How Officials at Hubei Province Brainwashing Centre Mentally Torment Falun Gong Practitioners

Officials at the Hubei "Legal and Law Education" Centre--the Brainwashing Centre at Yangxun Lake--persecute Falun Gong practitioners by mental torment to try to force them to abandon the practice of Falun Gong. They have set up an overall system that involves detaining practitioners in a sealed prison environment and using three groups of people--called "accompanying educators," "helping educators" and police--to mentally torment them and persecute them.

"Accompanying educators" are in charge of monitoring and controlling the practitioners. Usually there are two of them; one is dispatched by brainwashing centre officials, the other one arranged by the local police department. They are there to cooperate with the police to carry out the mental torment. The "helping educators" are the collaborators¹ who have betrayed Dafa. They are the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) efficient tools to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. The "helping educators" are called "teachers." Collaborators usually arrive first; then the police. They cooperate with each other to persecute practitioners.

The collaborators' minds are twisted and filled with Communist Party propaganda. They are in total obedience to the CCP and distort Teacher Li's [Teacher Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong] words. They are in charge of brainwashing practitioners. At first they ask a practitioner to "study the Falun Gong teachings," and also read the teachings to the practitioner. Do not ever believe that they truly want practitioners to study the teachings or improve! Their task is to find something they can use to find a flaw in a practitioner's belief. When certain practitioners heard them say, "study the teachings," they actually thought "Why would they let me study the teachings in such a harsh environment? Well, at least it is not wrong to study the teachings." And they would no longer be on their guard and study the teachings with the collaborators.

However, their so-called "study" is not at all like the "study" Teacher speaks of. They want to read to you and explain a sentence after reading it or just read one sentence repeatedly to suggest something. Gradually and unconsciously, those practitioners would accept the collaborators' twisted understandings about Teacher Li's teachings. Some practitioners even think what the collaborators say are reasonable and have a more profound understanding on a higher level. Then the practitioners' thoughts are no longer their own thoughts.

The collaborators also use other tricks. For instance, to gain practitioner's trust and to make it easier to talk to him, the collaborators praise him and say things to appear to be kind. Then at another time, they blame the practitioner for merely doing things but not studying the teachings or cultivating their minds. They also threaten practitioners. For example, if a practitioner does not give up Falun Gong practice, they lengthen his prison term. They might solicitously fetch drinking water for a practitioner and then make him feel sorry to refuse. They chastise practitioners for having too many shortcomings, or claim that their combative mentality is too strong.

When a practitioner is deceived and writes the "guarantee statement"², the pain in his heart is unspeakable. The collaborators then find a group of people to sing in praise of "achievement" and congratulate the practitioner for being "free." In fact, they cheer for the destruction of another practitioner. Then they release that practitioner from the room and let him eat and attend activities with other practitioners who have given in.

Prior to writing the guarantee statement, the practitioner is banned from having contact with anyone else and is always escorted between the cell and the brainwashing room. Three or four collaborators attack one practitioner from 9:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m., or even longer. The collaborators closely watch practitioners' every move. Whenever they are not satisfied, they start to brainwash practitioners and then report to the police.

After each daily breakfast, the police hold two meetings--one for the supervisors, and the other one for the collaborators--to get information about every practitioner and find the suitable countermeasure for dealing with each practitioner.

Then the police brainwash practitioners. They play Video CDs that slander Falun Gong and words of people who have been brainwashed. After playing these VCDs, they force practitioners to finish their homework, which consists of slandering Falun Gong. If a practitioner's homework is not in line with what they want, they order the practitioner to write it again. If a practitioner does not accept their vicious lies, the collaborators attack together, using rude words and actions.

After playing the VCDs, police officers give a class on the "law" to try to convince practitioners that what they have been doing is against the law. They claim that their use of torture is not wrong because the practitioners "disobeyed the law." They also say that practitioners' refusing to renounce their faith is selfishness and greed to gain something from heaven. They also want to convict practitioners of crimes according to their law: the number of flyers handed out, or being unwilling to "reform³" equals so many years of imprisonment. However, they also say, "If you abandon Falun Gong from now on and don't do anything against the law, you can return to society.

Mr. Liao Yuanhua from Wuxue City, Hubei Province, was tortured in Fanjiatai Prison in Shayang, Hubei Province. He photographed his tortured body after his release and posted the photos on the Minghui/Clearwisdom website to expose the CCP's evil nature. He also told many of the local people what he suffered. The Communist agents were infuriated. They re-arrested Mr. Liao and planned to sentence him 13 years. He was taken to the brainwashing centre. While there, the collaborators deceived him and he finally went to the opposing side of Falun Gong. After detaining him there for more than a year, they sentenced him to three years, with five years' probation. By contrast, some other practitioners from a nearby area were sentenced eight or nine years because they refused to give up their belief in Falun Gong.

The police's last trick is to force one to write a "deep-digging essay." They lock a practitioner in a room and give him two days to write about fellow practitioners. The Communist agents then arrest more practitioners and force them to abandon Falun Gong in order to put a blemish on Falun Gong. After the practitioner has written this, the police inform the local police officers to come and make a voice recording for sentencing him in the future.

This is what I personally experienced in that brainwashing centre. I was handcuffed and then "helping educator" and a gun-carrying guard pushed me into a small room. Two "supervisors" were there to watch whatever I did at all times. The brainwashing room is on the second floor. If you refuse to go there, four strong guards grab your legs and arms and drag you into the room. When I had a heart attack, my hands and legs became cold and I was foaming at the mouth. The people watching me said I was pretending. Collaborator Feng Yanfang was still loudly reading slanderous material to brainwash me. Of course they would also do other hypocritical things, such as serve you two separate dishes of food and soup, celebrate your birthday, force you to sing or dance, allow you to make a call, and so on. It does not matter if the police and collaborators are nice or rude to you--they only have one goal--to have you abandon Falun Gong and completely ruin you.

The collaborators at this brainwashing centre are: Old Man Liu from Huangshi, Feng Yanfang from Suizhou, Ding Xingqiao and his wife from Yunmeng, Ji, Tian Xinzhu from Qichun (she is now seriously ill and is not able to go there any more), and Guo Yun from Xishui. They are paid 30 yuan⁴ per day and given free food.

The police officers are Party secretary Jiang, director Gong, He Wei, Liu Cheng, and others.

Note

1. "Collaborators": [former practitioners who have turned against Falun Gong under brainwashing and torture. They are then made to assist in brainwashing and torturing practitioners.]

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.

3. "Reform or Transform" Implementation of brainwashing and torture in order to force a practitioner to renounce Falun Gong. (Variations: "reform", "transform", "reformed", "reforming", "transformed", "transforming", and "transformation")

4. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/1/22/170865.html