Officials in Shanxi Province Arrest and Brainwash Falun Gong Practitioners

(Minghui.org) In the past few months, authorities in Wanrong County, Shanxi Province, have been carrying out the “Zero-out Campaign,” which aims to force every Falun Gong practitioner on the government’s blacklist to renounce their faith. In April and May 2021, the police arrested three practitioners, two women in their 50s and one man in his 60s. They suffered abuses in a brainwashing camp.

Falun Gong is a meditation practice that teaches Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, and has been persecuted in China since 1999.

The Shanxi officials involved in this campaign were Qu Hongmin and Zhang Weihong of the Wanrong County Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC), and Qu Qingyun, the head of the county’s Domestic Security Office.

Ms. Wang Enfang of Dongwang Village was first arrested at home on April 11 and held in a brainwashing camp.

Mr. Shi Quanfa was arrested on April 29 by Wangxian Township Police Station officers who didn’t show their IDs or an arrest warrant before taking Mr. Shi away.

Ms. Zhang Hongjuan was arrested on May 6 from the school where she worked and taken to the brainwashing camp. Two days later, Zhang Weihong of the Wanrong County PLAC, who arrested her, ransacked her home, and confiscated her computer, cell phone, and Falun Gong books.

The brainwashing camp is located inside the county’s Bureau of Justice. Two of its employees guard the entrance. There were two rooms with large-screen televisions playing videos slandering Falun Gong. Three people who practiced Falun Gong before but later gave it up were hired as “educators” to brainwash the practitioners during their nearly three weeks of incarceration.

The authorities usually targeted one practitioner at a time. They pressured one to sign statements to renounce their faith before arresting the next. The local officers first observed and recorded the practitioners’ daily routines so that they knew when and where to find them. The police never identified themselves and took the practitioners directly to the brainwashing camp.

There are other brainwashing facilities in Yuncheng City in the same province. The city’s Domestic Security Office and PLAC set up a brainwashing session in a hotel in the Yanhu District. Beginning in October 2020, practitioners in that city were arrested and tortured in Balidao Hotel. Guo Tieshan, deputy chief of the domestic security office, was in charge of this brainwashing session. He tried to profit from it by making the practitioners’ families pay for their use of the hotel.

Perpetrators’ contact information:Qu Hongmin (屈红民), Wanrong County PLAC: [phone]Zhang Weihong (张卫红): [phone]Qu Qingyun (屈青云), director of the Wanrong County Domestic Security Office: [phone]Guo Tieshan (郭铁山), deputy chief of the Yuncheng City Domestic Security Office: [phone]Shanxi Province PLAC: [phone]