The Persecution I Experienced in Beijing's Legal Training Centre

1. The Legal Training Centre in Beijing: An Evil Persecution Base of Falun Gong Practitioners

The Legal Training Centre in Beijing, an evil persecution base for Falun Gong practitioners, is located around the Tiantanghe Public Cemetery in the Daxing District, Beijing. Since the beginning of the persecution of Falun Gong, this Beijing centre has been a secret persecution base.

It is secret because very few people have heard about it; it is in a remote area; and Falun Gong practitioners who are incarcerated in this centre will not have trials or be sentenced. They lose their freedom, and their families and workplaces will not be informed. Their families cannot find them in any prisons, labour camps, detention centres or police departments, and they could never imagine the existence of such a centre. There are three kinds of policemen in the centre: ordinary police, armed police and secret police from the National Security Bureau. The ordinary police are in charge of more mundane duties. The armed police are in charge of monitoring practitioners. The secret police are in charge of brainwashing and are always in plainclothes so that no one would be able to easily identify them. Those secret police are picked by the 610 Office¹ from different prisons, labour camps and detention centres.

The secret police must be young and tough because they need to beat practitioners, sometimes for entire nights without sleep. Other criteria for being a secret police officer include belonging to a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) family and being loyal to the CCP. They must be trained by the "610 Office" so that they believe all the lies about Falun Gong. They are a major force in the persecution. According to some policemen in Beijing, the secret police officers' workplace is the Beijing Labour Camp Bureau.

The name "Legal Training Centre" is a sham. People would think that it is a normal training centre. Nobody would guess by looking at the name that there is much unlawful action happening there, including torture and beatings.

The centre is about 3-5 miles from a public road and surrounded by high walls. There is a field on the east side of the centre, which is for the armed police to do exercises. On the west side of the centre is a two-story building, containing about a dozen rooms. Each room is about 180 square feet. It has air-conditioning and a small toilet. The inside walls are heavily padded with foam. This nice-looking environment is also for persecuting practitioners. The clean and nice-looking environment will weaken one’s will, so that the policemen can take advantage of a practitioner's weaknesses. The foam-padded walls are to prevent practitioners from hitting their heads against the walls in protest. It also can reduce the volume of practitioners’ painful screaming from the beatings.

2. The Persecution I was Subjected To

When I was first taken here by Beijing policemen, several armed police officers took me to a cell. They searched me and then imprisoned me in the cell. An armed police officer monitored me around the clock. I had to have his permission for everything I needed to do, such as using the toilet or eating.

Practitioners are locked in small cells, and an armed police officer watches each cell. They change shifts every two hours. The policemen checked what I was doing every few minutes and took notes.

I protested the incarceration with a hunger strike. In the first few days, several armed police ordered a doctor from the nearby Tuanhe Hospital to force-feed me. They called the force-feeding "being responsible for your life." The secret police observed me through the door to see if I was fearful, nervous, tired or anxious. Since I was calm, a few days later the secret police showed up. They tried to trick me and convince me with their evil theories and to threaten me. I knew that as a Falun Dafa practitioner I cannot be convinced or tricked by them, no matter how nice they pretended to be, or how tough they looked. After all their tricks failed, the secret police forced me to stand up for three whole days without sleep. Three days later, when my mind was not clear and my legs were swollen, they attempted to make me leave my fingerprints on the guarantee letters² they had written. I refused to do so. They then twisted my arms and held my fingers, forcing me to do so. The next day I told them that the guarantee letters were lies, and I would not acknowledge them. The policemen were extremely angry and pulled my hair and beat me.

Actually, I can tell from conversation with the policemen that they are actually not bad people. They are loyal to their parents and family, and some of them even saved others’ lives before. But they all have one big shortcoming. As long as the CCP lures them with promotions or money, they will do whatever the CCP tells them to do. They cannot stand the CCP's criticism. The Party deceives them and uses them as pawns.

The secret police beat me badly. They hurt all the joints in my body. They forbade me to sleep for eight days. They opened my mouth with pliers and force-fed me. Later they took a sample of my blood. The reason they gave me is that they need to examine my blood to ensure my blood contains the basic nutrients. I didn’t believe that. The CCP and the policemen were afraid of me, so they hated me. But why then did they care about my health? After the CCP’s crime of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners was exposed, I realised that the CCP is much, much more brutal and evil than people can imagine.

Later I escaped this hell. Later, I wrote to the Procuratorate in the Chaoyang District, exposing the crimes of the Legal Training Centre, but the letter was later forwarded to the Legal Training Centre.

Many practitioners have been persecuted by CCP-sanctioned agents in the Legal Training Centre. For example, practitioner Chen Gang, who was imprisoned in the Tuanhe Forced Labour Camp for two years, was transferred here right after his release. Bai Shaohua was forced to sit in water, and the police beat him with electric batons. Yu Ming was injected with central nervous system-damaging drugs. Wang Li was slapped with shoes. Pregnant practitioners were jailed here and forced to accept the brainwashing. The centre's clean environment, good food and other false comforts tricked some practitioners.

Note

1. "The 610 office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

2. "Guarantee Statement": A statement to declare that one is remorseful for practising Falun Gong and guarantees not to practise Falun Gong again, not to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and never again associate with any Falun Dafa practitioners.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2007/2/6/148421.html