Shanxi Man Remains Firm in His Faith After Two Brainwashing Sessions, Faces Lengthy Prison Term

(Minghui.org) A Jiaokou County, Shanxi Province resident refused to renounce Falun Gong after being forced to attend a brainwashing session in December 2021. Mr. Zhang Jianli was targeted again months later, with the local authorities forcing him to attend a two-month-long brainwashing session specifically set up just for him. He remained steadfast in his faith and was threatened with a heavy prison sentence.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

During the “Zero-out harassment campaign” aimed to force all Falun Gong practitioners on the government’s blacklists to renounce Falun Gong, Mr. Zhang was taken to the Shanxi Province Legal Education Center (a brainwashing center) on December 15, 2021 and held there for 57 days. His wife was forced to take time off from work and stay with him in the brainwashing center for nearly three weeks. Both of them were released on January 30, 2022.

As Mr. Zhang remained firm in his faith, he was forced to attend a two-month-long brainwashing session targeting him only with no other local practitioner involved. He was taken there on July 19, 2022 and released on September 19.

The Jiaokou County Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC) and 610 Office, two agencies tasked with overseeing the persecution, were responsible for running the session. They said that holding this special brainwashing session was a decision from the Shanxi Province PLAC and that they had no other option but to follow it.

The Shanxi Province PLAC also arranged two people, Jing and Fan, to transform Mr. Zhang. Both of them had practiced Falun Gong before but later gave up and assisted the regime in persecuting other practitioners. They forced Mr. Zhang to watch videos smearing Falun Gong or promoting the communist ideologies and other religions every day.

Mr. Zhang still refused to renounce his faith, so Jing and Fan became infuriated and blamed each other for failing to get the job done.

They threatened Mr. Zhang, “The higher-ups have set the goal to wipe out Falun Gong in three years. Now 99% of them have given up and you are the last one left in your county. The government has spent so much money on you. If you don’t renounce Falun Gong, you will be thrown into jail. If you are imprisoned, you won’t be able to practice Falun Gong anymore and you will no longer be considered a practitioner. By that time, you will have to transform even if you don’t want to. It’s hard to say whether you can come out alive. Even if you do, you will lose everything. Your elderly mother will be dead. Your pension will be suspended. You will bring shame to your ancestors and children. Your children will despise you and won’t take care of you. You won’t have the dignity to live on. Even after you die, no one would take care of your funeral.”

Mr. Zhang was released on September 19 after two months at the brainwashing center. The 610 Office director told him, “We could have directly sent you to prison. But we are being so nice to you that we allow you to go home to see your elderly mother and make some arrangements with your wife and children [to prepare for your imprisonment]. We’ve done everything we could to help you. I will visit you in the prison once you are there. You can start to think about how to defend yourself in court.”

Mr. Zhang later learned that the authorities in Jiaokou County had submitted his case to the local procuratorate three times during the time he was at the brainwashing center, but the prosecutor refused to indict him. The authorities later contacted the PLAC and 610 Office in the nearby Lyuliang City and submitted his case to the procuratorate there on September 13, seeking a prison term between five and seven years.

On October 26, Mr. Zhang was summoned by the Jiaokou County Cultural Bureau, where he had retired from. An officer from the Jiaokou County Supervisory Committee announced the loss of his pension, using the excuse that he violated the government regulation in printing, mailing and distributing Falun Gong materials, which had landed him three detentions already. Mr. Zhang protested, but to no avail. 

Harassment since 2018

In the past four years, Mr. Zhang has faced constant harassment by the police for practicing Falun Gong.

A few officers went to his home on May 2, 2018, held a Falun Gong booklet which had been torn in half and asked him whether he had distributed it. They searched his rooms and confiscated Falun Gong books, materials and data storage devices. He was taken to the police station for interrogation only to be released hours later.

Mr. Zhang returned to the police station the next two days seeking the return of his Falun Gong books. A police instructor named Fan Dongming refused to return the books, but told Zhang he could write a letter of appeal. 

Mr. Zhang prepared a letter, explaining the lack of legal basis for the persecution and how he had benefitted from practicing Falun Gong. He delivered it to the police on May 7. He went to the police station two more times, on May 8 and 9, and handed more copies of the letter to police directors there. Despite his letter, the police never returned his Falun Gong books.

On May 12, 2008, Mr. Zhang’s mother suddenly became ill and he rushed home to care for her. A few days later, he received a call from his supervisor at work who claimed that they couldn’t find him and ordered him to come back immediately. Only then did Mr. Zhang realize that the authorities had been monitoring him. He turned off his cellphone to avoid being tracked, only to be told days later that the police had put him on the wanted list. 

Mr. Zhang was arrested at work on April 9, 2020 and taken to the police station for interrogation. The authorities harassed him two more times in April 2021, questioning whether he still practiced Falun Gong. The police threatened that he wasn’t allowed to travel out of town or visit the Minghui website. They said that his cellphone was being monitored and they knew everything he did.

The authorities harassed Mr. Zhang again in late June 2021. As he was at his mother’s home caring for her, the police threatened his family that if he didn’t renounce Falun Gong, they would sentence him, suspend his pension and take back the government-sponsored housing. The local government officials also called his relatives and said that they were taking his case very seriously and he would face severe consequences if he didn’t cooperate.

Mr. Zhang talked to three middle school students at a plaza on August 16, 2021, without knowing that a student recorded him and reported him to the police. Liu Wenyu, the head of Jiaokou County Domestic Security Office, arrested him and gave him 15 days of administrative detention. Although the police didn’t immediately enforce the detention due to local COVID-19 outbreak, they forbade Mr. Zhang from traveling out of town and listed his son as his guarantor. The police also ransacked his home on the next day and confiscated his Falun Gong books, materials and data storage devices.

Mr. Zhang was taken to the Liulin County Lockup on November 24, 2021 to serve the 15 days of administrative detention. He refused to wear the detainees’ uniform and held a hunger strike to protest. He suffered severe heart and lung conditions from the hunger strike and was released on December 1, 2021, only to be taken to the brainwashing center two weeks later.