(Clearwisdom.net) Hao Fengjun, 32, was a former officer at the Tianjin City National Protection Bureau and the 610 Office. He previously worked as a police officer in the Heping District Police Department in Tianjin City. Hao Fengjun had solved two drug trafficking cases and one burglary, and was awarded a "Third Class Individual Award." In 1998 he was appointed Class I Police Superintendent. After 2000, he was transferred to the National Protection Bureau and the 610 Office. From then on he was forced to participate in the persecution of Falun Gong. Because he did not want to persecute Falun Gong and religious groups any longer, Hao Fengjun escaped to Australia from Tianjin City in February 2005 and sought political asylum.
Encouraged by the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party and Chen Yonglin's exposure of the CCP spy network, Hao Fengjun decided to reveal the truth to the public. He emphasized the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong and how the CCP sends spies to monitor and harass Falun Gong practitioners outside of China. His revelations have created shockwaves in Australia and around the world. A Minghui correspondent interviewed Hao Fengjun regarding the CCP's persecution, including its harassment of Falun Gong practitioners outside of China.
Hao Fengjun's work identification [Epoch Times image] |
Systemic Persecution of Falun Gong by 610 Office Agents Around the Country
(Note: The Minghui/Clearwisdom correspondent is abbreviated "C," and Hao Fengjun is abbreviated "H" below)
C: Which current government departments are in charge of dealing with Falun Gong? What is the relationship between your former work unit, the National Protection Bureau, and the 610 Office? When was the National Protection Bureau established?
H: Right now, police departments at the provincial and city level, the National Protection Bureau and the respective 610 Offices are in charge of the persecution. The 610 Office mainly carries out the persecution. The 610 Office is affiliated with the National Protection Bureau (NPB). The NPB was previously a division-level unit and was called the Politics and Security Division. After the persecution of Falun Gong began, it was raised to bureau level and its name was changed to the National Protection Bureau.
C: When was the 610 Office established?
H: The 610 Office was established in 1999 when the persecution of Falun Gong started. The officers at the 610 Office were transferred from the Politics and Security Division. Because there were not enough people, more people were transferred from grassroots government departments. We didn't know much about Falun Gong before the persecution began. I had primarily worked as a police officer before. The criminals I was in contact with were robbers, drug addicts and thugs who cursed, smoked and had tattoos. When I dealt with Falun Gong practitioners I realized they were completely different from those criminals. The practitioners were very good people and good citizens who were trying to be healthy through the practice. They were completely different from the rogues I previously dealt with.
C: Who issues the policies regarding Falun Gong?
H: The police department and the NPB issued some policies, but they ultimately come from the central 610 Office and Jiang Zemin. They are summarized in 16 (Chinese) words: words like isolate, disintegrate, etc.
C: Did Jiang Zemin issue an internal policy regarding Falun Gong called "ruin their reputations, bankrupt them financially and destroy them physically"?
H: Yes. I brought [with me] many internal documents about the persecution of Falun Gong, some of which have to do with this policy.
C: How do the NPB and 610 Office know who the practitioners are?
H: They knew the practitioners well before April 25, 1999. They had very thorough information by 1999. They ordered the Street Committee and the local police to get a list of practitioners at each practice site as well as their personal information. When I was transferred in 2000, I saw at the 610 Office a list of more than 30,000 practitioners' names in Tianjin City, including their addresses, places of work, family members and other personal information.
C: What methods does the 610 Office use to persecute Falun Gong?
H: They require all practitioners to "reform" and write a guarantee statement. If a practitioner refuses to write this, he will be sent to a brainwashing center. If that doesn't work, he will immediately be sentenced to forced labor. Since the labor camp sentence is limited to three years, if they don't reform by the end of the term, they will be sent to another brainwashing center instead of being sent home.
610 Office Members Do Not Know the Truth about Falun Gong and they Persecute Falun Gong to get Monetary Rewards and Promotions
C: Do you know why some of your colleagues torture Falun Gong practitioners?
