a practitioner called Wang Jian said that she could stand the beating from a non-practitioner, but in no way from a ‘transformed practitioner.’ Previous fellow practitioner suddenly turned back on you and became more vicious than those ‘normal person’ was truly beyond her level of understanding and endurance.” [86] However, the complicated feeling like Wang Jian’s is exactly what the plotter hopes to achieve. But sometimes this method got “opposite effect”, e.g. practitioner Zhang Yijie detained at the same place told the transformed practitioner: “In the past, when our practitioners were together, how peaceful, compassionate and pure-minded we were. There were no blockages among our hearts. But now I really don’t understand what has happened to you?! Looked at those “transformed” people! Beat, curse and torture others. They fight among themselves as well. So I definitely would not be “transformed” after seeing these.” [87]

Kong Fanyun, “Education Section Chief” of Hebei Provincial Legal Education Center once talked to the “transformed” practitioners in public: “You are considered to be completely transformed only when I saw you beat and curse others.” [88] And that is their definition of success criteria for “education, influence and save”: push a person totally to the dark side.

And this so-called “complete transformation” criterion is exactly the most painful part of practitioners who have been forced to help the evils. A practitioner called Chen Ying who has been forced to transform said, “what has really shocked and irritated me is the horrible behavior of our so-called brainwashed practitioners. They have degenerated to the point that a normal person could not understand and tolerate. Even the prisoners still with some kind-nature said: they are really ferocious. And this thing has made me suffer a great deal. I often had nightmares and groaned in them.” [89] The authority used brainwashed practitioners to take part in the transformation work is one of the cruelest part of the method. It was like to instigate someone to torture their own brothers and sisters. When they became clear-minded again, they would lose confidence in continue cultivation because of the endless regret. So it is like push someone into a deep well and then cast heavy stone on them in order to achieve the plotter’s purpose of “killing two vultures with one sword strike” and “complete transformation”. However, to brainwash a practitioner using a brainwashed practitioner has just confirmed the brutality of this method.

“Those transformed practitioners have gone through a process and the whole state machine has been running for it…. Falun Gong practitioners cultivate Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance, so they would not say anything against their wills. But they would force you to say words against your conscience and it would not just end there. Their brainwashing method has a procedure to follow: First, they forced you to write a “Guarantee Statement” promising not to practice Falun Gong anymore. Then, they forced you to write a “Dissociation Statement” followed by a “Critique Statement” to talk about why you would like to break away from Falun Gong. Step by step, they coerced you to criticize Falun Gong deeply. However, practitioners have all benefited from Falun Gong, they couldn’t think of anything bad about Falun Gong. A few sentences would not do, thus everyday practitioners were forced to say words against their wills. In the forced labor camp, practitioners not only lost their freedom physically but also mentally. They were required to report to the police about a single movement, thought or eye expression of theirs. And the “Critique Statement” needs to be read in front of hundreds of people in the labor camp on a stage. The whole process will be video taped, which is like the rape of your mind. In the end, you were forced to help police to transform those practitioners not yet brainwashed. They made you help the evils. If you refused to write the “Guarantee Statement”, you would face endless torture. Maybe some people would say: ‘Then just write the statement and be better off.’ The fact is once you write it because you can not bear the suffering any longer, you would immediately face another kind of more painful torment, i.e. constantly betray of one’s conscience until nothing of it left. They would brainwash you until you really no longer believe in Falun Gong.” Interview with the Author of “Still Water Running Deep”, a talented Beijing University Alumni Zeng Zheng [90]

5. Deprive of Sleep for Long Hours

If you type in “deprive of sleep” on the Internet search engine Google, among the numerous result articles, most part is about persecution cases of Falun Gong practitioners in various forced labor camps and brainwashing classes. Thus it can be seen that “deprive of sleep” has been widely used in the crackdown on Falun Gong.

