Lifting the Veil Covering the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) Methods of Brainwashing Falun Gong Practitioners

Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began openly persecuting Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999, it has made “reforming” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] a top priority. As such, numerous brainwashing facilities have been set up to carry out forced brainwashing. The CCP has now gone through the following three phases in its attempt to make practitioners give up their beliefs in Falun Gong.

Phase 1 (Late 1999 to early 2002): Exploration of Brainwashing Concept

The CCP started the persecution, anticipating that it would crush Falun Gong in three months. Things didn’t go as planned; it only saw more and more practitioners going to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. As the prisons, labour camps, and detention centres filled with arrested practitioners, in October 1999, the regime began putting newly-seized practitioners into so-called study sessions held by their local counties. The initial purpose of these study sessions was to strictly control the number of practitioners going to Beijing. Back then, Domestic Security Divisions at various levels were in charge of such sessions, but they lacked experience and were in an exploratory mode of carrying out brainwashing.

Phase 2 (Early 2002 to early 2010): Full-scale Brainwashing Campaign of Practitioners

After the CCP staged the Tiananmen Self-immolation incident ¹ on January 23rd, 2001, the number of practitioners going to Beijing to appeal gradually decreased. One year later, the CCP set up 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) branches at various government levels to specifically carry out its persecution plan. At the same time the regime appropriated enormous amounts of money to build brainwashing bases at provincial, area, and county levels, as well as to train an army of “helpers.” The Masanjia Forced Labour Camp in Liaoning Province was used to launch a pilot programme where numerous so-called experts were called in to study how to "reform" practitioners. After they gained experience they eagerly shared with other brainwashing centres across the country.

The 610 Offices next began to impose reform quotas/rates at all brainwashing facilities, and used them to evaluate the performance of involved people and organisations. At the same time, large bonuses were promised to those active in carrying out the persecution.

Falun Gong practitioners were becoming more and more mature amidst the persecution, especially after the publication of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party² in 2004. As a result they were better able to resist brainwashing. Many people resumed cultivation after being forced to denounce their belief under pressure. The 610 Office then launched three consecutive rounds of a programme called, “Three-year Full-scale Brainwashing Assault on Practitioners,” in 2002-2004, 2005-2007, and 2008-2010, respectively.

Phase 3 (Tentatively scheduled from early 2010 to end of 2012): Consolidation of Early Brainwashing Results

Despite the regime’s desperate efforts these past ten years to eradicate it, Falun Gong has not only not been eliminated, but remains strong and is gaining sympathy and support from more and more international communities and kind hearted people. Since the publication of the Nine Commentaries, more than 85 million people have openly announced their withdrawals from the CCP and its affiliated organisations. Moreover, many people, including those who previously persecuted Falun Gong, have begun cultivation in Falun Gong.

Unable to sustain its persecution, the CCP decided to launch another round of the “Three-year Full-scale Brainwashing Assault on Practitioners,” to consolidate its early brainwashing results. Starting in March 2010, the 610 Offices in various places conducted mass arrests of practitioners and put them in brainwashing centres for “reformation.”

The CCP follows a three-step procedure to carry out forced brainwashing.

Step 1: Isolate Practitioners to Identify Their Weaknesses for Easier Reformation

Every practitioner sent to a brainwashing centre is body-searched upon arrival. The centre staffers also conduct such searches on a regular basis, in order to prevent practitioners from bringing in Falun Gong articles.

The brainwashing centre usually detains newcomers in a room alone and assigns two “helpers” to monitor him around the clock. He is not allowed to step out of the room without permission, and must eat his meals in the room. He is forbidden from practising the Falun Gong exercises or talking to other practitioners. The “helpers” follow him everywhere, including the toilet and washrooms. They take notes of his every move and word and hold meetings with the staff every day, to discuss the next step of their brainwashing strategy.

The brainwashing centre is securely guarded. In addition to wires and tall walls, guards are stationed at the gate around the clock. One must pass four or five metal doors before entering into detention cells, whose windows are barred with metal grids. There is a monitor in every room and all the hallways. The walls are covered with slogans and pictures defaming Falun Gong.

There is no break time, and those who refuse to "reform" are essentially serving a life sentence. Many practitioners were kind hearted people to begin with and had never been detained before. When suddenly held in solitary confinement cells and completely cut off from the outside world, they feel unbearable mental pressure. As a result, some develop fear, experience depression, and feel hopeless, as if “reformation” is the only way out.

