(Clearwisdom.net) In Beijing, if a Dafa practitioner is arrested, he or she will definitely be sent to a Brainwashing Center. The Tuanhe and Xinan forced labor camps are major brainwashing sites. The nearby "Tiantanghe Legal System Training Center" is focused on illegally detaining determined Falun Gong practitioners who have not been sentenced to forced labor camps. All counties and districts have their own brainwashing centers which are controlled by the local "610 offices" ["610 office" a bureau specifically created by the Chinese government to persecute Falun Gong. It has absolute power over each level of administration in the Party, as well as over the political and judiciary branches]. In order to destroy the righteous beliefs of Dafa practitioners, they may arrange two or three people to work on each practitioner in isolated rooms.
During the year I was illegally detained, I experienced three Brainwashing Classes, and was in contact with about 20 "collaborators" [former Falun Gong practitioners who have gone astray due to brainwashing and torture]. The first two sessions took place before I was illegally sentenced to the forced labor camp. The third session was during my detention in the forced labor camp. After many talks with the collaborators, I learned the three major methods they used in shaking a Dafa practitioner's righteous belief in Dafa: 1) taking advantage of one's love of family members; 2) threats and violence; 3) misrepresenting Dafa and trying to confuse a Dafa practitioner so as to shake his/her righteous belief.
In the detention center, I was severely tortured and could not walk. When I was just able to walk with one hand leaning on a wall to hold myself up, the police found three collaborators to work on me, usually from morning until suppertime or as late as 10 pm in the evening before I was sent back to the cell. In the talks, three police officers would guard the door; three collaborators would take turns attacking me. They had endless discussions, which would leave my brain very tired after a long day.
In the beginning, I quarreled with them. Hearing my strong words, the police came in to stop me or even slap me in the face. Later I realized that only with a righteous mind could I overcome the evil, and I became calm. I simply ignored their misrepresentations of Dafa. After a whole day, they would feel very discouraged and not know what to do. My standpoint was very clear: it is the wrongful persecution policy of the Jiang regime which causes us to be unable to be with our loved ones; it's Jiang's regime that prevents us from going to work. We have done nothing that's against the law. To tell the truth is the right of every citizen. So they totally failed in their attempt to "reform" me. This was my experience in the first Brainwashing session.
The second time I was forcibly sent to a brainwashing center when I was detained for exactly four months, which was four days before Christmas day. Those days, the police afflicted me by interrogating me at night several times but they got nothing from me. When the police were in total despair, the higher authorities coerced them again, and a brainwashing session was set up for me a second time. That was at 8pm on December 20, 2001; they forced me to collect my personal items, cuffed me and pushed me into a police car by holding my head down, and took me to a hotel room. That night, I was cuffed to a bed while two police officers slept in the doorway. The second morning after breakfast, two collaborators, one male, one female who both looked in their thirties came in and started their "reformation" effort. The police then left the room.
After the first Brainwashing Session, I had gotten a clear view of the collaborators, and had seen most of their methods. At the beginning, they pretend to be very nice, and listen to you very carefully about how you attained Dafa, how you joined the Fa-rectification process and how you were arrested. After gaining an initial understanding of you, they would try to ask different questions in order to find your loopholes. If you had strong sentiments, they would make use of your family to attack you; if you were attached to fame and money, they would threaten you with the government's power; if you were afraid of physical pain, they would use threats of pain and torture in the forced labor camp or the detention center to coerce you; if you did not study Dafa very well, they would misinterpret Dafa to confuse you so as to shake your righteous belief. If all that did not work, their final trick would be to ask you to let go of the attachment to Dafa or your devotion to Teacher. They would try to trick you by saying being "reformed" was the final step arranged by Teacher. Those collaborators, after being forcibly reformed, had lost their basic consciences and the minds of normal persons; they would intentionally misrepresent Dafa with ill intent to aid the evil side, and totally forget the truths of Dafa. Since I already knew most of their tricks, I would negate their point of view even before they spoke out, so they did not have much to say.
The "Tiantanghe Legal System Training Center" specializes in brainwashing; it uses many more tricks than those in the detention centers. The talking time is much longer. Except for lunchtime, each day the brainwashing would be extended to midnight. If one "helping" group failed, they would summarize and tell another group to continue. Since I had experienced them previously, I stood up to four groups in four days with ease. Finally, the collaborators were at their wit's end and had no more examples to raise. They said, "We'll stop reforming you," and reported to their leader. In that case, I asked them to end the "help and education" against me, and the leader in charge of the brainwashing quickly approved my request, and I was sent back to the detention center. They had intended to forcibly brainwash me for ten days, but it ended after only four days.