On April 8, 2002, CCTV broadcasted a Hot Topic Talk Show program called “From destruction to newborn – Wang Bo and her parents”, maliciously making young lady Wang Bo and her father household names for “transformation models”. But later, Wang Bo’s father Wang Xinzhong wrote an article “Wang Bo’s father Wang Xinzhong Talk about the lies in Hot Topic Talk Show program”, exposing the fact how Wang Bo was transformed in the forced labor camp, “She was sent to Beijing Xinan Forced Labor Camp. They deprived her of sleep for six straight days, 24 hours each and infused upside down lies into her mind. They brainwashed her by forcing her to watch video slandering Falun Gong. According to the words of police: ‘We will definitely make you mentally collapse by applying method used on spies!’”. And Wang Xinzhong also received similar mistreatments in Hebei Provincial Legal Education Center: “Deceived by the program full of lies, and under the torture of sleep deprivation for several days, I became mud-headed and was ‘transformed’. But it was definitely not my true wish and real thoughts. It was a spiritual persecution on me.” [91]

Psychiatric professor J. Allan Hobson of Harvard Medical School in U.S. wrote in his book Sleep “a brain benefits from sleep. When sleep is deprived, the mind capability will be gradually degenerated. First, one cannot focus in his mind, cannot do some control movement with collaborative nature, and become ill-tempered and sleepy. If one is deprived of 5-10 days sleep, the mind will lose all its abilities and the person will become mad and stupid; also the person will change from trustful to biased, sensible to unreasonable, and start to get imaginary sound and image.” Hobson also use “brainwashing” as an example to illustrate that “deprive of sleep could let a patriot to deny his country and ideal, sign statement that obviously against his personal belief and even attend political activities he used to object to.” [92] It’s clear that Jiang’s regime has mastered the essence of brainwashing and applied to thousands Falun Gong practitioner who hold fast to their belief.

6. Outcome of Brainwashing – mental disorder, physical destruction:

On the eve of the Annual Sessions 2004 of “NPC and National Committee of CPPCC”, a 18-years old female high school student from Chicheng County, Hebei Province was expelled from school only because she gave a note saying “Please remember that Falun Dafa is Good” to a classmate; she went to appeal in Beijing but was illegally detained at Shalingzipiandi Legal Education School in Zhangjiakou City and was violently beaten. She was deprived of sleep for three whole days and fainted on the ground for several times. She has been locked up alone, shocked by electric baton and monitored by one hired person. When she was released two months later, there were bruises and cuts all over her hands and body. She had no eye responses, and could not say and do things normally. She became mentally disordered [93] Another beautiful young lady, 32-years old Chengdu Falun Gong practitioner Zhu Xia, after over one and half years illegal forced labor and three consecutive brainwashing classes in 10 months (i.e. Pi County Brainwashing Class, Pengzhou Brainwashing Class and Xinjin Brainwashing Class), long-term detention, torture and brainwashing, violent beating, humiliation by being paraded through street and deprivation of sleep for long time, her mind and body have been greatly damaged. When she went back home on April 2, 2004, she became deranged. And now Zhu Xia often saw imaginary scene and hear imaginary sound, she would make noises all day long: cry, laugh, curse, hit door and window, drop feces and urine anywhere, remove the quilt cover and only use the inside cotton. She often covered her head with hands and screamed: “Are you going to rape me?” … [94]

Japanese Falun Gong practitioner Yuko Kaneko was subject to forced labor for one and half years because she distributed Falun Gong truth-clarifying materials in Beijing. She returned to Japan on November 23, 2003 and exposed the crime in the forced labor camp in a press conference held in Tokyo. The police in the labor camp instigated prisoners to commit brutality on Falun Gong practitioners with temptation of term reduce and parole. They especially sexually abused determined female practitioners at will. She recalled seeing a girl about 19 years old in trance state when she was first sent to the forced labor camp. She heard that the young girl kept on practicing Falun Gong when initially sent there. But the police instigated drug addicts there to strip her naked and sexually abused her, which caused her go mentally astray. When Yuko Kaneko was sent to the Beijing Police Hospital, she heard from a practitioner there that on the “legal education class” held at their place, a female Falun Gong practitioner was stripped naked and hung on a tree in the public by the perpetrator. She lost control of her mind immediately. When she was put down, she ran outside without putting on clothes. [95]

There were mental collapse cases happened constantly in the forced labor camps and brainwashing classes. Perhaps we can say that being persecuted to mental disorder is the extreme outcome of brainwashing – when a person was persecuted to the point that he lost control of his mind or even became a vegetable, he could no longer hold his belief in Falun Gong, no longer appeal for Falun Gong. This is the bloodiest side of Jiang’s regime’s spiritual killing policy.