Just when the practitioner is not sure about what is in store for him, the brainwashing centre staff member appears to be truly caring, and offers him delicious food. They then point out that the brainwashing centre is nothing like what is described on the Minghui/Clearwisdom website. As a result, some muddle-headed practitioners begin to have doubts about Falun Gong. More people are then sent in to talk to the practitioner, chatting about everything from family and work, to life and hobbies. Some officials even offer to listen to him explain the facts of Falun Gong and do the three withdrawals (withdrawing from the CCP and its affiliated organisations). They may follow him and say “Falun Gong is good,” or even promise to learn Falun Gong from him after he is released, on the condition of writing a guarantee statement [promising to give up Falun Gong practice].

All these tricks are intended to identify the practitioner’s weakness so as to find a breakthrough point to make him "reform."

Step 2: Reforming Practitioners with Mental and Physical Torture

If the practitioner is not reformed after the first step, the brainwashing centre follows up with the second step, which includes the following major tactics.

(1) Fabrication of Lies

Using Former Practitioners to Spread Misunderstanding of Falun Gong Principles

One tactic the 610 Office often uses is to employ already-reformed former practitioners to work on yet-to-be-transformed practitioners. These specially trained people are very familiar with Falun Gong books. But they often take words from Dafa books out of context for the purpose of shaking practitioners’ beliefs in Falun Gong. They take turns talking to practitioners from dawn to dusk every day. The more practitioners want to reason with them, the happier they are. After all, they want practitioners to become confused. The sad thing is that some practitioners who lack a deep and clear understanding of Falun Gong principles are indeed perplexed and later deviate from Falun Gong. There are also practitioners who know that what those people say is nonsense, but still give in because they can no longer bear the harassment and just want to escape.

Taking Advantage of Practitioners’ Love toward Their Families

The 610 Office makes good use of practitioners’ emotions toward their families in the brainwashing process. They often use incentives with family members to persuade their loved ones to give up their Falun Gong practice. Many practitioners, especially women, fall into this trap.

That is why we often see the following scenes unfolding at various brainwashing centres. Elderly parents kneel in front of their children, crying and pleading with them to write guarantees, while others blame the practitioners for bringing shame to their family, since they are the first ones in generations to ever break the law. Some spouses come to the brainwashing centre with divorce papers in hand and threaten the practitioners to choose between the family or Falun Gong. To make matters worse, some helpers even try to sabotage practitioners’ marriages by spreading rumours that their spouses had affairs.

Some staffers promise to do everything for the practitioner as long as he promises to "reform." They are always at his service, bringing him water and meals, or celebrating his birthday. They also offer to help find jobs for him and his family members, or apply for social security benefits.

Intimidating Practitioners with Threats to Cut off Their Livelihoods

This trick is intended to deceive those practitioners who confuse exposing the persecution of Falun Gong with involvement in politics. After the publication of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, the CCP accused Falun Gong of participating in politics, and declared that explaining the facts of Falun Gong and recommending the three withdrawals to be sabotaging social stability. With such an accusation, they threaten practitioners to break away from Falun Gong or be expelled from work, army, or school, their salaries and pensions stopped, and their homes ransacked. If practitioners refuse to "reform," the practitioners are threatened with long-term detention, forced labour, and prison terms. In other words, they are forced to choose between their belief and their livelihood.

The catchphrases often used include, “Even though you oppose the government, the government is still tolerant and has spent a fortune setting up places like this to help you. We hope you can soon return into the arms of the government. Reformation is the only way out. If you keep going against the government, you are left with death.” Some people even say, “If you still refuse to reform, we’ll send you to the Northwest. The CCP has compassion for you. If I were them, I’d have shot you to death long ago.”

(2) Use of Physical Attack

Once the above tactics fail to work the authorities resort to violence, using all kinds of tortures to make practitioners suffer.

(3) Alternate Use of Lies and Violence

If torture can’t make a practitioner succumb, they change their tactics. Some staffers may try to be nice to practitioners while others shower them with insults. Nonetheless, the brainwashing centres use various alternating tactics of lies and violence to find which works best.

(4) Financial Penalties Imposed on Practitioners

Each brainwashing session usually lasts 40 days (30 days in the early years). Every practitioner has to pay somewhere between 2,000³ and 8,000 yuan, most of which is directly deducted from his salary without his consent. If the persecutors fail to make a practitioner "reform" in one session, they enrol him in a second session for which they force him to pay again. The brainwashing centres also receive tens of thousands of yuan from the 610 Office. According to one brainwashing centre head, the CCP spent an average of 38,000 yuan of taxpayers’ money on "reforming" each practitioner.

