Investigative Report on the Persecution of Falun Gong by Yang Mingde

Director of Guangzhou City “610 Office”, Deputy Secretary General of the Politics and Law Committee for Guangzhou City

December 30, 2020

Full Name of Perpetrator: Yang (last name) Mingde (first name) (杨明德)

Gender: Male

Country: China

Date/year of Birth: Unknown

Place of Birth: Unknown

Title or Position:

Deputy Secretary General of the Politics and Law Committee for Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province

2009-2016: Director of Guangzhou City Prevention Office (or the “610 Office”)

Yang Mingde, male, was the former Deputy Secretary General of the Politics and Law Committee for Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province. In August 2009, he became the Director of Guangzhou City Prevention Office (or the “610 Office”).[1] The Guangzhou City “610 Office” carried out a majority of the CCP’s persecutions against Falun Gong in Guangzhou City. As the director of the “610 Office,” Yang Mingde was responsible for all the persecution, torture, and murder of Falun Gong practitioners in Guangzhou City from 2009 to 2016. Severe cases of the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners during this period are listed as follows.

Major crimes

According to incomplete statistics, from 2009 to 2016, at least six Falun Gong practitioners were persecuted to death, including Zhao Ping, Xu Huizhu, Peng Wenxiu, He Yuer, Zhu Jianpeng, and Chen Lianfang. Several dozen other Falun Gong practitioners were also illegally sentenced to prison, including Huang Qian, Zhu Yubiao, Zheng Jingxian, Wang Haihong, Wang Zhihong, Zhang Xiaoling, and Zhang Yueqi. When Zhang Yueqi was illegally sentenced, he (or she) was only 16 years old. Many Falun Gong practitioners were illegally arrested, detained, and transferred to “brainwashing classes” for further persecution.[2]

On the afternoon of December 18, 2012, a meeting for the “Anti-Cult Project” was held in the Public Security Bureau of Tianhe District. Yang Mingde, Deputy Secretary General of the Political and Legal Committee for Guangzhou City and Director of the Prevention Office at the time, spoke at the meeting. He claimed that “the current situation for the anti-cult activities was never hopeful” and that “governments at all levels should rank anti-cult work as their first priority and increase the intensity of the attack to ensure the safety of society.”[3]

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Zhao Ping was a lawyer, a second-level police superintendent, and a lecturer at Guangzhou Public Security Management Cadre College. She was persecuted for 17 years due to her persistence in practicing Falun Gong. After Ms. Zhao published an article on December 17, 2013 [4] on the Minghui website disclosing facts about the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in the Women’s Prison of Guangdong Province, she was harassed and threaten by workers from the Political and Legal Committee for Guangzhou City, the 610 Office, the National Security Department, and the Neighborhood Association. Workers from the Wushan Street Management Office even went to Ms. Zhao Ping’s mother’s home in Guiyang City and threatened her mother in efforts to force Ms. Zhao to stop writing more articles about the persecution. Ms. Zhao Ping was persecuted to death on May 14, 2016, at the age of 58.[5]

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Chen Lianfang was a retired worker from the Agricultural Sciences Academy in Guangdong Province. In March 2011, Ms. Chen left her home with Falun Gong truth clarification materials and about 100 Falun Gong stickers. She was arrested by plainclothes policemen next to a bus station. The police then illegally ransacked her home and transferred Ms. Chen Lianfang to and illegally detained her at the Tianhe District Detention Center. After that, Ms. Chen was illegally sentenced to one year and six months of surveillance outside of prison. On June 4, 2013, Ms. Chen Lianfang was persecuted to death.[6]

The “Guangzhou Legal Education School” is one of the most important ways for the CCP to persecute Falun Gong practitioners in Guangzhou City. The main purpose of this institution is to serve as a brainwashing class to “transform” Falun Gong practitioners by forcing them to give up their beliefs. Many Falun Gong practitioners were detained in the brainwashing classes during the 2010 Asian Games, before the 18th National Congress of CCP in November 2012, and after May 2015.[7],[8] In one of these brainwashing classes, Ms. Xu Huizhu, a retired teacher in the Tianhe District, was persecuted to death.[9] In these same brainwashing classes, 72-year-old Ms. Wu Yangzhen was blinded as a result of the torture she endured.

As the director of the 610 Office in Guangzhou City, Yang Mingde repeatedly organized activities to defame Falun Gong. These include the publication of the “Guangzhou City Anti-Cult Comic Book” published in January 2015. About 71,500 copies were printed and distributed to the people in Guangzhou.[10]

Yang Mingde also organized the “Guangzhou Anti-Cult Art Tour Month” in an effort to attack and vilify Falun Gong. This propaganda show premiered in March 2015 at the Xiagang Street Community Cultural Center Theater. According to CCP’s media, the show attracted more than 600 people, including workers from nearby companies, primary and middle school students, and community residents. The media reported that the “Guangzhou City Preventive Office planned to hold 2-4 more anti-cult performances at the request of higher authorities and according to the circumstances of the situation.”[11]

Yang Mingde also planned the publication of a book, the “Anti-Cult Knowledge in Schools of Guangzhou City,” and actively promoted the education system to use this propaganda as a textbook for elementary, junior high, and high school students. The book has three versions for use in elementary schools, junior high schools, and high schools. Using textbooks to smear Falun Gong to school students was Yang Mingde’s invention in Guangdong Province and in all of China. On March 11, 2015, Yang Mingde held a launch ceremony for the books in Fenshui Middle School of the Liwan District. More than 300 teachers and students from 90 schools participated in the event. After, the books were distributed to more than 1,500 schools in Guangzhou City, introducing false Falun Gong propaganda and information to many students and teachers.[12]

Yang Mingde also organized an event called the “Hundred City and Thousand Village Health Qigong Experience Sharing Exhibition.” The event was held for the first time at the Tianhe Sports Center on October 31, 2015. According to a media report, around 600 people performed qigong exercises at the event. Yang Mingde took the chance to attack and defame Falun Gong, slandering Falun Gong in the public eye.[13]

Yang Mingde actively promoted the establishment of an “anti-cult” association in Huadu District, Guangzhou City. The association held its first meeting on September 28, 2015 and Yang Mingde was present to deliver a keynote speech.

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Reference

[1] http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2016/5/14/-328685.html

[2] https://web.archive.org/web/20160901000000*/https://www.zhuichaguoji.org/node/74532

[3] https://web.archive.org/web/20190824063954/http://zhengfa.thnet.gov.cn/zhengfa/zxbd/201303/378f99c10c1d460bb140e4ee9935c364.shtml

[4] http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2013/12/17/-284082.html

[5] http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2016/9/9/-334186.html

[6] http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2013/7/31/-277490.html

[7] http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2017/2/25/-343539.html

[8] http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2011/11/7/-248818.html

[9] http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2017/1/6/161033.html

[10] https://web.archive.org/web/20190825211147/http://news.ifeng.com/a/20150127/43027156_0.shtml