Yet this is not the end of brainwashing. There are constant death case reports coming out from China’s forced labor camps and brainwashing classes. In Baoding City, Hebei Province, alone, five Falun Gong practitioners have been confirmed tortured to death in the four brainwashing classes in the city.

V. Conclusion: Brainwashing cannot wipe out conscience

The Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate together released Directions from the Supreme Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate on How to Implement Regulations Against the Criminal Acts of Cults on October 8th 1999 and Directions Two on June 4th 2001. These two legal releases made a legal apparel of persecution of Falun Gong. This caused the opening of brainwashing classes everywhere in the country. Totally illegal and horrible brainwashing was formally titled “Law Education” and brainwashing classes provided another place to persecute Falun Gong practitioners in addition to detention centers, jails, labor reeducation camps, mental hospitals. However, no matter how much effort the government tried to legalize the brainwashing classes, these nationwide brainwashing classes and expensive Law Education Centers or Law Education Schools provided hard evidences that Jiang’s regime violated Chinese Constitution and mobilized the state apparatus in persecuting the kindhearted people.

Five years’ continuous forceful brainwashing hurt the body and mind of countless people. However, many evidences show that the results are far from the governmental goals of “letting most Falun Gong practitioners giving up their belief” and “totally ban Falun Gong”. According to statistical data, even under the Chinese government’s strict information blockade, in the 45 months between January 2001 and September 2004, close to 146,000 Falun Gong practitioners released “Formal Statement [of Continuing Practicing Falun Gong]”, declaring that statements of giving up practicing Falun Gong were written under high pressure against their wills and are invalid. They have bravely uncovered the inhuman brainwashing means in brainwashing classes and labor reeducation camps, simply hoping that their efforts will awaken more consciences and end the persecution that has lasted for more than five years.

Reference:

9. July 26, 2004 on Minghui.org : Truth fliers: Baoding facts, vol 6, Hebei Province: It is verified that there has been 5 practitioners persecuted to death at different brainwashing classes in Baoding area. They are: Ron Fenxian from Yingdingzhang Village, Jingzhuang Town, Baoding City (Baoding Northern District Brainwashing Class); Tai Yuron from Nanjiang Village, Jiacung Town, Wangdu County (Wangdu County Brainwashing Class); Xie Wenping from the glass tube factory in Dingxin County (Liyuzhuang Town Brainwashing Class in Dingxin County); Zhai Xioqing in Beima Village, Songlindian Town, Zhuozhou City (Songlindian Nanma Brainwashing Class in Zhuozhou City); Xuon Fengxia from Dingxing County (Liyuzhuang Town Brainwashing Class in Dingxing County)

10. <Minghui.org File – Cases of persecution deaths: “Tables of cases in different provinces.” Three practitioners in Weifang City were persecuted to death in brainwashing classes: Wu Jingxia from Gejiacung, Fenghuang Neighborhood Administration, Fangzi District in Weifang City, Shangdong Province (Weifang City Kunwen District Brainwashing Class); Xuan Chengxi from Dongxia Village, North Gate, Weicheng District, in Weifang City (Yuhe Town Office Brainwashing Class in Weicheng District). Ms. Su Baolan, 37 years old, from Anqiu City in Weifang City, was forcibly taken to the brainwashing class by her husband in mid October, 2001. Her body was found in the river in late October.

11. September 1, 2004 on Minghui.org: “Behind the doors of Qingdao Brainwashing Class”.

12. January 17, 2004 on Clearwisdom.net: “Jiaozhou City: Two Dafa Practitioners Persecuted to Death and Others Disabled in the Zhangjiatun Brainwashing Class”.

