(Minghui.org) The World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) announced the launch of a new campaign on December 7: investigating the crimes of Zhou Yongkang, former Secretary of the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee (PLAC) of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

This announcement comes at a time when many media outside of China are reporting that Zhou is detained or has been placed under house arrest. The organization has been collecting evidence of Zhou's crimes since the beginning of the persecution in July 1999. However, the announcement indicates a current focus. Previous campaigns have generated detailed reports revealing significant facts of the persecution related to investigation targets. WOIPFG has published several reports on Zhou Youkang's crimes, with the latest in 2012.

The announcement also asserts that the main crimes of Zhou Yongkang is his leadership in persecuting Falun Gong, not simply the corruption and bribery the CCP's media purports. As often seen in the fall of other high-ranking CCP officials such as Bo Xilai, the state-run media covers up these officials' main crime of persecuting Falun Gong practitioners.

Zhou was the Secretary of the PLAC and a member of the Politburo Standing Committee between 2007 and 2012, during which he was in control of the public security and legal system in China.

Under him, the style and operations of the system rapidly turned into that of the mafia. The PLAC staff at every level were at the forefront of executing persecution orders, which most of time came verbally from Zhou and cascaded to all levels. Few such orders were in written form, according to a WOIPFG report.

These orders exert direct impact on the persecution and have caused harm to numerous Falun Gong practitioners and their families, friends and colleagues. Many have been tortured to death as the CCP tried to force them to renounce their belief in Falun Gong. As of today, the number of confirmed death amounts to 3,731.

The PLAC is also actively involved in the crimes of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners, the magnitude of which the world has yet to comprehend.

Zhou had a budget of over $US100 billion dollars—more than the official defense budget—and the People’s Armed Police commanded a paramilitary force of 1.1 million. He used his enormous budget to reward people who brutally tortured Falun Gong practitioners and set a career path based on performance in the persecution.

His own career was built on persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. Because of his “stellar” performance in implementing the persecution during his post as the Secretary of Sichuan Province Party Committee between 1999 and 2002, he was promoted to Deputy Director of the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee (PLAC), and Minister, Secretary and Ministry of Public Security without any prior experience in public security.

The World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) was founded in January 2003 to track down, investigate, and bring to justice those who have committed these crimes.