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Crimes Committed in the Fengrun District Brainwashing Center in Tangshan City, Hebei Province

September 03, 2011 |   By a Clearwisdom correspondent from Hebei Province, China

(Clearwisdom.net) The Fengrun District Brainwashing Center is known as the Legal Education Transformation School and is located in a detention facility west of the Fengrun District Detention Center. There is an armed guard stationed at the detention center. The brainwashing center is, in fact, a place where the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tortures Falun Gong practitioners who refuse to give up the practice and is directly governed by the 610 Office.

The CCP set up the 610 Office on June 10, 1999, in every level of government office and business sector in order to persecute practitioners. It has now changed its name to “Prevention Office” after the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG) began it's investigation of CCP members involved in crimes against humanity. It takes orders from the same level Party and political-legal committee secretaries. It often holds secret meetings to plan further persecution of practitioners and has issued orders to the local police and domestic security officers to report their “progress” in persecuting practitioners. Reports must be submitted to the local 610 Office. Furthermore, police, domestic security officers, and the courts have been ordered to unlawfully arrest, torture, and illegally sentence practitioners.

The Fengrun District Brainwashing Center was set up in 1999. There are no windows in any of the rooms, the roof is sealed with steel, and the beds are made of bedplates that are an inch above the ground. In addition, there is only one door that leads to the outside. Initially, practitioners were held there for long periods of time and tortured. By 2000, it had been officially named the Legal Education Transformation School. Principal Lin Xiuhua was from the public security system, while vice-principal Shi Aicheng was a staff member from Fengrun Town. About a dozen employees came from the public security and other CCP offices.

Most of the time, 20-30 practitioners were held at the brainwashing center. Some were sent directly there, while others were taken to the detention center first and then transferred there. The practitioners were tortured and allowed no personal freedom.

The brainwashing center functioned like a prison. Practitioners were forced to do military-type training and slave labor and were locked in small, isolated rooms. They ate, slept, and relieved themselves in the same room. They also weren't allowed to talk to each other, call home, or have family visits. They were closely monitored around the clock.

Each room had a speaker that broadcast programs that slandered Falun Gong all day and night. The guards often harassed the practitioners at night or yelled at them from the yard to try to keep them from sleeping. They also forced practitioners to watch CCP videos that slandered Falun Gong. In the second half of 2000, a new principal arrived. In September 2002, the county-level 610 Office transferred several collaborators from Kaiping Forced Labor Camp to work with the guards to monitor and persecute practitioners and deprive them of sleep. Director Chen Huiliang and deputy director Qian Limin of the 610 Office often went to the brainwashing center to listen to reports of how the guards and collaborators were progressing in "transforming" practitioners. Practitioners who refused to give up their beliefs were locked up in solitary confinements until they "transformed."

All practitioners were beaten. During the military-style training, the practitioners were forced to line up, and the guards beat, slapped, and kicked them if they did not stand up straight or their feet weren't parallel. Some of the practitioners were beaten until they fell down, and some were kicked or slapped in the face until they bled and their faces swelled. Every day during the training, the guards asked the practitioners if they would continue practicing Falun Gong. If the practitioners answered “yes,” they were beaten with a thick wooden club. A female practitioner was hit with a club over a hundred times. As a result, she was unable to move for a long time. The clubs often broke because they were used so frequently to brutally beat the practitioners.


Torture re-enactment: Brutal beatings

The guards usually ordered the practitioners to write a guarantee statement renouncing Falun Gong when their families or employers visited them. If practitioners refused to comply, the guards beat them in front of their families or employer using plastic batons so there wouldn't be visible external injuries. If a practitioner did the Falun Gong exercises, the guards beat him. The guards handcuffed those who were considered steadfast or often led other practitioners to protest the persecution. One practitioner was locked in solitary confinement because he was considered a “leader” among the practitioners. On one occasion, the guards planned to handcuff practitioners who were memorizing the Fa during a speech, so one practitioner yelled, “You aren't allowed to beat us!” Immediately the guards slapped and kicked him. Later in the principal's office, he was slapped a dozen more times. From then on, this practitioner was often forced to wrap his arms around a tree and handcuffed. In the winter, he wasn't allowed to wear an insulated jacket. The guards sometimes used hot iron hooks to brand practitioners. One practitioner was beaten until his lumbar vertebra was dislocated and he could no longer move.


Torture re-enactment: Burning with irons and cigarettes

In the winter, there was no heat in the brainwashing center, and practitioners were forced to stand out in the snow facing the wind. In the summer, the practitioners had to stand under the scorching sun during the day. At night, they were forced to stand in the yard so they could be bitten by mosquitoes. Every day, breakfast and dinner consisted of diluted rice porridge or noodles. Lunch was always a small steamed bun with salted boiled onion or cabbage. When practitioners' families brought food for them, the staff always confiscated it.


Torture re-enactment: Freezing torture

Practitioners taken to the brainwashing center had to pay fines of 1000-2000 yuan. If the practitioner didn't have the money to pay, then his family had to bring in grain, daily supplies, or other valuable items. Practitioners were also forced to pay 1000-2000 yuan for their “meals.”

The practitioners held in the brainwashing center refused to give up their belief. In the winter of 2000, the brainwashing center was shut down after the practitioners' families, employers, and staff members in the brainwashing center saw the evilness of the persecution and refused to cooperate in arresting and torturing practitioners. Some were released, while others were transferred to a detention center.

By the end of the year, however, the brainwashing center was re-established. The 610 Office sent Wang Limin to be the principal and the CCP Propaganda Department sent Liu Yong to be the vice principal. The persecution methods used were then more subtle and cunning. The guards didn't beat practitioners and allowed them to eat. They acted kind and caring, trying to conceal their true intentions. They sent collaborators from a forced labor camp to try to brainwash the practitioners around the clock. Some practitioners were deceived and wrote guarantee statements. Former director Chen Huiliang and deputy director He Airong were in charge of the brainwashing.

The brainwashing center was soon dismantled, but in 2010 the brainwashing center was set up again. Before October 1, 2010, the 610 Office came up with a plan to arrest practitioners. Several 610 Office and town hall staff members went door-to-door ordering practitioners to write guarantee statements. They arrested and detained a dozen practitioners who refused to do so. They then isolated the practitioners to try to brainwash them individually.

The principal of the brainwashing center is currently Qian Limin, who is also the deputy director of the 610 Office. There are several guards, but they do not dare tell the practitioners their real names, fearing they will be exposed on the Internet.

Fengrun District Prevention Office (610 Office): +86-315-3081152
Zheng Ruixue, director of the Fengrun District 610 Office: +86-315-3081055, +86-13623333068 (C)
Qian Limin, deputy director of the Fengrun District 610 Office: +86-315-3081152, +86-315-3952667
Qian Limin, principal of Fengrun District Brainwashing Center: +86-315-3081152, +86-315-3952667
Chen Jianfu, principal of Fengrun District Brainwashing Center: +86-315-3135499 (H)