How So-Called Experts Have Been Deployed Over Decades to Persecute Falun Gong in China's Yunnan Province

(Minghui.org) When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to persecute Falun Gong in July 1999, many pro-CCP intellectuals and so-called experts across China, including in Yunnan Province, began to actively aid in the persecution.

This article reports on the crimes committed by some “experts” and “professors” from the Propaganda Department of the CCP Yunnan Provincial Committee, Yunnan University, Yunnan Normal University, CCP Yunnan Provincial Committee Party School, Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences, and Speech Institute of Yunnan proactively cooperated with the central government to persecute Falun Gong.

They followed directives from the 610 Office, an extralegal agency created specifically to persecute Falun Gong, and formed a so-called “Experts Group” to go to brainwashing centers, forced labor camps, and prisons to transform Falun Gong practitioners, trying to force them to give up their belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

At the same time, they organized “lecture tours” and gave 62 brainwashing lectures in 11 prefectures, cities, and counties in Yunnan to defame, slander, and demonize Falun Gong. Some also wrote articles, made documentary films to frame and slander Falun Gong and its founder.

In addition to Yunnan, they further spread the propaganda to the neighboring Guizhou Province and other provinces to instigate hatred against Falun Gong. As a result, the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners intensified wherever they went.

The following are a brief summary of crimes committed by several such experts and professors.

Wang Tianxi

Wang Tianxi, born in October 1942, served as a member of the Standing Committee of the 5th CCP Yunnan Provincial Committee, head of the Propaganda Department, and deputy secretary of the CCP Yunnan Provincial Committee until December 2001.

It was reported twice in Yunnan Daily on July 23 and November 4, 1999 that he was the director of Yunnan’s “Leadership Team to Handle the Falun Gong Issue.” The Yunnan Daily also reported many times about his political achievements in coercive brainwashing of Falun Gong practitioners.

Wang’s “achievements” drew favorable attention from Jiang Zemin, then head of the CCP who ordered the persecution. In December 2001, Wang was transferred to work as editor-in-chief of Qiushi, a leading official journal of political thought of the CCP, and became a representative of the 15th National Congress of the CCP, the 9th and 10th National People’s Congresses, as well as member of the Legal Committee of the 10th National People’s Congress.

Wang died on April 2, 2020, and his death was viewed by many as punishment for his wrongdoings.

Below are more details of Wang’s participation in the persecution.

Unlawful Arrests and Detention of Falun Gong Practitioners

At around midnight of July 20, 1999, Wang personally directed the arrests and detention of volunteer coordinators of Yunnan Falun Gong Assistance Center and sub-centers, including Wang Lan, Zhao Qilin, Lai Gaohua, Li Shuming, Bian Yunshan, Zhang Meiyuan, Wang Ningping, Ma Xianming, Zhu Lan, Liu Yan. Their homes were also ransacked.

On July 22, 1999, nearly 100 Falun Gong practitioners went to the Kunming Municipal Committee to demand the release of those arrested. While officers at the Public Appeals Office promised that city’s leaders would come to listen to their grievances, more than one hundred armed police and public security personnel soon came in two buses, rounded up all Falun Gong practitioners and took them to Xishan No. 2 Middle School for interrogation and photo taking.

Afterwards, the practitioners were taken to various police sub-stations for further interrogation, and they were not released until late at night. Some remained detained.

Sixty-four Falun Gong practitioners went to the Yunnan Provincial Committee on April 4, 2000 to appeal for justice for Falun Gong, but all of them were arrested and detained.

Wang also personally directed the arrest of Wang Lan in 2001, the former coordinator of Kunming Falun Gong Assistance Center, by using a satellite, at the cost of 2 million yuan.

During the two years and five months when Wang served as head of the “Leadership Team to Handle the Falun Gong Issue” in Yunnan, more than 1,000 practitioners were arrested. Among them, hundreds were taken to brainwashing centers, 180 were sent to forced labor camps, and 37 were sentenced to prison. A number of practitioners, including Kong Qinghuang, deputy mayor of Lin’an Town, Jianshui County, died as a result of persecution.

Coercive Brainwashing of Falun Gong Practitioners

Under the directive of Wang, the notorious Masanjia Forced Labor Camp in Liaoning Province (over 2,000 miles away) was twice invited to send its “experts” to Yunnan to help “transform Falun Gong practitioners,” in September and November 2000, respectively. The cost of each trip was entirely paid by taxpayers. The group from Masanjia shared their experience in achieving high success rate in transforming practitioners, including using extreme torture methods.

The Masanjia group went to various forced labor camps and brainwashing centers across Yunnan to spread fallacies in order to fool and mislead Falun Gong practitioners. Wang was personally involved in these activities.

According to media reports, Wang held talks with more than 100 practitioners in person to try to transform them and went to forced labor camps more than ten times to instruct others on how to accomplish the brainwashing work.

Mr. Xie Hongyu, a native of Mojiang Hani Autonomous County, Pu’er City, Yunnan Province, studied at the University of Science and Technology of China. Because he went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong three times in the early days of the persecution, the school forced his father to take him back to Yunnan on the grounds that he insisted on practicing Falun Gong.

