Notice to Investigate the Involvement in the Persecution of Falun Gong by Wu Guanzheng, Former member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the People’s Republic of China
Wu Guanzheng, born in 1938, a native of Yugan, Jiangxi Province, was the Secretary of the Shandong Provincial CCP Committee from 1997 to November 2002, and a member of the CCP Politburo Standing Committee and the Secretary of the CCP Central Commission for Discipline Inspection from November 2002 to 2007.
During his tenure as the Secretary of the Shandong Province CCP Committee from 1999 to 2002, Wu Guanzheng followed then-president Jiang Zemin's brutal persecution of Falun Gong with his utmost enthusiasm. He personally commanded and deployed key areas in the persecution of Falun Gong, coerced local officials and agencies to join the persecution, and personally conducted brainwashing of Falun Gong practitioners. According to statistics, during a 51-month period from July 1999 to October 2003, 93 Falun Gong practitioners were persecuted to death in Shandong Province, which was third in deaths behind Heilongjiang Province (128) and Jilin Province (102). During the early stages of the persecution, the tragic cases in Shandong Province aroused strong condemnation from the international community.
For example, the first persecution death in Wu's jurisdiction of Taitouzhaojia Village, Zhangxing Town in Zhaoyuan City, Shandong Province occurred on October 7, 1999. Falun Gong practitioner Zhao Jinhua was brutally beaten, shocked with electric batons, and tortured to death in the Zhangxing Police Station. On June 18, 2000, Reuters reported that Falun Gong practitioner Su Gang, a young computer engineer in Zibo City, Shandong Province, was imprisoned in a mental hospital for practicing Falun Gong and was lethally injected with drugs that destroyed his central nervous system. Reuters also reported that Falun Gong practitioner Chen Zixiu was beaten to death in Weifang City in Shandong Province. These three cases were included in the 2001 annual investigation report of the United Nations Human Rights Commission.
In view of the facts of Wu Guanzheng's persecution of Falun Gong, he is alleged to have committed crimes of genocide, torture and crimes against humanity. The World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) has issued a notice of investigation to thoroughly investigate Wu 's involvement in the persecution of Falun Gong, and has called upon those who possess evidence of Wu Guanzheng's crimes to contact WOIPFG promptly. Some of the evidence of his persecution of Falun Gong is described below.
1. Vilified Falun Gong and Enthusiastically Drove the Suppression on Various Public Occasions
At the beginning of the Jiang Zemin regime's persecution against Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, Wu Guanzheng was interviewed by CCP's mouthpiece media "People's Daily," expressing support for the suppression and claiming that Shandong Province had carried on a large scale "reform" of Falun Gong practitioners before July 20, 1999.
On May 22, 2000, Wu Guanzheng slandered Falun Gong in the Shandong provincial-level leaders meeting.
On February 2, 2001, Wu Guanzheng requested a "deepening" of the battle against Falun Gong,
"strike hard" against Falun Gong, and focusing on ""education and transformation" at a conference of
the provincial political and legal affairs Committee.
On August 22, 2001, Wu Guanzheng visited an anti-Falun Gong exhibition that was held in a museum in Jinan City of Shandong Province, and he gave a speech that slandered and defamed Falun Gong.
On June 4, 2002, in the eighth meeting of Party representatives, Wu Guanzheng claimed that under the leadership of President Jiang Zemin, the Shandong Provincial Committee achieved a decisive victory in the battle against Falun Gong and emphasized carrying out a further "Strike Hard Campaign" against Falun Gong.
On September 27, 2002, Wu Guanzheng stated in the Uphold Social Stability Conference in Shandong Province that Shandong Province would focus on a "preventive attack" against Falun Gong to protect the CCP's 16th National Party Conference.
2. Personally Directed the Persecution and Made Weifang One of the Cities that Has Most Severely Persecuted Falun Gong
Weifang's population has less than 1% of the country's population of 1.3 billion. The number of persecution deaths of Falun Gong practitioners in Weifang accounted for 15% of the total number of persecution deaths of Falun Gong practitioners in the country. Based on the prefecture-level cities across the country, Weifang topped the list for persecution deaths of Falun Gong practitioners. According to incomplete statistics, in the 15 years of the CCP's persecution, 186 Falun Gong practitioners have been confirmed to have been persecuted to death in Weifang to date. In the two-year time period before the end of 2002, when Wu Guanzheng served as the Secretary of the Shandong Provincial Committee, the confirmed persecution deaths of Falun Gong practitioners in Weifang was as many as 46, which accounted for 40% of the total number in that region. This is directly related to Wu's personal command and order to escalate the persecution of Falun Gong in Weifang.
a. Coerced Local Officials to Persecute Falun Gong Practitioners
On August 9, 1999, shortly after Jiang Zemin launched the suppression of Falun Gong, Wu Guanzheng held meetings in Weifang directing and arranging the persecution of Falun Gong. His speeches were spread to various levels of party political institutions, enterprises, villages and towns through various means and paths by the Weifang Municipal Committee.