13. Sep. 7, 2003 on Clearwisdom.net: Dafa Practitioner Mr. Sui Guangxi Dies of Torture-induced Health Problems.

14. Dec. 29, 2000 in Clearwisdom.net: Seven Places in Weifang Where Dafa Practitioners Are being Persecuted

15. Hunam Provincial Directory “610 Office” Opinions on holding competition events
around the province to educate and convert Falun Gong practitioners (Xiang 610 Fa [number (2002)4]; Plans for educating and converting Falun Gong practitioners in Shaoyang City by the Falun Gong Problem task force in City Directory of Shaoyang City, Hauna Province

16. June 6, 2002 in Zhengqing.net.cn: “Task force in Jiangmen City, Guangdong Province demand the conversion of Falun Gong practitioners”

17. Aug. 21, 2004 in Minghui.org: “All responsible departments of Wuxue City, Hubei Province sign the task commitment to persecute Falun Gong practitioners with the party directory”

18. Mar. 24, 2004 in Minghui.org: “A practitioner in Wuxue City who was a big donor for flood disaster was abducted and persecuted”

19. Feb. 15, 2004 in Minghui.org: News from China: Partial list of practitioners who were persecuted in Hanko Area, Wuhan City: Ms. Wangli, who was 31 years old, and Ms. Zhang Dongfan were both taken to Jiangan District brainwashing class on September 13, 1999.

20. July 21, 2004 in Dajiyuan.com: The phoenix from the ashes.

21. Dec. 4, 2004 in Minghui.org: The concentration camp for persecuting practitioners—Dalian 621 forced education and conversion center.

22. Apr. 14, 2000 in Minghui.org

23. June 15, 2001 in Minghui.org: Professor and advisor for Ph. D students declare: “ The ‘conversion class’ is the action of mafia-like organized crimes.

24. July 19, 2001 in people.com.cn

25. Dec. 20, 2001 in Zhengqing.net.cn: “Die to live”

26. July 28, 2001 in Minghui.org: News from China: A practitioner in provincial direct organization were tricked to Changping brainwashing class and detained since

27. Aug 28, 2001 in Clearwisdom.net: Hebei Province Administration Bureau's Kidnapping, Brainwashing and Mental Torture of Dafa Practitioners

28. Oct. 7, 2003 in Clearwisdom.net: Provincial Government Employee Wang Wei Is Interrogated, Tortured, and Sentenced to Forced Labor

29. May 2, 2004 in Yuanming.net: Former deputy chief editor of a magazine in Jilin Province Record Bureau was tortured by the brainwashing class and cannot walk

30. Feb. 5, 2001 in Zhengqing.net.cn

31. Mar. 30 on Heilongjing News

32. Jan 26, 2000 in Clearwisdom.net: A letter of appeal from the practitioner of Tsinghua University

33. Feb. 13, 2000 on people.com.cn page 2.

34. Jan. 23, 2004 on Minghui.org: The “610 Office” of Beijing Teachers’ Education Administration Forces all college teachers to attend brainwashing classes.

35. Jun. 16, 2003 on Clearwisdom.net: Chongqing University Thugs Persecute Student and Faculty Falun Gong Practitioners

36. May 23, 2004 on Clearwisdom.net: Faculty and Students at Lanzhou University Persecuted Because of Their Belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance

37. Jul 3, 2004 on Clearwisdom.net: Shen Jianli, a Lecturer from Jilin University, is Tortured to Death, Her Family Members Also Suffer Greatly

38. Feb 28, 2001 on people.com.cn, page 6.

39. May 31, 2001 on people.com.cn.

40. May 15 on Chinese Central TV.

41. Oct 31. 2003 on Clearwisdom.net: Cases of Persecution of Dafa Practitioners at the Daqing Petro-Chemical Corporation

42. Aug. 30, 2004 on Clearwisdom.net: Practitioner Ms. Cheng Qiaoyun Is Tortured to the Point of Mental Collapse

43. Jul. 7, 2001 on Clearwisdom.net: An Account of Torture Against Dafa Practitioners in a Taiyuan Brainwashing Class, Shandong Province

44. Dec. 30, 2003 on Minghui.org: Practitioners with righteous thoughts march toward their bright future in bloody persecution in Shandong Province (part III)

45. Apr. 13, 2002 on Clearwisdom.net: "Judicial Training Center" in Shandong Province and the Wangcun Labor Camp Brutally Torture Dafa Disciples

46. Aug. 14, 2003 on zhengjian.org: Torture cases in "Judicial Training Center" and the Wangcun Labor Camp in Shandong Province

