The Relentless Torment I Suffered at the Brainwashing Centre in Beijing's Haidian District

The Brainwashing Centre in the Haidian District, Beijing, is located inside the Ministry of Nuclear Industry Sanatorium near Beianhe. It was hosted by the Haidian District 610 Office¹ and run by Director Zhou, Section Chief Zhang, and Section Chief Zhou. On the night of November 30th, 2003, I took some clothes and living expenses to a homeless and destitute practitioner and was followed by Ma Jun from the Beijing National Security Team. We luckily escaped. The second day, December 1st, police officers Ma Jun and Zhang Junti suddenly broke into my home and arrested me, claiming it was for my "safety." They took me to the brainwashing centre in the Haidian District and detained me for three weeks.

I was isolated from other detainees. Two women from the army monitored my every word and action. I was forcefully brainwashed for more than 10 hours every day. At least three to five collaborators² tried to "transform³" me every day. The collaborators included Yan Haiyan, who was brainwashed at the Beijing Xin'an Women's Forced Labour Camp in 2001; Lu Zongren, who lived at the Qinghe area; Zhao Suying, who lived at the Eight-One Middle School in Daoxiangyuan; Wang Yuzhen, who lived in Zhongguancun; and Li Huan, who is one of the key persons in the brainwashing of Falun Gong practitioners. (Li Huan lives in Guajiatun. He was the Party secretary of the Fifth Chemical Factory before the persecution of Falun Gong.) Other collaborators were Wang Ning, Wang Rongzhi, and many others. They were paid a a 600-yuan⁴ salary every month. Section chief Zhang and Su monitored the brainwashing process and participated when they felt necessary. Everyone incurred 150 yuan in food expenses every day.

The brainwashing centre usually used two steps to persecute practitioners. The first step was to brainwash the practitioner and the second step was to coerce the practitioner into exposing other practitioners. If the practitioners refused to be "transformed", the police would then interrogate them. During the first step, the collaborators who had practised Falun Gong before tried to brainwash me and "transform" me. Since they had been practitioners they knew how practitioners talked and thought. They also deliberately misinterpreted and defamed Falun Gong when they felt it necessary. They helped the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to slander Falun Gong and used their experience and evil theories to "transform" the practitioners--just for this very limited salary. They wanted to take advantage of my compassion and tried to find my areas of confusion on Falun Gong's principles to brainwash me. Then they threatened to send me to the forced labour camp in order to shake my belief in Falun Gong and to force me to give up my belief. Their goal for the first step was to destroy my mental defences and to prepare me for the second step of forcing me to tell the whereabouts of other practitioners who had fled their homes.

The leader of the collaborators, Yan Haiyan, said, "If you don't want to be 'transformed,' then confess what you did!" Section Chief Zhang said, "Write down your understanding of Falun Gong." He also threatened to send me to the forced labour camp if I refused to be "transformed." I wrote down without any hesitation, "Falun Gong is righteous." Section chief Zhang had to take the paper and walk away.

After I was mentally tortured for nearly three weeks, I wrote down the words,"I insist on firmly cultivating Falun Gong" and then signed my name, Liu Guifu. Collaborator Yan Haiyan said in exasperation, "Please find other people to 'transform' her."

The next day, three officers from the Haidian District Police Department interrogated me and tried to force me to tell them the whereabouts of other homeless practitioners. When they failed to get any information from me, they tried to pretend to be nice to lure me. Since the police department had issued an arrest warrant several years before to arrest those homeless practitioners and they still could not catch them, the police did not want to let a clue like me go easily. Finally, after 22 days, the police asked the street 610 Office to bail me out and let me go home.

During my detention in the brainwashing centre, I continuously tried to wake up those collaborators. But my efforts had no effect. I was very sad to see those lives being destroyed by the CCP and I finally got sick.

The CCP personnel failed to get any information from me. Then they tried to use money to entice me into being a spy. The second day after I was home, police officers Zhao Fenglin and Yu (female) from the Beijing National Security Team came to my home and asked how I was doing. They also asked if I needed money. I clearly knew that they wanted to lure me into being a spy. I told them frankly, "I do need money right now. But I cannot betray my soul just to get money and let my good fellow practitioners be imprisoned for many years. I will definitely not do such a bad thing."

After that, the police came constantly to my home to harass me. They continuously monitored my home phone and arrested everyone who called me. When I went out, they also followed me. When I made phone calls at the public telephone booth outside, they suddenly appeared and checked the phone number I called. Once I went to visit my schoolmate with my sister. While we were waiting for the bus, the Beijing National Security Team's vehicle parked right on the other side of the street to monitor me. A police officer got out of the vehicle and walked toward us. When he saw that we did not respond, he rudely searched the other passengers who were also waiting for the bus. Then he came to me. I calmly walked toward him. The officer hesitated. Finally, he did not search us, but they did not want to give up. They followed the bus and arrived at my schoolmate's office before us and monitored our every action. After my sister and I went home, the police found my schoolmate's boss and the security department of his office and told them that I was a very important person and that the police were following and monitoring me at this stage. Finally my schoolmate had to resign in order to avoid being arrested and persecuted by the police.

This situation lasted until February 28th, 2005, when I was arrested for the fifth time. The CCP personnel monitored my telephone and followed me when I went out. Then they wrote down the information they got from a record and showed it to one of my fellow practitioners. The practitioner did not see through the police's tricks and thought the police already knew everything. He signed his name on the record without looking at the details. The police then used this signed record as an excuse to arrest me again, and sentenced me to two years and six months of forced labour. They brutally tortured me in the forced labour camp, but they failed at their goal again and did not get any information from me.

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. "Collaborators": former practitioners who have turned against Falun Gong under brainwashing and torture. They are then made to assist in brainwashing and torturing 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.cc/mh/articles/2008/9/15/185924.html