Use of Brainwashing Programs Highlighted by Persecution of Famous Doctor

According to a Voice of America message based on reports from the media Reuters and The Washington Post, a retired medical officer, Dr. Jiang Yanyong, was forcibly subjected to brainwashing sessions for "ideological remolding". He was placed under twenty-four hour surveillance and was not allowed to go home. However, Dr. Jiang Yanyong vowed to seek the truth based on facts in a letter to his family.

During the SARS epidemic last year, when the former Chinese Sanitary Minster, a member of Jiang's faction, lied to the international community, Dr. Jiang Yanyong wrote to foreign media to expose the authorities' lies. What he did made a great contribution to the efforts to control the further spread of SARS, which had taken the lives of so many.

In early 2004, Dr. Yanyong sent a letter to China's top officials. He asked the leadership to redress the wrongs that happened on Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. His action touched people around the world who have not forgotten this event.

As a result of this heroic action, the kindhearted doctor was detained at a brainwashing centre run by the Military Commission of the Chinese Communist Central Committee. This organisation is under Jiang's control, the same individual who reaped the benefits of the massacre on June 4, 1989. Dr. Jiang Yanyong has captured the world's attention. Even so, Jiang's group still abducted him and has forced him to be subjected to brainwashing without the restriction of laws or moral principles. This case reflects the brutal nature of Jiang's group.

Dr. Jiang Yanyong's case caused me to think about the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. Over the last five years, many of them stood up in the face of persecution, and resisted only with peaceful means, utilising reason to clarify the facts to the people who were deceived by the Jiang group's media. They have acted very nobly but have paid a big price for doing so. To date, over a thousand of them have been tortured to death. Over a hundred thousand have been jailed, abused and forced to perform slave labour. In addition, many people like Dr. Yanyong have been jailed and forced to endure brainwashing sessions. The regime has done its utmost to force the practitioners of Falun Gong to renounce or defame their very own beliefs.

In his vow, Dr. Jiang Yanyong expressed his attitude to seek the truth from the facts; in a similar manner, Falun Gong practitioners have laboured to bring the facts to both officials and the public. This is a truth that has been turned upside down and covered up the Jiang group. Practitioners speak the truth because of their belief in Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance. Dr. Yanyong is prominent in the world; it is assumed that Jiang's accomplices dare not torture him physically. Not so for the Falun Gong practitioners whose suffering is severe. Those who refuse to give up their beliefs are tortured through a variety of mental and physical abuses.

Many brainwashing sessions have been exposed to the public. For example, the so-called Huangpu Legal School in Guangdong Province is actually a brainwashing centre for jailing innocent people, where authorities have detained many intellectuals. One of them is Mr. Zhang Mengye, the party general secretary, Hu Jingtao's university classmate. There are others too, such as Mr. Luo Muluan and his wife, an English teacher from Zhengcheng and two other teachers from Guangzhou. The following are some torture methods known to be used there.

1. Been stripped naked and then having the pubic and other hairs pulled out.

2. Forcing victims' heads under water for extended periods of time.

3. Sticking numerous needles into victims' heads causing massive bleeding and swelling.

4. Hiring ruffians and rogues to beat up people.

5. Forcing victims to bend over and hold still with Master Li's¹ image on their back.

6. Extreme monitoring to prevent victims' from talking to each other, or beating them badly in the yard at midnight. The next day they will ask whether someone beat them. If they say yes, they will beat you worse the next night. The perpetrators know that what they are doing is illegal, so they beat the victims after midnight. Around midnight, the sound of perpetrators' beating and victims' screaming reverberates around the buildings.

Similar tortures are common in brainwashing classes. The above are just a few examples.

Dr. Jiang Yanyong exposed the truth about the SARS epidemic in China and demanded a redress of wrongs that happened on Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. He was regarded by the public as "a great doctor who treats the country."

Falun Gong practitioners do not get involved in politics. Instead, they hold that the true purpose of being human is to return to one's true self. They refine their minds with the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance. Practitioners feel that society's problems can be solved by individuals being morally upright.

Both Dr. Jiang Yanyong and Falun Gong practitioners have been abducted and brainwashed by Jiang's group. Forcing people to speak lies against their own conscience is the rape of the spirit and the murder of the soul. When those who have the courage to speak the truth are abused and imprisoned in today's China, which is full of lies and shams, then isn't Jiang's group undermining Chinese morality?

In history, lies and violence can only last for a short time. Jiang's group may bring ruin to itself by staying its present course. However, justice and truth will endure and remain forever.

Notes:

1. Referring to the founder of Falun Gong, Mr Li Hongzhi.