H: They simply want to get promoted. An officer was originally from a rural area and worked very hard to persecute Falun Gong -- he physically tortured the practitioners and treated them in a severe manner. Later he was promoted to the position of section head and thus would not have to return to the rural area.
C: Does the CCP reward you with bonus money for "reforming" a large number of practitioners?
H: It doesn't have to be bonus money. If we get promoted, we'll get money for our activities. For example, if I become a section head or a group head, I'll have some money at my disposal. I can use it to travel or to take my friends out to dinner. It's a delicate matter.
C: Did you have access to the Minghui/Clearwisdom website and other overseas Chinese media while you were in China?
H: Not so much, because the CCP doesn't really trust us. Since we were a group of police officers from the grassroots level, when working in the office I sometimes was able to visit the Minghui/Clearwisdom website and the Epoch Times website. Many of my colleagues believed the CCP's lies and they therefore had deep misunderstandings toward Falun Gong. For example, they think Falun Gong practitioners don't go to the doctor when they are sick, even if they are terminally ill.
The 610 Office Covers Up the Truth about Falun Gong Practitioners who are Tortured to Death
C: Right now, a Minghui/Clearwisdom report states that more than 2,000 Falun Gong practitioners are verified to have been tortured to death. What is the actual death toll according to your knowledge?
H: The NPB and the police are two separate systems, and they [the police system] don't tell us these numbers. After Falun Gong practitioner Sun Ti was tortured to death at the NPB, we were told not to tell any outsider and to keep a low profile. However, I heard my colleagues say that several practitioners died at the Tianjin Female Prison and the Tianjin Forced Labor Camp. When a practitioner is tortured to death, our supervisor, the head of the NPB, takes care of the whole thing. He doesn't take anyone with him, so we don't know anything about how he deals with it or how he covers it up. The 610 Office deals with death cases by themselves. No outsiders are allowed to intervene.
C: Have you ever handled any torture death case of a Falun Gong practitioner?
H: Sun Ti was the first practitioner I saw after she was tortured so badly. She was in her late 40s. She saw me as a kid and pulled up her shirt to show us the wounds on her body. I was shocked. The skin on her back didn't have the normal flesh color. It was black and blue and there were two gaping wounds, each one about 20 centimeters (8 in.) in length, with blood slowly oozing out. I felt awful.
Please refer to two reports on the persecution of Sun Ti and her 15-year-old daughter Xu Ziao:
"Urgent Call for the Rescue of a Fifteen-Year-Old Girl and Her Mother," http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2001/12/5/16535.html
"Tianjin Falun Dafa Practitioner Sun Ti Has Been Abducted and Tortured"
http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/5/2/21588.html
C: How do the 610 Office and the police explain a healthy practitioner's sudden death to his or her family?
H: To my knowledge, they usually claim the cause of death to be illness or suicide, because they rarely allow the family to see the body. They cremate it right after the practitioner dies. The police can easily obtain a death certificate from the hospital that says, "This person died from illness," or "This person committed suicide." People outside of China don't have the opportunity to learn the facts or see the pictures, and the chance of the truth being exposed is nearly zero.
C: Right now, many Chinese people inside and outside of China don't believe the persecution of Falun Gong is so cruel, and they especially don't believe that more than 2,000 Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured to death. What do you make of this?
H: Because people inside China have no access to truthful overseas media reports, they have no choice but to listen to the CCP propaganda and reports. I myself thought the CCP was doing the right thing when I was in China, but after I left China I had the opportunity to visit the Minghui/Clearwisdom website, the Epoch Times website and other media websites. The recent TV program entitled Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party by NTDTV was especially helpful as it contains photos and is quite vivid and illustrative. I didn't live through the Cultural Revolution and couldn't see through the true nature of the CCP. Now I know better.
(To be continued)