47. Feb 23, 2001 on <Judicial News, page 3.

48. Aug 3, 2004 on Minghui.org: Behind the doors of the brainwashing classes in the “Law Education School” in Shenyang.

49. Jan. 4, 2003 on Clearwisdom.net: Dafa Practitioners Subjected to Brutal ForceFeeding in Weining Forced Labor Camp, Benxi City, Liaoning Province

50 World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong: Partial list of Falun Gong practitioners who have been tortured to death in Liaoning Province

51. Dec. 12, 2001 on Clearwisdom.net: Ten Methods of Terror Used for Torturing Falun Dafa Practitioners in the Liaoning Province, Fushun City Labor Camp Brainwashing Class

52. Apr. 28, 2004 from World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong: The investigation report regarding the physical and mental persecution through “transformation” on Falun Gong practitioners to engage in group annihilation

53. Jul. 20, 2004 on Minghui.org: Firmly resist the brainwashing classes, which violate the constitution and are illegal.

54. Jul. 20, 2004 on Minghui.org: Firmly resist the brainwashing classes, which violate the constitution and are illegal.

55. < china-woman.com>? Execute the law and order with a warm heart—the story of a few female role models in nine categories in the judicial field

56. Chinese Enterprise Summary: Notification from the Prime Minister’s Office in its redistributing the “Labor and education trial procedure” created by the Police Bureau. It requires that the police shall not detain certain people, including those of psychological disorder, mentally retarded, blind, deaf, mute, seriously ill, pregnant or woman breast-feeding babies within one year, and those who are disabled.

57. Mar. 28 on Minghui.org: News From China: “Forcible-conversion” class in Changyi District, Jilin Province imprisoned practitioners who were minors.

58. Mar. 28 on Minghui.org: News From China: Eight-month pregnant practitioner Liu Qiuhong in Yantai City was forced to have an abortion.

59. May 18, 2003 on Clearwisdom.net: A Young Mother and Her 3-Year-Old Daughter Are Illegally Detained for Over Two Years in Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province

60. Jul. 20, 2004 on Minghui.org: Firmly resist the brainwashing classes, which violate the constitution and are illegal.

61. Mar. 4 2000 on people.com.cn, page 3.

62. May 26, 2001 on <Beijing Youth News, page 3, local news.

63. Aug. 12, 2004 from World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong: Report of investigation on the persecution of Falun Gong by the “Judicial Education Center” in Beijing.

64. Mar. 30, 2001 on <Beijing News.

65. Dec. 20, 2001 on Zhengqing.net.cn

66. Aug 15, 2001 on Xinhuanet.com

67. Oct. 23, 2001 on <Zhengqing.net.cn

68. Feb 24, 2004 on Minghui.org: The “Judicial School in Shanghai is a private prison that harms and abuses the innocent.

69. Oct. 25, 2001 on Clearwisdom.net: Exposing the Evil of the Brainwashing Classes in Wuchang, Hubei Province

70. May 25, 2004 on Minghui.org: The evil actions of the Judicial Education Center in Hebei – depriving sleep to destroy.

71. Shijiazhuang Almanac: 2001 almanac review- judicial and executive. “Execute well the “Eighteen Items” and emphasize the work in rank and file.

72. Feb 24, 2003 on Hebeidaily.com.cn: List of year 2002 winners of the creativity award on ideology and political education in Hebei Province

73. Jul. 8, 2003 on Clearwisdom.net: Facts About the Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners in the Jinan City Forced Labor Camp, Shandong Province

74. April 29 on Science and Technology Association in Shengyang City

75. Feb 19, 2004 on Clearwisdom.net: Police from Zhangshi Labor Camp in Shenyang City Torture Practitioners by Tying Them Up for 5 hours With Their Heads Between Their Legs

76. < Guangzou Provincial Government in China> Justice Bureau in Guangzhou City

77. < Maoming City Political And Justice Directory; Maoming City Security and General Management> Public notice for recruiting judicial education personnel in the city by Maoming City Political and Justice Directory of the Communist Party, Personal Department in Maoming City

78. Mar. 17, 2004 on Mingjing.org.cn

79. July 14, 2001 on Minghui.org: The viciousness of Guangzhou Brainwashing Class: Practitioner not allowed to visit critically-ill father unless signing the pledge

80. Aug 14, 2002 on Minghui.org: News from China. The Textile University in Tarngshan City continues its persecution of practitioners.