At the beginning of the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong, many Falun Gong practitioners in Weifang went to Beijing to petition. Wu Guanzheng followed Jiang Zemin's persecution policy with utmost effort. He stopped Falun Gong practitioners from petitioning, applied layers upon layers of pressure, and compelled local officials to participate in the persecution.
As a result, the original political and law organization of Weicheng District of Weifang City frenetically carried out the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. In January 2000, Weicheng District established seven locations for violent conversions of Falun Gong practitioners through brainwashing. On February 20, 2000, Falun Gong practitioner Chen Zixiu, who was from Xujiaxiao Village, Beiguan, Weicheng District, Weifang City, Shandong Province, was abducted on her way to Beijing to petition, jailed in the Chengguan Street Committee's "brainwashing class" of Weicheng District, brutally beaten for three days, and killed. On April 20, 2000, a US reporter, Ian Johnson, had an article about Chen Zixiu's death from persecution published on the front page of the "Wall Street Journal," for which he won the US Pulitzer Prize in Journalism. Chen Zixiu's daughter, Zhang Xueling, was arrested by the authorities for exposing the truth of her mother's death, and was sentenced to three years of forced labor.
b. The "Shouguang Tragedy"
On May 18, 2001, the Shandong Police System held a secret meeting in Weifang to implement the plan of large scale arrests of Falun Gong practitioners in eight provinces and cities, including Beijing and Shandong.
The "Shouguang Tragedy" occurred on June 4, 2001 when the police arrested more than 10 Falun Gong practitioners and brutally persecuted them in Shouguang City, Weifang District, Shandong Province. Five to six policemen used rubber clubs and electro-shock batons to torture each practitioner. They slapped the practitioners' faces, twisted their arms, and pulled their hair. The policemen took turns simultaneously beating the practitioners with rubber clubs and high-voltage electric batons. The frenzied persecution persisted for four hours. In less than three days, two of the Falun Gong practitioners were beaten to death. They were Wang Lanxiang, who was 60 years old and was from Majia Village, Sunji Town, Shouguang City, and Li Yinping, who was 37 years old and was an employee of the Weifang Municipal Animal Husbandry Bureau. Wu Guanzheng, who was the Secretary of Shandong Province CCP Committee at the time, cannot avoid responsibility for the "Shouguang Tragedy."
3. Multiple Visits to Guan County to Encourage and Escalate the Persecution of Falun Gong
Before the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong, according to the "610" Office's secret statistics (The 610 Office is an extra-legal agency whose sole purpose is to persecute Falun Gong.), in Guan County of Liaocheng City, Shandong Province, there were more than 10,000 people practicing Falun Gong throughout the county's 12 townships, 323 villages, and 42 county internal units. Guan County's Political and Judiciary Commission and the "610" Office colluded with the local judicial system (including the police department, Procuratorate, and court) and actively planned the persecution of Falun Gong. They arrested, jailed, brainwashed, heavily fined, labored, and sentenced a large number of Falun Gong practitioners.
Since July 20, 1999, the CCP’s "610" Office established six concentration camps in Guan County. Thousands of Falun Gong practitioners were abducted, imprisoned, and secretly persecuted in the camp.
Guan County became one of the focal persecution areas, which was directly under Wu Guanzheng's supervision in the county. In October 2000, a large number of Falun Gong practitioners in Liaocheng City, particularly in Guan County, went to Beijing to call on the government to appeal to the government to stop the persecution of Falun Gong. Wu Guanzheng, who was the Party Secretary of the Shandong Provincial Committee at the time, went to Liaocheng City and Guan County to personally supervise the persecution and to personally assign several Falun Gong practitioners to forced labor camps. In October alone, nearly 50 Falun Gong practitioners were escorted to the labor camp in Zibo Prefecture's Wang Village for continued persecution. From October to December of the same year, more than 200 people were illegally abducted and detained.
Around the time of China’s International Labor Day 2005, Wu Guanzheng, who was the member of CCP Politburo Standing Committee and the Secretary of the CCP Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, went to Guan County for the second time to escalate the persecution of Falun Gong. Thereafter, the "610" Office staff frantically abducted Falun Gong practitioners. For example, at midnight on April 25, Falun Gong practitioner, Yin Zijing, who was from Song Village, Yanzhuang Township, Guan County, was arrested and detained.
On December 10, 2009, Wu Guanzheng, who was the Secretary of the Shandong Provinial CCP Committee, along with Shandong Vice Governor, the secretary of Liaocheng City Municipal Committee, and the secretary of the County Committee, went to Guan County for the third time to command and arrange another escalation of the persecution of Falun Gong.