Upon his return to his hometown, he was taken to a brainwashing center in Kunming, and was subjected to strict surveillance and harassment by the 610 Office at all levels, from provincial to his own village. Mr. Xie suffered a mental breakdown and was hit and killed in a car accident on August 23, 2001. He was 22.

Instigating hatred against Falun Gong

Starting on July 22, 1999, under the directives from Wang, dozens of CCP media outlets went all out to spread rumors to frame Falun Gong, including Yunnan Daily, Spring City Evening News, Donglu Times, Kunming Daily, Dianchi Morning News, Yunnan Old Age, Yunnan Legal News, Yunnan Information News, Yunnan TV Station, Kunming TV Station, Yunnan radio stations, Kunming radio stations, as well as other media outlets in various regions, prefectures, cities and counties. They distorted facts to slander and demonize Falun Gong with fabricated stories to deceive the general public, creating fear and hatred among the people against Falun Gong.

Wang organized a campaign to “expose and criticize Falun Gong,” in which everyone had to make a statement about Falun Gong to pass the test, forcing the masses of people to participate in the persecution. They also organized the so-called “petition with 10,000 signatures” activities in public places to deceive people, including primary and secondary school students.

Mandatory meetings were held in sectors of science and technology, religion, literature and culture, as well as the military and the disabled, to criticize, attack and slander Falun Gong. In addition, large-scale deceptive exhibitions such as “Opposing Cult, Advocating Civilization” were held in more than 100 counties and cities in 16 prefectures across the province. More than eight million people attended it.

Lavishly Praising CCP Head Jiang Zemin for Persecuting Falun Gong

After he was appointed as the editor-in-chief of the mouthpiece publication Qiushi journal in December 2001, Wang wrote and edited a large number of articles to sing the praises of Jiang Zemin. Wang and his team exerted themselves to brainwash and mislead the general public by deception and propaganda.

Zhao Jin

Zhao Jin, born in May 1962, of Yi ethnic group, served as deputy head of the Propaganda Department of the Yunnan Provincial Committee from August 2002 to December 2007 and deputy director of Yunnan 610 Office from February 2001. At the same time, he also served as the Party secretary and director of Yunnan Daily. From December 2007 to November 2011, he served as member of the Standing Committee of Yunnan Provincial Committee and the Party secretary of Dehong Prefecture. He continued to served as a Standing Committee member and head of the Propaganda Department of the Yunnan Provincial Committee from December 2011 to November 2020.

Zhao’s involvement in the persecution of Falun Gong started when he was deputy head of the Propaganda Department, in charge of public opinion and propaganda affairs. He directly engaged in the so-called transformation of Falun Gong practitioners and organized various sectors to “expose and criticize” Falun Gong.

He also arranged “lecture tours” to travel around the province, giving slanderous talks to frame and discredit Falun Gong. He also organized various activities against Falun Gong, such as the large-scale deceptive exhibition “Opposing Cult, Advocating Civilization,” “10,000-Mile Caravan for Science Popularization,” “Quiz Show,” etc.

He and others used various media outlets, including radio networks, TV stations, newspapers and magazines, to defame and slander Falun Gong, setting up special columns in Yunnan Daily, such as “A Glimpse of the World,” “Longmen Forum,” “Winning Complete Victory in the Struggle to Expose, Criticize and Ban Falun Gong,” etc.

In their efforts to brainwash the public, they compiled multiple collections of articles, booklets and made a number of films, including one called “Contest,” to defame, slander and demonize Falun Gong and its founder, Mr. Li Hongzhi.

In 2001, contents to smear Falun Gong, such as the staged “Self-immolation” on Tiananmen Square, were also included in grade six primary school textbooks of ideological and moral education in Yunnan. Students were also required to write an essay to slander Falun Gong as their homework during school holiday.

Cai Chaodong

Cai Chaodong was born in 1951 and used to serve as advocacy officer in the Propaganda Department of Yunnan Provincial Committee, president of Speech Institute of Yunnan, director of China Jinkoucai Speech and Eloquence training center, and deputy leader of the so-called “Experts Group.”

Cai actively participated in the persecution of Falun Gong from July 1999. In his role as deputy leader of the “Experts Group,” Cai, along with Peng Guojun and Yang Xingyuan from the 610 Office and Su Shengqian, former professor of the Institute of Marxism and Leninism Studies, organized a “lecture tour.” Some former Falun Gong practitioners who gave up the practice in the persecution also joined them in brainwashing other practitioners.

They traveled to 11 regions, prefectures, cities and counties across Yunnan and gave 62 presentations to around 63,000 audience members. Their activities were extensively covered by Yunnan TV stations, radio networks, newspapers and other media outlets in regional areas. The group also traveled to some other provinces to give lectures.

Cai also went to forced labor camps and brainwashing centers in Yunnan many times to defame Falun Gong and promote the communist struggle philosophy in order to coerce the practitioners to renounce their belief.

