Investigative Report on the Persecution of Falun Gong by Zhang Zaixing

Former Deputy Party Secretary of Tsinghua University

December 29, 2020

Full Name of Perpetrator: Zhang Zaixing (张再兴)

Gender: Male

Country: China

Date/year of Birth: July 1947

Place of Birth: Liyang City, Jiangsu Province

Title or Position:

Former Deputy Party Secretary of Tsinghua University

Principal of Tsinghua University in charge of Falun Gong issue [1]

Professor / Ph. D Supervisor of Tsinghua University Marxist Institute [2]

Major Crime

Since the illegal suppression of Falun Gong by Jiang Zemin’s criminal group in July 1999, Zhang Zaixing has followed the orders of Jiang’s group. He was under the personal instructions of Li Lanqing, the director of the “610 Office,” who persecuted Falun Gong. Li Lanqing has been accused by several countries of “torture, mass extermination and anti-humanity.” He has since carried out a series of horrific persecutions against Falun Gong practitioners at Tsinghua University, a prestigious institution of higher education in China. The persecution is widespread and severe, ranking first among all universities in the country.[3]

According to reports from CCTV, Zhang Zaixing, deputy party secretary of Tsinghua University, said, “Colleges and universities are halls of science, and organizations such as ‘Falun Gong’ will not be allowed to do anything in the university. I resolutely support the party and the government to ban Falun Gong and prohibit a series of major Falun Gong activities... Prepare for a long-term and arduous struggle against the Falun Gong organization.” [4]

Zhang Zaixing, in the capacity of the deputy party secretary of Tsinghua University, directs the relevant departments of colleges, in collusion with Tsinghua Police Station, Tsinghua Street Office, Zhong Guan Cun Police Station, Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau – Department 14, Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau – Department 7, and the Ministry of National Security. Together, they committed and enforced threats including forced suspension from school, expulsion, house arrest, brainwashing, and laying off faculty members who refused to abandon their faith in “Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance,” causing serious mental and physical harm to Falun Gong practitioners. [5]

The Persecution of Falun Gong Student Practitioners in Tsinghua University

In October 1999, Tsinghua University, in order to force Tsinghua students to abandon their faith, suspended them repeatedly and told the students that they would not be able to return to school without giving up their faith. They even expelled the students and removed their postgraduate admissions qualifications. According to incomplete statistics, as many as 25 people were persecuted[6]: Wang Xin, Wang Weiyu, Huang Kui, Xu Zhiguang,[7] Wang Lanlan (female), Zhang Cunman, Zhao Shaojun, Yao Yue (female), Lin Yang, Zhang Zhigang, Jiang Yuxia (female), Chen Zhixiang, Yu Ping, Liu Wenyu,[8] Ma Yan (female), Wang Zhiqiang, Li Chunyan (female),[9] Liu Zhimei (female), Yu Jinmei (female), Li Xiaodan (female), Pan Yidong, Li Yanfang (female),[10] Zhang Lianjun, Qin Peng, and Xu Guangyu.

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Liu Zhimei, a class of 1997 student in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Tsinghua University, was not allowed to enroll in school in September 1999. In October, due to attending a Falun Gong exchange meeting, she was detained and interrogated at the school police station until the early morning hours of the next day. In August 2000, Tsinghua University suspended her without any written documentation. She was expelled from school in March 2001 and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. She was persecuted to insanity and died in February 2015.[11]

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Yao Yue, a class of 1996 master student at the Microelectronics Institute of Tsinghua University, was forcibly taken away by the Tsinghua University police on September 3, 1999 for the crime of publicly practicing Falun Gong on campus. She was interrogated until the early morning hours of the next day. She was expelled from school and her student file was forcibly transferred by the school. On the morning of January 1, 2001, she was abducted by the Zhong Guan Cun police and illegally sentenced to 12 years in prison.[12]

2. Persecution of Faculty and Staff Practitioners and Their Families

Under the command and planning of Zhang Zaixing, Tsinghua University colluded with the Beijing Public Security Bureau to punish 21 faculty members who insisted on practicing Falun Gong and five family members of Falun Gong practitioner, enforcing illegal criminal detention, reeducation, and imprisonment. The maximum sentence was 13 years, and these people suffered from cruel and inhumane torture under detention.[13]

Some people who were held in illegal labor camps include:

Bai Rongchun, a computer engineer and project manager of Tsinghua Unisplendour and Tsinghua Tongfang Group, was sentenced to 13 years in prison.[14]

Ms. Chu Tong, microelectronics lecturer, was illegally sentenced to one-and-a-half years in prison at the end of 1999 and 11 years in prison at the end of April 2004.[15]

Mr. Meng Jun, assistant professor in the Department of Electronic Engineering, was laid off, illegally detained, and had his salary suspended by Tsinghua University. He was tortured, mistreated, and sentenced to ten years in prison.[16]

Mr. Wu Xiangwan, an employee of the Tsinghua Unisplendour Group, was sentenced to 8 years in prison in January 2003.[17]

Ms. Dong Yanhong, a family member of Tsinghua staff, was singled out as the key objective of the Tsinghua Southwest Residential Committee. In January 2001, the neighborhood committee deceived her into incriminating herself. Since then, she was sentenced to five years in prison and has not returned.

