(Clearwisdom.net) One of the CCP's main tactics in demonizing Falun Gong and justifying the persecution is to call Falun Gong a cult in its propaganda campaigns. This tactic is a particularly dangerous one because it associates Falun Gong with things like mind control and causing people to do things that they would normally not do. Upon closer inspection, though, it becomes obvious who is really acting like a cult and perpetuating mind control.

The 610 Office system was established in China on June 10, 1999, its power being above all levels of government, including law enforcement and the court system. It is an illegal organization established to persecute innocent Falun Gong practitioners and forces practitioners to accept communist brainwashing to give up their faith. Many of the brainwashing centers it has established are openly called “Legal Education Schools” or “Legal Education Centers”, but the process of forcing people to go to these brainwashing is completely extra-judicial.

In each brainwashing center, 610 Office workers force practitioners to listen to broadcasts that slander Falun Gong, coercing practitioners to give up their faith, or in the words of communist authorities, to be “transformed.” To those who refuse to accept the brainwashing, guards torture them until they give in. For example, Fu Yanchun is the head of the Wuchang city brainwashing center in Heilongjiang Province. His first words to Falun Gong practitioners who enter the brainwashing center are, “Go ask about it, people are tortured to death here! Their deaths are counted as suicide. This is our policy!” Ultimately, whether the means is inundation with false propaganda or the brute force of outright torture, the end goal is mind control of the subject in question, in this case, the incarcerated Falun Gong practitioners.

In Gongjiawan brainwashing center in Lanzhou City, Gansu province, the most common method to torture steadfast practitioners is to lock them up in solitary confinement and to hang them up by the handcuffs for extended periods of time.

In July 2005, Ms. Liu Zhifang was tortured to death in Gongjiawan brainwashing center in this way (see http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2005/12/21/68165.html). In the same month, Ms. Li Dongmei was hung up by the handcuffs for six days, Ms. Han Zhongcui for 45 days, Mr. Sun Lianfeng for 52 days, and Ms. Zhang Rong for seven whole days. Ms. Chen Shuxian was handcuffed behind the back and attached to a metal bed headboard in a position where she had to half sit and half squat for two days and one night. Mr. Niu Wanjiang was tortured like this for 81 days, Mr. Sun Lianfeng for 72 days, Ms. Wang Caixia for 14 days, Ms. Sun Lanping for 37 days, and Ms. Zhang Chunlian for 24 days.

These practitioners are good people who follow Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, and they hail from all walks of life. They practice Falun Gong of their own free will, not at anyone's insistence. The reason they persist in their practice under the persecution is because they have benefited from Falun Gong, obtained healthy bodies and have been upgrading their moral standards. This is the opposite of a cult-like mind control.

On the other hand, the CCP strictly controls what outside information is given to the Chinese people, and feeds them with outright lies so as to control the people's behavior and to ensure its own rule. While the CCP can call Falun Gong a mind-controlling cult endlessly, it is quite plain to even a casual observer which is the cult-like party that tries to subvert people's minds through lies and deception.