81. Jan. 10, 2004 on Minghui.org: Behind the doors of Zhaozhou County Brainwashing Class in Daqing City

82. Feb. 20, 2003 on Clearwisdom.net: Some of the Crimes Committed in the Brainwashing Classes at Laiyang Party School in Shandong Province

83. Jan. 11, 2004 on Minghui.org: Account of the persecution of practitioners by the brainwashing class in Wuchang City

84. Jan. 9, 2004 on Clearwisdom.net: Falun Gong Practitioners Suffer Relentless Abuse at Dongshan District Brainwashing Center in Guangzhou City

85. Oct 31. 2003 on Clearwisdom.net: Cases of Persecution of Dafa Practitioners at the Daqing Petro-Chemical Corporation

86. Jul. 4, 2003 on Minghui.org

87. Aug 10, 2001 on Minghui.org News from China: The ugly face of the brainwashing class in Jinghua City, Zhejiang Province

88. Mar. 5, 2004 on Liaoning Daily

89. Aug. 7, 2004 on Radio of The Friends of Falun Dafa. The true face of the brainwashing class at Luotaishanzhuang in Fushun City, Liaoning Province

90. Jul. 25, 2004 on Dajiyuan: The Phoenix from The Ashes (14) 23: Brainwashing day and night.

91. Feb. 27, 2001 on Xinhuanet.com: Li Jing’s response to reporter’s question at the press conference at the news room of the prime minister’s office

92. Feb, 23, 2001 on Judicial Daily, page 3.

93. Apr. 25, 2001, number Zutongzi 2001-21: The notice from Chinese Communist Central Organization Division regarding the fighting experience of the party committee at Masanjia Labor Camp in Liaoning Province, the party committee of Beijing City Education Department., and City directory of Qitaihe City in Heilongjiang Province with Falun Gong.

94. Jan. 11, 2004 < China Watch>. Current is deep under calm water  by Zengjing – reporting literature (12), vol 4: The blood and tears in the labor camp.

95. Oct. 8, 2003 on Minghui.org: Repentance of a once-brainwashed practitioner: Xinan Labor Camp in Beijing encourages the fighting among inmates while doing brutal brainwashing in the meantime

96.  Huiyuan: Wang Xinzhong, the father of Wang Bo explains the inside story of how the TV show Interview with a focus  makes stories

97. Oct. 8, 2003 on Minghui.org: Repentance of a once-brainwashed practitioner: Xinan Labor Camp in Beijing encourages the fighting among inmates while doing brutal brainwashing in the meantime

98.  China Watch: See viewpoint, opinions. Aug. 12, 2004. Special interview of Zenjing, prodigy from Beijing University and the author of

99.  Huiyuan: Wang Xinzhong, the father of Wang Bo explains the inside story of how the TV show makes stories

100.  Sleep by J. Allan Hobson. Translated by Cai Linlin and Ho Jianyun. Page 4. Published by Yuanzhe Foundation, 1997

101. Jun. 7, 2004 on Clearwisdom.net:  Eighteen-Year-Old Practitioner Ms. Zhang Conghui Is Tortured to a State of Mental Collapse

102. Aug. 10, 2004 on Clearwisdom.net:  Practitioner Ms. Zhu Xia Suffers Mental Breakdown After Abuse and Probable Rape as a Part of Official Brainwashing

103. Dec. 28, 2003 on Clearwisdom.net:  Japan: Yoko Kaneko Holds Press Conference in Tokyo to Reveal Her Experience in China

Table 2: Overview of Brainwashing Classes in Seventeen Cities in Shandong Province and Districts under Their Administrations

Jinan City: Jinan City Law Education Center, Lixia District Brainwashing Class, Tianqiao District “610” Brainwashing Class, Licheng District Brainwashing Class, Zhangqiu City Brainwashing Class

Qingdao City: Qingdao City “610” Brainwashing Class (located at 34 Mingxia Road, Shibei District, Qingdao City), Zhangjiatun (Village) Brainwashing Class in Jiaozhou City (Two practitioners were persecuted to death.) ,Nantan Brainwashing Class in Jiaozhou City, Jimo City Brainwashing Class, Pantao Town Brainwashing Class, Guangcheng Village 610 Brainwashing Class in Jiaonan City, Xinzhuang (Village) 610 Brainwashing Class in Laixi City (One practitioner was persecuted to death.) Laixi Party School Brainwashing Class, Yunshan Town Brainwashing Class in Pingdu

