Accounts of Former Guangdong TV Executive and Three Other Falun Gong Practitioners Persecuted for Their Beliefs

Three Falun Gong practitioners were arrested and sent to Tangang Brainwashing Centre in Guangzhou on November 4th. They included Mr. Chen Changrui, former deputy director of the Guangdong TV Chief Editor’s Office, Ms. Peng Lin, an international trading official, and Ms. Gao Suming. In addition, 62-year-old Ms. Jin Jianjun and another female practitioner were also arrested and detained at an unknown location.

As Mr. Chen Changrui was returning home at 11:00 p.m. on November 4th, he was arrested by police near his home in the Dongshan District. The police then ransacked his residence and left with Mr. Chen and Falun Gong books and CDs.

At 7:00 p.m. that same day, while Ms. Peng Lin was at home with her 80-year-old mother, her daughter, and a relative, a man identifying himself as a fire safety inspector came to the door. After her relative opened the door, nine men rushed in to search Ms. Peng’s bedroom. Some of them were officers from Shishu Street police station, and others were from the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong). After two hours, the officers tied up Ms. Peng’s hands and feet before carrying her away.

Mr. Chen Changrui Persecuted Since 2001

Mr. Chen Changrui is 59 years old. His wife began to practise Falun Gong in 1998 and was cured of long-term diseases. Her strained relationship with her mother-in-law became very cordial. Witnessing his wife’s improvement, Mr. Chen began practising Falun Gong in early 1999. Shortly afterward, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began the persecution of Falun Gong.

Mr. Chen was arrested at his office two days before the 2001 Chinese New Year, and taken to the Guangzhou Brainwashing Centre. After a year of detention, he was transferred to a forced labour camp. After a global rescue effort by international Falun Gong practitioners, he was released on January 15th, 2003. But on June 15th, 2003, he and wife, Ms. Liang Zihui, were arrested again. Mr. Chen was sent to Guangdong’s Sanshui Brainwashing Centre, where he was so brutally tortured that his face became disfigured. He was named a “key target” by the 610 Office.

Right after the persecution began, Mr. Chen wrote a ten-page letter to leaders of CCTV (China Central TV) and Guangdong Province TV, telling them about the amazing benefits he derived from practising Falun Gong. In November 1999, he traveled to the Central Letters and Visitation Office in Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. Unfortunately, before he even had a chance to submit his letter, police arrested him outside the office gate and escorted him back to Guangdong.

During his 15 days of detention, management from his workplace paid him several visits and tried to convince him to stop practising Falun Gong. After returning to work, he was transferred to a lesser job in the community education office. He was often dispatched on business trips during the holidays and several coworkers were assigned to monitor him. He was arrested at work on December 24th, 2000, and spent one month in a brainwashing centre. Two days before the Chinese New Year in 2001, he was taken to Guangzhou Brainwashing Centre and remained there for a year.

Mr. Chen’s refusal to abandon his belief made his superiors nervous. They were concerned that their failure to “transform” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] him could jeopardize their own careers, so they refused to let him return to work. But after an additional year of detention at a brainwashing centre, CCP officials could not find any supporting evidence or excuses to give him a jail sentence. Finally, the police decided to send him to a labor camp without a trial. His forced labour camp sentence did not even include a release date.

Ms. Peng Lin and Ms. Gao Suming

Ms. Peng Lin, 49, worked at Guangzhou International Trading Company. In 2002, personnel from the Guangzhou City 610 Office took her to Huangpu Law Education Base. While detained, she was subjected to from many forms of torture, including sleep deprivation, beatings, and brainwashing.

The Shishu Street police and 610 Office staff arrested Ms. Peng on November 4th, 2012,and ransacked her home. The next day, her mother attempted to drop off some clothes for her at the police department, but she was told her daughter had been transferred to a brainwashing centre.

Ms. Peng’s husband was unable to bear the long-term harassment and ended up divorcing her. Her daughter was preparing for the college entrance exam at the time, and her mother was recovering from open-heart surgery. She really worried about both of them.

On the evening of November 4th, 2012, Ms. Gao Suming, in her early fifties, was taken into custody and sent to a brainwashing centre. Four years ago, Ms. Gao was arrested and detained for one year at the “Guangzhou Law School” (a brainwashing center) in Chatou. Prior to that, she was detained several times between 1999 and 2003, which included torture at the Chatou Forced Labour Camp. Guards there burned her skin with cigarettes, deprived her of sleep for 100 hours, and beat her.

Ms. Jin Jianjun, 62, was a company accountant. This November 4th, she was arrested at her mother’s home in Ligang Nanwan. Her mother was returning from a restaurant at the time and saw police officers ransacking her home. After an extensive search, the police took Ms. Jin into custody and confiscated many of her books and materials.

Ms. Jin was detained in Shenzhen’s Luohu Detention Centre in 1999. She was arrested and sentenced to two years in Guangdong Women’s Forced Labour Camp in the summer of 2000. She served three years at Guangxi Province Forced Labour Camp, from January 2002 to January 2005.

Tangang Brainwashing Centre: +86-20-86442948
Liu Mei, secretary of Politics and Law: +86-20-83268388, +86-20-83268838
Zhang Xiaogui, head of 610 Office: +86-13332889788, +86-20-83268386
Nanyuan Street Police Department: +86-20-83830200
Nanyuan Street General Office: +86-20-81723052, +86-20-81812040 (fax)