4. Personally Persecuting Falun Gong Practitioners
Before the large scale suppression of Falun Gong in July 1999, in mid-June 1998, the largest circulation newspaper in Shandong Province, Qilu Evening News, published an article that attacked Falun Gong. In Jinan City, following a request by thousands of Falun Gong practitioners to clarify the facts, the person in charge of the newspaper pledged to use an entire page to do so and positively introduce Falun Dafa using factual information. After Wu Guanzheng, the then Party Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, heard this information, he ordered the newspaper to stop the report. Under high pressure, the newspaper only symbolically published an article with a few dozen lines, admitting errors in their reports.
After the crackdown began, Wu Guanzheng deployed, directed, and even personally conducted the brainwashing and “transformation” sessions of Jinan's Falun Gong practitioners who remained steadfast in their belief. He firmly forced them to watch, listen, and read propaganda materials that slandered Falun Gong, and forced them to give up their belief of Falun Gong.
In 2000, Wu Guanzheng "inspected" the Shandong First Women's Labor Camp (Also known as Jinan City Women Labor Camp) three times, with the result that the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners at the labor camp began to escalate. In the year of Wu's three "inspections,”three Falun Gong practitioners became schizophrenic due to torture inflicted by the 5th Division of the labor camp.
On January 29, 2000, Liu Xuguo, a 29-year-old Falun Gong practitioner in Zoucheng City, Shandong Province, was abducted at home and sentenced to forced labor for three years. Liu and three other Falun Gong practitioners were sent to the Jining City Labor Camp. They were the first group of Falun Gong practitioners illegally sentenced to forced labor in Jining City. Wu Guanzheng, who was the then Party Secretary of the Shandong Provincial Committee, personally became involved and commanded this event. On February 10, Liu Xuguo died from lung damage caused by incorrect insertion of a force feeding tube. This was the earliest case of a Falun Gong practitioner's persecution death in a CCP labor camp, which was exposed on the Minghui website database (Minghui.org serves as a clearinghouse for documented cases of persecution against Falun Gong practitioners.). Liu’s case was also included in the 2001 annual investigation report of the United Nations Human Rights Commission.
As early as April 1999, after learning that the CCP authorities wanted to suppress Falun Gong, Wang Zhihua, who was a Falun Gong practitioner in Taian City of Shandong Province, wrote a long letter to Wu Guanzheng, who was the then Party Secretary of the Shandong Provincial Committee, to advocate for an environment with freedom of belief. Wu personally forwarded this letter to his workplace, specifically for investigation by the Security Department. Subsequently, Wang Zhihua was constantly harassed at his home. On May 2, 2002, he and his wife were arrested at home and held in Wangchun brainwashing class in Zibo City, and suffered severe persecution.
Wu Guanzheng repeatedly ordered Shandong Laiwu Iron & Steel Group Co., Ltd. (Also known as Lai'gang.) to severely persecute Lai'gang Falun Gong practitioners who went to the Chinese National Appeals Office in Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. Under his behest, the company repeatedly gathered company officials and agents of the "610 Office" to discuss and plan specific strategies and methods to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. It also sent "610 Office" agents out of town to study persecution methods. As a result, at least 10 Falun Gong practitioners have been dismissed from their jobs - nine were sentenced to forced labor camps; one received a prison term – and seven brainwashing sessions were held with at least 70 practitioners in each session, and more than 20 were sent to the notorious Wangcun Brainwashing Center in Zibo City, Shandong Province. More than 20 Falun Gong practitioners suffered severe physical and mental torment. Among them, Bai Shihua was tortured to death, and Zhang Aiyun, Yu Luping and Wang Junsheng were severely tortured and put in critical condition.
In March 2006, Wu Guanzheng visited Yanbian Area, Jilin Province. On May 25, the Yanbain Area Public Security System, which includes the Politics Security Department, National Security Group, and Politics and Law Department, had a meeting. They secretly decided to persecute all the Falun Gong practitioners in Yanji City (a city in Jillin Province) whose names were on their list before June 15.
WOIPFG’s principles are: whoever has committed the crime is responsible for it; individuals are responsible for organized crimes; instigating a crime is the same as directly committing a crime. Based on these principles, all the crimes conducted in the name of organizations, units, and systems will eventually be the responsibility of the individuals. All the responsible persons who have participated in the persecution of Falun Gong will be investigated thoroughly and be brought to justice.
We hereby warn those who have participated in the persecution of Falun Gong: the persecution of Falun Gong is a crime of genocide and a crime against humanity. It is the same crime committed by the Nazi war criminals. Carrying out instructions can’t be used as an excuse for exemption. All the participants must take personal responsibility. The only way out is to turn himself in and confess, and to reveal more criminal evidence to make atonement.
Established in 2003, WOIPFG has the mission to investigate the criminal conduct of all institutions, organizations, and individuals involved in the persecution of Falun Gong; to bring such investigations, no matter how long it takes, no matter how far and deep we have to search, to full closure; to exercise the fundamental principles of humanity; and to restore and uphold justice in society.
World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG)
Address: P.O. BOX 84, New York, NY 10116, USA
Phone:1-347-448-5790 Fax: 1-347-402-1444
www.upholdjustice.org
