There are government officials in the Jingguan Township of Beipei District, Chongqing city, who are willing to be stooges for Jiang Zemin. They have adopted measures inherited from feudal society where family members, or relatives within nine generations, or friends of a practitioner will be punished for being related to or friendly to the practitioner. Township officials can detain and abuse practitioners at will in what they call a "class for reformation through study." They also ask practitioners or their family to pay a fine without any explanation or reason.
Three groups of practitioners of about 16 people have been detained in the "class" since April this year. Nine practitioners were in the first group, most of whom were detained for going to Beijing to appeal. People nearby can often hear the torturers and the crying of the practitioners. They also handcuff the practitioners and drag them to the local fair to parade them through the streets with a loudspeaker playing constantly the slanderous and cursing propaganda...
Among the detained practitioners, there is a young mother with a baby several months old. They were dragged to the "class," and the baby became a prisoner as well.
All the practitioners detained in the "class" are required to pay a fine of 3,000 yuan, which is equivalent to about US $370. The amount of the fine is as much as a two-year income for a local family. This region is not affluent; therefore, there is a shortage of cash in all families. If a practitioner is unable to pay, his family will be forced to borrow; otherwise, the practitioner will never be released. Furthermore, practitioners are required to pay the expenses for the guards. Each practitioner has to pay about 60 yuan a day. Families of practitioners who are from farms have suffered a great deal financially due to this charge, because they have low income with very little available cash.
The government also adopted the measures from the feudal society, whereby they make all family members, relatives and friends of a practitioner guilty of the same crime by reason of being related to the practitioner. If a relative or friend fails to report a practitioner's "improper" conduct, they will be taken to the "class" to receive fascist-style "education." A practitioner has a family member who is the principal of a school. The township government removed the principal from his post and told him that he would not be allowed to return to his job until the practitioner is reformed.
