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Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners at the "610 Brainwashing Center" in Chaozhou, Guangdong Province

August 05, 2003 |   By a practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net)

Many vicious people work at the "610 Brainwashing Center"* in Chaozhou, Guangdong Province. Among those who persecuted Falun Dafa practitioners at the brainwashing center were the main person in charge, Li Zhuowei, the Director, Peng Weimin, security guard Xu Peng, policeman Lin Zui, and policeman Lan. The means they utilized to persecute Falun Gong practitioners were vicious and cruel. At the beginning, they disguised their tactics behind smiling faces, and appeared to care about practitioners. They used tricks to get the information they wanted, first by deceiving practitioners, then by threatening them. For example, they deceived practitioner Xu Jianling and her family into believing that the "610 Brainwashing Center" had learned that Ms. Xu had access to a large contact network. They told her that if she didn't make a confession, she would be sentenced to prison. They also promised Ms. Xu that if she cooperated, they would release her immediately. Ms. Xu and her family members were thus deceived, and they revealed the names of other practitioners. At a result, over ten more practitioners were arrested. Some of them didn't maintain their xinxing [mind-heart nature] well, making the situation even worse. Against their conscience, Ms. Xu's family members were also forced to present a silk banner as an award to the "610 Brainwashing Center." However, those who compromised with the evil never considered that the "610 Office" would not only refuse to release them, but that they would also use their reports as evidence against them. It turned out that Xu Jianling was sentenced to prison for seven years. She had reported the most information, and the names of fellow practitioners. As for the other practitioners, they were also sentenced to prison terms ranging from approximately one year to four and a half years.

For those practitioners who refused to give up Falun Gong, the "610 Brainwashing Center" forced them to watch slanderous video programs throughout the night and into the following morning. Sometimes, they didn't allow practitioners to sleep at all. The three daily meals they served were just thin gruel with a few dried vegetables. However, practitioners had to pay 300 Yuan** every month for food expenses. They didn't allow practitioners to speak to each other or to practice the exercises. The vicious thugs also beat the practitioners using any pretext as an excuse, basically for no reason other than to vent their vicious natures. They forced practitioners to run in the exercise yard at midnight. They also forced practitioners to read a newspaper denouncing Falun Gong. If someone refused, they were beaten.

Policeman Lin Zui told others in private about how many people Li Zhuowei had "transformed," as well as how much of a pay raise he received. He complained that he never got any promotion or a raise. Whenever Li was on duty, he drank alcohol and got drunk. Whenever he was drunk, he viciously beat Falun Gong practitioners along with the Director, Peng Weimin, and police officer Lan. One time they took a male practitioner to their office and tried to force him to drink alcohol. When the practitioner refused, Lin began to punch and kick him. As a result of the beating, the practitioner's body was covered with black and blue bruises, and his face had a huge bump. The practitioner's shirt was soaked with blood. Finally, Lin used a chair to continue beating him. The practitioner then ran out of the office with Lin and other policeman chasing him. When a female practitioner approached them and asked them to stop beating her fellow practitioner, Lin kicked her down to the ground on spot. This shocked the elderly people who had been hired by the neighborhood committee to monitor Falun Dafa practitioners. They said that if they hadn't witnessed this abuse in person, they wouldn't have believed that the police officers could be so cruel.

The following day, the practitioners held a hunger strike to protest. However, instead of stopping the cruelty, the "610 Office" officials tied up the Falun Gong practitioners and force-fed them. Dozens of police officers dealt with each practitioner. Some used metal spoons to pry open practitioners' mouths, while others pinched their noses. Some beat the practitioners. The situation was very vicious. The elderly people with good conscience cried secretly after seeing this. They said they didn't know what they were doing here before. But they understood then that they were helping to persecute good people. The money paid to them for monitoring Falun Dafa practitioners was the money causing them to lose virtue. Some said they would resign.

Several days later, police officers Lin Zui and Peng Weimin were drunk again. At about 1:00 a.m. or 2:00 a.m. in the morning, their demon natures came into full play. They woke up a male practitioner and made him go to the women's dorm. They forcibly pushed him into Aunt Chen's room. Aunt Chen was a Falun Gong practitioner in her sixties. Seeing Ms. Chen and the elderly woman who was hired to monitor her sleeping in bed, Peng Weimin pushed the male practitioner into their bed. Fortunately, the aunt and other people stopped him. Afterwards, many of those people hired to monitor Falun Gong practitioners reported the incident to the "610 Office" officials.

Because the staff and police at the "610 Brainwashing Center" so severely persecuted Falun Gong practitioners, people with a good conscience were thoroughly disgusted with them. At the end of November 2002, all the Falun Gong practitioners held a hunger strike to protest, and demanded their unconditional release. Those hired people also didn't want to stay any longer and wanted the persecution to end. Thus the Chaozhou "610 Brainwashing Center" was completely disbanded and all practitioners were released unconditionally.

* "610 Office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

** Yuan is the Chinese currency. The average monthly salary of an urban worker in China is 500 Yuan.