Zibo City: Shandong Provincial Law Training Center (Wangcun Village Labor Camp Brainwashing Class), Zichuan District 610 Brainwashing Class

Zaozhuang City: Zaozhuang Brainwashing Class, Tengzhou City “8.1” Mining Plant Brainwashing Class

Dongying City: Dongying City Shengli Oil Field Brainwashing Class

Jining City: Brainwashing Classes held in Zoucheng and Liangshan Districts, Wangyin Town Brainwashing Class in Yanzhou City, Yanzhou Mining Group Brainwashing Class

Weifang City: Weifang Industrial Cadre School Brainwashing Class, Weifang Diesel Locomotive Factory 610 office, Seven transformation locations in Weicheng District, Weifang City (One practitioner was persecuted to death.) Kuiwen District Brainwashing Class in Weifang City (One practitioner was persecuted to death.) Mucun Town Brainwashing Class in Fangzi District, Weifang City, Anqiu City “610” Brainwashing Class (One practitioner was persecuted to death.) Changyi Brainwashing Class, Gaomi City Brainwashing Class, Qingzhou City “610” Brainwashing Class, Shouguang “610” Party School Brainwashing Class, Linqu County “610” Brainwashing Class, Changle County “610” Brainwashing Class, Changle County “138” Brainwashing Class

Weihai City: Huancui District “610” Brainwashing Class, Rongcheng Brainwashing Class, Shidao Town Brainwashing Class in Rongcheng City, Rushan “610” Brainwashing Class, Wendeng City Brainwashing Class

Yantan City: Zhifu District Brainwashing Class in Yantan City, Fushan District Brainwashing Class, Laishan District and Muping District (Brainwashing Classes) Qixia City Brainwashing Class, Haiyang Brainwashing Class, Longkou City “610” Brainwashing Class (located at lower Dingjia Town) Laiyang City Party School Brainwashing Class (One practitioner was persecuted to death.) Laizhou City Brainwashing Class, Linglong Brainwashing Class in Zhouyuan City (One practitioner was persecuted to death.)

Tai’an City: Taishan District Brainwashing Class, Xintai City: No brainwashing class was set up locally. Practitioners were directly sent to Wangcun Labor Camp in Shandong Province. Shiheng Brainwashing Class in Feicheng City, Ningyang County and Dongping County (brainwashing classes)

Rizhao City: Wulian County: practitioners were sent to Jinan Brainwashing Class

Laiwu City: Laicheng District “610” Brainwashing Class, Xiaoyi Town Government Brainwashing Class in Laicheng District, Laigang Brainwashing Class in Gangcheng District (One practitioner was persecuted to death.)

Linqi City: Linqi City Law Education Training Class, Qishui County: Four Transformation Centers were set up in Fengjiazhuang Village in Qishui Town, in the Adult Education Center in Huangshan Town, in Zhuge Town and in the Brainwashing Class in Gaozhuang Town, respectively. Mengyin County Brainwashing Class, Mengyin County: three transformation centers include Jiuzhaixiang Village Study Class, Duozhuang Town Transformation Study Class and Taoxu Town, Transformation Study Class, Qinan County Brainwashing Class

Dezhou City: Dezhou City Law Education Center, Qihe County: The police department held brainwashing classes many times during holidays.

Liaocheng City: Liaocheng Prison was remodeled to become a brainwashing center. Liaocheng City Brainwashing Class in Dongchangfu District, Guangxian “610” Brainwashing Class

Binzhou City: Yangxin County “610 office” held brainwashing classes many times. Wudi County Brainwashing Class, Boxing County Brainwashing Class

Heze City: Shan County Brainwashing Class, Juyie County: Practitioners were sent to Wangcun Brainwashing Class. Juancheng County: Practitioners were sent to Wangcun Brainwashing Class.

Table 3: List of Financial Persecution by Brainwashing Classes 

 

 

 

 

 

 

World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong


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