Step 3: Reinforcing Brainwashing Results

Once a practitioner gives in under pressure and writes a guarantee statement, promising to no longer practice Falun Gong, the brainwashing centre follows up closely and makes sure he has completely abandoned Falun Gong.

Forcing Practitioners to Write Various Break-up Statements

The 610 Office divides the whole brainwashing process into three stages... Preliminary, basic and complete reformation. Writing a guarantee does not necessarily mean the practitioner’s mind has been completely "reformed." The brainwashing centre will bombard him with warped notions and further force him to completely break away from Falun Gong.

What they often do is many-fold. They first intentionally lessen the pressure by reducing “study” time, or offer the practitioner some break time. They then organise all kinds of group singing and dance activities to divert his attention, then have him watch DVDs that defame Falun Gong and then force him to write his thoughts after watching the videos. Finally, they have some already-released people return to the brainwashing centre and show their gratitude toward the centre for reforming them. Of course, the centre is not going to have the detained practitioners enjoy any interaction with these visitors, and everything is strictly monitored.

Forcing Practitioners to Write "Dig-deep" Materials

After forcing practitioners to write various statements renouncing their belief, the brainwashing centre demands that they also surrender all their Falun Gong materials. In addition, the centre orders practitioners to write so-called “dig-deep” materials to criticise Falun Gong.

This is the most trying moment for practitioners. The brainwashing centre demands to know everything the practitioner did regarding their activities to speak out for justice for Falun Gong. They make him disclose the source of Falun Gong materials and a list of practitioners who had frequent contact with him in the past. They repeat the whole process until they extract satisfactory answers. Next, they fax his confessions to the local Domestic Security Division, which then verifies the revealed information against their records and offers feedback to the brainwashing centre. The purpose is to make sure the practitioner has provided true information.

Most despicable is the Domestic Security Division's frequent arrests of other practitioners whose names the detained practitioner has revealed. Of course some practitioners actually got even heavier sentences after disclosing everything to the authorities.

Forcing Practitioners to Attend “Reveal and Criticise” Meetings

The "reformed" practitioner must read aloud what he has written at the “Reveal and Criticise” meetings to his family, street committee members, his workplace people, and 610 Offices. Many such meetings are audio-and-video-taped for record keeping purposes. The evildoers intend to destroy the practitioner’s willpower and suffocate his soul. They want him to give up on himself and never resume cultivation again.

Conducting Final Inspection and Evaluation

After going through the above steps, the brainwashing centre will conduct a final inspection and evaluation of the practitioner's "reformation" results. The inspectors are usually people from the 610 Office. They ask many questions for which they demand direct and explicit answers. Sometimes they even order the practitioner to smoke or drink with them, to determine if he has indeed given up cultivation. If he is deemed unsatisfactory, he has to stay in the brainwashing centre for longer periods until he is completely "reformed."

Kong Fanyun, Hebei Provincial Legal Education Centre's education section chief, once said, “When I see you beat or curse people, I know you are truly reformed.” It is apparent that the so-called "reformation" is indeed a process of turning good people into demons.

Forcing Practitioners to be Spies

The brainwashing centres make use of muddle-headed people to reform other practitioners. They also select people they think are the most thoroughly reformed to be spies, to collect information regarding practitioners and Falun Gong activities. They also have these spies spread rumours, collect donations, or stir up conflicts among practitioners. The purpose is to separate practitioners and cause trouble to Falun Gong.

Home Visit Project

Starting in 2007, the 610 Office launched the so-called home visit project, which is intended to check up on reformed practitioners at home on a regular basis. They use the guise of caring for the practitioner, when in fact they are trying to deceive him further.

Note

1. The "Tiananmen Self-Immolation" an incident on Tiananmen Square in January 2001 whereby four people set themselves alight and the Chinese Communist claimed they were Falun Gong practitioners, yet there was video evidence to strongly disprove this claim.

2. Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party: Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party is a series of essays published in late 2004 that reveal the true nature of the Communist Party. The Nine Commentaries have led millions of people to renounce their membership in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). "A book that has shocked all Chinese around the world. A book that is disintegrating the Communist Party." http://ninecommentaries.com

3. "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/2010/12/15/233639.html