As soon as I was sent to the Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp, the third brainwashing effort against me started. To cover their atrocities, Jiang's regime had remodeled the camp both inside and out including all rooms, making it look like a garden. (Note: around the new year from 2001 to 2002, the forced labor camp management office, the Tuanhe forced labor camp, the Xinan forced labor camp were all under heavy construction. Between ten to twenty million Yuan were spent at the Xinan forced labor camp alone. To help pay for this, the police forced detainees in the camp to work very hard. In the forced labor camps management office, for example, detainees were forced to wrap chopsticks, even though the law had long ago prohibited those kinds of chopsticks due to public health concerns. Sometimes detainees were folding illegally copied best-selling books.)
After the renovation of the camp, many people frequently came to "visit and learn" in organized groups. Occasionally, some foreigners also came. Jiang's regime made use of the renovated Tuanhe labor camp as a showcase of their forced labor policies and their treatment of Falun Gong practitioners. (Note: Whenever a foreign organization came, those detainees thought of as unreliable by the camp officials would be locked up in the West Building; determined Falun Gong practitioners were locked up even more tightly. If in some cases there was no choice, the camp management would pick some people who were thought of as obedient to appear. Even in these cases, the picked ones would only be allowed to say "satisfactory," "very good," etc. Officials said that was to protect the image of the camp.)
In Tuanhe, Brigades Two, Three, and Five are where Falun Gong practitioners are detained. Each brigade has about 100 people in it. Brigade Five was the so-called "model" group, which is shown to outside visitors. For various reasons, right now in the Tuanhe labor camp, direct physical torture is not used that much, but mental abuses have never been reduced in severity, and these are basically in the form of various brainwashing methods.
Determined and unyielding Dafa practitioners would be brought to the West Building every morning after breakfast or after getting up. (The West Building is also called the "breaking the hard-shell building." It is especially assigned for brainwashing. Each time when the term of a group of firm Dafa practitioners was due, three or four police officers would bring a single Dafa practitioner to an empty room, have him stripped and bound up, eyes covered and mouth stuffed, then the police would start shocking him with electric batons until he said "I accept reformation." Dafa practitioners Wei Rutan, Zhao Ming, Wu Xiangwan, Meng Xianmin were all tortured here) Each practitioner would be isolated in one room, three or four collaborators would come to do the brainwashing. After watching a slanderous movie, the practitioner was required to write his impressions. After reading a piece of news related to Falun Gong, practitioners were required to write their understanding. Each month one had to write summaries. But whatever you wrote, the police would force you to slander Dafa. When watching TV, if your eyes closed only briefly, the police would curse you, saying you were not concentrating.
During the two months in which they afflicted me, I used all my wisdom and courage to refute the fallacies of the collaborators and police. I would criticize their illegal behavior without hesitation, and expose the Jiang regime's crimes directly. I did that because I could not forget my duty, because what a Dafa practitioner does relates to the future of many, many sentient beings.
A never yielding Dafa practitioner would be sent back to the general brigade, which is not just for Dafa practitioners. In the brigade especially set up to abuse Dafa practitioners, they would leave 4 to 7 determined Dafa practitioners over there for the purpose of falsely inflating the "reformation rate," thus deceiving outsiders and the newly abducted Dafa practitioners. Here I deeply felt the hardships and seriousness of cultivation, and the hardships our Teacher has suffered for us. Any attachments could cause one to go to the opposite side. Nobody could substitute for you or cultivate for you.
Right now, the police are still arresting many Dafa practitioners and bringing them to the Tiantanghe Legal System Training center for brainwashing. If the brainwashing does not work on a Dafa practitioner, they will be sentenced to jail or a forced labor camp. In the forced labor camp, if one is still not reformed, his/her term will be extended indefinitely. We are trying to use our righteous thoughts to destroy the evil's arrangements.
September 2002
Note: the author, Mr. Wang Fangfu, around 30, was detained in the fifth brigade of the Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp. The prolonged mental and physical torture has caused most of his hair to turn gray. He has written several articles to show his determination in Dafa practice and with the hope of awakening kind-hearted people. We also hope kind-hearted people will show concern and help him.
September 20, 2002