Ms. Han Yingli, a retired employee at Tsinghua University, was illegally sentenced to four years in prison in 2003.

Ms. Yan Jia, a lecturer at the Economics and Management School, was laid off. She was detained many times by police because she practiced publicly on Tsinghua University campus. She was repeatedly beaten and wounded by the police. She was repeatedly detained illegally and was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison.

Ms. Qiu Shuqin, staff member of the Academic Affairs Office of Tsinghua University, was laid off by the school and only paid a small amount for living expenses. In 2001, Qiu Shuqin applied for early retirement. However, Tsinghua University deducted all her pension, cutting off the only source of income for her family. Qiu Shuqin was arrested more than ten times, detained illegally six times, and illegally re-educated twice. On April 11 2018, she was persecuted to death.[18]

Ms. Wang Jiuchun, deputy professor of Tsinghua University’s Science and Technology Development Department, served as the coordinator of the Falun Gong volunteer counseling station at Tsinghua University. She was forcibly brainwashed and violently tortured six times. Her house was repeatedly ransacked and monitored for a long time. She was illegally detained four times and was illegally re-educated for one-and-a-half years in 2002.

Ms. Jia Xiaomei, an employee at Tsinghua University’s Machinery Factory, was illegally detained for one month in December 1999 and illegally sentenced to labor camp for one-and-a-half years in November 2001.

Mr. He Yi, a software engineer in Tsinghua Unisplendour Group, was illegally sentenced to labor camp for one-and-a-half years in 2001.

3. Persecution of "Brainwashing, Transformation" of Falun Gong Practitioners

The persecution of Falun Gong is a persecution of faith with the purpose of forcing Falun Gong practitioners to abandon their beliefs. In this process, which the CCP calls “educational transformation,” the person is, in reality, brainwashed.

In July 1999, under Jiang Zemin's instructions, Li Lanqing personally visited Tsinghua University to persecute Falun Gong practitioners and Zhang Zaixing fully cooperated. Zhang Zaixing personally supervised the forced brainwashing and transformation of Tsinghua University's doctoral student Mr. Li Yixiang. Zhang Zaixing took the lead and formed a so-called “helping team” of more than 20 people composed of public security officers, professors from the religion, science, and other departments. They put Mr. Li Yixiang under house arrest in an experimental lab. Twenty people exerted mental pressure on Mr. Li Yixiang throughout the month, using fatigue tactics, isolation from the outside world, torture, and other tactics used by secret agents to destroy Mr. Li Yixiang’s spirit. After this, Mr. Li Yixiang's life and work were illegally monitored for a long time. He signed the so-called “recognition” and promised to stop practicing under high pressure. After the “recognition” was written, it was meticulously altered and processed to become a typical example used to blind the Chinese public. Through this, their “reeducation” was a success.[19]

Falun Gong practitioners who were persecuted before and after Tsinghua University's No. 200 “Transformation Class” who were former members of the Communist Party of China include Liu Wenyu, Wang Weiyu, Zhang Cunman, Yu Jinmei, and Zhao Shaojun.17

Zhang Zaixing was awarded the “Advanced Worker of National Party Building Work” by the Chinese Communist Party for the persecution and “transformation” of Falun Gong practitioners. He was commended at the Ninth National Party Building Work Conference. [20]

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Reference

[1] https://library.minghui.org/criminal/c34157.htm

[2] https://web.archive.org/web/20190919033437/http://www.cssn.cn/mkszy/mjfc/201401/t20140128_956002.shtml

[3] https://web.archive.org/web/20190919033437/http://www.cssn.cn/mkszy/mjfc/201401/t20140128_956002.shtml

[4] https://web.archive.org/web/20010405110405/http://www.cctv.com/news/special/zt1/XieJiaoFaLunGong/2762.html

[5] https://web.archive.org/web/20160901000000*/https://www.zhuichaguoji.org/node/253

[6] http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/10/7/21/n2971992.htm

[7] http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/11/30/-115524.html

[8] http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/4/2/-220888.html

[9] http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/11/30/-115524.html

[10] http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2019/4/6/-384784.html