In March 2001, when the “lecture tour” group went to Simao area, they made special efforts in brainwashing Mr. Xie Hongyu, a former student of the University of Science and Technology of China who was put into a mental hospital by the 610 Office. Cai was one of those responsible for Mr. Xie’s mental breakdown and ultimate death at a young age.

In the same year, Cai was selected by the CCP as an “Advanced Individual” in the “anti-cult” struggle in Yunnan Province. He also wrote a book “Long Live Science” to slander Falun Gong.

Su Shengqian

Su Shengqian was born in November 1950. He served as deputy secretary of the Party Committee of the School of Public Administration of Yunnan University from 1999 to 2003, then as the Party secretary of the Marxism-Leninism Department. He began to preside over the department affairs from 2004, and was appointed as head of the department in December 2005. When the department was further developed into the Institute of Marxism and Leninism Studies at the end of the year, Su was appointed as its director and professor.

From July 20, 1999, Su actively participated in the persecution of Falun Gong. He joined the “Experts Group” in 2001 and took up the position of deputy director of Speech Institute of Yunnan. He went to Yunnan forced labor camps and various brainwashing centers on many occasions to spread slanders against Falun Gong in order to force the practitioners to renounce their faith.

Su also joined the “lecture tour” along with Cai, Peng Guojun and Yang Xingyuan from the 610 Office and gave 62 talks in 11 regions, prefectures, cities and counties in Yunnan, brainwashing around 63,000 people.

Su published a number of defamatory articles against Falun Gong in the Yunnan Daily, such as “Cracking Evil Cult,” “Damage to Outlook on Life by Theism and How to Rectify It” and “Advocating Science and Rejecting Cult.” He was invited to be a special host by Yunnan TV Station and ran about 110 episodes in the program of “Weekend Evening.”

Su was awarded the title of “Advanced Individual” in anti-cult struggle in Yunnan in 2001.

Zhou Benzhen

Zhou Benzhen was born in December 1955 and joined the workforce in 1971. She used to serve as secretary of the Party Committee of Yunnan Normal University, deputy director of the so-called Yunnan “Anti-Cult” Association, honorary deputy director of the Speech Institute of Yunnan, research fellow of Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences, and adjunct professor at the Training Center of the Organization Department of the Yunnan Provincial Committee.

Zhou has actively participated in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners since July 1999. As a member of the “Experts Group” and deputy director of Yunnan “Anti-Cult” Association, she went to forced labor camps and various brainwashing centers across Yunnan many times to spread defamatory propaganda against Falun Gong.

During her tenure as Secretary of the Party Committee of Yunnan Normal University, she initiated a propaganda campaign on campus to demonize Falun Gong.

Soon after its establishment, the Yunnan “Anti-Cult” Association organized an anti-Falun Gong “petition with 10,000 signatures” event at Zhengyi Road in Kunming City. It also participated in the large-scale exhibition of “Opposing Cult, Advocating Civilization,” which toured more than 100 counties, cities in 16 prefectures across the province.

During its 15-day exhibition in Kunming, students from Kunming Normal University were also hired as docents. Employees from as many as 32,000 entities were organized to attend the exhibition, totaling around 300,000 people; province-wide, the exhibition recorded 8 million visits.

Starting in November 2001, the Propaganda Department of Yunnan Provincial Committee, Yunnan Provincial Civilization Office, Yunnan 610 Office, Yunnan Provincial Public Security Department, Yunnan Provincial Judiciary Department, Yunnan Provincial Association of Science, and the so-called Yunnan “Anti-Cult” Association organized another round of essay competition and knowledge contest under the theme of “Opposing Cult, Advocating Civilization.”

Thousands of essays were submitted and more than 200,000 people participated in the knowledge contest. Zhou played an essential role in these activities.

Zhou wrote and compiled a number of publications to vilify Falun Gong, such asScientific Motherly Love (published by Yunnan Minzu Press 2005) and Cherish Life (published by Yunnan Science and Technology Press 2005). She also published a number of essays to slander Falun Gong such as Thoughts and Suggestions on Current “Anti-Cult” Work (published by Yunnan Minzu Press 2002).

She worked with the Propaganda Department of the CCP Yunnan Provincial Committee and Yunnan TV Station in making the slandering TV special “Contest” against Falun Gong.

With a track record in the persecution of Falun Gong, Zhou was awarded “Provincial Advanced Individual” in anti-cult work, “Advanced Individual” in Yunnan provincial legal propaganda and education from 2001 to 2005, and “Outstanding Worker in Party Affairs” in 2006 by Yunnan Tertiary Education Committee.

Xiang Xiang

Xiang Xiang, born on May 5, 1942, is a CCP member and used to serve as director and researcher of the Research Institute of Marxism-Leninism, Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences.

He actively participated in the persecution of Falun Gong, and as a member of the “Experts Group,” he went to forced labor camps and brainwashing centers across Yunnan on many occasions to give slanderous speeches against Falun Gong and its founder.

He and others tried their utmost to brainwash Falun Gong practitioners in order to force them to give up their faith in the practice. He also defamed Falun Gong in many of his articles and publications, such as “Cultural Philosophy” and “Deng Xiaoping Theory & Social Stability in Yunnan.”