(Minghui.org) The Falun Gong practitioners detained at the Lishu County Detention Center and Siping City Detention Center in the metropolitan area of Changchun City, Jilin Province are being subjected to brainwashing aiming to force them to renounce their faith.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an ancient spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Fourteen of the practitioners held in the two detention centers were arrested in a police sweep on August 15, 2019. They are Mr. Hou Hongqing, 49; Mr. Han Jianping, 58; Mr. Jiang Tao, 46; Mr. Tan Qiucheng, 44; Ms. Zhang Shaoping, 51; Ms. Cui Guixian, 56; Ms. Liu Dongying (who is the mother of Ms. Cui’s son-in-law), 55; and seven members from one extended family (Mr. Meng Xiangqi, 37; his father Mr. Meng Fanjun, 59; his mother-in-law Ms. Fu Guihua, 55; his sister-in-law Ms. Yu Jianli, 30; her husband Mr. Wang Dongji, 40; and Mr. Wang's parents Mr. Wang Kemin, 69, and Ms. Wang Fengzhi, 69). They were tried on September 28, 2020 and are still awaiting verdicts.
Other practitioners detained in the two detention centers include Ms. Hou Huixian, in her 50s, who was arrested on April 24, 2020; Mr. Li Jianhui, of Yinchuan City, Gansu Province, who was arrested on September 13, 2019; and Ms. Zhang Yuling, of Bin County, Heilongjiang Province, who was arrested on September 14, 2019.
The brainwashing efforts against the practitioners in the detention centers are similar to the “Zero-out” campaign ordered by the Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC) in early 2020, which is a coordinated effort to force every Falun Gong practitioner on a government blacklist to renounce their faith. In the two-decades-long persecution of Falun Gong, the PLAC, an extra-judiciary agency overseeing the public security and judiciary branches, has been the mastermind behind most persecution policies.
While practitioners outside were threatened with arrests and detention if they refused to renounce Falun Gong, those in detention were threatened with heavy prison terms or prolonged detention. Some practitioners’ families were forced by the authorities to cooperate with them in pressuring their loved ones to give up their faith.
Mr. Meng Xiangqi was detained in isolation and subjected to intensified brainwashing after his arrest in August 2019. With many of his immediate family members also targeted in the same group arrest and his wife and newborn baby struggling to fend for themselves at home, he was under tremendous pressure and renounced Falun Gong at one point, thinking it might alleviate the persecution against other practitioners. Three days later, he regretted his decision and declared his statement renouncing Dafa to be void.
Related reports:
Sixteen Jilin Residents Tried for Their Faith, Lawyers Barred From Representing Them in Court
Man Incarcerated and Tortured at 16 Again Faces Prosecution for His Belief
Sixteen Falun Gong Practitioners Targeted in a Group Arrest Face Trial for Their Faith
Fifteen Jilin Residents Remain in Detention After Prosecutor Returns Their Cases
Families Targeted in Mass Arrest in Jilin Province
Siping City, Jilin Province: 18 Falun Gong Practitioners Arrested for Their Faith in One Day
Siping City, Jilin Province: Nine Falun Gong Practitioners Arrested for Their Faith in One Day
